I had to share this note I sent an old friend...it helps to explain the power of Social Media

You should leverage algorythmic recurssive analysis of your SEO PPC if you really want to play with big buzzy words...Do you have any budget for counsel?

Trade works too. I like fox and mink pelts from France (it's almost Thanksgiving so I thought I would nod to our ancestors...)

Having SEO dialed is good. I'm assuming then when someone on Google types in "Element Victorville" and goes all Boolean on you peeps you all populate in the first five listings, organic that is. If not, we can work on that too.

I think what you are saying you need to do is: - to jump into a predetermined number of ongoing forum/blog dialogs and seed your promo messages, thus driving awareness (1) and then traffic to your community (2)? I believe that is a good start. I would just add the desire to increase sales-centric conversions (thus adding more tangible KPIs). Sales centric conversions include measuring people who you meet in the blogosphere, entice them to visit your eCommerce site or community, they register, and either begin to shop, or add products to their Watch/Wish List, or actually even close the loop and purchase. We can help.

Simply - locate the most strategic people who will purchase via eCommerce channel (you mentioned someone else owns and operates B&Mortar locations).Talk. Talk some more. Tell a funny story. Gain some trust. Seed. Remind them. Talk some more...and then watch them enter into your sites via a vanity URL (the whole transaction path can be proctored through tracking tags and a site-side analytics provider (e.g. Atlas).

As they progress, you monitor. Now here is where the science comes in...The purchaser gets hung up. And you know they are hung up because the metrics and analytics are telling you they stopped the transactional process. That's ok. At that point you go back and talk with them in the community you met them. You tell them another funny story. And you incentivize their continued pursuit of buying a $30 Element hat by offering a 35% discount. The "dude" goes on to buy the hat because the discount is "sweet" and then you make a margin closer to 12% versus your standard whatever...And you then add him to your community, you then drip messages to the guy regularly, and offer him smaller, and smaller discounts...until, yes, he pays almost full price. Because he has become a Maven...That is Social Media Engagement 101.

Science and marketing merge and your company makes more money.

Saint St has access to a team of more than 50 SMEs (Subject Matter Experts who can communicate smartly in SM). We build a team of the following:- Producer- 2-4 engagers (SMEs)- Account Coordinator pilot an engagement program from Nov. 17-Dec 1 around a holiday theme (tone and incentive). And we engage, and we measure.

Then we review successes and failures and build a metrics report. This first campaign helps to establish a baseline for the broader 09 approach.I love Social Media for two reasons: (1) it's where 90% of all consumers live and breath and learn and socialize and shop, or at least some combination of the set of engagement practices. (2) the whole exercise is measurable, whereas TV, radio, billboards, etc. is not as measurable, albeit measurable (through special phone numbers and vanity URLs.

If I were you guys, I would do this. But first, make sure that your messaging, technology (sites), systems, customer service, etc. is perfect. Because if it isn't, the blogosphere will tell that story, and very loudly.

I hope this helps. I had fun writing it out. Probably will drop this into my blog and share.

SO I DID. I just re-purposed this note to a friend. Because you can. It's called syndication in SM.

And I will continue to syndicate this message. And then I will measure how well the core story "propagated." Another big SM word: propagation.

Propagation is what happens with things that TIP (per Mr. Gladwell and his Hush Puppies.). Visible Technologies, my past employer and my current friend and partner is the leading SM monitoring and engagement counsel consultancy in the world. Smart peeps. MIT-level smart (two staff, and both friends of mine).

Wishing you all a beautiful Sunday.

CLOW