Social Media Strategies to Whet Your Appetite

Bailey, SIPA to Enter New York State of Mind

Listening to Matt Bailey of SiteLogic speak about social media marketing—as people in the greater New York City area will get to do at a Chapter Lunch next Wednesday—is like listening to Jerry Seinfeld tell a joke, Derek Jeter stroke an opposite-field base hit, or Christina Aguilera belt out a song. That’s what they do.

For example, here are Bailey’s three steps to social media marketing:
1. Find your message, your narrative;
2. Develop an identity; find the best medium (the one social media) that will work best for your message. You don’t have to be on everything!
3. Build interaction, and then support/research/entertain. You have to give people reasons to engage, incentives to follow you. What’s in it for me, they’ll ask. Solve their problems if you can.

Bailey starred recently at SIPA’s Marketing Conference in Miami, so the people who will hear him Wednesday in a smaller venue are really getting a bonus. In Miami, he emphasized that you need to coddle the people who follow you. “Find your fans and reward them,” he said. “Find out what they love and give it to them.”

The point, he said, is that “your message does much better when someone else is delivering it.” In other words, I can tell you to read me and you may shrug and mumble, “self-promotion.” But if a couple other SIPA members tell you to check out this new writer, you’ll probably do it.

Bailey loves blogs because they change—or “exercise” as he puts it (websites are the “couch potato”)—every day. “They are the most overlooked and powerful tools to bring people to your site,” he said.

Speaking of bringing people to a place, SIPA is very hopeful that Wednesday’s Chapter Holiday Lunch in New York will be the first of many events to bring SIPA people together. Chapter meetings—a holiday reception is planned for the Washington, D.C. chapter the following Wednesday, Dec. 8—are wonderful events for networking and learning from your peers. And SIPA is determined to strengthen its chapters in 2011. At this time, there are six chapters: New England, New York, Washington, D.C., Northern California, Southern California and Southeast. (If you’re interested in starting a new one, please let us know.)

“Chapter participation is how you stay connected between the big conference learning events (if you are lucky enough to be able to travel to those),” said Stephanie Eidelman, chapter officer for Washington, D.C. “SIPA can help your business—and you as a professional—in many ways. But it doesn’t happen just by paying the annual dues. You’ve got to find the time to participate. As the old adage goes, you truly get out what you put into it. Chapters can offer a local, low-cost, way to get started, or to supplement other things you are doing.

There will always be a networking part of a chapter event; in New York, that will start at noon before the lunch. With Bailey as the speaker, the conversations may certainly involve social media. Thanks also go to New York Chapter officer Michele Khan for helping to organize the event.

For $55 for members ($110 gets you the lunch and a three-month trial membership), you can’t beat this event for value and information. Oh, and a special prize for anyone who asks Bailey what he thinks about interns when it comes to your company’s social marketing. (He’s a bit effusive on this one.)

For our readers in the States, have a very Happy Thanksgiving! We’ll take a break tomorrow (to eat turkey and watch football) and then return Friday with The Week in Review.

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Sign Up Today!
SIPA’s New York Chapter Presents:
“How to Make Social Media Work for Specialized Publishers”
Starring Matt Bailey of SiteLogic
Wednesday, December 1
Abigael’s on Broadway
1407 Broadway (between 38th & 39th Streets)
New York

Noon – 12:30 p.m. Networking
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 – 3:30 p.m. Presentation by Matt Bailey
Sign Up Now!

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And for those in Washington, please sign up for the
Holiday Networking Reception on Wednesday, Dec. 8!

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