Author Archives: Brian Remmel

The following is a guest post by Tomer Tagrin, co-founder of Yotpo.

Entrepreneurs like myself are faced with many challenges today. This is my story of how I’ve learned to address our marketing barrier – or, as I call it, the Brian Solis barrier.

We are two young, highly motivated, internet junkies entrepreneurs and we are both first time founders. Another important thing is that we are both tech geeks and software engineers. This last one is extremely important because it explains why our first instinct (after we had a kick ass idea) was to start writing code.  Luckily for us I stumbled upon Brian’s blog as we started coding day and night.My name is Tomer Tagrin and I’m a first time founder of a new Internet startup name Yotpo. In three words, our startup is a distributer of User Reviews ; I know it’s a bit vague, but with a quick search you could understand exactly what it’s about.

As I spent hours reading almost every blog post and posts from other top A blogs (David Cancel, OnStartups and much more) I realized something – something which truly changed how our startup is run, developed and spends money. I came to an understanding that what we’re doing isn’t rocket science, and we aren’t building a new technology for voice recognition. Don’t get me wrong, our algorithms and system are really complex, but it’s nothing that other motivated entrepreneurs throughout the world couldn’t do.

So, we have a technology barrier that in my opinion in the Internet of 2011 it’s just not enough. I remember talking with my co-founder, Omri, and we thought, “Boy, if Brian Solis was part of our team it would be the best thing Yotpo can achieve.” I know you think it sounds corny and a bit shallow but think of it as the Brian Solis barrier, and what exactly is the Solis barrier?

It’s the marketing barrier! We just need to engage and fast, creating our own community of users\potential customers that no one else has. So the question is when and how to start doing it? For us it was just after we closed the seed investment round.  After a night of beer celebration we finished hiring 2 top A engineers. I stopped writing code and started with building our marketing barrier. Our 3rd person we hired (70% position) is a content creator who is supposed to create relevant content to our new community. I also started writing  @TheNextWeb on the life inside a startup and how is it to be a first time founder. Also, we are now starting to work with a company that will run our social profiles to maximize our engagement with potential users and customers.

Let me just remind you that our product will be up in the air in just 3-4 months so it was a hard time convincing our board members this is the best usage of time and money. I’m not sure if we chose wisely and when is actually the best time starting to build our marketing barrier but I have a feeling we should have started sooner J. A small evidence comes from our Google analytics – we are getting ~1,600 visitors in three weeks. I know it’s not much but for us it’s huge. For sure our next recruitment would be engineers but I really hope we will generate revenue which will let us to hire more content/social creator.

I think it’s a thought every founder/executive of an internet company should take into consideration from day one! How to break the Solis barrier?

Social Media Marketing & Monitoring is returning to San Francisco on May 23rd – and they’re offering a discount to Bubblicious readers.

Social Media Marketing & Monitoring 2011 will bring together leading marketing experts, brands, agencies and journalists for an intensive one-day conference. Register here and use the code “BUB10” to get 10% off!

Using Social Gaming Mechanics for Marketing
Rajat Paharia – Bunchball

Gamification can be a critical connection between websites and social media. Game mechanics can provide organic, compelling reasons for users to post, Tweet and connect with their networks to achieve rewards and improve their standing. In this session Rajat Paharia will discuss real-world examples of how sites like USA Network and Bravo TV successfully extended their reach to social networks, and how to best integrate social networks in to a gamification strategy.

The 5 Golden Rules of Location Marketing
Aaron Strout – WCG

While geolocation marketing is a shiny new object for many of us, there are businesses that are not only testing these services but deriving actual benefit from services like foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla and Scavenger. During this interactive 30 minute session, co-author of Location Based Marketing for Dummies, Aaron Strout, will give his five golden rules of location marketing and share 3-4 case studies of how businesses are generating ROI from their geolocation programs.

The Customer Perspective: The Six Elements of Engagement
John Zell – Razorfish

With the rise of social media, how do marketers make sense not only of divergent touch points with customers, but the disparate reasons why customers gravitate to them? How does this affect the continuing evolution of how consumers choose to engage with a brand? In this fascinating introduction to the day, John will reveal the surprising findings of Razorfish’s recent customer engagement report, including the Six Elements of Engagement.

How to Maximize Engagement from Facebook Ads
Chase McMichael – Infinigraph

Facebook sold $1.86 billion in ads in 2010, about 60% or $1.12 billion of which was self-serve, meaning advertisers bought directly using Facebook’s targeting tools. Using crowdsourced social Intelligence can help improve CTR, reduce the cost-per-Like and increase consumer conversation. In this presentation Chase will show 5 key areas on how to maximize your Facebook engagement and share results on how Golden Spoon have achieved ongoing social success with their customers.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business
Elyse Tager – Constant Contact

According to Constant Contact’s most recent Small Business Attitudes & Outlooks Survey, small businesses plan to dedicate more dollars to social media marketing activities in 2011. It also predicts increased use of social media tools, which are characterized as additive and complementary to other marketing activities – not a replacement. Small organizations don’t have the luxury of full-time dedicated marketing staff, but that is not stopping them. In this session, Elyse will share tips and insights on how small businesses can effectively execute and monitor social media marketing campaigns.

The following is a guest post by Melanie Notkin, founder of SavvyAuntie.com and author of SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids.

My life changed this week. And I owe it all to social media.

I’m at the precipice of one of the most thrilling times of my life and one of the most important days for my business and brand. My book, SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids is being released on April 26^th.  I can honestly say that I owe everything about this book and therefore my entire company, to social media.

It all started almost four years ago on June 12, 2007, when I decided to invest my life savings in developing the first online community for aunts and godmothers, specifically the nearly 50 percent of American women who are not moms but love the children in their lives, by relation and by choice. Savvy Auntie is now an award-winning multiplatform lifestyle brand for an influential and long-neglected segment of women I’ve dubbed PANKs®: Professional Aunts No Kids.

On August 20, 2007, I discovered Twitter through a blog post by Jeremiah Owyang @jowyang .  It was the perfect “Peoria” testing ground as a marketer. As I was developing SavvyAuntie.com, I was able to leverage my innate curiosity (so important to marketers!) and ask my new Twitter friends about the role they play as aunts or as moms who rely on the aunts in their kids’ lives. It really helped me build a better online destination. Over time, I met true pioneers in new media such as @ScottMonty @AaronStrout @ChrisBrogan @GaryVee @Zappos and of course @BrianSolis who taught me so much on how to connect and inspire my audience.

By the time I launched SavvyAuntie.com in July 2008, the support from the Twitter community was so strong, ‘SavvyAuntie’ was the most Tweeted word that day (yes, it was way before Beiber Fever!)

By the fall, I was working on a deal with RazorFish to launch a sponsored conversation on Twitter on behalf of Disney. That idea was so interesting it made the Wall Street Journal online! Further partnerships landed Savvy Auntie in The New York Times and Advertising Age.

Fast forward to the fall of 2009 and I was besotted by a little girl named @Leah_Albert, a 7^th grader in Tanzania who is part of EpicChange.org’s #TwitterKids program, enabling children from the world’s poorest countries to connect digitally. Through that experience, I met @DebbieStier, then an editor at HarperCollins, who was also taken with these amazing kids. Debbie noticed my flourishing online community and brand following and invited me into her office to have lunch. Before I left the building, we were working on the title of my first book.

In the meantime, I started to build a Facebook following. The Savvy Auntie Facebook Page now includes over 42,000 “fans,” rivaling major media companies and household name brands, enabling me to connect and engage with Savvy Aunties consistently daily.

Social media is democratic, enabling good people and good ideas to shine. It’s enabled me to connect with tens of thousands directly, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, through their networks. I’ve received letters from women who are unable to have children telling me the Savvy Auntie has touched them profoundly, changing their perspective on what it means to be maternal, and lessening their grief. I’ve received letters from women who have chosen not to be mothers, who thank me for elevating their role and respect in their Family Village. I’ve received letters from women who like me, are ‘circumstantially infertile,’ they just haven’t met their love yet, who thank me for redefining their lives in the positive. They are not childless. They are childfull. And their love is a gift.

Recently, I received a Tweet that stopped my heart and then filled it with more love than I ever knew. It was inspired by my effort to give back to @Leah_Albert and kids like her in Tanzania for being an important link in my getting my book deal. I’m giving $1 for each book sold between now and April 27, 2011 to EpicChange.org in Leah’s honor. The attention Leah has been receiving makes her feel like “mr obama!” she Tweeted. And then there was this Tweet from Leah that changed everything: @savvyauntie i like you more than you like me.i have a favour to ask you can call you mum .coz you are like a mother to me.

And that’s how social media changed my life. Being the best Auntie I could be has in effect finally made me a mother.

And I owe it all to social media.

Melanie Notkin is the founder of SavvyAuntie.com and author, SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids (Morrow/HarperCollins).  Melanie invites you to join the Savvy Auntourage at Facebook.com/SavvyAuntie or find her on Twitter @SavvyAuntie.

Forum and Communities Conference 2011 sponsored by VigLink.com in San Francisco promises to shed light on the art and science of building and monetizing online communities.

On February 16th, 2011, community managers, bloggers, and anyone else involved in creating communities online are invited to learn from experts about the new community trends to watch out for in 2011. The fully interactive conference will host presentations, case studies, Q&A sessions and panel discussions.

Topics covered include:

• Opening Remarks by Murray Newlands
• Morning Keynote
• How to Build Communities for Brands
• How to Make Money with Forums
• Growing your Forum
• Afternoon Keynote

Tickets are still available at the Early Bird rate of $95, which includes lunch, refreshments, a handbook, and networking opportunities .

For registration and additional details, visit their site here.

Want to learn how to harnass the viral power of social networks? Interested in learning from other marketers about how they developed their mot successful social strategies? Need an excuse to visit Las Vegas?

When:  12th January, 9:00am – 5:30pm
Where:  Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas

For more info and to register:  http://socialmediamarketing.co.uk/lasvegas/ use code bub10 to get 10% off!

The last time I looked, there were only 17 Early Registration discount spaces left.  Click here to claim one.