The challenge: I conducted an experiment to see exactly what effect I could produce with one blog and thirty minutes of time spent posting on social media tools. Here is what happened:
The Blog: I wrote a blog regarding helpful marketing and alumni association events that I attend on a weekly basis to help build Paladin’s business through face to face networking:
Vehicles: I dusted off my black social media Ninja robe and my marketing throwing stars and seeded my blog through my 1st and 2nd connections on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Digg in exactly 30 minutes.
Target Outcome: At Paladin, my role is to bring business in the door and recruit on some of the positions with a focus on marketing communications and social media. We are a marketing and creative staffing firm with over 20 years experience in 6 major markets including Chicago. My target clients are senior level marketing and creative executives in addition to HR professionals within fortune 1000 companies. Ideal outcomes equate to finding new highly qualified candidates and inquires by potential new clients.
Here is What Happened - Blog outreach initiative by the #’s: LinkedIn: My LinkedIn “News” section – I sent my blog out to my 20 LinkedIn groups via the news section.
· “What are you working on now?” update – I post a link via my update which reaches my 700+ contacts (those that read the updates)
Twitter: My Twitter
· 500 Twitter followers (I had several Tweeters “Re-tweet” my blog post)
Facebook: My Facebook Page
·200 Facebook friends (Posted my blog in my profile)
Results: Tracking – Google Analytics – spiked my blog page hit by 200 readers for the week (a significant increase to our brand new blog). Time spent on the page was significantly higher as well. – over 5 minutes.
Comments on blog: We’ve received multiple comments on the blog and several inquiries for interest in our business.
Shared by Others: Still working for me: While the initial results the first week were positive, the blog post and social network outreach continues to pull comments and interest two weeks later.
Why it worked: As a recruiter, a marketer and a Social Media junkie – I have a large network. The larger and the more targeted the network the better. I am very active on Social Media groups that are directly related to the topic. I have created buzz prior and have a sizable footprint in the space. Therefore, I had some momentum out of the box. But anyone can start building the momentum – with a blog, some useful content and thirty minutes of posting.
Stay tuned for part two of our series “Paladin’s Marketing Ninja Guide to Blogging on a Shoestring Budget”, when we feature the results of our associate Elizabeth Stiles blog regarding Lent and 40 days without Facebook and her beloved 1200 Facebook-Friends. Find out if she becomes addicted to Twitter or not and runs back to a always forgiving Facebook in our next installment…
April 29th, 2009 at 12:59 am
Great read! Simple yet effective ideas and tools that anyone can implement. The blog was well-written and had a nice pace. Thanks for sharing, and I can’t wait to hear from Elizabeth.
April 29th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Was interested to see the outcome, and will look forward to hearing more about Elizabeth’s deprivation! Keep it up!
April 29th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Fantastic post, Mike, thank you. One question: What surprised you the most about this experiment? What didn’t work - what would you do differently next time? Looking forward to the next installment.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Great work, Mike…
You’ve shown that there are ways to quantify the ROI of social media. That’s half the battle — the other half is more art than science. Staying on top of trends and seeing what’s happening in various verticals that you’re interested in, and then jumping in and having conversations…that, to me, is the other half.
Nicely done!
April 29th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Very proud of you Cruiter…I was pretty sure you would see similar results-Posting links and having a worthwhile headline like your Marketing Ninja headline increases the likelihood of someone clicking on link and reading an astounding 220%- its nice to see you Blog
April 29th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Mike,
As always, a very informative and helpful approach to utilizing social media to drive branding and business growth forward. It really is amazing what 30 minutes and a well thought out strategy can do through these various vehicles.
And I agree with Jeffrey Willinger, your witty titles make a world of difference!
Thank you for sharing!
Leah