By Alaina Sheer
Chief Content Strategist

Whether I am speaking one-on-one with a potential client, typically a marketing manager or business owner, or to a larger audience, typically a room filled with the latter, I use the experience to improve my translation skills. [Hint: kicking up your shoes and letting the sun shine in always make this process a less painful.]

Boots aside, making sense of all of this “search and social stuff” isn’t for the faint of heart.

But, invariably, after a little bit of on-the-spot investigation into keywords or competitor strategies, I figure it out. I have solved a riddle and found an avenue where social or search marketing could transform their bottom line.

When I relay the idea or my discovery their faces light up. There’s a visible click and it hits them; any remaining skepticism washing away. That’s the moment I love the most, the moment when the translation succeeds and my audience (small or large) begins to see things clearly.

But first, I have to convince them that this isn’t just a waste of time or space. Instead it’s the most effective, most powerful and most targeted form or marketing we have ever seen. That’s when I turn to talking about measurement. Showing them analytics reports, actual results for actual websites.

“Sometimes I feel like a social or search marketing detective,” I said to an audience of two during a meeting last week. Twenty minutes into our meeting, I had determined that they should be targeting an entirely different audience with their search marketing – an audience they hadn’t previously considered.

“You are!” they both chimed in, “This is incredible.”

If you want a one-on-one visit with your personal social and search marketing detective – give me a call at 614-754-8228 or e-mail cementmarketing@gmail.com. Better yet, come and find me at one of the following public speaking engagements coming up this Spring. (And yes, I’ll probably be wearing my cowboy boots).

Ohio Wesleyan Center Lecture

“We can measure that! The metrics behind social media strategy”
March 25, 2010 – 3:10 pm
Bayley Room
Beeghly Library, 43 Rowland Ave, Ohio Wesleyan University
Free and open to the public or LIVE Webcast

Association of Fundraising Professionals Monthly Luncheon

“Measuring social media.”
April 13, 2010, noon – 1:30 pm
Grange Insurance Audubon Center
$20 for members; $30 for guests

Sway Social Workshop

April 22 – 23, 2010 – 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Wild Goose Creative
See website for rates. Early bird expires March 12th and there are only a few seats left!

Last weekend the Cement Marketing team joined our client, Lifeline of Ohio, for a photo shoot of the quiet heroes behind organ donation.

Soon their stories and the photos will be revealed on the new LifelineofOhio.org, set to launch in mid-March.

If we do our job, the site will see a tremendous boost in online organ donor registrations and awareness statewide – a website designed to save lives and to find some kind of hope amidst tragedy. It doesn’t get better than that and we feel so incredibly honored to be a part of this project.

Until the site launches with the complete stories, we’ll let a few sneak photos do the talking.

Special thanks to Morgan Day Photography.

The Sway Interactive Workshops are here.

The two-day workshops will be held at Wild Goose Creative in Columbus, directly below the Cement Marketing offices. Visit the Sway Workshop website to find out what makes Sway different than any other conference you’ve been to before.

Register now to take advantage of the early bird ticket rates before they jump up on March 15th.

Cement Marketing is looking for our first intern.

If you’re interested, watch this video to find out how to apply and what your job will entail.

Cement Marketing Intern Position

How to Apply

Don’t just e-mail us your resume. Respond to this blog post with a social media application. Use YouTube, a blog post, Twitter or Facebook to announce your application and then blow us away with your social marketing skills. Your application should tell us:

• why you are up for the job.
• demonstrate your qualifications
• prove to us that you understand the Web, search and social media space

Leave your response in the comments or e-mail it to use privately at cementmarketing@gmail.com.

Qualifications

The Cement Marketing Intern must:

• not shy away from challenges
• be an avid social media user (blogging in Wordpress a plus)
• Marketing or advertising major or Bachelor’s will be a plus but not required
• be ready to learn

Benefits

The Cement Marketing Internship includes:

• college internship credit
• major perks like free coffee, free beer and free access to all of our knowledge
• an invaluable experience of being a part of the beginning of Cement Marketing, a fast growing Web, search and social development firm in Columbus, OH.

Requirements

• Give us at least 15 hours a week for three months

Deadline

• The deadline to apply is Friday, March 12 at 5:00pm.

By Alaina Sheer
Chief Digital Strategist (and blogger)

A blog post is the most valuable catch of all for social marketers and public relations professionals.

But so few of them know how to actually reach out to bloggers. In fact, out of the hundreds of e-mails I’ve received from marketers as a blogger very, very few have hit the mark and moved me to action.

Unfortunately, most of the e-mails and the thousands of marketing dollars behind them are a waste of time and Inbox space. Like this post-Superbowl e-mail I received from “Brian” at Dove.

The e-mail asks me, the blogger, to share details of the new Dove Men + Care body wash launch with my readers.

In exchange they would love to send me free samples for my readers and I. He also offers me a free behind the scenes look at the Superbowl commercial filming.

I don’t expect you or anyone else to read the entire e-mail but I’m posting it here because I wanted you to take a look at the sheer length of this thing.

I loved the kicker at the end mentioning a “Maximum donation of $500,000. No purchase necessary.”  I immediately sent this one to the trash then went on about my virtual day.

To avoid landing in my trash bin, here are a few tips on how to best reach out to bloggers via e-mail:

1.  Give us a URL to click. Somewhere in your e-mail – you must, must, must include a link to a Web page, a video or a social media page. Ideally the link is custom designed just for us and details your offer. How easy would it have been for Dove to embed the video of their behind the scenes footage into that e-mail? Then, with the video at my fingertips I would have taken a second to watch and then maybe shared it with my Twitter followers, or better yet, my readers.

2.  It better be good. If I do open your e-mail you should be offering my readers and I something other than a free body wash set. To find out what is of value to bloggers – just ask us. Use Twitter to hold an impromptu focus group or have your social media firm do some digging by asking their blogger friends.

3. Be completely transparent. Drop the corporate speak and be yourself. The most effective e-mails I receive from marketers are 100% authentic in that the marketer outs him or herself as working for Agency X and then lays the offer on the table. Everything else goes into the spam pile.

4. Be brief. Our time is precious, make the best of it by investing in a copywriter who can keep your e-mail down to 200 words or less.

Speaking of brief… that’s it for now. More tips as they come to mind and as more examples land in my Inbox. Or for immediate tips contact Cement Marketing to run your next blogger outreach campaign.

By Alaina Sheer
Digital Content Strategist

My personal blog reaches thousands of readers every month.

And while the rewards of blogging are too many to list here, one of my favorite treats is the mystery of my Inbox. I never know what e-mails I’ll find.  Like one today from a reader in the United Arab Emirates who wears the necklace we all designed together every day hidden under her abaya.

Others are from marketers (more on those later this week) and then there are the random oddities like an e-mail from a guy named Josh in California.

Josh had been hunting, to no avail, for a life-size E.T. doll for weeks. Then, after he Googled the term, “lifesize ET doll” Josh found this picture I had posted on my blog in August last year.

And that’s when – unable to find the doll anywhere else – Josh sent me an e-mail.

The doll you got for your kid is pretty much exactly what I’m looking for. Can you give me any information on this doll? (manufacturer, details on the tag or anything else you think may aid me in my search for this illusive collectible?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Josh

After a few e-mails Josh revealed that he wanted E.T. to join him on the front of his bike for a ride in California benefiting the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. After a chat with E.T.’s owner, my son Benjamin, we decided to lend Josh the E.T. doll. I figured packing E.T. up for a trip across the country would serve as an awesome lesson for Benjamin in geography, sharing and being altruistic.

When I told Josh the news he picked up the phone and called me, “I was going to e-mail you but then I thought, well, I’ll just call her. This is so cool! Thank you!”

And it was. So cool. Social media is more than just a way to communicate, it’s a way to connect – to make the world so much smaller.

A few nights after we hatched the plan and after a few poses in the Cement Marketing office

Benjamin and I brought E.T. to the nearest FedEx store and said our good-byes.

Before packing him up

and shipping him off to a far away place called California.

Stay tuned for pictures of E.T. and Josh (his temporary owner) as they make their way across California for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Until then, here are some more pictures of E.T.s departure in the Cement Marketing Flickr stream.

In the meantime, ask yourself this – where did your brand go today? How are you encouraging your clients or consumers to interact with your brand using the tools that have become a part of their lives?

The Sway Interactive Workshop is coming.

Unlike any other search or social marketing conference you’ve been to, Sway will teach you how to truly sway your audiences through a hands-on workshop with one-on-one instruction from Cement Marketing’s Bradley Spencer, Alaina Sheer and special guest instructors John Raymond and Leigh Householder. Seats will be limited to ensure that every attendee gets the most out of the Sway experience.

More details coming very soon. We’re putting the final touches on the Sway website as we speak, including these mug shots.

Bradley Spencer, Search Engine Optimization Wizard

Alaina Sheer, Social Marketing Maven and Web Strategist

John Raymond, Search Engine Optimization Consultant

Leigh Householder, or Advergirl, nationally renowned social marketing and digital strategist

We can’t wait to see you there. Stay tuned to the Cement Marketing blog and Twitter for the launch of the Sway Website and registration.

We can’t help but wonder why the colors of the antique chairs we found on Craigslist in the 12th hour of our office make over are exactly aligned with our logo.

Fate? Destiny? Or just some really cool chartreuse and burryberry mustard chairs.

Either way, we’re beyond pleased with our new space.

And our first client. More on Lifeline of Ohio soon.

]]> http://www.cementmarketing.com/2010/01/the-new-first-office/feed/ 0 http://www.cementmarketing.com/2010/01/big-things/ http://www.cementmarketing.com/2010/01/big-things/#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:22:21 +0000 Alaina Sheer http://www.cementmarketing.com/?p=213

Cement Marketing is proud to announce a move to our first studio/office space.

Located above Wild Goose Creative, the Cement Marketing offices will be at 2489 Summit Street, just south of Hudson in Columbus, Ohio. We can’t wait to show you our new space!

At this very moment, our space looks like this:

And because we have a crazy amount of exciting client work to tend to, we’re planning on transforming the place in less than 36 hours. Stay tuned for an update and follow us on Twitter as we make our progress.

Cement Marketing provides complete Website development, social marketing and search engine optimization services to a select group of clients in Columbus, Ohio. For information or to set up an appointment in our brand new offices, e-mail – alainasheer@cementmarketing.com

Time, it seems, is something slipping away from all of us.

With our calendars constantly booked – far into the future – and our deadlines pressing, it’s easy to lose site of what really matters. 

In our case – what matters is making a difference for the audiences our client’s touch. We do it by creating campaigns that move people into action, transform small businesses from being on the brink of bankruptcy to completely and far into the black or by giving a non-profit the tools they need to make the most of their online property.

And we also do it by moving at a very human pace.

We want every client’s social or search marketing campaign to fly but we know it’s a process that can’t be rushed. Building the foundation of your interactive marketing campaigns through search and social marketing takes an investment of time, resources and yes – dollars.

It seems ironic, doesn’t it? That social media – something so fast – would take so much time. 

But unless you have one of the few instant viral sensations on your hands, building a fan base on Facebook and a following on Twitter take time. And not just weeks, but months. Building relationships is something you can not rush – not as a person and not as a brand.

And even though we’re constantly attached to our iPhones, our Twitter and our Facebook – we love to put it all away, turn it all off and just relax. Life is just so much better that way and so are our campaigns. 

What will matter to you in 2010? 

Find stellar advice on finding your own path in this world that is moving way too fast in Seth Godin’s new and entirely free eBook – What Matters Now.