Teaching/speaking on social media marketing is one of my main likes, yet I often find that listening to workshop guest speakers and being a student in social media school makes me fall in love with social media all over again…

Gabe Cano and Glen Hodges from Specialty Color Services (a Santa Barbara based business who make processing photos and ordering photos online a lovely experience) spoke to students at UCSB Extension to share their meaningful social media marketing.  Every time they speak at my Social Media Marketing classes I gain insight and better ways to explain how social media really works.

Emilia Doerr, who shares the title of “social media nutty professor” with me at UCSB, has written about Specialty Color Services and how Social Media Boosts Business and Cool Factors and how actively engaging fans on Facebook with fresh, creative content made the photograph your love contest a social media success.  Another guest lecture later, I have more web wisdom to share (thanks Gabe and Glen!)

It was a pleasure being back in Social Media School listening to Glen and Gabe share their social media experience…with LOVE.  As they talked about their Facebook page, Photograph Your Love Contest, and how social media “serves, not sells” to support business, I found myself being a student of social media and taking copious notes…then recapping what I learned with my class (yes, we teach social media with chalk and chalkboards sometimes to make our messages come alive!)

Gabe and Glen are two of the humblest social media mavens I know.  They share their experiences sans ego, from a place of “learning by doing” and with heart.  Their advice on how to win big with social media is “treating our contacts the same way we would want to be treated”, “never to sell (serve yes, sell no)” and to “be interesting”.  Simple, stellar, true social sophistication.

It doesn’t matter what type of product or service an organization provides.  Social media strategy works when it is done with the right intention and comes from a nucleus of love.

Social Media School Notes:

*Start with Love (what do you love?  Use this passion to be your social media compass)

*Focus on social media to engage – Engagement makes meaningful connections…think relationship (vs. transaction)

*Use social media as a two-way conversation tool.  Glen and Gabe shared that when people post to Facebook that they had issues like getting shipped a T-shirt that is the wrong size, they leave comments like that up, reply to all and show their Facebook fans that “all feedback is good feedback if you respond to it and make things right…this builds credibility and shows a company’s realness”

*Share – Give to Gain.  Specialty Color Services gives by sharing photo processing tips, giving away free photo processing when they have contests, giving free educational events and more.  Sharing is caring in social media land!

*Specialty Color Services (SCS) has their signature Photograph Your Love contest that brings passionate photo takers (of all skill levels and camera types) together to share the passion of photographing what they love.  The photo diversity is fun, engaging, collaborative and winners, finalists and participants all win by being part of the community.

*Social media helps position SCS as the service-oriented photo resources they are and social media helps reinforce their value, values and be a tool to voice their approach, further supporting their credibility

*Glen and Gabe shared how their Facebook use has created a community amongst the Facebook fans and they even have SCS after hours events now thanks to the suggestion of a vocal enthusiast.

* The power of social media as a way to listen and understand to better serve customers is also in action.

* Sharing tips, advice and more makes social media multi-talk as an education tool.

* Partnerships with organizations like Vitamin Angels have launched thanks to SSC’s use of social media.  For every dollar they earn processing photos in a special coffee/Vitamin C solution, SCS donates $1 to Vitamin Angels to combat malnourishment.  The cross-promotion between SCS and Vitamin Angels has been so inspiring to see happen!

*Last but now least, Glen and Gabe reinforced the power of personality and being authentic.  By being personable, they build trust and encourage interaction.

I had a few students ask if Glen and Gabe took classes to learn how to use social media and they did….the “Learn by Doing” school (ahem, self-taught!)  They admit to not getting social media right the first time, but failures were learned from (remember how social media allows us to listen and understand!!?) and they have since created their mantras of “treating our contacts the same way we would want to be treated”, “never to sell (serve, never sell)” and to “be interesting”.

I really like my work, but when I have the pleasure of going back to social media school, I remember how much I really LOVE the wonderful web world I am in.  Marketers who really get it are not necessarily the best analysts (note the word anal in analyst) -they are passionate professionals who understand that making relationships yields the highest return on investment.  See my free webinar on Relationship ROI – the Most Meaningful Marketing Metric.

Thank you Glen Hodges and Gabe Cano for the brilliant education.  I close this blog entry with gratitude and love.

<3,
The Marketing Therapist

Web Marketing Therapy Related Links:

• Social Media Marketing Boosts Business and “Cool Factor” for These WMT Positive Role Models
• Actively Engaging Fans on Facebook: How Fresh, Creative Content Made the Photograph Your Love Contest a Social Media Success
• Dog Blogger and Inquisitive Canine Explores Ways for Businesses to Benefit from Web 2.0 Tools and Social Media Marketing
• Small Businesses: Smart-Up About Your Social Media