Marta Kagan – “What the F**K is Social Media” (#1) *

"Social media has been an exciting and eye-opening lesson in the power of a medium that’s still in its infancy."

"I put the presentation up on Slideshare.net and decided to use social media, to get the word out about social media, which kind of a different irony at all. I sent out this email to about half dozen folks saying, ‘Hey, check this out, this might be of interest vote for me if you think it is any good. See what happens.’"

"By the end of that first day, about 275 people had taken and looked at it. And then the next day, it was up to about 900 and the next day about 3000, so it was not a linear progression…"

"Twitter is a great way to give short and sweet updates to points your network to specific things, but you think it either be of interest to them or that you want their input on.."

"I have found LinkedIn to be wildly helpful, in terms of pursuing career opportunities, doing research on, companies that might be of interest, connecting with folks both in my industry and beyond."

John: "So, this is another little piece of social media success, you are on this show, talking about success that you had and we are here together, because of a social media outlet (HARO) that brought us together." Kagan: "Is that a little bit cool? See why I am obsessed? [Laughing]."

Source of guest: I posted a request for source on Peter Shankman’s HARO (Help A Reporter) service This is a copy of the original email that I reveived from Marta. — the email that got my attention and resulted in Marta being booked for my first SocialMedialogy Conversations progam.

"My tangible social media story is one of using SM to extend my personal brand & give my career as an online marketer/social media evangelist a boost. Here’s the story in a nutshell:

At 4:00pm on July 2, 2008, I posted What the F**K is Social Media on Slideshare.net. I then sent an email to about a half dozen contacts who I thought would be interested in the material, and asked them to “vote” for it in the “World’s Greatest Presentation Contest.” A short while later, it appeared on Twitter (thanks @TDefren!) and found its way onto a few blogs, including Three Minds, Sixty Second View, Robert Paterson’s Blog, and numerous others.

By the end of the day, it had been viewed about 300 times.

By the end of the next day (July 3), >900 times.

July 4: >2700 times.

July 5: 4000 times.

As of this morning, it has been viewed >30,000 times, embedded on 316 other sites, favorited by 336 people, and [at least for now] is the most embedded. most viewed, and most favorited slideshow this month.

Meanwhile, all this buzz has resulted in >300 new Twitter followers (from all corners of the world), dozens of new connections on LinkedIn and Facebook, multiple “expertise” and speaking requests (the Genius particularly loves those!), and a Monster Truck-sized boost in blog traffic.

The follow-up to this is even juicier:
I produced this deck as a ‘personal brand’ piece and made no reference to the company I work for. Ironically, my LinkedIn profile turned out to be the 3rd most active referrer of traffic to our corporate website the following week, only a few hits behind “Bookmarks” and Google — and ahead of our major media partner, which not only boasts monthly traffic in the millions, but also did a half-page print ad and a 5-minute morning news show plug the very same week.

Meanwhile, the expertise requests, consulting & speaking opportunities, job inquiries, blog readers/subscribers, twitter followers, and more just keep piling in, day after day.

It’s been an exciting and eye-opening lesson in the power of a medium that’s still in its infancy.

Happy to share more.
Best
Marta
**
marta kagan"

"You can think of it (Twitter) as online ease dropping.[Laughing]." Marta Kagan

Marta Kagan’s blog: bonafidemarketinggenius.com
Marta Kagan’s site: martazkagan.com
Follow Marta Kagan on Twitter: twitter.com/mzkagan
Marta Kagan’s LinkedIn Profile:
Marta Kagan on Facebook:
Contact Marta via email:

HARO (Help A Reporter) link: HelpAReporter.com

Next Post: Jay Berkowitz – Ten Golden Rules (#2) *