Yesterday, I shared with you my case study of how I managed to increase foot traffic to my website by 305% overnight using 10 Social Media strategies preached by experts in the field. Among them were expert personal branding, not worrying about R.O.I., using Foursquare, deploying a bold avatar strategy, magical creatures, and of course adopting a complex and diligent content strategy of awesome.
By the way, in case you missed it, I also decided to start using the term “foot traffic” for anything that involves a digital visit (like a Foursquare check-in or a visit to a website, for instance). This new technique was recently developed by McDonald’s Rick Wion, so I can’t take credit for it. As we all now know, real Social Media Jedi masters invent the stuff. My new role as #stepfordTBB is just to apply it all without asking inconvenient questions.
As it turns out, the relative use of otherwise technical terms in Social Media and digital marketing really works. As soon as I stopped being such a stickler for facts, all kinds of win started happening to me. Which brings us back to yesterday: A whopping 305% increase in net foot traffic to this very website in just one day. A stunning victory by all accounts. The “snake oil” I kept talking about was in fact not snake oil at all. It was actually koolaid all along, and boy is it delicious!
But it gets better.
During Monday’s Content Strategy meeting with Chico – The Brandbuilder Blog’s Chief Strategic Content Strategist – we worked through ways to repeat our numbers on Tuesday. No easy task, given that our win on Monday crushed even McDonald’s much touted records from Foursquare Day. (Since in either case, no one actually bought anything as a result of the campaign, we have to go by net visits and % of increase, which we both obliterated.) How were we going to do it? This was the challenge facing us.
About 3 Red Bulls into the process, Chico had an idea:
Chico: “Why don’t we talk about how awesome we are?”
Me: “How do you mean?”
Chico: “Whenever Social Media gurus want Mashable or whatever to do a story on them, they talk about how awesome one of their campaigns was. All we have to do is share our results, turn it into a case study, and we’re golden, yo!”
Me: “But… isn’t that like, bragging?”
Chico: “Hey, Stepford TBB. Wake up! Is wearing your Gold Medal at the Olympics ‘bragging?'”
He had a point. Never underestimate the logical superpowers of a Chihuahua: There is no such thing as bragging in Social Media. After all, the true litmus test triumvirate for all Social Media rock stars is this: What’s your latest win story?
So that’s what we did. We published our case study. And that incredibly strategic content strategy decision worked! Check it out:
That’s right. We crushed Monday. As it turns out, talking about yourself works better than listening to customers or dispensing good advice. The Social Media gurus were right. 356% right, in fact. You just can’t argue with the data. It is right there, blue-gray on light gray, telling the tale.
But wait, there’s more:
As it turns out, having a content strategy also really works. I was 356% wrong last week to question the logic of calling Content Planning “strategy.” The numbers don’t lie: Content Strategy is actually more powerful than unicorns. How do I know? Because Monday’s secret sauce was unicorns. Tuesday’s secret sauce was pure USDA approved content strategy. Theory proven. Mythbusters can take this one off their list.
For this, I have to award myself this prize:
When I started this #StepfordTBB experiment several days ago (the premise being “what would happen if I actually adopted the Social Media bull$hit I have been warning you about?”), little did I know that all of this stuff would actually work. All you really have to do to win in Social Media is basically outlined in today’s and yesterday’s posts.
Tomorrow, we will talk about the world’s biggest Social Media strategy secret sauce ever. (Shhh. Don’t tell anybody.)
See? Isn’t this better? The experiment continues tomorrow.
#StepfordTBB
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
Isn’t that hand gesture on the Official Seal of Awesomeness an insult in some countries. Ironic, that the international symbol for ‘awesome’ means ‘ok’ (mediocre) in the US, but might mean ‘asshole’ in the EU.
This is why I keep checking in on this site.
Which reminds me, who is the mayor of TBB on NumberShape?
Good catch. That one is from the US Federation of Awesome.
We (Chico) forgot to renew our dues to the International Awesome Association this year.
The humor of the #StepfordTBB campaign is that every single one of us has run across some self-proclaimed Social Media Guru that has sounded/looked/acted just like it.
The Ad Contrarian has a great blog post on this, stating that the level of BS in any given industry / market space is directly proportional to the amount of time we have to spend “defining” what it is exactly we’re doing.
That’s a brilliant way to put it. 😀
“The level of BS in any given industry / market space is directly proportional to the amount of time we have to spend “defining” what it is exactly we’re doing.”
I love it. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Your content strategy is full of awesomesauce. It’s like unicorns and care bears dancing in my head. If there was anymore awesome in here I would be smiling a double rainbow.
You should let Chico help more often, and get him a nice little pink pony companion.
He’s the real brain of this operation.
I think you have finally reached the tipping point of insanity. Hopefully it isn’t sticky in a contagious way.
It might be crazy but it’s still factual. 😉
You had me at “stepfordTBB” several days ago. So very sold now. This is so beyond good. Get it video’d. Must see you speaking this…acting it. It’d be awesome for all kinds of training purposes. But wait. That’s assuming people wanna learn. Okay. Well, still. Consider it. 🙂 Well done again.
Tresha you’ve read our minds!!! #mylittlepony & I were just talking about how this must be a keynote and book. I think it has legs.
I was not on board at first – TBB said he knew I’d come around. Consider me koolaid-filled. 🙂
Contrary to popular opinion, there’s method to the madness here. 😉
Who knew? 😉
Two days ago, people were DM’ing me asking me if I had lost my mind. 😀
You just might be evolving into the Madonna of Brand Management – only instead of songs you write hit blog posts & results-based case studies. You’re keeping it fresh, informative & but always trustworthy. No matter what the persona of the week is – you are still the one & only TBB. #CrazyLikeAFox
That’s me! 🙂
Thanks, Monika.
Thanks for posting this, I found it very informative. 🙂
I thank you also.
The “snake oil” I kept talking about was in fact not snake oil at all. It was actually koolaid all along
I guess what’s important is also to talk about interesting things about yourself rather than just talking about yourself.
This information should help me out very much with the blogs I am trying to get traffic too.
Hey look, even Forbes has a Content Strategy! http://blogs.forbes.com/lewisdvorkin/2011/01/10/inside-forbes-our-content-strategy-brand-power-and-the-path-forward/
What do you think is the cure for awesomeness?:) Nice post Mr. Awesome!
What would you recommend me to increase the number of backlinks to my website. I’ve just recently created my website 4 days ago and have already submitted it to Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Feliz aquele que vence o egoísmo, alcança a paz, encontra a verdade. A verdade liberta-nos do mal; não há no mundo libertador igual. Confia na verdade, mesmo que não sejais capazes de compreendê-la, mesmo que no começo vos pareça amarga a sua doçura.Com amor e caridade não tem tem erro aproxima as pessoas do progresso.Obrigado!!!