Did you hear about the monkey in IKEA that was spotted with a fur jacket on? Did you hear about IKEAs reaction to the monkey? If not, it’s not because you missed something awesome… it’s actually the complete opposite. They did.

IKEA missed out on a great opportunity to use reactive storytelling to further enhance their brand and stay top of mind. Instead, they took an approach that is traditional, boring and embraces the status quo. There was an opportunity to generate buzz, earned media but instead, Ikea continued with business as usual. This is what their networks looked like after it happened:

Do you see how cool that is? No?

Of course not. It’s boring.

Some businesses will tell you that it is hard to develop unique, compelling content for large organizations like this which is true to some extent, but I see this as more of an issue with idea identification and social media opportunity management.

The Opportunity to Listen

The easiest way to find content that will potentially go viral is to listen to the public. All it takes is a little social media monitoring through search, buzzfeed or a platform like Radian6 or Sysomos to identify a trend in your industry or related to your product. Social Media is filled with conversations happening from people as close as your neighbours to people on the other side of the globe. Brands have an opportunity to listen to these conversations and make decisions based on them that can lead to potential new business or compelling content that could go viral.

Organizations have been using social media to listen to conversations for years now. Whether it’s through a Social Media Command Center or an in-house team of marketers with their fingers on the pulse. There is a great opportunity for brands; large and small to find opportunities through social media.

Take Telus for example. After they came across the Monkey story at IKEA they thought about how they could integrate it with their business. In fact, they recognized an opportunity to show their own monkey and make a reference that would show the brand in a light, fun and in the know kind of way. Here’s what they shared on their Facebook page:

While the amount of engagement on the post was limited to their existing fans; this post promoted would have set the internet on fire. Another example of how a brand finds something interesting happening in the social space and connects it to their brand was Kit Kat after the Red Bull Stratos jump. They launched this video and were able to generate earned media and a huge spike in brand conversations.

Here are a handful of other brands who are utilizing reactive storytelling effectively.

Conclusion

I know many of the approaches to reactive storytelling I’ve talked about over the last few weeks might make some community managers and brand managers uncomfortable, but they work. I’ve been using Reactive Storytelling for several brands over the last few months and I typically see a 50% to 100% difference in these types of content in comparison to others. It’s a simple concept:

Guys, the new year is coming.

Recognize the emergence of memes and understand how you can use this cultural phenomena to your advantage. Whether it’s a meme directly related to your business or simple a consumer insight that could be leveraged to spark an increase in brand relevant conversation.

Make it your resolution to actually make the leap and do something beyond the status quo.

QUICK UPDATE:

It appears that IKEA did leverage this story. Unfortunately, Telus and the internet went Bananas before they did and capitalized on it. The key to reactive storytelling is not to react for the sake of reacting. The key to reactive storytelling is to react in a way that is worth talking about and will turn some heads. That said, hats off to the IKEA team for doing something good…Next time, be great.

After working with and helping hundreds of brands with Facebook, I’ve learned a thing or two about doing it effectively… One of the most important things I’ve learned is that telling a brand story that is intentionally developed based on a top of mind event is an easy way to find success and connect with your audience. This idea needs to be worked into your marketing teams DNA so that you are ready to step out of the bubble and do things that aren’t planned and expected.

When you treat Facebook as a place where you are going to tell your brand story, you no longer stress over what you should talk about. You start to understand the power and value of a brands voice and how that can translate into things beyond the actual product and into things like pop culture or worldview insights. The process of leveraging a top of mind idea becomes easier and easier as you go through the process.

The key to finding success in deepening your relationship and maximizing your chances for going viral is often times related to your ability to react to opportunities. Some of these opportunities exist and can be specifically attributed to your brand while others can be more attributed to the interests of your target audience. At the end of the day you want to share content that isn’t boring and that is worth sharing on social media. This concept is what I call, Reactive Storytelling.

Understanding Reactive Storytelling

The intentional integration of a top of mind story or idea with a compelling marketing message that your audiences finds relevant and compelling.

When a business uses Reactive Storytelling they are able to leverage a human truth or an insight to generate instant feedback. Whether it’s the utilization of a Facebook post or the development of a YouTube video to tell and share a compelling story, reactive story is a great way to spark conversation and deepen your brand connect with your fans.

There are three distinct actions that happen organically that can be identified used to deliver a Reactive Storytelling piece of content. This includes (1) a cultural action (2) a brand relevant action or (3) a niche action. Each of these actions are organic stories, content from users or information that can be leveraged for your content marketing strategy to deliver something that is compelling and worth sharing.

Here’s how you can find these actions and a few examples of how you can turn them into great stories:

Brand Relevant Reaction

Consumers interact with and have conversations about brands on a regular basis. The interactions range from a simple shout out to a gut-wrenching customer service complaint. These comments, posts or tweets are specifically related to the brand and could have a positive or negative sentiment. This form of interactions can happen on any social media channel and presents the brand with an opportunity to react in a unique, compelling way.

Brands have typically responded to consumer complaints with apologies, coupons to mute the noise or a call to action to take their complaint behind closed doors. Recently however, brands are finding ways that are fun, engaging and compelling to interact with customers. Whether it’s a complaint or a compliment, brands are becoming more and more reactive in recognizing the value of telling a brand story through their response. The following was a video response developed after a guy put up a sarcastic post on the bodyform Facebook page expressing how disappointed he was in the realities of “That time of the month”.

It’s important to note that brand specific reactive storytelling isn’t limited to content created by consumers. Other organizations, businesses and influencers often say things that can also be linked to your brand story. The ability to leverage a conversation that one brand or influencer is having that is linked to your industry presents an opportunity to get your story in front of an additional audience. Upon using reactive storytelling in this manner, you have an opportunity to get your story in front of an audience that you typically would not have the ability to speak to.

The following is a reaction from AMC Theatres that resulted in a wide range of earned media and a significant spike in relevant brand conversations across multiple channels. Oreo started the conversation with a simple tweet asking if any of their followers have snuck Cookies into the Movie Theatre before. The AMC Theatres community manager caught wave of this tweet and quickly responded with a witty, clever and simple response. The internet erupted. The twitter exchange that kick started one of their highest spikes in brand relevant conversations can be seen below:

A brand relevant reaction that tells your story in a relevant way doesn’t need to be marketing focus. Your reaction can also stem and be developed with the sole intent of fixing a wrong for a customer. An example of how this can be done effectively can be found in this video from Ramon De Leon when he “delivered the wow” after his staff didn’t meet customer or company expectations. Check out this response!

Cultural Specific Reaction

A Cultural Reaction is one that is built on a story that is being covered in the news around the world. When a brand responds to something that has already got the world talking it’s an easy way to leverage an already popular concept and make their brand go viral. The reason why these have such large reach is that it’s essentially a parody of something that is known by all and can connect with everyones interest. When Red Bull Stratos took over the media and social media channels with the Sky Dive from Space – Other brands jumped on the bandwagon immediately to tell their story in an impactful, compelling way. Whether it was Kit Kat or LEGO – Both brands leveraged a top of mind story to keep people talking about their brand.

Here’s a great example of reactive storytelling from the folks at Las Vegas Tourism reacting to Prince Harry and his over the top (epic) weekend in Sin City. Unlike Skittles, they took their story further than just a Facebook post and implemented an entire campaign around the incident. We all know the saying, “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas”, it’s the mantra of the city. So when pictures of Prince Harry having a couple drinks and walking around naked surfaced the web, Las Vegas took offense to the notion that “the code” was officially broken. Here is how they told the story:

Facebook has confirmed that images are shared, commented on and liked 2x more often than a simple text status update. Thus, using compelling visuals that tell your story can be a great way to generate additional buzz for your concept online. Las Vegas launched this campaign with a compelling twist on the iconic “Keep Calm and Carry on” poster by adding the word Harry at the end along with the #KnowTheCode hashtag and URL.

Niche Specific Reaction

A Niche Specific Reaction is when a brand tells a story through somewhat of an “inside joke” within a certain group. At the end of the day, each of us can be placed into one or multiple groups that society would typically label us based on a few common traits and interests. Whether it’s a Football Fan, a Yogi or an internet geek – there are a variety of different niche groups we can be labelled as and placed into.

The ability to tie a marketing concept to a niche topic or story that a specific group will find interesting is a key opportunity for a brand looking to deepen it’s level of engagement with consumers. When a brand utilizes this form of reactive storytelling they can very easily limit the amount of reach that this story will connect with. The right story however will cross over from one niche group into the interest of others. An example of a Niche reaction can be found in The Avengers reactive ad developed as a spin off of the VW Superbowl Force commercial.

The Avengers marketing team quickly recognized the popularity of the VW “Force” Star Wars ad and were probably fans of the Ad themselves. The fact that the VW ad built on a story that is targeted towards a very similar market that the Avengers would be targetting – It’s the perfect fit for reactive storytelling. Whether the audience is defined as super hero lovers, star wars geeks or simply nerds – This audience would find both concepts compelling and interesting.

The image below was developed by Oreo and is a niche reaction to the internet sensation, Gangnam Style. At the time of this post, Gangnam Style wasn’t as popular as it is today and was arguably still on the rise in terms of popularity.

Opportunities like these pop up and can only be capitalized on if your brand is actually listening. You must be listening to conversations about your brand and conversations that are happening within the communities of interest to your audience. Listening will allow you to find out what topics are trending, what insights can be gathered and what conversations deserve a reaction from your brand.

Conclusion

Reactive Storytelling is only possible through listening and the commitment to being agile with your content marketing approach. If you’re looking to implement reactive storytelling into your strategy it’s extremely important to understand the interests and worldview of your target audience. It’s also important that you don’t make the same anti-viral mistakes many others do when working with social media. Now that you know what Reactive Storytelling is all about, you need to know where to look for these opportunities. Over the last couple of years I’ve tested a lot of different channels for trends, insights and upcoming opportunities here are a few great places to check for the next big thing:

BuzzFeed - When it comes to identifying and creating awesome content, BuzzFeed is one of the best online. Whether it’s finding throwbacks to your childhood or simply providing head scratching info – You can find it here.

Reddit -  Some call it the homepage of the internet and for good reason. If there is anything that is about to go viral or anything that is belly laugh worthy it can be found somewhere on Reddit.

Twitter -  Want to know exactly what your customers are saying about your brand? Want to have easy access to the most timely and topical conversation and trends happening around the world? Look no further.

So what do you think about reactive storytelling? Have you seen any of these kinds of post in the wild?

What many people don’t know is that my obsession with social media and technology all started with Football. It was my first year of University and because things like Facebook didn’t exist, I procrastinated by writing a daily Fantasy Football blog for SportingNews.com. In fact, my blog brought quite a bit of success and generated a loyal following. After about a year of blogging about Football and helping people all over the world win their first championship, I decided to start a business from it.

I integrated my blog with an eCommerce platform selling Football Memorabilia and had enough to cover tuition for two more years. To be blunt, I’ve been a Fantasy Football junkie ever since and have learned a lot along the way. Many of the lessons I learned through this journey I’ve applied to my marketing and entrepreneurship career.

Here are some of the most important insights and tips I’ve learned over the last few years from playing Fantasy Football. Use these insights wisely and take your business to the next level while start getting closer to achieving success.

Know When to Hold’em, Know When to Fold’em

In Fantasy Football you go through a draft before the season begins to build your team. You instantly feel a connection to these players because you chose them over hundreds of other players in the league. For me, I put a lot of effort into my pre-season and make sure that my choices are well thought out and always strategic. Once in a while however, you draft a player who doesn’t live up to your expectations and you have to make a decision:

1. Wait and let them shake the rust or
2. Trade/Drop them before the damage is done

More often than not, it’s easier to just keep the player and keep your fingers crossed. In business, the stakes are a lot higher and thus, waiting on something that might not pan out could result in the loss of dollars and/or your business. If you have an idea that you’re pouring your heart and soul into and are simply generating no traction, no revenue, no results and no interest – It might be time to fold’em. If you have any of the above then you’re in luck cause there’s a reason to hang on. The same issue arises with talent, if you’re trying to build something amazing you need not worry about your team – If there isn’t a good fit, cut them. Trust me, it’s definitely worth it.

Never Bench Your Studs

When you’re looking for a win do you put in a no name on a hot streak or a future hall of famer who hasn’t played well the last two weeks? Always go with the latter. It’s more likely that your overnight celebrity puts up a goose egg than it is to see a repeat of a disappointing week from a top caliber player. Often in Fantasy Football we’ll play too much attention to the media and match-up and as a result bench our first round draft picks. Very rarely does this approach not bite you in the backside.

In business you do whatever it takes to keep your passionate, top talent. In fact, once you’ve given everything but the kitchen sink for this talent you need to identify the importance of keeping them motivated and excited to play. A star will perform best when (1) she’s challenged (2) is given freedom and (3) is surrounded by people who are just as, if not, smarter than they are. From there, you never bench them. The studs on your team need to be celebrated and rewarded. Will this cause the C-Players or B-Players to get upset? Who cares. Focus on your studs and cut the fat.

Remove All Personal Bias

I’m a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan and when I have an opportunity to draft an Eagle, I draft an Eagle. I once almost traded my entire team for Donovan McNabb (Former Eagles QB) simply because I’m such a fanboy. In Fantasy Football you really do come up against an internal battle especially on weeks when your starting QB is up against your favourite NFL team. I can remember one year having Tony Romo on my team and making the decision to bench him solely because he was playing the Eagles (See Rule #2). That game Tony Romo scored three touchdowns and would have put me into the Fantasy Football Playoffs.

In business you also come across conundrums where internal conflicts arise. For example, you will often find situations where you must put personal feelings towards an individual aside and put the business first. Whether you hate someone you need to work with our like someone you need to fire – business is a place where very often, personal opinions and relationships must be put on the backburner in the name of good business and success.

Smack Talk Must Be Used Sparingly

The gift of gab is definitely something I have used on a regular basis to get in the head of my opponents in Fantasy Football. In fact, the gift of gab has been something I’ve used throughout my entire life when it comes to sports or any type of competition. The thing about smack talk is that there’s a thin line between being funny or poking fun and taking mean jabs and sparking fights. Not going to lie, in Fantasy Football ~ it’s no hold bars. In business however, smack talk should be minimal.

There are many organizations, CEO’s, and professionals who think it’s cool to berate and rip into colleagues or competitors. While we can look at Ari Gold for Negotiating tips, he’s far from someone you would look up to for inter-office relationship advice. He’s built his reputation for being an asshole and that’s far from an attribute you should strive to develop.

Identify Potential Issues Before They Arise

The NFL Season is 18 weeks long as a whole but 17 weeks long for an individual player (injuries and suspensions excluded). Each team is provided with a week off and this can cause big problems for Fantasy Football if you have 5 players with the same week off. It’s actually the recipe for a disaster week and one that can quickly lead to a line chalked up in the “L” column.

Beyond the fact that players get time off, there is also the Fantasy Football playoffs. The Fantasy Football playoffs just so happen to be during the winter and are in week 14, 15, 16 and 17. If your players are up against (1) Tough teams or (2) teams that play in horrible conditions – This is something that should lead to a red flag. When situations like these come to the surface you need to be able to plan and make trades and moves that put you in a situation that won’t hurt your season.

This idea links back to the importance of planning. At the time of this post, I’m working on a start up dedicated to bringing unique social experiences to awesome people looking for things to do in Halifax. We’re essentially in the business of developing, designing and delivering unique events. When you run outdoor events in Halifax you always have the risk that the weather will make a list minute decision to change on you. Thus, we’re always thinking 10 steps ahead to ensure we have our basis covered.

At the same time, the importance of planning can be seen in a variety of other industries. In the communications industry far too many businesses focus on right now rather than next week. That is, they don’t plan for the fact that a huge marketing initiative could increase the amount of traffic to their site by 500% and exceed the power of their servers. Often times companies don’t plan ahead and are caught by surprise when they realize their contest can easily be manipulated to damage their brand.

Every Week is a New Week

While it’s important to plan ahead, you most certainly need to focus on each week and never take your opponent for granted. There are many times when you will feel relaxed because your team has been on a roll and your opponent has been doing horrible. As soon as you feel relaxed over an upcoming week, you need to start to panic. Every week you know your password is a week you have a chance to win and furthermore is a week you have a chance to make your team better. This is how you need to look at your Fantasy Football team and at your business.

The moment you become content with your own skills is the moment you will start to settle. I don’t think I’ll ever settle. I believe that the majority of people don’t reach their full potential and highly doubt that even I will be able to reach mine. Thus, I’m striving to constantly push myself to learn new things and build my skills so when I take my last breath I can say it was time well spent. Every day is a new opportunity to be better than the person you were yesterday and it’s our choice whether or not we want to take strides to make that idea a reality.

Conclusion

As you can see from the insights above, Fantasy Football really is more than just a little game NFL fans play to waste valuable time. The insights above can be applied to any Fantasy Football looking to become successful. In fact, these insights can be applied to any business, organization, non-profit or startup looking to find success.

I do want to point out that another part of success for fantasy football is taking a risk. Sometimes you need to ignore all the traditional rules of the game and do things your way. You need break rules, make people made and have them call you nuts. Only then will you truly be able to find great success and come out the champion.

Know any Fantasy Football tips that can also be applied to business? Or maybe you think you have what it takes to be in the same league as me? I’d love to hear from you below.

If you ask any knowledgeable marketer if they think Facebook should be in the marketing mix, they’ll say yes. If you ask the typical social media specialist, they will also agree that Facebook is a great place to engage with customers and get your message out. If I had a nickel everytime I heard the word “engage” – I’d have a whole lot of nickels. But, as described in Facebooks offical Business Blueprint – The channel isn’t limited to only consumer engagement. Facebook can also act as a rich business and marketing platform. Facebook is a channel that can be used to not only increase the value of your product but also increase and improve your overarching brand.

In a recent study commissioned by Facebook, 71% of marketers surveyed believe that companies can gain a competitive advantage by leveraging social media. At the same time, only 41% of said they have fully integrated social media throughout the company and only 33% said they had a long-term strategy for becoming a social business. There is clearly a disconnect.

I’ve taken some time to review Facebooks guide for Building Brands and gather some key insights and thoughts on their thinking. For the most part, I think the disconnect is directly related to marketers ability to adapt to the new art and science of social media, technology and good old fashion creative. The blending of the two are crucially important for any organization looking to survive in a connected world.

A Connected Brand in a Connected World

In todays connected world, people are using technology like Smartphones, Laptops and Tablets and using them to connect with each other using social media. This intersection of technology and social interaction has created a world where people are more connected than ever before. The impact that this intersection of technology and human behavior has left businesses in a fragmented space.

This new form of interaction has completely disrupted traditional approaches to brand-building and brand development. Brian Solis refers to this time disruption as the Era of Digital Darwinism. That is, we are living in a time where the societies and technology has been evolving faster than some companies’ ability to adapt. This is a challenge not just for marketers but business owners, CEOs, Technology Officers and even you. Yet too many of us are stuck in our ways.

An example of this is found when marketers still bring up the concept of the good ol purchasing funnel. Something that should be retired as it doesn’t truly speak to the new type of consumer. It’s a model that was built in a world less complex and in a world where people were not always connected. In todays world, the entire purchasing process can be touched by a sole individuals network casting from all around world.

Earlier todau, a friend updated her status asking what she should do tonight. One of her friends wrote “Tea. Tea. Tea.” and within an hour later she had posted a picture of herself at a coffee shop with a tea in her hand. The way consumers interact with brands and how they come to their purhcasing decisions is no longer the same. The concept of consumers moving in a linear fashion from Awareness -> Opinion -> Consideration -> Preference -> Purchase is dead.

In todays world, we learn -> investigate -> purchase -> interact and then learn some more. The cycle continues and as it continues we are connecting with our friends, followers and social networks. Facebook shared this “Connected World” model to better demonstrate what I’m talking about.

Here are a few reasons why I’m supporting the death of the Purchase Funnel:

• The traditional funnel doesn’t consider the various touch-points that are presented due to digital disruption
• Advocacy can actually happen before the actual purchase
• The journey to customer loyalty is not linear, but rather is a continuous process of exploration and interaction.
• The journey is not isolated to just one person at a time — the entire connected world influences it.

Purchase Funnel Disruption

As long as we’ve had voices, we have been able to talk about brands and influence the purchasing behavior of those around us. Only recently, in a globally connected world, has the impact of word of mouth traveled as fast as it does today. We are living in a world where word of mouth moves quickly and spreads in a way that is unpredictable. Thus, the concept of having a purchase funnel that works in a linear fashion simply doesn’t work. Beyond the impact of our connection to each other, we have also become more connected to the media and a variety of third party recommendations.

Thus, the disruption of this model leads to the conclusion that consumers now play a larger role in  developing a businesses brand than ever before. It’s no longer about how often you can push your message – It’s now about the different ways consumers pull and distribute your message.

Learning About Brands through Social

The Facebook study I was referencing earlier states that consumers generated more than 500 billion brand impressions through social media last year. This makes sense seeing that more internet users are spending time on social media than any other channel or platform on the internet. The study continues to say that 80% of consumers are more likely to try new things based on friends suggestions on social media. If this doesn’t speak to the importance of inspiring consumers to truly become your brand ambassadors I dont know what will.

Investigating Brands through Social

Consumers today are more skeptical of brands and big businesses than any generation that has come before it. And when I say generation, I’m not talking about Generation Y or Generation X. I’m talking about anyone embracing and consuming content online in the digital age. Whether we’re using TripAdvisor reviews to plan our next trip to Venice or updating our Facebook status looking for suggestions on a type of digital camera you should purchase. The percentage of consumers who use ratings and reviews is increasing at a rapid rate. This study states that the increase went from 12% in 2009 to 57% in 2011.

Using Social Media as they Purchase

Social Media isn’t only used behind a laptop or computer screen. The mobile version of Facebook is used more than any other application in the Apple Store and it’s due our human nature of wanting to be connected. Whether we are checking into a store on Foursquare or we’re using a smart phone to update our status with a picture of us drinking a Davids Tea – Social media is allowing consumers to tell a brands story for them. While social media is still in its early stages of impacting the actual sale – Technology such as NFC and Square makes social-retail a not so far away future.

Interacting with Brands through Social

A few months ago, I purchased an Otter Box for my iPhone after a close scare where it was lying face down and I thought the glass would be shattered. I heard about this product via Twitter and discussed it with friends at a party before coming across this amazing video. From there, I had no choice but to buy an Otter Box for my regular phone and another for the Batphone – Don’t ask. When I came across an article about Apple looking to patent an all glass phone, I immediately thought and tweeted that Otterbox better get ready for an IPO. They responded instantly. And from that tweet on, I was hooked.

This is the impact that a Connected world will have on your brand and your business. It’s up to us to decide whether we’re going to keep doing business as usual or make a move into a realm of creating social businesses. In doing so, we truly are able to become innovators and game-changers. So ask yourself, are you ready to change the game or let the game change you?

After an exciting week of traveling from Presentation to Workshop to Pitch to Workshop to Presentation I’ve finally captured a spare moment to write a recap on Foursquare Day Halifax. If you missed my last post, I had the privilege of hosting Foursquare Day Halifax and was able to enjoy the evening with some of the coolest cats in Halifax. A few of them were lucky enough to even go home with a variety of different prizes donated by some of the sponsors! My favourite give-away was for the final Blackberry 9360 donated by Virgin Mobile. Basically,we asked the crowd who had an old phone (or brick) and took them away to let the the Virgin Mobile reps decide who they thought deserved a better phone. The winner…

Walked away with an upgrade. You would be surprised how many people still walk around with bricks in their pockets.

Anyways, we also gave away bags, swag, giftcards, ipade cases, iphone cases and more. While there were tons of cool things being given away, the coolest thing of all were the people who showed up! I didn’t have the chance to talk with everyone but all of the people I chatted with were awesome. The group was full of energy and was excited to not only be at the event but also about social media!

Here is a shot of me and some of the cool cats at Foursquare Day Halifax!

All in all, I had an awesome time and from the feedback I heard afterwards I think most people did. I mean, can you really have a bad time when there are tons of free give-aways? Buckets of free booze and the delightful sounds from 8Tracks playing in the speakers? Not really.

What’s even more awesome is that we had our own photobooth where people really got wild! Not wild as in Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian… Wild as in. Well. Take a look:

Angela Gzowski (apologies for butchering your last name during the event) did an awesome job with the photobooth! If you can make me look half decent, I’m always impressed!There are more photos to be found over on the Foursquare Day Facebook page.

The place was bumping with around 35-45 people but we still came up short when it came to landing a swarm badge! When they told me I was speaking at this event I immediately thought – “Yes, this is it! This is my chance to get a swarm badge” Unfortunately… I didn’t get a digital Swarm badge but like this guy, I got a whole lot of real life ones:

There’s always next year…

All in all, the event was awesome. Brad (the man behind the curtain) was able to line up some great speakers such as Leah Skerry from Norex, Jeff White from Kula Partners, Fred Connors a 2012 Mayor Candidate and Colin Goodwin from Modern Media. Each of them rocked the mic like a dead rapper in Hologram…

To put it simply – Foursquare Day Halifax rocked and I cant wait to see it become bigger and better next year. Thanks to everyone who came out and had some fun with me and the entire Foursquare Day Halifax team. It was quite the experience and definitely one I hope continues.

Until then… You can be sure to find me enjoying a Halifax Brewery Tour or a random event like Mario-Kart 64 Parties!  If you ever want to connect, give me a shout or keep an eye on the various events coming out of dreamr!

Over and out…

Do you want to develop an awesome following on Twitter?

Without awesome followers you can start to feel as if you’re using twitter to simply chat to yourself. Without a solid group of followers who are engaged, passionate and care about your business – You’re wasting your time. There are three levels of followers, spambots & purchased followers excluded of course we have engaged followers, advocate followers and awesome followers. Here’s a visual I put together to show the different levels:

As you can tell, the most important types of followers are those who are awesome. The ones who love your product, love your tweets and want to tell the story of your brand and business. These are the followers who not only send you new customers but also are willing to stand up and fight your battles when crisis breaks loose.

Here are six strategies that will help you build an awesome list of followers who are not only engaged but also love you.

Strategy #1: Content Curater

Content Curation is the act of discovering, evaluating and sharing relevant content with your network. This approach is a great way to answer the question “What should I tweet about”. This approach allows you to take a position as someone who is passionate about a variety of different types of info and is a great source for excellent links driving to relevant content. The better the content you share, the more connections you’ll make with people all over the world. As you share great content, people will ask you questions and tweet you with comments. From here, it’s important to engage and interact with these people so you can further strengthen an existing online relationship.

There are several great content Curaters on Twitter and many of them have gathered large followings. A few of my favourites include Jesse Newhart, Gary Thomas and Guy Kawasaki. Without question, Guy Kawasaki is one of the most popular Content Curater on the web with a following of more than 500K people. He shares everything from content about businesses and the importance of social media to the Top 100 Quotes from Nicholas Cage. The key is providing content that is compelling, interesting and most importantly, relevant to the audience you’re trying to connect with. Taking this approach you will quickly find people advocating for you and sharing your tweets. The key to success is striking up a few engaging conversations and re-tweeting great content to migrate your advocate followers into awesome ones.

Strategy #2: Niche Area Expert

Miyagi – Wax on… wax off. Wax on… wax off.

This quote has absolutely nothing to do with the idea of being a Niche Area expert. That said, Mr. Miyagi was an expert in Karate and that’s the reason why his photo is here. Anyways, what does it mean to be a niche area expert? Well, a niche expert is someone who understands a specific industry, product, service, business, issue, philosophy or trend better than most people. They are seen as an expert in a specific field and are looked at as an authority figure in every sense of the word. The idea of becoming a niche area expert is a strategy that takes time but always guarantees great success if the subject is relevant and important to a passionate audience.

One of the most popular Niche Area experts on twitter is the  award winning Personal Branding expert, Dan Schawbel. He saw an opportunity to be known as the guy who knows everything there is to know about personal branding and has developed an outstanding career in the process. It’s very rare to find Dan tweeting or even blogging about anything other than Personal Branding and business. This strategy has helped Dan generate a following of over 100,000 people on Twitter and an awesome resume. The key to success using this strategy is consistency and putting in the time. You won’t become an expert over night – It’s going to take late nights and a lot of self-education.

So for example, if you’re running a coffee shop and are looking to develop a great social media strategy this is one that will work. Instead of simply tweeting about what you have to offer everyday, tweet about the health benefits associated with Tea. Tweet about the History behind coffee or the process that is required to find the perfect bean. Whatever fits within your business and will allow you to be seen as an expert is the best approach to take here.

Strategy #3: Social Butterfly

A social butterfly tends to be someone who is a social butterfly in real life. In turn, this is how they come off online striking up conversations with everyone and anyone building authentic relationships with multiple people. With this approach, the majority of your tweets are mentioning someone else rather than sharing things about yourself. This is a strategy all about engagement and interaction. It’s all about promoting others more than you promote yourself and helping others whenever they tweet a question. The social butterfly approach works well for those who are social by nature. The best people who implement this strategy have a general passion for people and their lives.

There are many examples of Social Butterflys on Twitter but one that stands out for me is Scott Stratten. He’s one of the few who are slowly creeping upon the 100,000 tweets sent mark. After following him on Twitter for the past year or so, I’ve realized that he’s all about engagement. The majority of his tweets are in response to other people, the creation of new conversations or middle of a random debate. All in all, he recognizes the importance of building relationships with people and implements this strategy extremely well.

Strategy #4: The Contrarian

There aren’t many people who can pull this strategy off effectively but those who do – Do it very well. Taking this approach you may not win a whole lot of friends but you will certainly increase your profile by going against the norm. The key to finding success when implementing the contrarian approach is to identify a position you’re passionate about. From there, this positioning (against the norm) needs to be the essence of your tweets and interactions on a regular basis. It’s important to build this reputation as a contrarian across different channels as twitter is limited to only 140 characters or less.

Strategy #5: Bring the Funny

Humour is the easiest way to a persons heart. If you can make them laugh, you can make them do anything. This is one of the most difficult approaches to social media because the same way not everyone can be a comedian, not everyone can be a funny tweeter. There are a few people who do this very well but there are more who do this very poorly. If you’re not funny by nature, then you will have a hard time implementing this approach. The key here is to find humour in a specific topic and be able to spread that humour over the course of 365 days. Not easy.

One of my favourite accounts that bring the funny is called MensHumor. Now, I love a few others such as Baron Vaughn, Rainn Wilson and Whitney Cummings but MensHumor is what I’m going to use for an example here. You see they send out tweets like this and this that have two key components to creating a successful funny account; logical yet shocking. If you can bring something to life that is logical but still shocking, you will have a winning combination for funny tweets.

Are there any other strategies out there that will make followers go from Average to Awesome? Let me know if you take an approach I didn’t mention above… If you want to discuss how we can make your following even better – Send me an email!

Do you know what separates the great digital marketers from the rest? Many believe it’s the ability to recognize new trends and identify the next big thing. I think it’s the ability to capitalize on what’s in front of us and generate results from them.

Facebook is one of the most powerful tools an online marketer can have in their tool-kit. The channel is the largest in the world and is quickly becoming the second most popular site for referral traffic for many small businesses and large brands. Yet still, I hear stories of businesses who are unable to capitalize on the growth and popularity of this social network.

So I ask, would you like to know how to build an awesome following without making the common mistakes that can result in “unlikes” and cost you lifetime customers? If so, here are six mistakes that you can avoid to ensure your Facebook following grows – Along with your business.

Mistake #1: Sell, Sell, Sell

It doesn’t matter how great your product is or how awesome your washrooms look if you can’t get anyone to experience it. Most business understand this and try to force it upon their fans through constant status updates about what they have for sale. The downfall here is that customers aren’t on Facebook to be sold to – They are on Facebook to socialize and discover new things. So instead of using Facebook to constantly push your product and make a sale – Use Facebook to connect deeper with your audience than ever before.

If you are familiar with the Movie Glengarry Glen Ross, you will have heard the saying “Always Be Closing” in the past. If it’s new to you, it’s essentially a concept that believes businesses and salesman should always be looking to seal the deal and make a sale. While making the sale is an important part in business, the process of making a sale through Facebook isn’t based on the traditional model. Instead of ABC – Always Be Closing, It’s more like ABC – Always Be Connecting. This connection happens through ongoing engagement with your fans and ensuring that the content you share is relevant and compelling.

Mistake #2: Not Giving Customers What they Want

Giving customers what they want has core of good business since the beginning of time. You want to do well in business? Find something the customer wants and give it to them. It’s really that simple. When it comes to Facebook however, not a lot of businesses are able to put their finger on exactly what it is the consumers want from them. I mean, why would someone like your brand? Why would someone subscribe to receiving ongoing updates from your business on a daily basis? That’s the question and here’s the answer.

HubSpot recently did a survey asking consumers the million dollar question: Why Would you Like a Brand on Facebook? The answers were not overly surprising but give us a better sense of what type of content we need to be putting out there if we want to use this space effectively. Here are the top five responses to this question ranked based on popularity:

1. To recieve promotions & discounts (40%)
2. To show the business support (39%)
3. To stay informed about a brand (34%)
4. To recieve freebies or samples (33%)
5. For updates on sales & discounts (30%)

As you can see, lots of users place emphasis on their opportunity to receive product deals, discounts and giveaways. Yet at the same time, a large percentage is also looking to simply learn more about your brand and show that they support it. These simple insights provide you with a great opportunity to strengthen your connection with your network and furthermore, growing your likes.

An example of a company doing a great job with promotions and discounts on Facebook is Banana Republic. They will upload an image (see above) that highlights all the details for flash sale on their brands and products. For example, they ran the deal above specifically during Superbowl weekend with an emphasis being placed on giving their fans a Quarter off (Punny eh?). Another example of their deals can be found with this 50% off power lunch for three hours only! Apply this simple concept to your business and watch the fans and dollars pour in…

Mistake #3: Keeping Your Facebook Marketing Online

So your title is Digital Strategist. You’re the king of pixels and what your colleagues call a social media guru. You believe in transparent, authentic, dynamic, compelling, lateral, and interactive engagement. Yet, you have no freakin’ clue what it means to make a sale. You have no clue about marketing 101 and how “real-life” marketing can be leveraged to drive immediate sales for a business. This is a mistake.

Do not limit yourself to online Facebook marketing when you can cross promote your efforts. The extent of your promotions and social media activities should not begin and end on the computer screen. They should continue offline to involve and inspire real-life interaction and real-life connectivity. In doing this, you’re able to develop an incomparable relationship with your customers that cannot be taken away. That is, you’re able to create memories and moments that they will cherish forever.

Take for example the KLM Airline Happiness experience. They watched for people to checkin using social media, creeped their profiles and then gave them small items in real life that were relevant based on their listed interests. It’s a simple tactic but one that will leave everlasting memories in the minds of their customers. Imagine checking into a restaurant using Facebook and being thanked by the owner and offered a nice latte. Something as simple as that could make a customer a life-time brand advocate and supporter. Placing simple call-to-actions that say “Check in on Facebook” or “Check out our Facebook page” are easy ways to connect your brand with a larger audience. It’s simple. It’s effective. It works.

Mistake #4: Boring & Expected Content

If you go on a date with someone, how does the conversation tend to flow? They ask you a question, you respond, you ask them a question, they respond. Maybe you talk about a great book you’ve read and that reminds them of a great movie they saw. That’s an ideal date. Conversation flowing back and forth between two individuals sharing their thoughts and giving the other a bit of insight into what they are all about.

Now there are also bad dates. Bad dates involve one party sitting on the other end of the table, talking about how great they are and why they are Gods gift to the planet Earth. This ongoing self-indulgence happens for roughly an hour until the other party goes directly into zombie-mode and is already thinking about the laundry they have to do when they get home. This is something that many brands are falling victim of today.

They simply use Facebook to talk about themselves and nothing more. It’s the Me, Me, Me, Me show. Essentially, nothing but a channel being used for self-promotion and self-stimulation. So what else would you share on Facebook? Everything! Mix it up with photos, YouTube videos, ask questions, blog articles or even news related to your industry or brand. The key is to ensure that the content (while unique/different) is aligned with your brands message and your fans world view. The content you share will have a direct impact on how your brand is perceived.

Mistake #5: Not Investing (Time not Money)

According to studies, 26% of Small Businesses are failing when it comes to Social Media because of the time investment. They are unable to recognize and capitalize on the opportunity that exists when it comes to managing their time and Facebook page effectively. In reality, tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer provide marketers and small business owners a great opportunity to improve their efficiency with social media. For many, the time commitment is scary because they have a hard time identifying the Return on Investment of Social Media.

As cliche as it may sound, Time really does equal money. When it comes to executing a social media strategy, time is without question the most valuable asset you can have. You see, it takes time to write blog posts, it takes time to find compelling content and it takes time to plan a thorough and detailed content strategy. Upon completion of all of this however, that time invested into Facebook will translate into time that resulted in new customers.

Mistake #6: Not Understanding The Channel

Martin Luther King Jr once said, Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. All marketers and businesses have an opportunity to learn and educate themselves on the different opportunities that exist on Facebook. A quick search on Google or YouTube would quickly send some to a wide range of content filled with insights and relevant information. For some reason, people are not willing to investigate or put in the effort to get a better understanding of how Facebook can take their business to another level.

Even after the business portion of Facebook has been around for 4 or 5 years, many businesses still don’t understand how to manage their brand. Once in a while, I still visit a brands Facebook page to be met with them using Applications to do things that can be done directly through the natives apps within Facebook. For example, instead of using “Questions” a handful of brands are installing (maybe even paying for) apps to run surveys throughout their network. It’s not only an ineffective use of the channel, but also demonstrates a lack of knowledge in the space.

Here are a few great posts on some things all businesses should know about Facebook:

• How To Market on Facebook
• Facebook: The Power of “Like” Marketing
• The Business Guide to Facebook Part 1: Your Brand Page for the Social Web
• How Facebook’s ‘Frictionless Sharing’ Can Create Better Ads On Facebook

Generation Y is called by many, the Facebook Generation. Well, I’m on a professional mission to get more of my generation on social networks like Twitter and Linkedin as well. While I recognize that Facebook presents my generation with connectivity and entertainment – There needs to be a recognition of the potential found on twitter and linkedin. I often find myself asking Gen-Y’ers if they have heard of Linkedin and the common response is: “Yeah, I have been meaning to set up an account for that.”

The time to set up an account is now. It’s time for us to start taking control over our lives and careers. Linkedin presents a great opportunity to connect with people in business and further build your personal brand. Not only that, it gives you another channel to further take your online relationships to the next level.

Below is a great infographic that I think Gen Y and everyone can learn from:

Six years ago if a client asked you for a social media strategy you’d look at them like they had two heads. While social media existed in the minds of a few six years ago, it most certainly wasn’t as mainstream as it is now. There isn’t a marketer in the world who hasn’t been asked about Facebook or Twitter. As marketers in an ever changing industry, how you respond to these questions can make or break you. Today were going to work on making you through the development of a social media strategy.

More and more clients are requesting that their agencies and local consultants provide guidance in social media. I’ve put together a guideline for how you can create a social media strategy that is sure to make clients happy. And if you’re making a social media strategy for your own business or within an organization, this is sure to help you look like a rock star.

Now before we get into it I have one request when defining goals. Please, do not make the mistake of confusing business goals with social media goals, they’re not the same thing. I repeat: Please, do not make the mistake of confusing business goals with social media goals. This is a mistake that I see happen WAY too often. Our social media plans must start through an understanding our clients business goals NOT our social media goals – Those come later.

The goals we look at during this phase can be defined as the businesses most important intentions. That is, these are the things that the business wants to do through their marketing efforts. Let’s pretend our client is a major cell phone manufacturer who consumers tend to trash on a regular basis due to their poor customer service.

An example of a business goals for this company would be:

• Improve Customer Satisfaction Rating

Sounds good right? WRONG! Let’s hold ourselves to a higher standard. Let’s give the client/business a goal that they can actually measure. Sure this could even be the goal they put in their marketing plan but instead of giving a generic goal as seen above let’s give them something they can actually hold us accountable for. What? Are you afraid to be held accountable for your work? If that’s the case, you’re in the wrong business. Until there is a significant increase in the level of understanding of digital marketing, were in a position where everything will be tracked.

An example of an accountable business goal is as follows:

• Increase our Customer Satisfaction Rating by 20%

Now by setting this goal you immediately build some credibility with your client. I mean, what client wouldn’t want to increase their customer satisfaction rating by 20%? None of them. Trust is key and the more specific you can get with your goal the better your chance of developing that trust.

Understand that social media is still something that many businesses don’t quite understand or even believe in. Just the other day a lady asked me if there was any true ROI attached to social media. So, I sent her a few case studies and in the matter of a few hours she responded with a simple “Okay, let’s do this, I didn’t know so many people used Facebook.” To some of us who live in this social media world, it seems obvious, but to others, there are still a lot of questions. Taking all this into consideration along with the information above, we should aim to be even more specific the accountable goal above.

A quick and easy way to remember the key elements of a great business goal is the acronym, S.M.A.R.T. This is an acronym that for the five steps to great goals – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. When building this SMART goal you need to work closely with your client. By working closely with the client you’ll be able to ensure that you’re not just taking a random guess at what your client wants and are instead achieving goals that are the most important.

Using the same example above, our goal would be something like this:

• Increase our Customer Satisfaction Rating by 20% by the end of Q4

How did we come up with this? Let’s break out the SMART formula and check it out:

• Specific: Increase CSR by 20%
• Measurable: Previous and Future CSR
• Attainable: With the right Strategy it is
• Relevant: Customers are complaining about customer service
• Time-Based: We have twelve months to achieve this goal

Once we’ve identified our overlying goal and what will ultimately drive every decision there after, we can move on to defining our strategy for this client.

This is where a lot of digital marketers have issues. The first problem is that they start developing a strategy without even looking at the companies goals. For those “strategists” I have a solution that will make your job twenty times easier:  Social media strategy generator.

For those looking to come up with strategies that are relevant and actually have the ability to create positive change for clients, I think I can help. When building  a social media plan you really need to understand the difference between a strategy and a tactic. Your strategy choices need to be clear so you’re not relying solely on tactics. A good way of remembering the difference between tactics and strategy can be seen in the bouts of Muhammad Ali. A good tactic that Ali used was coined the Rope-A-Dope, a good strategy was doing whatever he could to make the opponent tired.

To ensure consistency, let’s continue using our cell phone manufacturer with poor customer service as an example. In this situation, we have identified that the business goal for this company is to increase customer satisfaction by 20% by year end.

A few strategies that you could use for a client looking to achieve this goal are as follows:

• Develop a customer service team to engage consumers on a deeper level
• Establish a communication channel between customers and customer service team
• Develop a solid fan base and brand evangelists

Once you develop your strategies you should easily be able to allocate objectives that are aligned with them. It’s important to ensure that these objectives (like goals) are measurable and can be used as key performance indicators down the road.

A couple examples of objectives that would be used in the example above are as follows:

• Decrease the number of consumer complaints by 15%
• Reduce comments that have a negative sentiment about the brand online by 10%
• Develop  a Twitter account that communicates with 75% of people who express complaints
• Create a Facebook page that has over 500 connections (25%) by the end of the year

Not only are these objectives that every client would love to see, they are also objectives that can be easily measured. The objectives above specifically outline which elements need to be measured and how long they do in fact need to be tracked.  Tracking these results are important along the process because it ensures that you can inform your client of progress along the way.

Once you’ve developed strategies and objectives you will be able to more clearly designate which tactics you will implement. The tactics are the fine tuned execution items that you will implement to achieve your business objectives. In the book Art of War, Sun Tzu writes:

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

Meaning, you can execute any  tactic you want and create a little bit of buzz. The issue is, if you don’t use tactics that are aligned with your overlying strategies, your “tactics” will simply be considered noise to the rest of the world. An example of this is seen everyday when agencies tell their clients they need to be on twitter and never explain how it works. This results in everything from over posting to social media burn-out… In turn, the clients business looks bad and the objectives never get met.

Here are a few tactics that would work wonders in the example seen above:

• Provide 5 full day training sessions on social media monitoring and crisis management
• Develop a customized Facebook tab where customers can submit their concerns to the customer service team
• Run a premium Facebook advertising buy driving connections to the clients fan page

And that’s all she wrote…Now get out there and make some magic! And remember, strategy without execution is pointless.

It’s been more than seven years since “The Rock” graced a professional wrestling ring. It was nearly ten years ago when the Great One faced one of the most iconic wrestlers of all time, Hulk Hogan.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

Yet still, even after being out of the wrestling spotlight for many years his fans still wanted him back in the ring. Only a month ago, I took a quick glance at his Facebook page to see more than a million fans! Fans from all around the world and of all different ages. Somehow, after many years out of the ring, The Rock was a brand better yet, a persona, that still resonated with people all over the world.

Most recently, The Rock once again electrified fans all across the globe with an unexpected announcement. February 14th, 2011 – The Rock came back to the WWE.

To say his return was well received would be an understatement. At the time I started this post, he had 1.5Million fans on Facebook… By the time you read this, I’d guess that number is slowly creeping upon or has far surpassed the 2Million mark. The buzz didn’t stop at Facebook! You see, for the six months prior to this announcement, “The Rock” was mentioned once in a while but nothing crazy. Once this announcement came out… Let’s just say the fans could smell what the Rock was cooking…

"The Rock" Mentions on Twitter (Sysomos)

So how does one do it? How does someone keep their name in the spotlight after years of Disney films? How does someone build a persona that fans remember for years? A persona that fans not only remember, but quote and latch onto… That’s what this post is about. It’s about building a personal brand that is memorable and as electrifying as The Rock.

1. Be Electrifying

The Great One, The Peoples Champ and The Rock. All of these names are that of one man. Dwayne Johnson. He’s a man of many names but a man whose name represents charisma, athleticism and most importantly jaw dropping entertainment. No matter what name he is called, when he enters the ring, The Rock is sure bet to put on a show for his audience and fans. The Rock made his name in professional wrestling by putting it all on the line every time he stepped into the ring.

The Rock isn’t referred to as the most electrifying man in sports entertainment for nothing. Anyone with a great personal brand should be able to spark electricity in those around them. Whether that means sending a crowd of people into pure bliss during a presentation or being able to negotiate like a hollywood super agent. Electricity, ambition or better yet, passion… Is what really differentiates the great ones from those who are just getting by.

2. What’s your name?

It doesn’t matter what your name is!! What matters is what you represent, what you stand for, what you actually do. When you look at some of the biggest names online, their real name isn’t what matters the most it’s what they represent.

Here are a few examples:

Name: Gary Vaynerchuk – Represents: Wine Guy, Crushing it, Jets Fan, Hustle

Name: Seth Godin – Represents: Marketing Guru, Purple Cows, Entrepreneurship

Name: Amber Mac – Represents: Canada, Ladies in Tech, Power Friending

Name: MC Hammer – Represents: Parachute Pants, Early Rap, Can’t Touch’em

Without even reading the name, most people would be able to identify the forth bullet as MC Hammer. His rap-name could have JC Penny and he still would have been able to reach great success. Why? Because he represented something no one else did. He took early rap and parachute pants and made them his own. The same way Gary Vaynerchuk took online wine reviews and the concept of hustling and made it his own.

The Rock has done the same thing. It doesn’t matter if you call him The Rock, The Great One or The Peoples champ. At the end of it all, his athleticism, his entrance music and of course, his one-liners are what make The Rock the most electrifying man in sports entertainment today. As you develop your personal brand, you must ask yourself: What makes you – YOU. What do you represent? Find your niche and own it. Look at Penelope Trunk, she owns Career/Life advice or Dan Schawbel he owns Personal branding. Go out and own it!

3. Always Be Visible

Although the Rock left the wrestling business for more than seven years he never really left the spotlight. The Rock was able to stay relevant by being active in a variety of different roles (no matter how bad some were) in Hollywood. This presented The Rock with an opportunity to stay on the top of fans minds and even tap into a new audience. By putting himself out there he was able to stay relevant to his old fans and even connect with a few new ones.

The key here is the fact that the Rock put himself out there. He wasn’t afraid to challenge himself by taking different types of roles. He embraced the risk and gave every opportunity his best. Essentially, the Rock was willing to make bold choices. Instead of doing things that most wrestlers would do, he created his own path by making difficult decisions and being confident in his choices.

4. Just Bring it (Your A-Game that is)

Websites like Facebook and YouTube allowed fans to share and watch a Rock that they watched seven years ago. The Rock has fought in enough amazing fights that his matches and antics would continue to be shared for years after his last match. He provided his fans with so many memorable moments and classic one-liners that they couldn’t forget them if they tried. That said, many wrestlers have fought in hundreds and hundreds of fights but will never be discussed around a table of pizza and beer. The reason is simple, The Rock brought his A-Game.

Every match, every interview, every gimmick and every entrance. The Rock brought it. When you’re writing a blog post are you writing it just to have something published or are you writing a blog post because you have something to interesting to say. This is something that’s difficult to do but we need to push ourselves to always be excellent. We need to spend more of our time on the home-runs and less time on the small wins. If you’re going to give a presentation at a conference don’t just practice the night before to make sure you do okay – Practice two weeks in advance to ensure that you rock the socks off your audience.

5. Cherish your fans

The Rock understands the importance of his fans. During his return to the ring, The Rock thanked his fans over and over again. He thanked them for being there when he walked out of the ring seven years ago and thanked them for being there for him when he returned. What’s key is that The Rock cherished his fans before he really needed them. He understood the value of social media in terms of humanizing his brand and connecting with his fans. In turn, The Rock used Facebook to authentically communicate with his fans. Just take a look…

Instead of managing a page personally, many stars would hire a professional to manage their page. Instead, The Rock decided that he would manage his page on his own and communicate with his fans with an authentic and transparent voice.

The Rock has faced the ups and downs of being in the lime-light. He’s made movies that have flopped and he’s made movies that found great success. Through it all, The Rock constantly has been able to stand up and move forward And after seven years, The Rock is still someone who will electrify the TV screens of millions (and millions).

If you smellllllllllllelelelel – What the Ross. Is. Cooking.