Masterful Execution

I witnessed a masterful execution of social media strategy at BlogWorld 08. Coordinated by at least two of panelist on the Making Money Online with a Blog session, Shoemoney instantly increased his Twitter followers by 200+ and piled in the links to his site.

Social Media Setup

This aptly named panel on making money online, was packed with the heavy-hitters in the affiliate marketing space: John Chow, Brian Clark, Zac Johnson, Jim Kukral, Darren Rowse, Jeremy Schoemaker.

As the panel begins the social media campaign creative kicks in. Jim Kukral, the moderator, draws attention to his frustrated wait for the late panelist–Jeremy Schoemaker (aka Shoemoney). Despite his frustration he launches the session.

Call to Action

Now, as the session proceeds, Jim seems to again become agitated at the empty panelist seat. He turns to the audience of 200+ and tells them to use Twitter and tweet, “@shoemoney you suck #bwe08.” Of course everyone obliges. Instantly 100s of “@shoemoney you suck #bwe08″ tweets light up Twitter clients and Twitter search feeds for #bwe08.

This simple call to action instantly reached thousands both at and monitoring the BlogWorld conference. Bingo! Hundreds of follows and links.

The Social Media Play

Come to find out…it was all a staged social media campaign:

Brilliance! John Chow is infamous for clever social media and audacious social media campaigns. Anyone remember the “John Chow is Full of Shit” viral video test? That broad search returns 45,500 results–not a bad link building strategy.

Social Media Takeaway

So, what is my point to clients? Obviously, I am not advocating that you upstage your next conference panel opportunity or produce viral videos about your bowel movements. However, I am strongly suggesting you follow the key elements of these social media scoundrels:

• be creative
• think 3D (online and offline)
• be interesting
• take a few carefree risks

Have you witnessed any clever social media campaigns?
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Bill Rice is the founder of RICEinteractive. We help clients design, execute, and make money with content and social media. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/billrice. I would love to help you succeed.