Rebecca Showerman

When asked about how much time is needed to manage a successful social media campaign, I tell clients that it is about persistence. Whether you spend 10 minutes a day, 10 hours a week, or like me – 24 hours a day! – it’s all about being consistent and persistent.

I recently heard that Distilled, a SEO agency headquartered in the UK, and SEOmoz, a SEO software company, were holding their PRO Conference in Boston this year. I really wanted to go! As a digital marketer with an emphasis on SEO strategy it is imperative I stay current on industry trends. However, when there wasn’t extra money in the budget for me to attend the conference, I turned to social media to see if I could score a free pass somehow.

When engaging in social media for any reason, be it personal or business, your efforts need to be campaign-like. And like any campaign you will need a strategy, resources and a mentality that you are in it to win it! And that is exactly what I did!

I came up with a strategy for how I would influence SEOmoz and Distilled to give me a free pass, I evaluated the resources available to me, and I knew persistence would be the key to reaching the goal. Social media is all about building bridges. You can’t tweet once or slap up a Facebook status and give up because no one read it or followed you. This is a long term commitment, like any relationship your networks grow stronger as you share experiences, information, wisdom, and yes, even a little humor.

In my case, I wrote a blog post about my cause, stating the top 10 reasons I should be given a pass. I also made sure to optimize the post to the best of my ability. I then used Twitter and Facebook to share this post and to drum up supporters to champion my cause. Humor was a big part of my strategy, stating the #9 reason for giving me a free pass to the conference was that I was willing to tattoo the SEOmoz Roger Mozbot mascot on my body. Furthermore, I promised to allow this to be filmed and used as a viral video campaign! Crazy I know, but definitely attention grabbing!

Being persistent about sharing out my message paid off and I was rewarded in the end with a free pass to this amazing SEO PRO Conference.

So maybe you are at the beginning of this process or possibly you are firmly entrenched in it, the key is to be persistent. You need to keep plugging away at it knowing that every blog post, every upload, every tweet and status update makes you one step closer to reaching your social media goals.

Tags: Blogging, Facebook, Mozbot, Roger Mozbot, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO Software, SEOmoz, Social Media, Social Media Strategy, Twitter