The March issue of Internet Retailer Magazine discusses how retailers are just beginning to leverage social marketing venues for brand building and (finally) commerce.  Honestly, that’s funny.  I’ve been using the places where people gather, including the Internet, as viral marketing opportunities for years now — and so have many of my “direct response” colleagues.  My quip at the end of the article just begins to scratch the surface of the Social Universe, and how I am now making tens of thousands of dollars for the online companies I oversee, using social networks.

Even though myself and my marketing colleagues out there have been using different tools — and in some cases inventing new ones — for social marketing, outside of the occasional trade show or direct ad online, I’ve yet to see anyone really organize the world of social marketing into a series of courses — for free. I’m talking about “Web 2.0 Social Marketing” here, not the former definition of “social marketing” which used to be about “planning and implementation of programs designed to bring about social change.”

That said, it is in this new spirit of “sharing” and bringing about social  change that today marks the beginning of a series of blogs where I will attempt to compile all of the information I’ve found, and the best practices I’ve developed over the last few years to drive traffic, build brands and make money using “Social Marketing” techniques and tactics. Stay tuned on this blog for my forthcoming “Social Marketing Starter Kit.”

Why would I share this knowledge for free, you might ask?  (anyone who knows me knows it’s all about the sales.)  My answer is simple and was the name of a movie: “Pay it Forward.”  Cheesy, I know.  But it’s true.  That’s the true essence of “social networking” anyway — to share with friends (and now in my case, future customers (hint-hint), existing customers, vendors and colleagues ) — and to communicate and collaborate our way into a utopia of information.  But I digress…

SUSAN MCKENNA’S SOCIAL MARKETING UNIVERSITY – CHAPTER I

How Social Butterflies Pollinate (automatically speaking)

First, it’s important that you know, I’m a metaphor whore.  Yes, I wrote the word “whore.”  So? I LOVE to use metaphors.  I probably over-use them.  And I know for a fact, I mess up idioms. But metaphors are my darlings. So if you hate them or you hate that I’ve now said “whore” three times, this isn’t the blog for you. Run along now.

Speaking of metaphors, I have one for my social world.  Response Magazine coined me a ‘social butterfly.’  (I’ve always been pretty darned gregarious.)  So this series of blogs, as well as my new outlook on social marketing revolves around the amazing butterfly.  I am inspired by the thought of changing the way I think and do my job of direct marketing, into an ugly “snake-salesman” type of job, to an elegant, free flying insect that pollinates the flowers that make this world a better place to live in…but again, I digress. (more on the butterfly later)

You should take this “course” if you answer “YES” to any of the following:

• You own an online business and have heard of “MySpace” or “Facebook.”
• You are working for someone else doing online marketing  (to make the company rich).
• You think “social marketing” might be something that’s right for you or your business (you’re right).
• You’re curious about this gal named “Susan McKenna” who keeps making grandiose statements and who the hell does she think she is, anyway?
• You’re bored and this is where you landed.

The diagram below is my entire “lecture” for chapter 1.  Study it now, because future chapters will address each of these concepts, sites and techniques. You are welcome to use this diagram, but please give me (or McKenna’s Marketing) credit for it.  It is the flow to end all flows and it captures the essence of where to begin in this vast world of “social.” Here’s the basis for the diagram:

1) Dotted lines indicate that two sites are connected through an API or a custom widget.  Some of these exist on the Web and others you’ll have to build.  But it is possible to connect the dots.

2) Lightening bolts with the arrowheads indicate a direct link using a widget or application that someone has already built.  Now start Googling you butterflies!

3) Yes, that’s FACEBOOK in the center of the universe.  (Stop whining Myspace, you did it to yourself). Anyone who has visited my MySpace page since last fall will see the same message:  “I’ve left MySpace for Facebook.  Find me there at the same channel: “McKennasmark”.  It happens in many long term relationships: we get bored with each other and move on to greener pastures.  Or, in this case, I was tired of the complexity and isolationism of MySpace. After MONTHS of being prodded by my staff to join Facebook, I finally made the leap in early 2008.  Before I knew it, I was hooked!  Hooked on the simplicity of the interface.  Hooked by the ease at which I could master this new social network. And HOOKED by the fact that after 12 years of being on Classmates.com (and refusing to pay) and never finding more than 2 people from my highschool, Facebook was able to find dozens, now hundreds of my former adolescent friends in a matter of months (scarey, I know).  Who needs a 20 year reunion anyway? In any case, there will be a LOT more about Facebook in this “course,” so sit tight you MySpace friends.  (pun intended) I’m not going to leave out the other juggernaut of the social universe.  I just think Facebook is in the center because Facebook is pioneering this world.  Like Twitter.  But again…back to topic.

4) The grey boxes are must-have’s, along with Facebook.  Stop whining about writing a blog.  If I can do it, SO CAN YOU.  Now get out your best Gouda (to go with the wine, of course) and start writing Missy!

5) Sure, there are dozens, hundreds, thousands of tools and sites that make up “Web 2.0″ or “Social Marketing.”  Please don’t comment me to death because I haven’t focused on all of them.  Trust me on this one:  There will be plenty of LISTS that come from this course.  You’ll have more surfing than you could possibly want to do to see and find them all.  But this diagram is simply my current focal point to cover 80% of my bases TODAY. This world changes very fast, so don’t hesitate.  Because a year from now, this diagram will be obsolete.

…Up Next:  The List of Links — where to find the software to connect your “worlds.”