Social media continues to get lots of media coverage and buzz. Some, very well deserved and some is just a whole bunch of empty shoeboxes. Not good, because I love shoes!

Many of my blog readers and friends know that in 2009, after reading one tweet on a Saturday night at 11PM – and following up on it – this social connection turned into a million dollar consulting contract for me. I will forever love little blue birds!

I’ve also connected with and discovered some amazing professional resources through LinkedIn too. I love to find competent people that I can count on to help me do my work!

That’s all good, but as entrepreneurs and small or big businesses, can one count on meaningful results from social media? Like a concentrated 25-point social media blitz without investing any money, just time.

I’m curious too. So I’m going to conduct a test. We’ll call it the “25- point social media project”. This week my staff and I will leverage a two-part blog post article in 25 different ways through social media. In 2 week days we will report back the results. We will also track our time so you we can weigh out the investment to the return.

Here’s the test.
Join me, if you want to try this too and then we can compare results and lessons learned.

My blitz was geared around my new book, Brand Turnaround. I started by writing an article, which included excerpts from the book. The article was about brands gone bad and how they return to glory. The two-part series was called Branding and the Beast. So beyond the text, I had the book art and an image I bought from istock.com.

My 25-point social media blitz/how to promote your blog:

  1. I tweeted about it, included a link to the blog post and a unique headline.
  2. Posted a discussion about it on LinkedIn in my Brandturnaround group.
  3. Found a popular LinkedIn discussion, made a comment and included the article link.
  4. Posted a discussion in blogengage.
  5. Posted on .docstoc with links to blog.
  6. Turned it into a PowerPoint and posted it on Slideshare.
  7. I utilized pinging services.  By pinging the blog post I let search engines know I just updated my blog.
  8. I posted it on Facebook with a different headline (because the blog autofeeds to my Facebook author page).
  9. I bookmarked the post on Reddit.
  10. I bookmarked the post on StumbleUpon and grew my stumble followers.
  11. Bookmarked the post on Delicious.
  12. Created a saved search for Twitter based on the blog’s keywords, replied to those tweeting the keywords with a comment and a link to my blog.
  13. I bookmarked the post to Digg.
  14. I found a high traffic site, TalentZoo, where they invite guest bloggers to submit stories.
  15. I submitted it to technorati.
  16. I wrote another discussion about it and posted a question on another LinkedIn group.
  17. I bookmarked the post to Blinklist.
  18. I posted it on Bizsugar, so readers could vote on it.
  19. I added my blog to Ping-o-Matic – it updates different search engines that your blog has updated.
  20. I produced a 3 minute video on the book Brand Turnaround, posted it on YouTube, Vimeo and then promoted it in Twitter, Linkedin and on my Author Facebook page.
  21. I posted my blog on blokube – a social voting site dedicated to professionals in blogging.
  22. I added 5 linkbacks within my blog to other blogs in my niche.
  23. I commented on 5 other blogs in my niche, with links back to my blog.
  24. Started a discussion on Google Groups.
  25. I posted an article on EzineArticles.com with a byline link to my blog.

 

and be sure to use a URL tracking system for every single URL you create, which tracks the effectiveness of your links.

We are off to the research laboratory and we’ll let you know our results.

For more on social media tips, view:
If you are going to tweet, why not make it really sweet.