Don't be a marketing zombie

Indeed - it is so easy to get lost behind the faceless and de-humanized wall of social media. Some great tips here. 

24 tips to humanize your brand
By Brian Conlin 

Don't be a marketing zombie.


Zombies lumber mindlessly toward their target to feed an insatiable appetite for live flesh. Marketing zombies hurl mindless tweets and emails around to feed an insatiable appetite for a quick sale.

In zombie movies, survivors tend to bypass, rather than engage, hordes of zombies because contact has little upside. Likewise, a marketing zombie's target audience will skirt those torrents of impersonal messages that provide no value.

You can't afford to be a marketing zombie—and the good news is that you don't have to be. You have a skill that no zombie has: the ability to be human and build relationships.

Here are 24 tips from top marketing sites for humanizing your brand and turning the tables on the zombies.

Social media:

• Respond to comments on Twitter with employee accounts as opposed to the company's branded account. (Vocus)
• Make social media interaction more personal by calling a follower by his/her first name and avoiding jargon. (Vocus)
• Respond to commenters through an alternative Facebook page that has the picture and name of the employee responding. (AskAaronLee)
• Host Twitter chats for people in the industry to make connections and let your personality shine. (Convince&Convert)
• Strive to include a video or image to supplement text in one of every three social media posts. (Forbes)
• Ask for and give recommendations on LinkedIn. (Successful Blog)·Admit mistakes, apologize, and offer a solution promptly and publicly. (Mashable)

Email:

• Link email and Facebook efforts to alert people of viral deals and new content that's too big to email. (Vocus)
  
• Segment email lists to aim specific messages to the appropriate portion of a target audience. (Business2Community )
  
• Make emails sharable by including social media buttons and the brand's handles. (CTSmithIII)
  
• Test email delivery times to find what best fits the recipients' schedules by analyzing open, click, and conversion rates. (Brafton)
  

Pitching media:

• Build relationships with industry reporters by commenting on articles and connecting on social media. (Vocus)
  
• Learn the reporters' style by reading their work and following them on social media. (Vocus)
  
• Pitch story ideas by sending free products and creating a compelling story. (Vocus)
  
• Allow reporters to connect emotionally with the story by offering ideas for art to accompany it. (Sterling Kilgore)
  

Search engine optimization:

• Write appealing headlines and copy without worrying forcing in keywords. (Vocus)
• Create a Google+ account to share content and increase SEO. (Vocus)
• Boost a brand's "about us" page with video, stories, and information about awards it has won. (Technorati)
• Use personal relationships to create more backlinks to a website. (SEOpedia)
  

Content marketing:

• Gain consumers' trust by having the brand's CEO post to social media and interact with followers. (Vocus)
• Create an emotional connection by publishing case studies that tell a story. (PRWeb)
  
• Reach out to other bloggers and offer to host a guest post or write a guest post for them. (SEOmoz)
  
• Give behind-the-scenes access to show customers how the business operates or to highlight star employees. (Mashable)
  
• Inject humor into content to make it more enjoyable and personal. (MarketingProfs )
  

Brian Conlin is a copywriter at Vocus. A version of this article first appeared on the Vocus blog.

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