If you know anything about both MMA and internet marketing then you can probably see where I’m going with this already. If not, well then you’re in for a treat.

Since you’re reading my blog I can assume that you have a t least a passing familiarity with the varied aspects of internet marketing, but I can’t assume that about MMA, so here’s a real quick rundown on MMA.

MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts. It’s a combat sport (like boxing, jiu jiutsu, wrestling, etc) that takes the best aspects of various types of martial arts and mixes them together (hence the name). All the best MMA fighters use elements of Muay Thai, wrestling, boxing, jiu jiutsu, kick boxing, judo, and any other martial arts they or their trainer know.

This mixture of fighting techniques makes them a formidable opposition on the ground or standing up and able to defend or attack from any position. Good MMA fighters train their bodies to the extreme and are able to dominate any opposition in the ring.

It’s no different than any other type of combat competition. There are rules for the safety of the fighters (there have been zero MMA related deaths because of these strict rules compared to many each year in boxing and football), and their goal is to incapacitate the other fighter to show the dominance of their skill.

It’s a lot more than two people in a ring beating the snot out of each other. That’s a “tough man” competition. In MMA there is real skill, thought, and dedication involved.

Now, how is that like internet marketing?

Well lets look at the current landscape of internet marketing and see how we can draw the comparison.

Current REAL internet marketers (not the fake I’ll sell you my IM system if you sell me yours spam seen everywhere) have to possess a range of skills. SEO, SEM (PPC), social media, email, media buys, content marketing, networking, etc. Not to mention the knowledge of current and emerging technology.

The well rounded internet marketer knows how to utilize each and how they all play together. They know what role SEO plays in social media, email, PPC, online press releases, and content marketing. They know how email can bolster your social media efforts and vice versa.

Mixing the disciplines together under the unified banner of Internet Marketing.

A good internet marketer will be on top of the companies SEO and know how it plays into social media, content creation, and PPC.

An MMA expert will know how to stop a take down by being a take down expert and know how to follow it up with an uppercut that wins the fight.

Skilled internet marketers will know how optimized landing pages help conversion for PPC and media buys. How they work with email, content marketing, are the perfect internal links for blog posts, and great for sending out via social outposts.

MMA champs can move the fight from a standing game to a ground game with no trouble. Setup their opponent by letting them attempt a submission just to pull one off of their own that the other guy never saw coming.

I’ve been saying for a while now that integration is the key to social media success, but that’s not where it stops. Integrating all of your internet marketing (and offline marketing) efforts is going to be the key to future success.

Tomorrows best internet marketers will be less like one-dimensional boxing pro’s and more like multi-dimensional MMA champs.

Questions, comments, thoughts, or musings? Put them in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,
Josh “Shua” Peters

Image by superwebdeveloper

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Do you remember that chemically fueled commercial which states, that good ol’ Hu (as they refer to it on quick little graphic during the beautifully shot marketing video) is fundamental? Hu is the Human Element and is the main element to social media.

Yes it’s greater than Facebookadium, more essential then Twitterloride, and far more important than Wikipedialine. It’s why social media exists, it’s why it continues to grow and it’s without a doubt the most vital part of any social media plan. To help with this here are 5 C’s that will help nurture the Hu of any endeavor.

1. Create – Don’t write your replies, or anything else that your customers are going to interact with on a constant basis, like you’re writing a text book (unless it is a text book). We suffer through automatic systems that dispense generic info on a daily basis. So please, don’t add to the mess by creating something that would be more at home in a complex IVR than a social media plan.

2. Connect – This is so important and is truly why social media exists. However, it’s not just the social aspect that you need to connect on. When it comes to business you need to connect on the same level as your customers. For example, don’t sit and preach about the virtues of your product when they come looking for tech support. Also, meet them where they’re at. Don’t force them to visit your Facebook page when they hang out on a forum or message board. Meet them at their level and their location.

3. Communicate – Don’t speak above or below the level of your customers. People will leave your conversation if it’s too confusing or if they are angry because you are talking down to them. Find the voice of your company based on the audience you are connecting with. Communicate with them the same way you would like to be.

4. Care – When people bring up concerns, worries, ideas, etc don’t just brush them off. Create a way for people to give you feedback and a plan to address that feedback and show your customers you care about them and their opinions. Show them you really do care.

5. Cultivate – Once you have a relationship with a group of people or even just a single person you need to cultivate that relationship through dynamic conversation, follow up, and interaction. If you make a friend and stop calling them they soon think you don’t care. The same thing applies in social media. You can’t have brand advocates if your don’t cultivate those relationships.

These should all make sense to you, but if they don’t then spend some time on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or your favorite message board and try reaching out to someone you don’t know. See how they react when you talk to them and experience making that organic connection based on mutual likes (or dislikes) and see how people respond to genuine honest answers.

Above all else don’t forget that when you boil it all down social media is all about the Human Element. It’s a volatile, unpredictable, chaotic, and amazingly fun element and using these 5 C’s you can get the most out of it.

photo by CodeZero

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As promised here are the notes (as collected in Tweet form) from my Podcamp SLC presentation.

What do you think of this? Is it a valuable addition to a presentation? Is it something you find useful or at least interesting?

Thanks for reading,
Josh “Shua” Peters

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