Welcome to the

Marketing Dangerously

Social Media Challenge

Where we do our best to answer one simple question:

Does social media
work for business?

If you‘re in business you‘ve been told you "have" to be on Facebook…you‘ve "got" to be on Twitter…or at least on LinkedIn – not to mention YouTube, Digg, Squidoo, Reddit, MeetUp, Naymes, Plaxo, MySpace. STOP.

And, if you‘re like most of the business people we work with, you don‘t "want" to be on any of these sites. You don‘t want to hear that someone‘s heading out for coffee…or how (badly) they golfed on the weekend. But. Is tweeting nuisance messages "really" using social media effectively? What about using twitter (and Facebook) for nothing but sending and receiving valuable business messages? What about joining customer groups on these sites – dishing out helpful advice. And providing links to your website or blog – and links to sources of other helpful advice – positioning yourself as an expert?

Would that work? Or would it just be a waste of time? Want to find out? Want to know – once and for all – if social media can actually generate sales?

Join The Marketing Dangerously Social Media Challenge

Join us by subscribing to our Marketing Dangerously newsletter (Click here ). And, if you are in the Vancouver, Canada area plan to join us on the last Monday of each month for our "live" Social Media Challenge Meetup in Langley BC.

Shane Gibson helped us launch the challenge!

We originally launched the social media challenge with a presentation by Shane Gibson, co-athor of 'Sociable!‘ (with Stephen Jagger) and co-author with Jay Conrad Levinson of 'Guerrilla Social Media Marketing.‘ Shane's dynamic content and style kept us entertained while giving us good reasons to 'believe' that social media really can drive business and sales.

The Details:

Now we hold our monthly challenge meetups at the Watershed Arts Cafe in Langley, BC -- at 7 p.m. sharp on the last Monday of each month.

Click here to RSVP for the next meetup gathering.

What (on earth)
Is ‘Marketing Dangerously?’

If you are not yet a marketing Dangerously member, the best way to answer that question is to visit our blog and read a few of our Marketing Dangerously articles, then subscribe to our free twice-weekly Marketing Dangerously newsletter.

A brief Introduction:

MD is a marketing and sales coaching and 'idea‘ service for business builders. Our T‘nT newsletter brings you a bright idea every Tuesday 'n Thursday. Each Tuesday we feature the marketing idea of the week, and each Thursday we bring you our social media idea of the week.
 

Basic Membership
Is free of charge                              Click Here to join now.
 

This is a Challenge with a Twist

The Marketing Dangerously Social Media Challenge is a challenge with a twist. While we challenge you to execute the tasks and ideas we write about, we challenge ourselves to do the same. While we want you to increase your sales by using social media for business, we also want to generate sales of our own marketing and sales coaching materials – books, ebooks, CD‘s, AudioPaks, etc. – by participating actively in all the major social media sites and programs.  In other words, we are all in this together.

It all started when members of our tribe of Dangerous Marketers met for a brainstorm session at the Sandbar Restaurant in Vancouver.

  Members of the Dangerous Marketers Tribe (from left to right), Neil Godin, Roxanne Reid, Jonathan Christian, Judy Lee, Trilby Jeeves, Deb Reynolds, Jess Sloss, Shane Morgan, and David Neale — all writers, speakers, and experts in various areas of marketing — helped us develop the original 90-day Marketing Dangerously Social Media Challenge.

  Brainstorming at the Sandbar: Jess with 'ribbons of ideas,‘ Roxanne and David talk it over, Trilby and Shane deep in discussion.

So. Does social media work for business?

As publishers, writers and marketers of Marketing Dangerously we (Neil Godin, Jona-than Christian and the crew) were total newbies to the online marketing world -- when we started the challenge. Now we're not so new, but we're still at different places along the path. Jonathan has become known as the local social media marketing guru -- and regularly conducts workshops for business owners on the subject -- while Neil still hasn't developed the habit of posting social media messages on a daily basis. However, we now know that social media does work for both of us -- and for our members. 

A chance to learn – and a chance to share the learning

Now the challenge is to keep learning, growing and helping each other. We‘ve decided to cpntinue with the social media challenge because it will compel us to "keep going" – and to share our experiences with everyone who joins in. Why not join in by subscribing to the MD newsletter.

Learn what worked (and what wallowed) – blow by blow.

In each Thursday‘s blog post and newsletter, we will share a challenge task with you -- and we'll often tell you what we have tried and how well it worked (or not) — along with a "call to action" — a social media marketing task that we ask you to complete. Of course you don‘t have to do these daily tasks. But if you do you will slowly but surely build up a familiarity with everything that social media has to offer you as a business builder.

Two calls to action

Click here to RSVP for the next monthly Meetup.
Click here to subscribe to the Marketing Dangerously newsletter.

Important Note:

We ask you to spread the word in every way you can. By forwarding this link to your friends in business. By tweeting if you‘re a tweeter. By writing a message on Facebook. Or even (do people still do this?) telling your friends about the event in person. (OMG). Thanks very much.

Neil and Jonathan

Ps -- to learn more about Neil and Jonathan please visit their websites at:

www.neilgodin.com

www.wemakestuffhappen.com