Maggie Fox

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• I have a great idea for a startup but have little money what should be my first step building the website and then after that how can I get funding, would something like Kickstarter be a good way?

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    Why does it have to be either/or? Build channels that will help you tell your story to everyone – prospective funders, clients and others.

• How do you recommend dealing with Twitter followers who re-tweet everything our company posts but aren't potential clients or influencers? Would you pursue a dialogue with them anyway? Is there an etiquette for handling overzealous followers/fans?

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    Hey – if someone wants to talk about you for free to their networks, why would you want to stop that? Embrace it, because, frankly, there’s not much you can do about it.

    I’d like to understand how you are so sure that these individuals are not viable prospects for you. In that case, why are they interested in you?

    Your goal should be to acknowledge and harness that activity. Start talking to them – you might be surprised at what you find!

• What would you say are the most important social media strategies for college students marketing themselves toward the workforce?

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    What do you find when you Google yourself? Figure out what your digital footprint looks like and then edit it to make sure it’s something that a prospective employer would find attractive – they’ll be Googling you, too.

• Are large companies willing to buy marketing technology used by individual employees on a basis other than price per seat these days? Sorry if this was double posted.

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    Good question – I don’t know the answer. You should do some market research, yes?

• what tools are out there to keep social media guideline documents updated. creating a document that Facebook ensures needs to be updated quarterly, how can i do this without it becoming a tome?

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    If I understand the question correctly, you’re wondering how to create a dynamic set of guidelines that are available on the open web? I’d suggest from a technology perspective that a wiki is the best platform (you can lock it), and from a content perspective if you want to keep things short and sweet, consider a light, accessible set of “do’s and don’t’s” backed up by a more heavyweight policy document.

• What do most company look for in employing a marketer?

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    Someone who knows what they’re doing and has a proven track record of delivering results. Also, someone that they like and want to work with.

• I have a brand new site that just launched in beta this week. I have been doing content marketing, but am having a hard time getting people to "like" my Facebook page so that they see the content. What are the best strategies for getting those first fans?

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    Why would someone like your page? If they don’t know about you, it’s not a likely first step. Ask yourself what’s in it for them? If you can get a hardcore group of people who love you and are interested in your company, they will like you (hopefully), but why would anyone else? You have to think about what your target audience needs and wants from you and then deliver that.

    You should also have a strategy for why you want people to like your page – what are your going to do with it in the long run?

• How do you drive traffic to a new company blog?

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    Two ways: time or money.

    1. Time: find others who blog on similar topics, comment on and link to their blogs. Engage with commenters on your own blog, find your community of interest and get in there. Rinse and repeat.

    2. Money: pay money to promote your blog and content via sites like Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon and Facebook to highly targeted audiences interested in what you’re writing about. But it had better be good!

• How do you do the nose trick and can you teach me how to do it?

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    I’m sorry – the nose trick is an inherited family trait from my mother’s side. Only women can do it. You cannot learn the nose trick. ;–)

• If you were starting from scratch today with a new social media agency, what would you write about on your blog to build a big audience? There are so many well established social media gurus, covering every possible niche, that I'm finding it really hard to "beat them" on content. I have a startup social media agency aiming to work with SMEs who don't need or can't afford "big agency" cost and experience.

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    write about issues that are important to your target audience. If you feel that things have gotten to a point where you quite simply cannot come up with high-enough quality content, why not curate the best of the best? The important thing for you to do is find your own voice, though – the thing that you are passionate about and adds value for your audience!