I Dare You To Influence Me

In the world of small business owners… we would all love to be influencers. We would love to be perceived as the expert in the matter of which we are selling and we should be. A question that keeps surfacing among the “small biz chatter” is directed toward the subject of influence.

Well… I think we are here to finally answer that. Thanks to Lisa Hoffmann and Mashable. Lisa was reading a post from Micah Baldwin (Lijit Networks) called HOW TO: Measure Online Influence and I decided to check it out and read it for myself.

I wanted to sum up some points Micah made and push them towards the small business owner.

Social media marketing is very much a brand development tool for the small business owner. The majority of the time it is used for lead generation or visibility in a specific industry or region. Now, in order to realize the potential of social media and get excited.. instead of smoke and mirrors boredom… let’s look at Micah’s definition of Influence:

Influence = (Personal Brand * Knowledge * Trust)

So.. in order to maximize your reach online.. you need to be able to focus on the three top tiers of influence listed above. I am going to add another into the mix in order to speak to the small business owners in the group:

Influence = (Personal Brand * Offline Interaction * Knowledge * Trust)

The main purpose of talking about influence and personal brand recognition is to add the concept of offline social networking (something a small business owner lives day to day). In order to maximize your influence online you need to be be able to take it offline and create a 2-Touch-Point model of influence.

You should read Micah’s post about the concepts of influence, personal brand, knowledge, and trust because it is great! We need to remember that the Personal Brand building of a small business owner has to include the offline and online networking in order to be strong.

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Yes. My Voice Matters.

I was reading through my weekly intake of Jason Falls at Social Media Explorer and came across a post with a reference from the Cluetrain Manifesto. First off, I love the book. I read it when it came out a couple of years ago and still keep it around my desk. In his post, Jason makes reference to Cluetrain point fingers at the marketing industry asking them, “Where is the consideration of the people?”

From Cluetrain:
Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

I agree with Jason when he says that the Cluetrain Manifesto basically introduced the concept of social media to Corporate America. It is also extremely important for small business owners to understand the concept of listening and starting conversations.

Social Media has a wide array of people. Some people need your product or service.. other people would rather not listen to your hard sell speech about blah. blah. blah. It is about the conversation.. the personality.. and the person on the other end, not you.

I would encourage you to read Jason’s post because it has some awesome points for all matter of people using social media as a strategy for growth. I want to focus on the concept of using a human voice while in the depths of social media. Whether you are using Twitter, Facebook, or Plaxo (etc) it is important to listen first and speak second.

How long is it going to take us to learn that the CONSUMER is now in control of the conversation? It is no longer about quantity. It is no longer about how many direct mail pieces you can send out or how many banner ads you can buy.

It is about the them not about you. Use Twitter and Facebook as a tool to speak as you would your best-friend at a barbeque (okay bad example but you get the drift). We are all in the same rat-race here. Trying to help each other succeed in the cut throat world of small business marketing.

Talk about what YOU do not the industry or the sale of the day. How do you help people? How do you creat relationships with your clients? That is what people what to hear. They are to be inspired.

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Use Your Highlight Reel to Build Your Story

I should just start a blog called, “Seth Godin Strikes Again!” because he is constantly reminding me of GREAT concepts in marketing. He has a post called, Which parts are you skipping? The concept of the post is to remind marketers that it is important to build a foundation to your story, make the good parts of the story easy to find and the beauty of the entire process… not just a piece.

This is an important concept, especially for the small business owner who is looking to establish a strategy in social media marketing. It is extremely important to build out a strategy (a foundation) before you begin using the hundreds of tools at your fingertips in the world of social media.

Every tool you use, whether it is Facebook, Vimeo, or your personal blog, is a highlight of the overall picture: You and Your Business. Social media marketing is a small piece of the overall puzzle but it does help you develop small highlight reels that build brand development.

Remember to focus on the overall strategy and use your highlight reel to pull people into the story.

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10 Small Biz Social Media Tips for Today

Chris Brogan had a post this morning called 10 Things You Could Do Better Today. It was pretty inspirational to me… on the level of a good pump up in the morning. I have always been appreciative of people who can elicit some type of emotional response in the morning.

I thought I would also give you a list of 10 Things… for all of you small business owners out there who are using social media marketing tools.

1. Start a Facebook fan page for your business. It is a great way to interact with your personal connections on Facebook.

2. Join a local social network. If you are a Indianapolis native… join Smaller Indiana. A local social network is a great way to connect with other like minded people in your geographic area.

3. Write a blog post about another business owner in your location. Give back to your clients. Give back to the community. Prop them up!

4. Comment on 2 blog posts for today… and maybe tomorrow? Keep it rolling.

Two blog post you might want to comment on:
Angels Are Still Investing by David Castor
Reminder from an Anonymous Coward by Peter Kim

5. Send a hand written note to 5 contacts in your social media realm. You will surprise them with the notion. Make sure you pick strategically but still honestly.

6. Respond to three questions on LinkedIN. Never heard of questions on LinkedIN or getting leads from LinkedIN? Check out this link.

7. Send a Direct Message in Twitter to 5 followers and ask them how you can help them today.

8. Send thank you emails to everyone who has posted a comment on your blog in the past 5 days.

9. Make a list of things you need to do, read, or experience in order to make your social media marketing tools work for you!

An example from my list: 1. Read Second Life for Dummies by Sarah Robbins

10. Be as honest and as open as possible with everyone you come in contact with both online and offline.

Get Intuit With 2-Way Communication

I have learned something new.

Keith McFarland wrote an excellent book called Breakthrough Company. I am becoming literally obsessed with the contents of the book and am starting on my 5th straight read. Now the only question is: How do I relate this to social media marketing for small business?

There is a point in the book where Keith starts talking about the concept of relying on outside influences to grow your company to a new level. I have always believed in using mentors and outside consultants to help with the things you are simply… not good at…There is one reference in the book that hit me pretty hard on a social media level:

“We found that breakthrough companies are also adapt at using advisory boards… investors… consultants and advisers. What sets these companies apart is not that they have the support structures but the optimal manner in which they learn from them. Just as breakthrough companies invested heavily in their employees… they have equally high expectations of outsiders in whom they come to depend. The comparison companies we studied on the other appeared to be less eager to form real partnerships with entities outside of the firm. For example, while some of the companies we studied formed customer counsels these meetings seemed to be highly scripted broadcast events that involved ONE way communication.“

-Keith McFarland, Breakthrough Company

We are talking about HUGE breakthrough companies here: Intuit, the SAS Institute, Polaris, and Paychex (to name a few). The beautiful thing about what Keith is explaining above is the concept of listening to outside forces to grow in considerable ways as a company.

It is important that (as a small business) you start to transition and learn about new ways to communicate with customers. The companies listed above KILLED it in large part because they actually participated in TWO way communication with their customers. Imagine that… two way communication. Stop talking to a brick wall and start communicating on a level that your competition hasn’t touched.

Listen to outside influences, customers, and lastly: your competition.

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Hey Mediocrity. You can eat me.

Mediocrity- a disease that is spreading slowly through the ranks of small business owners across the country. It is infiltrating employees, products, services, and marketing…slowly dissecting and eating away at what YOU have worked so hard to build.

I see it happening on a daily basis (even in my own company at times). We get bogged down with everyday occurrences and it is hard for us to see weeks, months, or years into the future. It is hard to balance the daily routine when you (as the business owner) are so focused on growing the business in terms or revenue and new clients.

This post really has nothing to do with social media marketing… other than it is a new form of marketing that could differentiate you from the competition. It is more about being focused and understanding that NOW is the time to take risks.

NOW is the time to not hunker down …but to get PUMPED up for the day ahead. Your competition is hunkering down. Other businesses are cutting their marketing budgets and giving way to mediocrity. Now is the time to take advantage of the market and to move your company to new heights!

Position yourself as the business that is NOT going to give in to everything raining down on the economy. By the way… I would rather not hear the excuse that you don’t have a choice… that your market is suffering because of this down-trend.

Where there is a will… there is a way and mediocrity can shove it.

(Thanks to Mark Hayward for his post 10 Tips for Blogging Your Way to Small Biz Success which gave me the idea for this post)

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Use Your Company Personality. It’s Still There.

Direct mail… Yellow pages… Many traditional marketing concepts have killed the personality of your company. They have taken the story you had at the beginning… that wonderful plan to rule the world and do it with your mind.. and yes they trampled it. Do you find yourself asking the question.. “How did I get here?”

How did I become part of the pack? Doing the same marketing and communications strategy as everyone else..

It is interesting to read blog post like the one by Jay Baer at Convince&Convert called Marketing Sideways to Win at Social MEdia, that call for companies to start marketing their personality instead of something NOT interesting.

Times are tough. Marketing is tough. Competition is fierce. You have to dig down deep to reach the personality and the interesting world of what makes you DIFFERENT from everyone else.

Use new tools like social media. Social media has the strength of bringing your personality out of your company. You deserve to find that personality again. You deserve to connect with consumers on a level that has never been touched in the world of traditional marketing.

A world that is controlled by the consumer but when you crack it… when you become a part of the community.. the flood gates will open and you will find your personality again.

Unless you never had one to begin with…

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Auto-Invite and Breaking My Window

Peter Kim has an had an awesome post a couple of days ago that really rocked my memory and brought me back to the world of Made To Stick or maybe it was the Tipping Point… In the long run it doesn’t really matter both books are absolutely brilliant.

In his post, Peter talks about the broken window theory where graffitti and *trash* leads to misconduct and chaos in a community. I was relating it (in my head) to social media experiencing an increase in spamming and straight up hard-selling of products and services through outlets like Twitter and Facebook. (Thanks Peter for a great article). I realized that part of the reason why we are seeing a push back from small business owners on using social media is because of the amount of email invites they receive from different networks.

We are all familiar with the “give me all your contacts so I can spam everyone to join MY network” tool that you are pushed to complete when signing up for a network. I am confident that the auto-invite button is contributing to the overall degrading of social media by vagrants and misfits.

I am positioning this argument towards individuals just getting involved in social media. Try not to auto-invite your entire list to a network… it isn’t going to accomplish anything. It is just going to frustrate people who are hesitant to get involved online because of the amount of email and overwhelming content they receive on a daily basis.

Steps To Not Auto-Invite

1. Click Next.

And if you are going to break more windows in social media…Do me a favor and un-follow me.

Have a great Friday!

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The Dynamics of Change

Oh Seth Godin… How I love you!

Seth had a small post yesterday talking about changing a business or the way you do things in a recession. Read his post here. It really hit me pretty hard as a small business owner.

If you’re not happy with what you’ve got, what radical changes are you willing to make to change what you’re getting? In my experience, not much. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start now.

I guess the question would be… what is the definition of radical change? You can relate it to a certain point in the past where you assumed you made a “radical change.” It could be a shift in your business environment. It could be a new product offering or a change in management. Heck, it could be developing and implementing the new tools that we talk about on this blog (social media).

You could be going through an organizational change with staff or trying to figure out your processes to perfect them (my business). Radical change is what you make it. It is important to shift your understanding with how your business was run a decade ago to how you NEED to run it now.

The important thing to remember through all of this is that you are changing. Human development needs change why shouldn’t business development? We are all trying to work through this world and make a name… make some money.. and provide for the people we love.

Do not ignore change. I find it sad that Seth Godin has a hard time finding people willing to go through radical change or at least witnessing it. I am going to make the decision today to go through some radical change! Who is with me?

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Social Media: If I Want It I’ll Buy It. Don’t Sell Me.

Image by websuccessdiva via Flickr

Truth be told.. I am getting immersed in Lisa Hoffman’s blog over at New Media Lisa. She has been KILLING it the past few weeks. She wrote a post recently called Social Media Isn’t About the Selling Cycle – It’s About the Buying Cycle. The post is about the concept of shifting the focus on an individual from a selling cycle to a buying cycle. From her post:

“More than ever before, people are expecting and demanding exactly what they want in every facet of their lives. What does this say about the typical hyper focus on the selling cycle? And what would happen if we turned the telescope around and considered the buying cycle instead?”

I don’t know about you but (as a sales generator) it is kind of nerve racking to shift from a selling cycle to a buying cycle. Does that mean I can’t actively sell? Good God… and no it doesn’t.

Don’t get me wrong…there is some romantic notion behind the thought of creating a meaningful relationship and allowing the buyer to find you in the process but how do you plan and measure for that? Don’t you need to balance between a selling and buying cycle when using social media marketing as part of your strategy?

There is only one problem between a relationship building sales approach when you are building a company: bringing sales in initially. There is a long and short tail approach to selling. Social media is the long tail.

It takes time to build up relationships and create the trust factor that allows people to come to you. That is the whole idea isn’t it? So work towards building the buying cycle to the point where you are the qualified destination for people searching for a solution. Work your butt off to create that special point where selling becomes secondary..

So the answer?

Building the Trust Factor: blogging, testimonials, social media, writing articles.. etc. etc. etc. communicating!

Building a Company: off-line networking, creating relationships in your community, traditional marketing

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