Get a Drink and Join the Cocktail Party

I was browsing my Twitter feed to try and find some new topics to write about and I came across this post from Marketing Profs, Anne Handley:

It was an intriguing TWEET and so… I decided to check it out.

@GapingVoid is actually Hugh MacLeod from GapingVoid.com. He has a great post entitled: The Cocktail Party Rule.

In the post Hugh talks about the concept of NOT being egotistical and self-centered when approaching your Marketing Directive. From this post:

I call this The Cocktail Party Rule- what’s true at cocktail parties is also true in marketing: “If you want to be boring, talk about yourself. If you want to be interesting, talk about something other than yourself.”

He relates this idea to a story where a competitor blogger posted a “Welcome to the Neighborhood” post about her competition and actually supported the competitors product! There were some angry individuals in the company but they eventually ignored the post and went on with their daily lives.

There is a great lesson to be learned from this post. Many small business owners worry constantly about competition. Are we competing in the push marketing drivel that is taking over mailboxes and in-boxes? Should we buy that billboard?

We always try to talk about ourselves. This happens most of the time through networking and marketing alike. We are there to sell, sell, sell.

The truth of the matter? We are all in the same boat. Try not to take the egotistical side of the equation and talk about yourself every chance you get.

Also from Hugh’s post:

It’s human nature to want the benefits of this brave new world of ours, without wanting it to have to actually exist, without having to do anything differently themselves. At least at first. Education is expensive.

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Confluence Networking Discussion of Business Blogging: Get Out To It!

Part 1: Social Media Marketing For Small Business: Prioritize, Plan and Execute

We are constantly selling.

Whether a sole proprietor or a multi-employee company, small business owners are constantly selling themselves and their service/product. Most of the time the two go hand in hand.

From traditional marketing to email marketing, there are a multitude of ways to go about marketing your products and services. Social Media has just recently come to the limelight in the small business circle. There has been a recent push to utilize the world of social media to

Image via Wikipedia

take advantage of the multitude of eyes and ears in this space.

At Brandswag we talk a lot about using social media for your small business marketing strategy. The biggest hurdle in explaining social media is the issue of weighing the benefits against the time spent on social media platforms. If you are thinking of social media in terms of a sales cycle you should stop. Let me say that again…. Just stop!

By looking at social media as a sales cycle it keeps you from seeing the absolute value and benefits of using platforms like Facebook, Myspace,  Twitter, and LinkedIN (to name a few). If you view your use of social media as an instant ROTI (return on time investment) you are going to become frustrated and give up before the magic happens.

Social media takes time. There needs to be sense of importance and goal setting when using social media for your small business. You need to be able to set aside the time every day to check your social media sites and update your blog.

If you have goals set and a plan laid in place to utilize social media you will succeed with creating brand awareness, organic search engine optimization, and becoming a trusted adviser in your local industry.

It is extremely important for you to prioritize, plan, and execute. Execute. Execute. Execute.

Prioritize

Take some time to travel in and out of the different social media platforms. Figure out which sites make sense for you to spend some time. Check out a previous post of mine (in collaboration with Brogan, Rowse, and Sanders) on how to be productive and choose the right social networks.

Find four to five social media platforms that cater to what you are wanting to accomplish.

Plan

Figure out how much time you can committ to using social media. If you want to set aside 30 mins a day to take care of your sites.. DO IT! By all means, the time involvement is important but frequency is just as important. Community users want to know you care and are active in the site.

Execute

Follow Nike when they scream JUST DO IT through all of their advertising. Execute your plan with perfection, create meaningful content, and communicate with your friends online. You can prioritize, dream, and plan all you want but if you do not execute…. well, I wont have anything to say to you.

By executing and joining in the conversation you are developing your brand every single day you spend on social media.

This is part 1 of a 5 part series on how to help small business owners understand, utilize and become successful using social media.

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Expectations and the Basics of Doing Business

As many of you know I follow Gary Vaynerchuk and Chris Brogan with an almost stalker-like mentality. I have found value in absolutely everything they have posted since I started following their feeds six months ago. Imagine my glee when I opened up the Google Reader and found that Chris Brogan had written about Gary! I thought to myself…my day is now complete.

From what I took from the post, The Basics, Chris attended Gary’s session at BlogWorld Expo where Gary talked about the basics of building a business and social media. Check out the post to find out what what was taken out of the session.

Two “basics” that I loved:

1. Ask. Ask for referrals. Ask for the sale. Ask for advice from lots of people. Make sure that asking is part of your DNA.

2. Be personal. Be real. Be who you are. It won’t last long if you try to be other people, or try to be something you’re not. This includes admitting when you’re wrong.

What I Received from the Chris via Gary Post:

Expectations and personality can play hand-in-hand when doing business. When you are the  business representative (ie the sales guy) and you are selling your wares whether it is services oriented or product, your personality can make or break a potential client. It is important to remember that the expectations the client recieves from your “personality” is met with flying colors. If you are ecstatic about a new service you are offering and the client buys into the excitement it is your place to expound on that excitement.

You can sell as much as you want but if cannot meet the expectations of a client your business will falter and eventually fail.

One of the hardest things to do (in my humble opinion through experience) is to meet the expectations you promised. Organization plays a huge role in meeting the expectations of a client. Promise the world and deliver early is the best advice I can give.

And sometimes… I need to take my own advice.