All That Matters Is Your Story

We are experiencing a change in the world of customer communication. It is no longer the company that is controlling the brand management but the consumer. Forget the concept of social media… we have been witnessing this transition for the past decade… and since the inception of the Internet as a worthwhile tool for communication.

Customers are now talking about you at a staggering pace using sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIN… and the list goes on. I was watching TV today and taking note of the increasinly terrible advertising that is taking place on the cable networks. I began to realize that I (along with millions of others) are no longer making buying decisions based on traditional advertising. You can take the definition of traditional advertising any way you want but in my terms it means old ways of doing business.

A great book to read from the Heath brothers is Made to Stick which talks about the concept of creating a story to push your company into the next decade of communication. I have read, reread, and read again the excellent points made throughout the book and began to realize one thing… if you do not create a story that your customers can retell you will lose market share steadily over the next couple of years.

We might not be seeing a steady decline because social media and the Internet is still bleeding edge when it comes to market penetration in a global sense. My question is simply this: What happens when we do reach the peak of market penetration for social media? What happens when your customers ARE using the tool and using it effectively? What do you do when you reach the point? Are you ready for the onslaught? Is your communications department familiarizing themselves with the tools?

All that matters is your story. You are going to be creating a story based on a marketing process but we might come to the point where it doesn’t matter what you want your story to be… your customers are going to create a story anyway. Experience is the key to the future of marketing and customer communication. They (your customer) are going to be talking NOT about your sales or PR release but how they personally experienced your product or service.

Are you preparing yourself for the new age of communication?

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The Future of Online Communication : The Stats

I had the pleasure of speaking to the Indianapolis Public Relations Society recently and I promised them I would post some of the information I used in the presentation to the blog. Here it is my friends:

The 3 E’s of Social Media: Embrace Educate and Empower

I had the pleasure of talking to the Indianapolis Public Relations Society yesterday about the evolution of technology. The concept of the presentation is to shed light on the ever-changing landscape of communication. How is technology changing the way we communicate? How are WE (as communication experts) transitioning into the new age? Are we allowing for a paradigm shift?

The people attending the presentation are stoic figures in the public relations community in Indianapolis and while talking with them I realized three important principles to implementing social media into your organization.

Embracing. Educating. Empowering.

Embracing: The first step in implementing a social media strategy for your business is to embrace the concept of communication in the online environment. It is simple. It means you recognize the change that is transforming the way millions of people communicate on a daily basis. As a brand, you are embracing social media as a way to create a marketing message and tell a story to thousands of potential clients. You do not need to be particulary comfortable with the notion of open communication but you DO need to understand the concept of implement a strategy into your business.

Educating: Once you have embraced the concept of using social media as a communication platform.. it is important to educate yourself and your staff in the philosophy and practical use of the platforms. Whether you are debating on using tools like Twitter or Facebook it is important to educate yourself in the simple and complex workings of the social media world.

The first step in education? Listening. Listen to what people are saying on the Internet about your company, product, or industry. By listening to the masses you will be able to adapt yourself to the world of online communication.  There are also great seminars and learning environments to immerse yourself into.. every city has them… search and you will find.

Empowering: After embracing the tool and educating yourself (and your team) on strategy and usage it is time to empower the actual implementation of a social media strategy. This could mean with money, time, and other resources. Use the strategy plan you have written (or had written from an outside firm) and empower your team to use the tools.

Remeber that pig headed discipline always wins out in the long run. Empower yourself to have the discipline to stick with the strategy you have crated whether it surrounds blogging or a use of a social network.

This is just the start to great journey that is unfolding in front of us. Use the Internet to communicate (both internally and externally). I think you could be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

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Iggy Pintado’s Connection Generation Review

Many of you may be connected to Iggy Pintado on Twitter: @iggypintado. He is a brilliant marketer, genius at generational marketing, and ex-IBM executive out of Australia. If you are not following him… take a second and do it. You will not regret the decision.

Iggy was kind enough to send me his book, Connection Generation, to read and contemplate. I must admit… I have had the book for a couple of months and just had the time to sit down and read it from front to back. It is awesome. I really did enjoy reading about the different levels of communication from a generational standpoint. There is going (it is happening now) a huge shift in the way people communicate over the next decade. Iggy’s book helps break down the ideas and trends that may be hurting/helping the way WE communicate in the future.

I love how Iggy breaks a part the idea of the Passive Connector.

“Passives have an understanding of communication and connection applications but choose not to prioritize them in practice as part of their day-to-day regiments. They possess a very theoretical view of the word “connection,” manifested in their frame of reference as being more CONCEPTUAL interpretation. They visualize connection as a puzzle… a connect the dots.”

The book help me pinpoint some of the ways I am communicate my overall marketing message to different individuals in the professional environment. I didn’t quite realize (to my fault) that each person has a different level of understanding when it comes to the idea of connecting.

That is just a small snippet of what I found valuable in the book. I am already starting to apply some of the ideas from the book to the way we sell, talk, and promote social media to potential clients.

Go to the website and read about the book. You will not regret it and I recommend it.

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233 Million Hours Spent on Facebook in April

(Stat courtesy of the Seattle Times)

Nielsen recently reported that there was an average of 233 million hours spent on Facebook in the month of April. 233 Million HOURS! Let me repeat that.. Americans are spending 233 million hours a month on Facebook. That is unbelieveable.

I would like to think that the majority of the time spent on Facebook is productive and not a MASSIVE time suck but that is not what is important. The important thing to take away from this Nielsen Online study is that the online communication platform is still growing. There is a massive shift happening in how people communicate. Whether you like it or not…

People are moving online to share ideas, thoughts, opinions, and their lives.

What does this mean to the business owner? Your customers are experiencing a new way to communicate. They can now connect to individuals through their daily lives! Get your sales people on Facebook. Teach them how to interact with people in the REAL sense of true interaction. This is not a hard sell environment… this is a relationship based environment.

Create relationships and win… and maybe… you will find that 233 million hours spent on Facebook can actually drive leads to your door.

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Should a CEO Use Social Media?

Well.. this is an important question to ask. This is even more important to consider if you are a CEO. There has been quite a bit of chatter in the social media world pertaining to a CEO’s use of social media. Should the overall leader in a company be involved in the online communication strategy being implemented by employees or an outside firm? There are many cases when the answer is YES and a few where the answer can be a resounding no.

The answer should be yes if you are a CEO of a company that is developing a unique (trust based) relationship with the customers or your product or service. This concept can be contained in the B2B and B2C world.

If you are running a small business where you (as the CEO) are the main source of business development it is important for your prescence to be known in the world of the Internet. The best start for a small business CEO? Blogging, of course. As a small business, you are building a reputation based on YOUR interactions with individuals. If you are not implementing (at the very least) a blog.. you may be missing out on a huge opportunity to influence potential buyers.

Now, there could be a case where social media should not be implemented by a CEO. I have been debating with myself on the abilities of a Fortune 500 to 100 CEO implementing such social strategies… and frankly… sometimes there is way to much on the plate of a corporate leader to implement personal social media. Blogs can be excused from this topic because there are plenty of corporate CEOs using blogs to communicate but there is only so much time in the day.

In the long run, as a CEO, you should evaluate where you can best represent the company. If you have a VP of Communications that is much better suited to run the social media of a company… by all means.. let the best lead.

However, you will find an increase in the trust behind your brand on behalf of your customers when you are communicating to them on a daily basis.

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Your Website is Your Social Media Hub

Our web-developer extraordinaire and overall genius at Brandswag, Stephen Coley, wrote in his post yesterday about the importance of centralizing your overall social media communication strategy. Stephen is a genius at php and has been building websites  for the company since March and I couldn’t agree with him more.

When you are building your online strategy.. please.. make sure that you are driving traffic to one source. We are developing content to reach a wider audience than ever deemed possible in the world of marketing and public relations. For this very reason it is important to have a centralized hub. This pertains to B2B and B2C strategies. Great content develops readers and followers.. which in turn.. develops trust and thought-leadership.

Now, this may not deem necessary for some early adopters. There may come a time when the entire social media world will be decentralized and a new form of strategy will develop… but until then.. spend time developing your hub (your website). Put deep thought into the content you are creating and then setup the necessary tools to drive readers to your connection point.

I welcome disagreement on this topic but this is what I have seen from multiple sources, our own work, and current clients.

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Your Customers are Changing. Are You?

This video has be circulating for quite some time and it is absolutely brilliant. If you want to understand how the marketing and communication world is shifting watch the video below.

Are you listening to your customer? Are you changing with the way they are communicating to each other? Where is the personality? Where is the love? Remember that the world changes and it is important for businesses to understand that their clients are people and not a demographic analysis.

What are you do doing to communicate more effectively with your customers?

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Authenticity is Life. The Rest is Just Details.

How do you creat great content that is alluring to the general public and your potential clients? The simple answer would be keyword rich content and industry news. Oh yes, keyword rich writing. We all love it.

There is something deeper that tends to push one blog past the other in terms of the public attention deficit disorder: Authenticity.

Authenticity should be one of the driving focusing of your blog, your use of social networking tools, and your business. We are now in a customer centric world where people want to deal with… you guessed it… people.

Staying authentic with your content means you do not sound like the back of a brochure. It means you do not sound like the news anchor on the Fox Business Channel droning away about the pitfalls of capitalism.

It means..What does it mean?

Telling stories.

Creating visual memories of how you have helped clients. Telling the story of starting the business and being honest about the mistakes you made “growing up.” It means giving your personal opinion on activities happening in the market.

I think I speak for everyone when I say… we want to hear from YOU not your industry.

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The Value of Thought Leadership for Your Business

Is thought leadership valuable for a small business? That is the question that is being asked around the blogosphere as of late. Is it important for an owner, sales director, or a sole proprietor to be involved and have their “head” into the concept of thought leadership?

Well. I would say yes but what is the definition of a thought leader?

Thought leader is a buzzword or article of jargon used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights (thinklets)

Now, I don’t have a clue what a “thinklet” is but there is the definition of thought leader from wikipedia. Does this strike you as something important for your business? Instead of thinking of a thought leader as a single individual why not view your entire company as a massive thought leader?

Using social media can help you develop and nurture your (company) thought leadership by sharing ideas, view points, and opinions on events in your industry. By developing trust you are developing thought leadership. Last time I checked… trust potentially can lead to a long term sale.

By constantly producing content that is genuine, up-to-date, thoughtful, and insightful you can develop a leadership base that will follow your lead.

What do you think happens when one of your readers runs into a pain point in their business that you talk about on a daily basis… lead generation at its best.

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