Living a Better and Unforgettable Story

This has been a long time coming and should have been written about two weeks ago. Give me a break.

I had the pleasure of attending the first ever StoryLine Conference hosted by Donald Miller the author of best seller Blue Like Jazz and a Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I love the writing of Mr. Miller and was thrilled to be able to spend a day or two with him in Portland, Oregon. Talk about a beautiful city!

I didn’t really know what to expect when I first decided to attend the conference. I know that Don has a ton of writing surrounding the idea of building a better story in your life and who wouldn’t want to attend a conference about bettering your life! I’m not talking about the “live your best life now” or a smiling Tony Robbins raining his praises and neural linguistic fueled smile down upon his followers. I’m talking about a bare bones build out of how to live your life and tell an unforgettable story.

We are all living in a script filled world… do you want the best script or one that is tossed?

The conference had the ups and downs of any event that is working out growing pains. There were times when I was completely involved in the conversation and other times where I didn’t have clue what to think.  The best part of the conference was where Don talked about inciting incidents and how they apply to your life.

In writing an inciting incident is the moment in a script that kicks the story into motion. It occurs after the setup and everything that follows should be a result of that incident. It’s where a story really begins. In movies, there is usually one inciting incident that changes the landscape of the storyline so drastically that you have to watch for the end result.The same idea applies to your life. However, you will have multiple inciting incidents (both good and bad) that will help build your story over the course of your life.

I can now pinpoint different “inciting incidents” that have formed my opinion of life.

Your story is the only thing that is actually yours in life. You have the ability to tell your story in any way you see it. Do you want the main character of your story to be healthy? Do you want them to be successful and live a fulfilled life? Or do you want to live a tragedy? There is beauty behind the concept of rewriting your story. We are all on this path towards an ending. What type of conflicts, successes, mountain and valleys are you going to take to reach the climax of your life?

Are you striving to write a better story?

Facebook at 500 Million: Why it Matters for Your Business

On July 21, Facebook announced a milestone, noting that they have now surpassed half a billion users. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO, stated in his blog post and in interviews that the mission of Facebook remains what it started out focused on: “to make the world a more open and connected place.”   For businesses and organizations everywhere, this is a:

“be aware, be very aware”

moment of significance because Facebook has carved out it’s own solar system within the Internet universe! It is no longer just a popular website.  It is now a destination all to itself!

This blog post will go over the significance of what this massive Facebook user base means and how businesses and organizations need to evaluate and have a plan for their Facebook presence.

With a user base that is second to only 2 nations in terms of overall population, Facebook has now become it’s own, unique destination.  You can do so many things within Facebook, some people may not need to go anywhere else!

Think of Facebook as the “sun” with a growing system of planets around it.  These planets are “tools” within Facebook and services provided within the Facebook platform; and the pull of Facebook is strong, as it is building, growing, and pulling more and more industries and markets into it’s unique system…all of which are finding ways to thrive (think ‘grow & expand’ business).

As noted, Facebook has become it’s own, nearly full-service web portal for people to use, it’s own “super power” within the Internet.  Increasingly, people will “search Facebook” instead of “search the web”.  People find friends, connect with friends, get news, find businesses, research businesses, program new apps, showcase new products, interact with customers, solicit input and feedback, share videos, photos, and more, all within Facebook.   This doesn’t discount the need for a great web presence outside of Facebook, but notes the need for a specific plan for within Facebook!

If you aren’t well represented here, you may be losing out on a significant brand awareness and customer building platform.  Here are some recent stats on Facebook use:

• Nielsen Online’s US June 2010 report showed that Facebook was 1st out of the top 10 web brands when it comes to time spent online.
• During the month of June, Facebook US users spent an average of four hours and 39 minutes on the site, far surpassing time spent on any other site!
• Globally, average Facebook user spends 6 hours on Facebook per month.  Who is second? MSN/WindowsLive/Bing at a mere 2 hrs., 41 minutes.

So what should a business do?

1. Set Your Page Apart

Note that Facebook’s free “Page” tools give you some functionality, but they give EVERYONE the same functionality, so the first agenda of the day is to set yourself apart!  Create a Landing Page rather than having new visitors to your Facebook Page come to your wall. If you enjoy FBML coding, you can use Static FBML. If programming is not your thing, then use a tool like TabSite that allows you to customize a Tab and have sub-tabs, all while using a simple WYSIWYG Content Editor.

Explore Media Video Company has a Custom TabSite with Flashthat scrolls thumbnails
across the Fan Page and then display information on hover over and then
displays the video upon clicking.  Clean, Crisp, Unique!

2.Engage Your Audience

There are at least three ways to do this, and usually a combination of two will work best:

• Use offers, giveaways or competitions to drive traffic to your page or group.
• Invest in targeted FB ads to recruit fans.
• Find and manually add existing fans/employees etc to build an initial audience.

None of these is a magic bullet but all can help build up your base!

3. Be Social!

Answer questions, respond to input, share a bit about your company and what makes you unique (i.e. let your hair down!).  Nothing works better than prompt, thoughtful responses!

See Mari Smith’s Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/MariSmith for an example of reaching out with timely responses and cheery helpfulness!

4. Reinforce your Brand

Customizing your Fan Page gives you the opportunity to extend your branding.  In the example above, Explore Media’s Fan Page includes their logo and looks strikingly similar to their website, see here www.Explore-Media.com.  This can give visitors a sense of comfort and recognition when they see your branding and they more readily will “Like” your page and engage with you.

5. Keep Them Coming Back!

Be creative with your Facebook page marketing so that it rewards visitors for increased interaction. Provide some entertainment or added value such as a “Facebook Only Coupon Code” and they’ll keep returning and promoting you across their network.

6. Connect Your Other Social Feeds

There is no shortage of Fan Page Apps that allow you to share your information right on your Fan Page.  With Slideshare’s App you can share your papers and presentations, and there’s no excuse not to share your Blog posts, your Twitter feed, and your YouTube Channel!  This is IMPORTANT because visitors may not go elsewhere to look you up, so give’em all you can while they are with you!  See the Eco-Friendly EverGreen RV Travel Trailer Fan Page below which use the TabSite App to showcase their product, News (via RSS), YouTube Videos, and more right within their Fan Page!

So, to close, remember:

• Facebook is not just a website, it is now a destination!
• To not adequately consider your business presence on Facebook would be a big mistake!
• Times are changing, are you?  Develop a Facebook presence, use the tools they give, but expand beyond that with Apps and customizations to give your presence some “bang”!

Hope to see you in the Facebook Solar System!

Since 2005, Mike has played an integral role in designing, deploying, and tracking robust web design and Internet Marketing strategies for over 200 clients, and is an accomplished Internet Marketing Consultant.  He holds a M.S. in Organizational Development & Leadership from Shippensburg University of PA, and a B.A. from Bethel College in Mishawaka, IN.  Mike is a Web Design and Internet Marketing Consultant at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., an innovative web design and internet marketing company based in the Midwest.  Digital Hill is the maker of Facebook TabSite, a leading Facebook Fan Page customization tool. Connect with Mike on Facebook at www.MikeGingerich.me.

The Secrets of a Successful Blog

I am going to be speaking at the Re/Max of Indiana Sales Rally on September 20th in Indianapolis. I am extremely excited to be talking about the secrets of using a blog as a Realtor. Check out the short clip about what I will be talking about!

The Value of a Social Media Conversion Funnel

Kristina Allen is the online marketing manager for @ioninteractive where she handles social media and PR initiatives. Kristina is also a graduate student currently working towards a master’s in communication with an emphasis on classical rhetoric. You can read her daily blog posts at The Post-Click Marketing blog, or connect with her @allenkristina on Twitter.

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Setting up a social media presence is easy. Engaging with targeted followers and fans is pretty easy too. Tying social media back to business objectives shouldn’t be hard. Connecting social media to ROI via social conversions…yikes!

A few weeks ago Jay Baer participated in a podcast with the Executive VP of ion interactive (my employer) on why a social conversion funnel is so important to a mature social media strategy.

Jay says we have to move past using the number of fans, followers, and subscribers as key metrics, and start deciding which user actions or set of actions leads to an actual conversion. Once these actions are defined, we can then use them as key metrics that are easily tied back to ROI.

For instance, if you’re an online marketer looking to generate leads by having a visitor fill out a form on your website, the hard conversion will still be having the form filled out. However, the social media conversion would be tracking how many of the people who fill out the form came in from one of your social channels.

An example might be:

It should be easy to see how tying these actions back to social media ROI is clearer than going the murky route of trying to tie the number of followers you have to ROI.

Jay says, “What I think a lot of people are referring to when they say ‘social conversion’ is converting people to fans or followers,” but “what’s the point in having a Facebook fan page if you don’t really have a plan for what to do with those people once they get there. So I would certainly hope that we can get to the point where social conversion is really a funnel, and not just a single action.”

Of course a sale isn’t the only type of conversion that matters, and in fact if the main objective for your social strategy is driving awareness or loyalty, tracking a hard conversion like a sale wouldn’t be of complete interest to you. In that case it would be good to look at the number of social engagements taking place in your universe (RTs, comments, social bookmarking), bounce rates and time on site.

It would also be a good idea to track which pages your visitors from social sites click through beyond the entry page. Do they look at your About page (probably), do they look at your services page?

Which pages are they looking at, and how can you optimize those pages for your social traffic to benefit your ultimate objective?

If awareness is your goal, what can you do to get RSS subscribers to “like” you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter and then share your content?

If loyalty is your goal, what can you do to get visitors that enter via a blog post to stay on your site? How can you get them to read multiple blog posts or subscribe to your RSS feed or newsletter?

Figure our which user action or set of actions determines your social media ROI, and then track those metrics. Having a social conversion funnel will help you watch your program grow and succeed, and will also show you which initiatives are failing, so you can move on to something else.

If you’re interested in learning more about social conversions, you can read the Jay Baer podcast episode transcript here, or download the episode from iTunes (search: ion interactive or “conversations on conversion”)

Which social conversion metrics are you currently tracking, or which ones do you plan to start measuring to improve your strategy?

4 Ways to Make Content Go Viral in Social Media

You’ve got you basics down when it comes to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even Foursquare. So, what’s next? The next big thing to look into is going viral with video. This may either intimidate you or excite you either way there a few things you need to know. Before you dismiss this media channel know  some facts. For one, 180 million people in the U.S. watch online video for an average of 13 hours each month. Those numbers alone speak volume. There is a large market for online videos. This past May, American users watched nearly 34 billion videos, and 4.8 percent of the total American Internet audience watched videos online with 144.1 million viewers watching videos on YouTube, according to comScore’s Video Metrix service.

1.Quality versus Quantity. The average video is 5 minutes or less so in order to engage without boring your audience keep it short. Also keep in mind the quality of your video. I’m not saying you have to be Martin Scorsese but keep your production value in mind. This means checking your lighting, sound levels and your background. If you filming a 5 minute blog make sure we can hear you, see you and that your background is appropriate.

2. The Power of a Web Series. If your only goal is to post a video blog then what are you waiting for? A video blog will reach to wider audience and may even attract new followers. However, don’t disregard the value of a web series. This does require you to get those creative wheels spinning and some writing. Once you’ve established who your target audience is and what you want to convey write it down, map it out and get to filming. This may seem like a lot of work but it will expand your brand and it may be a lot of fun.

3. It’s Not a Commercial. The value of a web series or video blog is in it’s content. It’s not meant to be commercial for you company or other services. If you hoping to educate or inform others do it in a creative nonabrasive way. Your goal should not be to sell something. Instead think of it as a way to engaging with your audience in a new, fun way.

4.Keep Your Audience Tuning In. What happens when your series ends? While in between shoots or blogs keep your audience engaged by filming off topic things. For instance, you could have a guest host or you could have news updates. This also allows you to market without using the same message over and over again. That doesn’t mean spam viewers into watching your video(s) instead let them find it the series organically. Try a more grassroots approach plus the people who then decide to tune it will most likely become loyal fans. It will take time to gather a suitable following but in the end it’s worth it.

Hopefully, this gets your mind ticking and your cameras rolling. What other ideas do you have when it comes to online videos? Is this something you hope to explore?

The Power of Social Media: Educate Embrace and Empower

There are things (thoughts, opinions, and ideas) that need to be talked about… hashed and rehashed over the course of months… to years. Implementing a successful social media strategy is one of those ideas. How do you implement something internally? How do you implement an idea… how do you push it to gain traction and succeed?

Educate. Embrace. and Empower.

Embracing: The first step in implementing a social media strategy (as part of your overall marketing 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.

5 Steps to Making Monetary Gains With Your Content

Today’s guest post is written by Corry Cummings. Corry is the owner of Content Customs, a content creation company that specializes in high quality web content writing services. He also runs a blog over at Content Customs, which is managed and written by one of the head writers of the company.

One of the most important considerations for web site owners and web developers is content. Nothing has the potential to offer more visibility and better returns on investment than content. Unlike other marketing techniques, content works when you are not. This means that it is one of the major ways to secure the new American dream – passive income. However, it is not as simple as choosing a web site template and throwing some content up. There are generally 5 steps to making monetary gains with your content.

1. Perform Some Keyword Research
One of the first things that you should do (arguably before you even pick a web site topic) is perform some simple keyword research. Try to find keywords that web site surfers typically search for yet have limited competition. This may be difficult at first. Keyword research can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks. Be patient and find the markets in which you can compete. Your ample research will pay off in the end.

2. Observe the Basics of Search Engine Optimization in Your Content
When you first start developing content to make money on a web site, you must simply follow the basics of search engine optimization. Extensive search engine optimization can greatly slow down your initial efforts. It is much better to initially get some well written content on your web site that makes it a valuable resource than to spend weeks getting each page finalized before publication. At first, simply remember that your keyword phrases should be at least 2% of your total word count for each page

3. Establish a Target Audience
Recognize the traffic that you want to get and make sure your content addresses that audience directly. If you are catering to professionals, your web site will need to have a professional, non-conversational tone and include plenty of facts and statistics. However, if you are targeting a much younger or casual audience, your content must be casual and conversational. All of the traffic in the world is worthless unless you create a service that your visitors want and consider to be a valuable addition to their lives.

4. Secure Affiliate Offers and Products
This should be a rather obvious step. If you have nothing to sell or promote, you cannot make any money. Choose products that you can promote indirectly through content. It is absolutely crucial that you choose affiliates that relate to your content. You cannot expect to secure memberships or make sales if you attempt to sell dog collars on a web site that promotes video games. If you can gear your content to identify a problem that your visitors may have, you can easily solve that problem with one of your promoted products.

5. Launch Your Ongoing Content Marketing Campaign
Once you have your web site developed to the point that it can attract visitors and sell services or products, it is time to begin advertising. You can choose to target social media, blogs and other related web sites. Your main consideration is to exchange or build logical and valuable links back to your original content. Yes, this means that you might need to write some content for free. However, this is one of the only sure fire ways to build visibility and ongoing traffic to your web site.

You want your content to work for you. If the content is written properly, then there is no reason why the content does not make you money for years. It is also important however, that you market your content and build links to each page. Even if you decide to use a writing service of some sort, you still need to spend a lot of time putting together a content plan. You should thoroughly plan out each and every piece of content. This will insure that your not wasting any time, and that each page will work for you.

The Power of Douglas Karr and DK New Media

Who is Douglas Karr? If you don’t know, you should.  Douglass Karr is a Social Media consultant, United States Veteran and the CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company. His company helps implement social media into large technology companies. Doug himself is a professional speaker who does on-site strategic consulting or private blog coaching. This doesn’t do him or his company justice. Let’s get to know this guy and what he does a little better. Doug has helped hundreds of companies realize the power of blogging through his Corportate Blogging book due out in August. He is also the founding father of the Marketing Technology Blog which features many informed authors. Douglas himself has written 1,513 posts with his latest being How to Generate A YouTube Thumbnail. To say the least… this guy knows a thing or two about social media, blogging and search engine optimization.

The way DK New Media serves its clients is through a process. (taken from DKNewMedia.com)

1.Analysis – of the clients in terms of their current resources, strategies and implementations.
2.Implementation – of the tools and processes necessary to measure success.
3.Optimization – of campaigns to continuously improve the results as opportunities arise.
4.Automation – development and integration of tools and processes to reduce resources.
5.Education – of client’s staff to assume control and execution of the strategies developed.

This process ensures the creation of a successful strategy plan. They fully embrace the ideal of being partners with their clients versus consultants, developers or subcontractors. DK New Media has helped companies from all over the world. It is a company known for being innovative, creative and experts in this field. The Marketing Technology Blog showcases these very attributes  by acknowledging other like minded experts and being as current as possible. This blog, in short, leaves nothing out. It provides all the technology and marketing advice you could ever want (or need). The blogs alone offer rich, relevant content from experts who have experience and know how…..not to mention these blogs are also interesting. However, don’t just take my word for it. Visit yourself and discover something  new and valuable. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know Douglas Karr…you can call him Doug…he and his company are one to read about.

And not to mention… he is the one who started me in the world of social media!

Diesel Installs Cameras in Dressing Rooms for Facebook Posting

(Thanks to Jay Baer for the heads up on this campaign)
Ever been stuck deciding whether or not to purchase that top or those jeans?

Diesel, quasi-fashion forward apparel company, may have solved this conundrum or freaked people out.

Recently Diesel decide that the best way to  reach its audience through Facebook is to install cameras in its dressing rooms. Don’t worry its not as bad as it sounds. Oh wait… maybe it is… I haven’t really decided yet.

Diesel boutiques in Spain have installed the Diesel Cam, where shoppers try on clothes and can then instantly take and upload photos to Facebook. After the upload… their friend can give feeback as to whether or not they should buy those items. I’m still grasping this concept (minus the thought of cameras in a dressing room) and trying to form an opinion. On one side I think its a great way for Diesel to promote their brand and connect with customers. On the other hand I think it is fairly odd that we have to connect ALL THE TIME… even from a dressing room. If we’re not checking-in then we’re tweeting or updating our status. Diesel has obviously hit the nail right on the head with the Diesel Cam.  Yet, it dares to raise the question of… will it work?

There are the obvious answers to this question…it supports interaction, it creates a relationship between the cunsomer and the brand, it raises brand awareness, social curation….yada yada. The real answer is unknown. Why will it work? Is it because we are afraid of making a decision without the imput of our friends? If we’re not current with our goingabouts we will lose followers? Have we created our identities through a Facebook profile?

Smartphones have made it possible to activate any social media channel at any time. Now with the example of the Diesel Cam we can even instantly gain friends opinions about our potential purchases. How many connections do you have? How many of these connections do you even know or care about? It’s one thing to value your friends opinions but how meaningful is the opionion of your Facebook friends? Will you buy a pair of jeans as long as someone comments that they look good?

Using Social Media Tools in Background Checking

During the ten years that Will Barada has served as Vice President of Barada Associates, he’s shown tireless dedication wearing every hat from chief operating officer to director of business development. Through these efforts he’s helped grow the family business into an industry leading background screening company. His accomplishments were culminated in 2008 when he negotiated for the purchase of full ownership of the business from the original founding partners.

Prior to joining the family business, Will served in Community Outreach for WFYI Indianapolis, the local PBS affiliate.

Will earned his BA in English Education from Indiana University and is a member of National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) and the Indianapolis chapter of the Society of Human resource Professionals (SHRM).

Increasingly employers are going to places like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to check out candidates.

If you’re spending a lot of money on a hire, you want every available piece of info. So social media seems a natural place to search, right? Be careful. You need practices and processes in place to protect yourself from retribution by the candidate if you chose not to hire them based on information you find on their sites. With routine background screens, the hiring manager is able to consider multiple factors based on criteria and job requirements not just skills and work ethic but also personality and so forth. Having access to a cross-section of data prevents a hiring manager from depending too much on one single piece of information. The problem from a CRA perspective with using data gained from social media sites is that there is no way to resolve a dispute if a candidate should claim misinformation.

For instance, if a court check comes back with a criminal activity and the candidate argues wrong identification, we can help facilitate the correction of that information at the court level and have the event removed from candidate’s record (if it was wrong). Drug testing results are verifiable because of the chain of custody required to complete the test. But if a candidate complains about not getting a job because of pictures on their Facebook page, there is no way to confirm or deny their identity (despite what some of you may have seen on TV). Facebook isn’t a verifiable source of information and that is where the problem lies.

Further, this presents a serious EEOC issue as Facebook postings don’t tell you anything about their ability to perform the job as described in the requisition.
Somewhere, somebody is going to make a no hire decision because of a picture of a candidate drinking beer on Facebook. Thus far there is no precedent yet but something will happen. Do you want to be the example case in the future when a company gets sued for this?
Protect yourself by putting a process in place and if you chose to use these tools, be aware of the risks and check with your attorney.