What I Am Reading and Focusing On

We had a great event tonight at the Confluence Networking Corporate Blogging Panel. Thanks to everyone who made it out to the event. It was awesome!

I wanted to link some posts I have been concentrating on lately. I thought it would be a good digression from my daily rants!

1. 123SocialMedia: Social Media Politics – How Fast Things Change

I have been fascinated with the social media and marketing extravaganza known as the recent political campaigns. Barry Hurd talks about the transition from traditional media to new media by politicians.

2. Andy DeSoto: Social Media Basics Provide Necessary Spice

I love reading posts about combining social media with traditional marketing strategies. Andy is a genius at giving helpful hints on combining social media with the “real world.”

3. Chris Brogan: Communications in a Post Media World

Nobody can say it better than Chris.

Put up your first signal. Get your voice out there. What happens next? Do people respond? Because what comes next, I believe, is that you gather together the people who share your views. You reach out and connect with those who understand your goals, who share them, who breathe them in the same pulse.

4. Megan Glover: Blog Content is King

Megan at Compendium always has excellent posts around blogging, seo, and social media. This post is outlines the steps that Compendium Blogware has taken to measure the important of content and driving blog traffic. Excellent Post!

5. Lorraine Ball: If The Answer Is No, You Haven’t Asked the Right Question:

Lorraine is a mentor and a friend. I always enjoy reading her daily posts about small business marketing. The post is about Kenneth Cole refusing to let the answer of “NO” stop him from pursuing his dreams. What about you? What is the NO slowing you down right now?

Lost In Translation: Why Don’t Marketers Speak Human?

I was browsing through the world of Social Media tonight and I ran across a blog called Socialized by Alisa Leonard-Hasen. She had a simple post dated back in October called Like Humans Do. The post was a simple graphic:

It hit me. HIT ME HARD. A simple design and yet such a profound message. Why don’t marketers know how to speak Human?

As marketers shouldn’t that be what we strive for on a daily basis? How do we create a message that will resonate with our user base? How do we take an idea and turn it into a message that tugs the heart strings? How do we take a product/service/offering and make it “speak Human?”  Why is it so hard?

One last question:

Is the answer Social Media?

I would venture to say… ABSOLUTELY. Never in the history of marketing has a platform been developed where you can tap into a community. We are no longer products and services but people.

Why don’t businesses know how to speak human? They should. There is no better place than here. There is no better time than now.

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

They Will Remember You in the Bust Not the Boom

Seth Godin has a great post today talking about customer service in the boom and in the bust. It is a short little piece called a Friend In Need. I am going to go ahead and post it in the blog to give you the full experience:

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Networking with Authenticity or Blandly Giving a Presentation?

Gary Vaynerchuk has another brilliant video on his website called Giving a Presentation vs. Working the Room.

In this video Gary talks about brands using social media in terms of giving a presentation versus working the room. When you are giving a presentation you are speaking to a group of people. When you are working the room (as many networking junkies know) you are getting involved in the group, in the community.

There is another facet of working the room and giving a presentation in social media: authenticity.

Authenticity
When you are working a room at a networking event you have to put on an air of personality and authenticity in order to gain any foothold in an individuals mind. If you are not yourself and try to wear a facade…you will not be successful at networking with professionals.

In giving a presentation there is a small amount of personality involved but is not truly involved in the process of giving a presentation. You are relating information to a group. Push. Push. Push and no Pull.

It is truly important to work the room when you are using social media for your business. Work the room at 30 mins a day. Heck! Work at the room at an hour a day online. You get what you put in!

And Gary ends his post by saying something brilliant:

“Their cost is just their time. They just have to care enough to work the room.”

The cost of your social media endeavors is your time. Plain and simple. If you want to gain a foothold in the Web 2.0 community landscape… make the time.

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Taking Social Media Beyond the Comfort Zone

I was reading through The Next Web and came across a post called the Perfect Viral Marketing in 2010. I thought to myself, “I love viral marketing so why not check out the video that Boris listed underneath the post. The video is an absolutely brilliant video produced by Slate V on Youtube.

I doubt that marketing companies will ever take the concept of viral marketing to the point where they are paying actors to actually relate to a consumer group. The concept is absolutely hilarious.

There is something to learn from the video from a marketing perspective. When you are building and implementing a marketing strategy try to get into the heads of your target market. Don’t take it to the point where you are PERSONALLY entering into their lives.

The concept is worthy enough to note. Watch the video!

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When Worth-Your-While Isn’t Worth-The-While

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What goals do you have when it comes to your social media use?

I recently had a fellow blogger, Scot Duke of Mr Business Golf, post a comment in regards to a article I had written regarding trying hard to reach your goals and being persistent in social media. His comment to my post:

Good advice, but what if you have been knocked down more times than a bowling pin and gotten up more times than the Energizer Bunny and still are not generating a following large enough to make it worth the while? Changing gears and changing stages are the natural thing to do to keep it going, but what else can be done when all the mapping and consistency is not paying off? There are REAL people who would like to know.

It was interesting to me that Scot used “worth-the-while” to explain the return on investment he was expecting from social media.  Seth Godin responded to this comment by saying that sometime a plan B is the best route. Sometimes plan C, D, E, and F are necessary too to reach your goals in social media.

So what does worth-the-while mean in social media. What happens when everything you do and have done in the past just does not work? Should you reevaluate your goals? Change your tactics for the 200th time? Or just give up?

Well we all know that giving up is never the right option. The truth of the matter could be that your worth-the-while is missing the point and is not aligned with your goals. Scot made it a point to throw his goal out there:

My goal is like everyone else, to make what I do worth-while which I don’t think is a flaw in my goal but maybe the arena I am battling in.

Your strategy being worth-the-while could mean many things. Maybe it is more money in your pocket as a direct result from social media? Maybe it is an increase in search engine rankings? Maybe it is just to gain a little brand recognition in the process of having some fun.

If you find yourself struggling to figure out what is Worth-Your-While you are probably doing something wrong.

Re-adjust. Try again.  Make it a hobby instead of a chore. If it still doesn’t work… try something else. Add it into another strategy plan. If you are not having fun in the social media world you need to try something else.

Life and business life cycles are too short to be doing something you dislike.

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Small Businesses: Pay Attention to Social Media! You Don’t Have a Choice.

There has been a few discussions surrounding my post about the terrible customer service I had received from my local bank in Anderson, IN: Independent Federal Credit Union. You can read the original post at: An Example of Terrible Customer Service: IFCU.

Ontario Emperor over at Mroontemp (dot) com has a great post talking about the value of businesses living the way of their tag-line or mission statement. The post:

When the messaging doesn’t agree with the actions – Independent Federal Credit Union of Anderson, Indiana

After reading Ontario’s post, I started thinking about the value of businesses following the conversations and messaging being discussed about them on the Internet. What finally sent me over the edge to write a post is the fact that Ontario and myself have the top stops on Google searches about IFCU.

Let me restate because I don’t want this to be forgotten. We wrote two posts about bad customer service and have the top spots in the following google searches in TWO DAYS:

IFCU Anderson, IN, bad experience IFCU, experience at IFCU, and customer service IFCU.

Now, whether or not you agree with the fact that people are going to be searching online for the following terms isn’t the point. Many small businesses have not taken the necessary steps to start monitoring their content and name online.

I don’t care if you don’t agree or believe in Social Media as a promotion tool. You should be paying attention to the conversations being developed and whether or not you are part of that conversation. You cannot afford to ignore the Web 2.0 world anymore.

Independent Federal Credit Union has not made strides to monitor their presence online. If they were taking proactive steps, Ontario and myself would have comments on our blog.

Small Business Owners should learn from IFCU’s mistakes and take steps to add a social media strategy into their PR or Marketing plans.

You could choose to follow your current model and NOT monitor the Internet. Go ahead and ignore it completely. If that is the case, do me a favor and dust off that resume (or retire) because you are being ignorant.

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Social Media Failure: Get Up and Dust Off Your…

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On occasion I will write a post regarding something Seth Godin has written on his blog (this is an understatement). A couple of days ago Seth wrote a post entitled Failure As An Event. In the post he talks about some of the big failures in his life and the lessons he learned from them.

After reading the post, I started thinking about the concept of getting back up after you have been knocked down. The concept of never-ending strength in driving toward specific goals in life is extremely important to long term success. This is especially true for all of the “social media junkies” or “soon to be junkies” out there.

There will be times when you fail in the blogging arena. You may write a bad post. You may miss your personal or company deadline for a post. Heck, you may even forget to write for a couple of days! Or experience a huge decline in readership despite your best writing (or so you thought).

This also applies to taking the time and being persistent in social media. Everything you do online should be mapped out and organized. Do you want to post 10 times a week? Do it and try to do it consistently. When you miss a date…keep going forward.

It takes time to see any type of return in the social media world. Set out ambitious goals for yourself in regards to your social media use. Mix it in with some traditional marketing. Figure out how it fits in your overall strategy for world domination!

And if you fail…

Get up. Reevaluate. Try again.

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Blogging Beyond Your Subject Matter: Adding Personality

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Chuck Westbrook has a great post today on his blog called More than a Niche: Thoughts on Blogging Beyond Boundaries. He talks about the writers personality shining through in the evolution of the blog.

Many blogs begin as niche blogs covering a topic of interest or expertise, especially blogs started to help develop the author’s personal brand. Over time, however, the audience takes greater and greater interest in the author’s thoughts beyond the primary topic and, eventually, in the author’s personal life.

We all start blogs with a subject matter in mind. Some of us write about social media, traditional marketing, manufacturing, digital technology, or physical therapy. There are millions of subject matters out there!

Chuck talks about the problems some of us can have with “balancing writing about the main topic” with thoughts from your personal life.

I find it extremely important (in the business environment) to mold your personality to your business. People want to know there is a person behind the words! So how do you do this in a way where your readers are not put off and you still add some personality in your posts?

Chuck has some great points on his post and I wanted to add a couple of my own.

1. Switch It Up. For every 5 “industry posts” write a post about something that happened to you that day. Be conscious and try not to offend anyone. Don’t be an idiot.

2. Photos. Connect a personal photo gallery to your blog. Add pictures of your family, friends, co-workers.. Connect your Flickr account to your blog. I still have yet to do this but I think it is a great idea to add some personality to your blog.

3. Goodwill. No, I’m not talking about the store. Write a weekend post about some charity groups you have been helping. If you tend not to help charities you probably should hide in a corner. Champion the NFP’s you are representing! This will add some indepth personality to your profile without getting completely cheesy.

AND NEVER. EVER. EVER. EVER: ‘

Talk about relationships. Break-ups or Dates. (this is strictly for the business owners/employees in all of us). If you still have a personal blog on Xanga… go right ahead.

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