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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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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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

Image via Wikipedia

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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Part 2: Social Media Marketing for Small Business: The Circle of Life

Thanks to Lorraine Ball at Roundpeg for turning me on to Jay Ehret’s blog, the Marketing Spot.

I wanted to talk about some of the concepts Jay uses pertaining to the marketing circle of life. I wanted to relate his four pillars to social media marketing for small business.

Jay has a post entitled The Marketing Circle of Life. In the post Jay talks about the “four primary spots of the marketing circle of life: Branding, Experience, Conversation, and Promotion.”

Copyright Jay Ehret

According to Jay the first step of any marketing plan should be the Branding of your company. You cannot focus on any type of promotion until you have established your brand.

Experience is related to how your customers feels through every touchpoint your customer offers. To quote Jay from his post, “You cannot give people something to talk about unless they first have something to talk about. “ Makes sense to me!

Conversation is what happens after the customer experience. What is the message your customer is spreading? You need to figure it out!

“You should be using your Promotion to attract, not seduce customers.” Promotion should be used to advertise the top three choices. AND THEN we come full circle.

This is a simple and amazing model from Jay to help small business owners understand their marketing plan. I know… I know… How does social media marketing fit into this marketing model? I decided to take Jay’s model and readjust it to show visually how social media supports this model.

The four social media marketing support structures for the circle of life are productive planning, design/content, community involvement, and investment.

Productive Planning

When you are adding social media into the mix of brand building you need to make sure you are planning, setting goals, and mapping out time management.

Planning is essential to building your brand online. Before and after you develop your brand identity you should be constantly revamping your brand strategy. Social Media should be a part of that brand strategy.

Design/Content

Design: You should try and use the same user name, a personal picture, data (both business and personal), and your logo/colors. Users should experience you (and your company) the same way over many different platforms.

Content: Content is key if you are wanting to enhance the user experience to your social media marketing. This is most important if a blog is a part of your SMM. Create meaningful content and add personality into what you write. Authentic communication is key when using social media. Keywords and linking are both extremely important.

Community Involvement

This is where the time management aspect comes into play. It is extremely important that you become involved in the social media communities. The same concept applies to offline social business networking. If you don’t show up all the time… People are going to forget you. Believe me, it is even faster on the web. Get involved. Add some comments. Join in the conversation. Start building some name recognition.

You will also learn some stuff along the way.

Investment

First off, investment is different than involvement. By becoming involved in a social media community your are enterting into a conversation with potential clients or referrals to the potentials. Investment means you are constantly reinventing how to keep readers to your blog, spicen up your profile pages, creating new meaning content, building your brand, and re-designing your blog. It should be a combination of the three previous steps.

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Unique Brand Identity Has Failed In Social Media

My first passion: Social Media

My second passion: Branding

I love everything about the concept of branding in the marketplace. I am completely obsessed with how a brand grows over time and gains new followers/evangelists.

I have been disappointed with the lack of brand identity in the Web 2.0 community.

You can argue that the technical advantages of a social media platform has more to do with the brand than design and I would agree with you.  That does not negate the fact that good design is a MUST in the creation of a brand identity.

There is a huge difference between the brand identity of a product or  service and the brand. Social Media has done a great job in the overall brand development of certain services because of one thing: the community. In the Web 2.0 world a brand is built on the customer evangelists surrounding the community.

The Web 2.0 world has become a mundane assortment of bright colored, reflective, and odd word images sporting as successful brand identities.

What do you think? Is the Web 2.0 world ignoring good design? Am I beating around the bush? Is it even important?

Online and Offline Networking: Connect the Two

The past couple of posts at KyleLacy.com have been about the value of a relationship driven model of social networking. The process of connecting to individuals on and off the web is an extremely important idea that needs to be embraced.

Chris Brogan has always done an excellent job at giving tips on connecting to your readership, as well as, social media friends and acquaintances. He wrote recently on the Five Ways to Connect and Add Value to your networking practices. I thought I would add my own spin on connecting on and offline.

1. Combine Online and Offline Connections

In any business centered social networking group in an offline environment being a connector is a huge priority to most members. In Indianapolis we have Rainmakers, the Chamber of Commerce, and BNI (plus many more).

Personally, I am a member of the Rainmakers Marketing Group. We have hub meetings all over the state of Indiana and we are approaching 3000 members in the community. The group has recently launched a social media platform for the members called: Let’s Make It Rain. The community has allowed for members to network online and move the relationships to an offline meeting (whether lunch or coffee). This has increased the potential for strategic relationships because of the power of connecting 24/7 in an online environment.

I use the sites Let’s Make it Rain and Smaller Indiana to align myself with professionals I may not meet at a Rainmakers Marketing event. If you can use both networking mediums (web and events) to grow your network you have a better chance of connecting with the right people!

Combine the two models to get the most out of networking (whether business of personal).

2. If You Want To Be Interesting, Be Interested

This follows the second guideline on the Chris Brogan post, Connecting Other People. A fellow FriendFeeder, Mona N. (check out her blog), posted a feed that had this image.

This image speaks volumes when pertaining to the concept of the value of connection in social media and networking.

If you want to be interesting to other people you need to be conscious of what they are needing in return. If someone sends you business, write them a note or send them a gift card!

Always be thinking about the individuals who helped you get to where you are today. In the small business world and even in social media this is the most valuable concept you can and SHOULD remember.

Pay it forward. Always, pay it forward. Take interest in what your friends are posting. Take interest in what your clients are doing (other than your project.

Be Interesting. Take value in what others are offering. Connect with your online friends in an offline environment. Make the community a rich combination of community and influence.

Social Media has huge potential to help companies all over the world connect with each other. It is our place to help that dream become reality.

The Beauty of Viral and FriendFeed

I am a frequent follower of Mike Fruchter’s Shares on Google Reader via his FriendFeed stream. I am inaudated hourly with Mike’s recent blog favorites. He shared a blog post today called: There is a Down Side To Viral Marketing from the people at the Social Marketing Journal. The central concept of the post: you can’t control viral marketing. If you try to control it you fail. If you ignore it, you fail.

The Three Down Sides of Viral Marketing according to the Social Marketing Journal:

1. Viral Marketing is Hit and Miss

2. Viral Marketing Has No Control Measure

3. Viral Marketing Can Go Negative

After reading the post, I found myself thinking about the concept of viral marketing and conversations on FriendFeed. Usually the conversation wildfire is centered around politics (most recently a convo started by Alex Scoble around 9/11.. I think we are approaching 60 some comments?). There is a massive viral opportunity on FriendFeed for the Tech community to embrace. The best example I have of a viral campaign in the works is my post recently on FriendFeed regarding the new social media site, Yokway.

I had received an email from Stephan Osmont at Yokway inviting me to try out the service. I had no idea who he was or how he had my email. I decided to post to FriendFeed to ask if anyone had heard of Yokway. Here is what happened.

Louis Gray picked up the conversation (after making fun of me, mind you) and eventually Stephan from Yokway had joined the conversation. A simple question had turned into a firestorm of debate over social media services. With Stephan defending the Yokway…. way.

What would have happened if Stephan had not joined the conversation? I probably would have still checked out the site (thanks to Louis) but the rest of the group involved in the conversation would have been left with questions.

Whether we are talking about FriendFeed, Twitter, Rejaw, Strands, Plaxo, LinkedIn, or Facebook, (not to mention the 30000 other networks in existance) it is important to remember to be IN the conversation. If your demographic frequents any social network GET INVOLVED. This might mean hiring a part time employee or spending some extra time yourself. SUCK IT UP. This is not something to be ignored and as we approach the next couple of years, it will become an even stronger force.

Honestly, you don’t have to suck it up. Maybe I was a little harsh? You could keep on ignoring the conversations and drive your brand into the ground. Your choice.

I’ll buy you a shovel but don’t expect me to help you dig.

Socially Creative Corporate? When is the Right Time?

(major hat tip to my blogging mentor Douglas Karr for his post: When Should a Company Dive into Social Media?)

There is a massive argumentative and substantially humorous conversation circling the steel and glass of corporate culture.

1. When should we jump into social media? Loaded question.

2. Should the CEO have a blog? Should upper management have a blog? Maybe even the peons? Yes. Yes. Yes.

3. Should the blog be Internal or External or BOTH!? This is all dependent on your strategy.

4. How do we combine a work tool with a social tool? I would read up on Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation.

5. Should Sharepoint be used as a social media tool? HELL NO. Do you have a paper towel? I just threw up on myself.

6. How do we manage and protect proprietary information on social media platforms? You can’t. Unless you control the social media platform (refer to question 4).

There are, of course, hundreds of questions that follow the simple ones listed above. The biggest problem corporate America has with Social Media is not necessarily managing and building of the platform (up for debate if IT gets a hold of it) it is the beginning. How do we get into Social Media? What is the best way to enter the information flow? should it be a corporate strategy or a marketing strategy?

Doulgas Karr does a great job at answering this question in his post:

I advise that social media and blogging are not a marketing strategy, they’re a corporate strategy. It’s not simply putting yourself out on the market to jump on the latest band wagon and consumers will flock to you. Social media takes time, a strategy and the right resources (both tools and people).

As one of the leading GENIUSES behind Corporate Social Media, Douglas knows what he is talking about. Both Douglas and I have written extensively about being Authentic when writing a blog or getting involved in a social media community.

From Doug: You must involve all the leaders in your company – those who own the strategy of the corporation.

Strategy and Marketing should go hand-in-hand when debating whether to enter the social media world. This message is not only catered to corporations it should also be the focus for small businesses. Do not throw yourself into social media (whether blogging or networking) if you do not have a sound strategy. Without a social media plan/goals your productivity will plummet! You will be inundated with thousands of pieces of information and overwhelmed.

Strategy. Content. Participation. Authenticity.

Social media can be a fragile world, an extremely narrow path, proceed with care.

Most of all, HAVE FUN! This isn’t a corporate board meeting with Fiji water bottles. This is the information highway BABY! Take your time, hit it hard, and reap the benefits of open-communication!