Notoriety to Aspiration: 5 of 10 Social Media Commandments

As a collective group we have been working through the 10 Commandments of Emotional Branding in Marc Gobe’s book, Emotional Branding. We have been applying the ten concepts to social media marketing and how you should be applying them to your social business strategy.

The fifth commandment is the concept moving from notoriety to aspiration.

From Marc Gobe:

“Being known does not mean that you are also loved! Notoriety is what gets you known. But if you want to be desired, you must convey something that is in keeping with the customer’s aspirations. (pg. xxx, Emotional Branding)”

This is my favorite commandment in the entire list because it one of the more important principles in social media: QUALITY over QUANTITY. Anyone can spend twelve hours a day adding everyone and their mother to their social profile. The question is, what makes them different from everyone else spending an ungodly amount of time online? Nothing. It takes a little personality to push you over the edge. Scott Stratten at Un-Marketing does this the best way possible on Twitter. Add him.

There is a split down the middle for small business owners. Many of us want to create relationships online but there is no guarantee for return on investment. This is especially important if you are using social media as a customer relationship and marketing tool. The truth of the matter is this…

It takes time and resources to truly utilize social media. It should be implemented into your marketing budget as a piece of the pie. And remember…

You can add as many people as you want but don’t be upset when you have thousands of followers and no revenue.

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The Wiener Takes Blogging Seriously?

I love talking about advertising and this time Oscar Meyer has done something pretty rediculous or completely brilliant? I can’t decide yet. I was put on by this advertisement by a fellow Brandswag employee, Colin Clark. It was funny at first. I did laugh and then I thought to myself.. how ironic…

The wiener took out a print ad in major newspapers and talked about an online communication medium. HAHA.

I am not quite sure whether or not to take this ad seriously. It seems as if Oscar Meyer would rather play off of a trend then an actual buying pattern. So the question is… as bloggers… as social media advocates and users… should we laugh Oscar Meyer off the shelves or are they going to be laughing to the bank?

Why Is It Important to Listen?

There have been many conversations surrounding the value of social media. How do we measure a return on investment using these tools? How do we guarantee that the tools are going to work in our favor?

There are a couple of things you should be using social media for in the near future. That will give you an intangible benefit to your company. The first thing is customer service. We will talk about the concept of using social media as a customer service tool in the future. I wanted to focus on the second reason which is reputation management.

Are you listening to what people are saying about you online? I can give you two bad examples and one good example of companies who are listening to what clients and potential clients are discussing.

The first bad example is that of Independent Federal Credit Union in Anderson, IN. I had a bad customer service experience at one of their branches in Anderson. You can read the entire post at An Example Of Terrible Customer Service: IFCU. The problem isn’t necessarily that they had bad customer service. The problem is that they had NO IDEA I had written a blog post about my experience.

When you are not listening to what people are saying about you… how can you change opinions?

The second example is from KSM Business Technology and Digitech in Indianapolis. You can read about the entire experience at the post about KSM Business Technologies Being Worst than Godaddy at customer service. The sad thing about this post is that they are a business technology and hosting company. They had no idea I had a bad experience with a couple of their reps and now it is blasted out over the masses on the Internet. They still have no idea.

This has nothing to do with the size of the company (the offending or the offended). This has everything to do with caring about the customer experience.

You want to know… You NEED to know… You SHOULD know…

If you can think of a reason why you should not be listening to clients and potential clients on the Internet. Please let me know.

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Tired of People Ignoring Relationships

I am tired of people ignoring relationships. I am tired of being a part of conversations about the “lack-of-time” for tools that build community value and relationships. 

Have we still not dropped over the edge? When you are reading studies that tout figures like:

• 36% of Internet users post opinions about products and brands online
• 84% of buyers look for opinions on products and brands online

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10 Awesome Blog Posts You Should Check Out

It is pretty simple. Just as the title states. Here are ten blog posts you should be reading. Cross my heart and hope to die.

I am loving the following posts and you will too.

1. Decide Your Perfect Customer by Ribeezie

2. Obama and His Secretive New Blackberry by Zee from Next Web

3. Job Hunting with Social Media by Barry Hurd of 123 Social Media

4. The Five Pillars of Success by Seth Godin

5. Doing What You Love Can Lead to Much More than Happiness by Gary Vaynerchuk

6. Pepsi Set to Ambush Obama by Pat Coyle at Sports Marketing 2.0

7. College Admission Offices Lead the Way with Social Media by Brad J Ward

8. Cloud Computing in 2009: A Trend in Hosting by David Castor of Alerding Castor

9. Scribd Your Own Script by Social Butterfly

10. American Apparel Getting it Right by Socialized

Thanks To You and Yours: 10 Bloggers I Like

I wanted to take a brief moment to thank everyone who has read and posted comments on this blog for the past 6-12 months. Seriously..

I love writing. I love blogging. I love social media. But the biggest thing is the people who contribute to this great community. Here is a shout-out to some commenter and twitters I enjoy.

Thanks to everyone.

10 People to Follow and Thank

1. Jeff Bennett. Jeff Bennett.org Jeff Bennett is an entrepreneur, husband, father, coach, teacher and enthusiast for many things. As an entrepreneur Jeff is the President and COO of NameMedia, Inc., a venture backed online media and commerce company based in Massachusetts that is developing media properties for Social Media, Direct Search and Commerce.

Latest Post: First Pictures From Scene of US Airways Crash From Twitter

2. Jeb Banner: SmallBox Web: design, build, promote and enhance Websites. Because we know how the Web works, we can make the Web work for you.

Latest Post: Having A Meaningful Online Conversation

3. Robby Slaughter: Turning Left Against Traffic: has had a lifelong passion for information technology, spanning some twenty years of education, teaching, full-time employment and consulting. His current areas of focus are usability, software development, process and methodology, technical communication, and data architecture.

Latest Post: The Expert Detector

4. Tom Williams: Innogage Blog: broke from traditional passive marketing knowing that Social Media would force companies and colleges to “Innovatively Engage” (aka InnoGage) their customers & students in the marketing process.

Latest Post: Blogs: Cornerstone of Social Media – Video Interview

5. Jeremy Williams: TourismTech Corner: will shine a light on technology and how it affects the world of tourism. The primary objective is to show how using interactive social media can help your website become more service-oriented and more valuable to your customers.

Latest Post: Social Media and ROI

6. Louisa Nardini: SupaNova Training: her passion is showing people how to use the Internet to build their own successful online business or to increase the profitability of their existing business.

Latest Post: Incredible Launch Offer from PepBlogger

7. Zac Martin: Pigs Don’t Fly : is an 19 year old university student, currently in his third year of a Marketing degree. He is a freelance social media marketing consultant and the Marketing Officer for the Student Union at Monash University.

Latest Post: Social Media Marketing Madness

8. Erin McMahon: Live United Y’All : The staff at Metro United Way have created this blog because we want to foster a vital, caring online community just as we build our real-life community. We want to encourage conversation and interaction, share our work and offer our community more avenues to give, advocate and volunteer to advance the common good.

Latest Post: Pop Quiz

9. Chris Hebert: Web Dazzling: Chris has been a long time knowledge seeker.  She learned to read at an early age, and continues to read “How To” books on a daily basis.

Latest Post: Microsoft Windows 7 Beta Info

10. Andrea Hill: Digital Likeness: s passionate about optimizing digital experiences. She also keeps a running blog at www.afhill.com/gothedistance.

Latest Post: The Paradox of Choice Book Review

There are many, many more people who have helped make this blog a reality. Thank you all. I look forward to another year of excellent social media marketing ADVICE!

Should We Even Consider ROI in Social Media?

(hat tip to 123 Social Media for the posed question)

There is endless talk online and off-line of increased traffic to websites, comments galore, users joining your community, and community development. The question posed through all of this discussion is the concept of measuring ROI in Social Media.

Having an arm of our company, Brandswag, be a social media strategy and marketing division it is constantly on our minds. How do you take those GREAT campaigns and measure ROI? It is pretty simple. The majority of social media marketing is brand development driven. Of course, you have the companies like Compendium Blogware that measures organic search and leads through their proprietary software which caters to a form of ROI.

When thinking of ROI in social media it is all dependent on your campaign. If you are using Facebook for donations, writing a blog as a small business, or using LinkedIN for networking purposes it is important to figure out goals before hand.

If you want to build brand name recognition in a specific geographic location you are looking at a brand development focus. It is extremely intangible. Success is measured over a length of time and that is hard to pinpoint.

Social Media is amazing for brand development. Hands down one of the best tools you could use to further your name in a community.

Use the tool for what it’s worth. It is extremely possible to start mixing social media marketing into your traditional marketing campaigns and further the power of your marketing arm.

The success comes in the little things…that leads to the HUGE things.

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10 Tips for a Great Video Blog

I am a regular contributor to Smaller Indiana. FYI (I am Obsessed with it too). I was reading through some of the blog posts and found a great one by Ellen Dunnigan called Really? That’s Your Company Video?. Ellen owns a public speaking and support company call Accent on Business and her tips are brilliant. I added three on the end to make 10.

Ellen’s 7 Tips to a Great Video

1. “Shakey Cam” may be good for personal videos to friends and family, especially if you and they are young(ish). Not so much for business. Seriously, think about that. Do you want your business partners, clients, colleagues to see you that way? Do you want them to see how little you prepared for your oh-so-important message to them? Put some preparation into it. And if your paid professional videographer insists that you try “shakey cam” (or a digital camera on top of your computer screen, or loud noise in the background, or poor lighting) because it’s all the rage…find a new professional who really has your best interests in mind.
2. Position some lights on your face. Around you. Above you. Not in sight of the camera, but on you or your product. We want to see you if you’re talking to us.
3. Smile. Having a deadpan look doesn’t allow your personality to come through. Remember, in your video blog you are selling you.
4. Look at us. I mean, look into the camera. Pretend your audience is right there in the camera. Don’t look at your assistant who is off camera and to the left. The eyes are the window to the soul. When you look at me, I’m more likely to believe you. Better said, looking to the left or right or down is almost always seen as disingenuous. If you’re telling your staff that you appreciate them and they’re the best, but you won’t look at them (through the camera), they won’t believe you – nor will your customers.
5. Keep your head straight. Stand up straight. Sit up straight. Casual, yes. Sloppy or stiff, no. Use gestures to support your message.
6. Be professional. Don’t dance around, wag your index finger at the camera, make faces, or use poor grammar. And you’re not a nighttime talk show host, so don’t move into the camera like you’re seriously invading your viewer’s space.
7. And, one more item, be mindful of what’s behind and around you. Find a contrasting (and fairly blank) wall; well-painted or stained wood might be nice. Not too much background please, but a small picture or company name might be okay. Make sure you’re not in front of broken or crooked miniblinds, or a white wall (you’ll look washed out), or that there’s a flower pot or something else just above your head. Try not to have others who are not on a microphone talk or yell in the background.

Kyle’s 3 Add On Tips

1. Write Down a brief synopsis on what you want to talk about. I received this advice from Erik Deckers and have used it. It will keep you from stuttering and saying “um.”

2. Use an HD camera if you are going to start doing a video blog or company video. I use the Flip MINO HD. This will keep your videos looking crisp. I also recommend using Vimeo as a video upload site. You get some AWESOME quality.

3. Always write something underneath your video blog post. Gary Vaynerchuk does this and you should too. This helps if people cannot upload your video (whether from a mobile phone or a terrible blog reader). They get a synopsis of what the video is about.

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What I am Reading This Sunday: January 4 2009

There are times when I would rather not write a post and it is usually on Sunday. So I thought I would list some blogs I have been skimming today and I have found really useful.

1. Ribeezie: Social Media Tirage

2. Holly Hoffman: Do Your Job Like It’s Your Business

3.Erik Deckers: : IRS Demands Their Five Cents, Reluctant to Pay Four Cent Refund

4. Douglas Karr: Mobile Marketing Strategies Launching in 2009

5. Rouge Puppet: Old School.. Does Not Rule

6. Jacob Leffer: Eight and a Half Minute Audience Engagement

20 Things We Have Learned from Blogging

Ben Barden over at the Top Ten Blog Tips has a genius post about the 10 Things I’ve Learned About Blogging.First off, Ben has a great blog where he posts the top ten reasons for anything pretaining to social media. I wanted to take the 10 things he has learned from actually blogging and add another 10 from my personal list. I have also given my thoughts to some of his top ten. So let’s get this partayyyyy started.

Ben’s Top 10 Things He Has Learned from Blogging

1. You Need to Choose a Topic You Know and Like. (This is number one)

2. You need to enjoy Writing. (You need to enjoy thought promotion and learning. I hated writing before I started blogging. Just believe in what you are writing about)

3. You don’t have to reply to every comment individually. (You should try and comment as much as you can but I agree with not having to do it ALWAYS)

4. You shouldn’t rely too heavily on one traffic source.

5. You shouldn’t worry about a high bounce rate.

6. You don’t usually get links by asking for them.

7. You don’t launch a forum when you have very few readers.(I don’t know why you would even think about a forum haha. )

8. Your posts need to be different

9. You can waste a lot of time on social networking sites.

10. You’ll meet some great people. (Amen)

Great tips and I suggest you go and read, subscribe, and learn from Ben.

My Top 10 Things I Have Learned from Blogging

1. Always Try and email the people who comment on your posts.

2. Do more than the other guy. Hustle. Hustle Hustle
If you need to wake up 30 mins earlier so that you can finish a blog post. Do it. If you need to stay 30 mins after work to finish up a project because you wrote a blog during the day. Do it. If you can’t handle the concept of spending some time on social media. Don’t do it.

3. You should always retweet and share posts you loved!

4. Use Google Alerts for content ideas. It has worked for me numerous times.

5. Use Niche-Geographic based social networks. I use Smaller Indiana. This helps with local. community support.

6. Get out into the community and network offline. It will help build further support

7. You should always put your blog URL on your business card and email signature.

8. Always measure the time you are spending online. If the return is not there… switch up your strategy.

I keep a paper where I measure the time I have spent online. I take that and relate it to sales growth.

9. Do not focus too intently on content. Get the thing written and change it later.

10. Video Blogs spice up a traditional blog. Try one ever so often.