Posted in Social Media Expert, relationship, small business, social media

7 comments

27/01 2009

You Have 500+ On LinkedIN? So What?

We have been through the friend train on Myspace. We have been through the obsessive adding of people trying to get the biggest friend list on the block. I have spoke with numerous people who feel their social capital is built around how many people exist within their network. They take some type of pride in the fact they have over 4000 friends on Myspace or Plaxo.

You know what I have failed to ask them?

So What?

I was reading a blog post by Beth Kanter called My First Grade Teacher Friended Me on Facebook. This post title really has nothing to do with what I am talking about but she makes a great point in the post:

Do you remember the line – “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” It means roughly that to get things done you need to build up social capital, not just knowledge.

She goes on to say that the majority of social platforms are making it extremely easy to connect with people. There is so much beauty in the thought of connecting with hundreds of people and building your social capital. However this does not mean your social capital consists of 5000 people in which you have never spoken. The days of bulk networking, 500+ on LinkedIN, and massive friend lists are fast dissapearing.

Do you want to know why?

Because it is easy. Let it be know that there is nothing valuable in the social media world that is easy.

Another reason?

People are craving relationships. I was on your mailing list 3 years ago why would I want to be spammed on my social networks? They would rather not be a part of your mailing list.

Posted in Reputation Management, Social Media Community, Social Strategy, blogging, small business, social media marketing

2 comments

26/01 2009

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.

Posted in Marketing, small business, twitter

13 comments

25/01 2009

Main Point of Twitter? Re-Tweeting.

Shoot. What’s the point of Twitter? I have caught myself numerous times at meetings, seminars, and in casual conversations not being able to answer that question.

It goes something like this:

“Uh, well I use it for information gathering and well… some people use it to keep up to date with friends.. Yah, ya know… You might as well use it for 30 days and just figure out what it can do for you.”

Stupid answer. I know.

I have been debating this for awhile now and have even written about the concept of Twitter not having much of a brand identity (which I will write about later). I was reading a new post from David Armano of Logic+Emotion called Tapping Twitter’s Viral Nature and he has been talking about the “viral value” of re-tweeting. The main point of Twitter? I would lke to think so.

What are the two main marketing tools small business owners would love to have working on their side: Word-of-Mouth Marketing and Viral Marketing. When you are using Twitter the most valuable tool you have are the friends/followers who will re-tweet the information you are sharing.This is viral marketing at it’s finest.

Why is Re-Tweeting So Important?

1. Your followers are sharing the information you provided with the people following them. Your Twitter name gets shared, as well as your information. The link you provided or little nugget of information will be shared numerous times between (potentially) hundreds of people.

2. In my opinion, Re-Tweeting is the backbone of Twitter. It gives users the ability to combine information, share and converse on topics with hundreds of people at once.

Is there business value to Re-Tweeting and Twitter?

The business value of Twitter and re-tweeting could be a completely seperate post. The biz value of Twitter is all dependent on your goals when using social media as a marketing solution.

Do you feel Twitter and re-tweeting has business value? Is sharing content of your blog and other related information give you a return on investment for your time spent sharing information?

blogging, relationship, small business, social media, social media marketing

5 comments

24/01 2009

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

When you have conversations centered around the number of people reading the news on the Internet far outreaching the number of people reading the newspaper… how can you keep ignoring it?

We are a group of people that yearn to be known by the brands we love. We are emotionally connected to everything we buy whether it is a candle, pair of shoes, or a marketing service. We want to be heard and we hate being ignored.

When you are a small business owner.. You ARE your company. Your life revolves around the business you are trying to build and your personality shines through every service offering and product. Every small business owner should be using social media.

Sign up for Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN. Pick one site.
Spend 15-30 minutes a day updating your profile.
Measure the time spent versus potential leads
Just do it

Maybe it wont work. Maybe your clients don’t care about who you are or who you are representing. I would venture to say that concept is COMPLETELY false in the small business work.

Try it. Just try the tool. If you need help don’t hesitate to ask questions.

Or.

Spend another $500-$3000 on marketing mediums that are dying slowly.

Your choice. Your company.

blogging

3 comments

23/01 2009

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

Viral Marketing, Word-of-Mouth, social media, social media marketing

10 comments

22/01 2009

Calling All Pharma Companies: Docs Love Social Media

I have been spending quite a bit of time in the world of the doctor. Whether it has been actually getting medication or researching for a marketing report, I have been learning a lot about the medical world. I was perusing some content through Google Alerts and came across an article by George Koroneos at PharmExec. The article referenced a study release by Manhattan Research detailing the use of social media spiking about doctors by 60%.

60%!!!! Holy crap.

Apparently the users tend to be female, primary care doctors, and smart phone owners. It made me think about the concept of pharma-marketing and an overall direct marketing strategy to medical offices and doctors. According to the study, physicians that use social media prescribe an average of 24 more scrips each week.

We are talking 1,248 more scrips a year because of recommendations and the use of chat rooms and forum boards.

What does that tell us?

Viral marketing and word-of-mouth is working among primary care physicians. Now, this is interesting news for the pharma companies. The question is how can the utilize the information from the study by Manhattan Research? Answering that question will be for another blog post.

The importance of this study is that it shows a reasonable increase in the use of social media as a viral marketing tool. Doesn’t it change your perspective if you can see tangible numbers?

social media, social networking, twitter

2 comments

21/01 2009

Personalize Your Twitter Page with BubbleTweet!

I love this tool. I love it so much… I just had to share about it. First, check out the link to my new BUBBLETWEET PAGE. Pretty cool huh? I probably could have spent more time recording a nice message but Jay-Z, a pen, and a pad is good enough for me.
Can you think of a better way to personalize your Twitter page even more than a customized background? YOU should go check out BubbleTweet and get one for your Twitter page.

How should you use it?

Give a personalized greeting. You have about a minute to record whatever response you would want a user to hear when entering your Twitter page.

What do I suggest?

My first suggestion is to NOT do what I did. I would doubt that the majority of your users (both potential and current) would enjoy watching you dance to Rhianna and Jay-Z. You never know though.

Thank them for coming by your page. Tell them a quick snippet about yourself. This is a great way to be transparent and show some social media authenticity!

UMBREL. ELLA.. ELLA… ELLA

Smaller Indiana, social networking

2 comments

21/01 2009

The Beauty of Online to Offline Networking

Last night we had the Smaller Indiana 4,000 Member Party! What was once a twinkle in Pat Coyle and Doug Karr’s minds is now a reality. Over a year old, Smaller Indiana is boasting 2,000 – 3,000 hits a day and moving from a membership of 35 people in August of 2007 to 4,400 in January 2009.

The concept of Smaller Indiana is to make ideas findable in the State of Indiana. The idea was to build a community of business owners, employees, employers, artists, writers, musicians and every type of creative individual to stop Indiana’s brain drain and put Indiana on the MAP!

The party was excellent and it reminded me of the power of taking your online relationships to an offline environment. The whole concept of networking is to build relationships with individuals who could potentially be a client or a referral partner (better the referral partner).

I will always encourage clients and individuals attending our seminars to try and take your online relationships to an offline environment. We are all human. We all crave that face to face interaction. Online networking can only go so far but if you combine the two….

Magic.

And not the Disney World kind of magic but the “successful” kind of magic.

business, small business

6 comments

20/01 2009

Customer Service is Expected and Secondary

I had a conversation today with a company that we are pitching for marketing and design of their services. We were talking about leading a marketing strategy with the concept of great customer service.

Needless to say. I had a conflict.

Everyone expects great customer service. Customer service is a given in an economy where the Internet has revolutionized the communication model. We KNOW when someone has terrible customer service. You cannot afford to have bad customer service. Period. The concept of running a marketing campaign with WE HAVE GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE… is a mistake and it is boring.

People want to know how you are initially alleviating their pain. The simple fact that you “hire great customer service reps” or are “number one in customer service” does not sell someone on using your service.

We EXPECT great customer service.

My opinion? Great customer service is a secondary experience. It is a secondary buying factor (maybe even a third). It should be more of a business process… ingrained into your company.

Always remember..

When selling your service think about what pain you are alleviating… what pain are you solving? Not.. what does the customer want to know about ME.

Uncategorized

9 comments

19/01 2009

20 Reasons Why Your Company is Boring

(This was sparked from a Seth Godin post called You’re Boring. It was brilliant. I had to write about it.)

You know you a boring business if..

1. You have a tri-fold brochure with little business cards that you had out to everyone you see.

2. You designed the said tri-fold in Publisher because you wanted to save a few bucks

3. You are using a type-font called Arial, Times New Roman, or Courier for your logo.

4. You decide not to blog because “I just don’t have the time.”

5. You use your initials for your company name.

6. The only marketing you do is yellow pages because you have been doing it for a decade. Why change a good thing? (I just threw up on myself)

7. You attend networking events and take as many business cards as possible but never help anyone out.

9. All your collateral material looks different and there is nothing to pull it together.

10. You refuse to think outside the box and go out on a limb (marketing or anything else).

11. You get up after 9am.

12. If you photo-copy a flier and hand it out. Spend the extra money and get full color. Better yet, don’t use a flier. Doesn’t everyone?

13. You have an individual answering your phone that sounds like they just woke up from a nap or smoked a bowl.

14. YOU USE AN EMAIL THAT Ends with a phone or cable company: AOL, SBCGLOBAL, or the like.

15. You refuse to act on ideas until they are safe or your competitor does it. Ready, Fire, Aim.

16. You do not attend networking events because you have “better ways to spend my time.” You will be spending your time closing your business account at the bank.

17. You never have a new idea. You just copy others.

18. Social Media is scary to you. So you do the next best thing and ignore it.

19. You hard sell EVERYONE. Nobody cares. Put away your product or service. Can I get to know you first? I don’t give a crap if you can save me 20%.

20. You have goals. Wait. Well, you HAD goals but you didn’t write them down so… kind a moot point right?

The best things about having a boring business is that you can change. You can turn into the vibrant and growing company that will be the pride and joy of your life. Well, other than your children or significant other.