Posted in Week With Whuffie

2 comments

3/06 2009

Week With Whuffie: Embracing the Chaos

I have a problem. It is something that I have dealt with my entire life and no matter how many times I try to change… it never goes away. I am unorganized. I have papers everywhere and I try to keep my room clean but it never happens. Now, there is a method to my chaos and I would like to say it is being chaotically organized. I am creative! Give me a break! And I have a brilliant staff and partner at Brandswag to keep us running and me sane.

Tara Hunt, the author of the Whuffie Factor, talks about the importance of embracing the chaos when building out a social media plan and strategy:

“Embracing the chaose of community mean letting go of the need to plan everything and the fantasy that you can control any given situation. Instead of building up plans and structure, you should be building flexibility and environment awareness into campaigns. You need to be hyperaware. ” (pg 205)

Sometimes this is a hard thing for business owners to swallow.

“You mean… You want me to not plan, structure, and prioritize everything?”

It is important to remember that social media in and of itself is organized chaos. There are millions upon millions of people intermingling and communicating on a daily basis all over the world. Now, it is important to remember that strategy plays a huge role in the success of a social media plan but if you do not let the COMMUNITY drive the STRATEGY… you will be at a loss.

As marketers, business owners, advertising executives, and sales directors… we are not here to broadcast a message. We can no longer control the organized chaos of the consumer. The consumer now controls the message. If we do not let nature take its course… we will be left holding a balance sheet..

and mark my words… it will be red.

The Whuffie Factor (change-management-blog.com)
Web 2.0 Expo Session Videos Are Online! (steffanantonas.com)
Building Social Capital (agentgenius.com)
3. Growth of a healthy online community (thecustomercollective.com)

Posted in Public Relations, Viral Marketing, Week With Whuffie, social media, social media marketing

3 comments

2/06 2009

Week With Whuffie and Negative Feedback

Continuing our dive into the world of Whuffie we are going to talk about the concept of negative feedback.

Many companies fail to adopt a social media strategy for their business because of a fear of negative feedback. I have been preaching continuously about ridding yourself and your company of that fear… because it is going to happen anyway. It is a vital part to marketing in the social media realm: reputation management.

In the book it talks about how to combat negative feedback in order to increase your social capital (or whuffie):

“The way you respond to negative feedback is as important for building whuffie as your response to positive feedback. In face, an open and nonconfrontational response to negative feeback can be even more beneficial for building whuffie than multiple responses to positive feedback. In every critic there is an opportunity to create a strong advocate for your company.” (pg. 89)

The one sentence to take away from the above excerpt (and I am going to repeat it again) is this: In every critic there is an opportunity to create a strong advocate for your company.

It is extremely important to remember that more often than not a critic is just looking for a response. They are wanting to understand reason for a specific action that brought along their negativity. Respond in kind and remember to be conscious of thier motives.

Never take negative feedback personally. Learn from your mistakes and become a better and stronger company for the future.

When a Conversation can Save you Money (conversationagent.com)
Twitter – Top Twitter Tips and Strategy (azhttp.com)
Louis Gray: 10 Secrets For Creating Viral Content (via Google Reader) (thefuturebuzz.com)
The Conversation Index (conversationagent.com)
Why Businesses Fail in Social Media (kylelacy.com)

Posted in productivity, small business, social media

2 comments

2/06 2009

Uncovering Google Wave for Small Biz

There are so many technology oriented blogs in the world that it would be stupid of me to break down Google Wave on my own. The steps Google is taking with this new initiative is going to rock the world of marketing and social media. I thought I would give you a list of links to follow that do a great job of breaking down this new “thing” from Google.

Mashable : The Google Wave Guide

IT Blogwatch from Computerworld

Andy Wibbles : Google Wave Obliterates Everything

The Lifehacker Breakdown

SocialMediaToday: What the Internet’s Been Waiting For

I don’t know about you but I am pretty excited for this new tool. Bring it on!

Social Strategy, Week With Whuffie, small business, social networking

4 comments

1/06 2009

A Week With Whuffie and Parallel Economies

Yesterday I picked up The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt and needless to say… it is a pretty good read! I have been turning page after page over the past couple of hours and thought to myself… SELF you need to write some posts about the book.

I want to officially dedicate this week: WWW (Week With Whuffie) I am going to be writing a post every day this week outlining and disseminating different parts/quotes from the book.

Monday Topic: The Two Parallel Economies

In the book Tara talks about the concepts of the gift economy and the market economy:

“In the gift economy the more you give away, the more… you gain, which is completely opposite from currency in the market economy, where when you give away money, it’s pretty much gone. (pg. 5)”

The concept of the gift economy is rooted in the practices of social media. The more you give away (free content/advice) the more “social capital” you gain in return. She makes a valid point that the two economies are very valid in their own respective corners and they also work together.

“We are dealing with two parallel but valid economies here. Market capital now flows from having high social capital.” (pg. 6)

Of course this is not a new concept. Business has been built by networking and the relationships created between individuals. The idea that high social capital can make way for a currency exchange has been rooted in business since the inception of marketing.

The next couple of years are going to bring an onslaught of social marketing that is going to be focused primarily on gaining social capital. It has already begun.

Do you know your worth in social capital?

Building Social Capital (agentgenius.com)
Social Media Monday at The Simple Kitchen (webmetricsguru.com)
Web 2.0 Expo Session Videos Are Online! (steffanantonas.com)
When a Conversation can Save you Money (conversationagent.com)

Advertising, Corporate Strategy, Marketing, microblogging, social media, social media marketing, social networking, twitter

6 comments

1/06 2009

Twitter More Important than LinkedIN for Business

I love polling. Sometimes you take it for what it’s worth… and sometimes it blows you away. I stumbled across a post by ReadWriteWeb about a polling completed on LinkedIN asking their members What is the most important new platform for brands to master?
and the results?
librand1
Talk about an interesting development? Facebook even beat out the famous business networking site for social media brand development! What is even more interesting is that small business owners made up 76% of the votes (out of a total of 3,600).

What does this mean for marketing and social media?

Business owners are starting to take notice of the growing trend in the social media world and the ability for businesses to use networks to drive revenue. The influence of the social Internet age is growing exponentially.

My question to all the business owners and marketing directors is this… What are you going to do with this information? Is it time to take the dive and joining the Twitter or Facebook community?

Is your brand going to be hurt if you do not join the masses?

Poll: Business People Say Twitter More Important Than LinkedIn (readwriteweb.com)
Social Media Influencers and Ripple Marketing | Laurel Papworth … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)
Getting True Value Out of Social Media (kylelacy.com)
Charities can lure donors, raise awareness on social-network sites … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)

Social Media Community, social media, social media marketing, social networking, twitter

1 comment

30/05 2009

Is Your Boss Wet-Behind-The-Ears?

I have been really enjoying NPR recently while I am sitting in the office and they have a show on Saturday mornings that is all about the origin of words and phrases. On the show they talked about the phrase: Wet-Behind-the-Ears.

We all have some idea of what the phrase means.. we have probably been called that on numerous occasions. The original orignin from the Phrase Finder:

Origin: The ‘wetness’ is supposed to be from just being born. Ie. you still have the fluid from your mothers womb behind your ears.

The idea of the phrase is that if you are “wet-behind-the-ears”.. you are a beginner.. or a novice..

Many business owners are wet-behind-the-ears when it comes to social media and using it for their marketing purposes.. it is a given across the board. The question is this.. how do you go into a company and convince a business owner to use a tool that YOU KNOW will be huge in the future of marketing?

Show them the art of listening. Give them case studies of companies like Zappos, Comcast, and Dell. Talk to them about the value of collaboration across multiple levels of customer interaction.

It is about listening and then applying what you HEAR to your business model.

Social Media Influencers and Ripple Marketing | Laurel Papworth … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)
Why Businesses Fail in Social Media (kylelacy.com)
Free eBook – Finding Your Voice in a Crowded World: Personal Branding, Social Media and You (byronmiller.typepad.com)
Be Naked (chrisbrogan.com)

Social Media Community, Social Strategy, social media, social media marketing

2 comments

29/05 2009

The White House Might Understand Social Media

I was listening to NPR while driving home from work and the reporter was talking about the government and the new open information website that the Obama administration has launched called the Open Government Initiative. The basics of the site is an open protal of government information and a communication platform for citizens to give opinions on current policies.

Personally… I did not vote for Obama but I am giving him more and more credit throughout the first 100 days he has been in office. It is a brilliant move to elect a Chief Information Officer for the country. Now there is a huge difference between a move and an actual event happening. I would like to see the open portal start showing information that was not readily available to the public on a scale and has been unsurpassed in recent years.

The critics of the portal say that there is not enough information being stored on the site and information is key to the portal actually… working.

Needless to see.. I applaud the administration for taking the step forward into the world of content generation, information, and social communication in the online environment.

After all… Obama did win the Generation Y vote…and social media was a huge part of that process

Obama picks US information chief (news.bbc.co.uk)
Great news: Aneesh Chopra confirmed as US CTO (cnewmark.com)
President Obama Names Vivek Kundra Chief Information Officer (The White House) (techmeme.com)
Obama Releases Cybersecurity Report: ‘Much Work to Be Done’ (blogs.wsj.com)

Social Strategy, small business, social media, social media marketing, social networking

10 comments

28/05 2009

Why Businesses Fail in Social Media

Do you want to know the most important step in implementing a social media strategy for your business? The first step?

Listening and then responding.

What most businesses fail to realize (those who just jump in to social media without a plan) is that the social media sphere would rather be listened to before the communication begins.

The consumer is now in control of the conversation. We are in control of how we respond, interact, and praise/degrade every brand underneath the sun.

Businesses who jump into the conversation and broadcast a message but fail to interact are failing miserably at the art of marketing within social media. It is important to realize the potential of what David Armano calls micro-interactions where you the brand are responding only after you have listened to what your customers are communicating.

Remember to always listen before speaking… respond when necessary and add a little flavor into the mix. Get to know the people you are interacting with.. only then will you realize the full potential of viral growth through social media.

The Power of Colliding Channel Experiences (ducttapemarketing.com)
Guest Post on ZDNet’s Social Business blog (beingpeterkim.com)
Micro Interactions in PR (conversationagent.com)
Micro-Interactions, Marketing 2.0 / Paris (slideshare.net)

social media, social media marketing, social media mission, social networking

3 comments

27/05 2009

Getting True Value Out of Social Media

My company, Brandswag, had the pleasure of sponsoring an event that brought Jason Falls to town for a speaking engagement. I really enjoyed listening and meeting Jason for the first time and I will do it again in a heartbeat. Jason talked about the importance of offline networking being a worthy counterpart to social media. I couldn’t agree more.

If I were asked to divulged what I thought was the most worthwhile asset in social media… it would be the relationships forged in the offline environment. As a small business owner you will never understand the true potential of Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIN unless you make the effort to meet your connections offline as well as online.

Next time you are on your network… set up a meeting.

You will not regret it.

Social media won’t get you a job in a recession (billbennettnz.wordpress.com)
Redefining FriendFeed (socialmediatoday.com)
Ann Handley: Guest Post: Social Media and the Seven Marketing Blind Spots (mpdailyfix.com)
Gazing into the Twitterverse (briansolis.com)

Marketing, My Life, Social Media Community, small business, social media

5 comments

27/05 2009

What Zig Ziglar Can Teach You About Social Media

I follow Tom Ziglar (the esteemed son of Zig Ziglar) on Twitter almost relentlessly. He posts many one lined thoughts from his father and also some of his own musings that get me thinking on a daily basis. Last night he had a “tweet” with the simple line:

“Happiness is not where or when; it is here and now.” Zig Ziglar

It is amazing to me how simple quotes can unlock an amazing wealth of information from your head… forcing you to think past the daily routine… forcing you to realize the potential of your activities.

Of course… being a marketer obsessed with social media… I had to apply Zig’s thoughts with what we talk about on a daily basis.

When we are debating the use of social media in a business environment whether it is product marketing or reputation management… it is important to remember the thought: it is here and now not where or when.

The world of online communication is creating a chasm where you have to understand the concept of NOW marketing. People are talking about you NOW. Your customers are communicating with your company.. NOW.. There is no when or where.

Only when you shift your paradigm to the here and the now…

Can you understand the true potential of using social media for your business.