Marjorie Clayman’s Writing Portfolio

Professional writing profile of Marjorie Clayman

Archives for September 2010

Twitter Chats are the Key to Twitter Success

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About 5 months ago, maybe less, I came very close to giving up on Twitter entirely. I would check in enough, that’s for sure, but I couldn’t seem to get over 75 followers (I appreciated all of them, I promise you). The people I was following tended not to respond to my tweets very much. Sometimes I would see a retweet and my heart would race, and I would see it was a spam bot offering me an iPad because I written a blog post about the new technology available. I couldn’t understand what was wrong with what I was doing, especially when I noticed that pretty conversational tweets from other people were retweeted all over the place while my VERY educational tweets (ha ha ha) were thudding.

Serendipity

A lot of my friends think serendipity plays a role in the world of Social Media. Well, in this particular case, it’s hard to argue with that. One Sunday night, I was posting along when someone mentioned something called #blogchat. “Hmm, I blog,” I thought to myself. I decided to check out that little hash tag. It was the best decision of my Twitter life. The person whom I had followed in actually left after a short while, but I stayed for a full 2 hours.

The #blogchat high

That night, when I went to bed, I had gained about 30 more followers, which was nice. But what I had really gained was an understanding of how Twitter at large works. In fact, if you had talked to me on the phone that night, I probably would have sounded like a Twitter brand evangelist. Some exclamations I might have made include:

Twitter is about sharing information with like-minded people!

Twitter is about conversing like you would at a coffee shop where you know everyone!

Twitter has some really really really smart people using it!

Twitter has people who are even smarter than me!! (well, okay, I was really tired, so that one might have slipped in)

That first night of #blogchat, I got pushed up to close to 100 followers, but here’s the thing about that. I realized then that the number of followers you have really doesn’t matter. Several of the new followers I had gotten were spam-bots who like to pick on people who are really active during chats. What I was happy about was that I had been able to participate in a 90mph conversation about things I’m passionate about. Much like any addict, I needed more.

Be a Chatty Cathy

One of the best ways to get a blank look from people who are really new to Twitter or who don’t use Twitter is to say, “Oh, I’m doing blah blah Twitter chat tonight. This has become a common line from me, and it’s not just because I enjoy confusing people. Here is my current Twitter chat schedule:

Sunday at 9PM EST: #blogchat

Monday at 8PM EST: #MMChat (Marketer Monday) – just started attending this one

Tuesday at 8PM EST: #TechChat, launched by MarketingProfs (to say it’s about “tech” is underselling)

Tuesday at 9PM EST: #Custserv (to say it’s about customer service is underselling)

Wednesday at 8PM EST: #IMCChat (Integrated Marketing & Communications Chat)

Thursday at 8PM EST: #B2BChat – just started popping in to that one as well

Now, why on earth would I spend prime time television time chatting on Twitter, you might well ask. The same reasons I’m recommending you do the same thing. Here are the top ten reasons.

1. Engage with people who feel the same way

2. You get to meet new people

3. You get to ask questions knowing you’ll get really good answers

4. You get to help people who come to the chats to ask questions

5. You get to build friendships, just like you do at a book club

6. You tend to be bombarded with links to blogs & articles rich with information

7. You learn something new

8. Topics are brought to your attention you had never even thought of

9. You are able to interface with some of the leading minds on Twitter

10. And yes, if you do things right, it can help you build your Twitter following

This is not a golden egg

If you start doing chats solely to gain more followers, you will likely be disappointed, you will not find the experience enriching, and you will have missed the primary point here. One of the reasons that I follow people and people follow me after chats is that we offer each other really useful information (well, that’s why I follow people) and we seem to be on the same page. If you go to a chat and sound off ads for you or your company, you’ll be ignored. If you put in the hashtag for the chat once and then throw your hands up in the air, it won’t work either.

Chatting means just that. It means engaging with people, commenting on peoples’ tweets, offering a courteous “I disagree” when you, well, disagree, etc. If you get some of the folks you engage with to follow you, and you follow them back, that’s awesome, but after you do a few chats, you understand that content means far more than followers in this world.

Join me at one of the chats I go to and let me walk you through it, or comment below if you have any questions, exclamations, or anything else.

1st Image by Andrew C. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/andreyutzu

2nd Image by Richard Dudley. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/bluegum

3rd Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/barunpatro

Why you should jump on the Paper.li bandwagon

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A few weeks ago (or was it days? I’ve lost all track of time) I started seeing a lot of BFF updates. “That’s nice,” I thought. I can’t really tell who I tweet with, so having an automated application which probably is sucking all of my info from my Twitter account out into a sales list or something is awesome. But I digress.

Around the same time, I started seeing a lot of these updates about Twitter newspapers. And then I started seeing these paper.li URLs popping up everywhere.

Now, I like to think that I’m pretty good about staying up on the new developments going on in my little sphere of the universe. I mean, staying up on Facebook’s changes of heart is a full time job just on its own, but I do okay with it. Even so, I have been so swamped that I just did not have time to check out this paper.li thing. Until tonight. So, if you are like me and have been itching to figure the whole thing out, let me save you some time. I’ll even give you some analysis!

What is it?

I thought that the whole concept was going to be pretty complicated because when I looked at some of the newspapers, it looked confusing to me. I couldn’t figure out what tied the stories together in some of them. I looked at the “#custserv daily newspaper” and saw that there were various contributors, but I had no idea how that was all worked out.

Once you sign in to paper.li it all becomes pretty clear – and pretty self-explanatory (in a way). You type in either a username, a tag, or a Twitter list, and Paper.li grabs contributions from whatever you set up. So, the #custserv newspaper probably pulls everything with that tag every day. Guy Kawasaki has a Holy Kaw paper that gathers a lot of the links he shares into one central location.

So What?

I know. I kind of thought the same thing at first. Great, so, anyone who tags “worthreading” will appear in the daily “paper.” Well, actually, the ramifications of paper.li could have huge implications for marketing if used correctly.

– Imagine creating a daily “newspaper” based on #yourcompany or #yourproduct. Every day you could print out your daily paper.li newspaper and show your client, your C-level executive, whomever, what the daily spin is on Twitter regarding your company. The next day, you can see if you’ve altered the conversation. Same thing for competitors.

– Let’s say your company manufacturers shoes. You create a paper that is based around all of the links you collect every day about shoes and shoe-related topics. Every day you tweet out useful information. You can also link to your newspaper from a blog or from Facebook or LinkedIn, like this –> http://paper.li/bearbull/blogroll

– If you’re a marketer, you could create a newspaper for #SM or #marketing and have a newspaper, literally, every day with up-to-date links about what people are talking about.

Really, this could become quite a powerful tool in your business or marketing toolbox.

So, check out paper.li. Let this application suck out the information from your Twitter account. At least you can do something truly useful with it. Not that there is anything wrong with the BFF thing. It’s just…well…

I’ve said my piece.

Destroy to Preserve or Watch it Crumble?

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One of the things that I found shocking when I was pursuing my Masters in Library Science was the number of truly passionate debates that would break out in my classes. Some of them were kind of funny. For example, things got a little heated when we talked about whether libraries should offer gift shops in the ground floor. If a book is about how to care for animals, how can you make sure both a “cat person” AND a “dog person” would find it? Since the classification system didn’t include codes for every vegetable, how could you tell someone that a book coded as “corn” was actually about carrots?

Some debates were more serious though. One that I remember being particularly interested in was an argument about the preservation of antiquated documents. You see, the process then (I don’t know if the technology has changed) was to scan the books into a digital format. The process, however, often sped up the obliteration of the physical document. What was more important? Having the actual manuscript, crumbling though it may be, or preserving the content via some modern, impersonal digital medium?

I was on the side of keeping the actual manuscript. Many had been hand-illustrated. The covers had been hand-created. The codex had been sewn together by someone sitting in a dark and empty room of some monastery somewhere. Today, publishers create books so that they can withstand the rigor of 1-2 readings. These manuscripts have far outlived today’s life expectancy. Why not let them live a little longer?

As a librarian, my view was somewhat inappropriate. My focus was supposed to be on the content, not on the sentiment of nostalgia.

Now, in my new professional life, I am faced with a somewhat similar debate. We are using Social Media, and depending on how you use it, you can cast a wide net or capture a few quality friends. Sometimes you can do both at the same time. You can stay in touch with people you went to elementary school with. You can reconnect with your first crush and your first arch-enemy in one day. I am torn about all of this.

Of course, back in Library School, I understood the value of preserving the content. I wasn’t against it. It was just a choice of priorities. I’m not against Social Media. I certainly see the value of it. But are we meant to stay in touch with every person in the world? Are we meant to do business with people we may never meet in person? With someone who may never even see our handwriting? Aren’t some relationships meant to crumble? Aren’t some meant to grow tangibly through handshakes and meals?

Is it better to have access to thousands of documents digitally knowing that the physical document was destroyed to create that experience? Is it better to deal with people digitally because some relationship is better than the few you might have in “real life”? Is it better to do business with hundreds of people at the expense of shaking hands with a few?

Can we just be ourselves?

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One of the saddest things in my life is that I lost both of my grandmothers within a few years of each other when I was very very young. Both of my grandmothers were taken by diseases that are now prime targets for fundraising and cures. My mother’s mother struggled badly with asthma and was taken by a sudden and severe asthma attack. My father’s mother struggled with MS for more than 40 years and passed shortly after a surgery that was supposed to help improve the quality of her life.

I think of my grandmothers a lot. I was only 6 when my first grandma died, about 10 when my second grandmother passed. You don’t really know enough at that age to ask important questions or to acknowledge the fact that you have these wonderful people around.

I’ve been thinking about my grandmothers, then my mom, then me as I watch Mad Men. My grandmothers were raising children in the 1960s. Both of my grandmothers were overall pretty traditional. My paternal grandmother, of course, was greatly inhibited by her disease, but still she believed strongly in family gatherings, in outings, in proper language, things like that. My mom’s mom was the type of person who could whip up a giant cake in five seconds flat. It is because of her that I taught myself how to crochet and how to knit.

My mom and her generation are caught between the conventions of their mothers and the great pull of everything the 60s and 70s meant for young people. My mom was compelled to try to be a full-time mom and a full-time professional, as were and are so many women.

Where are women in business today? Where are women today?

As I try to build my personal “brand,” as I try to represent everything that matters to our family’s advertising agency, I find that I feel a strange pull. Is this what I should be doing? Is this too feminine? Is this not feminine enough? Should I buy a pinstripe suit? Or should I be wearing flowy dresses and skirts?

When I was in high school and trying desperately to learn how to crochet, a lot of people made fun of me. When I got into college and knitted and crocheted a lot, at first people were a little perplexed, but slowly, both crafts became popular among my friends, and now the popularity of crafting in general has sky-rocketed. Why is Martha Stewart so popular? Why is there such a lust for nostalgic arts like folding dinner napkins into swans? Why is it mostly women who adore Martha and watch her show? Is something “homey” missing from our lives?

I watch shows like Mad Men or the reaction to women like Hillary Clinton (regardless of your political views) and I think, “When can I just be me?” When will the pressure of “defining woman’s role” or “breaking the glass ceiling” finally be in the rear view mirror? I’m me. I’m my own person. I do business-type stuff. I do traditional domestic type stuff. I love both equally. Why does it feel like there needs to be something more grandiose?

Do you feel it too?

Men, what is your perspective?

How to integrate blogs with other marketing initiatives

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I participated in my first ever B2B chat last night on Twitter. One of the questions that was discussed was whether or how to integrate a blog into your marketing campaign. My response was that a blog should and can be integrated with everything you do. This response garnered some interest, so I thought I would expand on it a bit here.

Blog as Hub

First, let’s talk about online marketing. Since blogs are online, it can seem easier to connect these dots.

Most people think of the company website as the hub through which all marketing comes and goes. The obstacle these days is that websites tend to be chock full of sales talk in addition to lots of important information. This can muddy the waters, especially if you have an aggressive Social Media campaign that avoids the sell. In order to get around this bump in the road, many experts now recommend that online and Social Media initiatives drive traffic to a blog which then in turn can refer people to the company website. You’ll notice, for example, that my Twitter account, my Facebook account, and my Disqus account all lead you here (even on that 1,000th click that you do). But I refer people to the Clayman Advertising site from this blog so that it’s easy for you to access.

There are literally millions of ways to integrate a blog with Social Media and other online initiatives. Here are a few.

This idea actually was mentioned by @KseniaCoffman, so big credit to her. If you are doing a webinar, lead people to your blog for the Q&A

Use your blog posts as content for your Facebook fan page, either via links or notes

Promote your  blog via Twitter to show that there is content behind those 140 characters

Ask a question via an online ad and have the click-through take people to a blog post that answers the question in detail

Don’t forget to include your blog link in your email signature

Blog and Offline Initiatives

It might seem like it would be more tricky to integrate a blog with other offline marketing initiatives, but this is not the case, and in fact, an offline initiative integrated with a blog can greatly strengthen the impact of both tactics. Here are some ideas.

Launch an ad that includes a call to action for visiting the blog. In this case, your blog is like a white paper – free information.

Direct questions that your customer service department receives on a regular basis to blog posts that answer the question in detail

Use the blog as an inter-departmental communication tool – this will help sales, marketing, PR, and other departments stay on the same page – literally

Blog events from a trade show

Make sense?

Do these ideas give you, well, ideas? If you’d like other ideas, or if you’d like help in implementing any of these ideas, just let me know. 2011 is closer than you might think!

Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/arte_ram

What would you tell the you of five years ago?

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I am generally a pretty pensive, somewhat sappy person. Knowing this, there are two times during the course of a year when I get particularly pensive (and maybe particularly sappy). Those times are the area generally surrounding my birthday and then pretty much the whole span of time between Thanksgiving and New Years. I really love birthdays more than New Years because it’s about your own specific life. Whether or not a birthday is a big 5 or 0, it gives you a chance to look back on what you did when you were one year younger, and what you hope to do when you are 1 year older.

I have been working for my family’s advertising agency for just a hair over six years now. That’s still two years fewer than the time it took me to finish college and grad school. I still haven’t graduated, in terms of years, professionally. It seems hard to believe that I have been working for such a small amount of time, because when I look at where I was when I started, or five years ago, it feels like I have learned a lifetime worth of stuff.

So, I thought I would share some of the things I would tell the me of five years ago. What would you tell the you of five years ago? I’d love to hear your stories 🙂

Dear five-year-younger me:

– Concentrate on the infinite number of doors that are still open, not the few that are closed

– Read more, talk less

– Learn more, teach less

– The stiff unbending tree is the heavy wind’s first victim. Learn to sway in the breeze

– Nothing and no one can be taken for granted. Life doesn’t owe you a thing. Everything you have and everyone you know, therefore, should be cherished with all your heart

– Think outside the box more

– Don’t let fear be your tour guide

– Always dream. You’re never done dreaming, you’re never done striving for your dreams

– You can do it