Archives for September 2010

When I first started using Twitter and my blog, I was concentrating, as most new folks do, on how to push my stuff out. Even though that isn’t a best practice, it’s also hard to avoid when you’re new. You need to show that you have something to say other than “Earn millions of dollars while working from home,” right? Eventually, though, I started to see the error of my ways, and I wanted to start pushing other peoples’ stuff out there too. I realized that the only way I could do that effectively was if I started reading other peoples’ blogs.

So, I started making a concerted effort to read a few blogs a day. I chose about 4-5. And I would gravitate towards those same blogs every day.

After awhile, I realized that wasn’t really the spirit I want to bring to Social Media either. It wasn’t that I got tired of those 4-5 blogs. It was just that I started engaging with a lot more people who had a lot of good things to say, and I didn’t even know if they had blogs. I wondered if lots of other people had the same experience as me. After all, there is only so much time in a day.

That’s why I started the idea of #30Thursday. There are a few key facets to the idea which are kind of hard to get across in 140 characters, so I thought I would expand a bit on them here.

Introduce other bloggers to people who read my blog

Not only do I get to read a lot more blogs now, but I also have the privilege of introducing you to people whom you might not know via any other Social Media site. I am introducing you via a brain-to-brain handshake (woah, that now seems way too creepy of an analogy but I’ll stick with it).

Help your blog get exposure

If you feel like people aren’t seeing your blog posts (which can be a common and very discouraging sentiment), #30Thursday can help get you out there a bit. Not saying that I have a whole ton of pull, but if you’re listed, you’ll have a fair amount of eyes seeing the title and content of one of your blog posts. I want to take this one step further, however, and talk about…

You starting your own #30Thursday Posts

My ultimate goal is for other people to do exactly what I am doing. Take recommendations of posts to include in a “top 30 of the week” post. There are a few reasons for this.

1. It will help you read a lot more blogs, which will enrich your Social Media experience

2. It will introduce you to new people

3. It will show that you are a legitimate human being who isn’t out there just trying to get more followers

4. It epitomizes the idea of promoting other people first (I believe very strongly in this)

5. As a side benefit, if you are starting out, it will help familiarize people with your own blog

A Blog Book Club

Ultimately, my vision is for #30Thursday to become an expansive book club. With #30Thursday posts appearing at the hash tag every Thursday, there could be hundreds of blogs being shared, commented on, retweeted, etc. Think about it…if just 9 other people, in addition to me, started doing this, that would be 300 blogs shared in one day. Would that not be amazing? Would that not give you enough fodder for your own blog posts for the next 5 years, every week? Would that not introduce you to some amazing people that might be beyond your sphere in Twitter? I sure hope so.

The rules

People who have submitted recommendations to me tend to ask, “Do you think this will be of interest,” or “does this qualify?” Really, anything that you think is well written and worth sharing qualifies. I have been able to take everyones’ submissions thus far because I haven’t gotten more than 30 recommendations – I supplement with posts that I read that affect me in a major way. If I start getting a lot more submissions, it will just be the first 30 I get. I do read every post I get so that I can offer a brief preview when I post a link. If you just post 30 links, you’re not really doing much more than broadcasting, right?

I have not contacted people to let them know they’re on the list. I thought it would be fun to kind of surprise people. I’m kind of jostling that around in my head a bit. Let me know what you think would be more effective.

So that’s pretty much it. I hope that this clarifies some of the questions that were popping up out there.

Weekly Pictures

By the way, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce that I will also be accepting one picture a week to go with the #30Thursday post. My stockhouse that I use doesn’t have a whole lot of exciting things to say about “30.” If you want to use the artistic side of your brain, just let me know. Try to keep it under 1mb, make sure you have rights to it, etc.

Clear as mud? 🙂

In prehistoric times, our homo-sapien ancestors would herd animals that were generally edible towards a cliff’s edge. It required a lot of planning and a lot of organization, and all of that without Excel or Google Docs. Ultimately, our ancestors would lead a big herd of animals to a well-known cliff’s edge. The animals had a lot of momentum, and they had all been grouped together, so it was easy for them to go right where they were being led. Right over the cliff’s edge.

Thousands of years later, we are still trying to herd things. Some of us are herding animals still, but those of us in marketing are doing something kind of weird. We’re trying to herd other people using online tools. We are doing a lot of planning. We are doing a lot of organizing. We are gathering people together, and we’re hoping that we guide them right to our website. And uh, well, then it gets to be a bit more like the prehistoric saga. We guide people to our site from Facebook or from our blog and then they just kind of disappear, right over the cliff’s edge.

Social Media can be a lead generator, but that is not the ROI

If you are trying to prove to your company that the ROI on your Social Media campaign is good, showing the number of fans and followers you have is not the answer. Showing the number of retweets isn’t it. Showing the amount of interaction you have on your Facebook page won’t do the trick. Even looking at a Google Analytics report and showing that you have a lot of clicks to your site from Facebook won’t be convincing. Why? Here are some questions you might field before you get through your presentation.

– Are those clicks people, spiders, or some other kind of bot?

– What did they do after they clicked to that page?

– Can we follow up with them?

– Did we make a sale because of any of those clicks?

– How much time did you spend inspiring these clicks to our website?

Catch them in your web, don’t drive them over the edge

Collecting leads is really important, whether they are coming from an ad, Social Media, a press release, or anything else. But if you think about the word lead, you begin to understand why that’s not enough. A “lead” is a possible lead for YOU to get a sale, right? Now, one nice thing about getting leads from Social Media is that you can get a face, a name, and other information pretty easily. If someone likes a video you post, for example, you know that one of the views of that video was that person (or at least there’s a pretty good chance that they liked it after watching it. Some people are chronic likers, which is a topic for another more psychological post).

So the real question is what to do after you get that person to like a post or you find that people are clicking to your website. How do you get them stuck in your spider’s web of seductive selling? First things first, you need to know that they are approaching. Measurement is a growing topic in marketing and with good reason. You can’t talk to a person and nurture them into your sales cycle if you don’t know they’re there. You only know they’re there if you are monitoring what you have going on.

Once you note that people are clicking or are engaging with you the way you want, you need to know how to continue to guide them to the point where they are ready to buy. This is a delicate dance, and sad to say, it’s kind of like the dating process. If you don’t offer enough, er, information, you might find that your lead runs away and goes right into the arms of someone more helpful. On the other hand, if you are too pushy or too “selly,” you might end up with the same result. Converting a lead into a sale and thus creating measurable ROI from any campaign, Social Media or otherwise, is a process of give and take. And it’s a process that needs to be happening with multiple people at any given time. Just like our ancestors didn’t try to hunt one woolly mammoth at a time, we can’t really afford to work on converting one lead at a time.

“Social Media is all about ROI”

I see statements like this a lot, and I always get concerned. First, as I discussed in my previous post, the “ROI” claim is made based on the perception that Social Media is cheap or free. We know that this is in fact not the case, so the idea that one sale would blow your ROI chart into the next century is false logic.

The statement also indicates a confusion between “lead” and “sale.” ROI is a measure of sales against investment. A lead is a hope.

If a lot of people skip the step of developing a Social Media plan, even more skip the step of planning what to do if the campaign actually works. This is going to be problematic when marketers who are gung-ho on the ROI of Social Media are suddenly asked to account for their immense amounts of excitement and satisfaction about follower numbers.

Don’t let your leads fall over the cliff into a big pile of lost opportunity. Keep them close to you. Give them reasons to come back after they’ve clicked that first time. Make them feel comfortable. That is the true path to happiness in the marketing world.

1st Image by Ole Jørgen Bratland & Gisele Jaquenod.http://www.sxc.hu/profile/picaland

2nd Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/bluemoonX

A lot of people seem perplexed about why it’s hard to get some CEOs or others in the C-Suite excited about Social Media.

“It’s cheap,” they say incredulously. “What more can a CEO want?”

If you are trying to convince your CEO or another executive to support a company blog or a more full corporate Social Media plan, using the “cheap” word will not get you anywhere. In fact, you are more likely to lead your CEO to think that you don’t really understand how business works.

Here’s the thing. Social Media sites are, for the most part, available for free. You can enhance the experience for not much money. So far so good.

Now, let’s say your CEO catches an article in the Wall Street Journal about how important a corporate Social Media policy is. She wants to get one of those in place before you go any further with the conversation. That means a lot of people, a lot of meetings. That means, potentially, a lawyer. That means a meeting or a series of meetings to make sure everyone understands everything.

Once you have your corporate policy in place, it’s a really good idea to figure out what you are going to do, what you want to achieve, and how you are going to measure all of that. That’s a lot more time. That might be getting your agency involved, or it might mean bringing in a consultant.

Now let’s say you walk your CEO to the point of having a Social Media plan. You’ve made it this far. The company has decided that a blog is a really good idea, and you want to promote each post via Facebook and Twitter. It’s decided that you and 2 of your co-workers are going to work on this. Suddenly, though, you realize that this Social Media stuff is a 24/7 proposition. But things are going pretty well. Your Facebook page has a lot of fans that are interacting with you. Same with Twitter. If you stop now, you’ll look awful.

Now your CEO is looking at hiring a Social Media manager, a position your company has never needed or had before. A whole new salary tied to a whole new category of work that was not an issue before you walked into your boss’s office and said that Social Media was cheap.

This is not an argument against Social Media. It’s an argument against saying that Social Media is cheap, or easy, or free. Your CEO may realize that before realizing the value of what you are proposing. Meet him or her where they are, and see if you can find a way to bridge the gap.

Image by Jenny Rollo. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/buzzybee

Maybe some of you can answer these questions for me, or maybe some of these questions will inspire you to write a blog. Or a book. Or a ten-part docudrama. Here’s to hoping.

1. Why do so many people have difficulties with your and you’re? You’re has the ‘re on it because it is a mashing of “you” and “are.” See? You’re just replacing the a with an apostrophe. Hence, when you say, I think your right, you are actually not finishing YOUR sentence. Are you?

2. Why doesn’t Twitter make it easy for me to tell if people I’m following are following me? How can I be moody and dramatic and accusatory?

3. Why do people retweet retweets of themselves? To quote Pee Wee Herman, “I heard you the first time.”

4. Why do people who describe the movie Alive as “people eating other peoples butts ‘n crap” (paraphrased) follow me? What do we have in common?

5. Why are there about 250 “life coaches” following me on Twitter? Are you trying to tell me something, or am I helping you?

6. Why do people who have not tweeted once have 750 followers?

7. Why are you following some of the people you follow? Yes, you. I go to check out someone named “WoodchuckFreak907” and 20 of my friends are followers. C’mon, now!

8. Why do people continue to send automatic direct messages when everyone in the world notes how annoying they are?

9. Why do some people auto DM me 2-3 times? Did you think I would just cave and become your slave at time number 3? (It takes 5 times)

10. Why do people think there is their way and the stupid way?

11. Speaking of which…what is so hard about there, their, they’re? There is “here” with a t on it, so that’s the place one. They’re is that whole word mashing thing again (some call it a contraction). Their means “possession.”

12. Why do people think quoting other people in lieu of personal interaction with living people is a good idea?

13. Why do people rewteet tweets of Thomas Edison quotes? He doesn’t see that or care, you know…

14. Why do people care about whether Kanye West tweets back to them? Do you think he’s going to suddenly ask you to go on tour?

15. Why do people RT their “Follow Friday” mentions? Every. Single. Time?

16. Why do people try to argue with or patronize Lisa Barone? You know she will destroy you with her brainz.

17. Why do people unfollow you because you didn’t follow them, then return and follow you again? Give up, yo.

18. Why is there an ap for lengthening tweets now? That’s cheating. 140 or bust, man.

19. Why do people try to prove that folks like Chris Brogan are dumb and then misspell every word in their tweet? Take it up a notch, at least!

20. Why am I the only one asking these questions? Or am I…..?

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

One of the posts I highlighted in my #30Thursday post yesterday was by @RickBakas. If you haven’t gone over to read his post comparing Social Media experts with Santa Claus, I would highly recommend you do so. In the meantime, I’ll tell you what struck me right away about the post. Rick talks about how various marketing folk try to pitch his business (winery). They come up to Rick with big promises, but it becomes clear right away that these “experts” don’t know a thing about the industry at large.Even more stunning, they don’t know a thing about the business they are about to pitch. What are these guys thinking? If you approach prospecting that way, what are YOU thinking?

It’s not like research is an endangered species

Have you seen commercials for eHarmony? (this is where everyone says, “oh uh, no, yes, whatever will be the least awkward”)? The whole site is based on the premise of meat market research, right? Take 2-3 hours to fill out a form that helps you psychoanalyze yourself. Find other people who have undertaken a similar task (already common ground). Look at peoples’ faces. See which of your personality characteristics match up. Start chatting. Start texting. Then get married. Right?

Think about the time people invest in research about cars, homes, fashion, health living, healthy eating, exercise. I mean, we are research fiends! And yet, in marketing, there is a hesitation these days to engage in research. Why? Here are some potential excuses.

“The world is just moving to fast. I need to jump on opportunities.”

“I’m such an expert that a business will willingly educate me about it when we start working together.”

“I just recommend Social Media and help people get 5,000 followers in 2 minutes. No research required.”

Now, let’s take each of those reasons and explain why they are dead wrong for today’s marketers.

“The world is just moving to fast. I need to jump on opportunities.”

The world is moving fast, and the uncertain economic times are creating a very competitive environment. For every huge firm that cuts jobs, there are that many more people trying to make it as an independent consultant. There are only so many companies in your particular niche. So how do you beat other people to the punch?

The thing is, in these kinds of situations, making yourself memorable just might be worth more than being quick. What do you think networking and engagement in Social Media is all about? I mean, yes it’s fun, but it’s also research. You talk to people you want to do business with. You say, “What’s going on with your business right now? What happened with that distributor that was mad because they thought you were underselling them? Did you ever get that fixed up?” You find out what is going on in the industry. You read things and discuss ideas with people. When someone in your network needs the type of service or product you offer, guess what? They’ve already been talking to you. You might be buddies, even. They know you know their business. You might not have been the hare, but you still won the race (Aesop must be weirded out that his fables are being utilized by marketers).

“I’m such an expert that a business will willingly educate me about it when we start working together.”

There are probably some people out there who could think this and maybe even be right. It’s probably not you. Unless it is. Hi!

Even if this is a truth or a semi-truth, you will put your “expert” status in jeopardy if you begin talking to a company without a clue about what they do. For example, I one day was talking to contact from a publication. They contacted me thinking that I was one of our clients, and they thought our client was the agency for another client of ours. I have no idea how the first client they referenced even got into their system, but it became apparent that they had not taken even a millisecond to check into things. At that point, there was nothing that person could have said that would have made me feel confident about their level of expertise.

It’s always best to go into a situation with a clear value add. If you call yourself an expert and then demonstrate that you took the time to customize your expertise, that will really blow people away. Worth the time? I would think so.

“I just recommend Social Media and help people get 5,000 followers in 2 minutes. No research required.”

I could tell you how to make tons of money in five seconds. None of those ways would be particularly reputable. The same holds true for fans, followers, leads, clicks, or other marketing metrics. Without research, there is no guarantee that those 5,000 followers will translate to business. It just means that you have a number, a lot of which would probably be spam bots.

There’s really not much more to say about this particular issue  – I feel that if you are in this latter category, there’s a lot of other stuff you’re missing too.

But Research is Hard!

Yes, research can be hard. It can be time consuming. It can be hard to prove for sure that it was worthwhile, especially if your well-researched pitch results in a “thanks anyway.” However, it is the most sensible thing you can do. You wouldn’t jump into a marriage without research. You wouldn’t likely buy a car without research. When you pitch a company, you are asking, in essence, to build a partnership with them. Would you jump into that kind of relationship without research? Take the time. It’s the right thing to do.

1st Image by C O. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Hob_

2nd

Over the weekend, I reached 1,000 followers on Twitter. Now, if I were to say that I am ready to throw in the towel or call myself “lord” (I saw a self-proclaimed “lord of social media” today on Twitter) after reaching that landmark, I’d be lying. However, if I were to say it wasn’t kind of a time to think and reflect, I would also be lying. Even if 300 of my followers are spam bots, that still means that there are 700 people out there who have some interest (maybe) in what I’m saying. I take that very seriously, as you can tell. What do those Spartans x 2 + 100 want me to provide them? Am I doing it already?

Questions lead to questions

My brain is kind of like a game of dominoes. Or like a jar of Pringles. One question is never enough. What do I do now that my follower numbers (legit followers) are growing? What will I do when I end up befriending, truly, hundreds of people? What does this all mean for my professional life? What is the meaning of life?!? Okay, well, maybe not the last one. But I realized that when I set out on my Twitter & Blogging adventure, I didn’t really have a plan, despite all of my preaching that a plan is important. I didn’t think I’d ever get the hang of Twitter. I didn’t think I’d ever make it to 75 followers. Ever. To quote David Byrne of the Talking Heads, “Well, how did I get here?”

Once in a lifetime

Really, my journey to 1,000 followers has been one of the most purely fun experiences in my life. I have met so many amazing people it’s like, literally sick. Nauseating how lucky I’ve been. I’ve made friends. I’ve shared ideas and thoughts. I’ve been mentored. I’ve learned. I’ve even started to teach, just a little. When I stopped caring about numbers, I stopped worrying about what I would do when I got to a certain point. I just was having a ball. Soon, it became not a life and death activity to check my number of followers. I didn’t agonize anymore about why 3 people unfollowed me. I just started kinda doing my thing. And now I’m here. There’s my bit of wisdom for those of you who are new to Twitter. Enlightening, right?

Houston, we have a problem

Well, so here we are. I am following over 750 great people. I have received some extremely nice and flattering compliments on my blog. My responses in Twitter are increasing. People actually seem to care about what I say a bit more. And that’s all awesome, right?

Budding success.

At the end of the week, when I turn the light off in my office and head out the door, I could, I suppose, hand in a report noting some of the really fun conversations I had that week. As far as that silly little “new business” or what’s it called…”money?” Well, those columns would be uh, empty.

Budding failure.

BUT I have learned an awful lot about how companies can use Social Media to prospect and how to nurture leads, and I have started applying some of that knowledge here and there in my own work in Social Media.

Budding success.

Did I mention I haven’t made a dime?

Budding failure.

What is the definition of Social Media success?

If we lived in an Austen Powers kind of world, I would not be having this riddle inside an enigma problem. Of course I would call my Social Media experience a success. I made friends, baby, yeah! I shared ideas…very garoovay. Sadly though, we live in a Dr. Evil/Number Two kind of world. Companies still run on money. Cars still run on dirty fuels. Rain falling from the sky is probably about as acidic as whatever that is moving around in my tummy. A Social Media Karma ticket is definitely not going to impress a CEO, a President, or the bean counters.

So Social Media success is really about making money, right? When you can buy something based on your Social Media experience, you’ve made it.

Except that best practice in Social Media begs you not to come out with a strong sell message, and by the way, content (or is it information) are the new currency.

So…if you write a lot of good stuff you’re a success? Who defines that? Is it like Mario Brothers, where you defeat a dragon and then can move on to the next level?

Should I stay or should I go?

One of the greatest players ever to grace the gridiron was James Brown, a Cleveland Brown. Fulfilling Cleveland’s unique ability to seem cursed, Brown decided to retire at the height of his career. How did he know that he was at his height? How did he hear that voice say, “This is as good as it gets?” I always wonder about that.

I am in a bit of a cobweb because I can’t really tell if I’m playing this game the right way. My mushy hippie heart says, “Yeah man, like woah, you’re like, sharing your feelings and like, your knowledge, man.” My desire to succeed professionally and to help our agency is screaming, “The song doesn’t say “friendships make the world go ’round.”

How do I know what to do next? If I’m doing this wrong, I don’t want to expand more of the same. If I’m doing it right, why is this blog post happening?

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You’re my last hope.