Archives for September 2010

What can happen in 9 years?

Today is not about people who would burn a holy book.

Today is not about people who watched the events of this day from afar.

Today is not about politics.

Today is not about which president would have done what.

Today is a day for soft voices, meditation, remembering, and love. Yes, love.

Today is a day to think with love and care of those for whom this is not just a day to remember. Today is a day to think with love and care of those people who are missing someone today, someone who was 9 years younger, someone whose life was snuffed out in a way so violent, so tragic, so unexpected, that it still cannot be believed.

In 9 years, a little girl of 11 has become a college student

A pre-teen has reached voting age (and drinking age)

A 10 year wedding anniversary is almost ready to turn 20

9 years is enough time for someone to go through high school and college and enter adulthood head on

9 years is a long time to miss someone.

Today, my heart weeps for those who must remember today with horror rather than with simple remembrance. Today, I do not think of those we lost as heroes, as numbers, or as faceless victims in countless photos shown callously here and there. Today I think of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, wives and husbands, cousins, aunts and uncles, friends, and co-workers. People like me. People like you. And the people who miss them. I will always remember how they died. I will not forget that they lived.

Cherish everything a little more today. Hold your children close. Let the sun bathe your face. Admire the grey puffy clouds. Call a friend or a relative and relish in the fact that even if they don’t answer right away, they are there. Live life today. Life it to the fullest.

Image by Bev Lloyd-Roberts. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/BeverlyLR

This time, it’s personal

by Margie Clayman

I’ve never been completely mystified by celebrity. If I had been, it all would have come crashing down a few years ago. See, there was this local musician whom my family and I had been supporting since he got started. We went to some of his first concerts, which people sadly talked through, causing him to leave early. I found him on MySpace and kind of joined the community of people there. He imported lots of blog posts and I had fun commenting on them. A lot of them were thought provoking. Then, suddenly, he started getting kind of…pissy is the best word…with his fans. So, in response to one of his posts, I made a flippant, joking remark that he was being a jerk. I didn’t think anything of it. I had said it playfully. People, including him, and said things that were a lot worse.

About a month later, I saw a new post from him titled something like, “To the person who called me a jerk.” He wrote that the person (me) should burn in hell, etc etc. Then he posted a 15-minute angry song that he and some other guys wrote in my honor (about how mean I was). The idea of celebrities in a glowing light of out-of-this-worldness was doused forever. (Eventually, his mom figured out who I was, that I had been a long-time loyal fan, and he apologized in his blog). Turns out he was a dude who was going through a hard time. Also, he could sing really well.

People are People

About a month ago, when I was perusing Twitter as I am wont to do with my morning coffee, I saw a tweet from Lisa Barone. Something that someone had tweeted at her right at the crack of dawn on a Monday. I thought that Lisa must have been exaggerating that people talked to her that way just because she didn’t reply to every single mention. Then, Lisa made a post, and the vitriol with which some people responded was hard to fathom. Literally calling her stupid, heartless, etc. I have seen this with other people who have influence in the Social Media world too. It seems like there are people out there who think that once you reach a certain number of followers or a certain point of influence, you stop your life as an actual human being. Well, guess what? Target practice is now closed as far as I’m concerned.

Breaking News: There are some truths you need to swallow

Apparently, we need to break some things down about the upper echelon of the Social Media world. It has always seemed to me like this stuff should be obvious, but maybe it needs to be framed out. Pick your people. Everyone encounters and respects different individuals.

1. These folks are folks. They have families, they have lives and even jobs beyond the realm of your computer screen. They have, many of them, squishy hearts and the capacity to endure an awful lot of poo. Don’t test that endurance by adding to the poo.

2. They may not always respond to you. I am lucky in that I have a great family of followers on Twitter right now, but the volume isn’t such that it’s hard for me to keep up with @ messages. For someone who has been around longer than me, who is more experienced than me, who has more knowledge than me, and who has amassed more followers (exponentially), the volume of mentions, retweets, and direct messages is hard to fathom. As much as it would be awesome to think that world revolves around any one of us, it just ain’t so. Be patient.

3. They are trying to make money. This is the thing that causes me the most confusion. A large majority of the people in Social Media are using the capabilities new technology affords them to make money. There are countless ways this can be done. Some people simply promote their business openly. Others offer information but supplement the free data with opportunities to pay them for their work. I read a really interesting post by Matt Shaw this evening that discusses this issue in detail. He talks about affiliate marketing in particular as it exists on blogs. As I commented over there, the fact is that the information we get from these immensely brilliant and experienced people was not available for free a decade ago. Maybe not even five years ago. If you wanted information from the experts, you had to pay for it. Now, thanks to their genuinely good hearts and improved technology, a lot of these folks are going out and posting info they used to charge for. And yet…it always seems shocking when we are reminded that this is all part of how they make their living. What’s up with that?

4. They were here first. Yes, that matters. These folks will continue to be thought leaders because of their brains, not because of their “influence” on Twitter or because of the money they make or don’t make. Where was I regarding Twitter when Julia Roy was already tweeting her heart out? “Gah, what a dumb website.” Where was I regarding blogging when folks like Jay Baer, Chris Brogan, and Denise Wakeman were mastering the craft? “Hey, this is like mass e-mailing my friends.” When it comes to technology and Social Media stuff, these folks sniffed out gold before I knew we were looking. They probably beat you to the punch too. That’s not a cause to be bitter. That’s a cause for admiration.

5. They don’t really owe YOU anything. Some people think that the egg came before the chicken (or the other way around) and that much like the Beatles, these folks are owned by Social Media users. “My traffic got you that car.” “My link to your book got you that nice rug on your floor.” Well, guess what folks…you’re posting those links and driving traffic to that information because it is strong stuff, helpful, and because it catches fire as soon as it’s posted. That comes from these folks, not from you. Your links & posts are great, but that’s all part of THEIR plan. Not yours.

Do I sound protective?

Darned right. I am biased on this issue. I’ve had the great privilege of getting to know some of these folks, like, you know, as humans. They are great people in my experience. They are brilliant people. Their brains are intimidating, their kindness makes it bearable. It’s a great balance. The more I get involved in Social Media “stuff,” the more time I see ticking away as I blog, post to Facebook or Twitter, or try to keep up with my LinkedIn groups (plus like, that whole regular job thing) the more I respect what these folks do.

There is really no need to shoot anyone down. There’s plenty of room. If you think all of these folks are dumb, prove it using the high road. Anyone can take a swipe. Grab your cajones and do what they do. Walk their walk. Do it better. Then say, gently, I told you so. Till then, I’d ask you kindly, in the immortal words of Chris Crocker, to “Leave the leading minds aloooooone.”

1st Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/barunpatro

2nd Image by Mark Anderson. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/4score

5 easy mistakes to make in Social Media

by Margie Clayman

As illustrated via tales from my life.

Assume that people are saying nice things about you, so don’t get involved

When I was in high school, the “droop” look came into fashion amongst the males. In case you don’t recall various fashion trends from the mid-90s, the “droop” (which can still be seen today) is what you call the look where the guy is wearing his pants down at about mid-tush level. Now, being a person of small stature, I was often at a good height to, unfortunately, closely examine this fashion trend. One day, I was waiting for my hot pocket in the lunch line, minding my own business, just looking straight ahead. All of a sudden, the guy who was in front of me looked behind him, looked at me, kind of smiled as if to say, “I know that my tush looks fantastic right now,” and then he turned around to face forward again. Factually, I was not starting at his butt, at least not in an admiring kind of way, but that fellow would never know. He didn’t pursue the conversation.

Similar misunderstandings can occur if you don’t get involved in Social Media. You can assume that people are saying nice things about you when in fact they might not be saying anything about you at all. Is that a risk you can take?

Overvalue what you do

As my brother was scouring yard sales, getting ready to move into his first apartment, he and my mom came upon a shocking sight. Many, many years ago, our agency had given out coffee cups as one of our client appreciation gifts. Lo and behold, right there on the table, was one of those cups, on sale for 25 cents! We couldn’t figure out who the family was that was having the sale – they certainly had not been our clients. That made it worse. The original recipient had cast our poor cup off and now it was being given away, practically.

In Social Media, you can think that everything you are doing is the most amazing super duper thing ever, but if your audience doesn’t dig it, it will be cast aside. Are you monitoring what they think?

Misjudging your customers

A couple of years ago, I went out to lunch with my mom and dad. It was a work day. We had had a meeting so I was dressed in my business finest – pin stripes and all. As we were waiting to be seated, the hostess handed me a kid’s menu.Again, I repeat. It was a work day. Pin Stripes. I didn’t say anything because frankly, what can you say when someone does something so silly? But I will never forget the ludicrous nature of that error in judgment, which was simply the result of not thinking carefully. Are you similarly misjudging your customers, your leads, your audience, or your co-workers? The results can be devastating and long-lasting. Give it some thought. Careful thought.

Assume your authority is and will always be recognized

I had a teacher once who, on the first day of class, asked a student to read the class a book that had comforted the teacher when a family member was in the hospital. The book was the kind of alleged feel good book that makes you want to tear your face off. A tree was losing leaves, all of which were personified, of course. Finally it got down 2 leaves, and which one should go first, and what the journey to the ground meant. I mean, Robert Smith of The Cure would not read this book to kids. Sadly, the teacher was no longer apparently very taken with the story. Her long day of telling us about her pets and having us fill out personality cards had worn her out. She fell fast asleep. That was just the first day of school.

Are you like my silly teacher? Do you assume that everyone knows you are the leader in the industry, and therefore you get a bit careless with how you act in Social Media networks and beyond? There are tons of people encountering you every day who have no idea who you are or what your gig is. They don’t know your company or your products. They are meeting you for the first time. Do you want your first impression to be “wow, that person is CRAZY?!?” Think about how you present yourself. Authority is as authority does.

Buy into the numbers game

A friend of our family told me a year ago or so about a conversation she had with me when I was about 6. “What’s your favorite food, Margie?” I responded, “Fetuccini Alfredo.” “What’s your favorite movie, Margie?” “Oh, Amadeus.” Clearly, these answers were not particularly in the “I expected that” category. But age is just a number, a marker, and it’s not the only one. Similarly, one should not judge a Social Media campaign by the numbers. Is a Facebook fan page highly successful if it has a lot of fans? Not necessarily. Are you getting all you can out of Twitter because you have 20,000 followers? Maybe not. Ask questions. Engage. You might be surprised at what you find out.

Hope this helps.

Aren’t ya kinda tired of hearing about “the death of”?

by Margie Clayman

Okay, so, maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s the Friday after a very condensed work week and I’ve just finally gone bonkers. But so help me, if I see one more note about how “xyz” in the marketing world is dying, I might have to become a big green giant monster. There are going to be challenges involved in that endeavor, I’m not going to lie. But it feels like almost anything would be preferable to hearing how something is dead or how something is killing something else.

The History of Death

Now there’s a subhead that screams TGIF, right?

Here’s the thing. A few times throughout the history of the world, saying that something was dead, or saying that something was going to kill something else, was entirely, 100% true and spot on. It’s said that many dinosaurs were blogging about volatile weather and environmental conditions before they all became oil for our cars. Native Americans were pretty spot on about how the neverending tide of strangers would affect them. Train guys were right that the Model T would probably not help the train business. Maybe there was even a bit of truth to the song “Video killed the radio star.”

I’ll give you all of that.

Sometimes, I’ll even concede, living beings pass away, and you can trace the causes.

I’m entirely reasonable. I will agree with you on all of that. Now, let me say something else.

Print is not dying. Advertising is not dying. They are changing. Could they die if we flail about and say OH MY GOODNESS THEY ARE GONNA DIE! Yep. But otherwise, we’re in okay shape.

Print is not dying

What do we mean when we say “Print” anyway? Are we talking about newspapers? Magazines? Ads in magazines? Books? I’ve always wondered how such a simple word, covering so many iterations, could be consigned to death.

My good friend Stan (aka @pushingsocial) had a great quote during one of our shared Twitter chats. He said that if print is dying (and I paraphrase) it is probably because what you are putting into print is very very stinky. I liked that a lot. So did a lot of other people. Stan is the king of chat RTs.

So given that, why are people saying that print is dead? Let me ask YOU some questions.

If there hadn’t been so many stories about how the New York Times had plagiarized and falsified stories, do you think it would still be in this much trouble?

If people were taught at a young age to enjoy creating, reading, and sharing good content beyond the realm of the X-box, do you think we would consider books to be in such trouble? And by the way, if people aren’t buying books, why are they going to get a Kindle so that they can buy lots of books? I am hazy on that. Please help.

If print ads were creative, informative, less selly, and had clear calls to action, would we say that print ads were dying/ill/dead/wimpy?

Print is changing. Direct mail is changing. Print advertisements are changing. Change can mean dying, but that’s an awfully negative way to look at things. When your kid graduates and goes off to college, do you get condolence cards lamenting the passing of said kid’s youth? I sure hope not. Change can be exciting. It can be rife with opportunity. We can use print in new and exciting ways. We can be innovative. But no. We are all plugging for a place on Six Feet Under – the sequel (marketing style).

Advertising is not dead either

Okay, I’ll grant you, I have some personal stock invested in this fact. If advertising has died already, then I have created an extremely intricate hallucinatory world for myself, minus things like a personal masseuse or a hulky husband.

What is advertising? I think we need to look at this work and break it down. Essentially, advertising is really promoting, right? Like, if someone at a really nice restaurant yells out something extremely personal about themselves, we might say something like, “geeze, advertise it why doncha?” In point of fact, humans have been advertising for centuries. It was promoters who drove people to go West on the Oregon Trail, after all. “Oh yes, you will love the oxen getting stuck in the mud, the Winters that will force you to eat each other, and the occasional Native American or random person who will shoot at you.” Well, they didn’t exactly say that. They painted a picture powerful enough to get people to endure all of that other stuff. What was the trade network in ancient times other than a Social Media network? “Here, you give me those really nice seashells and in return I can give you this pottery for the low low price of 18 blankets!”

Advertising as executed by an agency or a firm (I like using the word firm) has undergone numerous changes just during my ridiculously short lifetime. When I was a kid, I’d visit my dad’s office and, sadly, “play” office. The huge set of markers back where the designers wee always fascinated me. Now, of course, there are computers and programs like Illustrator. Major revolutionary change. Now, “advertising” has been consigned to just print and online ads, but a) those aren’t dead and b) advertising is evolving into a word-of-mouth, person-to-person kind of thing rather than a mass communication tool. Again, only for the very sour does change automatically equate to death.

So please, before you post another blog, another tweet, another article, another Facebook status about how books music advertising direct mail trade shows newspapers myspace facebook twitter and all of us are gonna die…take a chill pill, think how you can view the massive changes in our world in a more positive fashion, and then let me know where you end up.

1st Image by Harrison Keely. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/harrykeely

2nd Image by Crystal Woroniuk. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/cdw0107

Are you ready for a miracle?

by Margie Clayman

I am not what one would call a religious person. I don’t mean that in the kind of cynical or sarcastic way that some people say it. Like, “Oh, religion…that and horse-drawn carriages are out of style.” I just like to think about the world in all kinds of ways, and I don’t want to be tied down, I guess. But there are little tidbits that I pull from different religious beliefs, different kinds of philosophies. One of those beliefs is that our lives are all meant to teach us lessons that our souls need to know.

I have had a lot of experiences in my life that caused a great deal of introspection. Some struggle. Some doubt. I’ve been thrown into a recycling bin. I’ve been asked if I was old enough to ride the high school bus when I was a senior in high school. I’ve had health issues that have been complicated (don’t worry, I’m fine). But after a lot of scratching my head about it, there is one thing that I can tell you. Life is about appreciating every single thing that you have. If you start going down the path of lamenting what you don’t have, you’ll miss out, and you’ll drive yourself crazy.

There are miracles all around you

During a period of my life when I was going through a hard time (I was going down the path of lamenting the few things I didn’t have rather than the mass of great things I did), a friend told me that I would get to the point where I would be able to turn that thinking around and realize that actually, nothing can be taken for granted at all, and therefore, everything is special. There are no guarantees, sadly, that we will all wake up tomorrow and be fine. There is no guarantee that our friends will be happy and content. There is no guarantee that that beautiful tree in front of your house will still be standing tall and graceful. But that is not a sad thought. That is an invitation to say, “Holy smokes…I am alive right now. All of these people I care about are with me and okay. I have this. I have that. Wow.”

Sometimes a great big curtain hides the good stuff

Of course, there are times when this kind of thinking is not much solace. Sometimes things happen to us or to people we care about and well, the fact that a tree is still standing just doesn’t cut the mustard. For them or for us. When that happens, something great can still happen. We can open the curtains, even just a little, and let some light in for that person. It might not cheer them up. It might not fix things. Then again, sometimes we have the chance to do both.

A story about a guy and a chance

A few weeks ago, I was hanging on Twitter (surprise surprise) when Justin Levy, a fellow I respect a great deal, posted a call for help. He linked to a Facebook page called “Help Bring Noor and Ramsay Home.” “Well what is this?” I asked. So I started reading.

As it turns out, the page (which you should find on Facebook and like) tells the story of a man named Colin Bower, a guy who works with Justin and other folks at New Marketing Labs. Colin has 2 beautiful kids, Noor and Ramsay. The problem is that his ex-wife kidnapped those 2 kids a year ago and took them to Egypt. Colin hasn’t been able to see them since.

Can you imagine the day-to-day strain, not to mention all of the other emotions that must often fight to get in the way of productivity? I can’t. A year of that…that’s hard to imagine indeed. So, many of Colin’s friends, along with Colin himself, are asking for help in tackling this problem (and if you want to show a little love and support along the way, that’s probably just fine).

Go over here where Chris Brogan lists 3 simple steps you can take to help. Talk to journalists you know. Tweet madly at people on Twitter. Make #NoorRamsay a trending topic. Why? Because if it works, you would have actually helped to make a miracle for someone else.

TutusforTanner

A lot of you probably at least saw the huge fundraising effort that Scott Stratten (aka @UnMarketing) spearheaded a few weeks ago. There was some talk afterwards about whether “Social Media Experts” were giving Social Media too much credit. Having seen all of the tweets, passion and love involved in that campaign, those kinds of comments rub me the wrong way, plus they’re just dumb. But they do make me want to prove that lightning can strike twice. The fundraising that happened for Tanner exceeded all hopes and expectations. In Mr. Bower’s case, there’s just one goal. No need to exceed it. We just need to help him get his kids back. And that’s it.

Are you ready for a miracle? You don’t have to sit there and wait for it. You can participate in making it happen. You can bring back to one person’s life a piece of his life that is missing – a piece many of us would probably take for granted. A piece that many of us probably do not appreciate enough.

Are you ready for a miracle? Ready as I can be.

#30Thursday Post #2!

by Margie Clayman

My second #30Thursday post, and there were many more responses this time! To answer a few questions: I will take the first 30 posts I receive as long as they are not vulgar and are well-written. Business-related is nice but if we stray a bit, that’s okay. Feel free to take this concept and run with it. The idea is to promote each other, read each other, and learn more. And now, 30 posts of this last week that made it to the list!

1. @kseniacoffman takes you on a tour of Chicago – via surveillance landmarkers!

2. @salamicat does a great post about Social Media and human relationships

3. @DWesterberg wrote a fantastic post on the B2B “panic call” and what to do about it. Great advice.

4. Are you a young communicator or new to Twitter? Here is some great advice from @AdamSuffolkU

5. How is Social Media like sailing? @mikefixs answers in splendid detail.

6. @MarketingProfs (Ann Handley) asks the media to cut the crying parents of college students some slack.

7. Very interesting post on 4 things you need to know about influence by @tamadear

8. This post really got my engines roaring. 15 Ways to Handle “Pick Your Brand Requests” by @LisaBarone

9. Another genius post from @SuzanneVara. But wait…it’s about…PRINT! (and wait! James Adams guest-posted!)

10. Another post about fantasy football, only this one has a Social Media catch! by @briansrice

11. A really beautifully written post by my friend @knowledgebishop on purpose-driven productivity

12. Beth Harte and Geoff Livingston wrote an amazing blog post – “The Meme to end all Memes.” I need to read it about 17 more times.

13. Jay Baer on the death of Myspace – and what it all means.

14. Funny post by @kimrandall on why you hate Twitter – and why that’s silly!

15. Do you believe in serendipity? Check out this post on how a stop for coffee resulted in a dream come true. By @mcmedia & @RickGriffin

16. Chris Brogan does a lot of good posts every week. I’m highlighting this one because it tells you how help New Zealand earthquake victims.

17. The art of subtlety in Social Media – interesting perspective from @rickcaffeinated

18. Twitter, Privacy, and how not to reach your community effectively, by one of my good chat buddies, @FredMcClimans

19. @sueyoungmedia tweeted this post. It’s from April but a really compelling read on the intersection between news and Social Media

20. If you use a Validator on Twitter, are you missing the “ter” in Twitter? @MayaREguru thinks you might just be a twit. Read why.

21. Are you a wimpy blogger? @pushingsocial has it all figured out!

22. Sometimes you just need someone to lay it out straight. @julien has a gift for this. Just grow some…well…balls.

23. Looking to grow your community? @mitchjoel has some great advice for you.

24. My new buddy @tommyismyname did a fantastic recap of a Hubspot webinar on how to become influential. Lots to digest!

25. Great post by @socialmouths. So…do numbers matter or do they not matter? Is there an answer?

26. The title says it all. Share or Die. by @DuctTape (John Jantsch)

27. Found this fun post by Sonia Simone on CopyBlogger: The 7 Deadly Sins of Blogging. Funny and brilliant.

28. Are you feeling burnt out content-wise? Glen Allsop’s guest post on ProBlogger will help you out.

29. I have to include this because I’m so happy for Stanford (@pushingsocial). His post on 5 ways to make a sticky blog – at ProBlogger.net!

30. Finally, hot off the presses, a great post by @elizabethsonow for Junta 42: 20 clues to find the B2B Content your audience wants! Great stuff.

So there they are. My first *actual* 30 for Thursday blog post. Keep the recommendations, the writing, and the reading coming, friends! And I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I did.

Image by Michal Zacharzewski. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/mzacha

Archives for September 2010

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