Marjorie Clayman’s Writing Portfolio

Professional writing profile of Marjorie Clayman

Archives for October 2010

Maybe offline manners need fixing first

by

First, I must give credit where credit is due. I asked my Twitter friends what they thought I should write about. Instantaneously, @darleenw, @j2_whittington & @corpwriter4hire mentioned different aspects of politics as it meets Social Media. So, this is what I came up with for you guys especially 🙂

A few days ago, my family was discussing the political realm as it exists today, and we all agreed that it gets worse every election cycle. More and more 3rd parties are getting involved in ad development. More personal attacks that have nothing to do with politics are being made. Neither side is more or less guilty than the other.  Things have happened over the last couple of years that seem hard to believe. Slapping, yelling, spitting, cursing – all by people who want to lead our country out of these hard times.

The Bad Manners Epidemic

The more I think about manners and etiquette, the more I see that common courtesy in general seems to be pretty lacking. Our leaders just highlight and underline this deficiency. It stuns me how many people will cut in front of another car, at a pedestrian cross-walk, to get to a parking space first. People almost never turn their brights off when they are right behind you or coming at you. Patience in banks and at stores seems to be at a low ebb.

With all of this going on, is it a surprise that many people don’t have good manners when it comes to Social Media?

If these are symptoms, what is our ailment?

I think a lot of people are trying to approach the cyber-bullying problem by trying to write up new legislation and regulations, but I don’t think that’s going to do the trick. I think we need to figure out where the shadow in the real world comes from first.

Why is it so easy for so many people to be rude? Why can we no longer argue with civility? Why are our leaders spitting on each other and telling each other that they are bad human beings? Maybe it’s about fear. Maybe there’s a greater sense of desperation than we are really accounting for. Maybe people need to feel important and powerful as their savings wastes away.

In a way, Social Media is like a screen capture, ever evolving, of what society is like right now. Right now, the big news in Social Media, along with Justin Bieber, is that people are dying because they are being abused on sites that are supposed to be used for Social Networking. What does that say about our society at large?

The Real Leader

I will say one thing about the current state of politics here in the US. I can’t think of a single person right now whom I feel comfortable with as a leader. Why? All of our leaders and leader wannabes are stooping to disgraceful acts of bullying. Is cattiness and bickering really going to put more money in our pockets? Is slamming stuff around and calling each other names really going to prevent anything from getting worse? I don’t see how it is so. I am waiting for the person who says, “Um, hey guys…our educational standards are faltering, our kids are suffering, people are dying from stuff that is preventable. Can we focus on that?” I don’t see anyone singing that song as of now. Maybe I’m missing it.

Rude is as rude does

In the meantime, is it really surprising that cyber-bullying is becoming a huge problem? If you teach kids that it’s okay to drive 75 miles through a residential area, how will they ever know any better? If you teach kids that it’s okay to make racist jokes on Twitter, or to “out” people of different sexual preferences via YouTube, how will they know better? If our nation’s leaders are bullying each other on national television, is it surprising that everyone thinks they have the green light to bully people online?

Maybe the first step towards ending cyber-bullying is to follow the advice given so aptly by the cult classic Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. “Be good to each other.” (and party on, dudes!). I nominate all of our political party participants to set that new example.

Somehow, I don’t think Election Day 2010 will bring that revolution. Stay tuned.

10 Tricks for Twitter Newbies

by

Looking back on how I got started with Twitter, and then digging back into how to get started via these tutorials I’ve been doing, I have come to realize there are a few pieces of advice I would give without question to any new Twitterers. These are things that don’t seem to get a whole lot of attention, but I believe they are quite integral to getting started on the right foot. I wish I had known this when I was getting started! So, here you go. Ten Tricks for Twitter Newbies!

1. Do not depend on the people Twitter recommends for you: When I got started on Twitter, I clicked on the “business” category and went down the list, clicking “follow follow follow.” I thought, “OK, so if Fast Company *and* the Wall Street Journal retweet me in one day, I’ll be on my way. This is I think a common approach, but the recommendations Twitter makes are based on sheer numbers. It is difficult to get attention from those accounts because they are already being followed by thousands of people. This can make your journey seem discouraging.

2. Learn how to search for and participate in chats: I can’t emphasize enough how important I think chats are for getting plugged in with people of a like mind. When you hear about a chat, all you have to do is search for it in the search bar (#xyzchat). Participate, don’t just lurk. Even if you find just one comment to respond to at first, you’ll be getting to know people who have similar interests.

3. Do not worry about numbers: I know this is really hard. I’ve detailed many times how I used to watch my followers number like a hawk watches a family of mice. When you begin, numbers really don’t matter. You are looking for quality people to talk to and network with. When you are on your way, numbers matter even less 🙂

4. Do not worry about the silent treatment: It’s not you. People could easily see hundreds of tweets in just a couple of minutes. If they don’t know who you are, they will probably not respond at first. This is why chats are really important – people are in a conversation and you can jump on in. Find someone you can chat with, and eventually people will start responding. However, a little secret – most people don’t get responses to most of the tweets they do.

5. Have an avatar picture: People will feel more compelled to talk to you if they can see your face!

6. Fill out your bio: Fill your bio with a combination of important keywords and a touch of personality. Let people know that you’re not a bot…you’re a real person whom they should get to know.

7. Learn how to link: Linking is really important. You need to be able to do this for linking people to your blog, to a funny video, or to other posts you like. I cover this in my Twitter basics tutorial, btw…or ask me for help 🙂

8. Add comments to your retweets: It’s easy to just hit the retweet button and think you’re being engaging, but to really start showing your personality, add a one or two-word intro to your retweets, even if it’s just, “Great post.”

9. Promote others: Do this carefully and authentically. If you see a tweet or a post you really like, let someone know. If someone is newer than you and they just hit a milestone, lift them up. Participate in Follow Friday (#FF) but do it with thought. Instead of just listing lots of big names to try to get attention, list 1 person you genuinely enjoy following. Maybe it’s someone you met at your first chat or someone who wrote a post you really enjoyed.

10. Ask questions: Using Twitter is like driving a car. After awhile, you just start doing things and you don’t really think about it. It’s easy to forget how much there is to learn, and people will take it for granted that you just know how to do everything. Ask questions. You may not get a response at first, but that’s okay. When I was first getting started, new people like me would often say, “Yeah, I want to know that too!” You can meet people who have the same question as much as people who have the answer (and never be afraid to direct questions to me @margieclayman)

If you are new to Twitter, I hope you find these tricks useful. If you’re not so new, what would your ten tricks be for getting started?

When is it ok to pitch?

by

So on Thursday, as I am wont to do, I sat down for #B2Bchat. The topic was speaking at conferences. As the conversation wore on, I found myself having my brain expanded. You see, I had always thought that interweaving a pitch (in an acceptable way ) into a speech was not only appropriate, it was to be expected. How else is the audience going to know that you are selling something? I mean, you don’t want to go up there with Vanna White turning your Power Point slides for you, but still…

Well, it seems that I am in the minority when it comes to this belief.

This is kind of funny, because when it comes to blogs and other forms of Social Media, I don’t expect to be pitched. This also puts me in the minority.

What’s the Difference?

To me, speaking is like a 3D, fully interactive Social Media user going out and into the world. Social Media best practices indicate that it is okay to do a very light touch on selling. You need to develop trust first, etc. When doing a speech, it would seem to me like the same would apply. After all, in both scenarios, you are:

In a position to educate your audience

In a context where it would make sense to lightly sell

In the seat of the expert (if you do things right)

In fact, when you are asked to speak at a conference, you are being given “social proof” that it can take months, if not years, to earn in Social Media. Someone is asking you to be the expert at their event. They are putting the fate of their audience into your capable hands. How much more trustworthy can you get?

Those Webinar/Seminar Things

Now where I get really confused is where webinars fall into this pitching schematic. How many times have you sat in on a webinar and heard the introduction of the speaker include information like, “So and so is working on volume 5 of “How I became the best at everything,” which will be covered in part here and which will be available on 11/11/11.” In fact, often times, you find that a person has built a webinar around a book so that the content can be re-purposed. Of course, the mention of that book is a soft sell.

So are webinars not really speeches? Are they Social Media exclusively? Why is it okay to pitch during a webinar but not during a speech?

Lines of Division

A few things were tossed out that indicate that pitching during a speech is bad.

1. If you’re getting paid, that really should be enough of a reward for you. You want to give back by sharing your expertise.

2. You don’t want to do a pitch because the sparks your speech creates will be very shortlived. As my friend Tom Moradpour said, nobody tweets out pitches.

3. When giving a speech, your audience is “captive.”

4. When giving a speech, usually your audience has already paid money, and the expectation is that they will get to learn.

OK, so…

I’ve heard that the Elevator Pitch is dead. Besides, we all should really take the stairs. It’s not really best practice to pitch via Twitter or Facebook, and pitching within a blog takes some finesse. Apparently, pitching during a live speech is frowned upon.

So when exactly is it okay to pitch your business?

I mean, we can all say that we’re totally not pitching anything, but really most people are, aren’t they? In this blog, I am simultaneously striving to educate, striving to learn, and gently reminding you that I work for an agency that can help you do an awful lot of stuff. If a speaker goes to a conference right around the time their book is due to be published, don’t you expect to hear about the book somewhere in the conference, if not necessarily during the speech?

In the end, there has to come a time when you make the ask. When you announce your call to action. When you make your pitch.

Right?

Image by Kriss Szkurlatowski. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/hisks

A Tweet Is Worth 1,000 Words

by

Yesterday afternoon, during my lunch hour, I was cruising my Twitter stream when I came upon a tweet that stuck out like a sore thumb. It seemed mean. It seemed bigoted. It seemed rife with prejudice.

In light of everything going on in the world…in light of my recent work on Social Media Safety and working on decreasing cyber-bullying, I felt it was right to nip this in the bud. Even though the statement was not geared at anyone in particular, it was the kind of thing that just seemed like it could only feed hate.

I responded to the person. I told them I thought that their tweet was really inappropriate and that I was blocking them as a result.

When I got back from finishing lunch, I looked at the person’s profile (we all have our doubts). Turns out, they were of the group that I thought they were prejudiced against.

As it turns out, my behavior in this scenario was the result of my own perspective, and the result of my not knowing this person well enough to know the context. As it turns out, this person’s single tweet defined them for me, and it defined them incorrectly.

I do not feel good about the situation even though I know that I thought I was doing something good. Out of this experience, I hope I can remind everyone that you can’t bank on context when it comes to Twitter. An inside joke, an aside, a sarcastic comment – they are all read individually and at different times throughout the day.

Be careful.

Image by frédéric dupont. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/patator

#30Thursday Number Eight (Keep ’em straight)

by

Another varied rainbow of topics this week. I am very happy that one of the recommendations I received was from a new Twitter user recommending a first-time post. That is what the giving spirit of Social Media is all about. All of these posts are insightful, thought-provoking, and rich like the best chocolate fudge. I hope you enjoy!

1. If you don’t get riled up and excited by this post, you need to check your pulse! Recommended by Amber Cleveland, Lou Imbriano’s post, “Believe in you and success will come.” What a great read!

2. Jessica Faye Carter wrote a really interesting article for Mashable called Why Twitter Influences Cross-Cultural Engagement. I saw this in a tweet from Kay Whitaker. The article points out that Twitter not only gathers people together culturally, but it also reveals in the open information about those cultures. Very interesting!

3. This post by @ajleon called Rise of the Cubicle Farmer is awe-inspiring in so many different ways that I can’t list them all here. Take my word for it. Read this post.

4. My friend @galactic tweeted out this article from Ad Age noting what agencies can learn about branding from Mad Men. There is some icy cold truth in those there parts!

5. @markwschaefer did a post that got me and a lot of other people thinking: What is Social Media’s Next Big Thing. Do you agree? Even if you don’t, what a great approach and post!

6. Dan Rockwell (@Leadershipfreak) wrote an important reminder called You Not Them. It’s probably not what you think. Give it a read!

7. Brian Solis offers another great read, this one regarding Twitter and its new (and building) ad network. Take a look at Twitter promoted to ad network. My friend @galactic tweeted out this post.

8. Jason Mikula (@Mikulaja) wrote a great post about what could have been a bad experience. In Customer Service in the Social Media Era,” Jason exposes the ultimate truth – if you know how to do customer service right, it doesn’t matter what tool you use.

9. Beth Harte tweeted out this post by William C Taylor, which was posted for Harvard Business Review. Why is it so hard to be kind? This post will make you think hard about business today.

10. Dan Zarrella recently told AMP Summit that content may not be the whole story. Jesse Stanchak reported for Smartblogs.com (@SBoSM)

11. My friend @wilsonellis pointed me in the direction of the Twitter Blog, of all places. Seems the designers of Twitter are going out amongst the people, @Ontheroad

12. One of the many reasons I want to be Beth Harte when I grow up is that she always manages to turn a point in such a way that you think, “Man, of COURSE!” Having read a post about how to send information out, Beth wrote a post of her own called Is Your Message Understood.” This is how you go from the “me” perspective to the “you.”

13. CateTV suggested I read this post by Kim Randall. Turns out, it’s a topic that has become near and dear to my heart. In the world is cruel, but we don’t have to be, Kim makes a poignant point for ending cyber-bullying, and bullying in general.

14. Reading The Referral Engine, by John Jantsch, was a great experience. I was so happy to find this great post, How Ducttape Marketing Legend John Jantsch Uses Social Media,  by Trey Pennington. The interview and post are about how John integrates Social Media into his approach. I like especially how Trey does a video interview but then adds his own content. Too often people let a video do all of the talking for them.

15. The people of Sterling Hope write 5 reasons they do not follow/follow back (otherwise known as automatically following back) on Twitter.

16. Few things are more fun than seeing 2 friends connect with each other on Twitter. Such is the case in this post by my friend Jeff the Sensei, wherein he is sparked to write a post by another friend, Tommy Walker. Check out A Sensei Perspective on Facebook. It’s a humdinger of a homerun!

17. Speaking of which, if you want a really fresh, new and brilliant take on Facebook, check out Tommy’s post about his new e-book, Hack the Social Network. I’ve read it. It’s fantastic. Read more! 🙂

18. I really enjoyed the mixture of humor and information in this post by @oneJillian: “5 words you should definitely always never say.” She always makes great points 🙂

19. My good friend @SMSJoe wrote a great post regarding What A Chilean Mine Disaster Can Teach Us About Leadership. Extending beyond the event, Joe pulls out some lessons for us to learn.

20. Matt Shaw talks about habits, and how creating habits can line the path to success, no matter what you want that end destination to be!

21. My friend Peter Osborne finds that sometimes, as a consultant, he runs into “problem clients.” Here’s some great advice on how to deal with those tricky situations!

22. @gagasgarden recommended this debut post from Sebastian St. George (@YogaArmy) regarding the Gap branding fiasco. Show some support to a brand new blogger!

23. Ever heard of the Oui Theory? I hadn’t either, but Gaga has us covered in this very interesting post!

24. @pushingsocial’s jewel of the week is on how to get your Tweets noticed. A must read. As usual!

25. Suzanne Vara once again does an outstanding job of not just updating her readers about what’s new on LinkedIn but also walking through how to make the most of new customization options in the profile. A great read, complete with screen captures!

26. This post by Amber Naslund (ambercadabra) got a lot of buzz on Twitter, and rightfully so! Social Media is more than a campaign. An important reminder!

27. My friend Heidi Cohen wrote a great post covering 5 tactics for improved trade show marketing. A great and thorough post!

28. Wondering what BlipTV is all about? My friends at eMentorMarketing have you covered!

29. Megan Knight, an intern for my friend Dawn Westerberg, wrote a truly amazing post about how Social Media can help nonprofits. Very well done!

30. Finally, a great post by @MayaREguru. Tool or Technique? Or said another way, does it matter which tool is better, or does it matter what you can do with the tools you have?