Marjorie Clayman’s Writing Portfolio

Professional writing profile of Marjorie Clayman

Archives for February 2011

I’m calling you out

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I saw a post over the weekend that really had me thinking I was living in a Monty Python film. Here’s the jist of what it was about.

Someone made a tweet.

Another person saw the tweet and called the first person out because they felt something was wrong with the tweet.

So then, according to this post, a third person called out the second person, saying they really shouldn’t have called out the first person.

The post itself was kind of calling out all 3 people.

Really? Are we all on a playground and really interested in pushing, shoving, and then telling on each other? Um, like, totally yuck.

So, that’s it. I’m calling you out.

Why “calling out” is detrimental

Apart from the fact that I generally hate the phrase “calling out” (I don’t know why, this hatred is irrational), there are some really good reasons not to engage in this “calling out” behavior online. Here are just a few.

• If you “call out” people a lot, your profile is going to look like just a bunch of snipey, snarky comments. Now, if you’re going for that, I don’t want to stand in your way. But first impressions and all that…

• If you keep calling out the same person, people are going to assume that you are feeling a little green. Not nauseous (although maybe), but envious. Even if you have the greatest points in the world, if you keep picking at the same person in a public venue, you will start looking pouty to other people.

• People will start becoming afraid of talking to you because they don’t want to say something that will cause you to call them out. People are unaware of your call-out boundaries, you see.

And now, ways to discuss rather than call out

This is not meant to be a muzzle. I’m not placing a mask over your face reminiscent of Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. I don’t even have such a mask, if you want the truth. I fully believe that most things can be debated. Is the sky blue? Eh, I don’t know. I see it as aqua. See? But there are ways to debate in a civil fashion and then there is the kind of icky, immature, slightly irritating “calling out” methodology.

So, how can you debate a point with someone so that other people can learn what you are trying to teach without you throwing pie in someone’s face? Well, here are some ideas.

• “I just saw your tweet and am wondering why you approached it that way. Care to share? You can DM me if you want.”

• “I had heard that tweeting the way you just did is not considered a best practice. What is your objective in tweeting that way?”

• “Hey, I just noticed your tweet and I think you may have forgotten to….”

See? Isn’t that just as good as listening to a CD of the ocean or practicing some Yoga and meditation? The calmness of it all just will wash over your Twitter stream, and everyone will not only lower their respective blood pressures but they will also learn (or ask you to expand upon) your point.

What a great deal!

And that’s not all

You may think I’m offering you quite a deal here. A calm Twitter stream, helping your followers learn things, and looking all grown up all in one fell swoop? What could possibly be added to this great deal?

Well, if you approach someone you disagree with from a standpoint of wanting to learn and teach, you might actually end up developing a relationship of respect or even (wait for it) appreciation. That’s right, building a conversation and then a continuing interaction around an initial disagreement can actually be the foundation for an extremely strong friendship.

Holy cow. What a deal!

The downside

I understand that calling out has a lot of perks. To be completely transparent, here are some downsides of refraining from the “call-out” methodology.

• You may not get to present yourself as the top authority on everything ever

• Your traffic may not spike as much as it does when you call someone out

• You don’t get to take your angst out on a person who lives in your computer -a punching bag may be in your future.

• You may not get as much attention in general if you refrain from “calling out” people who have big Social Media followings. A puppy may be in your future.

And there are probably other downsides that I’m just not thinking of. You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons, I guess, and decide in which direction you wish to travel.

So what do you think?

Can we maybe move away from the “I’m calling you out” end of the spectrum and maybe move a bit more towards grown-up conversation? I’m not asking you to use phrases like “My respected colleague” on Twitter. I mean, I’m not that much of an idealist. But maybe kind of inching towards that way, it could be nice, right? Maybe?

Weigh in on this issue, woncha please? I promise, I won’t call you out.

Born a Brand on Twitter: the Awful Truth

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This awesome addition to the Your Social  Media Journey is by my friend (and one of my mentors), Lisa Petrilli. Lisa’s bio and contact info are at the bottom of the post.

I was born a Twitter Brand.

You see, my first foray into the world of Twitter was on behalf of a client that, like many companies and organizations interested in social media today, wanted to “just try it out.”

It seemed like a great way to generate awareness for a brand that was virtually invisible to its target market.  So, with a little guidance from a member of this organization who was already an active Twitterer, I created a profile with the company’s name, my photo, and a bio focused on the company that stated I was tweeting on its behalf.

Sounds great, right?

Here’s where the company went wrong:

1.  I was authorized to broadcast but not to engage

We all know that the word “social” when placed before the word “media” is being used as an adjective.  The organization wanted to use a form of media that was meant to be used socially solely for broadcasting purposes.

Good example of the extent of this? I sent a, “Happy Birthday and thanks for all you do” tweet from the organization to a very active member of the organization who is also quite active on Twitter and was told it was “inappropriate…”

2. I wasn’t given adequate resources (read: time) to support the account

I am not the kind of person who will tweet something without reading it, nor without believing it holds value to my followers and represents my own – or the organization’s – values and brand.  Thus, it takes time to read through items to post and determine what is worthy of broadcasting.

Given my allocation of approximately 8 minutes per day for Twitter, to say this was challenging would be an understatement.

On the flipside, here’s what I know I did right to counter-balance:

1. I broadcasted others’ information much more often than the organization’s

I learned over time the importance of this, but I believe I knew it intrinsically because I see Twitter as a powerful enabler of networking.  A key tenet of networking has always been to give freely without expecting anything in return.

Thus, I made sure to post important items that members wrote and to retweet them whenever possible and appropriate for the brand.  My commitment to this was key to member engagement with the organization’s Twitter account.

2. I sought out important and highly relevant industry news and insights

I fully believe that one reason the account did gain followers with a broadcast-only strategy was my commitment to post news, information and insights that represented the intellectualism and business discipline of the brand.  These tweets were valuable to followers.

3. I created a hash tag for the brand

By creating a brand hash tag and encouraging members to use it, a vehicle was developed that enabled members to track conversations and easily identify information that fellow members were posting.

The harsh reality hits home

When the importance of engaging on Twitter in a genuinely social way became clear to me, I created my own personal profile (@Lisa Petrilli), loaded my photo and personal bio, and replaced my photo in the organization’s profile with its logo.  I had simply come to realize that without the “ok” to infuse a bit of myself into the organization’s account, I didn’t feel comfortable having my photo aligned with it.

It was at that point that I felt I was “truly born” on Twitter because I was on it, finally, as the real me – opinions, insights, introverted observations, birthday messages and all!  And I was finally creating real relationships.

Since that time I’ve developed friendships solely because of Twitter; friendships I’m thankful for each and every day.  And my Twitter relationships have led to new business and new opportunities for me and my Twitter connectors. They have also been a source of great inspiration that I have shared with my clients!

Moral of the Story

To engage or not to engage? Brands will reap the most fruitful harvest by engaging as their “real selves” every single time.

~

Lisa Petrilli is Chief Executive Officer of C-Level Strategies, Inc.  She works with clients as an Executive Marketing Strategist, Leadership Consultant and Social Media Concierge.  She has vast experience working with C-level executives, creating business visions, leading teams, running million-dollar businesses, providing executive leadership training and implementing Herculean initiatives.

Lisa is Co-Founder and Co-Host of #LeadershipChat which occurs every Tuesday evening at 8:00 pm Eastern Time, the Creator and Former Executive Editor of the 18-blogger MENG Blend Blog, a Contributing Blogger and Key Advisor to the Content Marketing Institute,  a Contributing Author to MarketingProfs and a Guest Blogger at Blue Focus Marketing, LeadSwag and more.

She is open to considering new consulting engagements working directly with executives and the C-Suite across industries in the areas of marketing, leadership and social media.  You can email her at Lisa@CLevel Strategies.com and connect with her on Twitter @LisaPetrilli.  To subscribe to her blog via email Subscribe Here and to receive posts via reader Subscribe Here.

Photo is Blooming Lily by suchitra prints.

Interview with Maya Paveza, Founder of The Hip Roof!

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My friendship with Maya Paveza began on Twitter a few months ago. I was going through my stream and saw that she was watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so I chipped in and started quoting lines. Up until that time, I had kept my Twitter presence pretty button-down (read boring) and hadn’t really understood that you could actually interact with people as yourself.

As our friendship grew, Maya began telling me about her dream – a site by and for Real Estate Agents. Now, after much blood, sweat, tears, and help from Human Business Works, the site is just hours away from hard launch. As a proud contributor to the new site as well as an
affiliate, I thought I would give Maya an opportunity to explain her vision in her own words here. I hope you enjoy!

To learn more about Maya, visit the about section of The Hip Roof!

1. What do you feel is the biggest challenge facing REALTORS right now?

Great question Margie, first off though I want to clairfy something, a REALTOR is a member of the National Association of REALTORS(tm), a real estate licensee is not required to be a member of NAR, most states have their own licensing standards and laws governing the real estate licensee and the real estate broker, there might be other categories that fall into a
similar mold like associate broker, and so on.


The bigggest challenge is probably the current market conditions and the
media spin on the situation. Rates are low, prices are low, it is an amazing
time to buy a house, but if you are buying for the right reasons. With
regard to this site the biggest challenge for real estate agents is to
understand why they need to be in the social media spaces and the essence of
the community and interactions. It is tough to try to do something without
having an idea about the reasons and philosophy behind it. That is one of the
main goals of THR.

2. How will The Hip Roof assist Real Estate agents with these challenges?

The site isn’t here to address the current challenges in the market, as the
market will shift, historically it always does, to only be here for that
would really be a limited reason for existence. We are here to help real
estate agents be better at all times, no matter the market condition. To
learn new skills and techniques, to improve on what they are already doing,
to work on time management – which is a huge problem for many real estate
agents. To share systems that work, as well as other successes and idea. We
offer the agents an amazing educational community website with the premiere
collection of real estate experts in a variety of the social spaces, as well
as regular business development and coaching for real estate.

There are constantly events going on around the world for real estate agents
to attend to learn and expand their business, but travel isn’t always an
option, or affordable, so THR brings all those resources, and many of the
experts directly to you. The difference is that almost all of our
contributors are working real estate professionals, I truly believe you
can’t help an agent succeed if you aren’t doing it yourself.

3. How will you measure the success of The Hip Roof?

I think it is tough to measure success as a metric most of the time, to me success is that each member gets some benefit from the site, they learn something, share something or make a connection for a referral network. Yes I will also be introducing my eBooks shortly with corresponding courses, and if they follow what I suggest they will see success in lead generation and new business. We will also have coaching, and some amazing interviews. It
will be difficult not to succeed since everyone is contributing as a member,
there are no “right ways” to do anything, there are just a lot of different
ways to do them successfully. It will be a very useful mastermind community
too.

4. How do you envision The Hip Roof a year from now? Five years from now?

A year from now I hope we are growing still, offering value, and evolving to
meet the needs of the community. The software platforms the site is built on
are incredible and nearly limitless in what can be done. I would love it to
be the default “go-to” for real estate agents, and industry partners, who
want to learn and share. I hope we will be keeping up with all the latest
innovations and technologies, that is part of the benefit of the many
contributors, the aggregation of experience and expertise is powerful, and
diverse.

Five years? Probably more of the same, just continuous growth and expansion
to meet the members needs. Perhaps we will have added a consumer facing side
to field questions of our expert members. Maybe even add some continuing
education for some areas if they need it.

5. What is included in a membership to the site?

The membership includes full access to all the site content, including three
weekly webinars – the Sunday Night Open forum, Monday “Experts Interview
Series” which kicks off with Ben Kinney on 2/28, and the “Hot Topic” weekly
learning webinar on Thursdays. That is available to all our agent members,
and partner members. Beyond that the partner members each have their own
private forums, what an office leader might need to talk about has little to
do with the agents, the lending partners can talk amongst themselves, and so
on.

What many people don’t realize is that real estate agents (and brokers)
exist behind a “cone of silence” as I call it. We can’t talk with the
consumer about a variety of things, those things are included in state
license laws, Federal fair housing guidelines and for REALTORS the code of
ethics. So this gives the community a safe place to interact and talk
through a variety of daily challenges we might have.

6. Why a site just for Real Estate Agents?

It is a site for real estate professionals and our industry partners, the
people we work with on a regular basis, who also have some of the same
guidelines and limitations on what they can talk about.

I think there needs to be a place for real estate agents with content by
real estate agents. There seems to be this uprising starting where agents
are saying “Stop telling us what to do if you haven’t done it, stop selling
to us”, they want to understand, to be taught by those who are doing it
actively.

I think The Hip Roof compliments other systems, as an educational community
without a brand affiliation it allows agents to share at the most common
level – as real estate professionals. I think if a member finds value here
they should also consider IMSD, the juxtaposition is a great one in
technique, then they should also learn to blog and become an active part of
the Active Rain community. But there are other great programs out there – we
work well with them all – from the new REALTOR ePro designation to the great
stuff that Jim Marks and Tom Ferry do.

There are a lot of people doing amazing things in real estate around the
world, this site offers them a place to share those things. And a safe place
to talk about the challenges we face everyday as commissioned sales people.
Take a peek at what The Hip Roof is all about if you are interested!

The 2 deadliest mistakes your company or brand can make

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There are a lot of mistakes companies or individuals can make. Most of them are forgivable. Take the Social Media blunder that the American Red Cross had to deal with this month – not a very pleasant situation, but you still know that the Red Cross is a strong organization.

There are some things, though, that a company just can’t seem to overcome, or if they do, it takes a REALLY long time. There are two mistakes in particular that spell absolute doom for a company or brand’s reputation.

1. Make a promise and then break it

Trust is a sort of mushy word, so marketers and Social Media folk stay away from it a lot of the time. However, if you think about it, trust is one of the keys that influence us in terms of who we buy from, who we work with, and who we listen to. All you have to do to see proof of how much damage this mistake can cause is to look at Toyota. Toyota made a business out of promising that they were the safest, most reliable car on the roads. The only thing that was as important was the Toyota customer. The rash of horrible accidents that occurred because of the brake pad malfunction broke promise number one. Finding out that Toyota kind of knew about that and didn’t say anything broke promise number two.

Will Toyota ever be able to gain that trust back? They’re working hard at it, but certainly for the families and friends affected by those accidents, it will take many years and a whole lot of effort to win back that relationship.

Not all broken promises result in death and injury, thank goodness, but they can leave an awfully bitter taste in peoples’ mouths. Whether you promise a product by a certain time or whether you promise to do something for someone in the online world, a broken word is comparable to a broken back for your company or brand.

2. Set expectations and don’t deliver

Setting expectations is a bit different from making promises, although in the end it could be a matter of semantics. When you make a promise, you literally say, “I promise that this is so.” or “I promise I will do this.” Setting expectations can be a bit more convoluted. You can drop a lot of hints, for example. You can have verbal conversations that don’t get taken down into the written word. A lot of expectations are set based on how people understand their relationship with you. If they trust you (there’s that word again) they are likely to think that the expectation you are setting is as good as a promise.

If you do not deliver on your expectations, the feeling you create in your customer or even your friend can be equivalent to the feeling a broken promise creates. People do not like to feel like they have been jerked around. People do not like to feel stupid. If your actions create those sentiments in people, your company or brand will suffer for it, and it again will take a long time and a lot of effort to claw back up that hill.

Mistake Prevention

There are two sad things about these two deadly mistakes. The first is that they are grossly common. The second is that they are so easily preventable. It would have been easy for Toyota to say, as soon as they identified the brake pad problem, that something was going on that needed to be fixed. It would have been easy for BP to be more forthcoming about information regarding the Gulf oil spill, right?

In the online world, these mistakes are especially easy to fall into. You’re not shaking hands with people. You’re not looking people in the eye, and it’s really, really easy to type things without thinking about what they really mean. For example, if you type that you are going to review someone’s blog and then you never do, that might not even appear as a blip on your radar. For the person you told, however, that could be a point against you. If you make a bigger promise or set a bigger expectation and don’t follow through, the ramifications can get exponentially more serious.

To prevent these scenarios, try to do the following:

1. Think before you type. How is the other person likely to view this promise or set expectation?

2. Ask yourself if you can actually deliver on what you are promising. You are far better off to say, “Gosh, I just can’t give that the time it deserves.”

3. Pull the band-aid off quickly, but with care. If you promise something and then realize you can’t do it, tell the person right away. “I know I promised to do xyz, but something came up and I’m just swamped. I’m really sorry about that.”

Three easy steps that can save you, your brand, your customers, and your community a lot of heart ache.

What do you think?

Are there mistakes that are more deadly than these? How can those mistakes be prevented? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

http://www.sxc.hu/profile/greschoj

what a candy store can teach you about Social Media

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There is a wonderful, wonderful candy store near where I live. They are really famous for two goodies – chocolate covered oreos and chocolate covered strawberries, but everything they make is to die for.

I go into this store maybe 3 times a year (if I went more, I’d be exploding from too much weight). I always lust after the boxes – especially the boxes of their chocolate covered, nutty, marshmallowy loaves. It’s gluttonous and the boxes are kind of expensive, so usually – usually – I end up settling for these little sample-sizes they have. Two pieces per package, or maybe a bag of mini-oreos. But once, I went in and decided that I was really going to treat myself. I passed right by the usual sample varieties and got myself a box.

This story does not have a happy ending, though. When I got home, I saw that when they said “loaf,” they meant loaf. It was a 12″ long, 4 inch wide candy bar, essentially. And after picking off a piece or two, I realized it was way too much. I didn’t want it. I had been much happier with the variety that the smaller bite-sized chunks had given me.

I worry that you might be headed that way with your plans for the online world.

What is the giant candy loaf of Social Media?

In the world of social media, it seems like a lot of people are aiming to be the next big thing. It seems very achievable because as we’ve talked about before, on the surface, being a Social Media wunderkind seems kind of easy. You just tweet a lot and blog consistently, right? And what do you get? Tons of followers. Tons of fans. Tons of blog comments. Tons of connections. It seems like a world of sweetness and wonder only matched by a giant chocolate nutty marshmallowy loaf.

But there’s a catch. Being the next big thing means doing a lot more than what meets the eye. It’s hard to take little bite-sized chunks out of something that big. You can’t make as many deep connections, maybe, or maybe your handful of emails that you could respond to right away have multiplied into an army of emails that are driving you nuts and making you feel bad.

Pretty quickly, your great big dream can turn into something that is just making you feel kind of sick. You can get burnt out. You can get tired of the whole darned thing. And then what?

Make sure you can live with what you’re dreaming of

One thing you can say about something like a mini-oreo or a single piece of candy – you can eat it. You know you can. In fact, you can even luxuriate in the experience. You want to make it last. And yet, when you’re done, you feel content. You’re satisfied. You’re not really needing 75 more pieces of the same thing.

In the world of Social Media, there are things you can do that are just like that. You can build your community carefully and luxuriate in the experience of getting to know lots and lots of special people. You can refine your writing so that you are creating blog posts you’re really proud of. You can work on answering questions in LinkedIn so that you can really make an impact there. Each of these things can be really rewarding. They can also keep you plenty busy.

Do you really need to be the next big thing?

What do you think?

Image by Zsuzsanna Kilian. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/nkzs

The Social Media Beginner’s Tool Kit

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It’s coming up on the year anniversary of when I started blogging, tweeting, and doing other such things. I have learned so much over the last year that it seems pretty hard to believe it has only been a matter of months that I’ve been in this world. I can’t wait to see where I am a year from now!

In the meantime, I have been reflecting on some of the resources that have helped me immensely over the last several months, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to share them, and others, with you.

Books

They say that hindsight is 20/20. If I was starting my Social Media efforts right now, as you might be, I’d start out by reading the following books, in this order.

UnMarketing, by Scott Stratten

Content Rules, by Ann Handley and CC Chapman

Trust Agents, by Julien Smith and Chris Brogan

The Now Revolution, by Amber Naslund and Jay Baer

In my defense, only Trust Agents was published at the time that I started. Still, no excuses!

Must read blogs

ChrisBrogan.com (Chris Brogan’s Blog): The idea of interweaving humanity into my online presence was molded as a result of reading Chris’s blog religiously. There’s always a ton of other great info over there, too!

PushingSocial.com (Stanford Smith’s Blog): Stan focuses most on blogging (and with good reason, he’s a master), but he is also a great source for motivation!

CopyBlogger.com (founded by Brian Clark): Content, content, content – and great Social Media tips as well.

ProBlogger.net (founded by Darren Rouse): Lots of other posts about content creation as well as how to make a living from your blog.

DeniseWakeman.com (Denise Wakeman’s blog): Denise is a blog queen and her own blog is always full of helpful information. I learned an awful lot from her when I was first starting out.

DawnWesterberg.com (Dawn Westerberg’s blog): Social Media and marketing wisdom plus a sunshiny disposition.

Kherize5.com/blog (Suzanne Vara’s Blog): Social Media and how to market your company online.

MarketingProfs Blog: A constantly updated resource that is worth checking daily.

People to follow on Twitter

Look for the following hashtags:

#blogchat (Sunday night chat, begins at 9 PM EST)

#tweetdiner (Saturday night chat, begins at 9 PM EST)

#usguys (24/7 conversation with some of my favorite people in the online world)

and look for the following people (among others)!

@OneJillian

@qstreet

@KnowledgeBishop

@FredMcClimans

@REALChaseAdams

@SuzanneVara

@debmorello

@myagenda

@solete

@carlsorvino

@ckburgess

@pprothe

@pushingsocial

@dwesterberg

@dannybuntu

@ianmrountree

These folks are just a few of the ones who have helped me get to where I am (wherever that may be). Tell ’em I said they have to be good!

Posts to read right away!

I highly recommend reading these posts. Some of them helped me when I first got started, and others would have helped me if they had been written at the time!

50 Power Twitter Tips, Chris Brogan

Why Smart Readers Prefer Dumb Bloggers, Stanford Smith

How to be a Twitter Champion, Heidi Cohen

Is there a crisis in crisis management? Cheryl Burgess

You, me, the internet, and the war for attention, Tommy Walker

5 grammatical errors that make you look dumb, Brian Clark

This is why you don’t bury your blog’s gold, Mack Collier

I’ve also written a few posts to help you out if you’re just getting started:

Ten Tricks for Twitter Newbies

1 month, 40 blogging action items

1 month, 40 Twitter action items

Do you have resources that have helped along the way? Let me know!

Image by Jean Scheijen. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/vierdrie