Margie Clayman

Every Monday on Twitter, you see a hashtag for #MM or #MMChat. This stands for “Marketer Monday.” The morsels below have to do with different facets of marketing in general. Hope you enjoy! Let me know of any great marketing morsels you’ve found!

I really enjoyed this post by Heidi Cohen the first time I read it. “Listening is the New Black” summarizes her understanding of Chris Brogan’s speech at DMA in October 2010. It’s particularly apropos today because Mr. Brogan will be hosting #MMChat tonight! (@ 8 PM EST!)

Since tonight’s topic will be the role of influencers in cause marketing, I thought I’d also hearken back to one of the most amazing posts I’ve ever read – Jeff Wilson’s The Great Influence Debate

Elaine Fogel wrote an interesting post about cause marketing a few days ago. She notes, in her post for the MarketingProfs blog, that men care just as much as women do about cause marketing. The current Movember movement is a great example!

My friend Stephane wrote a really really interesting post on green marketing a few days back. This is going to become an increasingly important topic for companies and marketers in the months and years to come.

This post by Tristan Bishop (@knowledgebishop) on renewable documentation is a nice partner for Stephane’s post!

A morsel from me awhile back on affiliate marketing. It stirred up quite a conversation. Have your thoughts changed since then? As you can see, I decided to stray away from affiliate marketing for now.

Those are my morsels for you today. Hope you enjoy!

image by Dominik Gwarek. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/kikashi

Over the last couple of weeks, I have witnessed some behavior online that has really made me rub my eyes in disbelief. Considering that I primarily use Social Media for professional reasons, and thus am mostly surrounded by people who are using it for the same reasons, my expectations are pretty high. I think maybe people just need to be reminded of a few things.

1. Social Media is called Social Media because part of the idea is to be social. Being social often involves mixing it up with other people. Even though you cannot see them, hear them, or touch them, all of your comments and tweets and likes and dislikes are pinging other human beings. Unless you are pinging bots. They probably don’t care how you treat them, and it’ll only come back to bite us when they take over the world. Be nice.

2. People work really hard, and what you see online is probably just a small portion of all of the work going on. Therefore, tearing someone’s work to shreds and saying “It’s not personal” will not always work, because it will feel pretty personal to that person.

3. Negativity tends to be negative. Even if it has a justifiable point, many people define negativity as being negative. Negative makes me sad. Don’t make me sad.

4. Bashing someone for bashing someone still means you are bashing someone.

5. Fighting publicly on a Social Media platform makes any and all parties involved look bad, no matter what the scenario. Take it to the dark alley of direct messages, email communications, or a Starbucks.

6. Social Media makes your flaws visible, but it also highlights what’s good in your existence. Take a look at the whole picture of what you have going on. Hint: If you have time to be on Social Media, you’re probably doing at least okay in life.

7. People don’t live in your head. All people can go by is the words flashing on their screens. Is your meaning clear without context?

8. Envy, impatience, hyper-snarkiness, and other modes of operation similar to those listed reflect poorly on you.

9. Sharing is a really good thing. Stealing is a really bad thing. Make sure you know the fine line that separates the two.

10. Whenever you feel you are about to get in a spat with someone, it might be a good idea instead to tweet something like, “Help the poor people of Haiti fight cholera,” or, “Can we help the children of Rwanda?” There’s more to life than Blogs and Twitter. Shocking, dreadfully shocking, but true.

Did I miss anything?

I’ve finally figured out the secret. I know now how everyone can end up a Social Media superstar. Are you ready?

Use YOUR brain.

I think that because some people have made such big names for themselves in this space, the temptation is to say, “Well, I’m going to do what they say worked for them, exactly how they did it, because it clearly *did* work for them.” There’s nothing wrong with leaders in this space offering that advice. There’s nothing wrong with reading it and even absorbing it. But you can’t just take it at face value, and I worry that a lot of people are. I am concerned that people read posts as if they were accepting a success-shaped cookie cutter. Social Media is not so simple. There cannot be only one way to do things. Social Media is powered by people, and what do you know about people? We’re all so remarkably different. Our goals are different. Our personalities are different. Our approaches are different. Our companies are different.

Here are some questions that I ask myself when I read a post by someone I admire in this field. These questions help me customize the primary nugget of advice for my own purposes.

1. Does this person’s goal set resemble mine in any way? They are expressing what has helped them achieve their goals, so that’s important. If they have very different goals, I analyze what they are saying and see if I can use the knowledge there to reach my own goals.

2. How long has this person been in this space? They may be pulling on experiences from 2-3 years ago. Twitter and the Blogosphere, from what I understand, have evolved a great deal in that time. What can I use given my own experience in this space?

3. What is the main point this person is trying to make? Do I agree with that? If I do, then the mechanics don’t really matter. I have a prize that I’m shooting for. If I don’t, then I can analyze the mechanics and see if there is something there I could learn from anyway.

If you choose any leader in Social Media, and you look at his or her story, you will see that they approached the huge canvas of Social Media, chose a corner, and painted whatever they wanted to. Then they got really good at it, and then they started to tell the rest of the canvas about it. The key is not to learn how they approach any one facet of what they do. The key is to look at the big picture. How did they find the success that equates to the success you want to have?

Use YOUR brain. Don’t try to be “the next so and so.” They’ve already done that. Take what they have learned and what others have learned, apply it to your own unique situation, and become the very first YOU. If that is your goal, then nothing else matters. Until that is your goal, you will be driving yourself crazy because everything will matter. It really is all about you…in the best way possible.

Image by Paul Brunskill. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/bigdodaddy

After weeks and weeks of being haunted about Klout by friends like Cristian Gonzales, Tom Moradpour, Chase Adams, and Maya Paveza, I decided that maybe I should give the thing a fair look with a wide open mind. I thought I would do so in a public venue so that I could share my experiences with you. I hope to hear your thoughts too!

It seems like this week was one of THOSE weeks for an awful lot of people. I think everyone is ready to unplug for a few days and spend time with the people who matter most to us. Amidst all of the fatigue and stress, I’ve seen a lot of blogs and tweets this week about things that are wrong with Social Media. I get it. Earlier this week I was right there with you. But all things told, when I sit down a week from yesterday, just before I begin to stuff myself as if I was the turkey, I will express gratitude for this space, along with many other things in my life.

I started this blog almost exactly 7 months ago, which is also when I started taking Twitter a bit more seriously. I am thankful for so much about what the last 7 months have brought me, and so, even though it seems negativity is the order of the day, I’d like to take note of some of the positive things I’ve garnered from my Social Media experience so far.

1.  I was able to engage in real-time chats with people in all different facets of the marketing in world in which I live and work. I would not have my ideas sharpened, challenged, honed, and molded. Not just “Twitter chats” officially, but chats with people just haphazardly because we were online at the same time.

2. I was able to witness the beautiful process of people evolving from unsure to leaders, from strangers to key community members. People like @grit08 and @gagasgarden, who both introduced themselves to me as unsure of how to “do” Twitter, are now integral members of my community and the communities of many other people.

3. I have been able to watch networking in action like I never would have been able to witness before through people like @CateTV and @MayaREGuru. It would be enough if folks like these were just friends with you, but they introduce you to other people. They forge connections for you when you don’t even know you’re looking. It’s a wonder to watch.

4. I have been able to read books and then converse with the authors. When does that happen?

5. I have written words. A lot of words. And people have done me the immense honor of not only reading but also responding. It is a perpetual gift of time and effort and thought for which I am immensely grateful.

6. In the short time I have been in this space, I have seen three successful fundraisers for people in need. I’m sure there are tons more that are just beyond my radar.

7. Social Media has helped me keep abreast of the ever changing world that is Social Media, which has helped me keep our clients aware of what is going on where.

8. I was able to find extremely helpful forums for advice and growth – Third Tribe and 501 Mission Place, because of my involvement in Social Media.

9. I have been able to start a new blog and a weekly chat with the intent of addressing bullying, and I have been able, already, to help network people who need help with people who can help. I could not have done that without Social Media.

10. I not only have had the privilege of befriending people like @pushingsocial, @mentormarketing, and @dwesterberg, @j2_whittington, and @galactic, but I have watched all of these people, and more, evolve into true leaders. The opening was there for them to grow and develop into leaders, and they charged right on through.

11. I have watched my friend @REALChaseAdams create one of the most innovative and fastest growing groups I’ve seen on Twitter and on Facebook.

12. I have been able to watch friends like @exopoirier, @suzannevara, and @SMSJoe receive acclaim for talents and leadership I already had seen in them. Few things are more rewarding.

13. I have been able to place before myself a challenge of building a community out of the millions of people using a site called Twitter. I have worked hard and have begun to carve out a cozy community for myself, where I can alternately quote Barry Manilow and talk about Google Analytics. Sometimes all in 140 characters.

14. I have been able to witness acts of kindness that would be hard to find in the offline world. People have said things to me that have made me teary-eyed for the kindness of it. People have done things for me, unasked for, unexpected, because they wanted to help me succeed. Where else does that happen?

15. And yes, on Turkey Day, I will be thinking with wonder about all of the amazing, talented, kind, brilliant people I have met in less than 1 year. Was there really a time when I didn’t know Tristan, Deb, Jeannette, Ann, Beth, Marsha, Roy, Lisa Alexander, Mack, Tom, Tommy, Kyle, Allen, Chris, Stan, Maya, and Suzanne? It was only 7 months ago? How this community of people has enriched my life, my work, my professional goals and skills, the way I think, the way I live. Truly, if you can’t be grateful to Social Media for anything else, you can be grateful that it can give you an opportunity to meet golden people like these.

I know that the times are hard and uncertain still. Numbers in the WSJ don’t always tell the whole story. But it is during tough times that days like Thanksgiving are especially important. It’s when times are tough that it seems easiest to talk about what stinks about this, that, or the other thing. And Social Media is by no means perfect. There are plenty of times when I think about throwing my computer out the window. But truthfully, Social Media has been a road to too many good things, too many good people.

If you think about it, I’ll bet the same is true for you.