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If you have ever experienced sub-zero temperatures, you know that what the local newspeople do to get you hooked in is they promise a warm-up. Now, when your high is 8 degrees, a warm-up could be something like, say, 20 degrees. A high of 30, well, that would be swimsuit weather. Of course, if your high was recently 60 degrees, this wouldn’t be a warm-up at all. It’s all relative.

The more you engage in Social Media, whether it’s blogging or Twitter or some combination of sites, the more you see that everyone’s experience is relative to their own specific situation. This inspired me to create a new theory of relativity (sorry Mr. Einstein).

E=MC2 -> Everyone = My Concerns Squared

What does that mean? It means that it’s probably best if you assume that everyone feels that they have what you have on your table plus 2-3 more tables of stuff. And they could say the same about you. This is what makes everything relative. What size are those tables? Are the stacks on the table really high, or is it just that the whole surface of the table is invisible? Maybe someone just has a full plate.

Let’s look at some ways that relativity can impact some of your Social Media goals.

What is your gold?

There was a great article posted to CopyBlogger yesterday called How to find the gold in your business, by Johnny B. Truant. The article begins with the story of one of Johnny’s clients, who is dismayed because blog traffic is going down. The article goes on to point out, however, that while the traffic had gone down, the client had made 2 sales. So, did the decreased traffic matter in the end? It depends, but probably, the sales are weighted a bit more than how many eyes see a blog.

Now, let’s talk about relativity. First, let’s look at 2 sales. Is that good? Maybe you and your particular business would need twice that much to feel encouraged. Maybe you would just need one. It’s like Eddie Izzard’s bit about lists of ingredients on foods. “Oh, 2% calcium…is that good, or will my teeth turn into chalk?”

Then of course, there’s the conversation about sales versus traffic. Not everyone who blogs is using the blog to make money, at least not directly. For me, traffic is one of my only metrics for success. If my traffic goes down, well, let’s just say it doesn’t make me chipper.

There are tons of other ways to slice and dice the “gold” that you have. Maybe comments are more important to you than sales or traffic. Maybe the subscribe button is your big thing. It’s all relative.

Competition

Now, how does this theory of relativity affect competition? I recently watched an episode of Kitchen Table Talks with Joe Sorge and Chris Brogan, and they were talking about how they approach competition. Both fellows noted that you can’t win a race by looking sideways. So, what does that have to do with relativity? Rather than thinking about a race, think about a marathon. As I’ve written before, Social Media, like a marathon, is a situation where everyone has their own goals, and really, ultimately, the goal is to “win” by finishing the race. Sure, it’s nice if you beat someone to the finish line, but even if you do, what will bug you is whether you beat your own time goal, right?

In the world of Social Media, the theory of relativity dictates that competing, or trying to compete, directly against other people is sort of a fool’s errand. They may not really care all that much if you have more traffic if they are after more subscribers. You might not care if you are getting trounced in comments if your goal is to build traffic.

So what does this mean to you?

You are experiencing Social Media in your own particular way. As we talked about yesterday, no one can live in your head and understand exactly what that experience is like for you. So, if you see someone complaining about the number of subscribers they have while you think that they are doing ridiculously well, just remember that they are experiencing Social Media in their own way. There is no cause for envy. There is no cause for saying, “This is wrong and this is right.”

This also means that you should set whatever benchmarks would be meaningful for you. If you want to shoot for the moon for certain reasons, do it. If you want to try to get one sale over a 3-month period, do that. It could be great for you even if it wouldn’t be a blip on the radar for someone else. There’s one person in this world who understands why you are making all of the decisions you are – and that’s you. Relative to everything else – that’s what really matters.

Make sense?

I know that it’s the fashion these days to speak of print and online advertising as if it’s something like a VHS tape or a butter churner. I have never been one to stick to what’s trendy, however. I did not cuff my pants in fourth grade. I did not wear bell bottoms in high school (bell bottoms and the fear of wearing them were why girls cuffed their pants when we were kids, by the way). I am not going to be fashionable in this regard either, I’m afraid. In fact, I am going to buck the trend and tell you five ways that a traditional media plan can enrich and enhance a Social Media Marketing campaign.

1. The Editorial Calendar Concept: The editorial calendar is not a Social Media invention: One thing I found kind of amusing when I first started interacting with the online world was that many Social Media experts (legitimate and/or so-called) offered the advice of using an editorial calendar for blogging as if the editorial calendar had been made for this purpose alone. In fact, magazines (yes, those things that are dead, dying, or mortally wounded) use editorial calendars to tell media buyers and advertisers what the content of each issue is going to be. The editorial calendars are published usually right around this time, so sometimes there will be shifts throughout the following year, and the categories are broad so that editors don’t get pinned into a corner.

What I haven’t seen a lot of talk about is the fact that a publication’s editorial calendar can be an extremely useful tool for content creation elsewhere, whether it’s a blog or a company Facebook page or an e-newsletter. It comes back to the fact that your customers are still your customers, no matter how you are talking to them. The person who is reading a professional publication or a relevant consumer publication is the same person whom you hope will visit your blog. Now imagine this scenario. Your customer reads a publication. They see your ad. They go to learn more about your company and they see you have a blog. And what are you posting about? A topic related to something they just read in that publication. It will draw your ad, the publication, and your Social Media presence together. You don’t have to create your own editorial calendar. They are out there already.

2. Haphazard is not an option: Well, I suppose it is an option, and I’ll detail all of this later, but suffice to say for now that the most effective way to plan any kind of campaign is to look at the big picture. When you are laying the foundation of your traditional media plan, you will see where Social Media and other media could work together. For example, you will see when different publications will offer bonus distribution at key trade shows or conferences. “Oh, I’m going there,” you might think to yourself. Mapping out your Social Media around your key trade shows or conferences in advance will allow you to do neat things like at-the-show interviews, contests, asking your Facebook fans to post pictures, and other interactive activities that are hard to put together on the fly.

3. Segmentation versus Drawing Together: In traditional media campaigns, you look at key publications to see who they reach. You look at titles, at geographical distribution, and details like that. You tend to find that different magazines and websites strive to do different things. Just thinking about one occupation, nursing, yields countless titles for specific nursing niches. Your traditional media plan can help you reach very specific targets that are important to your objective. All of those individual tributaries can then be interwoven (with a fair amount of planning) into your Social Media efforts, which can simultaneously talk to all of those individuals while also bringing all of your audience together.

4. The Dog Days: Media campaigns help you analyze what the slow times are in your industry. Most publications have a couple of issues planned throughout the year that don’t really offer key editorial. They might be buyers guides or “industry forecast” issues. The topics are usually very general with not much hard data because those are times when the audience is otherwise engaged. In some industries, July might be slow. In others, February might be a deadly month. Analyzing how publications treat the ebb and flow in your industry can help you approach your Social Media marketing in a smarter way. If you know that the world gets a bit quiet during a specific time period, then you can take that into consideration and budget that into your traffic projections and sales projections. You can know that maybe you can cut back on the blogging during that time period. You can use your efforts and time in a more expert way.

5. You’re where you should be: I know that we don’t like to talk about this, but online, it’s really easy to say that you are something when you are not. Credibility and trust are always hot topics not because they’re fun to talk about but because they are so important. If your Social Media campaign hinges on your reputation as an industry leader and yet your competitors are ruling the roost in key publications, the chances for a disconnect are huge. If you are an expert, why aren’t you contributing editorial to that publication? Why don’t you have your case studies published in there instead of in the notes section of Facebook? And let’s be honest – an ad means that you are spending money. The misconception that Social Media accounts are free can mean people might not think you are really investing a lot into your brand. As much as we like to say that advertising in print is unnecessary, people still know that ads cost money. If you invest in ad space and keep your Social Media marketing moving forward, you will demonstrate your dedication to your customers, your company, and your industry as a whole.

Too often, companies are being cornered into choosing between advertising and Social Media, as if one will lead them astray while the other will lead them forward unhindered. In fact, I think this is one of the most disconcerting trends in the marketing world right now. These are just five reasons why.

Do they make sense to you?

1st image by Maria Li. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/sateda

2nd Image by Jan Willem Geertsma. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/jan-willem

A couple of weeks ago, the results from the 2010 Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study were released. The major take-away from the study was that companies that show high alignment between sales and marketing tend to experience greater success. These companies, for example, are more likely to see increases in qualified leads, retention percentages, and customer billings.

Finding this study was a bit serendipitous, at least from my perspective. For the last couple of weeks, I have been encountering what I consider to be a false dichotomy. “Sales or Marketing.” Who is responsible for Social Media? Who is responsible for lead management? Who is responsible for guiding product managers? Sales or marketing echoes at the tale end of all of these questions. I keep feeling like I am missing something when these dichotomies are presented. Shouldn’t it be sales AND marketing?

The Miller Heiman Study makes me wonder how much success companies of all sorts are missing because of a failure to integrate employees and their efforts. Marketers have been talking about integrating marketing initiatives for a long time now, but somehow, the fact has gotten lost that a company’s success rests upon the ability of its people to work together, support each other, and strengthen each other.

Why does integration lead to success?

It doesn’t take long to realize the advantages of integrating the efforts of everyone under a company’s roof. Why, for example, would companies experience more success if their marketing and sales people were aligned?

• The marketing team could target the audience that the sales team feels has a high potential
• The sales team could report to marketing when sales or leads spike-marketing could take note of what initiatives correspond with the success
• The marketing team can deliver leads. The sales team can run with them
• The sales team can ask marketing for marketing pieces that would assist in nurturing leads and retaining customers

What if the PR department was integrated into this mix? What about the company’s leadership? What happens when these bridges of communication and shared knowledge don’t exist?

The Corporate Culture of Competition

I understand that in some companies, people or departments are pitted against each other. Some executives may believe that this kind of culture breeds stronger individuals or more efficient workers. In these kinds of environments, it is easy for people to equate knowledge with power. The more you share, the less power you have.

We are no longer in an era when this mode of operation is remotely beneficial.

Customers are needing service and support 24/7. Social Media is live and connected 24/7. The world is perpetually changing. Technology is perpetually changing. Is a silo culture really the best way to interact with that environment? Is it not better to come together, merging talents and experience so that changes can wash over the company like waves rather than tsunami?

It’s not a black-and-white world

People seem to be really excited about dichotomies these days. In Social Media, oppositional concepts are great ways to start conversations or to get replies. The reality, however, is that the perpetual “this or that” antagonistic perspective is unhealthy and very likely detrimental for a company. If you must envelope yourself in dichotomies, how about this one:

Silos or sales?

Social  Media is not the only place where information should be shared. The process needs to start within company walls and conference rooms. You might not know exactly what benefits you’ll see from this new approach. Do you know what you are losing by passing it up?

Image by Miles Pfefferle. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/TheUsher

Let me take you to a hopefully entirely hypothetical place.

Some giant computer virus has managed to do the unthinkable. It has wiped out Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, all of the sites that have been the darlings of marketers for the last few years.

You go in to work. The show must go on.

What do you do?

Where is your compass?

If the essence of your company has remained unchanged in the face of perpetual change, the answer to this question should not be difficult. In fact, the presence or destruction of the entire Social Media world should not inexorably alter how you interact with your clients or customers. It should not alter your company’s mission statement or philosophy.

Think about Zappos (it’s hard not to these days). Granted, they are getting a lot of buzz via Social Media, but do you think the entire heart of the company would crumble if they couldn’t tweet anymore? Social Media is not the way to happiness there. Taking care of customers is.

Are you resting the entire future of your company on this new networked revolution? Have you taken key words like “Listenomics” to heart to the point where little else is left?

Take a company EKG

Here’s an idea to try. Sit everyone down (or just sit down yourself) and tell them that you need a short write-up that will be your profile description on your company’s Facebook page. If you have a solid company mission and soul, the descriptions should be pretty close. There should be similar verbiage there. Here is what we do. Here is why we do it.

If you have your corporate heart intact, Social Media can certainly accentuate your positives. You know what keywords are important to you, so you’ll be able to optimize for them in sites like Facebook and Twitter. People will be able to find you easier. You’ll use the same language across all of your Social Media accounts, so your brand will become more familiar to people regardless of what site they are using. There won’t be a disconnect between reaching your company online or reaching your company by phone.

On the other hand, if this exercise explodes in your face, my recommendation would be to back away from Social Media until you get sorted out. You see, Social Media is kind of like a mirror. If you are together and on message, it will reflect positivity back to you. However, if your message is muddled, Social Media can not only fail to benefit you, but it can also become a corporate nightmare. Questions that are key to using Social Media, like “what is the voice of our company?” will be a mystery to you. Branding your company in Social Media will be well-nigh impossible if you don’t know what your brand is or means.

Social Media is like a Siren. Beware!

Social Media and all that goes with it can certainly seem very compelling. “Everyone’s doing it!” “You must do this now or your company will fry!” To some extent, these whispers could be true. If a competitor is on a Social Media site where you are not, they have free range. But is this really anything new?

If a competitor advertises in a magazine that you aren’t advertising in, they have free range over that audience.

If a competitor has a radio spot and you do not, they are the only voice that audience will hear.

It’s really not that revolutionary. In the past, you would look at a publication or a radio station or a newspaper and analyze it. “Is this for me? Is this worth my money and time?” You had your company goals in mind, most likely. Your mission statement. Your brand.

Social Media can suck you in with promises of treasures untold, but like a siren, it can also be very dangerous, especially if you aren’t prepared. A single careless exchange can spell doom. Are you prepared for that kind of instant karma?

Like the heroes of old, before you venture forth into the wild frontier, you need to know who you are. You need to know what you stand for, what you are trying to accomplish, what the perils are, and what you are hoping to achieve. You need to have a compass. You need to know what your heart is made of.

I’m not saying don’t do Social Media. I’m just saying that if you know what your company’s heart is made of, you can survive when the new hot thing goes down. If you don’t know what your company’s heart is made of, you will crumble with whatever you tie yourself to. Beware. Be careful.

Image by Cecile Graat. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Cieleke

During blogchat last night, someone mentioned that she uses a “suggestion box” widget so that people could offer their feedback.

Well, I don’t have such a widget, so I thought I would just make a post here and say, “Hey folks, do you have any suggestions on how I can improve this blog?”

In particular, I’d like your thoughts on the following.

1. While I like my background aesthetically, do you think that it works with the content of my blog?

2. What kinds of subject matter would like me to cover if you pop by here on occasion?

3. How can I improve? Any recommendations desired and appreciated!

If you are of a mind, I’d be happy to return the favor and pop over to your blog if you are looking for suggestions or feedback.

Thanks in advance for your help and time!

Image by Ivan Prole. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/iprole

Hi Everyone,

I’ve decided to take on a big challenge this year in parallel with my Crafting the Nation challenge.

I’m going to try to make 1,000 items for charity this year.

To spur me on, I’m asking for “sponsors” of a sort. Signing on means that if I happen to succeed, you will donate $20 to the American Cancer Society. It is one of many societies that I wish I could help with my work, but they don’t really need hats…they need financial support.

I will have until midnight, December 31 2009 to complete this goal.

I have chosen the American Cancer Society for many reasons. I know too many people who have dealt with cancer themselves or who have dealt with Cancer indirectly through loved ones. I may not be able to crochet or knit a cure, but I can crochet or knit in support of a cure.

I appreciate your support in this endeavor. Wish me luck!