Personal Branding Advice from Dan Schawbel

Personal Branding Advice from Dan Schawbel

I recently interviewed Dan Schawbel on my podcast show. Dan is the best selling author of Me 2.0 and widely recognized as an expert in personal branding. Dan is also Managing Partner of Millennial Branding.

Me 2.0

In his book, Me 2.0, Dan offers a four step personal branding process: Discover, Create, Communicate, Maintain. Whether developing a brand for a company or individual, it’s all about figuring out who you are and what you represent before you can create your online presence. Dan stresses the importance of setting goals and developing a personal brand plan where you communicate through online media, network and constantly work at maintaining your reputation. You must be involved in relevant conversations. As you grow, your brand must grow along with you.

Social Media Position

Dan worked at EMC for about a year. He met fifteen people over eight months to get his job at EMC. Dan had created a blog on personal branding. Fast Company wrote about him. Google invited Dan to speak at their headquarters. Once he built his personal brand, and EMC created the social media position, Dan was the obvious choice for the position.  Dan’s success from his book and media engagements snowballed his career as a personal branding expert.

Twitter as a Communication Channel

Dan used to use to his Twitter profile as a marketing platform. People would often retweet his content. He noticed that as his followers increased, engagement decreased. He likens Twitter to a public forum where everyone has a level playing field.  But, Twitter allows you to move people to other forms of online relationships such as email, or a phonecall or in person.  Now, Dan uses Twitter it as a communication channel. But, he’s now investing more of his time in Facebook. Dan also has a popular LinkedIn group on personal branding.

Native Strengths of Online Channels

Dan recommends the use of each online channel in relevant ways, and to bring people back to your blog. Depending on your goals, Dan suggests you figure out your marketing funnel. Take people through the online touch points where they can get exposed to your products or services in ways that meet your goals. To emphasize this point, I borrow from Wayne Gretzky; “skate to the where the puck is going.”

Digital Immigrants

Those of us born before 1985 are digital immigrants. The public Internet as we know it was created during our lifetime. On the other hand, digital natives grew up using the Internet. For digital immigrants, we must figure out which tools work best to build our personal brand. We must be willing to experiment over the span of months. It’s a huge process. There is no simple answer. There must be a mindset shift to leverage both the technology and cultural evolution of the Internet for personal branding value.

Personal Brand Example

I asked Dan for a good example of personal branding. He told me the story of Joel Backaler, who is an American fluent in Chinese. He developed a blog called TheChinaObserver.com. His focus on China has earned him recognition from The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek and other prominent media outlets. His career has taken off as a result of his focus and content on China.  Dan makes the point that small opportunities often lead to larger opportunities. But, the hardest thing to do is to get the first hit.

Millennial Branding

Dan’s Millennial Branding consultancy is his attempt to create a personal branding world with four integrated business divisions.  The Media division includes blogs, a magazine, online television and a newsletter. The Consulting division helps individuals and companies build their personal brand.  The Community division is all about building his community by connecting with people online on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. And, the Education division produces books, conferences, webinars, etc. Despite the name of his company, Dan acknowledges that most of his clients are not millennial, but rather people and brands beyond the millennial phase in search of a personal branding strategy.

How do you mix personal and company branding?

My good friend Chuck Palm asked me to ask Dan this question. Dan’s advice is to build your name before your company name if possible. If you already have a company, then build both at the same time by connecting the two together. When people think of you, they can think of your company.  For example, ChuckPalm.com is synonymous with IPN.

Me 2.0 Second Edition

In October Dan is releasing the second edition of Me 2.0. It will contain another chapter called: Social Networking for Job Seekers. It will provide a step by step plan for job seekers to build their personal brand using social networking.  This is a topic which is very near and dear to me, as I am speaking and delivering education on this topic.

My podcast interview with Dan has more on personal branding. Just click the play button above, or listen to it in iTunes.

You can connect to Dan Shawbel and visit him at his various online properties including:  DanShawbel.com and MillenialBranding.com.

What are you doing to build your personal brand? Share your story in the comments below.

Good Marketing is Southern Hospitality

I recently vacationed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Georgia with my family. We had a wonderful time hiking, exploring, fishing, white water rafting and just being adventurous. As I reflect back on this vacation, it occurred to me that I also experienced parallels between our vacation and successful marketing.

Southern Hospitality
Everywhere we went my family and I were treated with courtesy, respect and warmth. And, I’m not referring to how the employees of business establishments treated us (although they were consistent in their treatment). We found the citizens of the community to be genuine, helpful and giving. More than once, people went out of their way to answer questions or offer assistance with sincerity and a smile, or just greet us with a sincere “hello” and have conversation about anything.

Content Marketing Parallel
In contemporary marketing, we speak of the importance of providing great content to your audience to build trust and relationships online. Our vacation planning was easily facilitated by the ease of access to information about the area. Before we scheduled our vacation in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we did plenty of research. We found an abundance of useful information including things to do and places to stay. I was particularly impressed with the consistency of the information we found online, and the experience we had with human interaction offline. This experience is effective content marketing. It was the total experience that made it effective. It was the integration of an online and offline experience that made it a good one. This total experience is what I am willing to talk about. And, that’s called word-of-mouth, the most valuable kind of marketing.

Social Media Parallel
For years now those of us that have embraced social media in business have been stressing the importance of producing great content that delivers on the 3 Es and building a strong community online comprised of authenticity and transparency. Often these words aren’t understood in a business context because so many people in marketing roles are used to doing marketing differently. Authenticity used to mean being truthful in advertising. Building community used to mean building your mailing list. Trust used to mean having a track record of product quality. And, customer service used to mean being accessible to customers and answering their questions.

But, this experience made me realize that social media is really just a human extension of how people want to behave naturally. I am convinced that “southern hospitality” (as it’s known in the U.S.) is a global human phenomenon.  A business is made up of people. The technology tools at our disposal enable people to build communities online with authentic human interaction to create experiences both online and offline that build trust and authentic engagement resulting in positive experiences. Of course, no one is perfect and negative experiences can occur. But, a strong community can deal with anomalies.

I’ve spoken a lot about the risks of social media. As I continue to ponder these risks it occurs to me that they are really risks of doing marketing wrong. Some of the examples I’ve provided of mistakes made by companies are marketing mistakes, not social media mistakes.  Businesses need to develop a strategy of southern hospitality and carry it through in their online and offline channels. Perhaps most important, the people in the business must have a southern hospitality mindset. The tools used to execute on this mindset may vary, but the consistency of the mindset is what’s most important.

11 Tips for LinkedIn Business Development

LinkedIn has become the defacto standard in business social networking. It has over 70 million members from over 200 countries including the Fortune list of enterprises. Unlike Facebook and Twitter where many use it for personal social networking or business or both, people use LinkedIn exclusively for business social networking.  The general idea behind LinkedIn is to build connections, then nurture them to create opportunities. Many sales and marketing professionals who actively use LinkedIn have produced measurable business development opportunities.

Since there is so much content and education around how to get the most out of Facebook and Twitter, I thought I’d put together a partial list of ways to get the most out of LinkedIn for business social networking.

1. Complete your profile 100%. The LinkedIn meter tells you how far your profile is completed. Many people overlook this simple tip.

2. Add a recent photo to your profile to humanize your profile. Likewise, many people have no photo in their profile.

3. Include links to your company website and new blog in the “my website” and “my blog” section. Note: use keywords like: “My internet marketing website” and “my internet marketing blog” which you can link to each respective site and create SEO value.

4. Build your connections methodically and consistently. You can send invitations to people based on recommendations from LinkedIn, your own professional network and even by uploading your contact email list.

5. Add a short note that personalizes your invitations to connect. The extra touch can make an impression.

6. Visit the LinkedIn application directory (under the More tab) and connect applications of interest to your profile. Applications give others insights into your interests and professional activities. Some applications to consider are:

WordPress application: In the set up, insert the RSS feed URL of your blog if you have one.  Each time you publish a blog post it appears in your LinkedIn profile.

Slideshare application: Likewise, each of the presentations you’ve uploaded to Slideshare will appear in your profile.

Amazon Reading List: Displays the books you choose to display. This allows your network to see your reading list.

Twitter: Displays your Twitter stream and allows you to isolate your LinkedIn network’s Twitter stream. You can also post directly to Twitter from LinkedIn.

There are many other applications to consider that can give people insight into your business interests and activities.

7. Update your status in LinkedIn frequently. It’s advisable to update it daily, but not more than once or twice per day. I wouldn’t use LinkedIn the same as Twitter with frequent updates. People will see your updates in their stream.

8. Visit the Answers section (under More) and search out questions being asked in your industry and contribute with your answers. You can uncover people asking relevant questions. Get involved in those conversations.

9. Join Groups in your industry. Search for groups by keyword and find relevant groups to join. Visit the discussions and get involved with your contribution. Add value to these discussions. Don’t sell.

10. LinkedIn has a “recommendations” feature. People can write recommendations about you and vice versa. Write unsolicited recommendations about people you’ve worked with in the past. It will be appreciated.  Your recommendations will show up in the stream of updates from LinkedIn.

11. Follow companies of interest to get updates from them. Consider following your customers or prospective customers. Just search out companies and click “follow.” You’ll receive updates from LinkedIn about these companies’ activities. And, you can keep track of new hires and former employees.

Above all, consider LinkedIn a professional networking environment. Use common sense. Do NOT be salesey or spammy. Be useful. Offer value to your network. You can find opportunities if you engage with your network and if you mine the data to uncover intelligence about people and companies.  Just be wise about how you use that data.  Consider the parallel common sense rule of offline networking at an event. You wouldn’t approach a group of people and slap your business card at them and give them a sales pitch. LinkedIn is all about making connections and building online relationships through professional credibility. LinkedIn can be a very valuable online tool for business development if you use it wisely regardless if you’re in B2B or B2C.

Do you have a LinkedIn social networking success story to share? Add it in the comments section below.

Book Bernie Borges for Your Next Event

Book Bernie Borges for Your Next Event

Thanks for considering me as a marketing speaker at your event. I’m truly humbled. I thoroughly enjoy speaking to a business audience that wants to hear from someone like me.

My presentation style is very down to earth. I always prepare my marketing presentations for my audience. You and your audience will know that I’ve done my homework to make my marketing presentation relevant and interesting for your group.

Choose Your Event Style

I can speak to a private group in an auditorium or workshop manner. We can work together on a format that will meet the needs of your group.

Whether you’re looking for education, strategy, vision or a workshop on Internet marketing and social media topics we can put our heads together to develop a content plan that will leave your audience satisfied. This partial list of testimonials will offer some insight into my speaking credentials.

The best way to get together on this is to provide me insight into your event so I can give you an intelligent response to your inquiry in a timely manner.

Please answer a few short questions, to get the ball rolling. But, don’t worry, there is no obligation until we both agree we have a match between your event and my speaking qualifications.

Name
Job Title
Company
Email (we will keep your email completely private) *
Phone
Tell Me About Your Event *
How many people will be at your event? *
What is your goal for this event? *
What topics do you want covered? *
Are you looking for an auditorium sytle or workshop style event? *
What is your budget for this event? *

Bernie is also available for Live Webinars, Podcasts, Video Tutorials
as well as Training Session Material.

Sarasota Memorial Healthier with Social Media Marketing

Podcast Interview with Peter Taylor, Director of Marketing, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System

Sarasota Memorial is a health care system (hospital) located in Sarasota, FL. I saw Peter Taylor give a presentation at a recent AMA event in Tampa. I remember that Peter pointed out that their name sounds like a funeral home.  He said they are a brand people prefer not to use. Most people don’t even want to talk about health care. But, Sarasota Memorial is recognized as one of the best hospitals in Florida. So, how does a marketer get people to engage with a brand they don’t want to engage with?

Be Likable

Peter and the rest of the management team decided they needed to give the community a reason to like them. So, about 18 months ago they embarked on a new social media strategy. They set out to attract people to their brand before the need for health care arises. After all, a medical visit to a hospital is usually not a pleasant experience. You’re usually surrounded by strange people, intimidating technology and you’re forced to dress in a gown that only covers about half your body. Social media presents the opportunity to connect with people in a pleasant, friendly setting. The consumer is in control of the situation and in a much better mood to have a conversation with Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH).

Strategic Objective – The Antithesis of a Medical Visit

The strategic objective set was to create a consumer engagement platform. The hospital does an excellent job of taking care of sick people. It’s recognized as one of America’s Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World. They set out to transfer that persona to outside of the care environment. They realized that traditional media campaigns were not within budget reach. Social media allowed SMH to have conversations with people outside the hospital as well as on the inside. The idea is to connect with people before they need health care from SMH.  Their social media strategy is designed to be the complete opposite of a hospital visit. Rather than connecting with people when they are in a state of duress, their social media strategy engages people in their own comfortable setting.

The Social Media Strategy Launch Plan

As a public community hospital with very limited budget SMH was not in a position to hire a social media agency to help them.  But, SMH was not willing to ignore social media. So they decided to figure it out on their own. A team of 8 committed individuals aligned along their interests with social media. For example, Shawn Halls was well aligned with Twitter due to his communication style. All the social media sites were synchronized with people’s interest. Each became the “CEO ” of each social media platform at SMH.

Opening the Conversations with Twitter

Twitter was turned on first at SMH. They focused on the Sarasota Community.  From the beginning, SMH always engaged with people in the community through Twitter. They quickly realized that social media is a 24/7 communication channel. That was an adjustment for the team.  Twitter became a good way to get the word out on activities and events. It was eye opening for them to see people responding on Twitter. They quickly had to figure out how to respond to people’s Tweets. They were amazed when some patients even started Tweeting from their hospital beds. That proved to management that social media is a real communication channel. The first evidence of ROI was in “service recovery.” When patients complained about their food (imagine patients complaining about hospital food – gasp!) they reacted quickly to address patient’s complaints heard on Twitter. This level of “customer service” really made a good impression.

Facebook

SMH found Facebook to be more conversational and visual than Twitter. The SMH business page took some time to get published due to health care privacy compliance requirements. The Facebook page is mostly comprised of the public engaging with SMH. Recently, it became available internally for hospital staff to engage. They needed to establish credibility with their CEO to open it up to staff.

Delicious

Rather than have people sending out a bunch of emails with links to articles and social media connections, SMH set up a Delicious account and used it as a place to bookmark stories online. It has grown into a repository of content for media and for physicians, as well as the public to get relevant content. No email sends are necessary.

Flickr

SMH uses Flickr to store photos of the facility and special events. No patient photos! They focus mostly on showing off 13 outpatient centers and special events shared with the public. One side benefit has been a reduction in media calls by 20% simply by hosting photos on Flickr.

YouTube

Originally, they started out trying to create Hollywood style production videos. But, they took too long to produce and were too costly. They decided to scale it down and now SMH is shooting all video on a Flip camera. They realized that consumers just want authentic conversation.

Blogs

SMH has an internal blog written by the CEO. Each blog post gets over 2000 visitor sessions with many comments. The Campus Improvement blog is public and gets updated daily with photos and video keeping track of the progress on a new construction project. It’s read well both internally and externally.

Peter’s Advice to Marketing Managers

Peter quickly points out when I asked him his advice to marketers that the most fundamental aspect of a social media strategy is to position your brand in the most authentic way possible. Forget the sizzle. Be real. People want something they can believe in. No hype. It’s that simple. In other words (my words) “humanize your brand.”

I thank Peter Taylor for sharing the SMH story. It’s inspiring to me to witness a health care provider start from scratch in social media and experiment. Their progress in a short amount of time is impressive. I hope you’ll listen to the entire podcast interview with Peter. Just click the play button above.

To learn how to jump start a social media strategy, or take yours to the next level take our free Inbound Marketing Assessment.

Florida Aquarium Dives into Social Media Waters

Podcast Interview with Tom Wagner, Public Relations Manager at The Florida Aquarium

When Tom Wagner joined The Florida Aquarium in 2006 there was no social media in place, just a website. They used traditional media channels for marketing including print advertising, billboards, local radio and television. In 2008, Tom attended a one day workshop on social media where he got inspired to get started.  Tom decided to get started with a focus on three social media channels: Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. They concentrate all their social media communication efforts in these three channels.

Expanded Target Audience

The Florida Aquarium is located in downtown Tampa, FL. They are a destination for families by offering a diverse offering of education, conservation and good old fashion fun all centered around marine life and marine eco-systems. The traditional target audience has been families. They wanted to expand into younger demographics and attract them to the aquarium. Tom speculated that perhaps by using social media they could expand their reach to a younger demographic audience.

Convincing senior management to experiment with social media wasn’t too difficult. The biggest question Tom had to answer was how much of a commitment it would take and at what cost. The only cost was Tom’s time. But, of course it was on top of his current workload.

The first thing Tom did was to start up their Twitter account. At first he sent out fun and interesting information about the marine environment. His goal using Twitter was to help people become better stewards of the environment. People responded well. Their Twitter follower count started to grow rapidly. Tom also created a Facebook business page.

Social Media Experiments

Tom convinced his boss to sponsor a Tweetup at the Florida Aquarium. Normally, free attendance events were limited to media. The Tweetup allowed anyone in the local Twitter community to attend and experience the Aquarium for free. Tom’s goal was to create buzz about the Florida Aquarium and have people talk about it on Twitter.  Over 200 people came out to the Tweetup. The top 10 attenders had a combined following of over 125,000 people. Attendance at the Florida Aquarium over the next 10 days increased by double digits over their forecast.

Early Mistakes

While the Tweetup was successful, they learned a valuable lesson. Since they didn’t create coupon codes, they couldn’t track ticket sales results directly from the Tweetup.  But, the quick increase in attendance after the Tweetup was still good evidence that it helped create buzz resulting in higher ticket sales.

It’s valuable to learn from your mistakes when experimenting with social media. Going forward all social media related activities use a coupon code. For example, they now create coupon codes for Twitter and for Facebook to track which channel drive more ticket sales. Recently, they used Facebook and Twitter exclusively to promote a show of the infamous Wiki Wachee mermaids. This event was a unique, one time event. They created unique codes for Facebook and Twitter. They didn’t use any traditional media. The local traditional media picked up on the event. They attended and took pictures which drove photo and television coverage. Many people talked about it on Twitter and Facebook.

What’s Next?

More of the same. Tom is continuing to tweak their social media plan but will continue to create buzz around Tampa Bay about upcoming events. The buzz around Tom’s office is their plan to hire another staff person to help him create more buzz on social media. Apparently, their social media plan is going swimmingly enough to increase headcount. Looks like the Florida Aquarium is keeping its head above water quite well as their social media plan continues to evolve and drive ticket sales.

Tom’s Advice to Local Businesses

Tom advises local businesses to start a social media plan by providing useful information to your target audience. Deliver on the three E’s (as I call it). Ask what information do we have that people would want from us so that when they need what we offer, they’ll think of us….That’s good advice.

If you’re in or near Tampa, you will enjoy visiting the Florida Aquarium. For the rest of you, check them out online. You’ll want to listen to my podcast interview with Tom Wagner to hear of other experiments and successes.

If you are a marketer in need of a social media strategy, check out my book, Marketing 2.0 or contact us to explore our social media strategy services.

Inbound Marketing Is All About Leverage

Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Survey

HubSpot recently released a report on the State of Inbound Lead Generation. The report is a result of interviews with more than 1,400 HubSpot customers who are mostly small and mid size businesses. A webinar delivered by Rick Burnes and Sophie Schmitt of HubSpot summarized the findings.

The findings are very interesting and very compelling especially for businesses who are either still sitting on the sidelines or are flat out skeptics of inbound marketing. I find that overwhelmingly those businesses who don’t buy into the inbound marketing mindset haven’t allowed themselves to break out of a decades-old paradigm. But, the earth is shifting and marketers simply can’t ignore the facts especially as more facts become available such as those in this report from HubSpot.

Critics of this research may say that the companies interviewed are users of the HubSpot inbound marketing software. Of course! You wouldn’t survey people sun bathing on a beach about their winter vacation habits and expect that data to be of high integrity.

HubSpot has built a customer base of more than 2,500 customers. While the degree to which each customer is using the full gamut of inbound marketing strategies to include SEO, blogging, social networking and generally a strong content marketing mindset may vary, the common denominator is they buy into the fact inbound marketing can effectively produce leads.

So, here are some of the most compelling findings from this report.

The More Google Indexed Web Pages the More Leads Produced

Businesses with 60 to 120 Google indexed pages produced a median of 7 leads per month. Those with 176 to 310 Google indexed pages produced a median of 22 leads per month. Those with 311 + Google indexed pages produced a median of 74 leads per month. This triple digit growth is achievable through a bonafide, committed, consistent blog strategy.

Business Who Blog Produce More Leads

As stated above businesses with more Google indexed web pages produce more leads. The most practical way to increase indexed page count is by having a blog connected to your website. This chart shows that companies who blog produce more leads.

Blog Size Matters
The survey proved that having a blog alone doesn’t move the needle. The more content the better. The data suggests that fewer than 10 blog posts didn’t make a difference in lead generation. But, more than 20 blog posts demonstrated more leads from those surveyed.

Twitter Matters in B2C
B2C businesses who use Twitter produce twice as many leads as those who don’t use Twitter. Though this research doesn’t account for B2B businesses on Twitter I’m a fan of Twitter due to the reach it can provide and ability to spread your content. For example, in addition to my personal Twitter account, Find and Convert also has a Twitter account.

More Keywords Ranking in Top 100 Produce More Leads

This data point proves two myths wrong. Myth #1 is that many businesses think the only ranking that matters is for a small number of keywords which typically represent their core business. Sometimes it’s just one keyword phrase. Myth #2 is that the only rank that matters is page 1. Of course, we all want to rank #1 on page 1. But, this data shows that businesses who have dozens of keywords ranking in the top 100 rankings get more leads. This translates to having dozens of keywords that rank across the first 10 pages of Google. The way to look at this is like a diversified portfolio of assets. The value is in the total portfolio, not any one asset. Having dozens of relevant longtail keywords that rank in the first 10 pages of Google will produce more leads.  These two myths are shattered in the chart below.

It’s All About Leverage

This webinar concluded with the concept of leverage. Inbound marketing allows a company to leverage content assets online to produce connections with people who have interest in your company’s products. Ignoring this leverage opportunity is very risky in a marketing economy where established competitors can surpass you with inbound marketing strategies quickly. Worse yet, newer nimble and inbound marketing savvy competitors can come out of seemingly nowhere and eat your lunch.

Get on the inbound marketing bandwagon. A good place to start is with my book, Marketing 2.0 . I wrote Marketing 2.0 for executives and their staff looking for a basic understanding of how social media and inbound marketing strategies can bridge the gap between sellers and buyers. Mike Volpe, V.P. Inbound Marketing at HubSpot wrote the foreword of my book. Those who’ve read it say it provides a good primer to get started. Check out the reviews.

Allow me to give a plug for the fact my inbound marketing agency is a certified HubSpot partner. We can help you get started producing more leads through inbound marketing or take it to the next level.

Marketing to the Booming Boomer Market

The 2nd Annual Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference

In this special edition podcast interview with Michelle Bauer, Chief Strategist at Common Language, and co producer of the Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference we discuss the undeniable importance of boomers in the U.S. economy.  This year’s conference theme is Reinventing Life After 50 and will explore key trends that are shaping baby boomers’ reinvention in four major, but intersecting aspects of their lives: personal, professional, physical, and spiritual - and what these trends mean for companies marketing to them.

The Powerful Force of the Boomer Market

This year’s conference will be held April 15th in Clearwater, FL and will feature an impressive list of speakers. The speakers include authors and executives from media companies, from product companies and service companies serving the boomer market. Some of the speakers include Mary Furlong, a well known author and consultant in the boomer market,  Linda Chamberlain, CEO of Aging Wisely, Paul Tash, Editor and Chairman of the St. Petersburg Times, Jody Haneke, CEO of Haneke Design, Brent Green, author and boomer consultant and many other notable speakers. I’ll also be speaking on how to reach and engage boomers using social media.

Boomers are Very Popular

While boomers may not be considered the sexiest demographic to market to among product and service marketers, who can argue with the size of the boomer market. Boomers represent 90% of net assets in the U.S. 28% of Americans are boomers. 46% of boomers exercise regularly. 60 million boomers take at least one trip each year. 74% of boomers are employed. If you think these statistics are interesting, this year’s conference will unveil fresh research being finalized now about how boomers are living and thriving after the recent recession, how they’re living their lives, what they’re buying and how many are reinventing themselves. If you’re a marketer trying to reach this demographic, you’ll benefit greatly from this fresh research unveiled at the conference.

A Pre-Conference Event for Boomer Individuals

There is a pre-conference event on April 14th for boomers interested in learning how to live and thrive in the new gig economy. This workshop is for individual boomers interested in learning trends and skills needed to leverage opportunities in a contemporary economy.

Boomer Market is Huge

Although the Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference is held once per year, the website will provide access to many of the speaker’s presentations and fresh new research data which will have been unveiled at the conference about boomer’s buying habits. Visit the website throughout the year for up to date information on boomer marketing trends and links to all the speakers and their presentations.

I invite you to listen to the full interview with Michelle Bauer to gain more insights into the Florida Boomer Lifestyle conference and for a special offer to attend. Oh, heck I’ll give you that special offer here, but I still urge you to listen to the podcast for insights not written in this blog post.

To get a 30% early registration discount, simply enter in the COUPON box on the registration form FBLCSAVE for the Conference and PCWSAVE for the Workshop. Discounts will be reflected on the checkout page.

Michelle Bauer is co-producing this conference along with Colleen Chappell, CEO of ChappelRoberts, one of the top integrated advertising agencies in the Florida market.

In this podcast I revealed that I’m in the boomer category. As a social media marketer I have a keen interest in the boomer market in part because I am one and also because of its sheer size. Boomers are in every industry in roles as varied as the executive suite to the factory floor to the solopreneur and in between. We’re a force. I’m proud to be a boomer during an exciting time in our history.

You really should give a listen to the podcast interview with Michelle Bauer. This is one blog post where I held back most of what is on the podcast.

GM Drives with Social Media

A podcast interview with Christopher Barger, Dir, Global Social Media Communications, GM.

GM’s social media strategy began with the Fastlane Blog in January 2005. It was followed by the FYI blog in July 2006, which launched as a rebuttal to a N.Y. Times article. The N.Y. Times didn’t permit enough space, so GM went straight to the consumer with their rebuttal. Chris joined GM in March 2007 to head up global social media focused exclusively on using emerging social media and community based tools including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.

Content Strategy

GM’s content strategy is not about messaging. Their content strategy puts community first. Chris’ team asks what is the audience interested in? He asks his team “would you watch this video if you didn’t work at GM?” As an example, they recently launched a new video series called Department 180 which tells the quality story at GM. Rather than shooting a conventional video about quality control in GM products, the social media team took a fun approach by showing some of the tests with a twist of humor. When showing wind tunnel and climate tests they show the impact on a crash test dummy. When reviewing steps to cut down on road noise they put dry ice smoke into the car and shut all the doors to show how the car is air tight because no smoke gets out. All the cubic feet of smoke raised a question.  How many ping pong balls can they fit into the car? So, they ran a contest among engineers to guess. By talking about vehicle quality from these humorous angles it is far more interesting and enjoyable. While most GM videos averaged 1500 views over months, the Dept 180 video got over 11,000 views in the first week!

Relationship Building

In the summer of 2009 GM faced a huge branding challenge. People had not been talking about GM products because of all the attention to their bankruptcy. They decided to invite 100 journalists to show them what’s coming in the product pipe over the next three years. But, wait….Why not give consumers first crack at this tour? So, they reached out to people who have interacted with GM on Facebook, Twitter and blogs including people that had provided constructive criticism. Several were brought in and were shown product plans over the next 3 years. There was one product in particular they didn’t like. This product was going to combine small SUV technology with a Buick. Everyone hated it. They said it didn’t look anything like a Buick. The old GM probably wouldn’t have listened to that feedback. But, the leadership team watched the reaction from consumers on the web as they tweeted and blogged about it.  Three days later GM announced on the Fastlane blog their plans to kill this product. The consumer reaction to GM’s decision was very positive because they listened.

Transparent Chapter 11 Communication

GM management discussed internally how to handle the communication of the bankruptcy details in 2009. They were advised by consultants against discussing chapter 11 bankruptcy on social media. But, they realized they were about to have 330 million new shareholders. As Chris says, “we owe them a conversation.” Chris got the approval to move ahead with a transparent social media communication strategy during the breaking news of the bankruptcy. They conducted live Twitter chats each time the CEO or any executive was interviewed by traditional media so those not watching television could follow along on Facebook and Twitter. The GM social media team expected to get beat up by the public. But, everyone was pleasantly shocked by the public’s reaction. GM wasn’t bashed. People appreciated GM’s effort to communicate and be transparent through social media. People truly admired GM’s sincerity.

2010 Social Media Strategy

Very little has changed in GM’s social media strategy in 2010 except increased budget over 2009. While the current CEO doesn’t participate himself on social media like his predecessor did, he is very supportive of GM’s social media strategy. GM’s social media focus is mostly centered around having a physical presence at social events where communities gather. They focus on providing people an experience with cars and allowing them to talk about their experience online. Chris and his team go wherever people are already gathering so people can talk about their products in their own words. If people write about their experience, they are only asked to disclose that GM loaned them a car to drive. That’s the only requirement. All commentary is authentic.

Advice to Brands

When I asked Chris for his closing words of advice to brands on social media, he offered this. “Keep your consumers first!” If you’re going through a difficult period demonstrate change. Show your consumer that you’ve changed and how you’ve changed, and talk with them, not at them. Don’t message them. Have conversations. Don’t use talking points. Be human.

…Good advice from a brand that is providing a terrific example.

I think I can safely say that we all want GM to survive and thrive. The company is an American icon. I’m thrilled to see how GM has changed. I’m thrilled to know that Chris Barger is leading the charge in their social media strategy and that the consumer is responding.

I encourage you to listen to the full podcast interview to hear more about GM’s social media strategy which is not captured in this blog post. Click the play button above, or subscribe to my podcasts in iTunes.

Do You Have the Right People on the Bus for Social Media?

When I consult with businesses to develop a social media strategy, one of the most common questions I’m asked is about how to staff for it. It’s a critical question to answer. Following is a condensed excerpt from my book, Marketing 2.0 where I devote an entire chapter to this important topic of staffing for social media marketing.

Having the Right People on the Bus
Successful social media marketing requires people who understand it, embrace it, and know how to work within the culture and technology. People need to understand the lifecycle and the types of community involved in social media to better understand the opportunities and the risks.

Roles should not only be well-defined and documented, but they should be discussed in depth. Everyone on the team must be on board with his or her roles and responsibilities. Then, the heavy lifting begins. In some cases, heavy lifting has been in place for some time, but now you are in a better position to turn it up a notch with better clarity of roles. Ongoing discussions about roles and responsibilities should occur as your social media plan matures. Changes may be needed as your plans evolve.

However, what if you realize you don’t have the right staff for social media marketing? The fact is some people just don’t understand social media. Sometimes the barrier is demographic, but most often, it’s just an “I don’t get it” attitude. Worse yet, some may resist it for any number of  reasons. There are still many people who are stuck in the traditional marketing paradigm, and they are not ready to shift to the new social media paradigm.  Don’t fret—the laggards will eventually get on the social media train because the forward momentum of the culture and the technology will sweep them along. The real problem is this: what if they’re holding you back today? If you face that scenario, here are some ideas to consider.

Give It Time
Don’t force everyone to jump into a social media strategy overnight. An overnight commitment with a take-no-prisoners mentality can produce corporate culture shock. You run the risk of becoming a maverick, which can trigger counterproductive results. The best way to win people over is to approach them gradually with small but highly visible wins. Assess the people on your team and determine who is best suited to contribute to your social media strategy. People have strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. It’s your job to recognize who may embrace social media and who may shun it.

People who embrace social media tend to be social. If this sounds a bit trite, hear me out. Being social doesn’t necessarily mean being gregarious, boisterous, or the life of the party. Social people are self-confident people, even if quietly so. Their self-confidence may be limited to a specific area of expertise, but they are confident about something. I’ve noticed that some people who might otherwise shun a public social setting are often very social in online social media situations. The key is to recognize the personality attributes of the people in your organization, as well as to recognize their domains of expertise and passions, and then convince them to dip their toes in the social media waters. Asking someone to display his or her expertise or passion in a way that helps your organization meet its strategic objectives is giving that individual an opportunity to shine. For some, it’s a new opportunity he or she may embrace willingly. Find the people who will embrace these opportunities and recruit them to your team. If necessary, move people around on your team. Along the way give people new opportunities where they can achieve tangible results and be recognized by peers and management. People who like to write and create content about specific topics and have some level of creativity or technical acuity are good candidates for your team. The bottom line is this: if you don’t have the right people on the bus, your social media strategy will not go very far. Defining the roles of the people on your team is my next point.

Definition of Job Roles
At some point, it will be wise to redefine job roles so that they reflect your commitment to a Marketing 2.0 strategy. If you consider social media marketing additive, to which employee’s plate do you add it? This will be different in each organization. In some companies, the CEO embraces social media by blogging or being active in a social network. This is a best-case scenario, because the CEO can set the tone for the rest of the organization. In most cases, you’ll need to allocate time away from one activity in order to allow time for social media marketing activities. In the beginning, always start small. It may or may not be too difficult to decide to cut back on some activities that don’t yield results. Don’t continue doing something just because you’ve always done it that way or because it always produces the same results. You do know this is the definition of insanity, don’t you?

Social Media Staff Requires a Blend of Skills
Social media staff skills require a blend of creativity, writing, organizational skills, analytics, and teamwork. A commitment to a social media plan requires a formal review of people’s job descriptions and in some cases revising job descriptions to reflect allocation of their time. A social media plan should leverage the individual talents of staffers while orchestrating them to work as a team to achieve results. As your social media strategy evolves, so should your staff’s skills, titles, the way they spend their time, and the way you recruit new team members. In the years to come, social media skills will be prominently displayed on resumes. In fact, they already are. Many hiring managers check candidates’ activities on the web to assess their subject matter expertise based on how proactive they are as a blogger and social networker before even considering them as a viable candidate.

In my book, I describe the difference between a chief marketing officer’s (CMO’s) job description a few years ago versus today. For a deeper dive into this topic and numerous case studies on social media marketing, check out Marketing 2.0. Your comments on this topic are welcome below.

@berniebay

Next Page »