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.

Social Media Marketing for Chiropractors

Social Media Marketing for Chiropractors

Dr. Patrick MacNamara is a licensed chiropractor.  In this podcast, Dr. Mac shares how his chiropractic education didn’t prepare him for the business world. Early in his practice, he struggled with marketing.  He learned about Affordable Management Consulting, aka, AMC. He hired them and his practice exploded. Eventually, AMC asked him to join them to help other chiropractors explode their business. Dr. Mac was inspired by a report from Richard Telofski.  It said that less than 1% of chiropractors blogged. And, only one third of them were effectively using their blog to grow their practice.  That’s when Dr. Mac realized that chiropractors needed help with their social media strategy.  He began studying social media by following podcasters and bloggers like me and others. He read my book, Marketing 2.0, and has been a loyal listener of my podcasts since the beginning. He launched his Next Generation Chiropractor blog in April 2009. His blog targets the next generation of chiropractors, comprised of those just coming out of school that will more likely embrace marketing 2.0. Dr. Mac is also active on Twitter.

One-to-Many Effect

Dr. Mac fell in love with the idea of helping the chiropractic profession. Dr. Todd Osborne inspired him when he said that when you treat patients, you can only impact the patients you treat. But, by teaching chiropractors to market themselves more effectively he can impact more patients than he could ever impact in his own practice. It’s a one-to-many, rather than one-to-one effect.

Marketing to the New Generation of Chiropractors

As chiropractors have become more aware of social media, they are finding Dr. Mac through his blog. But, there’s a long way to go. The new generation of chiropractors spend more time online than more established chiropractors.  He’s trying to bridge the gap between the traditional marketing mindset and the new marketing mindset for chiropractors. His blog is the primary bridge for Dr. Mac. He quickly points out that the marketing that worked in the past for chiropractors (Yellow pages, direct mail) doesn’t work as well anymore. Dr. Mac has stepped up to the plate to help other chiropractors make the transition to Marketing 2.0.

Those Who Get It Never Go Back

Dr. Mac shows empathy for his peers in chiropractic care. He views his role as helping them expand the way they think. Once they expand their thinking, they can never go back to the previous way of thinking. The mindset shift for chiropractors is imperative. Dr. Mac does 4 to 6 hour presentations on how to market a chiropractic practice, then provides a webcast version as a follow up resource. He’s also available as a resource to chiropractors to answer questions.  The chiropractors that embrace the new marketing mindset come to understand it takes work and commitment. Many chiropractors have seen other chiropractors succeeding with inbound marketing, which inspires them to keep at it.

Success Stories

Dr. Jon Heins was one of the first that interacted with Dr. Mac on his blog. He developed his blog and within about three months he experienced a 20% increase in his business by sharing his blog content and using his Twitter account to engage with the local community. He followed all of Dr. Mac’s advice including techniques such as using hashtags and creating SEO friendly blog content.  He has moved full speed ahead down the Marketing 2.0 road.

Dr. Todd Sullivan is found online primarily through his blog. He has worked hard at consistently creating content, and being a good listener. He’s a young chiropractor, just five years out of school. So, the Internet is native to him. He also uses video marketing. His organic SEO works well from his online press releases and article marketing. His number one source of patients is referrals from medical doctors. His second highest source of new patients is from his blog, i.e., his inbound marketing strategy. His patients are likely to share his content and spread the word because so many of them are online.

After doing a presentation in 2009, Dr. Mac was approached by a chiropractor who said he didn’t fully understand all the Marketing 2.0 techniques. But, he was slowly implementing a strategy through his Facebook fan page. He had already experienced an influx of college students coming in from Facebook. It turns out his office is located across the street from a college campus. Traditional marketing wasn’t bringing in college students. But, his Facebook fan page brought the college students in the front door.

Dr. Mac’s Advice for Chiropractors

Dr. Mac advises chiropractors to develop a strong presence online. Get out of the 1.0 web world. Become interactive through a content hub starting with a blog. Share your blog content through other channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Identify the demographics you target.  Refine your content to appeal to the niche of your target demographics, e.g., young patients, older patients, etc.

Dr. Mac quotes Steven Covey: “Technology is a wonderful slave, but a horrible master.” Dr. Mac’s purpose at his Next Generation Chiropractor blog is to train chiropractors how to use this wonderful technology available at our fingertips to increase their practice in order to use it to treat more patients.

I hope you’ll listen to the entire podcast recording above. Just click the play button, or subscribe to my podcast in iTunes. Dr. Mac received insights and inspiration in part from my book, Marketing 2.0 and my podcasts. I am very humbled by that. If his story inspires you, let me know in the comments section.

14 Social Media Risk Factors to Avoid

14 Social Media Risk Factors to Avoid

I recently gave a presentation at Tech Summit that was very well received. Here is a link to my slides for this presentation. Additionally, I recorded a podcast to share it with you. Below are the highlights with more detail covered in the podcast.

Social Media is Mainstream
Businesses are jumping in with both feet. But, there are risks in social media marketing.  You should know what they are and how to minimize these risks. Here is a list of 14 of the top risks.

No Strategy
When a business says let’s just dive into social with no objective and no strategy, that’s a big risk. You can expect limited or poor results, if any.

Wrong Strategy
If sales improvement is your goal but you have product problems, maybe your strategy should be improved customer service. Align your social media strategy with the current circumstances in your business.

Lack of Executive Support
If you want to achieve any social media success, executive support is a must. Otherwise, it will be a skunkworks project. Some companies can pull this off, but not many.

Wrong Staff
The staff must embrace social media. If they are resistant it could undermine your social media strategy. Assess if the current staff has what it take to engage in social media.

Not Measuring Progress
It’s important to measure progress.  For example, measure customer successes, downloads, comments, reach, subscriptions, etc. These can be “first downs” along the way to scoring touch downs (results).

Measuring the Wrong Stuff
What and how you measure depends on your objectives. If improving customer service is an objective, then measuring growth of fans on Facebook is only important if they are existing customers. Set measurement strategies that align with your objectives.

Not Using Available Tools
Measuring progress and results can be achieved through many available tools. Some are free and some are fee based. Here is a partial list of tools to measure your social media progress and results:  HubSpot, Website Grader, Twitter Grader, Facebook Grader, Facebook Insights, Unilyzer, Raven, Hootsuite, SocialOomph, Manage Flitter, Google Alerts, Google Trends, Social Mention.

Unwilling to Experiment
You must be willing to try different ideas. That’s why executive support is so important. If you don’t experiment, you won’t know what is effective.

Expecting Overnight Results
Results vary according to a business, industry, people, and circumstances. Set expectations with executive management that results usually don’t happen overnight.

Trying to Maintain Control
We have little or no control over of our markets. We can influence our markets, but we can’t control them. You can build your reputation but you can’t control it in social media. I offer two examples in the podcast of brands who tried and failed to control their community.

Employee Abuse
All employers have this risk, but large employers have more risk just based on the numbers. In the podcast I describe the experience of employee abuse at Domino’s Pizza in 2009.

Responding Slowly to the Community
The social web is 24/7/365. We now live in a world where we must respond in minutes, not hours, days or weeks. In the podcast I provide an example of how Comcast has done this successfully.

Shorting the Effort
Not applying enough resources. If a new social media strategy is added to someone’s job, in the beginning it may make sense but as it evolves you’ll need to allocate more resources to be successful. Don’t under resource your social media marketing plan.

Underestimating the Influence of One Person
United Airlines learned this lesson the hard way. Band leader Dave Caroll wrote a song and produced a video viewed over 8 million times on YouTube when United Airlines ignored his complaints due to mishandled luggage which broke his guitar.

These are 14 of the most common risks in social media marketing. The way to minimize your risk is to have a well defined strategy, get executive support, allocate resources, get the right people, be responsive in a timely manner, be willing to experiment and use tools to measure progress and results.

Do you have any other risk factors to add to this list?

BTW, I cover this topic in my book, Marketing 2.0. Have you picked up your copy?

Internet Technology Summit 2010

Internet & Technology Summit Special Edition Podcast

I recently attended and spoke at the Internet & Technology Summit, (aka TechSummit) June 22nd and 23rd in Orlando. I managed to connect with nine of the speakers for this podcast. I asked each of the speakers to summarize the key points from their talk. When you listen to the podcast, I’m sure you’ll agree that each speaker did a terrific job of sharing their key points very succinctly. Here’s what you can expect to hear on the podcast from each speaker.

Jody Haneke, President, Haneke Design

Jody provided examples of how some companies are deploying strategic mobile applications, such as a pharmaceutical company sharing info with doctors. He explained how one mobile app allows the doc to enter height and weight of a patient and a dosage calculator will calculate proper dosage to prescribe. He explained the growing importance of creating user experiences that allow the user to access an app from any device they use whether it’s a mobile device or a desktop device.

Carol Cox, Founder of InterMedia4web and Chair of Internet Marketing, Full Sail University

Carol articulated four ways to reach your customers online by leveraging the newest internet business models. 1) Social shopping. People spend a lot of time in social networking sites. Brands can integrate shopping in Facebook, allowing browsing and  purchase. 2)Virtual goods is estimated to be a $1B industry in 2010. Examples include avatars, a digital rose, etc. Brands should consider creating a digital equivalent of their product. 3) Virtual currency.  Place ads and allow the consumer to earn virtual currency they can actually spend. 4) Going beyond the browser. Through smartphones, iPads, Facebook applications and other mobile apps a brand can engage consumers where ever they are. Be available where your customers spend time, engage them and keep them coming back.

Alfred Goldberg, President of Absolute Mobile Solutions

Alfred spoke about how Europe is ahead of the U.S. in the use of mobile technology because they adopted mobile faster than the U.S. Alfred is quick to point out that most businesses adopting a mobile strategy do so without a strategy. They don’t do the research up front. They don’t put the user at the center of the experience, which Alfred believes is stifling innovation. When asked for a good example of a brand using mobile, he mentioned Kraft Foods. They allow us to see the content of food by scanning a bar code. He also referenced location based apps like FourSquare. Alfred optimistically points out that most businesses can harness mobile by creating an SMS app, a mobile website or a mobile application that serves their user community.

Mary Spio, Co-Founder & President of Vidaroo (formally Gen2Media)

Mary opens with the compelling point that over 86% of online users are engaging with video! Wow! As Mary says, brands shouldn’t ignore almost 90% of internet users by ignoring video. Mary explains in her presentation that a company doesn’t have to be a media company to produce video. Just leverage your expertise in your industry and create videos about your products, your company, your industry. Share your videos with your website visitors. Find a way to communicate your product benefits through video.

Tony Greco , CEO of TekGiants

Tony’s presentation took all the mystery out of cloud computing. He explained the three types of cloud computing: public, hybrid, private. A public cloud is a company that builds their own cloud and extends it out to the field for rent. Examples include Amazon and Google Apps. Anyone can rent computing access from them.  In business, the most common cloud is private. The business benefits of cloud computing are many. Among the biggest benefits are cost reduction and lower risk. Cloud computing can considerably reduce IT expenses. Other significant benefits include availability, scalability, affordability, zero footprint, green friendly and less resources are needed to run systems in a business that run on a cloud infrastructure.

Mike Volpe, SVP of Inbound Marketing at HubSpot

Mike gave the keynote on day two. He gave a very inspirational talk on tools and hiring strategies used by HubSpot to fuel their growth. Summed up in four words: Treat employees like entrepreneurs. HubSpot uses a hiring strategy called: DARC. Digital, Analytical, Reach, Content. The idea is that each new hire should have these qualities about them. It turns out that about one third of the key initiatives at HubSpot started without management authorization. That’s pretty darn entrepreneurial. HubSpot prides itself on maintaining an entrepreneurial culture due to their DARC hiring practices. As Mike says, HubSpot uses  modern tools and practices to be a modern company.

Guy Hagen, Founder & President of Innovation Insight

Guy gave a very insightful presentation on social media tools. He cites two excuses that people use to not do social media monitoring. One excuse people give is that tools are too expensive. Guy’s entire talk referenced free tools. The other excuse is many people simply don’t know which tools are available. The result is that many people are ignoring the conversations in social media involving them. He shared simple tools like alerts from Google and Social Mention as well as more advanced tools like BlogPulse and Yahoo Pipes. Social Mention also includes some stats such as sentiment.

David Glass, Publisher at Florida Technology Journal

David is the founder and co-producer of TechSummit. David’s vision behind the TechSummit is to educate companies on the latest strategies, tools and resources to help them grow. The speaker slate was comprised mostly of local Florida based entrepreneurs, showcasing our local technology and people. David is passionate about showcasing local talent as much as possible. His next event is the Tech Venture Conference on November 19th in Orlando,  showcasing early stage and growth stage companies.

Steve Tingiris, CEO of Enthusem

Steve shared his experience building a new technology company and the importance of building relationships. As great as tools and technology are, building solid relationships at every level is the most important thing according to Steve. It’s the people that will create the outcomes. The tools will help the people, but the people will create the outcomes. The relationships with employees comes down to “can you imagine working somewhere else?” Ask your customer, “can you imagine doing what you do without (fill in your business name)?” Relationships ultimately drive cash flow, profitability and growth. Technology should reinforce relationship building. Lots of food for thought here…

Michelle Malott, Co-Chair TechSummit, CEO HDYI

Michelle moderated the event, and did so with great charm. She worked closely with David Glass to organize and produce the TechSummit event. Unfortunately, my podcast interview with Michelle got corrupted. But, I will have Michelle as my guest on the Find and Convert podcast very soon where she’ll share her wisdom and insights on innovation with us very soon.

Lastly, I spoke at this conference on the risks of social media marketing. My presentation outlines some of the most common risks in social media to be aware of and how to avoid or mitigate them. These risks include no strategy, the wrong strategy, lack of resources, expecting overnight results, not measuring results, underestimating the influence of one person and the risk of employee abuse.

I hope these interviews have delivered on my commitment to the 3 Es of content (educate, enlighten, entertain). Hopefully you’ve been educated or enlightened, and maybe a little entertained.

There are plenty of pics and comments from the event on the TechSummit Facebook page.

I hope you’ll listen to the podcast to get a feel for the energy at TechSummit and to hear these great speakers firsthand. Just click the play button above or subscribe to my podcasts in iTunes.

TBTF’s Third Annual coolTECH 2010

Special edition podcast: 3^rd annual coolTECH in Tampa, FL, June 4, 2010.

I roamed the exhibit floor at coolTECH 2010 where I interviewed several of the entrepreneurs, inventors and existing companies showing off their cool technology.  coolTECH is one of three signature annual events hosted by the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, aka TBTF, of which I’m a proud member.

My podcast opens with an interview with TBTF CEO Amy Norman and 2010 Board Chairman Anand Pallegar. Amy explains that TBTF’s mission is to grow and promote Tampa Bay’s technology ecosystem. Through events, education, networking, advocacy and philanthropy programs, TBTF provides targeted forums that bring all the constituents of this ecosystem together to advance our industry and member objectives.

Anand Pallegar brings a new level of energy to TBTF. Anand is passionate about the vision to make Tampa Bay a top 10 technology market by 2015.  One of the ways TBTF will achieve this lofty goal is by working closely with peer groups throughout Florida such as the Suncoast Technology Forum in Sarasota, and by helping the Orlando area, which is already a rich technology area, to forge a tech forum similar TBTF. The result will be a statewide tech community where members  can connect and help one another. A natural by-product of a stronger tech community in Florida will be a renewed brand strength for Florida as a hot bed of technology companies and talent.

coolTECH is an annual event that offers a platform for entrepreneurs and existing tech companies to display their wares and network. As I walked the floor at coolTECH I was impressed by the sample of products, people and even inventions represented at coolTECH which exist and flourish in Tampa Bay.

Another TBTF signature event is coming up in August. TechJam is the annual fund raiser for the TBTF Foundation which serves at-risk and disadvantaged kids to get them interested in STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math through outreach programs such as CompuTer-rific, and an alliance with Boys & Girls Club. This year’s TechJam will bring back the battle of the bands. TBTF members will able to showcase their bands at the event. It is sure to be a huge party with a purpose!

Amy Norman and Anand Pallegar bring a visionary leadership, tireless energy and passionate devotion to being a servant organization in central Florida to benefit the tech community throughout the state.

The pics below are a sample of the cool people and products I discovered at coolTECH. Please give the podcast a listen to meet them. You just might learn about a product you’ll soon be using and you can say; “hey I learned about that product through coolTECH!”

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) *
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Tell Me About Your Event *
How many people will be at your event? *
What is your goal for this event? *
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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.

A Step-by-Step Social Media Business Development Plan

David Carothers, Marketing 2.0 Maven

David Carothers is a risk management advisor at Praxiom, a two year old risk management consulting firm. In this podcast interview, David shares how he developed a step-by-step social media business development plan.

Praxiom helps companies save money and reduce risk through business insurance products. My inbound marketing agency is a Praxiom client. David purchased my book, Marketing 2.0, last summer and got inspired to start his social media business development plan (though originally under the cover of darkness) right away. David used my book as a roadmap for his social media plan. But, he purposely didn’t tell anyone at his firm about it. He knew that social media marketing would be met with skepticism, so he worked his plan until he was able to point to tangible business development results. Once he captured new clients from his social media plan, he unveiled it to his colleagues at Praxiom. David had quickly observed that people who use social media are either very successful if they are committed to it, or not successful if they are half hearted about it. So, David decided to go full speed with a social media marketing strategy using the principles he read in my book. David knew he would be bucking the paradigm of traditional outbound marketing strategies commonly used in the risk management industry, which he characterizes as a lot of “dialing for dollars” to create a wide funnel of leads.

A Step-by-Step Social Media Business Development Plan

In early 2010, David set up a step-by-step social media business development plan for other risk management advisors at Praxiom. His plan starts with the basic mandate that everyone’s LinkedIn profile must be built out 100% following the LinkedIn meter. He points out that it’s important for all relevant content assets to be listed in your LinkedIn profile and up to date. In David’s case, he links his LinkedIn profile to his blog and his Slideshare account.

Professional and Social Credibility

David focused his social media business development plan on building two aspects of a client relationship – professional credibility and social credibility. LinkedIn is the platform to build professional credibility along with his blog. David is not a technology guy. So, when he decided to start blogging, he went to Google and searched “how do I build a blog?” David found Hubpages to build a blog. David finds blogging therapeutic. He enjoys sharing very valuable info with his network through his blog. Some of his content is about insurance and some of his content is about non-industry business topics such as how to do business development through LinkedIn.

David also builds social credibility through Facebook. He connects with clients and friends and shares both personal aspects of his life and business content. He opens up the personal aspect for clients to get to know him. He often hosts after hours networking events just to socialize with people and build personal relationships. He uses the Praxiom Facebook fan page to engage with more content at a business level and with photos to add a human aspect.

Content Sharing Strategy

David produces content that helps him build his professional credibility and his social credibility. He uses his Twitter account as a tool to help him spread his content. He views Twitter as the gasoline that drives the engine. Through Twitter management tools he selectively posts content to all his social media accounts. He also shares content from other blogs and tweets about his client’s industry topics, and about general business topics. He understands that by sharing non-industry business content, he gains confidence from clients about his business acumen. Once in a while he tweets a self promoting piece of content. He measures the click through on the content he tweets to help him understand what content people are responding to.

He’s At it Everyday

David is active in his social media accounts every day, multiple times per day. He has built the infrastructure. Now he’s driving the car. The results have exceeded his expectations. When John Keller joined Praxiom, David put him through the step-by-step social media plan. John would arrive each day at 7:30am to get ready for the day.  Six weeks later he had become very active in LinkedIn, blogging, using Twitter, etc. But, he was very discouraged because he didn’t see any results. David advised him to be patient, promising that good results will happen soon.  The same day David offered that advice, John forwarded an email to David. Someone had emailed John asking him to consult for their business on worker’s compensation based on one of his blog posts. This was proof positive of building professional credibility and winning new business. John flew to Atlanta and landed the account for $2.7M in workers comp premiums which translates to over $100k in revenue to Praxiom. Pretty good ROI!

David’s Advice

David doesn’t mince words. He says “either you’re in or not. Don’t do it half hearted. If you’re not 100% in, you won’t see results. If you are, keep at it and you will see results. Once it kicks in, you’ll see the momentum build and ongoing results as you keep at it.”

While I observe some aspects of David’s social media business development plan he could do differently, in the grand scheme of it all it doesn’t matter. Social media marketing isn’t about being perfect. It’s about doing it 100% with commitment and sincerity. As David says, it’s about “building professional and social credibility.” The results will be there.

I encourage you to listen to the 20 minute podcast interview. Just click the play button above. Be sure to subscribe to my podcasts in iTunes.

If you want to learn how you can build professional and social credibility through Facebook or Twitter consider attending one of my Facebook for Marketers or Twitter for Marketers workshops.

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.

Top Five Reasons Podcast Content Marketing is Misunderstood

I often wonder why podcast content marketing isn’t more popular than it is. I admit I’m biased since I’m a podcaster. But, I’m also an avid podcast consumer. I was a consumer of podcast content long before I became a podcast content producer. Now, I listen to podcasts in my car more than I listen to the radio or CDs. My iPod is filled with podcasts, rather than music.  iTunes makes it easy for anyone to find and consume content in podcast format.

The Three E’s
In my book, Marketing 2.0, I encourage marketers to produce content that delivers on the three E’s: educate, enlighten, entertain. Podcast content is a terrific medium to deliver on any of the three E’s. But, why isn’t podcast content more popular?

I offer five reasons why podcast content isn’t more popular.

Podcasts Are Not Indexed by Search Engines
Unlike Facebook fan pages and conventional web and blog pages, a podcast is not indexable by search engines. Podcasts are audio files uploaded into a subscribable format such as iTunes or another podcast directory such as Podcast Pickle. You can also subscribe to podcasts from a blog with a link to iTunes. But, to get the most current podcast you must either visit iTunes to synch or visit the producer’s blog to listen to current podcasts.

iTunes is Big But It’s Not YouTube
Apple may enjoy more market share than Google with the iPhone over the Google Nexus One, but when it comes to video content, Google’s YouTube rules. While video podcasts are available, most podcasts are audio. Let’s face it, audio is just not as popular as video. And, with the iPad here, delivering an even more rich media experience, video will remain more popular than audio as the netbook market continues to grow.

Podcasts Are Not Understood by the Masses
I’ve often heard marketers refer to their audio file on their website as a podcast. A podcast is only a podcast when you can subscribe to it and get updates through a feed. The lack of understanding of a podcast as a content delivery medium combined with the high popularity of video contributes to low popularity of podcasts.

Inconsistent Quality of Podcasts
Let’s be honest, some podcast content producers just don’t produce quality audio. I’ve often downloaded podcasts based on the title and description only to listen to just a few minutes before ditching it due to poor audio quality. Worse yet, the audio quality is good but the personalities on the show babble for 10 minutes before getting to the point. Good podcasts get to the content quickly and engage their listeners, creating a loyal audience.

Lack of Consistent Content from Producers
If you want to listen to podcasts on marketing, you have plenty of choices among content producers with a track record. But, there is a high rate of abandonment among podcast producers, due at least in part to the lack of monetization opportunities around most podcast content. Therefore, many podcast shows start and end often within a few weeks or months. Podcast content producers should adopt a content marketing mindset, only starting a podcast series when they can commit to longevity.

The Bright Side of Podcasting
If this blog post was about the good, the bad and the ugly of podcasting, the five reasons above address the bad and ugly. Now, let’s get to the good because there is plenty of good in podcasting.  First, there are in fact many terrific podcast shows produced by terrific peeps. Below I offer you a list of some of my favorite podcasts. Admittedly, these podcasts are all about marketing. If you have other favorites, please add yours to this list in the comments section below.

Find and Convert Podcast
This is my podcast. It’s my favorite because I thoroughly enjoy producing it. I interview ordinary marketers doing extraordinary marketing. I produce two or more podcasts per month, each providing an interview with a guest that has valuable experiences and insights to share about their marketing strategy. My guests are regular marketers just like my listeners. My audience can relate to these guests and gain inspiration from their stories. I deliver mostly on the first 2 of the 3 E’s. On occasion, there may be some light entertainment.

DishyMix
The DishyMix podcast is hosted by podcasting extraordinaire Susan Bratton. Susan interviews digital marketing executives, many of whom are authors, CEOs and entrepreneurs. Susan’s interview style is one of the best. She really does her homework with each guest, and consequently brings out his or her best. Susan Bratton is CEO of podcast empire PersonalLifeMedia, a portal of podcasts ranging across all topics ranging from art, health, news, politics, marketing and many others.  Susan delivers on all three E’s with DishyMix. I am the self appointed #1 fan of DishyMix.

HubSpot TV
HubSpot TV is a weekly video podcast that airs live on Friday’s at 4pm. People tune in live to watch HubSpot.TV every Friday, or download it from iTunes and time shift it as I do. Their format is comprised of hosts Mike Volpe and Karen Rubin running through inbound marketing news from the week, offering tips, advice and their own, sometimes controversial commentary. Their personalities are so different, it makes for an interesting chemistry. Mike and Karen usually have a guest on their show to discuss the guest’s claim to marketing fame. HubSpot TV delivers on all three E’s with a heavy dose of entertainment mostly through Karen’s off the wall humor.

Marketing Over Coffee
Christopher Penn and John Wall record a weekly podcast from a Dunkin Donuts in the Boston area. They cover current news in marketing with a bit of a technical twist. They often provide tips on how to fine tune various aspects of your permission based email or social media plans. I always learn something from Penn and Wall. Therefore, I find their content to deliver on first two of the three E’s.

Six Pixels of Separation
Mitch Joel, CEO of digital media agency TwistImage, author of the book Six Pixels of Separation, and frequent speaker hosts this weekly podcast which comes in two flavors. He usually interviews interesting people in marketing with great conversation around contemporary marketing topics such as the future of  newspapers in a digital society. His conversational tone is always pleasant and interesting.  His other podcast is called Media Hacks and features a group of social media mavens who banter about anything. The unscripted conversation is always colorful and usually interesting. Both of these podcasts deliver on the first of the two E’s.

Podcast Show Notes
When a podcast is linked to a blog post, the show notes can provide a written summary to readers and provide search engine results on the topic of the podcast. I write a blog post for each of my podcasts in part to broaden the exposure of my podcast. But, I also recognize that I may get readers of the blog post who won’t listen to the podcast, and vice versa. So, writing a blog post is an effective way to straddle both lines of blogging and podcasting. The show notes also create SEO value for the podcast content because the post will be indexed in search engines.

Podcasting has been around for less than a decade. It’s been trumped by video in popularity. But, consumers who want to get smarter on a topic of interest should search out podcasts starting with iTunes and subscribe to them. Marketers looking for another content channel should consider producing a podcast series.  If you’re a marketer that has never produced a podcast series, you may want to consider it. But, consider your ability to commit to a show with regular frequency. Even it your frequency is only monthly, as your audience grows they will expect your monthly show. You won’t want to disappoint them once you’ve developed an audience.

I invite you to visit my podcast page. You’ll find my podcast interviews to be about ordinary marketers doing extraordinary marketing across a range of topics including B2B marketing, SEO, social networking, inbound marketing, experiential marketing, small business marketing, measuring results, success stories and others.

If you have favorite podcasts to add to my list, please add them in the comments below.

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