Linking In to Pay it Forward by Chuck Hester

Paying it Forward with Chuck Hester.

In this podcast interview, we get to meet Chuck Hester. Chuck is Communications Director with iContact, an email marketing software service. Chuck considers himself a LinkedIn maven because he so willingly imparts his knowledge with others. Chuck has been active on social media for about six years now. Obviously, Chuck was an early adopter of social media, in particular of LinkedIn. He got very involved in social media when he joined iContact and became communications director and he started to use social media for PR and relationship building. Chuck’s social media strategy is all about engagement.  He is an listener through iContact user groups in LinkedIn and through Twitter which Chuck started using about two years ago. Chuck actively listens to the iContact community and responds to their needs.

Linking In to Pay it Forward

Chuck was implored to write this book by many who experienced his outreach. Has his own humbling story when he and his wife went through an economic disaster during the dot com bubble burst. Chuck lost his house and really needed. And, he got it. People reached out to him and his wife Stephanie and helped them get back on their feet. He realized that social media is a platform that allows anyone to help others, not a place to broadcast your message.

NOT Your Daddy’s Business Book

Chuck’s book is an easy read. It’s inspiring, it’s humbling and it’s full of valuable tips. If you read between the lines of Chuck’s book you find that it’s a book about living life the way it should be lived. The book typifies humility. It’s filled with treasure bits of information and lessons learned. It’s conversational and simple, yet powerful and to some, maybe even life changing. The greatest compliment you can give Chuck is that you applied some of his wisdom and got blessed for it either personally or professionally.

Building Your Brand

Chuck is all about personal and professional branding. He shares my sentiment that you should be able to find someone by searching their name on the web. We all want to deal with people, not with a logo. Chuck implores everyone to be transparent, be straight forward. When I first met Chuck, he handed me two cards. He handed me his  iContact card and his Chuck Hester card. Chuck believes in the halo effect. iContact has benefited from Chuck and Chuck has benefited by iContact. That’s the power of personal branding. Of course, if you’ve read my Marketing 2.0 book, you know I’ve devoted an entire chapter to personal branding. It’s that important.

Treat Them Like They’re Right in Front of You: Online Social Media Etiquette

In this chapter Chuck emphasizes that there is a real person behind their computer or device. Just because you’re interacting with someone on LinkedIn or another social media application is no reason to act differently. We should always be authentic in our interactions with people. In other words, we should treat people online like they’re standing right in front of you. I agree!

LinkedIn Live Raleigh

People in Chuck’s network started expressing interest in meetups about three years ago. Chuck set up the first LinkedIn Live Raleigh event in July 2007. About 50 people came together for the first event which was three hours of solid networking. He met with many people he was connected to in LinkedIn. Today, most events draw about  250 people. Each event has sponsors and door prizes. At one recent event, they raised $1900 for Soles for Souls, a local charity. Chuck has heard many great ROI stories about these events. He know there about 40 people that gotten employment or contracts from these events. One person won a $50 food card door prize. He approached Chuck to let him know that he was unemployed and that door prize allowed him to by flowers and a dinner from the grocery store for his wedding anniversary. Wow!

Take the Meeting

Chuck’s advice to doubters is to get out and meet people because people are so interconnected. The chances of something good happening are so in your favor. Social Media is one of the most amazing pay it forward platforms in history. It’s easy to find someone who needs help, or needs to buy my widget. The marketplace has no geographic or time constraint boundaries.

How to Pay it Forward

Chuck’s advice for anyone who doesn’t know how to pay it forward is this. It’s easy to return a favor. So, just go out and help someone out without any expectation that they will help you out. The blessings are plentiful. You will be repaid somehow. Just don’t expect it. Helping someone can be as simple as re-tweeting or introducing someone online. Do it often and it will become habit and you’ll want to do it over and over. Remember that no matter how small it may seem to you it could be big for someone else…

I hope you’ve been inspired by Chuck as I have been. Check out Chuck’s book, Linking in to Pay it Forward, as well as his blog or LinkedIn or on Twitter.

Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy
When I devoted an entire chapter in my book, Marketing 2.0, to developing a social media marketing strategy, my intent was to inspire marketers. In other words, I want marketers to avoid making the most common mistake, which is the mindset that you need a Twitter or Facebook strategy. You don’t. You need a social media marketing strategy!

Consider assembling the marketing team and your CEO and asking these questions:
•    Why do we think we need a social media strategy?
•    What is our objective?
•    What will the costs be?
•    What are the staffing requirements?
•    What are the risks?
•    What are the opportunities?
•    What are our competitors doing in social media?

Old School Meets New School
While Marketing 2.0 is a new-school marketing paradigm, there is no substitute for old-school research to gain valuable insights before you develop your social media strategy. Begin with research about your customers, target customers, competitors, resellers and influencers. Take no less than a few days (at a minimum) to study the landscape in your industry. Conduct searches in Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for the names of the CEOs of any company in your industry that is relevant. Include your competitors, your suppliers, and any other relevant company, including analysts and publications. This research should provide valuable insight into where your customers and relevant community are spending time on the social web. You’ll learn what they’re talking about and what groups exist by topic or by company. You’ll learn what your competition is doing or not doing. Eventually, you will gain valuable insight that will drive your social media strategy.

Why Do We Think We Need a Social Media Strategy?
This question is somewhat akin to asking, what business are we in? When you consider why you need a social media strategy, you should take some time and revisit this question about your core business.  A social media strategy serves one simple purpose; it enables your company to engage in authentic conversations with your community so you can improve your ability to attract, retain and serve your customers.

So Begin Your Social Media Strategy by Listening!
On one hand, it’s obvious why we should be listening. It’s the same reason we should be reading industry news—to stay informed. But remember that News 1.0 came at you from only one direction. The people whose job it was to deliver the news wrote it, and you read it. That’s where it ended. In News 2.0, we are empowered to participate in the story. When you listen to the comments made by people who react to a news story, you are listening to your market in real time.

If your top competitors are actively producing content in social media, your risk may be greater if you choose not to. Your absence from online conversations may damage your brand. In short, competitive pressures may influence your decision to become a content producer.

What is Our Objective?
You’ve done your research, and you’ve identified why you need a social media strategy. Now, it’s time to clearly define your objectives. Your objectives should fall into one of these categories:
•    Competitive differentiation
•    Market share growth
•    Expansion of your brand

Competitive Differentiation
A competitive differentiation strategy requires you to increase your visibility on the social web in your market segment through online content commenting and new content creation. Identify the best sources of web-based content in your industry, including vertical industry media and associations. Task a member of your staff to monitor the content and the conversations in these online communities. Identify the subject matter experts in your organization who can get engaged in the conversations in these online communities or contribute new content. Consider a blog strategy if you have the staff to devote to it. Find a voice for your organization that can become a consistent voice in your market, delivering a consistent message on specific topics. Allow this voice to be active and free with ideas and valuable insights into the things about which the people in your industry care. Remember, this is not a direct sales strategy, though your management team may view it this way. Your differentiation goal is to allow the market to see how you think, how you serve, how you listen, how you respond, and generally how you add value to your market. Talking about your products in ways that interest your community is advisable. Shouting to them about features is not. Your goal is to make it easy for others to learn how your organization is different from your competitors.

Market Share Growth
In setting out to grow your market share, you must be committed to proper staffing and producing diversified content on the social web. You must do proper planning and be willing to experiment, even if it means taking risk and failing some along the way. The objective is to attract more of your community to your organization. To do this, you need a bigger footprint on the web. If your differentiation strategy was primarily based on a blog, you may need to expand your strategy. You might commit to producing videos. Groups are available in social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook and can offer very easy ways to expand your reach. Similarly, you may find groups in industry-specific social sites where your staff can participate. This requires commitment, which carries with it some staffing implications. But this can be accomplished by adjusting your staffing requirements, cutting nonperforming marketing activities and reallocating staff resources to producing more social media content.

Brand Expansion
To expand your brand using social media requires a big commitment and carries some risk. The content strategy is the key to success in brand expansion! You’ll need to decide which social media platforms to use, who will create the content, and who will be the public face of your content. Presumably you’ve done your homework to find the audience you want to reach, and you’re committed to producing the content that will reach them. You’ll need to experiment to find the right mix of content and platforms to reach your desired audience. You may find that some content is more effective than others in expanding your brand. You’ll need to take some risk and measure results along the way to determine the effectiveness of expanding your brand through social media.

Let Your Content Go
The reality is that most businesses have more content than we know what to do with. We have white papers, news releases, websites, newsletters, and countless internal documents, not to mention the brilliant but often undeveloped content residing in between our ears. The power of social media marketing lies in letting it all go. Share your content with the world. So if you have good content for your community, share it, promote it, but most of all, just let it go.

Ready, Aim, Fire
Do your homework. Set your goals. Set your content strategy. Assemble the team. Cut non-performing activities to make room for a social media strategy. Then, get started. You’ll make some mistakes. But, with good planning you’ll make fewer and less costly mistakes and you’ll accelerate your results.

I’ll write a blog post soon about how to measure social media marketing results…

Marketing 2.0 Presented at Chamber Event

I was invited to speak at the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, which is the largest chamber in the Tampa Bay region where I live. The event was well attended with close to 100 people representing mostly small and midsized businesses and non-profits.

I tested out my new slides which summarize my forthcoming book entitled Marketing 2.0. Judging by the questions, comments and the active note taking in the audience, I’d say my presentation was well received.

I spoke on how the old way of marketing (1.0) comprised of shouting at customers is dead. I referenced this video comically showing the divorce between advertiser and consumer.  I pointed out that buyers have filters that allow us to prevent old-style marketing from reaching us.

I highlighted how marketers must focus on two fundamental pillars in a marketing 2.0 strategy:

• producing great content
• building relationships on the social web

I discussed the types of content to produce ranging from websites, blogs, newsletters, e-books, white papers, articles, press releases, videos, photos. I didn’t mention (but should have) wikis and podcasts.

I stressed the importance of engaging with like minded communities to build relationships with people and to build trust.

I spoke of how buyers now buy differently. I explained that when I buy I turn to two places: 1) my friends (my network) and 2) the web. When researching on the web I ask for opinions from other people whom I’ve never met. But, I can read the profile and experience of people who make recommendations to determine their qualifications (trustworthiness) for recommendations.

I can also make valuable connections, some of which can turn into measurable results. I spoke of how to measure results using tools and Internet marketing software as well as also measuring the outcome of new relationships.

I was not surprised to learn that most people in the audience used LinkedIn. About half the audience used Facebook. But, only three people actively use Twitter and only a few more maintained active blogs.

I got the strong impression that most of the attendees were fairly new to social media marketing. Some indicated they previously had very little exposure to it.

I didn’t hear any major objections to a marketing 2.0, social media marketing strategy, which I characterized as a paradigm shift.

Rather, I believe I heard a willingness to experiment and explore the business benefits of producing and sharing content on the social web and building relationships which can produce positive benefits to their business.

You can view my entire Marketing 2.0 presentation on Slideshare.

Cheers,

Bernie Borges
@berniebay