How do you build a brand that is a sweet orange in an online social world of bitter apples? How do the brands that leave lasting imprints in your head do it? Why is that jingle you hear one time on the radio or TV in the morning stuck in your head all day? Why do you consistently buy one brand over another?
This post is different than most that I write. I have a simple message to get across today and I hope you hear it loud and clear. This post started out as a Twitter discussion, then Facebook discussion. You are now getting my head and heart in 140+ on a subject I am obviously very passionate about. QUIT over complicating social media. It is not rocket science.
From a sales and prospecting perspective, if you are not actively using LinkedIn to foster and build relationships, you are decreasing your close ratio, taking money from your company and yourself and robbing yourself of relationships. Not only relationships with current and prospective clients, but future opportunities for yourself and career.
So it's Monday morning and you enter into the conference room for the team meeting. The agenda's obviously differ by niche, role and organization. However, almost one thing is certain. Chances are there is more talk, plans and stress about what you need to do that is NEW. What is the next BIG THANG that is going to get you on the map? How can you build the fastest, baddest Facebook campaign? Or maybe it's the new Facebook or Twitter ad campaign? Or the big car giveaway for the local charity.
Those that know me know that I'm a big believer in taking time to rejuvenate so we can reinvigorate our life and business. I hit a creative wall the past few days and couldn't get myself to finish any of the million blog posts half written in outline form on my iPhone, iPad and Evernote. I definitely wasn't feeling inspired to start anything brand new.
This morning my son was telling me about his plans to be an ortohodontist, worship Pastor and an "agency guy" with his parents. As his eyes lit up and his excitement filled the room, I couldn't help but be excited with him. His vigor was addictive and it made me want to draw close, listen and feel what he was feeling. It reminded me how as business leaders, entrepreneurs, marketers, product managers, CEOs, CIOs, volunteers, moms, dads, and people we lose our "ummmph!" We let life get us down. We let mean bullies poke holes in our dreams. We let doubt of self stop us in our tracks or distract us from the goals.
Tropical storm Debby highlights how far both media and business have to go in leveraging social media as communications vehicle during natural disasters.
So you are finally starting to believe there may be some truth to the fact that to be successful in life and business you need content!? It doesn't matter if it's a blog post, website content, email marketing, Facebook post or a simple Twitter conversation, you need content. Content is the heart of communication of all mediums. Even though content ideas may not come so easy for you, the truth is inspiration can be found within the most simple parts of your business and life.
Wow, it's been awhile since Granny stopped by for some good southern social media advice. For those of you who haven't met granny, you're in for a surprise. Word of warning, she is not shy and will tell you how it is. You can choose to agree with her or not. Either way she'll either make ya' laugh, cry or want to throw a vegatable of some sort at her!
Every marketer, consultant, tweeter and Facebooker seems to be talking about content marketing yet few have any real experience driving real results!
You've heard the buzz. Many business and marketing leaders that ...
If I had 100 bucks for every time a client has told me one of the below statements I would be writing this from a year long all expense paid trip to the island of choice! Do you feel like pulling your hair out? Do you know you need to get social media integrated into your business but you just don't have the time to do such? Make the time!
As a marketer there is nothing I hate to see more than a missed opportunity. Okay, one worse thing is a messed up, missed opportunity. By now hopefully it's old news to you that LinkedIn was hacked. At minimum 6.5 million people had their LinkedIn security breached via the hacking of their profiles. I am not going to go into detail on this now but have included a few links at the bottom of this post. As I did a few searches this morning for what the latest was with LinkedIn and what our team needed to do to protect ourselves I was a bit shocked with what I found. You know the old saying about how people do the same thing everyone else is doing even if it's not the right line, longest line or could do harm? Well, this is a perfect scenario of such.
Online Social Brands Gone Bad. We've all seen them. The question is... are you one of them? Did you know it takes at minimum 6-7 brand impressions before someone will remember your brand? Every brand impression counts. What brand impressions are you leaving with your audience? How many websites, blogs, landing pages, videos, Facebook pages, Twitter backgrounds, avatars have you seen that make you want to cringe? From the colors that look like curtains off the "I Love Lucy" show to design that would have been gonged on "The Gong Show" within 5 seconds. We all know a bad website when we see it. We don't usually think twice about it. We just simply go away without the brand ever knowing they made such a bad impression.
I love the recent discussions happening on the social waves as they are getting to the heart of social business. The hard questions are starting to be asked. If you are only focused on how you can take your current business model, current services and stuff them in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and your blog then you are destined to fail. Your must instead focus on how can you integrate social media into the DNA of your business.
My dad was also an entrepreneur. He had worked corporate for many years but like me got tired of the rat race and set out on his own to build a successful telecommunications service company. The older I get the more I understand the reasons he liked some of the songs he did. It wasn't only because they talked about playing poker or me "being his sunshine, his only sunshine." It was because they hit the heart of both life and business in many ways.
IBM's Yuchun Lee will be a guest on our inaugural launch of a daytime segment of #GetRealChat today at 12pm et. Yuchun Lee is Vice President, Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM), in the Industry Solutions division, IBM Software Group. EMM is comprised of Coremetrics and Unica technologies, and helps companies automate, manage and accelerate core business processes across marketing and demand generation.
If you are an experienced social marketer you know the realities of social media. You know what it takes to achieve results. You know there is no quick fix or magic pill to results. You know that buying Facebook fans, Facebook likes, clicks, or Twitter followers is not going to help you meet business goals. What about you new kids on the block? I work with many of you so I know how you feel and what is keeping you up at night. I know the questions you ask. I know the lies you are being told or the assumptions you are making that are far from truthful. The purpose of this post is to highlight some of these myths, lies and false hopes that may be keeping you from results. This post is not meant for those who can write a book on each topic. It is targeted to the newbies to social media, the business leaders who may know how to rock traditional marketing and other mediums but are struggling with integrating social media into business.
Community isn't something that happens once just to help build you up from zero to one hundred or five thousand followers. A real community is there for the long term. They are the people you can count on come thick or thin. They are the people who will build you up, tell you the truth even if it hurts and celebrate your successes because they helped you get there.
The second part of this post is a guest post ...
