Topic: social media

There must have been an uptick in interesting things lately. Or maybe I’ve stumbled luckily about the interwebs. Either way, its time for the curious collection of links, the WUNDERKAMMER!

• The Ad Generator – I love this kind of thing. From the site: “Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. These slogans are then paired with related images from Flickr, thereby generating fake advertisements on the fly.” It’s scary how good some of these randomized slogans are.
• Old piece on the Internet Archive – Despite being from 2002 some of the details (250GB a day added, the process of crawling the entire web) are still incredible. Having recently worked on a project that needed to parse and add 2GB a day I’m dumbfounded at what they’re able to do with sub-$300 hardware.
• 

  Starbucks/McDonalds Infographic – Did you know a single cup of Starbucks’ coffee can depend on as many as 19 countries? Or that McDonalds makes more per year than the entire country of Afghanistan? Click on the image for more insights via this lovely piece of information visualization. It’s all part of a larger atlas of globalization.

• 27 Visualizations of the Financial Crisis – While we’re talking about visualizations check out these graphics which try and convey just what caused the recession.
• How an Indie Musician made $19k in 10 hours on Twitter – Amanda Palmer, of the Dresden Dolls, breaks down how she is using social media as part of her artist outreach. Some impressive stuff.
• Lady GaGa Uses Social Media Too – Here’s an AdAge piece that claims much the same thing but lacks the specifics of connection while throwing out the same tired, wide-eyed coverage (“Twitter! Facebook! She’s talking to actual unwashed masses! OMG!”)
• Bloom Box – Are you as excited about these fuel cells as I am? It is disappointing that a housed-sized version for $3k is still a decade away, but the ability to have uber flexible electrical generation off grid is huge game changer.
• An Entrepreneur’s Approach to Resilient Communities – An interesting business breakdown of resilient communities as a business opportunity. This bugs me since part of the point of resilient communities is to avoid the boom/bust cycle born of this kind of thinking (not “people” but “consumers”, not “needs” but “opportunities”). Still, it does form a base for conversation.
• Urban Farming – While on the topic of resilient communities what Will Allen is attempting in Michigan is inspiring. A key piece of any self-sustaining group is its ability to feed itself, a challenge for urbanized areas benefiting from cheap fuel and distribution networks stretching thousands of miles.
• Introduction to the Rhizome Economy – What John Robb calls “resilient communities” Colorado attorney Jeff Vail refers to as “Rhizome”, or diagonal economies. It’s a somewhat rambling treatise on how legacy systems are forcing the emergence of a more dynamic, flexible, sustainable business ecosystem.
• US Manufacturing is not Dead! – … but US manufacturing employment is. That’s the conclusion from an excellent post linked to by Adafruit. So what’s happening? In short, we’re making more things than ever before but we’re just so damn efficient at it that we need fewer people. Whoops. What politician is gonna have the guts to speak that truth? “I know Detroit has been utterly decimated, but that’s actually indicative of a bold, new efficient future…”. Not likely. We could always be like China and eschew a ditch mower in favor of masses with scythes.
• Collection of Murder, Thriller Covers – Ok, enough of the heady stuff. I loves me some good pulp art and this flickr collection of mystery/thriller novels is excellent.
• Devo is back! And ridiculing focus groups! – Love the fact that a band known for spawning an iconic “brand” is willing to put those conceits in a blender in the name of art.

And, with that, its onto the week. What were you reading this weekend?

I found out about this free affiliate ebook from a Sponsored Tweet. Which is why I love Sponsored Tweets because if they are relevant they keep me in the know. Plus I get paid to send them and then you’re in the know too.

The author is super affiliate Jonathan Volk – that’s him on the right – he has made over $4 million as an affiliate marketer. He’s got a huge following on Twitter and you may have seen his posts on Shoemoney.

On page 15 it talks about media buys – which is something I haven’t read in other affiliate marketing ebooks. I’m also impressed that he covers social media marketing including marketing with Facebook Ads. He walks the talk too.

As you’ll see Jonathan covers a lot of topics – and they’re useful for any kind of online marketing – not just for affiliate marketing. The best part is this is absolutely digestable and streamline. It’s not too complex and long. There are a few valuable links in each chapter to resources. Places to go to get help implementing the suggestions on your own web sites or if you just want more information.

Affiliate Marketing 101

Outline of sections in the ebook

Section 1. Introduction

Section 2. What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Section 3. What Is An Affiliate Network?

Section 4. Recommended Affiliate Networks

Section 5. How Does All This Come Together?

Section 6. The “Pregame”

Section 7. The “Pregame” Pt. 2 – Know Your Demographics

Section 8. The “Pregame” Pt. 3 – Setting Up Hosting / Domain Name

Section 9. Setting Up A Simple PHP Redirect

Section 10. The Landing Page

Section 11. Affiliate Marketing Methods (Basic Overview)

Section 12. Social Media Affiliate Marketing Guide

Section 13. Pay Per View Affiliate Marketing Guide

Section 14. Pay Per Click Affiliate Marketing Guide

Section 15. Media Buying Affiliate Marketing Guide

Section 16. After Your Campaigns Are Ready To Launch

Section 17. Conclusion

I see a lot of value in this guide because it’s so current and has very practical advice. I’ve already learned about new resources that I can use on my affiliate sites right now.

Download the free affiliate marketing ebook here.

Image via CrunchBase

I love this study and research from a bakery/cafe in Texas called Dessert Gallery that was featured on the AllFacebook blog. The research documents some of the value that brands get from having a Facebook fan page. Researchers at Rice University published a report to see the dollar value of Facebook fans and how they impact actual sales.

Take home message: Facebook fans became more loyal customers who not only visit more often but tell their friends about you.

Facebook now has more than 400 million users and they themselves are loyal – visiting the site practically every single day.

Here’s how the study worked:

1. They sent an email to 13,270 customers asking for their participation in the study. Just 689 responded.

2. A Facebook fan page was created for the bakery. They put pictures of their products, “news about contests and promotions, links to favorable reviews, and introductions to DG employees.” If you want to know what to do on your Facebook Page, take note!

3. They asked everyone on the mailing list to become a fan on Facebook.

4. 3 months later they survey the new fans and everyone on the email list.

• Fans spent the amount of money per visit but they went to the bakery more often than people who didn’t become fans. They visited 20% more. Figure out what that could do to your store if you had 20% more visits from even 5% of your customers.
• Fans were more likely to recommend the bakery to their friends. Over 20% more likely than people who weren’t fans on Facebook. So these folks will not only come more often but they’ll introduce new customers to you.
• Fans had a higher emotional attachment to the bakery. Isn’t that interesting? When you engage with people they feel differently about you. They come to visit more often, they talk about you. To me this is exactly why major brands are engaging with B list bloggers right now – to get that emotional connection and familiarity. But mostly to tap into the trust that these bloggers have with their readers.

Just 5% of the 13,000+ customers became a fan of the bakery on Facebook. So the results could be even more dramatic if they launched a campaign to attract more fans. Like giving a coupon for a free cookie or something for people who become fans.

Here’s the part I love: “We also foresee future products that will enable customers to become fans of companies on the spot, which means the opportunity for instant engagement will be much greater in the near future.” I think there’s a real need for this type of product.

I hear there’s a restaurant in Utah that has a computer up in their restaurant which is open to their fan page on Facebook. That would be a great way for people to join and update your wall with comments and reviews right then and there. Most of your customers won’t do that and I bet if they do it also increases loyalty and the relationship in general.

I love seeing ROI attached to social networking. Forming positive relationships and building trust with people is good for business. We’ve known this all along. It turns out social networks are ideal for building relationships with your customers.

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• Banks told to cash in on social media (v3.co.uk)
• Corporate America Top 50 FaceBook Pages 2009 (retechworld.wordpress.com)
• 3 Serious Benefits of Social Media for Entrepreneurs Testing the Tools (successful-blog.com)

You’d think that one of the fastest growing Social Media companies on the planet would want to do all that it could to keep people and companies flocking to its platform, creating new accounts and growing it into a worldwide behemoth, right? 

And yet, Twitter’s Sign-up Page is broken, and it has been for at least the past 24 hours. How?

Well . . . unless the four different computers I’ve tried on three different Internet connections were each messed up . . . you’ll see what I mean if you click through the link above.

Specifically, what you should find on Twitter’s Sign-up page is that you cannot scroll down all the way. The end result is that you won’t be able to complete the process of creating a new Twitter account, and to be honest that’s all I’m trying to do for the Utah chapter of an international non-profit.

For the record, there’s nothing about this problem/glitch on the

• Twitter Status page,
• Twitter Blog,
• Twitter’s Troubleshooting page, or even
• Twitter’s Known Issues pages.

I also tweeted about the problem to Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, as well as to the official Twitter account for Twitter. 

And as a 25-year-veteran of the high-tech public relations wars, I even went so far as to try to reach out to someone on Twitter’s PR team through it’s official “Submit Press Inquiry” page. But that appears to be broken too as every submitted request comes back with the following error message:

“Oops, you need to write your deadline in the format ‘dd/mm/yy.’”

Yeah, except that I did that over and over and over, trying to get the stupid form to work!

Anyway . . . hopefully this is all just 

1. User error on my part, or
2. A simple oversight by Twitter’s development and/or support teams

because I love Twitter. In fact, I’ve been using Twitter for close to two years now, and I want Twitter to continue to be wildly successful.

But for now, I’m just frustrated that my favorite Social Media platform (Twitter) is broken.

I’m fascinated with this idea of giveaways to increase sales. I’m trying it with my own business. So far I can’t see any difference at all – but I also don’t have ways to measure.  I don’t see orders come in for my book – only a quarterly report – which is a good reason to have your own products. You can see orders as they come in. No one cares or has the time to care about each order as much as you do!

I love this quote – and it illustrates why I preach engagement – the longer someone is on your site, the more comfortable they are asking questions, the more chances there are that they will become customers. Or evangelists. Social media gives you a lot of opportunities to engage. That’s why it’s important to have a presence on multiple sites. The exception is if you cannot maintain them at all (which is the boat I’m in).

“The more comfortable our customers are at using multiple channels to engage with us, the more the average number of orders they place goes up, as well as their willingness to recommend us to their friends and family,” Wohlfeill says (of www.moosejaw.com)

So not only will they place more orders if they are communicating with you on Twitter, Facebook, text, etc. but they are more likely to talk about you. Especially if you have a culture or product worth talking about. You’ve got to read the MarketingSherpa report of the case study which is free until Feb. 27. I copy the articles I want to keep into a Google Doc so I can search them. I would summarize more but I’m busy today so if you’re interested please go read and learn.

I heard Peter Shankman present at Affiliate Summit West 2010. He founded HelpAReporter.com or HARO for short. It seemed like a lot of the audience wasn’t familiar with HARO.

HARO is an email that goes out 3 times a day with pitches from the media (bloggers, journalists, etc). It all started in 2007 on Facebook. Today it makes $1.4 million in ad revenues. Each email has a short blurb at the top which is actually a paid ad. I have advertised my Killer Online Press Release DVD (and I want to advertise again).

I mention HARO in my book and many times when I speak because it’s a killer online PR tool and it’s free. It’s a great way to know what journalists are writing about right now. Want to know when to pitch Valentine’s Day stories? Scan the contents and you’ll see the pitches and get an idea of not only when to pitch but the types of stories that are being written. If you answer a pitch with your story you can score some great publicity.

The NEW HARO was launched early Feb and here’s what’s new: all pitches are anonymous, you can choose list you want to go to (by topic), it tracks your pitches, Journalists can leave feedback on responses they get.

The theme of Peter’s speech was how to self-promote and still be liked. Self promotion when done right is TRUST. Bad self promotion is  talking up to someone you don’t know & saying, you don’t know me, but I’m AWESOME. It doesn’t come across well.

An example of a company who gets self-promotion is Blendtec. With a flipcam & a blender they whipped up a phenomenon that resulted in 679% increase in sales. It was recently dubbed one of the top 10 online marketing campaigns of the decade. Their customers told them what to blend, they blended and recorded the entire process. They put the videos on YouTube and people loved them. And they bought blenders.

Another element of good self promotion is offering advice and helping others. Peter gave a great example of this that had just happened. He was walking the Vegas Strip when a stranger stopped him to ask if he’d take a picture of him with his girlfriend. As Peter started to shoot the picture the guy gets on his knees. He’s going to propose to his girlfriend! So without a word, Peter gets out his nice camera. He got a frame-by-frame of the proposal. Her surprised look. Her smile. The hugs and kisses. It captures all of the emotions – she said yes. He offered to email them the pictures. He just captured a very endearing moment for them. They love him. Peter posted the pictures on Facebook where people see them and get teary-eyed. The story gets tons of comments. He gains many new friends and followers. Did he ever promote himself? NO. He just helped out, shared with others online, and that naturally led to publicity.

Here are some great quotes:

“LIFE should be a networking event”

“The art of Twitter lies in the retweet.”

So here’s my story. I was going to have Peter write the forward to my book, I Need a Killer Press Release, Now What??? Being a new author and trying to figure out how to expedite the process, I accidentally offended him. I can see how it came across wrong but I was really just green and didn’t know how things worked. Do people actually read books before they write the forward? It seemed to me they don’t – but I didn’t know. This is why people need book reps – to answer all the questions!

So I’ve been worried about meeting Peter – but I shouldn’t have been. In real life Peter Shankman is open and gracious. I captured it in part on the video I just linked to on YouTube. He knew who I was and was awesome about everything. Then he told me I was the 1st person he followed on Twitter. That pretty much made my day. And now look, I’m promoting him.

This is an interview I did with an Indian mystic who is an incredibly successful affiliate marketer. A superstar who has made billions around the Internet. I call him the mystic affiliate marketer (just in time for Valentine’s Day – I hope you feel the love) or MAM for short. I would make him a her but then this interview wouldn’t be as believable. I hope it inspires you to dream a dream and accomplish the inevitable.

Newspapergrl: Hello MAM

MAM: [laughs]

There’s no difference between building web sites and pushing products. It’s like the waves of the ocean, though the forms are different, they are one.

Newspapergrl: I see. So you see opportunities to market and make money everywhere you look?

MAM: No matter what web sites it is that I build, money always comes. It is the same. It’s like fire – no matter where you go in the world it is the same – it gives off heat.

Newspapergrl: I see.

So what makes you build successful web sites?

MAM: [laughs]

It’s like asking a river why it flows or the sun why it gives light. It’s my nature to make cash.

He tells me the same potential is within all of us.

Indeed it is.

Newspapergrl: Thank you LA for your wisdom today. People from all over the Internet look to you for inspiration and calm in a troubling, competitive and uncertain world. You bring us hope.

MAM: [laughs] then hugs me.

[cut to the sound of mystic waves crashing  to the shore]

I feel so enlightened after this interview. Thanks Nightline for a good laugh!! Here’s the video, enjoy:

You have to read this story about LoveJingles.com and how a musician made over $18k in 5 days with social media. It was fun to interview Love (say it like this: Louve). It seems like a great story just before Valentine’s Day. I signed up for a jingle and will post it when it’s live at the middle of this month. In the meantime, check out the full interview and story on Small Business Trends.

I watch the Superbowl for the ads. My favorite ads tell stories and engage us - which is what marketing is all about. This year’s favorite was from Google - a brand that rarely does any traditional advertising - let alone during the Superbowl. Here it is:

What’s fascinating is watching how the various brands combined online and offline advertising. This is the mainstream and what it says to me is: they still don’t get it.

Godaddy gets it and has for years. Their commercials (though often offensive - but marketing to geeks) drive people to their site. It worked great too - see the press release from Godaddy about their results. You have to love a press release about an ad.

Intel measures (and hopefully responds to) reactions on social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Social networks are an incredible opportunity to engage with people and see reactions. You spend millions on an ad and now you have a way to see how you did - and get immediate feedback. As Gary V points out people watch TV with a laptop and read the newspaper with an iPhone. They’re watching and commenting online. And sometimes the brands they are talking about are there responding. But most aren’t.

NBC announced they are changing how they air the Emmy’s because of Twitter. Instead of going live at different times in different time zones, they are considering making it live. Otherwise people on the East Coast spoil it for the West Coast. Worked for the Golden Globe awards - viewership was up 14%.

We’re going to see more and more merging between TV and social networks. More synchronizing. More tapping into celebrities from 1 medium to transfer some of the star power to another (like Dooce). Yes there are times when a mainstream star like Ashton Kutcher goes onto Twitter and the fame just transfers. There are more crossing over from online stardom to a mainstream reach.

Who or what is next? Have any more examples for me?

I had a significant change in my life on December 31, 2009, as that was the day my family and I sold off our ownership positions in SOAR Communications to my former business partner.

Interestingly, it didn’t hit me until two days ago that I needed to make changes to all of my various public Internet-based profiles (and biographies) to accurately reflect my new reality. Which leads to the point of this blog post:

When was the last time you reviewed and/or updated your public profiles (and/or bios)?

For me, it had been WAY TOO LONG.

In taking a personal accounting, I realized I’ve got profiles on

• Facebook,
• LinkedIn,
• Plaxo,
• Google,
• Flickr,
• Twitter, and (of course)

on two blogs/Websites:

• Politis Communications, and
• The Betty Factor.

So I’ve now started that process (as shown in the photo above), and I plan to spend this morning reviewing and updating ALL of my public profiles/biographies.

And if you haven’t done so lately, I recommend you do the same:

Review and update each of your public profiles and biographies today.

I’m going to add this as a once-a-quarter task to my calendar to make sure I stay on top of this task in the future. I hope you do so too.

Freedom is the released sequel to Daniel Suarez’s Daemon (which I recently also reviewed). Given how much I enjoyed the author’s debut novel the expectations were tremendously high. After an automated software task co-opts much of the world’s wealth and information infrastructure, how much more could there be to say?

Despite the fact I devoured this book in less than 24 hours, there’s Yippee-ki-yay mother planting plenty more.

The book begins immediately after the events of the predecessor. Those who have willingly become a part of the Daemon’s systems are organizing in ever-increasingly complex and self-reliant ways. These self-contained communities, called holons, represent an attempt at societies “devoid of bullshit”. As a character explains early in the book:

“Holons are the geographic structure of the darknet. Any dark net community lies at the center of an economic radius of one hundred miles for its key inputs and outputs – food, energy, health care, and building materials. Balancing inputs and outputs within that circle is the goal. A local economy that’s as self-sufficient as possible while still being part of the cultural whole – a holon – thus creating a resilient civilization that has no central points of failure. And which through its very structure promotes democracy.”

This is the kind of story that could only be told in an age like ours. It is a rebuttal to industrial era businesses’ end game: one that demands 10,000 mile supply chains, just-in-time manufacturing, a lowest wage globalized workforce, relentless upselling, dehumanizing bureaucracy, wars to ensure energy production and delivery, control of political will, and more.

Suarez’s holons are in rural America. He wisely realized that it would be these small, self-reliant communities that would be most receptive to the Daemon’s message. Just two weeks ago I called home after hearing that many in Timber Lake, SD (population ~400), had been without power for at least 5 days. A cold front had descended and continually coated power lines until the weight became too much to bare. Once one pole fell, the rest followed. Within a 24 hour period more than 6000 downed poles cut electricity for a nearly 2000 square mile region. Yet my parents were watching the Vikings play in the NFC championship game, generator keeping the necessities (like football) on. The heat is largely provided by a corn stove – fuel that is just a walk to the grain bin away. Canned goods were in the basement. Beef was in the chest freezer. There was no problem waiting to be reconnected to the larger world’s status quo. What would be a riotous disaster in a major metropolitan area was a minor inconvenience here.

Self-reliance is a way of life for these people; survival depends on it. When Suarez begins the book’s “Corn Rebellion” he’s not enacting a self-serving plot device but channeling the sensibilities of life and decency forgotten in an executive-boardroom run world.

“You know, I worry about you. You and your brother. I know it hasn’t been easy. I… there’s no real jobs anymore. I feel like I’ve let you down.” Fossen started to tear up.

She hugged him tightly. “Dad, you didn’t let me down.” She looked back up at him. “You taught me everything I need to know: self-reliance, self-respect, community. Just don’t be surprised if actually put it to use.”

Suarez’s book isn’t just a fantastic work of science fiction. If we truly want security, if truly want a sustainable way of living, if we truly want something better than corporate serfdom and a pile of debt while we self-medicate with video games and social media, we have to relearn the lessons that were lost on the road to industrialization. Freedom hints at just such a way.

Many businesses don’t think SEO is difficult, and they are right. It’s not rocket science, but it does require applied strategy, testing, and a lot of patience. Faced with the choice of going all out SEO (in or out of house), or putting it into the hands of a few part-timers to cut costs, some choose the latter. They believe the knowledge to rank a website is now mainstream enough that anybody can do it. A couple of interns would have no problem fixing title tags on a website, but unfortunately for that company, search engine marketing has advanced beyond title and description tags.

It is great news that many companies are seeing value in SEO and SEM. It makes it easier for companies like SEO.com to persuade people to let us do what works. But the basic nature of some SEO services has led some to question whether or not the investment is worth it. It is tempting to view SEO as simply a task that once achieved by a first page ranking can be eliminated or at least outsourced for cheap.

So why is this misguided thinking?

SEO has become something much bigger than most people realize. This is why some use the term ‘SEM’ (search engine marketing), or ‘online marketing’, instead of SEO. SEO plays a very important part in what we do, but when you take into account our people who run PPC campaigns for clients, optimize site layouts for better conversion rates, re-design websites for better usability, and whatever else we do, you have something resembling a full-service web marketing firm.

More than building a link or two

Consider the advantage that comes with expertise. For example,did you read Greg Shuey’s post about building links from relevant sites? If you didn’t know any better, you might think all link building was created equal. Turns out, there is a direct correlation between link building and on-page site structure. Go back and read up to find out more.

Or how about Rick Hardman’s discussion about Twitter? As social media continues to evolve, will you have anyone to consult with about its direction? Chances are, what you know about social media’s strategic relation to SEO is already a bit dated. You could study up, but you’ve got a business to run.

Maybe you missed David Malmborg’s post on why you shouldn’t send PPC traffic to your home page. Would you have continued to send all your hot leads to a poorly laid out page if you didn’t know that it was costing you money? Maybe, maybe not. But unless you had somebody on staff that had tested a landing page versus a home page for PPC traffic, you might never even think of something like that.

Pardon me for being a bit sales-pitchy there, but when you understand what SEO/SEM entails, it becomes clear that interns won’t cut it. Because while the business world got web savvy, online marketers were moving ahead. Some simple SEO tasks became commoditized, but web strategy became more complicated as social media, video, etc., gained acceptance. In sum, it takes more now than it ever has before to get the results you want. You could do some link building and content creation yourself, but your resources would be better spent on strategic search engine marketing.

I have a very talented sister who is both quite technical and very marketing savvy. She recently decided to focus on her social media consulting. The below article came from one of her clients questioning whether someone should focus on a facebook page or a facebookgroup. When she finishes her consulting site I will update [...]

If you’re new (or not new) to social media, there are some things you can do to make people angry. Here is your guide to pissing people off on web sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg or other sites.

7 Ways to Piss People Off on Social Media Sites

1. Always blog about your product, your company, tools, etc.
2. Make sure all links go back to your site.
3. Leave comments about yourself on blogs.
4. Incessantly invite friends to become a fan of you or your company on Facebook.
5. IM people on Digg asking them to link to you.
6. Put auto DMs on Twitter that are not personalized & link to spammy sites.
7. Try to stifle or censor people when they say things you don’t like about you (or your business) on social media sites.

And the winner is…

The WORST thing most people can do to piss people on Social Media Sites:

Aggressive Self Promotion

Don’t do it (unless you want to piss people off).

Taken from Affiliate Summit presentation by Rebecca Kelley @rebeccakelley

“I don’t know what’s going on with that Twitter thing.”
-The Daily News quotes the victim’s mother,
Madeline Smith, expressing her disbelief over the murder

Two friends got into an argument that became heated and included angry, taunting tweets. One of the men ended up shooting the other in the neck, killing him. It might be the first time tweets are used as evidence in a murder case.

According to a Mashable article: “Jameg Blake, 22, is accused of fatally shooting Kwame Dancy (pictured), also 22, in a shotgun blast to the neck – he pleaded not guilty this Wednesday.” The murder took place in Harlem.

Worth noting is that Twitter didn’t cause a murder, it was simply at least one of the ways the two fought. What’s different is how public the fight is - compared to IM, email or text messages it’s out there for anyone to read.

What I think is strange is how people will not put the Twitter names of the people involved. Tweets are public they are indexed in search engines. If you’re willing to tweet it, to me that means it’s fair game. Same story with this incident where a mom was visited by police after she wrote a disturbing tweet about suffocating her 3-year old for not taking a nap. I’m glad the police came because it means people are looking out for others (like the story about this man who was suicidal and got help after a desperate post on a forum. And the just as public example of the kid who actually did kill himself and had people encourage him to do it).

Just like Penelope Trunk tweeted about her miscarriage which is another death that was announced on Twitter. (I would link to the tweet but it was too foul. It was in really poor taste but then on some sort of level having read her blog for years, I sort of get why. Still appalling).

The media publishes far worse information that wasn’t intended to be public -  private conversations between 2 people. Unlike Tiger Woods, no one has to dig through cell phone records or have people come forward to get the dirt. It’s there for everyone to see on Twitter.

Our society is living life in very public ways online - for good, offensive, sad or bad.

Maybe we don’t really want to know what is on everyone’s mind all of the time after all. Is this decade the end of a private life?

Have you ever heard or even thought about these statements before?

StumbleUpon.com just doesn’t get me any traffic.

StumbleUpon.com is a waste of time.

I don’t have time to use sites like StumbleUpon.com.

What’s StumbleUpon.com?

Do you have any idea what StumbleUpon.com can do for your online business?

Have you ever heard of “Social Media Marketing”?

I know for many of you these questions may be a bit rhetorical, but you’d be surprised at how many big businesses have NO IDEA what I’m talking about right now.

I’ve been a “Member since Aug 06, 2007“ and StumbleUpon.com (SU) has treated me really well. If an online business isn’t using tools like StumbleUpon.com, now is the time to “get off the bench!”

5 Ways Every Business Should Use StumbleUpon.com

1. SOCIALIZE: Make friends with SU users who aren’t new to the SU scene. One of the reasons this will help you get your “foot in the social media door” is because, chances are, these users have lots of subscribers, lots of connections, and can really help you “push content virally”.

   Going Viral is one of the overall goals I see with social media, to get your name out there in as many valid places as possible. Find stumblers who are already discovering articles, websites, and pages related to what you are all about. Don’t just add all the top stumblers – see what they have in their favorites, compare it to what you plan to favorite, and make sure it’s a fairly reasonable “good fit”.

2. Build Business Relationships: How? – stumble blog posts other SU users create, discover their stuff. Send them message via the SU email letting them know you appreciate what they share.

   Just beware: If I got a ton of friend requests and messages from newbies, I’d probably just ignore them until they got their feet wet a bit. StumbleUpon has a function which makes it even easier to see how close you “match up” with other Stumblers:
   

3. Be an Active Member: This is what SU and all the other “social networks” are all about – activity! Once you add friends with common interests, don’t be afraid to chat with them, send them a message via the SU message box, ask them to Thumb Up and review something, etc.People will say no, you’ll be ignored, and once in a great while one of them will actually do something to help you. This will probably happen more than you expect if you’re persistent and personalize your message.
4. Do Unto Others: Don’t just book mark your own stuff! I know, to most of you this is a “no-brainer” but come on – if you just add your own stuff you will be tagged as a first class SPAMMER! Besides that, the “important” SUers will ignore everything you do and you may get banned from SU.

   To avoid this beginners mistake, find stuff you like that’s related to your website and add it to your favorites: become a part of your industries community! If you don’t know where to look, go to the SU search bar in the top right corner of the SU screen and type in one of the keywords that relates to your industry.Don’t be too specific in your keyword search, and you’ll find other sites that will actually provide you with great stuff you can write about for your own blog.

5. Plan to Succeed! “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!” Yep, that’s right, if you don’t have a social media marketing plan of attack, you’ll waste a lot of time and, just as the complaints at the top of this post say, SU (or any other social media site) won’t do anything for you.

If, after you implement this advice, you are still echoing the same sentiments found at the top of this post, you probably haven’t put each step in to practice fully Happy Stumbling!

The Power of Stumbleupon Links

One of the articles I wrote awhile back was about why to-do lists are essential to entrepreneur success. Because of StumbleUpon, this article CONTINUES to get views and links (written in May of 09).

Entrepreneur Success

How do YOU plan to use StumbleUpon.com in your online marketing strategy?

This is a guest post by Nate Moller. Nate has consulted with thousands of clients from all over the world, helping them build and effectively market their online businesses. He specializes in social media consulting and search engine optimization. Follow him on Twitter (@mollermarketing). Contact him today for a free consultation.

I was first introduced to #gno on Twitter (Girls/Guys Night Out) by stumbling upon a gno hash tag. (For you non-twitter users, a hash tag is this sign: #.) I was curious, so I decided to follow the conversation. This chance encounter turned me into a faithful #gno attendee. As a mommy blogger, I have found #gno parties to be fun and full of great information. You can only imagine how excited I was when I received an invitation from Mom It Forward, for SEO.com to sponsor #gno and a live tweet-up discussing Internet marketing.

In order to help bloggers and site owners (and have a fun night with local Internet media buffs), SEO.com is excited to host #gno and a live tweet-up pizza party, next Tuesday evening. We look forward to providing tips and tricks on getting websites increased traffic and higher conversion rates. You can attend in person, or live on ustream.

Event Details

Come join us for a pizza party at the SEO.com headquarters, follow the party on twitter, or join us live through ustream. To RSVP, visit http://twtvite.com/esj6zp.

Date/Time:  Tuesday, Jan. 12; 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

On-site Location:   SEO.com Corporate Office: 14870 S. Pony Express Rd. Suite 100, Bluffdale, UT 84065

Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/gno-seo-com-tweet-up1, Twitter Feed:  #gno #seocom

Prizes

• Giveaway 1: a free 1-year subscription to SEO Companion—SEO.com’s exclusive site that will help you learn and apply SEO techniques that will drive more traffic to your site (approximate value: $1200).

• Giveaway 2—a free custom SEO site analysis from SEO.com ($500 value).

Entry Requirements for Giveaway 1:

To enter to win a free one-year subscription to SEO Companion, (SEO.com’s exclusive site that will help you learn and apply SEO techniques that will drive more traffic to your site) click here.

Entry Requirements for Giveaway 2:

To enter to win a free custom site analysis ($500 value), do the following:

1. Mention SEO.com on your blog or facebook site and link to SEO.com; then leave a comment on this post, linking to your entry.

2. Post this message on Twitter:

GIVEAWAY! I entered to win a free custom site analysis from @seocom http://bit.ly/63fkN1 #gno #seocom

Good luck! We look forward to seeing you next Tuesday!

No purchase necessary to enter. Winners will be selected randomly. SEO.com and Mom It Forward employees are ineligible to participate. All entries received after Wednesday, January 13 at midnight PT will not be considered. Entries that do not follow all of the entry requirements will not be considered. Winners will be notified and will have 24 hours to confirm receipt of the e-mail. If they do not reply within 24 hours, another winner will be selected. Open to participants in the US and Canada 18 years and older. One entry per person.

Whenever I go on a trip I subscribe to Problogger on my Kindle and then write blog posts and “to do” lists based on what I learn. This time it’s about one of my favorite topics, which is blogger PR.

Cirque Du Soleil - the offbeat circus/acrobatic show was smart. They teamed up with bloggers who were in town (Vegas) for Blog World this year. They invited 250 bloggers to see a show and then blog about it.

They point out that bloggers tend to give a lot of detail about the experience of watching one of their shows. The emotions and feelings, not just the facts. And a lot of bloggers, if they are really happy are also on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites. So you can get coverage on many different networks.

Benefits of Blogger PR

• Exposure to new audiences on each blog + any social sites the bloggers post to.
• Some bloggers post video and pictures from the show or event. This means more exposure.
• Search engine optimization benefits - blog posts tend to do well in search engine and come up when someone searches for your business or product name.
• Reviews - get honest feedback from bloggers about your product or service - bloggers tend to be great at this and are usually savvy and have strong opinions.

Payment and the FTC Guidelines
Most of the time it’s a trade - the bloggers don’t get paid but they don’t have to buy tickets. As of this year, bloggers must disclose that they were compensated (or got free products), per FTC rules. They have to Bloggers will find the positive to say about the experience, but the better it is the more raves there are. If by chance it’s a bad experience, bloggers usually won’t write anything at all. There’s not really a point in writing a bad review unless you need to warn your audience.

Why Hire a Blogger or Consultant for PR
You either have someone on staff who has strong relationships with bloggers or hire someone who does. This is important - if you email people who don’t know you and you don’t know the culture - most likely your request will be ignored. Unless you’re a big name or the offer is incredible. Bloggers should be treated like partners and not as employees.

I’ve been told, we can email the bloggers ourselves, why do we need to pay you to do it for us? Because the bloggers know my name and don’t know yours. I’ve been there for the behind-the-scenes talking between bloggers who get random emails from people they don’t know who act like they know them. Unlikely you’ll get a good response. And even if people come, part of the event is making sure the bloggers get the right information in a timely way and in formats they want them in.

In 2009 I participated or organized blogger PR. This was new to me until this year and I hope to do more in 2010. Here’s the list of events.

• Communal - a new restaurant opened in Provo Utah and invited about 20 bloggers to come for lunch and try it out. It was amazing and I’d go back even more if it were closer. Best new restaurant of 2009. I helped organize this.
• Grand America Hotel Spa escape. I joined 5 other bloggers for a night and a day at this beautiful and opulent hotel in Salt Lake City Utah. I was the organizer.
• Goldsmith Jewelers - Another Utah company who invited 30 or so bloggers to try a new line of bracelets. They did an excellent job and got a lot of buzz. Jyl organized this.
• Social Media Retreat - April invited several local bloggers to try out her favorite products and enjoy some time outdoors. This was a great event because it included a lot of Utah bloggers of all types, which isn’t always possible.
• The Melting Pot in Salt Lake City invited bloggers for some fondue. Jyl organized this.

Another highlight of the year was seeing Julie & Julia with a group of bloggers (we paid). I think that bookstores who bring in authors and movie theaters should do more blogger PR. I thought of doing a project for an orthodontist but I chickened out because I’m afraid of having to wear braces. This month I’m going to a cooking class with April to learn about making chocolate.

I’m using blogger my online PR book and DVD. I’ve gotten some great reviews and hope for more exposure to new audiences this year.

While I’m gradually packing up the 2009 ephemera into nice, tidy bundles I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Fantasy Football. I maintain its one heck of a hobby – for free one can participate in an epic four month gauntlet of statistical analysis and competitive simulation. In other words, any game that you play with a calculator and provides an excuse for watching long stretches of television can’t be all bad, right?

2009 Trophy Shelf

The past year was especially bountiful. Its one thing to have the top draft pick and a lineup of obvious choices. There’s a whole different level of satisfaction to have copious amounts of research and intuition pay off with numerical success. Much of my post-season run was due to Jamaal Charles, running back for the Chiefs. For the beginning of the season he was buried on the depth charts until the starter, after a particularly bad loss, tweeted racial epitaphs on Twitter (of all things). The event started a chain of events any technologist could appreciate:

1. Twitter being online, the offending tweets are replicated verbatim wide and far
2. team management sees the fracas and suspends the player (at which automated alerts to my inbox tell me something is up and I might want to add Charles)
3. the fans started an online petition for calling for a change before the starter can break a beloved player’s team rushing record
4. management agrees and drops the starter (he’s later picked up by the Bengels)
5. Charles becomes the starter…
6. and absolutely kills it – he gains 1,120 yards despite only having 10 starts, including a team record 259 yards and two touchdowns during our group championship

In other words, I probably owe my championship to the Internet. That, and San Francisco facing both Detroit *and* St. Louis in the last two weeks of play.

My rosters to start and end the season:

It seemed to be a particularly brutal year for injuries. Anthony Gonzalez, one of my sleepers, was injured on the first play of the year. Cooley then broke a leg (I had just managed a trade for Shockey and LaDainian Tomlinson in exchange for Cooley and Pierre Thomas – extremely fortunate with the timing). Shockey and Matt Ryan then got cases of turf toe (much more debilitating than it sounds). Josh Wilson, a defensive back that returned punts, was banged up all year and Blackmon, who is very similar, also was quickly out of commission. Leon Washington, a points-per-reception running back monster, also was lost for the year. Then, in the championship, Welker went down. I’ve had previous years where one injury sank any ambitious. The fact that I was able to navigate despite those challenges means I must be getting a bit better with bench management.

Scores:

It’s been a great year but its time to look forward to the next one. If you’re interested in trying your hand in fantasy football or are old hat, I’d love to hear from you. I’d like to pull together a league of friends of Vox Pop for next fall – all skill levels welcome. Let’s have some competitive statistical and analytical fun. Interested?

I’ve got to stop sneaking Entrepreneur Magazine from the gym and just subscribe! There’s a great article about how the top 10 franchises including McDonald’s are using Twitter.

I’m always trying to drive home how much we still tend to overvalue traditional media and undervalue new media. Since it’s free we think it’s worthless? Or because it’s trendy it can’t be effective?

There’s something to be said about jumping in and testing testing it out. That’s what McDonald’s did. They started with their Monopoly promotion. Then they found this astonishing fact:

Someone mentions McDonald’s every 10-20 seconds on Twitter.

and then they declared

We get more consumer impressions through Tweeting than through traditional media!

That’s the story! Not that they are on Twitter or how they are using it. It’s that Twitter is more effective than traditional media at reaching their customers. What is Twitter costing them compared to those big full color ads. At the time of writing they had almost 5,000 followers - I have over 7,000 followers and that’s more than just about everyone in the article (they are newbies). Now McDonald’s has almost 10k.

Entrepreneur Magazine also talks about Dunkin Donuts. Their approach to Twitter? It’s basically a channel for their fans to gush about their brand [marketer’s dream - the fans are creating the content and it’s a lot of raving. What’s more amazing is that  over 40k people are listening to it.

So if you’re still thinking Twitter is a waste of time or you don’t get it, maybe it’s worth another look.

I created my Twitter account (CFOwise) on December 26th, 2008.  After one full year, this is what I have learned:

Twitter is like every other form of connecting with people (yes, I’m excluding all non-person driven Twitter accounts).  Whether it be face-to-face, over-the-phone, through social networking, or via some other medium, connecting with people professionally and personally is about BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS.  That’s it.  No secrets or amazing revelations.  But here are some thoughts on how Twitter has helped me to build more and better relationships during the last 12 months.

As my vision for my Twitter usage began to take shape, I found that there were some people with whom I wanted to connect that did not seem to feel the same way towards me.  It did not take me long to realize that they had nothing against me, rather, they did not understand the need to create and foster relationships.  They thought Twitter was a race to gain the most followers and that somehow that would be fulfilling.  Let’s be honest…most of those people have gained thousands, if not tens of thousands, of followers only to find that they were getting a lot of noise, or tweets, but they really didn’t have anyone with whom they could connect and create anything of value.  A lot of these folks have even written blog posts about how they have either unfollowed everyone to try and de-clutter their account and start building real relationships or they have started completely new Twitter accounts so they could start fresh with relationships, not numbers, as their focus.

Whether in business or in personal matters, just building relationships is highly ineffective.  You end up knowing a lot of names but aren’t able to add much value to any of them.  Building relationships of TRUST generates very effective relationships, the kinds of relationships we all want.  Twitter is a tool; it is still up to each end-user to build the best kind of relationships.  So, here is a brief list of the some of the key elements of building relationships of trust and how we can apply them to our relationships on Twitter.

Consistency- Be a regular, even if it is for a short time each day.  Respond to your @replies and Direct Messages (not the sales-oriented and spammy ones).

Add Value – Do not just listen to the conversation.  Jump into the fray and communicate.  Add value to what others have to say.  Say things that are valuable in the first place.  Re-tweet the really good stuff you come across.  Add value to the conversation. 

Be Genuine and Real - There is no faster way to destroy trust than to fake it.  Be yourself.  If you do that, you will be happy with the relationships you have built.  I sure am after my first year.

Stay Away from the Trash – Yes, there are certainly some undesirable Twitter accounts.  Just block them and move on.  Filter and flourish.

Help Others- Think about what others are trying to get out of Twitter and help them get it.  If they want exposure, then help them with re-tweets and #followfridays and whatever else makes sense.  This is an old concept, but it applies to Twitter just the same – help others get what they want and they will help you get what you want.  Sounds a lot like building relationships, to me.  If your only Twitter efforts are self-promoting, then you’re not going to attract many trust-based relationships.

Use the Tools- I love using Tweetdeck.  The search tools help me stay on top of my keywords and accelerate my efforts to connect with the right kinds of people.  There are many other applications and tools for making your Twitter experience successful.  Find what works best for you.

In conclusion, let’s consider the many advertising and marketing initiatives we have seen on Twitter.  Some have gone very well, and others have left a bad taste in our mouths.  Just like any other broadcasting medium (by the way, all of their revenue models are built around marketing and advertising), the ones who are building relationships of trust are the ones we listen to and the ones from whom we buy.  If that is true, then we need to try and be just like them.

With 2009 coming to a close, we look ahead to what we can expect and should plan for in 2010.  Here is my list of the top ten trends founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs of start-up, emerging, and medium-sized businesses should consider as they prepare for the new year.

1.     The recession will not end, regardless what anyone says - There are just too many issues that still need resolution before this economy can rebound, like the write-down of ALL of the bad assets on the books of the financial institutions.  The fact that they are still not lending much to existing or new customers should be a sign that they know they still have a lot to lose before they can begin to gain again.  In addition, the new business models that are emerging in this recession are leaner and meaner than we have seen in a long time, meaning they aren’t going to help unemployment any time soon.  The effects of this recession could last quite a while.

[Author's Note:I realize I will take some heat for this prediction, but please know that I am only bearish on a macro-economic level.  There are and will continue to be many businesses that grow and thrive through this time, and I applaud them all for it!  If more businesses were like them I would be much more optimistic about an economic recovery.]

2.     Bootstrapping will be king!- Usually you will hear me say that cash is king.  In 2010 the entrepreneurs that have learned to boot-strap will be king – because boot strapping is the best chance for cash generation.  Many of their competitors have gone out of business or are in some sort of a death spiral.  Those who made changes early and are continuing to adapt to the changing economic market are going to win.  I hear lots of businesses take the mentality of: “If we can make it through the recession will be poised to do well.”  That attitude is just not going to cut it.  Survival cannot be the only goal – those that can figure out how to generate positive cash flow in the tough times are the ones that will win when things turn around.

3.     Solving lots of customers’ needs will raise capital- If you are starting a business and your whole focus is on raising capital, you will not get any in 2010.  If, on the other hand, your focus is on getting and satisfying customers with a great product or service, then you have a much better chance to get the money you need (if you even need it).  Ben Peterson, a successful entrepreneur and angel investor, identified one of the major sources of this problem.  He said that the focus in business schools and entrepreneurial education is on teaching how to raise money, not how to grow a successful company that is actually worthy of investment capital.  Get to work, and the money will follow you if you can take care of lots of customers and your need for capital will really add value to your efforts to serve your target market.

4.     Business Lending requirements will increase – It got a lot tougher to borrow money in 2009, and it will continue to become more difficult in terms of requirements and complexity.  For example, a business just obtained a small $125,000 line of credit and the legal documents the bank sent to their customer were over 150-pages in length.  Even though the mean credit score in the US is on the decline, banks have raised their requirements on business owner credit scores and they are mandating more collateral (as a secondary source of repayment) than before, especially if it is real estate.

5.     The cloud will continue to gain a share of all things computer- We are seeing more and more companies abandon traditional software and convert their operations to the cloud.  This is a great trend for entrepreneurs who can accomplish just as much as big businesses for a lot less expensive cloud-driven solutions.  Here is just one example: 2 years ago almost every business used Outlook or some other computer-based email client for its employees.  Today we are seeing some companies, especially those with entrepreneurs under the age of 40, switch to web-based and SaaS applications.  Google Apps seems to be the most popular for now, but the point is clear - the practices of purchasing expensive software to load on each computer and servers to host all of the company’s data are becoming antiquated and cumbersome. 

6.     Social media overload will drive users to the best content sources and filters- Even status updates in LinkedIn are tough to keep up with anymore.  The flow of information through social media tools has grown so dramatically that most feel like they are on overload and like it is impossible to keep up.  While providers are trying to figure this out, we are all going to be driven to the sources of the best and most reliable content, especially if it allows us to filter it quickly and effectively.

7.     Health insurance will continue towards high deductibles and consumer-driven care - I have long been an advocate for high deductible health insurance plans with HSAs or other medical savings accounts.  Yet such plans represent such a stretch from traditional health insurance that adoption rates have been very low.  It seems like employers and employees alike are warming up to this idea and the popularity of these plans will continue to increase.

8.     Being big will become less advantageous to being small – Big will no longer necessarily be better.  There are many reasons for this, but here are the main two – small and medium-sized companies are often more flexible and more hungry to satisfy their customers and big-company economies of scale are becoming less relevant.  For example, with its use of remote, flexible, and contract workers, Jet Blue is able to do more for its customers than any of its larger rivals – and that is in a very capital-intensive business.  Service businesses may find even greater advantages as compared to their larger competitors.

9.     Focus on relationships will pay- Relationships have been and will always be the key to building a successful business – mainly because they help us establish trust.  I’ve included this on my trend list because it seems like to some the practice of building trust is a lost and fallen art.  Obtaining more followers on Twitter and increasing your pool of friends of FaceBook are only relevant if we build relationships in the process.  We will see relationships and trust-building come back to the forefront of business as filtering tools allow us to connect with those who matter most and with whom we want to foster and strengthen our relationships. 

10.    Knowledge workers will take more contract and less full-time work - This recession is helping to accelerate our economy to more of a knowledge-based worker model.  These knowledge workers are finding more benefits in contract and part-time work.  Some appreciate the flexibility, while others feel their value-added to and sustainability in these roles are more secure and potentially more profitable.  Our CFO services business is just one of many examples of this trend.

I would love to hear any thoughts, concerns, questions, modifications, additions, or deletions you have for this list and how 2010 will impact you and your business.  All the best for a prosperous 2010!

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This post is guest-authored by Luke Stay – you can find him on his blog, AfroWhitey.com, on Twitter, or on his Facebook Page. Luke is Jesse’s younger brother.

I was doing a little exploring on Netflix a while ago when I came across a feature that I had never seen before. It’s called “Information for Parents,” and I don’t know why Netflix doesn’t promote it more. It takes a little digging (as far as I can tell) to even get to it, but it should be one of the most-used features on the site.

To get to the feature, you must first click on the link for a movie (not all movies have the feature, so stick with popular releases). For this post, I will use the new Star Trek. Under the “Details” section, you’ll see the rating of the movie with the MPAA reasons for the rating, and below that you’ll see Netflix’ rating, along with a link for more. Click on that link and you’ll be taken to the Parental Information feature.

The section that comes up is full of valuable information. I am a firm believer in active viewership, meaning that when watching a movie, especially with children, attention should be paid to the messages and themes underlying the plot and all the spectacle. In this feature, Netflix provides sample discussion points for parents to address with children after viewing, thus promoting the active viewership so often missing in many households. It also brings up some possible underlying messages you may have missed.

Next, the feature spells out specifically what elements gave the movie the rating Netflix awarded and why it is or is not appropriate for a certain age group. The categories covered are: Sexual Content, Violence, Language, Social Behavior, Consumerism, and Drug/Tobacco/Alcohol. Your bases are fully covered here, as it provides information for things I wouldn’t have even thought to include. Even the most protective parent can be satisfied.

So there you go, kudos to Netflix for providing this feature that every parent should be using. There is no reason to go into a theater or to rent uneducated. Now, if Netflix would only promote this valuable feature more.

This post is guest-authored by Luke Stay – you can find him on his blog, AfroWhitey.com, on Twitter, or on his Facebook Page. Luke is Jesse’s younger brother.

Betty Mann (of "The Betty Factor" fame)

Betty Benton Mann, my 83-year-old mother-in-law and the inspiration behind The Betty Factor, died in her sleep early Friday morning, December 4, 2009 of health matters incident to old age and having her gall bladder removed earlier in the week.

Here is a copy of her obituary.

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After 83 wonderful years on earth, Betty Benton Mann returned home to her Father-in-Heaven, the Savior, Jesus Christ, many loving family members and friends, and her beloved husband, Ray, on December 4, 2009, nearly two years to the day after Ray’s passing.

Born July 3, 1926 in Boise, Idaho to Mamie Thompson and Otto G. Benton, Betty was the fifth of nine children. She was raised in Boise, Twin Falls, Idaho and Redondo Beach, California.

From the day she first walked herself to services as a young child, Betty was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). As a teenager, she was president of her ward Golden Gleaner organization and helped plan and run the first ever LDS Youth Conference in southern California.

After graduating from Redondo Union High School, she moved to North Salt Lake to help her oldest sister, Wanda, care for her children, and it was there that she met her future husband, Ray Elwood Mann.

Betty and Ray were married in the Salt Lake Temple of the LDS church on May 4, 1948. They settled in Bountiful, Utah where they raised three daughters and two sons, while she also worked as a dental assistant for many years. Betty was active in the PTA in Bountiful where she ran the Halloween Carnival for three years and served as PTA president for two year.

After their youngest children graduated from high school in 1975, Betty and Ray spent an adventurous year in 1976 in West Germany for Ray’s employer, Chicago Bridge & Iron. The next year, Ray was transferred to world headquarters in Chicago where they lived until 1984. During their time in Naperville, Illinois, Betty filled an eight-year volunteer assignment with LDS Social Services working with out-of-wedlock mothers, including service as a counselor to birth mothers and transporting newborns to adoptive parents. She also served for a time as a member of the Relief Society presidency in the Glenbard Ward in Illinois.

Betty and Ray moved to Sandy, Utah in 1984 where they made their home for the rest of their lives. In Sandy, Betty served for 18 years in the LDS church’s Data Entry Program in the Canyon View Stake. She and Ray also served a one-year LDS Service Mission in 1994 near Bakersfield, California for the Home Management Department.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents, five siblings, her husband, and one son, Clyde. She is survived by four children, Linda, Pam (Harold) Egginton, Todd, and Allisha (David) Politis; 18 grandchildren (evenly divided between boys and girls); and 14 great-grandchildren.

A viewing will be held at Mountain View Mortuary at 3115 East 7800 South in Cottonwood Heights, Utah from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tues., Dec. 8, 2009. The funeral will be held at the same location at 11 a.m. on Wed., Dec. 9, preceded by an additional viewing from 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Interment, on site, will follow immediately after the funeral.

The family extends its heartfelt thanks and admiration for all of the fantastic doctors and medical providers who worked with Betty in addressing her health concerns during the past few years. In addition, Betty (and Ray) loved living at South Towne Ranch in Sandy, Utah where they made many wonderful friends.

Betty had a sharp mind and wit her entire life, and she loved studying the gospel of Jesus Christ and learning about LDS church history. She was a devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, and although she will be missed, we are happy she has “graduated” from this life to be reunited with her husband and best friend, Ray.

Goodbye for now, Betty.

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Although we had some initial son-in-law / mother-in-law challenges early in the 28 years of our relationship, we both grew to love and respect each other over time, and I’m grateful Allisha and I were able to have both Betty and Ray live so close by as we raised our five children.

She was a good person and taught me much, not the least of which was to always remember to work and work and work to make sure what I wrote could be easily understood by anyone, even my mother-in law.

To that end, I will always use the phrase “The Betty Factor” as a shorthand reminder of that lesson. I will also keep this blog alive in her honor and as a way of continuing to teach about the importance of keeping all marketing messages simple and on-point.

Thank you, Betty, and for now, goodbye. 

I love Twitter for its variety.  In many ways it’s a lot like my favorite programming language Perl, whose mantra is “There is more than one way to do it.”  Some people choose the messy, spaghetti code way, while others choose nicely formatted, object-oriented way, even taking it to the extent of protecting it further with libraries like Moose.  On the web I can do basic, old-style CGI, or take it as far as a full MVC structured framework using Catalyst (if you don’t know anything about what these are that’s okay – just know that they’re good, and well structured).  Perl has both a good and bad reputation because of this, and I like it that way.  I like it the same way I like Twitter – there’s more than one way to do it.

That’s why I get so bugged when I see so many people trying to tell me how to write my Twitter stream.  Some say I have to have multiple accounts to organize the data.  Others say I can’t run ads and my content can’t be promotional in any way.  Funny thing is most of those people are promoting something of their own, whether they admit it or not. Personally that doesn’t matter to me.

What matters to me is that I can use Twitter the way I want to.  I can write everything in one stream if I want to, or I can run ads if I want to (which actually, I just signed up for ad.ly yesterday to see what it was all about – no one has purchased anything yet though so no worries there, if there ever were any in the first place).  I can be profane if I like (but generally I prefer not to, just like real life).  I can even retweet the way I like to.  The cool thing about Social Media is we all have our own purposes and our own ways of doing things and when we do such we use the best tools for the job.  The great thing about Twitter is that it allows us to do such.  I use Twitter the way I use Perl, however I want to and what works for me – and I get criticized in the same manner.  There will always be a critic of the way you use Social Media, just like there is always a critic of how I write Perl.

And I’m okay with that.

The fact of the matter is I’m interesting because I’m ME.  Hopefully you follow me because of that.  If I advertise it’s going to because that’s something I think will help pay for me to be me, and it will always be some sort of reflection of myself.  If I don’t advertise it’s because I don’t think that’s necessary.  If I separate my content into multiple accounts it’s because I want you to find out different bits of information about me in different ways.  If I keep it all in one stream that’s because I think that’s the best way of learning who I am.  If I retweet it’s for my own reasons, not anyone else’s.

I think we get way too caught up in what we think is the best way that works for us, and thinking others should do the same.  What works for me will not always work for you or the next guy.  What works for Chris Pirillo or what works for Chris Brogan will not always work for Robert Scoble or Leo Laporte or someone else.  We are all unique, and that’s what makes Social Media a beautiful thing.  Social Media is all about how you receive, not about how other people give.  Receive well, and you will give much.  Social Media is all about ME. And you. And him. And her. It’s about connecting Individuals, which individuals are not the same.

And if you don’t like that concept, I’m okay if you unfollow me.  After all, there’s always more than one way to do it.

The Internet age certainly didn’t create the concept of an industry “rockstar” – but it sure-as-shootin’ exacerbated it. Whether its Ruby’s DHH or Digg’s Kevin Rose people demand that a select few from among their peers be singled out and lionized.

My ire was stoked by a raffled book at a recent ColdFusion user’s group meeting, “Secrets of the RockStar Programmers” by Ed Burns. My problems with this book are as many as the errors are egregious. The many interviews with programming “rockstars” are published as they were transcribed rather than some kind of coherent narrative. This means, for example, if I’m seeking advice on time management I need to try to piece together the logical chapter the author should have created. And being forced to read through the unnatural pacing means enduring qualifying responses like “I’m not sure what you mean” and “I never thought about it that way”. Seemingly random facts that would have no bearing on programming, like one’s birth order, are thrown in. Further, the interviewees “rockstardom” seem heavily skewed toward the Java world. There’s no front-end developers – because, obviously, outputting things to a screen constitutes design, or something. There’s no web-centric stuff. Finally there’s an inexplicable interview with Weird Al Yankovic, just cause.

For developer’s looking for some non-language specific tips for setting up a great software production process I’d encourage you to check out Joel Spolsky’s classic: 12 Steps to Better Code. It’s insight is worth more than this book …and the post available for free.

More troubling than that above, however, is the idea of the rockstar as applied to development. One does not become a “Rockstar” because they’re brilliant, or productive, or creative. If we were talking music who first comes to your mind when I say “rockstar”? I’m betting its someone more known for their antics than their musicianship. That’s fine for selling albums; the line between being a good entertainer and a successful musician is a thin one. However, with code the charisma required to be a character isn’t the same talent necessary to prolifically write code.

The software that operates the shuttle is an envious system. A December, 1996 FastCompany article has much to say about the team that is able to put out 11 versions of a 420,000 line program with only 17 errors (the commercial equivalent would have more than 5,000):

“To be this good, the on-board shuttle group has to be very different — the antithesis of the up-all-night, pizza-and-roller-hockey software coders who have captured the public imagination. To be this good, the on-board shuttle group has to be very ordinary — indistinguishable from any focused, disciplined, and methodically managed creative enterprise.”

A bit later….

“…it’s the dominant image of the software development world: Gen-Xers sporting T-shirts and distracted looks, squeezing too much heroic code writing into too little time; rollerblades and mountain bikes tucked in corners; pizza boxes and Starbucks cups discarded in conference rooms; dueling tunes from Smashing Pumpkins, Alanis Morrisette and the Fugees. Its the world made famous, romantic, even inevitable by stories out of Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, and Netscape.

“It’s not the story of the on-board shuttle group. Their quarters are a study in white-collar pedestrian. The most striking thing is how ordinary they look. Other than the occasional bit of shuttle memorabilia, you could be in the offices of any small company or government agency. Everyone has his or her own small office, and the offices have desks, PCs, and sparse personal artifacts. People wear moderately dressy clothes to work, neat but nothing flashy, certainly nothing grungy.

“It’s strictly an 8-to-5 kind of place — there are late nights, but they’re the exception. The programmers are intense, but low-key. Many of them have put in years of work either for IBM (which owned the shuttle group until 1994), or directly on the shuttle software. They’re adults, with spouses and kids and lives beyond their remarkable software program.”

And the money quote…

“What’s going on here is the kind of nuts-and-bolts work that defines the drive for group perfection — a drive that is aggressively intolerant of ego-driven hotshots. In the shuttle group’s culture, there are no superstar programmers. The whole approach to developing software is intentionally designed not to rely on any particular person.”

Do civil engineers seek to be on the cover of magazines? Do chemists dream of book deals? Perhaps, but when it comes to technical disciplines the software world seems to have outsized ambitions. Are we still hung over from the dot-com bust where every 20-something with a laptop was bestowed fame and fortune? Why do seek to elevate and emulate the rogue hacker with shaky team skills, the maverick that eschews process in favor of heroics? Where does this come from?

I’d love to hear what you think below.

(Special thanks for Glen Lewis for the heads up to the FastCompany piece.)

• Update 1 – The Business Insider asks Google’s New York office “who are the rockstar engineers” to which Google replies “we don’t really work like that”.
• Update 2 – Avoid this Job has this wonderful quote on the matter:
  

  “‘Rock Star’ is perhaps the most abused phrase in the history of job listings. Nobody should be looking for a ‘rock star’ accountant, HR recruiter or janitor. Whoever is posting these jobs is grossly misinformed as to the nature of rock stardom. Or accounting. Or both.”

  The Signal-vs-Noise blog has a great recap of this article but from a developer recruitment perspective.

Well, it’s official.  We formed an ‘old-new’ company, FundingUniverse, LLC – which is the amalgamation of my partners hard work in two different companies over the past several years that have now become a brand new entity using a familiar name, FundingUniverse. I have been a big fan of what they have been doing for several years. The opportunity presented itself to join with them in the creation of a new and exciting business, one that I am attracted to for many reasons. FundingUniverse offers every kind of financing for every kind of business. Debt help (LOC, USLOC, SBA, FACTORING, BUSINESS CREDIT, PATRIOT LOANS, ARC LOANS, AND MORE) as well as all of our well known equity help (VC’s, Angel Investors, Private Equity Groups). So far in 2009, these two businesses combined have funded nearly $40MM worth of deals.  That’s nothing short of amazing in the tightest financial market in history and a part of the reason why I wanted to join the partnership.  The main reason is the people though.  There is no finer group of talent that I have come across in my 15+ years in business.

I love our business model too.  We have a tremendous set of business products and services that our financing clients need. Some examples are websites, business plan writing, credit repair, incorporation and legal work, social media strategies, equity/debt coaching, PowerPoint presentations, logo creation and of course, our unique way of helping businesses get the financing they need. Also, as some of you know, FundingUniverse has some amazing CrowdPitch and SpeedPitch events.  We will be opening corporate offices all around the USA to host these events and bring our team of products and services.  We have recently signed leases in Phoenix, Denver and Portland, and will be coming soon to Seattle, California, Las Vegas, Boise, Dallas and then on to the East Coast. We will be leading the industry in FREE EVENTS for entrepreneurs – free to pitch, free to attend, free food AND 6-months of business expenses given to the winner of our events (rent, phones, SEO, financing, payroll, accounting, legal and more). We just did our first Phoenix event. ABC covered it, here is the video:

FundingUniverse In Phoenix – CrowdPitch Event

We have a great local representative in Phoenix that will be hosting 12 – 14 events a year. We will bring capital and other resources to the greater Phoenix area and will play an active role in the resurgence of the economy in that area. Multiply that same effort in 10 – 15 cities in 2010 and FundingUniverse will be a significant player in this space.  We are part of the solution for digging the USA out of the financial hole we are in.  Entrepreneurship is the answer!

In October alone we helped over 7,000+ businesses from all around the USA. That number grows every day. Imagine how many businesses we can help when we have 10+ events a week all around the USA? A lot.  And if you know me, or follow my blog, you know my passion is helping entrepreneurs. That is why I teach an entrepreneurship class at my Alma Mater – definitely not for the money (or lack thereof)!  That is part of why I blog and tweet.   That is why I accept speaking opportunities.  And that is why I am a partner now at FundingUniverse.  We help entrepreneurs with everything they need at all phases of their growth, from idea to sold.  It’s my life’s work, my true passion, and what I can talk about for hours without feeling like I’ve worked for a minute.  FundingUniverse is going to make an impact on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in America.  We are entrepreneurs ourselves, so building this business in and of itself is entrepreneurial as well.  So FUN!

I love entrepreneurship. Starting this ‘new’ business with really talented partners makes me very optimistic about our future. I will be blogging about our highs and lows (every business has both – if you don’t, your lying). We are trending in the right direction and the ink is still dry on our new deal.  If you have a business that needs help, WE ARE YOUR BEST RESOURCE. I believe that with all I have. Our products, services, events and consulting are second to none, and our pricing is awesome.  I can say this because I have spent a lot of money with other companies on the stuff we do, as have my partners, and we all know that our offerings are extremely competitive and provide great value.  And they work!  We get entrepreneurs funding, we give them the tools to get funding.  We are coming to a city near you.  In the meantime, visit our website to learn a little more (a redesign for the NewCo is coming soon, but it’s a good start). Please email me with any questions you may have about how we can help your business – my new email address is alex AT fundinguniverse DOT COM.

Wish us luck! Although we are far from a start-up, our new entity, newer business model (with combined new services and products) and new partnership structure all make for some of the feelings of a start-up. I LOVE IT!!!!

I attended the social media awards last night near Salt Lake City Utah. It was a fabulous event and many of my favorite people were there. I was so excited when Nate (@BigBags) won. He was pretty blase about it though (just kidding).

Others include Jordan Kasteler (@utahSEOPro), Thom Allen (@ThomAllen) Rachael Herrscher (@todaysmama) and so many more.

I was happy to win an award for Best Social Media Content Guru

It felt so star-studded - I’m sure it will get bigger each year. As far as I know this was the FIRST annual awards ceremony like this. Pete Codella (@codella) Roxy Cross (@RoxyCross) and others did such an amazing job planning the event.

My favorite person (who I didn’t know) was Josh Hanagarne of WorldsStrongestLibrarian.com who has Tourette’s Syndrome. He used his blog as a way to communicate when he couldn’t talk and to document his journey to become stronger. He spoke about how he was shut off from others and then the blog gave him back his ability to socialize again. Seth Godin found his blog and told him he had to write a book and put him in touch with his agent.  I want to buy a copy and have him sign it when it’s done. He told his story so beautifully it inspired and moved us all.

I finally got a photo to send Sorel boots (so much for losing 15 lbs first, but who’s complaining when I can talk easily!) I call them my social media boots because they came about because of Twitter. It’s still a bit too warm to wear them regularly.

Check out all of the social media award winners.

Why Using Two or More Social Networks is Becoming the Norm

Today’s blog post by Brian Solis (”The Competition for Your Social Graph“) got me thinking:

• Do I use more than one social network?
• And if so, why?
• And if you don’t, “Why don’t you?”

When I was growing up in San Carlos, California, my best friend was Alan Daines. Not only were we best buds, but Alan was unique among my friends in that he could bat and throw with both hands. By definition that means that Alan was ambidextrous (or could use both hands equally well).

Alan was a lefty by birth, so he ended up playing first base for the San Carlos High School Dons. But he also taught himself to first bat righthanded, and then to throw righthanded as well. Man, that was cool!

After a lot of work I learned how to bat lefthanded; but throwing? Nah, that was another matter.

I’m Not Socially Ambidextrous - I’m Actually Socially Multidextrous

When it comes to my use of social networks and social media, however, it turns out that I’m socially multidextrous. By this I mean that I’m not dedicated to using one social network, tool, service or media to the exclusion of others. No, I actually use multiple social networks/media/services/tools, and sometimes I use more than one at the same time.

My first exposure to social networking was MySpace. I signed up years ago because we were trying to get my daughter, Melea, into the entertainment industry as a singer. (Tough, tough world, by the way.)

Today I visit/use MySpace rarely as I find its focus on music and entertainment to be overrun with skanks, ho’s and people typically interested in their next hookup. (No thank you.)

Facebook, however, is another thing. I now visit nearly every day and use it for both professional and personal networking and staying connected.

Twitter is the same for me. I use it almost every day, especially through HootSuite (which has some great tools for managing URL shortening and providing stats on people who click through URLs you embed into tweets).

I also use two business-focused social networks: LinkedIn and Plaxo. Of the two I like and use LinkedIn the most, although I really like the ability within Plaxo to send e-Birthday cards to my friends.

I also use a number of other social media/network tools/services, depending upon what it is I’m trying to do that day, especially services and tools tied to Twitter. Of these, I probably use

• HootSuite,
• TweetChat, and
• Hashtags

the most.

Why I Use Multiple Social Networks, Media, Services and/or Tools

What works for me is using different social networks, media, services and tools for different purposes.

For example, I use Facebook (in part) because it’s so dang big — more than 300 million members at last count. That’s a massive potential marketplace, and we advise ALL of our clients to use and be on Facebook.

I also use FB because it allows people to create and post multiple types of content onto their “Walls,” profiles and other users’ Walls, especially longer posts/content. This can be a good thing (if not used to excess).

Additionally, I have the ability to filter who is actively following (or Friending) me on Facebook. That can be important from a “noise” standpoint.

The microblogging service Twitter, on the other hand, is great for instantaneous, short messages, which makes sense since you are limited to a total of 140 characters max on Twitter.

(NOTE: If you want others to retweet, or re-post/re-tweet, what you’ve written, however, I’ve found it’s best to keep your Twitter posts/tweets to around 120 characters instead of using all 140. People are less likely to shorten your tweets this way.)

I also like the fact that I can “legally” have more than one Twitter account (as per Twitter’s Terms of Service). {You’re not supposed to do that on Facebook, with the exception of having a FB profile and a FB Fan Page.}

Ergo, I currently have one main Twitter account that I use most of the time (@dpolitis), but I also have several other Twitter accounts that come into play depending upon my particular area of interest or need.

LinkedIn, however, is all about business and networking for business purposes, and I use it as such. (And to be honest, I use LinkedIn a LOT more than I use Plaxo for two reasons:

1. LinkedIn has more than twice as many users as Plaxo (50MM+ vs. 20MM+), and
2. I get fewer random (read spammy) connection requests on LinkedIn vs. Plaxo.

And then as I wrote above, I use other social services and tools based upon what they allow me to do, especially with other social networks and media.

So . . . how about you?

• Do you use social networks/services/media/tools for your marketing and sales efforts?
• And if not, why not?
• And if so, which one(s) do you use the most (and why)?
• Or are you socially ambidextrous? (Do you have two favorite social networks you use all the time?)
• Or . . . are you really socially multidextrous, using multiple social networks/media/tools/services to engage with your customers, partners, investors, etc., all in the name of selling more products and services?

Tell me what you’re doing with social networks (and why) by posing your comment below. Thanks.

Today we had a chance to chat with Cyd Tetro, new Chief Marketing Officer with FamilyLink.com. Cyd tells us about her new role with FamilyLink, a couple of new products FamilyLink is releasing, and her efforts with the Utah Technology Council, and Woman Tech Awards, a yearly event honoring Woman who have made an impact in the technology space, sponsored by Woman Technology Council.

Related posts:

1. LAVA7 Launches!
2. Women Tech Awards: Carine Clark, Chief Marketing Officer, Symantec

Today starts the first in a series of interviews with Woman who are impacting the technology space in Utah. Lava7, a new Digital Marketing Agency, based in Orem, Utah, and headed by Jack Hadley and Maile Keone. Both Jack and Maile have years of PR and Marketing experience, and are using that experience to help their customers, which “combines remarkable mindset and creativity to execute social media strategies that achieve business objectives.”

Related posts:

1. Recruiting to Utah Myth Buster Series: K-12 Education Options
2. Women Tech Awards: Kelly McCrystal, Chief Operating Officer, SpectrumDNA

The FTC has a deadline for bloggers to disclose when they get payment or free product or services. Starting December 1, they’re watching for paid endorsements online.  So when a blogger does a review they must disclose that the product was free or that they were paid to write about a product.

Violators can be subject to fines of $11,000 per violation but the FTC says the focus is on educating not fining people.

We all know that anyone can say anything online without a lot of scrutiny. For most of the mom bloggers I know they won’t leave a negative review or they’ll just opt out of writing about something they don’t like. So the reviews are positive. They have built the trust of their readers so there is little incentive to ruin that by marketing products that their readers won’t like or by lying about the benefits.

Now all we need to do is state that we’re being compensated.

This was being passed around, so I thought that I’d share it with all of you…

I referenced a call and transcript for the essentials on using Facebook. Now that you know the basics, you need to know how to market with Facebook. Here’s the best ebook for Facebook Marketing that I know.

[these are affiliate links, so think of it as leaving a tip]

Here’s what you’ll get with the ebook 3,000 Fans in 30 Days is a day by day guide to growing your presence on Facebook. It’s very clearly laid out and easy to follow. It has clear screenshots.

Here’s what I thought was of most value:

• How to give incentives to draw new fans.
• Creative Facebook photos.
• How to create a landing page (I need to do this) on your Facebook Fan page.
• Using forums strategically.
• Running Facebook contests.
• SEO-optimize your Facebook profile.

If you’re tasked with improving your Facebook Page this guide will help you. Check out the book on Facebook Marketing and let me know what you think. I think it’s the best guide out there.

I like to find creative ways people promote their Facebook fan Page  (see the Bath and Body Works Facebook Page - just started this month and over 60,000 fans already).

I went to Bath & Body Works recently (amazing marketers — they get you in for a free product and before you know it you’ve spent $50 on lotion you didn’t even need!), and on the bottom of the receipt…

Facebook marketing

You can see their pitch for being a Facebook fan and to sign up for text messaging. I think they call this receipt marketing.

The other is from an NPR show called, “In the Loop with Jeff Horwich.” He sings a charming song about his Facebook Fans.

What creative ways have you seen people promote their Facebook Page?

Everybody seems to be a “social media guru” these days. Like a real world sausage-fest, the “guru-fest” on Twitter and Facebook where four out of every five members claim to be some sort of ninja, jedi, maven, strategist or expert cannot possibly be a good thing. I exaggerate but echo chambers are not productive. What’s an earnest social media consultant to do?

Before you read on, you should know that I wrote this post only for those folks who are totally committed to the social media “industry” and intend to make a difference and long term careers out of this.

The Service Industry Cycle

Great, you’re in a service industry. This happens to every service opportunity. Something new and exciting happens and a few people move quickly to capture the opportunity. Others see money being made, mistakenly think it’s easy money, and then flood the scene.

We’ve reached that tipping point. We now have too many social media gurus.

How did we get here? The lowest barriers of entry ever before seen in history – except maybe for the world’s oldest profession. Anyone can build a website for little money and tell the world he is now a “social media guru” who will show clients how to navigate social networks. Even more absurd, he can go on a social network like Twitter, set up for free, and tell other members of the social network of his expertise. That’s like going to a hospital and having a fellow patient tell you he can cure your ills.

Plus there isn’t some lazy way to verify the quality of a guru like we have for accountants with CPAs, financial analysts with CFAs, or even clever business people with MBAs.

The Sameness of Promises Problem

If you want to be a successful social media consultant, you need to understand the Sameness of Promises problem. Every social media consultant promises the same thing - increased traffic and eyeballs, more buzz (whatever that means), higher search engine rankings, more followers, etc. By merely promising great results, there is no way to differentiate yourself and stand out from the guru crowd.

Now is the time to grow. To do this, you need to do something drastic, something different.

The Consultant as Curator

Fire your clients. Not all your clients, just your bottom 20% clients. Yes you do need to prioritize your client list. You need to be prepared to do this once a year. Your client list probably conforms to the 80-20 Rule: the top 20% of your clients is responsible for 80% of your revenue or profits. Your bottom 20% clients probably account for less than 5% of your revenue or profits.  You might actually be losing money servicing them.

Why fire your clients? When the promises you make are the same promises every other social media consultant makes, prospective clients have little to judge you on. Your client list is one of the few things competing consultants cannot copy. The quality of your client roster will signal to prospective clients if you’re truly a guru. Think of yourself as a curator of a gallery or museum. You’ve got to constantly clear space for bigger and better projects.

Bottom Line

None of this matters if you cannot execute and deliver on those cookie-cutter promises. But I’m assuming you’ve got the chops. I’m also assuming you want to grow and succeed in this business. You have a finite amount of time in a day. In order to get better clients, you have to free up time by firing low priority clients. I’ll leave you to define low priority. Maybe the readers of this blog can help. What are some ways you define low priority? What would make a client less important going forward?

Image Credit: Eric Weaver at Brand Dialogue

If you want to open up a can of worms, ask a group of internet marketers and CMO’s how to measure the ROI on social media investment and participation.  There is and will continue to be a heated debate on this topic until we all realize one thing: Social Media is about branding, not advertising.

Traditional advertising defines a specific spend and generally has measurable results. A return on investment is easy to calculate.  Building a brand requires a significant investment, but does not generate track-able results.  The reason a person at the grocery store chooses Pepsi over Coke is a summation of a lifetime of branding messages (sometimes in overwhelming quantity).  How do you measure that?  It is very difficult, although there are many options for understanding the overall value of branding (referred to as goodwill for the accountant types).

We have the same problem with social media.  Social media is about building a brand, with the cumulative efforts assisting to generate sales.  But branding is less directly involved with the final transaction as traditional, measurable mediums.  How much did the direct mail piece I receive influence my decision to call the home security company in comparison to the branding I have been exposed to for the last five years at sporting events, parades, etc?  Hard to say, and even more difficult to quantify.

In its truest form, social media is a venue to add value to the the market in general in the form of free advice, expertise, networking, and communication.  All of this leads to relationship building with a more targeted market that gravitates towards your content and brand.  I am all for measuring ROI, but I also think there is often a lot more at play than a simple ROI calculation will capture.

Social media is here to stay (just watch this video), and businesses need to get involved.  A great example of this is the professional services industry.  The most effective methods for marketing in professional services have long been referrals and networking, but these survey results indicate that more of the networking efforts in the next 6-18 months will concentrate on social media (LinkedIn, FaceBook, etc.).

So, are you still itching to track the ROI of your social media?  Consider a change of perspective from ROI to the overall value of your brand. Then you’ll be getting closer to overall value generation than transactionally-based (and often incorrect) attempts to attach an ROI to social media, or branding, activities.

Some may take issue with my business finance consultant background and wonder why I am not hard-nosed about tracking ROI on social media efforts.  I believe it is my CFO career that actually gives me credibility to say that ROI on social media is not about ROI, but it is about building a brand.  The brand of a firm should have legitimate and palatable value, and that is what I care about.  Ultimately, the value of the brand becomes a long-term and often sustainable competitive advantage that commands premium pricing, better margins, and maximal cash flow!

Social media is all the rage right now. You see it in blog posts everywhere. You see Twitter feeds on news shows. In the last month my mother and several uncles joined Facebook! Simply put, social media is all over the place. But is it useful for the average business?

While not all businesses will use social media the same way, I am convinced that all businesses can make good use of social media. Here are 4 ways any business can benefit from using social media.

1- Get to Know Your Audience

About a year ago I went to Blog World Expo, and one of the points that really stuck with me from that conference is this: use social media to find your audience and then hang out with them. Social media is full of groups, fan pages, and other things that make it relatively easy to find an audience that is already interested in your topic or industry.

But with all of the different social media sites, how do you find out where your audience is hanging out? Here are a couple of resources you can use:

• Use search.twitter.com to see what people are talking about that relates to your topic/industry. See what they’re linking to and mentioning. This can lead you in the right direction.
• Get a Facebook account if you don’t have one already and look for relevant groups and fan pages. Watch for multiple groups/fan pages for the same topic, and also watch to see how engaged the members are.
• Forums are more old school, but they can be great for finding other sites that people are using to hang out. In the end it may be the forum itself is the hangout, or they may direct you to other places.

Once you’re confident that you’ve found the popular hangouts for your industry start engaging with your audience. For many businesses Twitter and Facebook are great places to start since they are so universal, but you’ll also want to look for the niche hangouts.

2- Managing Your Reputation

Social media is a great way to keep an eye on the conversations that are happening online and respond to them. In fact, many companies have employees dedicated to watching the online conversations about their company and addressing them.

Here are a few tools you can use to monitor your reputation online so you can take any appropriate action:

• Once again, you can use search.twitter.com to keep an eye on any conversations going on in the world of Twitter that relate to your brand.
• For general monitoring of sites, news, and blogs you can always set up Google Alerts for your brand and main keywords to see what is happening online.
• For monitoring blogs specifically, you can use Technorati or Google Blog Search. Both can help you monitor what bloggers are saying about your brand or industry.
• If you’re really serious about tracking your reputation you could get an account at Trackur. Their pricing isn’t bad and it can be a great solution for companies looking to check in on the conversations happening online in a quick and easy way.

Watching and managing your company’s reputation is one way that every company can and should use social media. If you notice negative conversations happening you can respond and put out any fires before they get out of control.

A great example of this is Comcast’s use of Twitter. They have turned their Twitter account into another extension of their customer service division. For some great stories about this just do a Google search for ‘Comcast twitter’.

3- Promotions

Promotion is nothing new to the internet, but it hits new levels with social media. If you push the right message through the right channels you can reach a lot of people.

The key here is that you have to already have a lot of connections, especially with people that are willing to push the information to their followers as well. Twitter’s Retweet (RT) feature is very useful for this. If someone finds a story, blog post, or promotion interesting, they can just pass it on by doing a simple Retweet.

To be successful in promoting things through social media you have to have a plan and connections. Just sending out a tweet to your 30 followers won’t cut it.

Here’s another great article about using Twitter for advertising: Is Twitter Really an Effective Internet Marketing Tool?

4- SEO and Traffic Benefits

Being that we’re an SEO company, I naturally have to talk about the SEO and traffic benefits of being involved in social media. Social media can be a great traffic generator. Admittedly, it doesn’t always generate the kind of traffic that will convert into a lot of sales but it does increase buzz, recognition, and authority for your site.

Social media is also a great way to have a lot of links built to your site. As a page is promoted on different networks people are going to be linking to it. These links will include tweets, bookmarks, and even blogs. All of these links can help improve the authority of your site and lead to higher rankings in the search results.

Putting it All Together

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, not all businesses will use social media the same. But the fact is that all businesses can take advantage of social media in one way or another. Here are a few places to start:

• If your site doesn’t have a blog, you should start one. Blogs are where you’ll generate the content to be promoted on the social media networks. It is also a great way to interact with your customers.
• Start a Twitter account. Having a Twitter account will give you a place to interact with your audience and also promote the articles from your blog and from other sources that you find interesting. You don’t want to be a Twitter spammer just pushing your own stuff. Show that you can be part of the community.
• Create a Facebook fan page. Facebook is one of the giants in the social media sphere, so you need to have a company presence there as another way to promote your content and interact with your audience.
• Set up profile pages on a few social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg, and Delicious. This will give you a place to create links to your content. Make sure you also bookmark other content from your industry. Also make sure to create links back to your site in your profile.

There is always more that can be done, but these are four places to get started. For additional reading, here’s a great case study from Business.com on how they have been using social media: B2B Social Media – The Business.com Case Study.

I just got a story on the American Express Open Forum through Small Business Trends (in association with OrangeSoda). It’s called, “Businesses Turn to Mom Blogs to Market Their Wares.”

It’s fascinating to me how many different ways we interact with brands online and the people who represent those brands. I recently posted about a social media retreat and how I loved the Sorel boots that the company sent. I’ve always been a fan of the brand (but haven’t remembered them until recently) and can appreciate a sturdy but fashionable pair of Winter boots. Next, I connected with them on Twitter. They’re sending me a pair and have done a lot of reaching out to bloggers (so has Crocs).

Why mom bloggers? I’d rephrase that to why women bloggers. The answer is that women love to talk and share information with other women. If we like something we’re likely to become evangelists to our friends. If those friends are online then the reach expands. Even if they’re not, search engines bring people to our posts indefinately.

Recently I Googled the name of a restaurant I heard about. The first result was their Twitter page, their blog, and Google Maps (not showing up today). Then a blog post from 2007 (2 years ago). That blog post convinced me to try it. I thought it was interesting that their web page wasn’t even in the top 10. Also, that the blog isn’t even about restaurants or reviews.

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Hubspot: The Effectiveness of Blogging for Small Businesses

Startup Princess: How to Host a Successful Mom Blogger Event

I Never Grew Up: How to Succeed in Giving Away Product at Promotional Events to Bloggers or Celebrities