This morning I finally spoke live to my Social Media buddy and Snarkster Extraordinaire, Sam Fiorella because I may need his services for a client of mine. When we hung up it dawned on me that we weren’t connected to each other on LinkedIn. I then got an invite from another Social Media pal (Daniel Newman) and by connecting with him I realized I wasn’t LinkedIn to one of my favorite chums, Margie Clayman.

How on earth did this happen? Because I became lazy about my Social Media Housekeeping.

This is nothing short of scandalous considering that I spend my days advising my clients on how to build and maintain their own marketing presence. So I created a checklist that I will make sure I review every month or so, or at least as often as I change the batteries in my smoke detector. Here it is:

1. LinkedIn Review: Am I connected to my new clients and latest Social Media friends? Do I have any recent recommendations? Have I asked for an Introduction to a target client from a connection? Have I updated my profile in the last 6 months?
2. Twitter: Have I reviewed my New Tweeps List to see if any of my newer connections belong on a different list? (If you aren’t using lists, read this.) On a less frequent basis, have I reviewed those I’m following and cleaned out the bots and other undesirables? Have I updated my profile description? Is my background still relevant?
3. Facebook: Have I checked my security settings? <-- those dang things have a habit of changing on their own. Do I really need to Like 658 Pages, or can I clean up my stream a bit by Unliking a few? Does my Timeline need a refresh picture?
4. Facebook Business Page: Is my Page Timeline pic tired? Is my Page liking other Business Pages it should be tied to? Are there any we should Unlike?
5. EVERY ONE OF THEM: Does my profile pic accurately reflect who I am now or is it time for an update? Have I put the most recent profile pic on ALL of the platforms? This last one is a personal pet peeve of mine. Be who you are in Real Life online too.

Yes, I’ve left that other one…. G+… totally off because personally I’ve fallen out of love with it, but you may have suggestions for the G+ lovers still out there.

Mine is a short but essential list of to dos that I am sure will grow over time. I’m keeping it and setting an alarm every month or two, so that I never again shock myself by my untidy, and frankly lazy handling of my most important connections. What would you add to the list?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Twitter best practices seem to confuse a lot of people; ‘experts’ give out all sorts of contradictory advise. One of the most disagreed upon issues is Follow Back Policy. Ted Coine and I have had a friendly discussion about the issue since we don’t necessarily agree. His fabulous post can be found here, and mine, here.

I was inspired to clean up my stream after Chris Brogan’s The Great Twitter Unfollow Experiment of 2011; it had become a meaningless mish mash where I was lucky if I managed to catch tweets that I actually wanted to read. I spent a couple of hours combing through all of the handles I followed and realized that a huge portion of them were people I followed back because I was so happy to have anyone follow me. Since then my stream has become very meaningful. Now almost every tweet in my stream is worth reading, and I spend more time on Twitter because of it.

So, after all of this thoughtful consideration of Follow Back rules that work for me, last week I realized I was completely wrong because I was not using the one tool that made it all possible: LISTS. In a conversation on #dadchat (Sundays at 8pm) with Mack Collier I decided I needed to explore this more and in a big way.

If I’d thought it through thoroughly, I would have made specific lists including one HOLDING that allowed me to review new tweeps and decide after consideration whether I want to keep them. I’m not stopping there. I now have the following lists that will continue to evolve:

1. Digital Marketing/PR Pros: is my most potent list; these are people I follow closely, read their blogs, and have built relationships with that are invaluable to my work.
2. The 12 Most: this is a list I didn’t create but follow because the fabulous 12Most.com community is a huge part of my online life.
3. Clients: There are times I want to communicate with my clients all at once – often to share knowledge or tips.
4. IRL: Honestly, many of my Real Life friends aren’t actually on Twitter and spend lots of time on Facebook for socializing, but I like keeping them segmented here so that I can easily reach out to them.
5. SportsSmarts: Twitter has TONS of sports chat going on; this list helps me zero in on the bloggers/critics I find most worthy of my precious time.
6. Women Leaders: Self explanatory and absolutely essential to my vision of professional sisterhood.
7. Business Heroes: This is my shortest list of Business Leaders I may never meet, but whom I admire deeply and want to emulate.
8. Social Media Favs: My personal favorite peeps on Twitter for whatever reason
9. Holding: People who followed me; I follow back and review it in a few weeks.

This may seem like a lot of work, and it IS on the front end, but having those I follow organized makes it easy to follow more people in a more meaningful way. By checking out a list I can clear away the clutter of my many interests to stay focused on the issues or thought process at hand. This will hopefully allow me to push past the mysterious Twitter Follow Limit rules and follow many more people in a focused way.

How do you keep your Twitter Stream organized?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

…. you just might not want to hear it.

Often times I end up being part Management Consultant, part Business Therapist to my Marketing Clients. In order to get to the heart of their company and how best to help them grow I usually end up really deep inside what makes them work, or not. The real issues become apparent when people are free to be honest with someone disconnected from the process. Most of the time the answer to how help the business grow through marketing is actually right there within their collective experience and wisdom; as an outsider it’s often easier for me to see it.

Sometimes this answer is difficult for Insiders to hear. I used to get very frustrated when the answer to growth was right there staring everyone in the face while they looked for an ‘easier’ alternative. Now I accept as par for the course that most problems aren’t dealt with because the beholder of the problem can’t bear the answer, which often means a huge commitment of time, or money, or both. When people tell me “Social Media isn’t working for us,” what that usually means is that they’re not dedicating enough time or people to the tactic. If your Print Advertising isn’t effective I can almost guarantee that your presence is large or frequent enough. If your website doesn’t bring you business I would bet that you have either terrible SEO and/or a badly designed site.

In order to fix any of these issues you will need to commit time and resources to the problem. There is no other answer that will work. Either you have the drive and commitment to follow through, or you are purposely setting yourself up to fail. So which is it? Do you choose to remove the blindfold and SEE what you know is right there before you? Or do you choose to pretend that the solution is not within your control?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you’ve ever discussed Facebook with Small Business owners you will know that there is a lot of confusion and frustration as to how to use it effectively. When I push Small Business folks on using Facebook as a tactic (yes, it’s a tactic, not a reason to ditch your Traditional Marketing) I usually get one of the following reactions:

1. Total Roadblock: This is often expressed verbally as “I don’t believe in Facebook; I don’t want my high school friends looking me up and I’m worried about security.”
2. Other No-Facebook Excuses: “My clients aren’t on Facebook.” I always find this one particularly interesting since 65% of all American internet users are.
3. Frustration: “I’ve tried for ages and I only have 75 followers.” My usual question here is “Tried how?”
4. No Time: The business owner doesn’t see the value in committing his or his employees time to Facebook.

Every business is different, so of course Facebook engagement may not be the best use of your employee’s time, but it is my humble opinion that for most Small Businesses it is an irreplaceable piece of your marketing puzzle. Instead of listing all of the reasons I know this to be true, I’ll show you what my pal (and client) Billy Sweeney has done that proves Facebook is a useful and powerful tool.

Billy owns a fast growing business called Bittly Bill’s, and here’s his Facebook Page. His first post was March of 2010, and he now has 2200 fans. (I know “Rock Star” Social Media types who can’t break 1000). His page is always active, engaged, and growing. What’s his secret? Here’s what he does:
1. Posts interesting content. That means he may break the ‘golden rule of Social Media’ and skip days that there’s nothing exciting to write. It also means that his followers pay attention when he does post because they know it’s worth reading.
2. Creates interesting content to post. Billy is always thinking, and he comes up with lots of things to keep his customers engaged in real life. Ice Cream eating contests, horse and buggy rides… there is always something going on at Bitty Bills, which makes it easy to attract fans to his Facebook Page.
3. Gives his fans something. The new Timeline layout has made this more challenging, but Bitty Bill’s has a redeemable coupon for new fans. Once you go, you’ll keep going.
4. Makes his customers the center of attention. Bitty Bill’s constantly posts pictures of customers enjoying themselves at the shop. Fans respond to this because they can relate to the real people really having fun.
5. Engages in Real Time. I am a fan of Hootesuite and other scheduling programs that allow you to pre-schedule posts, but nothing beats real life engagement. Billy often has a back and forth with followers of his page.
6. Makes it FUN. As a natural wise-cracker, Billy has no problem making people smile… which is more important than almost anything because most Facebookers are on there to socialize, not be sold to.
7. Contests Billy’s not afraid to put his money where his mouth is. When he first started the page he created his own custom contest (without the help of any programs) and gave away $100 to the first fan to refer 100 fans to the page. He grew by hundreds in a week. Any small business owner will tell you that’s not easy. He’s always thinking of new Facebook contests to encourage sharing; watch this space because he’s brewing something special up as we speak.
8. The product’s fantastic. Of course this has nothing to do with Facebook and everything to do with how you run your business; Facebook is no substitute for sound business practices. What Facebook does is keep Bitty Bill’s in the top of his customer’s minds so that they don’t cheat on him with some other ice cream shop.

The reality is that smart people always figure out how to do it, even in new frontiers where they’re not quite sure. For every Bitty Bill’s there are thousands of Small Business owners who neglect their Page or have given up completely. Watch his page; I have no doubt that it will continue to grow exponentially because he puts the energy and creativity into it necessary to keep followers on board. Is there anything unique you did to quickly grow your Facebook Fan Base?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’ve always prided myself on my professionalism, and my career success has meant a lot to me. There was a time when I am sure some of my friends worried about how hard I worked, my career was all I talked about. There were times I worried about the oft-touted “balance;” I knew it was missing but I didn’t mind that. I loved my career and was very fulfilled.

Then I had a daughter. Balance never arrived, and frankly, I don’t believe in it. I think it’s a myth invented by people trying to sell books and videos on how to ‘get’ it. My life, as you can imagine, changed drastically. Suddenly, there wasn’t time to work 16 hour days. This new being needed some of those hours, and I actually wanted to give them to her. Thus began my struggle to continue turning out stellar job performance AND have a personal life.

Don’t worry, I don’t want your pity. I don’t even want to sell you something. What I do want is to tell you one thing I know:

Without organization, order, and peace, you will never be great at your job.

Disarray and emotional turmoil will suck the creative juices right out of you. You will become unfocused. You will be much less efficient.

Things happen to all of us; we have children, we lose parents, we have our hearts broken. Loads of things happen to loads of people… and they will impact your work life. None of us are superhuman. None of us can honestly say that we never, ever miss a beat at work.

It’s ok to miss a beat; upheavals in your personal life will impact your business life, but that impact MUST be short term. If something is regularly occurring in your personal life that drains you emotionally, you must find a way to curtail its impact, or accept the fact that you will not be able to give 100% at work. There are times when this is unavoidable: a sick relative may need more of your attention than your job does. However, there are other distractions that we allow to drain the energy right out of us that are not so meaningful.

If you care deeply about career success, you must be able to admit to yourself what these distractions are, how they’re impacting your work, and then you must take steps to eliminate them from your life. My guess is that you are already acutely aware of what these distractions are. My advice is for you to journal them; take a notebook specifically for this purpose, and make notes of exactly how many minutes per day your attention is drawn away from the task at hand and absorbed by this distraction. After one week, make a list of all of the tasks you DIDN’T achieve that you could have if you’d used the time spent on the distraction. That alone should give you the motivation to begin taking the steps to eliminate the unnecessary distractions.

How have you ‘refocused’ yourself when you’ve become distracted?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I am baffled by the widely accepted practice of hanging up a sign at a Retail Location that says: Restrooms for Customers Only. Why would any retail location NOT welcome people into their space? If you know anything about shopping habits you understand that familiarity makes shoppers relax, and when they’re relaxed they spend. One of the biggest challenges for any new retail location is to get people in the door the first time.

What’s your reaction when you see the Restroom Warning Sign? Mine is always “I’m never going in there;” you’ll only let me pee if you make money off of me? I envision myself with my 4 year old daughter bursting at the seams and no where to pee. I think, “Wow, are your restrooms too precious for the truly pee-needy?”

When I ask store owners about this I get lots of excuses:

1. “It was becoming a real problem with people coming in JUST to use the bathroom.”
2. “There were people living down the street under the bridge…”
3. “I’m not cleaning up after non-customers”

Really? Don’t many of your ‘customers’ come in and NOT make a purchase? Isn’t browsing allowed anymore?

Traffic is the life blood of Retail….. there are hundreds of books written on how to use signage to get people in the door, how to layout your store to get people to buy… the psychology of retail is finely tuned. No where in any of those books will you see the suggestion that you put up signs telling people not to come in your door.

IF you are one of the very rare Retailers who has a homeless problem right down the street, you can converse with your maker about how compassionate you want to be to a person in need of facilities. But the vast majority of Retailers using this sign are NOT dealing with that particular issue.

My office is located in an affluent town where we do not have loitering issues, and I see this sign everywhere.

In fact, there is an ice cream shop that has the following signs to make customers feel really special as they wait in line to order:

“Have your order ready when it is your turn.”
“If you drop your Ice Cream, that is YOUR problem.”
“If you are with a large group we will only issue ONE check.”

WHAT message do you think they’re sending? I know that’s an extreme example, but here’s the school of thought I come from:

I love my customers, and I even love the ones considering becoming my customer. I am always grateful and amazed when they turn their hard earned dollars over to me for my services. I think there is far too much negative energy in the world; I don’t intend on pushing any of it on the people who fund my paycheck. If I get to the point that I’ve even tempted to put up a sign like that, I’m quitting.

After everything our economy has been through in the last 4 years let me tell you something:

Every person still in business should be grateful to the people who walk through their door. You never know who you’re turning away with negative signage.

So if you’ve got a sign like that up, and I don’t care if it’s at the Gas Station you own, go take it down right now. Have some pity on the need-to-pee-ers. And have some gratitude that you own your business and people think it’s worth walking through your door.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

There are few blogs I have time to read regularly. My friend Margie Clayman’s is one that has such timely & pointed topics that I ALWAYS have to open that email. This week the discussion focused on Social Media’s popularity, and whether it was waning. The post and many comments indicated that with the economy finally beginning to pick up, more people are too busy to check into their platforms often. The idea of the economy growing makes my heart sing, but I can’t say that I agree with the idea that Social Media is waning; it just doesn’t fit with my current Social Media experience.

One comment spoke about how the user’s own habits had changed – they used to be on Twitter constantly, and now had to remember to check in. That struck me because I was a late comer to Twitter and I’m not there yet – I still check in regularly. I signed up in 2009, and it took me a while to acclimate. Most of the participant’s on Margie’s blog are old hands; they embraced Social Media early and a lot of them have very large followings. They have watched the transformation of every platform – the coming and going of some. Their experience leads them to be more skeptical of wild claims when something new and shiny comes out. It also means that they are ahead of the curve and no longer enamored with this once new medium.

Because I trust Margie and most of her audience, I had to go and do some digging. It didn’t take long for me to come across this fabulous post on The Social Skinny that sums up Social Media usage as of 2012. You’ll read that Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are adding new users daily. And each of those new users are just starting their own journey on those specific platforms.

So why do these experienced users all seem to sense a decline in their own Social Media usage? My opinion: Many of them are marketers or responsible for building business. They’re also a fairly savvy group; my bet is that as the economy picks up they are amongst the first to get even busier… that old cream of the crop analogy applies here. So THEY, and probably many of their colleagues, aren’t on the platforms as often as they used to be.

Secondly, I think their experience is much more reflective of what many larger companies have drawn from their own Social Media experience. Back in November Ragan.com posted this article about he declining use of Social Media by Fortune 500 companies. If you read the article to the end you’ll see that the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies are expanding their use of Facebook, Twitter and Blogging.

What does it all mean? My theory is that Social Media usage is STILL growing, but that more experienced individuals like the ones on Margie’s blog are probably using it a lot less. Some companies who jumped in whole hog and didn’t see a positive result are pulling back. But lots and lots of new people are showing up and beginning that journey.

What does this mean to Small Business? It means that you would be premature, if not silly, to abandon Social Media. For most of you, your target client is still embracing Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter – some for the first time. It is still a platform that allows you to hear what is said about your company, and if you’re doing it right, to respond to it. For any company with a smaller budget than the Fortune 500 companies I spoke about, there is no alternative… you just don’t have millions to spend in traditional or other online forms of marketing. And there is no other way to dialogue directly with your customer base, even when it’s negative… at least you have the opportunity to get in on the conversation.

Of course you still need a strategy for what platforms will work best and how you will man them, but you can’t give up on them. You’ll need to be careful about the amount of time dedicated to your Social Media efforts, and most importantly you’ll need measuring tools so that you know what’s working and what isn’t, and to do all of this correctly you may need to invest in an expert’s help. Good marketing is never free.

Social Media can’t grow forever, but I don’t see it going away anytime soon. Just like email never died, claims of Social Media’s demise are also a myth. We may use it differently, but it’s still powerful, and I believe that it will be around as an important tactic for small business for years to come.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Somewhere along the way, someone close to you probably told you “Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you’re not good enough.” You know what? I don’t agree. As a matter of fact, you should WISH for someone to tell you when you’re not good enough…with one caveat: that they tell you why.

Not being good enough now doesn’t mean forever. You can often improve on those things keeping you from being good enough. Maybe you don’t know enough about what you’d like to do. Then learn. Read about it. Watch videos about it. Attend classes and seminars about it. If you have a true passion for something these things aren’t work. They are a labor of love.
Now not everything is fixable. I mean I’d have loved to play third base for the New York Yankees but despite my best efforts I knew that just wasn’t happening. This doesn’t mean a dream necessarily needs to die. It may just mean that it needs a little fine-tuning. Take something you can do and figure out how it fits into your passion. I’m good with numbers, know the rules of baseball, and I’m pretty adept at using a computer. I found a way to take these strengths, apply them to my love of baseball, and found myself with an incredible part-time job working in AAA baseball. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll make it to the Majors!
So folks, the next time someone tells you that you aren’t good enough, don’t run to mom. Thank them, then run to the library.

This week’s post is by guest blogger John Errico, an all the time Sports Love & Game Day Stringer for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. His day job is VP of Finance. Follow John on Twitter and connect on LinkedIn ; as of this date he has still resisted Facebook.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

It may seem a bit obvious to my marketing colleagues that setting up a one way, broadcast only Facebook Business page is a terrible mistake. In the past week I’ve spoken with 1 Fortune 100 company, 1 nationally known organization, and 2 small businesses about this very topic. I sit on the board of a small non-profit and one of my smart, professional members is advocating that we turn our page into a “Our Messages Only” page.

This discussion always focuses around CONTROL, and it’s always rooted in Fear. These are the things companies fear most:

1. Losing control of their message.
2. Being savagely, verbally attacked by an angry customer
3. PR firestorms that may occur if their employees don’t handle negative comments well.

If you haven’t read The Now Revolution, here are a few choice pieces of advice you must hear:

“What you don’t control – and have never controlled – is the response and reaction to what you do..”

The book has a lot of advise and is a guide book for understanding Social Media’s impact on your business. You should buy it. In the meantime, here’s a key piece you must understand:

“…these communication tools are already in play, already being used, already affecting your business, whether you’re actively using them or not.”

So, this is how it will work if your Facebook Business Page does not accept comments:

1. Those who visit you wanting to share their positive enthusiasm for your service will be frustrated in not being able to do so. They probably won’t return to your page.

2. Those wanting to complain will instantly interpret your controlled wall for exactly what it is: fear of honest criticism. They will then find other Social Media avenues to blast you. The only difference will be that YOU may not know about them and you won’t be able to respond.

A closed Facebook Business Page is a lose/lose proposition for you. What you need to do is the one thing that usually eradicates fear: Educate Yourself. And then Educate your employees – every single one of them – as to what your Social Media Policy is and how you will handle negative comments. Your company culture should dictate to them how you would handle any customer service issue… but that’s an entirely different blog post….

The success of Social Media has been all about interaction and engagement. If it’s going to work for your brand you need to allow it to be a two way channel.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I am obssessed with how important a great subject line is for an email newsletter to be successful; if they don’t open it what is the point? I spend a lot of time contemplating my subject line/titles for both email newsletters and blogs. It’s become a peculiarly satisfying challenge to get just the right one, and you don’t really know if you’ve been successful until time passes and you can analyze your open/share rates.

I’ve also become rather obsessed with the great ‘title writers’ and what they do to intrigue their readers in those initial few words. Here a couple of examples of great subject lines that ensured I’d open the email:

“The Biggest Secret I know” This was the title of an email Chris Brogan sent to his subscribers this week. There was no way on earth I was not going to see what Chris thought was his biggest secret.

“I shot the guru” If you aren’t familiar with Ben Settles and you want to learn how to write emails that get opened, check him out here, fast.

Both of these guys regularly turn out strong ‘headlines,’ and I regularly open, or at least save for later, their emails.

Last week I received an email with a subject line that made opening it irresistible.

It read: “You’ve been flagged.”

I thought it was somehow related to a comment I made on one of the blogs I read. And NO, I didn’t check the sending address – I was racing through my overloaded inbox.

Who was it from? A flag company promoting their product. (I am a fairly silent partner in a promotional goods company, so I get emails from suppliers periodically.)

My reaction? I admired the cleverness of the email; I resented the fact that the sender caused a sense of alarm to get me to open it. I deleted it immediately. And I felt tricked.

It made me think hard about how I write my titles. As I stated, it is a craft I greatly admire and enjoy. My conclusion is that most of your readers will feel the same way; fooled and/or foolish – NOT an emotion you want to intentionally create in your audience. Be smart. Be clever. But don’t be tricky.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites