Social Media Results Are Real

I know that I’m fond of saying that most things are simpler than you think, but frankly it’s true.

Social Media is a valuable component of your content marketing plan. When done in a fashion that is consistent with your other efforts, it works. The primary mission of your social media component is to build and interact with your community. That’s pretty simple.

As the image shows businesses do close deals from Social Media. The slide originated in an inbound marketing slideshow on Marketo’s Facebook Page. If you don’t “like” them yet, you should.

Simple rule: Social Media works when you do it right.

The Consequences Of Being Rude Online: 5 Things Not To Do In Online Discussions

Do As I Say, Not As  I Do
One of the mantras of joining the online global community is that what you post on the internet stays there forever and forever. We all have heard this so it always amazes me when I see some of the thing that people post in various types of online communal discussions. We always make sure to let our kids know not to post pictures or comments that they wouldn’t want college admissions folks to see.   Not everyone follows that advice themselves.

There are lots of places to post your thoughts and ideas online, for this article I’m focusing on the behaviors I see in Blog comment threads and Group discussions on forums such as LinkedIn or Focus.

A Double Edged Sword

The internet creates a level field where anyone can pretty much say whatever they like. This is a good thing for the most part. It gives you a chance to exercise your right of free speech. The other side of the sword is to remember that line from the Spiderman saga:  ”With great power comes great responsibility.”

Sketiquette – 5 Behaviors To Avoid on Skype

The first time I saw a video phone call was the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing, NY.

It’s come a long way since then.  Real-time video calling is completely unremarkable today. It’s just the norm. For some reason, though, we naturally tend to think of these interactions as telephone calls and not as face-to-face meetings.  If you think about it, it doesn’t  get much more F2F than staring at a screen with the other party’s face all up in your face.

I’ve noticed that sometimes we (this includes me) do things that we oddly would not do in person, but we are very comfortable doing them on a Skype or other video call.  So here are a few things to avoid.

5.   Jammies, stained sweats, strewn about hair, 2-day beards.   I’m not saying you must wear a vested suit or a prom dress, but certainly follow the same rules

Level 2 Twitter Tip: Lists Vs. Saved Hashtag Searches

Level 2 Twitter tips are for those who’ve mastered the basics of Tweeting  and are now ready to move on to the real value of the platform.

At first glance, it might seem a little redundant to have the ability to create lists and saved # searches with the same topic.   Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish with Twitter, using both can be invaluable.

Keep in mind that lists and searches have two very different functions.

• List:  This groups all tweets by users that you manually add to the list. The posts that you see on the list will include all topics that the selected users tweet about.  There will be no tweets from any users who you have not added to that list.
• Saved Hashtag Search: This  groups all tweets from users throughout the Twitterverse that have posted an update with the hashtag you have designated in the search.

Here’s an example of why I use both.

In my consulting practice I work with some clients on their Content Marketing strategy.   For this discipline there are two areas where Twitter can make me better at what I do, increase my

I Finally Figured Out How I Can Get Value From SCRIBD by Connecting To Blog Posts

I signed up for Scribd maybe 3 years ago.  I used it for a few different things – that all could be done elsewhere and better.

Perhaps I’m late to the game with this epiphany but I am so excited that I found something useful that can provide value to me and to my online community.

So – here’s the deal.   I have a WP.com blog.  It provides the ability for your readers to print blog posts or pages on demand

The challenge, to me, is always that the printed version looks a lot like a screen shot.  Not exactly, because it does strip out the sidebars and the blog header and just gives you the article but…   once printed, the only way the document relates back to you, is through a footer which has the long url linking to the post.

Sooooo… By taking the post after it’s written, cutting/pasting the text into MS Word, then saving it as a PDF you can upload it into a Scribd account.  If you create (the first time) a Word Template, all of your docs will have the same look and feel.

That all takes about 5 minutes adding on to your blog post time.

Then add a link to the bottom of each post which connects to the url for the PDF in Scribd.

I’ve only just started to do this but click on the link below to see how it works.

DOWNLOAD/PRINT A COPY OF THIS POST

Don’t Confuse Social Media with Content Marketing

Conventional wisdom tells us that most businesses have created accounts on “the sites”.   I’m not going to list all of the social media platforms here – that’s another topic for another day.

There’s been much hype over the last few years about successes that have come from posting updates and all the sundry add-ons.  This encourages people to believe that engaging in social media will help grow their business.

That’s a good thing.  Social Media does work when it’s done right.   Is that all there is though?

How Cool is BlackBird Pie?

So now you can embed a live tweet in your blog using WordPress Blackbird Pie.

Like this that i just posted on Twitter.

Embed LIVE tweets in your #Wordpress.com blog with Blackbird Pie Way cool http://ow.ly/4BFpQ—
Rick Schwartz (@SalesAddiction) April 16, 2011

Doesn’t have to be your own tweet.  It takes two seconds to do. – very cool.

Details HERE

Effective Communications Means Knowing Where Your Audience Hangs Out

One of the questions that seems to come up pretty frequently in coaching sessions is “What is the best  method of staying in touch with my prospects and clients.”

There are so many different ways to communicate with people today it’s hard to know what is the most effective choice. Here’s the magic answer.

It’s Up To Them!

Too often you hear sales folks say things like.

I don’t believe in all this new technology.  You can Tweet, Email and Facebook all you want but business is done in person.  MY clients like to see who they dealing with and I like to be out there shaking hands – it’s what I love about sales,

or

It makes no sense to use old-school techniques. MY clients have no time to waste on personal meetings.  I stay in touch by Twitter, Texting, Email, and current up to date methods. You have to use the latest thing to show that you are on the cutting edge.  I simply don’t have the time to visit and call everyone.

Either of those positions is fine – as long as you

“Bolt-On” Social Media

I was having coffee the other day with my friends, Heather Flournoy and Chris Roberts. To be more accurate I was actually drinking bottled water which, although she is far too nice to say anything, I suspect was noticed by Heather. Heather is the founder and driving force behind KATONAH GREEN, a very well-known sustainable living community organization and  blog.  Anyway – I digress.

Somewhere in the conversation we got to talking about how some mature businesses have, in the last year or so, tiptoed into the Social Media waters.

The thing is that more than a few of these organizations have added FB biz pages and Twitter accounts primarily because everyone says it’s the new,