One thousand posts. No navel gazing.
Feb 12th
This is my 1,000th post on {grow}.
So I wondered … what should I do to commemorate this? Should I give away presents like Oprah? Should I honor my community in some way? Should I just ignore it and carry on?
I asked some of my friends on Facebook and the general consensus was that they wanted me to write a reflective piece on what I have learned, my expectations when I wrote post number one, and the challenges of success.
I started answering these questions a dozen times but it just seemed like a bunch of self-centered navel gazing so I quit. Maybe I’ll get to these subjects another time but I think the focus today needs to be placed on the {grow} community. You see, it takes a lot of work to create that many blog posts, but it would not be successful without you.
In my brief period of {grow} nostalgia (about an hour!), I looked down the list of subscribers and wanted to find the people who have subscribed to my blog for the longest period of time. Who was here first? Who has stuck with me the longest?
This was a revealing exercise and a lesson in building a blog community. The people who were there at the beginning are still there today. In fact. we’re all good friends! We were “baby bloggers” together and went out of our way to support each other when the rest of the world did not seem to be listening.
I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate 1,000 blog posts by honoring the people who encouraged me and supported me from the very beginning. Here are the original 10 {grow} readers, and here are their stories. And at the end … yes … I will give away some prizes : )
John Bottom — John is a director at the Base One Marketing Agency in London. When I was just starting out, he was already a big deal with a huge, lively following and wonderfully insightful blog posts. I clung to John as an example of how I needed to operate on the social web — in a caring, classy, and responsive way. He was the first social media celebrity to begin tweeting my blog posts and I am forever grateful for that. I had the chance to meet John in London in 2012, which was quite a thrill.
Jayme Soulati — Jayme is a PR and communications dynamo from Ohio and one of my first Twitter friends. I will take credit for being the one to beg Jayme to begin her blog and once she started she found her great love. I remember her telling me that blogging was now the favorite part of her job. She stood by me in the early days and I had tears in my eyes when I met her for the first time at Social Slam in 2010. In fact, the day before the event a speaker cancelled and she graciously filled in!
Jenn Whinnem — Jenn is a passionate young woman and her firey posts caught my attention back in 2009. We collaborated on a couple of projects and she taught me a lesson that resulted in one of the the most humbling and emotional blog posts I’ve ever written: “Social Media and the Big Conversation Fail.” She has been a wonderful supporter and has contributed many amazing comments to the community!
Jon Buscall — An intellect with the heart of an artist, Jon and I are social media soul mates. We have similar backgrounds and hold many of the same values when it comes to teaching and working on the web. I think he holds the record for the most guest posts on {grow} (aside from the paid regular bloggers). When I visited Stockholm, I spent a cafe day with Jon. And that, my friends is the best part of social media.
Kristen Daukas – One of the most fun and big-hearted professionals I know. Mom, entrepreneur, ass-kicker. We have collaborated in a number of ways but the most fun was speaking at her awesome Converge South conference in North Carolina. It was one of my very first keynote speeches. If you look really closely, Kristen’s picture is in the Tao of Twitter.
Steve Dodd – Nobody has commented more often that Steve. He has been the rock of this community since day one. I really think he was the first one to see the potential of what was happening on {grow} and I am so indebted to him for his continuous encouragement. He is the only person among “the originals” I have not met, but not for lack of trying!
Amy Howell – When I started exploring Twitter, it was hard to miss Amy since most tweets ended with !!!!!!! This became known as the Exclamy style of tweeting. She has been a tireless and and passionate supporter of the blog … and really everything I do. Amy has been a trusted adviser and friend from the beginning. She is a super-connector who has been featured in two of my books, and introduced me to so many wonderful colleagues like Anne Gallaher, Glen Gilmore, and Kent Huffman. And she is going to be the emcee for Social Slam this year!
Billy Mitchell – A few years ago, Billy had a strange strategy for getting attention. His avatar featured him posing with this huge fish. He kept popping up everywhere and you couldn’t help but notice this guy with the fish. We started connecting over Twitter and the blog and soon became close friends. We have collaborated on many projects and his ability to spin a tale and the fact that he understands my jokes makes him my favorite business partner. His B2B Agency MLT Creative is simply an inspiration.
Kimmo Linkama – How cool is it that, through Twitter, I have a great friend in Estonia? Kimmo Linkama is the first person I ever interviewed on {grow} and the only person I have interviewed twice, primarily because he has a such a musical name. Estonia is an awesome place with a progressive economy and Kimmo is leading the B2B marketing charge in the region. In this photo, I am visiting with Kimmo in Estonia’s capital of Talinn.
Michelle Chmielewski – Of all the people I have met, the story of how I connected with Michelle is probably my favorite, and a highlight of the The Tao of Twitter and many of my classes. I recognized Michelle’s simply brilliant talent when she was a grad student and she has gone on to be a bright star on the European marketing scene. Some of her videos have had more than a million YouTube views. I know talent when I see it! I met Michelle in real life in Paris in 2011 and we continue to support each other whenever we can.
Here’s the lesson threaded through all these little stories. Many beginning bloggers think they will hit it big by getting noticed by an A-Lister. They long for that one tweet of a blog post that will propel them to the big time. It does not work like that, and in fact there are no shortcuts to social media success.
Don’t wait for lightning to strike. Build your own tribe. Find your own little group of people who love you for who you are, support each other, and build from there. It’s hard to say how big my tribe is today but it all started with these 10 people. And no matter what happens to me or the blog, I know those folks — and now dozens of others I have met along the way — will still be my friends. Perhaps this is the year you and I will meet, too!
Thank you, thank you, thank you one and all for reading my blog.
Now, on to the prizes!
I would like to give everyone a chance to celebrate and participate in this 1,000 post milestone, so I’m giving away:
- Five copies of Return On Influence (one copy x five winners)
- Five copies of The Tao of Twitter (one copy x five winners)
- Five copies of Born to Blog (a new book I have not even announced yet!)
- A chance to write your own guest post on {grow}.
- A free one-hour phone consulting session on any marketing topic of your choice (or we can just hang out!)
- Five free subscriptions to my social media tutorial video series “Social Media from Scratch.”
- Five free tickets to Social Slam (America’s finest social media conference April 5 in Knoxville – one ticket x five winners)
Here’s how the drawing works. Send me ONE email at info at businessesGROW.com. Include the ONE prize you want to try to win in the subject line and your physical mailing address in the body of the email. At the end of February, I will have an independent CPA randomly select from the submissions and award the prizes to the winners. There will be a lot of submissions so I can’t let everybody know if you lose, but I will let you know March 01, 2012 if you win.
The train is leaving the station again. Next stop … 2,000 posts!
Five unexpected benefits of blogging
Sep 4th
I generally focus on the business benefits of social media but a recent conversation with my friend (and uber blogger) Jeff Bullas revealed that we had both received benefits from blogging that reached beyond mere dollars and cents. For both of us, blogging had changed our lives in some unexpected ways.
To provide some balance to the discussion, I thought I would feature some of the benefits that we don’t often talk about on our blog posts:
Blogging heals
… and by this I mean literally physically and psychologically heals. I discovered that both Jeff and I had started to blog at the same time following tragedies in our lives. During this difficult time, blogging allowed me to connect with people in ways that lifted me out of the darkness. And I found that the act of blogging lowered my blood pressure during a very stressful period. Writing every day was an important part of healing both my mind and body.
Blogging connects
Jon Buscall, a very tall bloke, and I in Stockholm.
I am not the kind of person who has dozens of friends. I have few close friends that I have held onto through the years. Yet so many people on the blog have have become legitimate, close friends in such a short period of time. And not just “Facebook friends” but “come over for dinner friends.” When I visited Sweden, Jon Buscall was there to greet me and show me around his lovely city of Stockholm. When I landed in Estonia, Kimmo Linkama took the day off to show me around this beautiful country. And when I visit Ireland this month, Ian Cleary will be organizing a celebratory Tweet-up with my new friends in Dublin. How would this have ever happened without blogging?
Blogging defines
Where do you stand on issues in the industry? Is Facebook on the decline or on the rise? What is the best way to measure the success of social media programs? What does Google + need to do to break-out? How do you integrate social media with traditional media? How do small businesses find the time to create meaningful content for the web?
Blogging helps you think through these topics and help clarify your — and your business’s positions — on vital industry topics. Blogging gets my mind organized.
Blogging teaches
And by this I mean, it teaches ME. Here’s a secret. I rarely have the answers. But I do have some good questions! Many of my blog posts are incomplete. I may be thinking about an idea or a theory that I’m not sure about. So I’ll throw something out there and let the community hash it out. I learn something from the community every day and I’ve incorporated these learnings into my classroom teaching, future blog posts, and even my books.
Blogging Inspires
{grow} regular Billy Delaney speaking at Social Slam 2012
Two years ago, we had our first Social Slam conference in Knoxville, TN. It was basically a gathering of the {grow} community and hundreds of the people who have come to know each other through the blog made the pilgrimage. They came from every corner of the country and overcame many difficulties to get here. They wanted to meet each other, these new connections and friends. I’ve had a great career but this was a real highlight. In inspires me to see a blog as a force that brings people together in a small but meaningful way.
I know this isn’t the kind of blog post you can take to your boss and say, “see, we should do this too!” But I did want to show that from a personal side, there are other benefits that you might not read about in the business blogging books.
What about you? What do you get out of your personal blogging?
Establishing a global social media foothold (video)
Jun 16th
If you can’t see the video above, please click here: Mark Schaefer interviews Dr. Jon Buscall.
What if you had the opportunity to establish yourself as a pioneering voice of authority in a region of the world that is relatively new to the idea of social media marketing? How would you start?
During my recent trip to Scandinavia, I got to sit down with Dr. Jon Buscall, who is familiar to many of you here on {grow}. Jon is one of the most active marketing bloggers in Northern Europe and is probably the only one who is on his way to establishing a global voice from that region.
In this interview, Jon talks about:
- Establishing a blogging foothold and establishing his personal brand
- The choice to blog in English versus his local language
- Building a global audience
- How companies in Europe are beginning to use social media
I’m sure you’ll enjoy this conversation with one of our community favorites!
Case study: How 20 high school students ignited a social media success
Jun 7th
Now here is a neat trick. Precisely as your read this exciting guest post from the brilliant Jon Buscall, I will be meeting him for the first time in Stockholm, Sweden. Jon has become one of my oldest and dearest Twitter friends so the timing of this post is only fitting. Enjoy! ~ Mark
This is a story to inspire even the grumpiest social media naysayer.
If a group of 20 senior high school students can get their heads around social media marketing in the space of a couple of weeks, contribute to a marketing strategy, and help slash an annual marketing budget by over 70 percent whilst delivering improved results, just think what you could do if you let your people loose to explore their own creativity!
The Backstory
Back in 2009 my company started running the marketing campaign for a local Stockholm high school. The school’s income is based solely on the $16,000 it receives per annum per student, paid by the local municipality. Faced with declining numbers of kids born sixteen years ago, the market was becoming increasingly competitive with schools vying for students. Marketing costs were escalating as ad agencies sensed there was money to be made but the school wanted to invest more in facilities for existing students rather than lining marketers’ pockets.
After I met with the school management team and grasped their unique selling point of an academic education in English, I set about persuading the school to launch a daily blog, a Facebook Page and to get on Twitter ASAP.
For that academic year I personally handled the account, ghost blogging and tweeting on a daily basis. My favorite anecdote from that year has to be the student I connected with on Twitter who ended up joining the school. Not bad, eh? $16,000 for a single tweet!
Well, obviously it was more than a tweet, but you get the point! The student visited the school and talked to students and staff after we connected online. But the point is a tweet alerted her to the possibilities found at the school.
Within a year applications to the school were up, marketing costs were down considerably and everything, as the saying goes, was pretty much peachy creamy.
The competition responds
By the start of the next academic year every school in Stockholm seemed to have a blog, a Facebook Page, a Twitter account and a lavish video made by a local ad agency. All the schools — and their ad agencies were following our lead and jumping on the bandwagon. It represented a new revenue stream for the agencies of course. Two months later I would see one school giving away badges with the familiar Facebook “Like” icon on at the annual Stockholm schools recruitment fair.
With the market increasingly competitive and the school looking to invest in books and the building rather than even more marketing, we looked at different solutions. In the end, having spent a decade as a full-time university lecturer I decided to accept the school’s offer to run a Communications class this academic year with the brief to get students involved in the social media campaign. Essentially, they were to be my team of marketing interns.
… and the students take over!
I jumped at the chance to experience what 18-19 year olds were up to, but I quickly discovered they didn’t have a clue about brand personas, integrated marketing campaigns, business blogs or the power of Facebook as a marketing tool. So we started out listening to an array of internet marketing podcasts, reading business blogs and immersing ourselves in content marketing and social media strategy.
Sure, the students’ first blog posts and ventures into podcasting weren’t spectacular but very quickly they were producing material that could be published and included in the school’s online presence. Seizing on this I set up a project where they were required to produce material ahead of the first of three annual Open Houses that are the school’s key recruitment events.
Equipped with cameras, digital recorders and a sense of enthusiasm that I personally find hard to muster when it comes to trying to get people to talk on camera, off they went.
The results were spectacular:
- The video at the top of the article was viewed more than 7,000 times — 5,000 times the week right before Open House!
- Another garnered over 3,000 viewers.
The students promoted their efforts across their social media profiles and I chipped in with a bit of blogging on the school website.
We watched and waited with baited breath to see our results.
It’s All About Creativity & the Network
A rough poll taken in the class showed that on average each student had 450 Facebook “friends”. No wonder word of mouth spread quickly. Teens aren’t just connected to teens their age. Brothers and sisters, relatives and so on, follow each other’s Walls.
And we seeing BIG results. On an extremely cold January evening just after Christmas over 700 prospective students came along to Open House to find out about the school. This was double the figure for the same event the previous year. The school auditorium was so full the principal had to give her introductory welcome speech a second time.
Having grasped the value of showing and not just telling, the students recorded this event to show prospective students ahead of the April Open House just what it’s like to visit the school.
Applications to the school doubled this year and the grade-point average for applicants is considerably higher than last year. Sure, some of this has to do with the commitment of the staff and school management, as well as the efforts of my company to help them along; however, 20 communications students are responsible for a massive portion of this success.
I’m in awe of what they’ve helped the school achieve.
A Few Observations by the Old Guy
I understand how marketing works and I think I have a pretty good understanding of social media. Sharing these skills seemed to set off a spark in these teens and they jumped onboard the social media train with enthusiam rarely seen in a company environment where people are PAID to be enthusiastic!
With passion and dedication they created content that didn’t just impress me, it made me sit up and really take notice. It also struck a chord with their peers, who to judge by the numbers preferred the school’s low-fi 2 minute videos to the glossy 5 minute clips other schools had invested in.
To the students’ credit, the results of this “experiment” were so much better than I dared imagine that the principal has asked me to come back and run the same course with another group in the fall.
Thinking about it now I can see that the experience has taught me an important lesson that all of us working in business should remember: if you can inspire your employees to become an active part of your social media marketing campaign you can reach new goals.
These kids were extremely busy just like your employees, juggling lots of tasks throughout the year. However with a bit of planning (thanks Basecamp!) and training they were able to create content and execute the strategy we’d discussed.
Transfer that kind of approach to your software company, your airline, your food store, your agency or corporation and you can see the possibilities. Just as my students proudly shared their efforts with their network, so will your people help your business reach new people.
Getting the social media content creation out of the hands of your professional marketers and into the hands of the people actually doing the job in your business will have far reaching benefits.
These students were not just involved. They were IGNITED. What are the implications for your own business?
Jon Buscall <http://www.twitter.com/jonbuscall> runs Stockholm-based digital communications agency Jontus Media. He blogs at www.jontusmedia.com/blog Oh, and he has five <http://www.bassethounds.nu>basset hounds!
Welcome to {grow}
You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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