Posts tagged self-marketing


Ten ideas for the beginning blogger

Jan 10th

41 comments

If you look around the web, there is so much advice about blogging it’s not funny. Still, I’ve learned a few lessons that might help if you’re a beginner blogger and I thought I would give you the inside scoop.

1) The biggest obstacle to blogging is … not what you think. It’s not writing skill or time or ideas. It’s confidence. People are generally shy about sharing their voice.  If you can tell your kids a story, give nurturing advice to a friend or tell a joke, you can blog.  Just Do It.

2) It takes time to find your voice.  Be patient. The more you write, the more comfortable you will feel. Feedback from the blogosphere will trickle in and help massage your style, tone and topics.  Stay with it and you will improve.  Have faith.

3) “I don’t have time” is not an acceptable excuse any more.   The only people who complain that blogging takes too much time never made it a priority.  Chances are you and your business will benefit from blogging or you wouldn’t be reading this post, right?  If you need to blog for your business, it has to be part of your job now, so approach it that way.  Shoot for one decent post a week. That’s doable, right?

4) In the long run, blogging can SAVE you time!  My posts have become a personal reference library.  I’ll bet not one day passes by when I don’t send somebody a link to an old post as a response to a question or to help them in some way.  This has been an unexpected benefit of blogging.

5) Be brief.  Respect your readers. Respect their time. Spend the extra time it takes to write with brevity.  Cut words ruthlessly. Best practice: Seth Godin.

6) Don’t write an academic thesis.  It’s much more interesting to read blogs that are written in a conversational tone.  Talk with your friends.

7) Write about what interests you.  Your audience will find you.

8) Read more than you write. Much more.  If you’re not an active reader of blogs, get on the stick. To be a successful writer, you have to be a great listener and learner.

9) If you want people to support your blog, support them, too.   I just think it is an act of respect to support blogs written by your readers by commenting, tweeting and highlighting their great work.   If you’re part of my community and you have a blog I will do whatever I can to help you. We’re all in this together.

10) If you run out of ideas, go to a LinkedIn forum for your industry.  Find an interesting question.  Answer it.  That’s your blog post. Works every time. If you’re really stuck, go to Guy Kawaski’s blog.  Put it on your record turntable. Play it backwards.  That’s where the secret messages are hidden.

Let’s hear your comments, now.  What advice would you pass on?  Who is setting the standard out there for best blogging practices, and why?

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Five social media myths that MUST STOP NOW!

Oct 28th

43 comments

Sometimes I read the “rules” being written about social media marketing and think, “God bless this person for trying, but he must have never had a real job in his life.” And then these opinions get repeated and re-tweeted until these mindless jingles become part of the social media mantra. It’s time to bust the myth-makers, folks. Here are five beloved social media “rules” you should throw in the trash:
Myth number one: “To be effective in social media, you must give up control of the conversation.”
Why do you assume you ever HAD control of the consumer conversation? You didn’t, you don’t, and you won’t! So, in reality, nothing has changed. You don’t control consumers. On a good day, we only hope we can influence them.What DO marketers control? The message. Nothing has changed there either. The equity of a brand is usually a company’s most valuable asset. A core brand image must be tightly controlled, constantly nurtured, and tenaciously defended, no matter what communication channel you’re using.What HAS changed is that we can now more effectively listen to how people are responding to that marketing message and react to that response with speed and compassion.
Myth number two: “It’s all about the engagement.”

Another equally ridiculous variation is “It’s all about the conversation.” No, it’s not. It’s all about the MONEY.

Why are major brands pouring millions into social media marketing? Just to see how many followers they can get? Because they’re “nice people” who want to “engage?” PUH-LEEEZE. They are trying to make a return for their shareholders. And if they’re not, they should be fired.

Stop fooling yourself. If social media marketing does not contribute to brand equity and/or shareholder value, the dollars, the effort, and the “engagement” will stop. Marketers have been engaging with their customers since the dawn of advertising because it helps feed our families. Please, let’s be honest. We’re all just trying to make a buck. And that’s OK.

Myth number three: “Never sell.”

The reality is, everyone sells, all the time. Behind every business tweet is a person using social media to craft a personal brand image of friendliness, helpfulness, authenticity and intelligence so you will trust them and eventually buy from them. What’s wrong with that? As long as you don’t BLATANTLY SELL, I’m cool.

Myth number four: “Emphasize quality over quantity.”

Wrong. You must have both. You’re not going to earn much of a following if you only blog once a year … even if it’s a really, really good one! Look, this is not like buying a Mercedes Benz that you can drive around for years. In social media, the cars are free so drive like a wild man and if you crack one up, hop on another one and do it again. Quality counts but size matters, too.

Myth number five: “Social media is all about authenticity”

Social media is about being polite and likable. Nobody really wants you to be authentic and hear how bitchy you feel today because your husband snored all night.

Recently a bunch of Chris Brogan’s readers got on him because they thought he was too mean. Hell I loved it when the uber-blogger had a fit now and then. THAT’S authentic! But instead Chris announced he will try to be nicer … that’s what matters around these parts.

I think the goal of most people immersed in social media is the opposite of authenticity. Their goal is “try not to suck.” Everyone is doing their best to channel their inner Oprah. It’s a popularity contest, pure and simple. Call it what it is, folks.

So there you have it. Are you with me on this? Let me know what you think.

And no need to be polite. : )

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Social media helps level the playing field for new college grads

Aug 21st

3 comments

Meet Rebecca Denison. She’s one of the brightest young social networkers I’ve met on Twitter. Social media has made a huge impact on her recent professional transition from college and, so to provide a non-old view of the world, I asked her to write about her experiences for {grow} readers. Keep an eye on her … a rising star!
On May 10, 2009, I sat among 3,000 of my closest friends in Kenan Stadium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With the economy falling down around me, I was graduating from college. It was time to leave the friendly confines of my university home and grow up.

My personal journey to the professional world is still a work in progress, but one thing that has had the most profound impact on me has been my transition to “professional social media.”

In college, Facebook and Twitter were fabulous tools for keeping up with friends and family, romances, life changes, and weekend plans. But one month after graduating, I started a new Twitter profile. It’s my “professional” Twitter account. Because my passion and career goals lie with PR measurement, I immediately began to follow the leaders that I knew. Not the leaders I knew of, but only the ones I knew personally. New profile, same mind-set — I was still on the friends and family plan!

Soon enough I realized that in this new wide professional Twitter world, you don’t have to know everyone you follow! My goals and mind-set shifted. I began to search for anyone who seemed to be adding value to the discussion about PR measurement or social media in general.

Before I knew it, I was Tweeting with the best of ‘em! I was reading the same articles and blogs, and I was expressing my opinion just like the pros. More than that, though, I began to engage with the pros. And even after a couple months, the giddiness from getting a reply from one of the best hasn’t faded.

“Professional social media” still provides a centralized meeting space, but these spaces are not based upon common relationships in the same way. Each space is defined by professional interests and information. Twitter is still used to set up fun outings (i.e. a Twarbeque), but social media used in a professional context is far more focused on value.

It’s not about me and my friends. It’s about what I can bring to the table, how I can contribute to the conversation and what I can learn.

Lessons learned from college social media use can still be applied in grown-up virtual liaisons. There is always such a thing as too much information. My friends don’t need to know everything I’ve had to eat today, and my professional followers don’t need to know everything I’m doing at work.

Another college lesson applicable to the professional world is that it’s essential to engage, to give back more than you get. No one would ever respond to “that guy” who always promoted his fraternity’s events and nothing else, and no one will respond to you if all you care about is self-promotion.

As I’ve transitioned to my professional Twitter account, I have gained a very different kind of value from social media. I have earned interviews and invitations to professional events. Most importantly, though, I have learned that there are people out there that are willing to help me so long as I’m adding value, too.

A successful transition from college to the professional world is never handed to you, but learning and networking through social media has made it a lot easier!

Rebecca is looking for a job in her field of interest, public relations measurement. Her professional experience includes working for Katie Paine and setting up a Corporate Reputation Observatory studying North Carolina companies. You can reach her through Twitter: @rebeccadenison.
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Can you out-source authenticity?

Aug 20th

41 comments

One thing is clear: To be successful on the social web, you need meaningful content … and LOTS of it! Some debate whether you need quality or quantity, but fact is, you need both. Five excellent blog posts in a month is better than one excellent blog post … and 10 is even better than five! And every company and non-profit is jumping on board.
So where is all this quality content going to come from?
I’ve been approached about creating “ghosted” content for executives who realize the value of a blog (or tweet) but don’t have the time to do it. Ghost writing is a common corporate practice but with the emphasis on authenticity on the social web, this becomes a trickier proposition. In the context of social media, ghost writing is not just about authoring a speech or the annual shareholder letter — it’s becoming a personality.
I need your input on this! What is your opinion about creating content under the signature of another person?
  • Many executive and corporate blogs/tweets today already come from a team of people behind the scenes. Does that bother you? Make it any less effective?
  • If you were regularly reading a blog that you thought was being written by a business leader you admired and then discovered they only “approve” the articles, would it hurt the credibility of the individual or company?
  • If I accept ghost-writing assignments, what guidelines should be in place?

If this debate is not relevant to you right now, it will be in the near future as the demand for content explodes. This is the way the world is moving! What do you thnk? Please leave your thoughts and comments on this blog post. Can you out-source authenticity?

Note: After I orginally posted this topic, these articles came to my attention which might help you explore this topic further:

The ethics, of lack thereof, of ghost blogging by Jason Falls

Would you trust a company that ghost blogs? by Danny Brown

A defense of ghost blogging by Bill Sledzik

Why is this different from ghost-writing a book? by Wintress Odom

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