A lot of people have been talking about social media for quite a while now. You keep hearing about Twitter and LinkedIn. You may have your own Facebook account, and even browsed through Pinterest. You can see how some of it would be interesting. But still, is there anything in all of that stuff for your company? Can social media do anything for you and your customers? [Read more...]
What’s Love got to do with Blogging?
February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Are you in love? In a serious, long-term relationship? Tough, ain’t it!
You’re either nodding your heart in agreement or completely offended by that comment. Of course it’s not tough when it’s going well. Nothing on Earth could possibly be sweeter than being in love and being loved in return.
But hey, the truth is in any long-term relationship there will come a few days, sooner or later, when it’s not quite as sweet as you’d like it to be. Those are the days when your relationship can see its finest moments. You dig deep to find all that’s good and true in yourself, and to help bring it out in your partner. [Read more...]
Writing lesson for bloggers: two great Super Bowl stories.
February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In the locker rooms and stadium hallways after yesterday’s Super Bowl, some stirring stories were being told. The triumphant New York Giants were exultant after another heart-stopping comeback. It was elation beyond words.
In the locker room of the New England Patriots, the air was so thick with defeat that words could scarcely be pushed out. If you had watched the season, and especially if you had followed the teams since their last Super Bowl contest, you knew this had been a legendary match. One of the great Super Bowl games had just been played, and what happened on the field would be the stuff of chats and posts and tweets for a long time to come.
However, for those who didn’t watch the Game, or who had no interest at all in the NFL, the whole thing seemed like silliness. A waste of time. Some decried it as a barbaric match between overpaid men who should find something better to do. Just as the two teams had battled inside the stadium, in the arena of public opinion two sides would go on sparring long after the final whistle had blown and last bit of colored paper cleared away.
It’s not unlike the debate that many of us see each day in our work or our other pursuits. We have passions that run deep, and are puzzled or even horrified by those who see things another way, or who don’t see your cause as one even worth considering. If it’s your mission as a blogger or marketer to win over others to your point of view, you know that trying to change even one person’s opinion can sometimes seem hopeless. A heart is never an easy thing to sway. [Read more...]
Getting started on Twitter: Your very, very first steps.
February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
You’ve been hearing about Twitter for a long time now, and you’re thinking it’s finally time to make the leap. Maybe someone has suggested you should be there for business. Maybe you want to become good buddies with Ashton Kutcher. Or maybe you’re just curious. But it all seems like a bit too much to take on by yourself. You hardly even know what Twitter is, let alone how to sign up for it. If that sounds like you, you’re in the right spot. By the end of this post, you’ll not only know the basics, you’ll have your very own working Twitter account. [Read more...]
Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers. Who’s yours?
January 31, 2012 By 2 Comments
Forbes Magazine unveiled its list of The Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers just a few days ago. I find these lists worth reading for a few reasons. First and most obviously, it’s interesting to see how the industry changes from one year to the next. What new faces are there? Who is rising? Who is sliding down or has dropped off entirely? Kind of like the nerd’s version of the red carpet at the Oscars.
Fair enough. But to me, a list of the social media powerful is very different from such lists for any other industry or activity. Social media has been one of history’s greatest levelers, spreading power to the masses in a way that is completely unprecedented. Traditionally, the media and decision-makers were small groups of powerful people, and the rest of us had to do whatever we could to get noticed or be heard. We’d write releases. Perform crazy publicity stunts. Hire a PR consultant or publicist. Do our best to find or build personal connections or generate groundswell of support for our talents or our causes. It wasn’t easy.
Social media changed everything. [Read more...]
Should Leonard Cohen write your next blog post?
January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Hallelujah! Imagine if one of the most gifted poets and songwriters of our time were to drop by to help you craft a few words. Together you’d wring emotions out of a weary soul, warm up some long-forgotten heartsong, and write a post poetic and inspiring beyond anything you ever knew you had hidden inside.
Yeah. He’s not coming. Or if he is, he didn’t tell me. But don’t despair. Leonard has a message for you that should help you plumb those darkest depths of your unfulfilled talents. [Read more...]
Media training can help make your company a good news story.
January 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Every now and then I’ve had a company or organization call me, asking how to get the media off their backs. I could hear the frustration in their voices. “The media is twisting the facts,” they’d say, “And we need to know how to make things better. A lot better. Now!”
Every time — yes, every single time — I have then met with those companies, we were able to identify within just a few minutes of chatting a number of events that led to such an unhappy situation. Invariably, the sequence went something like this:
- A group or individual had made a statement or gotten a story in the media that presented their side of a disagreement or issue.
- The media had then called the company to ask for clarification or to get an interview.
- The company did not have time to talk, or were caught off-guard and didn’t have time to prepare a reply, or were so offended by the story that their reply was to launch into a tirade and then hang up, or give a terse “No comment.”
- The story ran in the media, presenting the other party’s claims and giving no fair coverage of the company’s side of the story.
- Other media picked up the story, calling for interviews or comments. The company, by now absolutely furious at what they saw as misrepresentation or biased coverage, refused to return the calls or offer any comments.
- The publicity got worse, until someone on the team finally suggested calling a PR firm or media relations consultant to clear things up.
- My phone rang, or I found an urgent email in my Inbox.
Now, any of us can look at that sequence and say, “Of course they didn’t get the coverage they deserved! They didn’t give the the media their side of the story.” Even the execs themselves recognize that when they look at it in retrospect. But [Read more...]
Is creativity getting old? Or are you?
January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I read an interview with Steven Spielberg years ago that asked the reason for his incredible success. His reply was surprisingly simple: he had never lost his sense of childlike wonder. He could still be excited by a haunted house or thrilled by the idea of a dinosaur.
If hanging on to our childhood is the secret to creativity, how do you rate?
When we were young we often expected more of ourselves and demanded more of others. We had a vision of what we wanted to be, and to meet it we set our own standards of acceptable conduct. No fries except on Saturday; no wearing out-of-style clothes even when you’re just hanging out with friends. But then everyone aged and along the way, some things changed. We became more mature and realized that beauty was “not as important” as it once seemed. Our ideals were no longer seen to be practical, and high standards no longer realistic. As Dan Hill used to sing, “Freedom takes on new meaning when you’ve got a family of five.”
But in reality, did the ideals become less practical, or did we just become less idealistic? Did we become wiser or did we become lazy? [Read more...]
Avoiding Facebook’s new timeline? Your time’s almost up!
January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
If you’re on Facebook — hmmm, does that leave anyone out? — you’re already familiar with the new “timeline” feature. Love it or hate it? Using it already, or avoiding it like the plague? No matter what you think of it, your option of whether or not to use it will soon be history.
Facebook announced today that the timeline will soon be mandatory on everyone’s profile. Yep, even yours. As they put it…
Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story. Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you’ll have 7 days to preview what’s there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.
Five ways to market with blogging and social media.
January 20, 2012 By 2 Comments
Sales are built on trust and relationships. If we believe something does what we want and the price is right, we’ll buy it. On the other hand, if we don’t think the ingredients are safe or we just don’t believe it’s going to work, we won’t buy. And if we don’t like or trust the person selling it or representing it in a commercial, we almost certainly won’t buy. Trust is big.
To address this reality, companies often rely on trusted celebrities or word of mouth to increase sales. If we hear someone we trust say they like a product, we transfer our trust from that person to the product. A big company might be lying just to increase sales. But would Mom? The guy next door who knows cars inside out? Beyonce? No way they’d lie. We believe them, and we therefore believe in the products they recommend.
That’s where blogging and social media can come into play.
