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MAP: Charting a Journey in Social Media

By on February 20, 2012 in Blog Coach, Social Media with 0 Comments

Using a MAP on your Social Media JourneyTwo instruments we use in navigating uncharted travels are a compass and a map. We can do likewise with social media, too. Our compass can be our strategy, our purpose (a good compass lasts a long time).

Our Map? What’s our next step. Sometimes we get wandering while wondering what to do next. The acronym MAP might quicken your pace in the right direction.

M.A.P. = Meaning. Announcements. Personalization.

Make Meaning (70% of the time): While you should use other tools of social to “make meaning” for your information consumption (infosumption), when publishing or sharing content, look for ways to “make meaning” for your reader. We both know in our heart of hearts that your business can help them, but more times than not – share things with them that will improve their life/work/bottom line. Things that aren’t about your business – but their lives.

Make Announcements (20% of the time): By sharing and writing most often about stuff that helps your readers,  you quietly earn the right to promote your work, your sale, your event. Be a resource twice as often as being a bullhorn – but don’t neglect the bullhorn either.

Make Personalization (10% of the time): This is the “chit-chat, hey how’s your cat?” type of chatter that personalizes social media.  Remember that this process of MAP is a guideline. There will be some days you chit-chat more, and some less. But as a business, 10% is a gauge for personalizing your professional platform.

This is a variation on the 70-20-10 guideline we practice on Twitter, and it works across the landscape of social media. So get your compass (your purpose) and your MAP (your plan) and enjoy your journey.

Watch Your Day: Create Your Own Stock Images

By on February 14, 2012 in Blog Coach, Cool Tools, Marketing with 2 Comments

Create Your Own Stock ImagesHow many of you have a camera on your phone, raise your hand …

Whether you have a smart phone or not, the opportunities for taking your own stock images are plentiful. Additionally, improvements and growth of mobile apps such as Photoshop Express and Instagram make capturing, editing, and sorting images a breeze.

I’ve seen a lot of folks invest 20 minutes writing a blog post, then spend another 20 minutes looking for the right image. Better to take a few minutes here and there to be prepared.

Create some stock images of your own. Have a library ready to help tell your story. Just as you should Listen to Your Day in writing your blog, Watch Your Day for capturing great storytelling images.

 

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Why There is Always Room for One More Good One

By on February 7, 2012 in Blog Coach with 2 Comments

Always Room for One More Good OneFans are Fanatics.

Searchers Find.

Shoppers Discover.

Trekkies Trek

Ask the sports fans … the crafting hobbyist … the thrift store shopper. Watch the Trekkies.

Is there just one place, one site, one convention?

Or is it all of them?

There’s always room for one more good one.

That baseball fan getting ready for her fantasy league draft? She’s not looking at just one site or one magazine. She’s got them all. That quilters in your life? They don’t just go to one store, they know them all.

Before you doubt yourself or change what you’re good at because someone else is already doing that …

There’s always room for one more good one.

Next time you go to the book store, check out your favorite section. Not only are there many titles to choose from, there are more coming.

Be you. Be the best you that you can be. And remember …

There’s always room for one more good one.

photo credit: wvs via photopin cc

Slide Sunday: Blog Posts are Part of Your Inventory

By on February 5, 2012 in Blog Coach, Quotes n Notes with 0 Comments

Blog Posts are Part of Your Inventory

“If we must claim an ROI for social media, it will be found in the very fuzzy edges of the inventory we place with care and craft on our social media shelves”

- Gerard McLean in Stocking Your Social Media Shelves

Blogging Like Jerome Bettis Drives

By on February 4, 2012 in Blog Coach with 0 Comments

Blogging Like Bettis Runs - Keep DrivingThe greatest running backs in the NFL seem to have one element in common. It’s a practice rarely seen on highlight reels or still shots.

It’s not so much the fancy stuff. Not the stiff arm, the high-leg, or the spin. The one trait all the greats share is one that does NOT stand out. But it’s the one that kept moving them forward.

Even when they hit a brick wall of defense, the greatest running backs keep pumping their legs.

Short steps. Rapid pace. One after the other.

They keep their legs moving.

Jerome Bettis was one of the best at this, especially near the goal line. Legs always moving. His strides weren’t long, his legs kept moving. Even when it seemed he wasn’t going forward anymore, his legs kept moving. When he was tackled, he’d get back up and … his legs kept moving …

When it comes to your blog, bring your fingers to the keyboard like Jerome Bettis near the goal line. Your fingers keep moving.

When it seems no one is reading your blog – your fingers keep moving. When it seems you don’t have anything to write about – your fingers keep moving. If you make a mistake or someone disagrees with you – get back up and make sure your fingers keep moving.

Can you drive this thing?

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Why You Should Blog About Your Business [Guest Post]

By on February 3, 2012 in Blog Coach with 3 Comments

Written by Joe Pawlikowski

Blog About Your BusinessSometimes simple phrasing can make a huge difference. A while back Mike asked the question, should every business blog, and concluded that no, it’s just not for all businesses. That’s a fair enough answer. But allow me to add an amendment.

Everyone should blog about his or her business.

This doesn’t necessarily mean blogging for your business. But anyone, excepting people with strict non-disclosure agreements, can blog about a business. It can provide plenty of benefits.

Blogging to learn

All fledgling bloggers stand to learn plenty from the experience. Here’s what anyone stands to learn in the first few months of blogging:

  • How to research. Specifically, this refers to reading about the industry.
  • How to structure thoughts. So many people lack argument skills. Blogging builds them.
  • How to write in English. Another skill that many inexplicably lack.
  • How to use the Web. This could be the most valuable skill in the world right now.

Blogging to connect

Blogging naturally connects us to others. Whether it’s from people leaving comments or other bloggers stopping by, there are plenty of opportunities to build relationships. And you know what they say…

It’s not what you so much as who you know.

When I first started blogging, someone advised me that you never know who’s reading. Many bloggers get invited to conferences and other events, which we’ll cover in just a tick.

Blogging to advance

Once you’ve gotten into the blogging groove, you could become influential in your field. Employers like that. So do conference organizers. A well-written blog can earn you a speaking gig. Grab a cheap flight and you’re ready to spread your influence further.

How about your boss? Think he or she might like knowing that the company employs a knowledgeable resource on an industry? Do good work, and people will notice.

No, not every business is equipped to blog. But every individual is. No matter what your industry, as long as your company doesn’t expressly forbid it you should be blogging. It can amount to writing your own career ticket.

Joe Pawlikowski edits blogs of various stripes, including his new work from home blog.

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Giving Yourself Permission to Not Listen

By on January 30, 2012 in Blog Coach, Conversations, Social Media with 3 Comments

Give Yourself Permission to Not ListenA lot of my business conversations are convened around a coffee table at my neighborhood Panera. I’ve always said, that when I’m in public – I’m accessible, otherwise I’d meet in private.

On any given day, I know at least one person at several tables. As folks I know (or simply acquainted with) walk in Panera, I give them a wave or nod – often waving them over for a quick introduction. They go about their conversation, I go about mine. Maybe we’ll gather again in a few minutes.

I don’t hear everything they say. I don’t want to. If I heard every sentence from every table that sits someone I know …

I’m confident if they say something really good, they’ll repeat it to me (or I’ll hear it from someone else).

I have a list of folks I follow as much as possible (and you can too, here’s a starter list), but there is no way I can catch every thing they say. I’d never get to Panera – or to bed.  And if they something really good, someone will retweet it.

Give Yourself Permission to Not Listen (to every word)

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Display Merchandising: Your RSS Feed

By on January 27, 2012 in Blog Coach, Marketing with 0 Comments

Do you subscribe to your own RSS feed?  You should.

Sometimes, if you could see what I can see (and what your readers-prospects-customers see). A successful retailer and the restauranteur are always looking over their displays and presentation – and so should you.

When I click on your RSS button – if it goes anywhere – I sometimes get sent to a page that looks like this:

RSS-code view

 

Feedburner gives you analytics AND a stylized, browser-friendly result when readers click on your subscribe button.

RSS View with Feedburner

Now that you’ve subscribed to your own RSS feed, you can do even more “display merchandising” from your Google Reader (or however your read your feeds).

Is there a title? A byline with your name? Are the feed items formatted like your blog posts (I use the WP Plugin Align RSS Images)? Are you using Eye Rests?

Next time someone clicks on the orange button, don’t scare them. Display your RSS so its a friendly RSS.

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Seasons of Talk

By on January 25, 2012 in Blog Coach with 2 Comments

How do you measure the conversations in a day?

Small talk at the grocery store? Debates at meetings? Brainstorming during lunch? Arguments in your own head?

How about the conversations where you listen more than talk? Or the ones you have on Twitter? Those where there is no talking going on at all?

I’ve never counted the number of conversations I have in a day. You? Yet we struggle at writing a blog or posting a thing on that social network.

If you listen to your day, you’ll never run out of things to write about.  Nobody suffers from Talker’s Block.

Start with one keystroke … and keep going …

Begin with a Single Keystroke

You’ll find things measure up just fine after awhile.

 

Ignoring the Social Media Echo Chamber Chamber

By on January 20, 2012 in Blog Coach, Conversations, Social Media with 5 Comments

Close Your Ears to the Social Media Echo ChamberYou may occasionally read about the “social media echo chamber” – maybe you even write about it.

Me? I don’t think it exists. Not really.

And you shouldn’t let it exist – because if you do, it’s all in your head. Yep, I think you’re imagining things.

Granted, there are a lot of folks that talk about social media, and as a small business owner using social media – social media is part of the conversations in your day. But it’s not your core business.

Let’s say you’re a furniture store owner, you should be more concerned about the custom wood vs particle board debates. The Google-Facebook thing? Pass. You should be engaging with folks talking about the process of  re-upholstery more than those on the practice of re-tweeting.

If you follow or connect with a lot of people talking about social, you’ll hear a lot of talk about social (even if they aren’t talking to you). If you follow a lot of people talking about food … guess what … they talk a lot about food (even if they aren’t talking with you).

SMI-SMO? Social Media In – Social Media Out. Listen to something else. If all you’re doing is following conversations about social media (social media in), you’re probably going to talk a lot about it too (social media out). And then two things might happen:

  1. You get a headache
  2. You alienate your intended audience

I’m not saying social media conversations are bad (well, some of them are), but too much of any one thing could become a burden. And when we burden ourselves, we usually point fingers elsewhere.

There is a whole lot of conversation happening around your core business. Engage in social media chatter now and again, fine. More important, find and immerse yourself in the talk around your business.

(Did I just tell myself to shutup in this post? If I did, I didn’t hear it)

Photo on Flickr by massdestraction

 

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