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Does Your Company? (includes Self-Assessment Quiz)

By on March 19, 2012 in Blog Coach, Marketing, Social Media with 1 Comment

As spring begins, so do my travels through small towns and small business districts connecting with business owners about their web presence and use of Social Media.

While I used to offer a “shingle” for those that had no web presence, I’m finding more engaging conversation with a few simple questions:

  • Does your company have its own website?
  • Do you use social media as part of a marketing plan or strategy?
  • How are you measuring success on the web?
  • Are you a member of your local chamber?

Along with a card and call sheet, I also share access to the “Does Your Company …?” e-paper (which includes a Self-Assessment quiz)

Does Your Company … ?

 

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MAP: Charting a Journey in Social Media

By on February 20, 2012 in Blog Coach, Social Media with 2 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.

Nominate Your Local Business for a Dialing 8 Membership

By on February 14, 2012 in Dialing 8, Social Media with 0 Comments

Small Business DrawingTo show our appreciation of small business owners and solopreneurs, Dialing 8 is giving away three annual (full access) memberships to The Dialing 8 Project.

You can nominate yourself, your local small business or independent, or even a friend or family member just starting out. Just have them (or you) fill out the form below.

Winners will be notified by email on Friday, February 17th.

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Tired of LOLcats, Animated GIFs, and Th*ngs People Say?

By on February 13, 2012 in Social Media with 1 Comment

These LOLcats are PracticingAre there times you grow a bit weary of the memes of Th*ings People Say, Funny Cat posters and looping mini-movies in your social streams?

Don’t Be. It’s a learning process. And we’re all in beta.

Some of these messages are probably not intended to entertain or inform you – but they don’t have to be a complete waste of time either.

As you see these items scroll by over and over again, recognize patterns of popularity and sharing and SCAMPER your findings into your own content.

In many ways, these creations of clatter can be an example. Allow these experiments of non-critical content to be a research project of what might be.

A tweak here, a substitution there – and maybe you’ll find a gem of your own.

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Why There is Always Room for One More Good One

By on February 7, 2012 in Blog Coach, Blogging, Social Media 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

My Facebook: Business Page Public and Personal Profile Private

By on February 6, 2012 in Marketing, Social Media with 20 Comments

This weekend, I turned my Facebook profile into a Business page.

Most of the connections I had on Facebook were from business contacts, most of what I shared was about business. I was most of the way to a business page already.

I had been thinking about making the move for awhile. When Tracy Sestili said Bye-Bye to Facebook, I started making my move by following her lead. (By the way, Tracy is a solid-state, straight-shooting social media strategist – one to follow).

Tracy’s steps and reasons are sound. While Facebook is a closed system in many ways, it remains a confusingly open system in other ways. From a privacy perspective, Facebook has pieces in place – but good luck for the average user to find and use them.

So, I decided to create a “stealth” personal page, following the first six steps Tracy outlines in her exiting post. On the last step, rather than delete the account, I transferred to a business page.

The only real difference in  converting my profile rather than cancelling creating a new business page is those who were either “friends” or subscribed, become “likes” on the business page. My messaging still is part of the stream (and since most of what I posted was business …).

For me, I still want a presence on Facebook for “Mike Sansone”, though the only parts I want public and searchable are business postings. My personal page is for a very small group of people (mostly family).

I know a lot of business owners who want the same. To keep business separate from personal. To be able to maintain focus and balance. Many are just not comfortable with “transparency” on Facebook at this time.

 

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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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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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Something New: Searching for Apples in Pasta, Finding …

By on January 19, 2012 in Marketing, Social Media with 1 Comment

Finding Apples in Pasta with Google PlusLast night, I tried something(s) new.

First something new : I wanted to make a pasta dish with apples, maybe raisins.

I don’t normally cook with a recipe in hand, though I have one in mind. Yet I wanted some ideas so I went to Google for ideas.

Google and the new “Search, Plus Your World” search immediately caught my attention. My eyes were drawn to the images of people I’m connected with. Writing, Talking, and Sharing about what I was searching for. People from my Foodie circle appeared with some ideas. 

Second something new: I turned off the normal search, adjusted my search query and used just my personal results. Some of the folks I circled had results on their blog, some on a G+ post, some they simply “plussed” and others were images. Good stuff.

For years we’ve talked how a word by an online connection is more important than almost any other recommendation. Search, Plus Your World helps do that. In addition, the oh-so important, but thus far, largely ignored by “experts”, Authorship markup is going to draw eyeballs and clicks.

Remember a widget called MyBlogLog? It started as a traffic-tracking tool but soon became THE widget when they added Faces. Faces draw clicks. Faces get found. Faces get remembered

Take of your “user” cap for a minute and think business. Whether you like Google Plus or not; whether you like Search, Plus Your World or not …  is secondary to what your customers / prospects / audience think.

Something next: Learn how to markup your site for authorship. Open a Google profile, learn to use G+ a bit, then do likewise for your business.

Will I find your pasta recipe? Or how to stage your house for a sale? Or how to write a business plan?  Will I find your face in my search, or your competitor?

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