Reach Beyond Your Network on West Virginia Day

Continuing on this creative tradition, Jason Keeling is leading WV bloggers and social media mavens on another exciting project aimed at helping to build a better West Virginia. What better occasion than the state's 147th birthday to harness the power of social networks to do something good for the Mountain State! We've all been invited to submit a request. I look forward to seeing what everyone needs and helping out in any way I can.

So here's my request: I need to get connected to Ivanka Trump or her publicist for an opportunity / idea related to my recently published book that I co-authored with Emily Bennington. I believe our book can really fit with and fill a need on "The Celebrity Apprentice."

West Virginia Day (June 20) provides an ideal time to celebrate the Mountain State’s many unique qualities, but it also offers us the opportunity to do something for the state’s betterment.

The online community is invited to join this year’s “a Better West Virginia Network” effort, intended to help connect organizations, businesses, and individuals according to their need(s).

For the most part, everyone has some need or challenge that can be solved through networking, and the Internet is an excellent medium for publicizing such needs and generating worthwhile connections.

Maybe your nonprofit needs more volunteers. Maybe your business needs new clients and/or employees. Perhaps you need a new job. Maybe you’re looking for someone with specialized knowledge to complete a project. Perhaps your community has a specific need.

In some cases, making local connection(s) could suffice, while other instances may require help from outside of the state. Think locally, nationally, or globally, whichever applies best to your circumstances.

Here’s how to participate within the “a Better West Virginia Network.”

First, identify and describe the need(s) of your organization, business,
community, or individual circumstance.

Second, publish this information on your blog or website, and forward the link to me via email: jason(at)keelingstrategic(dot)com.

Third, return to this blog on West Virginia Day, where a list of the various submissions will be posted.

Lastly, visitors will be encouraged to peruse the compiled list and help make any connections.

Hop on over to A Better WV for full details.

Don't Let Social Networking Damage Your Personal Brand

The following were actually posted by employees on social media sites from their workstations, during business hours:

“Staff meeting is over. Thanks for sucking the life out of me–again.” [Brandon]
Ummm, hello, Brandon. Are you really that unhappy? Are you aware that your message can be read as: Brandon is a reactive, whiny drama-king who lacks the gumption to leave a job that sucks?

“Just hanging out here on Facebook – waiting for them to give me something to work on.” [Allison]
Really, Allison? Did you leave your brain at home this morning? I’d suggest you will find it hidden underneath that sack of ambition, which you also forgot to bring to work today.

And this now-infamous example from NextWeb.com of a young woman who was fired by her Facebook-friend-boss:

OMG I HATE MY JOB!!! My boss is a total pervvy wanker always making me do $hit stuff just to pi$$ me off!! WANKER!!

Obviously, she forgot that she had Friend’d her boss. Do take a moment and click over to read the boss’ response, which is classic!

The stories of so-called professionals getting fired, suspended, or disciplined as a result of what they posted, Tweeted, updated, chatted, or shared on social media sites are becoming more frequent and more outrageous. An article last Fall on Mashable, citing stats from a Proofpoint study, indicate that roughly 1 out of every 8 companies (12%) have fired an employee for reasons related to social networking. The rate of occurrence has doubled in a year’s time.

This is only going to worsen as GPS/location-based apps (like Foursquare and Brightkite) that run on our iPhones and Blackberries tell the world (and our employer) where we are.
Remember: In many cases, your phones are paid for by your company so it’s not hard to imagine the following exchange in the all-too-near future--

Boss: Dave, you weren’t really attending your aunt’s funeral yesterday, now were you?

Dave: What do you mean?

Boss: Well, unless they had the funeral at Wrigley Field, it looks like you enjoyed a Cubs double-header.

Dave (now perspiring): No way. I swear.

Boss (tossing a screen print at his soon-to-be fired employee): Dave, it’s all right here on the GPS report that we get from your Blackberry. And you might want to think about turning off Foursquare when you’re playing hooky – from your next job.

Do you know your company’s social media policy? Are employees allowed to spend time on sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube while at work? Or are such practices forbidden?

We can complain about “Big Brother” policies by employers. We can cry about how it’s wrong for management to “spy” on us. But here’s what it all boils down to: when you are on company time, you are on the company dime. The employer makes the rules and, when you accept a job, you accept their rules. So don’t allow your social media activities to undermine your success. Be smart and be informed – or your next Tweet may be in search of a job!

Tribes and CrossFit

Quote from CrossFit member on "Why I am CrossFit:"

Never before have I been a part of something that has impacted my life the way that CrossFit has. I've played just about every team sport there is over the years, but I have never been a part of a more dynamic, close-knit, supportive, badass bunch of guys and gals as I am here at CrossFit! Everyone is so passionate about fitness and the CF way of life, and it truly is contagious. I am CrossFit because....When the workout is over and the reality of what I just went through sets in, I have a smile on my face. When the pain comes and I look around and see that I am not going through it alone, I have a smile on my face. When I post times and accomplish goals that I never thought possible, I have a smile on my face. In the evenings when I am dead tired, sore as hell, and the days events are going through my mind and I realize that I gave it 110% all day, I have a smile on my face!!

Sense a little passion in the above quote?!! We'll get back to how that relates in just a bit.

Several months ago I finished Seth Godin's latest book, Tribes. While I enjoyed the book and have tremendous respect for Seth's marketing views and business insights, I did not feel like this book was his best effort. It was well marketed and well packaged (love the dust jacket!), but the content left me feeling: "Okay, so .....?" And call me old school, but I prefer more narrative and not so many one-paragraph anecdotes or client stories.

Then, about a month later, something happened that shifted my thinking. I joined CrossFit.

Talk about a tribe... CrossFit is a living, breathing tribe! My CrossFit experience totally crystallized Seth's theories about tribes. Godin: "A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate."

The idea behind CrossFit and the shared interest among its tribe members is elite fitness. Everyone at CrossFit is there to learn and train (in a very unique manner) to achieve a new found level of personal fitness. Our CrossFit tribe makes great use of a very enriched TypePad blog as its forum for communication. The workout for each day is posted on the blog late evening for the coming day. I know from experience that every member of the tribe is on the site multiple times a day. A typical day's blog post will draw a response of 15 or more comments. Today, there are thousands of CrossFit members spread across six continents.

Godin: "Tribes need leadership. Sometimes one person leads, sometimes more."

The leader of CrossFitWV is Jeremy Mullins. He's the chief of the tribe. And he gets tons of support from other chieftains, especially co-founder Dr. Dan Sticker. But it was Jeremy's vision that brought CrossFit to Charleston, West Virginia. Dr. Dan is a wonderful teacher, and I really appreciate all of the registered trainers (Corey, Brooks, Scott & others on staff, who are there to instruct, motivate, encourage and lead.) Here's the clincher: every day the chiefs do the workouts along with the rest of the tribe. They suffer and sweat and bleed along with the rest of us.

Godin: "People want growth and connection and something new. They want change."

Go back and reread the opening quote from Cameron, my good friend and a beast of a competitor who's nicknamed "The Machine."

Godin: "Tribes make our lives better. And leading a tribe is the best life of all."

If you think that's hype, just check out the following quote from Jeremy, our tribal chief:

Was there ever a better time in our lives? As kids, everything in the world was perfect. I used to wake up on a weekend to watch the early morning cartoons, have a bowl of cereal or two lol, and then I’d play all day long. It was such a simple life, but it made sense and it worked. I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. It was perfect!

Until Now.....Right now is the best time of my life. I never get bored because there are always "toys" to play with, and how we play with them changes everyday. I wake up early and get to go hang out with people who are my "family." People who I feel would do anything for me if I asked. I get to watch individuals' lives change on a daily basis. I'm the luckiest one of us all...Why? Because I get to share those 5 mins after a hard workout (you know what I'm talking about here!) with almost all of you. I am CrossFit ... because I'm doing what I love to do from morning to night!

Seth, I stand corrected. You hit the nail on the head ... as usual! Thanks for capturing the essence of something so new and distinct: the American tribe, circa 2008.

CrossFit West Virginia - never have I found such a healthy addiction. You've given me a level of fitness, confidence and toughness that I've never had (and I've always been a pretty confident son of a gun!). Thank you.

Another Question from the Audience: Social Networking Sites

Conducting marketing training is one of my favorite activities in the spectrum of our practice here at the marketing firm of Maple Creative. At our workshops and seminars, I always collect questions from my attendees. The ones that we don't address in class often make good blog topics.

Q: Is there any reason for an organization to build their own social networking site instead of using ones that already exist?

No! Rarely can marketing questions be answered succintly. Now, here are three, straightforward reasons why no company or organization should attempt to build its own social networking site:

1- Traffic - You need it. Today, you have none. Facebook, for example, is viewed on a daily basis by 12.9% of all Internet users. It's the 5th most popular Web site on the Internet. It has many great, built-in applications (join group, events, bulletin board, chat, form sub-groups, one-to-many and one-to-one communication, etc.). Facebook has tons of traffic--and it is free! By contrast, it takes tons of investment and a great deal of time to build traffic for your new site.

2- Experience - You are late to the game. You have little to no experience. Existing sites like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook, have a deep track record. They are continually striving to improve and refine their products, based on insights gained from their experience and feedback received from users. Let the experts do the hard stuff. Adapt and customize their applications to suit your needs. To do otherwise--at this juncture--is a total waste of time and resources.

3- Convenience - Your target audience is already using certain social networking sites. They may be using several, in fact. Plus, they have 2 - 4 email accounts to visit and manage. The last thing they want is one more Web site to deal with today. Build your presence and place your social content in a convenient location--one that your customer base is already visiting. Make it easy for your customer; don't burden them with something else to worry about.

There are many other Web sites that have a social networking element (or elements). Flickr (photo sharing), YouTube (video sharing) and Del.icio.us (content tagging and sharing) are but a few. These might be a better social networking solution for your company or organization than Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. If you want some guidance on which social networking site(s) to build your effective platform upon, you have two options. You can certainly poll your audience directly to find out their preferred sites. When in doubt, ask!

You might also refer to The Groundswell, a wonderfully eye-opening and well-researched book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff that explores the social media habits and trends in today's world. I highly recommend this book. It gives great insights about social media preferences according to demographic and psychographic factors.

The New Face of Facebook

Those of you who are members of Facebook may have noticed a big change recently. Facebook has switched to a new layout, aptly named "New Facebook," which has received a not-so-warm welcome from Facebook users.

Over the past couple of weeks, users were able to preview the new layout. If they decided they didn't like it, they could switch back to the old one, which is exactly what I had done. Today, I was less than thrilled to discover that "New Facebook is now the only Facebook," as were many of my friends judging by the dozens of status changes to "I hate the new Facebook," and the news feed alerting me that so-and-so just joined the Anti-New Facebook group. I had already overheard discussions about the new layout around Marshall's campus as well.

If there is one thing I've noticed from this, it's that people hate change (unless you're talking about the current presidential race). Facebook provides a feedback link, which I'm certain millions of users have used, but will they listen to the millions of users complaints?

It reminds me of when Facebook introduced the news feed and mini feed. Users were very upset over these features because of privacy concerns, and soon started calling it "Stalkerbook." Anti-news feed groups were formed and a lot of feedback was sent, but Facebook decided not to remove the features, claiming that everyone would soon get used to them. Guess what? People got used to them. I eventually decided the news feed made Facebook better, especially for learning about new groups and pages. The news feed helped connect me to several posted items, blogs, articles, pages and videos that I would have never seen had they been buried elsewhere.

Word on the street (or message boards) is that Facebook made the new layout the only layout to accommodate advertisers. I'm not sure if this is entirely the case, but it seems to make sense. I haven't noticed many ads since logging in today, but the ads I have seen are the same size, and still unusual. For example, the current ads on my page are for political dog clothing and the Lauren Conrad diet. The only difference in ads I've noticed is that they are now located on the right side of the page.

As of now, I'm not a fan of the new layout, primarily for convenience. I dislike the multiple tabs on profile pages, although I like the tabs on the home page. I wish I could reduce the amount of white or change the color scheme so the page didn't look like a Word document. I wish photos could be viewed on separate web pages instead of in a tab (so when clicking on a photo on page 8, clicking "back" would send you to page 8, not back to page 1). I know that with time I will get used to the new layout, but for now I might just see what Twitter is all about.


For those of you using Facebook, what do you think of the new layout? What changes would you make? I’m curious to see what others think!

Zappos Truly Engaged with Customers

Twitter can be kind of fun. I've been on it for about a year. My lovely wife is now on it, too. And so is her sister. While we were poolside at the beach this Labor Day weekend, we were doing a bit of Twittering. One of our observations was that--now this year--the Crocs style of shoe appeared to be quite out of style. So I put out the following Tweet:

Observation from the beach::: Crocs are soooo 2006. What's the hot new beachy
footwear? @zappos? 01:43 PM
August 31, 2008 from txt

Notice the @zappos. I had a hunch that the world's leading shoe merchant might have something to say about the question.

Not more than 48 hours later, I got a reply. Not just any reply--but a reply from the CEO of Zappos. Here was his response:

i don't know if there are any new beach footwear brands this season! at
least none that i personally know of...
Zappos.com CEO -Tony / zappos
--
follow me at http://twitter.com/zappos
reply on the web at http://twitter.com/direct_messages/create/zappos

That, my friends, is one incredible example of managing your online presence and finding ways to connect with customers. Kudos to Tony and the other marketing geniuses at Zappos. We'll have more great marketing examples--of customer engagement, of creating loyalty, of inspiring raving fans--from Zappos to share in the days ahead.

How Barack Obama Won with Social Networking

The folks at XPLANE have created another awesome diagram (aka XPLANATION) to explain and demonstrate how the world works. This time it's about politics and social networking. Thanks to Parker Lee, vp marketing and business development at XPLANE, for agreeing to allow us to share this with you.

The Barack Obama presidential campaign team leveraged the power of social networking technologies, especially Facebook, to win the primary election this year. On a related note, I happened to catch a C-SPAN segment recently which broadcast a panel discussion involving several of the candidates' electronic communications directors. Hillary's staffer said [essentially], "When Obama had 1,000,000 million registered Facebook group members, we knew they had us beat."

Obama raised $55 million in campaign contributions in February of 2008 without attended a single fundraising event. Amazing! All of the panel participants agreed that social networking technology has forever changed the way campaign communications, organizing and fundraising will be conducted. Wow!

The XPLANE diagram (see link below) shows, in a simple, effective, concise visual illustration how they did it. The following quote is from XPLANE:

Barack Obama is the first major candidate to decline participation in the
public financing system for presidential campaigns. He’s found a more effective
way to raise money — by leveraging the power of the American people through
online Social Networks.

Download the PDF here. A picture is worth 1,000 words! Check it out.

[The infographic is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Created by XPLANE - The Visual Thinking Company - www.xplane.com]

Referrals and Service Recovery

At Next Generation Marketing, we recently presented a great deal of information about referrals. I wanted to share some additional information and resources about this important topic. It's worth a deeper look.

We all know that people live, socialize and communicate within networks ... and today across social networks such as blogs, forums, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, etc. People talk about their kids, hobbies, their vacation destinations and their favorite sports teams; naturally people also share their experiences as consumers.

Studies prove this. The Coca-Cola Company conducted a study in the late 1960's and found that a highly satisfied customer is likely to tell four to five people, on average, about a positive experience. On the other hand, a bad experience will also be communicated—to an even greater extent. Coke learned that a dissatisfied customer is likely to spread the bad news to nine or 10 people.

Such information provides substantial motivation to the business owner to seek out and repair customer complaints. In fact, such situations create an opportunity for a company to inspire a loyal, engaged customer. (Remember, you cannot convert a customer to a loyal advocate. You have to inspire them to become advocates.)

When a company successfully recovers from a service snafu (i.e., makes it right for the customer and successfully addresses the situation), it can be a very powerful experience. The Coca-Cola study found that in service recovery situations the consumer is likely to share the news of the resolved problem with nine to 15 people. Today with the prevalence of social networking tools the numbers are likely multiplied. Still, the ratios are likely to remain intact.

As Justin Seibert explained: "You only have two opportunities to make a good first impression. One occurs upon initial contact; the other occurs after you've screwed up (and fixed things)."

Using a Web 2.0 Tool to Prepare a Web 2.0 Seminar

Jason Keeling and I will present “Business for Breakfast” at the Charleston Marriott’s Whitewater Grille tomorrow morning. That's Friday, April 25, from 7:30-8:30 a.m. We surely hope to see you there!

Our focus will be Web 2.0: Blogs, Pods and Twitters — How Emerging Internet Technologies Can Enhance Business Communications.

We’ll be discussing the growing importance of blogs, podcasts, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. We will discuss the significance of these technologies to West Virginia businesses and organizations.

In a bit of an unconventional twist, we utilized a Web 2.0 tool, a Zoomerang survey application, to poll our audience in advance of the presentation to assess their familiarity, needs and expectations. Here's what we learned:

• There's an absence of understanding of the phrase "Web 2.0" (53% have not heard of it).
• Likewise, most folks do not understand or utilize RSS (69% have not heard of it).
• More respondents (80%) have been to YouTube than any of the other social media.
• Twitter and Flickr were among the lowest (17% and 15% familiarity, respectively).
• Most (84%) are familiar with blogs, either publishing their own blog or reading blogs.

Most encouraging to us was the fact that a strong majority (67%) of respondents agreed with the following statement: "I believe that Web 2.0 tools are viable tools for business applications." Now that is precisely the foundation for learning that we plan to build upon tomorrow. Thanks to this valuable, advance information from our audience, we have content that has been carefully tailored to their needs.

The event is sponsored by The State Journal, SCORE, and the West Virginia Small Business Development Center. We greatly appreciate their support.

Do Agencies Get Social Media?

Friend, blogger and marketing genius, Tom Pick of Web Market Central posted this interesting commentary recently. (Perhaps I found it interesting because he cited our firm. Thanks for the compliment, Tom!)

Tom's thesis is that smaller marketing consulting firms, like ours, are exploring and implementing social media tools (such as this blog), while larger traditional agencies are still relying upon traditional tactics like advertising and PR.

While this is true and we are, indeed, exploring and learning about new ways to communicate and promote, we have not completely abandoned traditional media. Our soapbox philosophy and credo remains: success lies in creating aligned layers of strategic marketing tactics. The Web, blogs, Facebook and Twitter are new, promising (and exciting) channels--not the answer. In fact, we hold as truth the belief that there is no such thing as the answer. Each client is different; each situation with corresponding objectives and audience targets is unique.

Part of the beauty of Web 2.0 and social networking is the relationship aspect. I have not met Tom Pick (in person). Yet, we are working together to share ideas and to promote the best of what the other is doing. And once you jump onboard with social media and embrace the concept, you will meet dozens of allies. I certainly have, and I consider it a true blessing.

West Virginia's Business Potential in a Web 2.0 World

Jason Keeling and I will present “Business for Breakfast” at the Charleston Marriott’s Whitewater Grille, on April 25, from 7:30-8:30 a.m. The focus will be Web 2.0: Blogs, Pods and Twitters — How Emerging Internet Technologies Can Enhance Business Communications. We’ll consider the growing importance of blogs, podcasts, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. We will discuss the significance of these technologies to West Virginia businesses and organizations. We are also utilizing Zoomerang to poll our audience in advance of the presentation to assess their familiarity, needs and expectations.

Pre-registration at http://www.score.org/ is appreciated. The event is sponsored by The State Journal, SCORE, and the West Virginia Small Business Development Center.

Add questions and comments here or at aBetterWestVirginia to get the conversation started early.

Calling All Charleston Area Bloggers

A couple of friends are working to jumpstart and rejuvenate the local bloggers group. It was known as CAB and met on Friday mornings at Taylor Books. [I was never able to attend yet, due to scheduling, but always wanted to join. Always heard good things coming out of those meetings.] This promises to be fun, informative and possibly even entertaining!

Oncee wanted me to spread the word. I'll post again with the date/time of the next CAB meetup.

You Looked at my WHAT Before you Hired Me?

Go ahead, Fess Up. If you’re on a blogging site reading entries from fellow bloggers, you can admit that you have probably checked your Facebook or Myspace account today. Caught you, didn’t we. :)

So, here’s the question. Just what kind of information ARE you posting on these famous networking sites? And, more importantly, are you aware of the risks involved with these sites?

Employers have caught the frenzy of these sites. They are logging on and checking on potential employees to see just what kind of activity is on their site. With everything from pictures, interests, previous jobs, groups and comments from your friends, an employer can learn a lot about you before you step foot into their office for an interview.

So, what kind of reputation have you given yourself from your profile? If you are allowing some promiscuous photos to be viewed on your profile or listing your favorite activities as “bar hopping,” you might not be sending out the best impression to others.

It is important to keep your information private, letting only your friends view your profile. Also, remember that the internet is uncensored…If you’re putting yourself out there, be ready for the risks and consequences that come along with it.

So, clean it up. Because if you’ve left anything behind, it could come back to get you!