We’re listening in on a Vocus webinar starring David Meerman Scott, “Creating an Effective Social Media Strategy Using the News Rules of Marketing & PR.” Lani’s live-tweeting it, and I’m following up with some blog notes here, top-level items that captured my attention.

Vocus has been providing great content recently, and they use the content to attract sales leads by asking for complete contact information in exchange for access. We’ve had at least a half-dozen sales calls to our office number, which may be the cost of great “free” content. DMS, though, spent time advocating the idea of giving content away without requiring the exchange of information.

Personally, we require email addresses for some of our content, and we’ve gone back and forth internally about whether we should continue that practice. What’s your experience/thought on the subject? Drop us a comment below…

Cindy Gordon,VP New Media Marketing at Universal Orlando Resort. She told seven influential people, inviting them to a midnight event where the set designer for the Harry Potter movies talked about “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” they were building at the resort. Those seven influential people blogged about it and spread the word of mouth to their audiences, and ultimately Cindy estimates they reached about 350 MILLION people, just by creating an exclusive interview event for just 7 people.

And DMS says that Cindy was afraid she was going to get fired for doing this, even though she knew it was the right thing to do!

The idea that doing the things you know are right, but which are scary to the people you work for, is one of the major driving tensions in social media for business today.

Buyer persona…who are they? Talk directly to them!

What do you want them to believe?

Earn attention through:

1. Buy it
2. “Beg” for it with PR
3. “Bug” your way in by selling 1-to-1
4. Earn it by publishing your way in

Encourage sharing - he calls it “word of mouse.”

No marketing coercion.

Lose control. (You never had it!)

Manage your fear - of the unknown, of trying something new, of going against the way you’ve done things in the past.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The latest obsession running rampant through our home and business is the 86 (and counting) videos in the “Will It Blend?” series by Blendtec. It’s gotten to the point where our 20-month old son now raises his arms in triumph and says, “Yes, It Blends!” Our 6 1/2 year-old can’t bear to watch Mario Kart get blended, but he already wants to try blending stuff in our (non-Blendtec) blender…gonna have to watch out him on that one.

Of course, Lani and I get geeky on this stuff, too. As Lani said to the assembled audience at Monday’s “A-Ha!” NH Social Media Business Summit, we had to stop ourselves from watching them all while we were prepping for the event, and were probably going to watch all of them in our post-event downtime.

Well, that was slightly ambitious - we’re about halfway through them. And here’s why they’re awesome:

1. They’re a perfect example of content in bite-sized chunks. Each video is between 1 and 2 minutes, and they’re all very tightly produced.

2. They started with a simple format, and rather than sticking rigorously to it, they’ve allowed themselves to play within it. Sometimes they’ve had people come in on set to sample the blended items; at other times, they’ve gone outside the studio; and they’ve added goofy things like nuclear explosion footage when they blended the Bic lighters and a green x-ray skeleton when they blended the glow sticks.

3. The whole campaign is rooted in LEVITY. It’s dry, it’s silly, it’s absurd, it’s self-knowing, it’s a master class in pop-culture trend-surfing (with a thread of satire in there, too).

My personal favorite so far is the one where Tom blends Esquire magazine’s Esky Award for outstanding musical achievement - I won’t spoil the why for you:

Now here’s the embarrassing bit. I watched about a dozen videos and said out loud, “This is amazing! Is there ever going to be anything that doesn’t blend?” And I was so totally into the videos as a viewer, as a potential customer and user, that it wasn’t until I’d watched another eight or so before I finally “got it.”

Of course there won’t be a video where it doesn’t blend. D’oh!

Thanks to Blendtec for engrossing me so well that I forgot for a time that I was watching for business purposes in the first place.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 10:22 am and is filed under Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

What’s your worst fear?

Spiders? Speaking in public? Being rushed to the hospital wearing yesterday’s underwear?

If you’re like most people, whether you admit it or not, it’s FAILURE.

And no group knows FAILURE quite like business owners, solo professionals, and entrepreneurs, right? We put ourselves out there time and time again, while friends and family members who work as employees, or are retired with a lifetime’s worth of opinions to share, voice their own fears and concerns to us at every available opportunity. Many take it one step further and chime in about their confusion - and yes, even their disapproval! - of our choices. Somehow, holiday dinners, well-attended family picnics, and other high-profile events strike these loquacious worrywarts and cynics as the perfect time and place to offer their two cents. Lucky us.

But really, when we FAIL, what happens? Does the sky fall? Do we lose our homes? Our shirts? Or worst of all – our pride? And if all these things happen and we’re still finding time to read this article, was the outcome really so devastating?

More often than not, FAILURE is nothing more than a shift in expectations. You thought you wanted one thing to happen – like, making 1000 sales in 24 hours from your latest product launch – but instead you get something else – like, a crashed website, and a bunch of emails complaining about poor customer service.

But…what if it’s not FAILURE? What if, like those old Reese’s candy commercials, all of the “your-chocolate-in-MY-peanut-butter!” moments are really birthing stations for HAPPY ACCIDENTS?

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit,” said Napoleon Hill, founder of the Motivational Movement and best-selling author of Think and Grow Rich, in which 500 millionaires were mined and matrixed for their winning life formulas.

And Happy Accidents are definitely seeds of great might. They’re those well-disguised gifts that – if allowed to spawn rather than spurn – can easily become your own life’s (or the world’s!) Next Big Thing.

Penicillin was a Happy Accident, enduring more than 40 years of dismissals before it became “the discovery that changed modern medicine” in 1939. Heck, Columbus’s “New World” was a FAILURE, in that it didn’t reveal the coveted western passage to the Far East, as the notorious navigator had originally hoped to plot.

“Success is 99 percent failure,” said Soichiro Honda. Yup. His billion-dollar enterprise only came into being because Toyota wouldn’t buy his piston rings, and his other peculiar designs and patents were laughed at for decades. (Of course, when Japan’s post-WWII economy inspired Mr. Honda to slap a little engine on a bicycle – thereby inventing the Honda Motorcycle Company – Soichiro laughed all the way to the bank!)

Truth is, virtually every successful business person, author, artist, and accomplished human on the planet boasts a string of spectacular FAILURES that could trip a stampeding herd of juiced-up Paul Bunyans.

Which leads us to the Great Irony of Life: Failure is NOT a thing to be avoided, but rather, THE golden objective to pursue, accumulate, tally, gulp, and experience at every opportunity.

So here’s the magic key to creative freedom and fun, for all endeavors big and small. (Listen up! It’ll change your life…)

Ditch the pressure of “Success or bust!” and switch the goal to dogged failure.

Fail, fail, fail, and fail some more at something (or everything!) you LOVE to do, and sooner or later you are destined to succeed – whether or not you’re wearing clean underwear.

From one of Failure’s favorite protégé’s, please hear this:

May you always have the strength and courage

to FAIL MISERABLY at every opportunity,

and may you live on to become one

of the biggest failures the world has ever known!

(As for the state of your undies, for heaven’s sake – stack the deck in your favor. Keep ‘em clean – or go commando!)

WANNA USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEBSITE?
Please do! Just kindly include this blurb with it:

Lani & Allen Voivod, The Content Lovers of Epiphanies, Inc., help imperfect-preneurs, globals brands, and mission-driven organizations use social marketing & success strategies to ramp up visibility, competitive edge, community, and profits. Get their free Special Report, 37 Easy Ways to Boost Visibility, Revenue, and Results With Twitter, which reveals how to the leverage the power and potential of the world’s fastest growing social network.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 9:50 am and is filed under Inciter Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Allen and I are so psyched to share that our first big event, the first annual “A-Ha!” NH Social Media Business Summit, is at max capacity at 100 people with a 40+ person wait list that grows every day! Of course, none of this would even be possible without the benevolent sponsorship of Public Service of New Hampshire, as well as support from our incredible, forward-thinking partners, the NH Division of Economic Development, and the NH “Stay, Work, and Play” initiative.

As it all happens just a few short days from now, the energy around here has been quite intense and focused, to say the least. Last-minute door prize donations are funneling in, agendas are being finalized, and Manchester Community Access Media has agreed to record the entire event for broadcast. (Isn’t that the coolest?!)

On the downside, one of our presenters, Microsoft Advertising’s New England Regional Sales Manager Frank Mulcahy, has come down with Type A Infuenza and won’t be able to join us, but alas, the show will go on. (Wishing you a speedy recovery, Frank!)

Still, most everything is falling into place in exquisite formation, thanks to the expert guidance and support of event mavens Leslie Sturgeon, President of Women Inspiring Women and NH SBA’s 2009 Women in Business Champion of the Year, and Maureen “Mo” Bresee, event and organizational consultant extraordinaire (and my dear friend of 30 years).

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, the magic of RSS feeds, YouTube, social media measurement, social marketing strategies…all these and more will be part of the Summit experience, and will surely inspire animated exchanges on the value, pitfalls, and possibilities of this booming Web 2.0 world.

But no event is anything without really awesome attendees. And I hate to brag, but we are THRILLED at the caliber of businesses and professionals who are investing in their social media success by creating the space to show up, learn, network, expand their possibilities, and PLAY on Monday.

In fact, we’re so happy about the roster of businesses, organizations, and agencies signed up for the event that we’d like to take a minute and share them here. Who knows - maybe they’re part of your own network, and you can reach out and ask them to share some of the tips, strategies, and big “A-Ha!” social media action steps they’re determined to implement after the 15th.

Ready? Here are businesses represented by the REAL STARS of the upcoming Social Media Success Summit, along with the towns and cities in which they either work or reside:

• 53 Technology (Hanover, NH)
• ActiveEdge (Nashua, NH)
• Aleuromedia (Bedford, NH)
• Align Partnerships (North Conway, NH)
• Arbonne International (Derry, NH)
• BarnSweetBarnDVDs (Milford, NH)
• Boucher Public Relations (Pembroke, NH)
• Child Advocacy Center of HIllsborough County (Nashua, NH)
• Children’s Museum of NH (Dover, NH)
• ClosetPlace (Wolfeboro, NH)
• Dillon Creative Inc. (Bedford, NH)
• Dimdim (Francestown, NH)
• Division of Economic Development (Concord, NH)
• eCoast (Rochester, NH)
• FixMedia (Amherst, NH)
• Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, P.C. (Concord, NH)
• Geocentric Innovations (Meredith, NH)
• Gigunda Group, Inc. (Manchester, NH)
• Green Apple Resources (Laconia, NH)
• Grief Support Services (Moultonborough, NH)
• Griffin York & Krause (Manchester, NH)
• GSIL - Granite State Independent Living (Concord, NH)
• Halvorson New Media (Hancock, NH)
• Hooksett Library (Hooksett, NH)
• Jillian’s of Manchester (Manchester, NH)
• JitterGram (Bedford, NH)
• John S. Jordan Design - Architect (Canterbury, NH)
• Just Be Products LLC (Webster, NH)
• Kamigo Marketing (Nottingham, NH)
• Keene State College (Keene, NH)
• Lakes Region Spirit (Gilford, NH)
• Lavoie Wealth Management (Nashua, NH)
• League Chiropractic (Keene, NH)
• LinkAbilities/Gateways (Nashua, NH)
• Manchester Wolves (Manchester, NH)
• Manchester411.net (Hooksett, NH)
• Many Spears (Guild, NH)
• Metis Communications (Raymond, NH)
• MicroCredit-NH (Concord, NH)
• Microsoft Advertising (Brookline, NH)
• Mitzi’s Window Fashions & Interiors (Hollis, NH)
• Moore Center Services (Manchester, NH)
• Mustard Seed Communities (Manchester, NH)
• New Hampshire Public Television (Durham, NH)
• New Means Financial Planning (Hollis, NH)
• NH Community Loan Fund (Concord, NH)
• NH DHHS DPHS Adolescent Health Program (Concord, NH)
• NH ITRC - International Trade Resource Center (Portsmouth, NH)
• NH SBDC - Small Biz Development Center (Nashua, NH)
• NL Partners (Portsmouth, NH)
• NoonanArts (Manchester, NH)
• Now or Never Media (Portsmouth, NH)
• Orlando & Co. (Sunapee, NH)
• Ping PR (Manchester, NH)
• Plymouth State University (Plymouth, NH)
• Primerica Financial Services (Nashua, NH)
• Print Savvy (Manchester, NH)
• PSNH (Manchester, NH)
• Savoir Faire (Manchester, NH)
• Savvy Workshop, Inc. (Manchester, NH)
• SERESC Conference Center (Bedford, NH)
• SilverTech (Manchester, NH)
• StoreyManseau, LLC (Concord, NH)
• The Fiddlehead Loop, LLC (Manchester, NH)
• The New England Sampler (Manchester, NH)
• University System of NH (Durham, NH)
• V3 Leadership (Hollis, NH)
• Viaflo Corp. (Hudson, NH)
• Viva La Pixel (Merrimack, NH)
• Weichert Realtors Peterson & Assoc (Nashua, NH)
• Windhill Design (Gilford, NH)
• Women Inspiring Women (New Hampton, NH)
• Xtensible Technology (Manchester, NH)

Additionally, there are quite a few independent professionals, solo-preneurs, and free agents signed up, which will add to the masterminding power of the day.

New Hampshire, we’re honored to serve you and look forward to diving into the social media realm together, with grand mojo and might!

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 12:52 am and is filed under "A-Ha!" Events, "A-Ha!" NH, Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Hi there,

First, have you seen this week’s Time magazine yet??? Twitter made the cover! There’s a picture of an iPhone, and the message on the screen is a “tweet” from @stevenbjohnson which says:

“I’ve written this week’s TIME cover story about how Twitter is changing the way we live — and showing us the future of innovation. Buy a copy!”

From our point of view, this means next week’s “A-Ha!” NH Social Media Business Summit couldn’t come at a better time. What a great opportunity for 100 of us to gather and talk turkey about these amazing social tools and platforms, and how they can help our business ventures. (Thank you for making it possible, PSNH!)

With that in mind, we’ve had a few questions directed our way, so we thought we’d send answers to all attendees, and share those answers here on our blog, too, just to cover all bases.

Question #1: “Is there a Twitter hashtag (#) for the event?”

A: Why YES, yes there is. It’s #NHSMBS.

For those of you who don’t know what that means yet, using a hashtag (or # sign) in front of a word, phrase, or acronym is sort of a “secret code” in the Twitterverse that makes it easy to find related tweets in one place. So, if you want to let your Followers know you’re going to the Event, or if you want to share tidbits during the Event, you simply add “#NHSMBS” inside your tweets, and Twitter search will “catch” your tweet. This is a great way to be included/seen in the conversation threads during and after the Event.

Question #2: “Can I share the content of the Event with friends, Fans, or Followers?”

A: ABSOLUTELY, YES!

This is a Social Media Summit, which means not only are you allowed to share content, but we strongly encourage you to do so. Post pics to TwitPic and Flickr. Upload videos to YouTube and Facebook. Tweet and retweet with abandon. Blog like a banshee. Tag photos, posts, and videos. Have fun and let ‘er rip!

Truth is, sharing content is part of the charm and power of social media marketing. When you capture and share your experiences with others — in videos, photos, tweets, posts, etc. — you boost the probability of getting more eyeballs to your business, making fresh connections, and giving search engines something to smile about when they come visit.

Question #3: “How advanced will the material be?”

A: Thanks to that little three-minute survey we shot out last week, we have a decent sense of the room and what tools are already in play in the lives of at least 50 of the attendees. We’re happy to report that folks appear to be cruising along, branching out, and OPEN to new ideas, tips, and strategies. So regarding the material, it’s a mix of high-level overview, strategic application, real-world examples, and specific results and success stories designed to educate, inform, and inspire both newbies and devotees alike.

The thing about any kind of social media or online marketing workshop is a lot of the magic and learning comes from the exchange of ideas and sneak peeks into how other people are using and applying the platforms and channels available.

The great news is, we have AMAZING attendees from a wide variety of backgrounds and industries, so cross-pollination of ideas and insights is going to be primo. We also have great confirmed Panelists, including corporate blogging guru Chris Halvorson of Halvorson New Media, and PSNH’s own Senior Corporate News Representative Martin Murray. AND, presenting the “Yes, It CAN Be Measured” session is Frank Mulcahy, New England Regional Sales Manager for Microsoft Advertising. Not to mention what’s sure to be a fab keynote by Stephen Reno, outgoing Chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire.

Wherever you are in your social media journey, you WILL be exposed to new tips, tricks, and techniques to integrate into your own systems, and enhance your own goals and objectives. You’ll also leverage the knowledge of the room, and make connections with like-minded professionals, which is where the big “A-Ha!” usually happens.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Phew! We’re going to stop there and bid you good day for now. Just a reminder, there’s a wait list that’s growing every day (30+ people!), so if for any reason you can’t make the event, please let us know ASAP so you can help out the next person who’s waiting patiently on the sidelines for a spot to open up.

To your continued success,

Lani & Allen Voivod
Co-owners and Content Lovers of Epiphanies, Inc.

P.S. While we are all sooooo lucky to have a whole day to devote to social media and how it can help our businesses, missions, and ventures, it is *just* one day. If you’re starting to get a sense of how valuable social media skills and knowledge are to your professional success, or if you downright KNOW you need to go deeper in order to stay competitive, relevant, and empowered, get in on our 90-Day Social Media Marketing Training Program.

Slated to begin Tuesday, June 23rd and limited to 12 success-minded professionals, the Program is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to learn, leverage, and get the support and guidance you need to not only survive, but THRIVE in the social media realm. Don’t miss out - lock in your spot before someone else does!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 1:32 am and is filed under "A-Ha!" NH, Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

If you’re a leader, employee, or volunteer of a non-profit or mission-driven organization with limited funding and resources, you’ve likely said more than a few (million) times you wish there was a way to wake people up, get their attention, connect with like-minded folks, and incite meaningful action. Maybe you’ve dared dream of making a real, lasting difference in your community, or in the world at large.

Now along comes “Social Media.” For many, this overused phrase conjures up feelings of fear, overwhelm, technological anarchy, time suckage, and generational divides.

Please, don’t let that be true for you.

Social media tools and resources ARE the inexpensive, viral, and action-inspiring answers to your most audacious wishes and dreams. And the good news is, you can use your passion and vision to transcend overwhelm and hype, and explode your reach and results.

Here are five of ten easy ways to do just that.

1. Inspire Direct Action! One of the best features of human nature - even (and especially!) in a shaky economic climate - is we want to GIVE. Most of us give what we can, when we can. So yes, you absolutely can ask for donations through social media.

Social-friendly applications like TipJoy, Tweet4Good, SixDegrees, ChipIn, and even PayPal make accepting on-the-spot donations easy for non-profits and mission-driven organizations. Make it easy for people who want to give, and put one of these tools to use now.

2. Inbound Links/SEO. Search engines change their algorithms all the time so people can’t game the system. But here’s what will stay true no matter what: If there are links to your site from a highly-trafficked place of authority, and you regularly publish keyword-thoughtful content in those places, your search engine placement will improve.

As of this writing, Facebook is the fourth most-visited website. Five of the top ten sites are social media. Twitter is #36 and climbing fast. Get the picture?

3. Monitor & Engage. Twitter Search makes it easy to find people talking about the topics relevant to your organization right now, and to join the conversation. Don’t want to search right now? Applications like TweepBeep and Tweet Later monitor keywords and send you digest emails.

Meanwhile, Facebook Social Ads tap into the incredible treasure trove of information people publish about themselves. It’s easily the most valuable marketing database on Earth - Microsoft invested $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook in 2007, and news sources like NBC and the New York Times estimate Facebook’s value at $10-15 billion.

4. Leverage. Most people aren’t looking to do more work. In fact, they’re looking to do less - or the ever popular “do more with less.” Facebook and Twitter are built for just these purposes. Sure, you can get lost in the depths that they offer, but you can also simplify your work with them.

RSS feeds created automatically by Twitter can be used to update your blog and Facebook profiles, groups, and fan Pages. Applications like Twitterfeed can send your Facebook updates to Twitter. And that’s just touching the surface. The point is, YOU can decide which platform you like to work with best, update in one place, and use the wealth of automating tools available to spread your content out across your Social Marketing Content Ecosystem.

5. Crowdsourcing. One of the under-used secrets of marketing is that your Ideal Audience will tell you exactly what they want from you. All you have to do is ask them! This old adage holds true in the social media realm, too - in fact, it’s even more powerful, because the response can be immediate.

Your Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans will TELL you what works for them, whether you’re asking about new product ideas, new marketing messages, even new branding and taglines. What’s more, they’ll “Stack Attack” the best ideas, too, building on each other’s creativity in powerful and unpredictable ways. (Dell’s IdeaStorm.com is a great example of how collaborative feedback gives way to innovative new products and services.)

Those are the first five ways for non-profits to use Twitter, Facebook, and other social media resources to boost awareness, raise funds, and rally advocates. In Part 2 of this article, you’ll discover five more ways for passionate professionals and mission-driven organizations to confidently hop on the social media bandwagon.

(Oh, by the way … if you’re part of a for-profit business, everything in this article still applies - even the bit about accepting money. If you’re not ready for a complete merchant account solution like www.AhaMerchant.com, PayPal and Amazon can both take care of you.)

WANNA USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEBSITE?
Please do! Just kindly include this blurb with it:

Lani & Allen Voivod, The Content Lovers of Epiphanies, Inc., help imperfect-preneurs, multi-million-dollar businesses, and mission-driven organizations use social marketing & success strategies to ramp up visibility, competitive edge, community, and profits. Get their free Special Report, 37 Easy Ways to Boost Visibility, Revenue, and Results With Twitter, which reveals how to the leverage the power and potential of the world’s fastest growing social network.

Posted in Inciter Articles, Social Marketing | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under Inciter Articles, Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.