Lani and Allen

Feb 2011

28

Reserve your seat for the web’s biggest social media event! #SMSS11

The following is from Social Media Examiner, which is deeply tied to a remarkable series of online Success Summits that have been happening since 2009. The one that started it all? The Social Media Success Summit, and the third annual event kicks off May 3rd, wherever YOU want to engage with it!

They sold out the 2,500 spots last year, and as of this post, they’ve got a half-off, early-bird registration thing going on. People who attended last year’s event have already had a window to reserve their spot ahead of everyone else, so the remaining slots are now available to the general public. If you missed it last year, or you’d been holding out on re-attending, please, please, PLEASE do yourself and your business a favor and make the ridiculously cost-effective investment in this Summit and all the materials that come with it.

We’ve already registered ourselves, and we look forward to “seeing” you there!

~*~*~*~*~*~

Have you heard the buzz about Social Media Success Summit 2011—the web’s largest online social media marketing conference?

Before I tell you how this virtual summit will help your business attract great customers and prospects, gain a unique competitive advantage, and measure your social media results, let me share a story with you.

PROOF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING WORKS…

In October 2009, Michael Stelzner started Social Media Examiner, a blog for marketers and small business owners. Almost overnight, his site became one of the top business blogs in the world.

He didn’t advertise, didn’t rely on the press and almost none of his traffic came from search engines.

Slightly more than a year later, his site has more than 57,000 email subscribers, over 31,000 Facebook fans, a half-million page views a month, and has generated nearly $2 million in sales.

Everything he does focuses on delivering high-quality content coupled with intelligent social media marketing.

Michael’s story is not unique. A significant 73% of business owners and marketers plan to increase their use of social media in 2011 (2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report).

What’s the connection? Your customers (and prospects) are using social media every day. Social media is a new marketing frontier because it bypasses all the costly middlemen and allows you to engage directly with your customers and prospects! AND this presents an enormous opportunity for you.

SO WHAT’S THIS ABOUT?

Michael (and his team) have been working for months to bring the best minds in social media together in a fully online event called Social Media Success Summit 2011.

A significant 2,500 marketers and business owners from around the world attended his last Social Media Success Summit. Businesses were transformed. In fact, 96% of attendees said they’d attend again.

This summit’s focus is to empower you to implement successful social media marketing tactics, track and measure your social media ROI, and see how successful social media campaigns were executed. Twenty-two of the world’s leading social media superstars will be summit instructors.

Presenters include Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group), Brian Solis (author, Engage), Frank Eliason (Citigroup), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Erik Qualman (author, Socialnomics), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Dan Zarrella (author, The Social Media Marketing Book), and experts from Boeing, Intel, Verizon, Cisco and LinkedIn.

Plus join Andy Sernovitz (author, Word of Mouth Marketing), David Meerman Scott (author, Real-Time Marketing & PR), Jay Baer (co-author, The Now Revolution), Hollis Thomases (author, Twitter Marketing), Steve Garfield (author, Get Seen), and Ann Handley (MarketingProfs)–just to name a few.

Attendees at our two last summits included well-known organizations such as General Electric, American Express, Staples, General Mills, Microsoft, Harvard, San Francisco Giants, MetLife, Kraft Foods, Hyatt Hotels, Stanford, Ben & Jerry’s, IDG and Disney. But you don’t need to be a big business to benefit!

This is the world’s largest online social media event designed to empower marketers and business owners to master social media marketing. And the great news is it’s a live online conference you can attend from your home or office.

Go here now to learn more. And as a way of saying “thanks” for checking out the summit, there’s a gift just for marketers called “8 Steps to Creating a Winning Social Media Strategy” by Jay Baer (valued at $59) waiting for you. Go get it!

Feb 2011

4

“Begin With Yes” Career Fest: Attend on 3/15 or watch it live online!

by Lani and Allen

We love this, and not only because Allen is presenting one of the workshops and Lani will be tweeting and shooting quickie Flip videos to capture highlights of the event. This unique “Begin With Yes Career Fest” is fueled with a very passionate, powerful, positive intention to affect change.

Today the Department of Labor announced the nationwide unemployment rate is at 9%, and an additional five million people have given up looking for work altogether. This event is designed to help folks in New Hampshire get the tools they need to get back on track, get inspired, and TAKE ACTION that’ll lead to new jobs, more opportunities, and happier, more financially stable lives and livelihoods. Plus, Paul Boynton is a WONDERFUL, dynamic, and generous man. If anyone can serve as a catalyst for hope and prosperity in these challenging times, he can.

BERLIN, NH – When developing an effective job search strategy, it’s best to keep this simple theory in mind – Positive attitude plus positive action leads to a positive result.

That’s the philosophy of Paul Boynton, award-winning CEO of Manchester-based social service agency The Moore Center and author of the inspirational book Begin With Yes. Boynton is working with a team of State and private sector partners to help unemployed New Hampshire citizens access the tools and resources they need to return to the workforce.

In tandem with this effort, the New Hampshire Division of Economic Development, White Mountains Community College, Public Service of New Hampshire, Logo Loc and media sponsor New Hampshire Business Review will hold the “Begin With Yes Career Fest” at White Mountains Community College in Berlin on Tuesday, March 15th from 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

“The lessons you learn in my book about the power of being positive and setting attainable goals are all good, but there needs to be a corresponding action plan to turn those good thoughts into activity,” Boynton said. “That’s why we’re not only offering free downloads of Begin With Yes* to folks who are out of work, but are also providing them with the concrete set of tools they need to conduct an effective job search. It’s a two-pronged approach.”

In addition to Boynton’s keynote address, there will be four other general session workshops – “Job Search – Applications, Resumes and Cover Letters” (White Mountains Community College speaker TBD), “Effective Communication Skills in the Job Search” (Dr. Russ Ouellette, Sojourn Partners), “Networking – It’s Not Who You Know, But Who Knows You” (Kevin Shyne, North Country Tech Prep Director and Leadership North Country Executive Director) and “Social Media Basics for Job Seekers” (Allen Voivod, Epiphanies, Inc.).

“Recognizing that helping to develop a job ready workforce is a primary goal of education, White Mountains Community College is thrilled to be a part of this event,” said White Mountains Community College President Kathy Eneguess. “We look forward to lending the expertise of our staff in developing and coordinating workshops that provide valuable information to citizens looking for a fresh start backed with new ideas.”

Through a special arrangement with Manchester-based EZStream and Portsmouth-based Kinney Hill Media Partners, the entire event will streamed live at http://bit.ly/NoBullStream.

“Though the event is taking place in the North Country, we are definitely committed to ensuring that all citizens have access to this great information,” said New Hampshire Division of Economic Development Interim Director Roy Duddy. “Whether you’re someone who has been out of work for a long time or someone who is underemployed and is just seeking a new career direction, you’ll truly benefit from the combination of Paul’s book and the interactive workshops.”

“Public Service of New Hampshire is proud to take an active role in sponsoring and being on the coordinating committee of such a creative and proactive event in the state’s North Country,” added Public Service of New Hampshire Economic & Community Development Manager Pat McDermott. “Helping our citizens to get back to work and build a stronger workforce and local economy is a mission that everyone embraces and we’re just happy to be able to do our part.”

Admission to the “Begin With Yes Career Fest” is FREE but is limited to the first 200 people. To register, contact Leslie Sherman at lsherman@dred.state.nh.us.

*Unemployed citizens can download copies of “Begin With Yes” free of charge at http://www.beginwithyes.com/purchase.html. They will need to click the “ebook” option and enter YESNH in the discount code box.

Feb 2011

2

Shifting Into the Social Mindset

by Lani and Allen

Here’s the opening shot fired at the “A-Ha!” NH Social Media Business Summit, about the big SHIFT happening in the world of work. (And in our personal lives, too!) It’s a huge change in the way we all communicate, interact, and engage with each other, with businesses, brands, and organizations.

In this video from our Facebook page, Lani talks about the Shift and how best to respond to it:

(Interestingly, when this post gets imported into Facebook, the Facebook video above doesn’t go with it. But this link will bring you to it.)

Watch for more videos from the Summit in the coming weeks – use any of the subscription options in the top right of this page to have the updates sent to you the way YOU want to get them!

Oct 2010

27

Email RIP: The Slow and Clumsy Death of Email Marketing in a Web 3.0 World

by Lani and Allen

How do you *intend* to use email today?

If you’re like most people, you intend to send and receive messages with people you know (or know of), and to get information you’ve opted in to receive.

Now think of what actually happens. According to the anti-virus/anti-spyware software company Symantec, spam now accounts for nearly 90% of all worldwide email traffic. As spammers get more sophisticated, and junk mail filters struggle to keep up, you spend most of your time weeding through the trash that made it past the filter, and digging through the trash for emails that should have made it past the filter but didn’t.

There’s an old saw about the railroads going defunct in the early 20th century. The barons thought they were in the railroad industry. Turned out, they were in the transportation industry, and cars ran them off the rails.

It’s the same idea with email. We’re not talking about an email industry. We’re talking about the communications industry. Specifically for businesses, we’re talking about the permission-based marketing industry. And though email may be alive today, in reality it’s a dead man walking and doesn’t know it yet.

The Brief and Possibly Over-Simplified History of Permission-Based Marketing

Do you still get automated telemarketing calls, even though your phone number is on the Do Not Call list? There are only so many phone numbers, and so very many automated ways to dial them.

Think of “Do Not Call” as Permission Marketing Version 0.5. It’s an opt-out that only stops the honest people. (Heck, you have to pay the phone company to keep your phone number out of their hard copy and online directories. Clearly, permission marketing needed to get better than that.)

Now, look at email. You can’t guess at email addresses en masse the same way you can guess at phone numbers. But once your email address is “out there,” there’s no pulling it back. The FTC’s CAN-SPAM law is Permission Marketing Version 1.0. You can opt in and opt out, but again, it only stops the people who obey the law. And as you can tell from your inbox, so very many people aren’t bothering with the law.

Social sites like Facebook and Twitter take permission-based marketing to a new level – Permission Marketing Version 2.0. Whereas CAN-SPAM and Do Not Call only stop the scrupulous actors, Facebook and Twitter stops the unscrupulous actors, too. Someone spamming you? Un-like them, de-friend them, unfollow them, block them, report them if need be. Problem solved.

Really. It’s really that simple. The control is in your court.

To See the Future, Go Back to School

What are high-school kids doing today? Are they using email? Or is an email address just a disposable key to get access to social sites?

That’s what the inestimable John Herman has discovered. (I’ve had the pleasure of working with John while he filmed me getting pegged in the head with a dodgeball for a client’s video, and chatted briefly with him after seeing him speak at Social Media Breakfast NH. Based on those interactions, and the word of mouth he has in this state, I respect and admire him way more than I should openly say at this stage of our relationship, or lack thereof.)

John teaches media literacy at a local high school, and in the process has also become something of a social anthropologist. He sees these consumers and future business people interacting via social networks – and texting, of course, which brings up the whole shift-to-mobile conversation that we’ll have to have in another post – and completely ignoring traditional email accounts.

Do any of us adults in business treat our email addresses so dismissively? Certainly the majority don’t. But we’ll be going the way of the dodo soon enough. And so will email.

Another way to look at it: Mashable has a subscription box on their site that says, “Join more than 2.8 million people following Mashable,” and has five prominent options – Google Buzz, Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and email. What proportion of that is email? As of 10/5/10, here’s the breakdown they provided:

«    Twitter: 2,090,468
«    RSS: 515,376
«    Facebook: 206,034
«    Buzz: 26,066

Doing the math, that’s 2,837,944 right there. There’s a good chance Mashable would celebrate publicly when they cross the 3 million mark, so odds are there are fewer than 162,000 email subscribers. No small number, but that means email isn’t in the top three channels for connecting with their audience.

You may say that it’s because Mashable appeals to social media types who are already predisposed to choose those options over email. I say that’s exactly the point – it’s how the population is evolving.

Constant Contact, the email marketing service provider for hundreds of thousands of small businesses and non-profits, has seen the writing on the wall. In the last year alone, they’ve heavily ramped up their social media marketing efforts and support. Eric Groves, their SVP of Global Market Development, is leading that charge publicly on their Constant Commentary Blog. The company has free downloadable guides on social media topics, a partnership with the social media platform management tool HootSuite, and even acquired Nutshell Mail, a free social media monitoring tool that sends info about your social channels to your inbox.

[UPDATE: Another email marketing company, Blue Sky Factory, recently hired new media luminary and PodCamp co-founder Chris Penn as their VP of Strategy and Innovation. We're sensing a trend here...]

It’s safe to say the only reason email is alive right now is because of habit and because of corporations. At this point, no Fortune-100-sized company is going to trade in email for a company-wide intranet social network.

Oh…wait. Earlier this year Walmart launched myWalmart, a custom intranet-based social network, with about 90% employee adoption. Hmmm. What’s next – a similar partner-and-supplier network? In that case, would there be any need for employees to have @Walmart.com email addresses anymore?

If you’re trying to get a hold of someone electronically, you’re bound to have a better shot getting the attention of people to whom you’re not connected by sending a personally-targeted FB message or Twitter @reply, or Twitter direct message. Those aren’t accidentally getting forwarded into junk folders, or lost in a sea of spam that the junk filter missed.

That said, email marketing is still happening for now, and support on that topic is still necessary because it’s still relevant…today.

But those todays are numbered.

Oct 2010

13

How to Shift Your Entire Online Paradigm for the New Social Age

by Lani and Allen

Professional websites ain’t what they used to be.

Just a few years ago, it was acceptable and fine to have a nice-looking, well-behaving site that showcased your business, products, and services, shared a bit about your company or organization, and provided an easy way to connect via phone and email. Some of the hip sites streamed news feeds and press releases, and the really cutting-edge sites had a link to their blog in a decently prominent location.

In the inimitable words of Archie and Edith Bunker, “Those were the days!”

Now, if you’re serious about succeeding in your industry, being competitive in your market, and serving as a leader in your field or community, you have to overhaul your notions and mindset about yesterday’s websites. In fact, the first thing you have to do is ditch the idea that you need a “website.”

From now on, your priority is to create, manage, and nurture an authentic, vision-fueled, POWER CORE for your brand energy.

Not surprisingly, successful “brandividuals” and entrepreneur-led ventures have been forging ahead like this much faster and better than well-established corporations and deeply-entrenched brands. That’s because the a successful, entrepreneurial focus is on the visitor’s needs and brand experience, not the company’s rigid agenda. They know they can save TONS of time, energy, and resources by honoring three indispensible allies:

1) The GENIUS and functionality of thriving social media platforms

2) CONTENT — whether it’s their own existing stash, fodder encouraged and generated by their communities, or material published via some other trusted, permission-approved source

3) The VISION of social thought leaders (Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Tim Ferriss, Mari Smith, and Chris Brogan are among our faves), niche outlets (Mashable, Social Media Examiner), and brands (TED, Facebook, Apple) immersed in trend-watching, especially as it relates to the practical – or strategically impractical! – application of evolving technologies, media creation and distribution, cultivating relationships in the social media realm, and the mind-blowing frontiers of dynamic creative expression.

“UMMMM…OKAY…BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR ME AND MY WEB-, ER, POWER CORE?”

It means you’re dedicated to serving your community – whether they’re clients, customers, constituents, critics, or champions – with grace, respect, and enthusiasm.

It means your new Power Core is a content and communications hub. Instead of dictating information and ideas, it facilitates the flow of them.

It means your Power Core has comfortable, well-designed spaces for your Twitter feeds, your Facebook Page updates, your YouTube channel, and room to add a couple of others Widgets, Applications, and Badges that make sense for your audience and support your overall goals and objectives.

Your design is crisp and clean, in humble allegiance to elegant usability. It’s a visual extension of your values and ideals, and NEVER underestimates its role in your success.

Your Power Core has a distinct voice and personality all of its own. It is home to and generator of your brand energy. No matter what you think your industry expects or your judges insist, your Power Core is conversational, inviting, human. Old-school communication – stiff, official, unfriendly – is out. Please, don’t let anyone tell you differently. It will cost you, big time.

And please, do NOT go modeling your Power Core solely according to what your competition or industry colleagues are doing with their own websites and online hubs. One of the biggest pitfalls well-intentioned business owners, CEOs, and non-profit leaders hit is assuming their online peers are worth emulating. The current, gigantic shift in communication habits and strategies are in a brave new world of their own. If you’re copying something that was conceived last year or even last month, you’re already hobbling your potential and future.

One other major pitfall to flag is designing your Power Core in Flash. Yes, Flash is cool and pretty, and Flash experts deserve their high price tags for their specialized skills and creative brilliance. However, to design your Power Core primarily in Flash is to miss the boat entirely on priceless perks like SEO, the booooooming mobile market, easy content updating, seamless intergration with WordPress and other open-source platforms, and pretty much anyone with an iPad, iPhone, or iTouch. (Ouch.) If you still need convincing, check out “Coolness has its price: Seven reasons to avoid using Flash on your website,” by Entrepreur magazine columnist Mikal E. Belicove. He hits the nail on the head with no-bloat authority.

BOTTOM LINE: Your Power Core needs to radiate the virtues of integration, compatibility, and hassle-free content consumption. VERSATILE content is king – content conceived, designed, and even ALLOWED to shoot effortlessly across these ever-spoking media channels, meeting discerning eyeballs wherever they choose to blink.

If this sounds overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be. It does, however, take planning, a clear vision, confident project leadership, savvy due diligence, an appreciation for the creative process, and easygoing course correction.

One easy, proven strategy for moving forward is to hand-pick a team of collaborative specialists who play well together and know how to check their egos at the door. This is what one of our clients, the NH Division of Economic Development, did in 2009, employing a design agency, a web firm, and us as their social media success partners.

Since this shift, they’ve radically increased their:

* Visibility and reach (blogging, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are now part of their overall marketing ecosystem)

* Earned media (valuable print, radio, television, and online reporting/sharing about their breakaway communication ventures)

* Web traffic (by 100% and climbing)

* Engagement opportunities with partners and constituents (while eliminating redundancy in their day-to-day workload)

* Positioning as leaders in their field (with the largest economic development presence on Facebook in New England and one of the largest in the US, and hailed as “ahead of the curve” by the Northeastern Economic Developers Association)

Progress, not perfection. And in so many ways, this is just the beginning.

As of October 2010, our own outdated website needs to evolve according to the Power Core passion and principles expressed here, and will be launched accordingly by the end of 2010. Still, we were moved to lay it all down in one place, and make it public for the benefit of our current and future clients, colleagues, and partners, as well as interested readers like you.

At the end of the day, though, we (Lani and Allen Voivod, the spousal-preneur team behind Epiphanies, Inc.) are not web designers, nor are we programmers. Our expertise is in leveraging time, resources, and content, forging and nurturing relationships, and building strong, vision-led brands. We help entrepreneurs, bold businesses, and mission-driven organizations put the power of social media platforms and online communication channels to work for them.

“Online Marketing” and “Social Media” are big, nuanced arenas. Our mission is to help passionate professionals succeed in these arenas with confidence, relevance, and style.

So, if you’re a designer or programmer who has your own recommendations on how this next generation of content hubs and online power centers should be conceived and crafted, please, share your perspective! Leave a comment on our “A-Ha!” Blog at AhaYourself.com, or on the Wall of our Facebook Page at Facebook.com/AhaYourself.

Your input counts. Your tips and viewpoints could have a real-world impact on how vital community services are delivered, business resources are accessed, products are sold, information is consumed, opportunities are granted…you name it. By all means, don’t be shy.

Hey, the world doesn’t become a better place by accident. It takes people like you to connect the right information with the right people at the right time.

Coincidentally, that’s the ultimate goal of a strong, successful Power Core. Don’t you agree?

Sep 2010

28

#AhaNH Partner, Panelist, and Success Team Spotlight (and a heaping helping of GRATITUDE)

by Lani and Allen

Today, Team Voivod is swimming deeply and joyfully in gratitude.

Yesterday was our company’s BIG EVENT, the 2nd annual “A-Ha!” NH Social Media Business Summit, in partnership with Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH) and The NH Division of Economic Development. Hundreds of entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals in mission-driven organizations registered and wait-listed for the event, and the Five Rivers Auditorium at PSNH’s Energy Park in Manchester, NH was packed for both the Morning and Afternoon Sessions.

And believe us, “Energy Park” lived up to its name! To everyone who took the time to join us and share their good spirits while diving into the social waters, THANK YOU so very much for making it the extraordinary day it was.

Over the course of the next few weeks (and probably months) we’ll be sharing information, celebrations, insights, and opportunities that came out of yesterday’s meetings of the minds.

For now, though, we wanted to share the one resource that means the most to us personally. Sure, it looks like just another bit of Official Event Handout-y Stuff. Technically, it’s a list of the friends, collaborators, partners, and professionals who worked with us to make this year’s event as potent as possible.

To us, it’s a surreal mastermind suite of hopes, dreams, experience, passion, creativity, and possibility. The people, businesses, and organizations inside the pages brought their A-games to us yesterday, and for weeks leading up to the event. More than that, they’ve spent their lives doing the day-to-day work – sometimes thankless, tedious, and tiring – honing their talents, nurturing their ideas, and becoming the best versions of themselves.

We love, respect, and appreciate these extraordinary visionaries, renegades, and fire starters. They are:

Abby Fichtner (Microsoft)
Bill Rogers (Now or Never Media)
Christy Cegelski (Drink Skinny, LLC)
Dan Freund (Kinney Hill)
Erica Murphy (The Common Man)
Jim Tyrrell (Jim Tyrrell)
Leslie Sturgeon (Women Inspiring Women)
Link Moser (Windhill Design)
Michelle Goodearl (Michelle Goodearl Photography)
Paul Boynton (Moore Center, and author of Begin With Yes)
Steve Boucher (NH Division of Economic Development)
Steve Varnum (NH Community Loan Fund)

And based on the overwhelmingly glowing response these folks received from yesterday’s attendees, we highly recommend learning more about them and their ventures and connecting with them in the social realm.

All the juicy information is inside this “Mastermind Suite”:

The Partner, Panelist, and Success Team Spotlight

Check it out, share it, and please let us know if and when you have the pleasure of working and/or collaborating with any of these wonderful professionals.

And if you were one of our fabulous attendees yesterday, we have great news for you…

Two of our panelists – Link Moser of Windhill Design and Bill Rogers of Now or Never Media – have created truly valuable special offers exclusive to attendees, which you’ll find in their respective Spotlight sections, right next to their handsome mugs.

Finally, we’d like to thank some of the as-yet-unsung heroes and heroines of the Summit, including:

Pat McDermott and Nancy Rheinhardt from PSNH for their support yesterday and all through the planning process…

Roy Duddy and Leslie Sherman from the NH Division of Economic Development for their hard work behind the scenes, not just on our behalf, but for the whole state as well…

Erica Murphy and The Common Man Family of Restaurants for donating the really cool reusable tote bags to everyone, and the party peeps at the Airport Diner for tray upon tray of yummy goodness and delicious coffee…

And Nikiah Knox, Susan Wilbur, and Steve Leonard from the Cardea Center for Well-being for responding to an 11th hour call for help in getting us up and off to a great Monday morning start.

Thank you, one and all!

Sep 2010

14

Second Annual NH Social Media Business Summit to Incite, Connect, Empower

by Lani and Allen

Wow! The official press release for the 2nd Annual “A-Ha!” NH Social Media Business Summit went out on 8/26, and we “sold out” the 200 free seats in two weeks flat. It happened so fast, we’re now making arrangements to share the Session presentations online and work on other ways to make the Summit material freely and widely available. Please head over to www.AhaNH.com to get on the lists to receive those materials and stay in the loop for this bigger-and-better event. The press release below gives a good snapshot of what’s to come on 9/27.

Gilford, NH, August 26, 2010 –(PR.com)– A whopping 500,000 of Facebook’s 500 million global users live in New Hampshire. Twitter recently crossed the 100 million user threshold and became the third largest search engine in the world, besting all but Google and YouTube. More than 80% of companies, recruiters, and human resource professionals report scanning online channels – including social networking sites – to research candidates, find prospects, and weed out applicants.

In an effort to bring this ever-growing impact and power of social media to more NH businesses, organizations, and professionals, the NH Division of Economic Development (NH DED), in partnership with social marketing and success strategies firm Epiphanies, Inc. and Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH), will host the second annual “A-Ha!” NH Social Media Business Summit at PSNH, 780 North Commercial Street, Manchester, on Monday, September 27th. To ensure content is geared to the needs and skill levels of the attendees, the Summit will be split into two three-hour Sessions for two different audiences, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

“The shift in how we connect and communicate is changing the way business is done in NH and beyond,” says Steve Boucher, Communications & Legislative Director for NH DED. “If you want to be competitive and relevant to your target market, your community, and in your industry, you have to actively explore what’s happening – and what’s possible – in the social media realm. This Summit is the place to do exactly that.”

The Morning Session, from 9:00am to noon, is designed for social media beginners, small business owners, professionals in mission-driven organizations, and passionate entrepreneurs. Presentations include “Social Marketing on a Shoestring Budget” and “Facebook on Fire: Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts to Fuel Your Success on the World’s Hottest Social Network.” The last hour will feature the NH Entrepreneur Success Panel, featuring: Christy Cegelski, Drink Skinny, LLC; Link Moser, Windhill Design; Bill Rogers, Now or Never Media; and Steve Varnum, Communications and Marketing Director, NH Community Loan Fund.

The Afternoon Session is geared for people who are already running with one or more of the major social media platforms – including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and blogging. Ideal for social media enthusiasts, community leaders, marketing mavens, brand managers, bold entrepreneurs, and visionaries of mission-driven organizations, the afternoon’s presentations include “Facebook Marketing: Customization, Fan-Building, and Advertising” and “Engaging the Social Senses: Listening, Monitoring, and Measuring.” Additionally, there will be a Cross-Industry NH Success Panel, featuring: Erica Murphy, Director of Communications and Community Relations, The Common Man; Paul Boynton, Author of Begin With Yes and CEO of Moore Center Services; Steve Boucher, Communications and Legislative Director at NH DED; and Abby Fichtner, Microsoft’s Developer Evangelist for Startups.

Summit Sessions will be presented and moderated by Lani and Allen Voivod, co-owners of Epiphanies, Inc., whom Boucher calls the Division’s “social marketing gurus,” and who’ve delivered workshops, webinars, slidecasts, and boot camps online and off, for Chambers of Commerce, trade associations, and business development events throughout the Granite State and for clients and entrepreneurs across the country.

“We received tremendously positive feedback from last year’s NH Social Media Business Summit,” says Pat McDermott, Economic & Community Development Manager at PSNH. “We’re proud to help bring these ideas and strategies to the business owners, entrepreneurs, and community leaders who play such an important role in New Hampshire’s economic growth and vitality.”

“Our goal is to connect the dots, empower action, and incite attendees to thrive with these tools, channels, and platforms,” says Lani Voivod. “The opportunities are here waiting for them.” Adds Allen Voivod, “With social media as with business, belief is everything. We aim to help people believe in their own Bigger Picture of possibility and success.”

As a special gift to New Hampshire’s business community and thanks to NH DED and PSNH, admission to this event is 100% free. However, there are only 100 seats available for each Session, so early registration is strongly suggested. To register, go to www.AhaNH.com. For more information, call Epiphanies, Inc. at (603) 524-5248, or email events [at] EpiphaniesInc [dot] com.

About Public Service of New Hampshire
PSNH is New Hampshire’s largest electric utility, generating and distributing clean electricity for more than 490,000 homes and businesses in an environmentally friendly manner. Each year, PSNH supports dozens of forest protection, energy conservation, and environmental organizations through both financial contributions and generous employee volunteerism. PSNH is proud of its commitment to the environment and willingness to create innovative solutions to environmental issues. To learn more, visit http://www.PSNH.com.

About the NH Division of Economic Development
The New Hampshire Division of Economic Development, comprised of the New Hampshire Business Resource Center and the International Trade Resource Center, offer resources to enhance the economic activities of the state through business attraction outreach, in-state business expansion efforts, and facilitation of government and international sales. To find out more about why New Hampshire’s low business tax burden and sales and income-tax free tradition makes it the “Most Livable State” in the nation, visit http://www.NHEconomy.com, check out their “No Bull” Business Blog at http://blog.NHEconomy.com, and stay connected to NH Economy’s opportunities, grants, and news on Facebook at http://Facebook.com/NoBullBusiness.

About Epiphanies, Inc.
Hailed as “visionary” and “two of the most creative thinkers in the industry” by the NH Division of Economic Development, Lani and Allen Voivod share powerful social marketing & success strategies through speaking, workshops, and their own online channels. Their company, Epiphanies, Inc., trains teams, crafts strategies, and serves as long-term success partners for a handful of global brands, industries, and mission-driven organizations. To find out how they can help your business boost visibility, community, competitive edge, memberships, and profits, join their Facebook community at http://facebook.com/AhaYourself and introduce yourself, jump into the conversation, or share a bold insight on their FB Wall.

Jul 2010

19

Now what, Old Spice? 3 manly moves to flirt with (and 3 to avoid)

by Lani and Allen

Millions – tens certainly, hundreds likely – of Internet users are still agog over the feat pulled off last week by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy and their Old Spice clients.

For those of you who want a quick summary:

The W+K/Old Spice team recorded 150+ videos in a marathon two-day shoot
Each video was a response to a tweet on Twitter, and almost all came in under 60 seconds
The videos were personalized responses to both the Twitter elite (Guy Kawasaki, Biz Stone, Ashton Kutcher, etc.) and average folks, too

After 90 million total views on the Old Spice YouTube channel, near universal acclaim, and the biggest intentional viral marketing explosion in advertising history, Old Spice has won a tremendous stockpile of social capital, theirs to use in any way imaginable.

Soooo…now what?

For Old Spice and the creative team behind this campaign, this has to be the most exciting and nerve-wracking time in their professional lives. And considering the derring-do with which this campaign was executed, you can hardly expect them to rest on their laurels.

Three Things Old Spice SHOULDN’T Do Now

First, they shouldn’t use Twitter’s strategy of leaving things in the hands of the community – fans and consumers – and expect the momentum to continue unaided.

Like Old Spice last week, Twitter was the beneficiary of a huge splash with tweeting social influencers. Twitter’s viral tipping point came at its ready-for-prime-time debut during the 2007 SXSW conference.

Twitter has grown since then because the user base found endless new uses for it, despite unresponsive customer service and website outages that would have most CEOs calling for the heads of their IT staff.

Secondly, there’s the cautionary tale of Judson Laipply, whose “Evolution of Dance” video once held the most viewed of all time spot on YouTube.

Judson’s follow-up video – which he has since removed from his channel – suffered from the blatant promotion of sponsor Sonos Inc.’s multi-room music system. He took a beating in the YouTube comments, too, and his subsequent videos have a fraction of a percent of the views by comparison. Trying to parlay viral success into quick money backfired royally.

Third, Old Spice shouldn’t play it safe right now. That’s what the folks at The Mountain did with 2009′s biggest viral product sensation, the Three Wolf Moon (3WM) t-shirt. A series of tongue-in-cheek comments on Amazon about the mystical qualities of the shirt made it the top seller in the Apparel section for almost an entire year. The Mountain played along by offering a wild creation myth to support the escalating response.

As a small company, playing it safe worked for The Mountain because it gave them the opportunity to solidify their foundation, after realizing how much power and influence the masses have when their imagination is captured. They’ve refined their web and social media channels, added an online shop to their website, and expanded 3WM – now a brand in its own right – to other related products. Most importantly, they’re having fun with it.

Now, The Mountain is in prime position to take some calculated chances. Maybe they’ll invent campaigns that highlight the powers of other t-shirts in their line, or perhaps they’ll focus on creating buzz around their other brands like Skulbone or Wine Is Life. The opportunities are there. And they’ve already experienced the thrill of what happens when inspiration strikes a smart, fun-loving audience. Hopefully, they’ll make it their mission to ignite those creative sparks over and over again, through all the myriad channels available to them.

Now, let’s consider…

Three Manly Moves Old Spice COULD Make Now to Build on Their Newly-Built Brand Equity

Oh, to be a part of the brainstorming sessions that must be going on right now!

1. Brand cross-pollination.

Old Spice is now hip ‘n relevant. People love Isaiah Mustafa (The Old Spice Man, and also the man with what’s arguably one of the coolest names ever). Sure, you might expect to see his face adorning other Old Spice products. But imagine if they leverage their current momentum to build up Old Spice’s Turbo-pumped Bodybuilder Guy, who was featured in a much less successful campaign early this year. Or if they kept building out their Unfairly-handsome Armpit Mountain Guy.

Mustafa’s street cred will spill over to the rest of the Old Spice team, and suddenly these other dudes will get the eyeballs, and possibly the respect, they didn’t get the first time around. An expectation has been set. We’ll see the Old Spice brand, and stop what we’re doing to check out who’s doing the talking, what they’re going to do with their 15 seconds of fame, and be primed to giggle (and share).

2. Content curation.

Parodies of the Old Spice commercials are already popping up online. The Old Spice Man could curate these in the same way sites like Maholo or URLesque have a human set of editors reviewing trends and news hitting the web, and bringing the cream of the crop to the attention of the masses. Or a “This Week in Manliness” Web series highlighting manly feats in the news, aligning the brand with anything from extreme sports to animal rescues.

3. Reinvention.

You have to assume the sequel idea has occurred to W+K and Old Spice’s parent company, Proctor & Gamble. One thing’s for sure – it can’t look like an extension of the current campaign, or the Internet will respond with yawns at best, and a creative teardown at worst. And W+K knows it. Instead, they’ll have to take the Old Spice Man out into the world – let him interact with his loyal subjects, encounter real-life situations (in the heightened reality sense of movies and TV we’re already used to), and start teasing us with hints at the character’s back story. And if they continue with the Rube-Goldberg-esque set changes, they’ll have the advantage of hooking our brains with the element of visual surprise as well as with their quirky humor.

Ultimately, the Greatest Success of This Campaign is All About…

Character. Here, it’s the product of a unique collaboration between the writing team and Mustafa himself. In a March 2007 TED talk, J.J. Abrams (creator/producer of Alias, Lost, and other hot TV and movie blockbusters) put the power of character very succinctly:

So you think of “Jaws” — so that’s the kind of stuff that, like, you know, the investment of character, which is the stuff [that's compelling]. You know? It’s why when people, like, do sequels, or rip off movies, you know, of a genre, they’re ripping off the wrong thing. You’re not supposed to rip off the shark or the monster. You gotta rip off — you know, if you rip something off — rip off the character. Rip off the stuff that matters.

Substitute “riff” for “rip,” and you get the same idea. If W+K and Old Spice riff off Mustafa’s character while staying true to it, and find a way to help that character evolve as they move forward, the next wave of success won’t be far behind.

What do you think? Does this campaign have legs, or do you think it’s just another flash in the pan? And what do you think the next best move is for W+K, Old Spice, and Mustafa?

Additional resources:

Mashable’s “by the numbers” snapshot of the campaign
ReadWriteWeb’s behind-the-scenes look at the video shoot
Fast Company interview with W + K creative director Iain Tait

Enjoy!

May 2010

27

A-Ha! TV: How Powerful Is Your Voice?

by Lani and Allen

The answer is that it’s in your control, as Lani notes in this Earth Day video with a timeless message. You’ve got the tools you need to spread your message farther than ever before. Step outside your comfort zone and share it to elevate the communities that matter deeply to your life and business:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEHK3GBKKlU

If you can’t see the video wherever you’re reading this (like on Facebook), you can watch it here on our YouTube Channel,

May 2010

17

City of Rochester, NH teams with Epiphanies, Inc. to engage communities on Facebook and Twitter

by Lani and Allen

(Yes, it’s an official press release coming your way…We’re so proud of the City of Rochester and its hard-working success team for making this important shift into the social realm with us! If you’re a leader in your own city, town, government, or economic development agency and know it’s time to establish a presence on Facebook and Twitter so you can engage with and be relevant to your community, PLEASE shoot us an email at Hey @ EpiphaniesInc.com, call us at 603.524.5248, or connect on our Facebook Page. We’re here to make it easy, pain-free, and even FUN.)

[GILFORD, NH] – More than 400,000 adults in New Hampshire are on Facebook. More than 30,000 of these users live within 10 miles of Rochester, the fastest-growing Seacoast city in the Granite State. Based on these statistics and the needs of their constituents, the City of Rochester decided to take bold action earlier this year to connect and communicate with their community in relevant, streamlined, budget-friendly ways.

The City is proud to announce that it is now welcoming residents and businesses to connect and engage with them on Facebook and Twitter. Eight of its high-profile departments and services have joined these leading social networks, thanks to a strategic partnership with social marketing consulting firm Epiphanies, Inc.

“At first, I wasn’t convinced that using social media was professionally appropriate for cities and towns,” admits John Scruton, Rochester City Manager. “But after attending two Chamber of Commerce events on social media last year, I’ve paid more attention to where the trends are going, and realize how important it is for local and state governments to effectively reach younger generations where they work, live, and play.”

The two Chamber events Scruton attended were presented by Epiphanies, Inc. co-owner Allen Voivod, and sparked the conversations that led to this forward-thinking alliance.

“Rochester is the first city in New Hampshire to establish a cohesive, brand-centric presence in social media across multiple departments,” says Voivod. “This provides individual departments with the creative license and autonomy to build communities that serve each department’s unique goals, and their audiences’ specific needs.”

Those eight departments and services include Police, Fire, Public Works, City Clerk, City Manager, Economic Development, and Recreation (RAYS), as well as an all-inclusive City Page. The Gilford-based social media company recommended focusing efforts on Facebook and Twitter based on the popularity of these platforms, their search engine influence, and their ability to leverage time, resources, and content across multiple channels.

In addition, Epiphanies, Inc. developed three distinct Social Media Policies for employees and the community interacting with the City on social media, and provided a combination of online and in-person training to employees who will represent the City on its social environments.

“Thanks to Allen’s help, we’ve been able to move forward with confidence and clarity into the social media realm, which is so important for us as stewards of the community,” notes Karen Pollard, the City’s Economic Development Manager. “It’s our responsibility to evolve and use these new communication tools to attract new industries, increase our visibility, and prosper as a dynamic, powerful business climate that fully embraces the future of community development.”

About the City of Rochester
Rochester, the Lilac City, offers businesses, residents and visitors alike the conveniences of a prosperous city combined with the charm and traditions of New England. From its rolling hills and rivers, to its vibrant arts community, to its rich history and active civic life, Rochester is a wonderful place to start a business, visit or to raise a family.

About Epiphanies, Inc.
Hailed as “visionary” and “two of the most creative thinkers in the industry” by the NH Division of Economic Development, Lani and Allen Voivod share powerful social marketing & success strategies through speaking, workshops, and their own online channels. Their company, Epiphanies, Inc., trains teams, crafts strategies, and serves as long-term success partners for entrepreneurs, bold brands, and mission-driven organizations. “Like” them on Facebook at http://facebook.com/AhaYourself, and watch their free Slidecast on social media for municipalities at http://bit.ly/AhaYourCity.