Who should be the star of your social media?

Having been involved in social media for the last five years, I've beeen part of developing social media strategies for selected clients and being a curious techno I've constantly searched the world for new thoughts on the medium. I've come to the conclusion that it's a person that must be active on social media, who ever likes talking to a in adamant object like a computer (other than strange people that like blow up dolls)

As business people we all understand the value of a referral or the power of word of mouth marketing (I get told this every time I sit with a new client) ... So why do we all constantly search for automated and impersonal marketing vehicles? couple this with my anadotale experience reviewing the web analytics of 100's of sites the second most visited pages on a website are about and team.

So, as a business owner do your best to conduct your social media updates and posts as a human rather than as corporate memo's, you'll find that people will follow and interact with you as a real person getting more followers... that actually follow and they'll stick around longer ... which ultimately means one day they might just need what you sell/produce and since they feel like they know you, you just maybe the chosen supplier! :)

When posting about a product you're wanting push paste a photo of yourself with it, or add a personal message about how much you liked it. Ask questions as this gives your followers an opportunity to engage and before posting read it out loud and ask does this sound like its written by a person or someone in the PR department... if you follow a couple of these rules you should be sweet!

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Its just Horse shit

My kids now talk about the bank that killed the horse, I reckon they threw out the baby with the bath water, but that's just my opinion... and then in the mail [yip we still get paper mail] the official letter arrived, with all the usual 'spin' a landscape with no Horse, a lot of blurb and a a simple goal "To be New Zealand's best bank"

I do wonder what drives a large corporation to make decisions like this? Is it a drive to increase the share price and therefore the value of the company [which executive bonuses are often calculated on] or is there a more honorable drive, a mission to deliver a better quality service, better valued products [lower interest rates] and more services? And what does it really matter to me as the customer?

In the letter they went to great lengths to explain all the new advantages, but hang on a minute .... I already had those advantages, and I've been enjoying them ever since the ANZ bought the bank a few years back, so I again I ask, what is the benefit of belonging to a bank that wants to be the best bank in NZ?

An interesting additional piece of information that needs to be tabled is that the National Bank was already ranked the best bank in NZ, so now that they've merged, they've succeeded in taking one bank back and the other mildly forward (remember that the ANZ was ranked one of the worst ;-).

I wish I had an answer to this question, and I can't be bothered contacting the Ad Agency or the Comm's department at the bank to get any answers as I dare say I'll just get more 'Spin'... so maybe over the next few days some of you may be able to shed some light and educate a rural boy from Ranfurly ... please...comments are now open

 

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Don't be up yourself!

Reading my bible is a daily challenge, but it's one thing I enjoy, but only after the exercise. Anyway this particular day I read in Proverbs 27:2. Don't call attention to yourself; let others do that for you. I stopped and thought about this for some time and realized the truth is especially important in a business marketing context.

God, is stating that we should not self promote, but let others do it for us, and in my experience this is true, making sales easily, faster and getting those all important calls or enquiries and we must resist the temptation of thinking that we should tell people how good we are. it's like our CV that's us self promoting, and that's why prospective employers contact and interview referees and past employers. A good book written specifically about this was by Al Ries "The fall of Advertising and the rise of PR" His premise in his book was that large firms that appear to have built their position or reputation by creative advertising, actually built it early in their life cycle on the back of some very good PR and all that advertising does is maintain or strengthen that market perception.

... So then how can we improve our reputation?

1. If you have a LinkedIn page then get other contacts to write recommendations. This is very easy to do if you've taken the time already to connect with many business contacts.
2. Join networking groups, like the chamber of commerce, The Cycling Cluster, BNI and get to know other business people that will actively recommend you.
3. Build a blog so that people the ability to comment on your posts, this has others see that you have people following you or social proof (take a hint people write nice things please ;-)
4. Post in Facebook and Twitter regularly asking questions that inspire others to comment, just don't be like me and go too contraversal
5. Here's a big one: DO A GOOD JOB! all the tricky tactics in the world don't work unless you or your business aren't delivering good value.
6. Avoid all tactics that have you stand out from the crowd, they'll be the reason people remember you, for potentially all the wrong reasons
7. Become world famous, write a blog, post in the social networking arena, or like my good friends at concentrate.co.nz, write articles for the local media.
8. Be easy to talk about, my anadotal evidence as a marketer involved in networking groups, is the businesses that are the easist to understand get the most referrals. This requires a deeper understanding of what you do for your clients, not what you do! (If you need help call me 03-974-9230 and I'll steer you in the right direction)

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Bloody cyclist!

OK its no secret, I'm a keen cyclist with one of my rants being [check previous blog] around aggressive and inconsiderate road users and their attitude and actions towards other road users. Today while in Dunedin I rode past one of those signs "Share the road" took the snap and decided to take it to task later in my weekly blog.

Do you really think that this signage and education makes any difference? Does it change the behaviour of a road rage induced individual with a strong sense of entitlement? Lets take a wee looksie at this then...

Dale Carnegie in his famous book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" made the statement "A man convinced against his own will is of the same opinion still". No doubt as one of my blog readers [the ones that don't read my blog are probably not very mature in thought] you've had many a discussion with work mates and family [no one you would choose to be a friend] around issues that they believe to be correct even in the face of a mountain of evidence adamantly stating the opposite of what is proven [flat earth types]. So I believe that the signage here could be falling on deaf ears, only reinforcing to other cyclists like myself that we're right creating a sense of righteousness potentially fueling the rage issue even more.

Secondly how do we respond to be being preached at? hmmm, not very well and the reason this is so is that many of us have to understand the reasons behind the rule or statement for us transform our attitudes and actions. Does this sign do that?

OK, so Ive bought into question the potential success of the sign, I do feel that the designers of this sign have the best of intentions to have us all be safe and enjoy the right to a conflict free journey. What could we do to change the nature of this signage? I'm not proposing a strategy to transform every road user, as that takes time to change attitudes and can take generations, but we could make the tone softer, less preachey and potentially more effective,

...How... in my opinion two simple words are missing...

We drum these words into our kids from an early age and the reason we teach our children to do this is that we realise as grown ups that the way to increase the success of life is to mind your P's and Q's. So we could say please share the road, but that again assumes that some might not want to or we don't share, so...

...How does this read to you? please comment back, i'd love to know your thoughts...

Thanks

for

Sharing the road

 

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Stop f#%^*ing ranting

Drinking at Elevate bar

During my typical Friday afternoon drinking session at Elevate Bar, I met up with a long time cycling friend Al Duncan, first we lied about how good things were (or I did anyway) and he then asked me about my blog and how difficult it was to come up with topics. In responding to his question we inadvertantly brainstormed two more topics .... this is one... Ranting... And another about success, and how successful people tend to succeed in different areas, when I questioned, why then do some really great people fail at their marriages? Which had us briefly question our inital hypothesis, until Al in his wisdom suggested that maybe it's linked to what successful people value, rather than what they are good at!... but that's for another blog on another day....

So back to the subject of ranting... We were discussing the benefits of blogging and it's ability to crystallize thoughts and that the process of writing had reduced my level of ranting, why? because every time I get a blog idea and I started to wrote about it, it turned out to be nothing more than a rant based on very little evidence, a reaction based on no real thought and bugger all truth. So my recommendation [I'm included] this week is that we all stop bloody ranting without THINKING. It's ok to rant about some things [Child poverty in NZ] but lets stop take time to think and really analysis critically before engaging the mouth. If you don't it's not the end of the world, some will diplomatically listen and even agree to a point, but what do you think when someone is ranting? feel free to share your thoughts ;-)

 

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This app will get you on track

So many of us find it soooo hard to change to good habits, whether it's around diet, exercise or work. This maybe a possible helpful app, initially my thoughts were not positive thinking it's just another checklist type app (there are thousands in the app store)

The app is habit list is a great app if you want to make changes. I've been struggling with my diet (no reference to current weight please) since the earthquake last year along with the volume of my cycle training, but with this app I've really started to get a hold of things.

The thing that's driving me to eat well and cycle regularly is the need to get a 100% score! The other benefit is the good feelings I'm having about my success...and that's where it works...

It's a great list as you can vary the variables from daily, or certain days only or even so many days a week as an example I want to train 6 days a week rather than certain days or for days of healthy eating I leave off Friday (fish and chip night) see the screen shot...

This screen shows me the success I'm having and interestingly I'm amazed at how it helps me change or modify my actions....

I'm really driven to increase my training to get that 100% ... 75% is driving me nuts... Ok

Time for me to squeeze into my cycling kit (Lycra is soooo revealing, that why I train by myself at the moment ;-)

Read more from Alex Mann here

 

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A business has never given me money

I've never had a business give me money! I've never sold anything to a business either. If you understand that it's people that engage with people and not businesses you may get different results.

How?

Write ads that appeals to the human needs and motivations, not just the dry boring death by powerpoint presentations full of bullet pointed business advantages, but get a little more creative. As a advertising example, why not also appeal to the purchasing persons agenda with "The money you'll save the firm with our products will assure your promotion" (probably a bit cheesey... That's why I'm not the creative in our firm) or "As an astute executive you'll save your company millions"

This could also form part of the sales process with the person face to face, instead of boring the pants off them with endless technical babble, language that only computers, accountants and analysists resonate with.... start with asking questions that reveal the person agenda or motive...if you relax and don't try and 'sell' you may end up having a satisfying conversation and a sale!

Just remember corporations are filled with humans!

 

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