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10 Jun 2016

Social Media Specialist Part 2

Friends!

Friends. Are you someone that has the ability to make friends easily? Are you able to connect with people without a second thought and get to the heart of the matter, what’s really bothering them. If this sounds like you, then consider that becoming a Social Media Specialist may be right for you. Social media by its nature means that you’re going to be spending a lot of time on social media. You’re going to have to build relationships with people. That means that you become their friends and invest in their lives without ever really meeting them. Sometimes this is easier than other times.

Consider that if you follow someone on Twitter, that you’re going to be able to follow everything that they post about. You’re going to get to know what their views are on a given topic and you’re going to be able to engage with them on those topics. As a result of getting to know them, you will be able to see who will be able to use your clients needs and who won’t. If they don’t meet your current client’s needs, consider that you don’t need to unfriend them. After all, you may change companies and you may also start your own company. They may need those services that are offered by the new company. That’s a win-win for both of you.

You need to become friends with those that friend you. I’ve recently had someone in social media befriend me to only have him cram his business down my throat as soon as I ‘befriended’ him back. People don’t want to feel used by you, so don’t use them. There’s a decided difference between sharing something that you do with a friend, and pushing your agenda on them without even getting to know them. It is not a good practice to get into, I strongly recommend that you don’t.

Also, consider that people know if you’re truly investing in them or if you’re trying to use them for their own gain. While it may take longer to invest in people, the ROI (return on investment) that you get from investing in them is far beyond the short term relationship. Always give your attention to investing in people for the long term and you’ll not only be deeply satisfied, but others will appreciate you as well. Remember, if people know that you truly care about them and not what they can do for you, they’ll go the extra mile to help you when you need that help.

10 Jun 2016

Social Media Specialist Part 1

Social Media Specialist

Becoming a Social Media Specialist is not always as easy as you might think. It’s a combination of many different talents with the ability to execute any of those given talents at the blink of an eye.

Writing!

Consider if you will writing. Writing is something that few give much thought to when going through school. You do writing because the teacher gives you an assignment and then mandates that you turn it in. This requires the ability to communicate in written form. If you’re not able to handle grammar or spelling, then at the very least you will have lots of red marks on your paper. Depending on the instructor and the class, you may also suffer the consequences of those red marks by the lowering of your grade for that assignment.

The hard part about writing in school (or otherwise), is that you may not be gifted in coming up with the ideas for the given topic. If you’re lucky, your teacher may actually let you chose the topics that you want to do. With some people, that’s worse than an assigned topic because they’re not creative in coming up with their own ideas for that topic.

How does all of this play into being a Social Media Specialist? It’s simple, part of what a Social Media person does is to write blogs. The good and the bad news is along the same lines. If you work for a craftsman of some sort, all of your blogs will be focused around the type of craft that that person does. It also means that those that read your blogs will all be focused to those that are familiar with the topic. Consider that some of those will be experts and some will not. Each of these has it’s own challenges as well. When you write for a beginner in the field, you have to make things simple for them to understand. If on the other hand, you’re writing for an expert, you’re not going to be able to bluff them. You will actually need to know what you’re talking about and give that expert something new that they may not have thought of already.

10 Jun 2016

References

Often times when we think about references, we think about getting someone to say nice things about us. That way we can get the next great job that we’re looking at getting. But that’s not the type of references that I’m talking about. In this case the type of references being refereed to are those sources that you can use to write papers, blog or other such paper.

Articles

Articles are one way that you can get ideas or inspiration for writing. It’s not that you don’t have knowledge, it’s just that sometimes, you can come up with something to write about that will be worth reading let alone writing. That’s where resources and references come in. Going to a place where you can find topics of interest to you as well as to others.

This is one of the wonderful things about Twitter. If you use Twitter for something other than where you’re going for dinner, you’ll be able to find links to just about anything. This means that you’re going to need to follow people that will give you that type of information. Bloggers, newspapers, social media specialists.

Blogging!

Blogging sites are another good place to get ideas from. Why? The flow of information is never ending. If you put a topic in, you’ll get hundreds of responses. From that you’ll be able to glean ideas as to what to write about. Keep in mind too that you may also get a compilation of ideas that are out there for one article. My daughters had to do a ‘health’ report for the health class. They both picked the topic of bullying. But one decided to integrate mental health with bullying and the other decided to focus on the burlier and why they did it and how to get them help. They both came at the root topic of bullying, but complied other information and angles for their projects.

Take A Walk!

That’s right I’m telling you to go take a walk! There are a number of reasons for this, and while you may know them, you may not have considered them as of late. When you go for a walk it clears your mind, but it can also give you ideas as to what to write about. Sitting by my window I see much that can be written about. The sirens that wiz by, the trees, the pollution that they pain in the sky and so much more. Which is why walking may help you out. Consider too, that walking alone may give you ideas about exercise, the heat and it’s ramifications and any number of other ideas. All because you went for a walk.

Movies And Documentary’s

Movies and documentary’s can also give you ideas. If you’re a visual person, you may think and get ideas best by mental stimulants. Movies and documentaries may open up a plethora of ideas for you to pull from and not just for today.

Friends

Sometimes you just need a break and talk to your friend. When we get into conversations something almost always comes up that gives us an idea. It usually takes form of an opinion. For example: Mary decides that she’s going to take a trip to the Bahama’s for her vacation this year. I’m sure you’d have an opinion on her doing that. Maybe it’s about the Bahama’s, how safe it’d be for her to go their or the cost that would be involved, maybe all of the above. The point being you now have lots of ideas about what to write about! Which was the point of visiting with your friend.

The List!

The list is something that you always need to have. When you’re walking, going to a movie, going to blogs and reading articles, you need to have a pen and paper with you. Write down all of the ideas that come to you, EVEN if you think that they’re no good. You never know that bad idea today may be a good one for public events or a world wide disaster down the road.

Having a pen and paper with you (or for you minimalist a phone with a notepad), has to become secondary. That way whenever you get an idea you don’t lose it, you have somewhere to put it without having to worry about losing it. This is especially true if you are on the cloud in anyway. Be it saving documents, backing them up or any social media. Most of them now have a place where you can put your personal thoughts.

Conclusion

There are a lot of different things that you can do to spin ideas off. There are also tons of things that you can do to have ideas come to mind and move you from being stuck (also known as writers block). Most all of these ideas all had one thing in common: relaxation. Often times writers block occurs because you’re to stressed and pressured to get that ‘perfect’ idea, when the reality is most ideas aren’t perfect, but we unpack them and they develop into something wonderful!

10 Jun 2016

What’s Appropriate?

There is so much out there on each of the social media sites, that often times the line between them can become blurred. After all, some would say, aren’t they all the same? The question to this is a resounding now! Each of these platforms is designed and aimed at a different audience. If I said something along the lines of, “let’s go to a bar for drinks!” versus, “let’s go to Mc Donald’s for drinks!” you wouldn’t question that there’s a resounding difference between a bar and Mc Donald’s, the same is true for social media.

Your Audience!

Your audience is always going to be the fundamental difference in all of the social media sites. Linked In is a site that’s designed for B2B, but has recently had a major controversy stirred up by one of the business owners on it. Candice Galek ran a campaign asking if a swimsuit with the girls rear-end hanging out was appropriate for LinkedIn. Some said yes, some said no. The end result was that it was the ad was pulled down and she reaped 36,000 new followers and that particular ad was viewed more than 50,000 times.

Regardless if you agree or disagree Candice got her name out there and her followers are high on most anyone’s account. She got publicity by asking a simple question that was sheer genius. What made it ‘ok’ for her to put such a picture up while others can’t? The answer is simple, her company is BikiniLuxe. Therefore, to advertise bikini’s by showing pictures of girls in bikini’s is consider ok.

Death And Religion

Does it make sense to post something about death and religion? That again is a good question depending on where you are posting it and what is the business that you’re working in. If your company is a funeral home, mortuary or some other business that deals with death, then it makes perfect since.

The same is true for those that deal or work in the area of Religion. If it’s your business then it’s ok to be posting on forums such as Linked In about your business and the topics that concern it. If however, it’s not your business, there are better forums than Linked In to be discussing such topics. You can choose places like Twitter and Facebook to handle such details. Those forums are designed for the personal user and the business that comes along with a personal account.

Part of the advantage to and with Twitter is the fact that you can only make brief snippets in a conversation. You are limited to 140 characters and everything you’re going to say has to be done in that amount of characters that are available. The other advantage to using Facebook and Twitter type websites, is that if you don’t like what someone thinks or believes, you’re free to terminate the ‘friendship’ and no one will know the difference. These type of channels are based on a ‘friendship’ format as opposed to business.

Sites!

Take a look at the sites that you’re considering and see what fits the needs that you have. There are sites out there that will allow for you to post most anything and theirs no problem with that. Other’s will request that you label the material that your posting for, such as ‘work friendly’ or not. You are still able to use the site, you just have to put your product in the correct viewing area. If you’re a photographer and looking for those platforms, they’re out there.

Take the time to research your needs and the platforms that fit them, then you and everyone else will be satisfied.

10 Jun 2016

Is It Wise To Be Changing Logos?

Company’s work hard to get their product out there and to become recognizable with the public. They are seeking that recognition to be a good thing and not a bad thing. They want them to be able to recognize what their product is with just the logo. Consider if I mention a blue bird, you’d automatically think of Twitter. Because they’ve branded themselves in such a way that you know them by their logo.

Ok, so it may not be the logo, it may be the taste of the product. Coke found this challenge when they had everyone addicted to the old brand and then brought in the ‘new’ brand and it flopped. Everyone wasn’t as impressed with their new formula as Coke was. It didn’t take them long to figure out what they had mad a major mistake, were losing sales and went back to their old formula and I dare say with tails between their legs.

The latest of these to dive into a new style is Instagram. They took their product from a warm and toasty feeling to one of ‘slam ya in the face, know that I’m here’ style. Is that a good thing? It’s questionable at best. Person after person is most unhappy about what they’ve done. I had trouble even finding their platform because of it, no doubt many others did too. So the question is was it a good thing. With Facebook being their parent company, it’s not likely that they will change and go back to the old format. After all, Facebook has the reputation for not caring what it’s users think, want or need.

Will the change in logo make a difference in the long run for Instagram? Well, that still remains to be seen, but if the initial outburst is any indication, Facebook made a major mistake on this one. Here are some companies that didn’t handle this transition well in 2015: Lenovo, Verizon, CBS Sports, TBS, Quest Diagnostics, Best Western, “M”, Daimler and Merck.

It’s Not All Bad!

If your company is considering changing its Logo, consider these companies that made that change successful in 2015: IHOP, OpenTable, Turner, Sabarro, Emerald, The Ritz-Carlton, Google Ventures, Johnnie Walker, Spike and Google.

The bottom line is to make sure that you have a group of people around you that can give you honest feedback as to if it’s a good thing. Take it to the social media platform, throw them a bone (free shirt, gift certificate or some other company product) and see what people will think of your new logo. If there’s a resounding outcry then it’s probably not something that you’re going to want to change to. If on the other hand it’s positive, then you’re making a good move. And remember, changing your logo isn’t mandatory.

10 Jun 2016

Content Marketing Part 1

Content marketing is one of those buzz words that keeps floating around the universe of social media. You can hear it from the avenue of tweets and blogs as well as your boss. But the real question should be; What is content marketing. It’s something that apparently everyone is supposed to know at this point in time. It can be equated to asking what is Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Everyone believes they know what it is, but may I suggest to you that content marketing like social media is something that most people barley skim the surface of. They go something along the lines of: Content – Got It! Marketing – Got it.

Content Marketing

What is the ‘technical’ definition of content marketing then? The marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action. But there’s more to content marketing than simply the definitions that are presented before you. For example, if you have someone post something on Twitter or Facebook, that’s not necessarily content that’s put into the classification of content marketing.

10 Jun 2016

LinkedIn And Twitter Are Friends

Did you know that LinkedIn and Twitter are friends? That’s right, the two companies mostly do to LinkedIn’s desire to make it so that you can monitor all of your linked in friends while you’re on Twitter!

10 Jun 2016

In The Beginning!

In the beginning things were a lot simpler then they are now. After all, there was only Facebook and you went on as did your classmates and complained about your teachers and that was that. Then came the other giants: Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram (now owned by Facebook), to name just a few. And if you’re a business, suddenly your little post on Facebook is no longer enough. Suddenly you have to be a master of all the social media platforms or at least the major ones and be able to use them effectively and without hesitation. If not, you will be left behind and ultimately people wont know about your product and how it can benefit them.

Sites And More Sites

Arguably one of the hardest things to determine is what sites will work for your product. Consider first that you need to determine what your product is in order to determine what sites will work for it. If it’s something that will have a lot of photographs, then there are sites like Flickr, Tumbler and Instagram, that are able to showcase pictures of your product for you. Most of them like to have you ‘tell a story’ with your pictures. One of the greatest examples of this use is found with bands and actors. They take pictures of where they’re at, what they’re doing and over time you see the story develop. Some cautions are now appropriate. Some will not allow for you to post as a representative of a company, it’s a violation of their terms and conditions. Part of what you will need to is pay attention to what you ‘sign’ when you go on to one of the sites. If you get blocked, you’ll lose all of the work that you’ve done and that’s a waste of your time.

To Blog Or Not To Blog!

One of the challenges for many people that stare at the beast of social media is blogging. They remember the terror of going to school and the teacher with that massive red pen marking their work up. It’s understandably why you may feel this way, after all teachers can be tough. But here’s a few things to consider when you’re looking at blogging.

You don’t have to write a lot of information. Just write what’s important to you about your product. You’ll be surprised to find out how fast you can write 500 words (402 words to this point).
You’re the expert, therefor, people are going to be coming to you and your site to have you teach them about what you know and love. That takes a lot of the pressure off of your shoulders, because you’re going to be writing what you already know. It’s not about some foreign topic that the teacher is making you write. It’s now about what you love.
Make your blog very niche. That means that you can pick the smallest of topics and build them out. The easy ones are often the most hidden ones. Why? Because it’s things that others wont have thought about and if by some chance they have, they’ll need you’re input on the topic because it is so niche.
Don’t be afraid! This is about your product, not the grade that you’re going to be receiving. It’s information that you are simply transfer to someone else in written form.

Research

No doubt you’re now certain that you’re back in school and are remember that you used to spend hours in the library looking up boring topics to write even more boring papers. But that’s not what this research is all about. This is about going and finding experts in your field to make you a bigger success than you already are. Consider the following things about this type of research:

You don’t have to go to the library for hours on end. While you may chose to buy books, you don’t have to stay in the library and you don’t have to write a report. You can put what you learn to work right away and see if it’s working for you. If not, you get to dump it! No harm, no foul, no bad grade.
You can learn by going to conferences and traveling. That makes them a tax deduction and it makes your business bigger and better.
Your competition! Yes, it’s important to follow what your competition does, especially if they are making more money than you are. Your competition is doing something right and you need to learn from them, what that something is.
Follow the trail! You’ll find that once you start learning about social media that there is always a new trail to go down. You’ll also find out that things will be fluid and things will change.
Find a mentor. There are people out their that everything they say about social media works for your company. Follow them absorb from them everything that they have to say. Ask questions, ask questions, ask questions because the more you ask, the more you will know and the more you can use. And that’s what will advance your business.

Mistakes!

I’m sorry to break it to you, but you’re going to make mistakes and plenty of them. And that’s ok if you use them to learn from. If you make those mistakes your rocks to stand on, one on top of another! Then they weren’t mistakes, they were learning opportunity’s and that’s what makes your business better and stronger.

Should you throw your hands up in the air and just decide that you can’t do it, remember there are experts out their like GladLABS.com that will be more than willing to help you with your social media and take you to the next level.

10 Jun 2016

Social Media.

Social Media

In a day and age when distance is common in business, it’s something that has to be left behind when you’re going to be doing Social Media. The reason is simple: social media demands that you be in touch with people and get to know them. Really know them, not just on a superficial level, but on a level where you can truly get to know the people. Social Media demands that you not do business as usual. Social Media requires that you not be belittling or condescending to your customers. In a world where it’s always about cold electronics, social media is a breath of fresh air. Social media demands that you interact with people on a human level.

Social Media is just that SOCIAL. It’s where the future of communication is and business. People even in corporations want to know that you care about them at a deeper level that impacting and deepening your bottom line. If you’re one of those that thinks you can bluff people, know that they will sense that you’re in it to improve your bottom line only and they’ll run far and you’ll never be able to gain the profits that a true friend will gain.

Then Who?

So now you may be asking who is social media for? Who in fact, would be the perfect for social media? Are you outgoing? Are you friendly? Do you care more about making others happy and meeting their needs then the bottom line? If so you are perfect for social media. Social media allows for you to be creative and requires you to think outside of the box. It’s where the same old same old doesn’t work, because people want genuine not strong arm. So the only questions left for you is which platforms are you going to master and when are you going to start?

10 Jun 2016

Hot Tip Of The Day

There’s so much to know and do in any given field. It’s not always easy to know what’s what or even where to start. When you’re at the beginning of a journey when you know there’s so much, where do you start. It’s often say a journey of a thousands miles begins with the first step. This is such an understatement because there’s so much more that occurs even before those first steps. It’s those preparatory steps that are often over looked. So how does that unfold with Social Media. Put the first things first.

First Thing:

The first thing that you need to look at is having a ramp up period. It’s easy for others that can’t do what you’re in the process of learning and beginning to have patients. People tend to what everything to be perfect from the beginning. The reality is; it’s not and your not going to be. Even when you’ve got the basics down, you’re still going to make mistakes and have things that you have to learn. Be easy on yourself. That doesn’t mean that you dilly or don’t work to move forward. That means that you give yourself time to learn, process and find what’s going to work best for you.

Second:

Make lists of what you need and want to get from each person involved with you. For example, you will need to find out how often they want to be contacted. You may think one week is frequently enough. But if they have the jitters, it may be twice a week or even daily. A miscommunication on this front may cost you unnecessary time, anxiety and potentially that job that you worked so hard to get. Find out what they’re expecting and if necessary, over communicate. Don’t let someone else do the communicating for you.

Tweaking: Even when you get the basics down that you need, you’re going to find that there will be things that you need to tweak. Some things will work for one client or employer, but the next one will want nothing to do with what the first wanted. What one considers to be urgent, the other doesn’t. Never assume that you can transfer everything from one client or employer to the next.

Archives:

References

Blogging!

Take A Walk!

Movies And Documentary’s

Friends

Conclusion

Content Marketing Part 1

Social Media.

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