I have a think for optimizing my email signature… so here we go again.

Yesterday it was this:

Today it is this – because I am not emphasizing my product lines enough:

I think I like this better. I need to get a real site for the social marketing thing, so it’s not a tinyurl… we’ll see how long I keep this one.  But it’s pretty clear now (a lot more clear than before) that I have something for:

• the professional (JJ and the LinkedIn DVD)
• Companies (an outplacement alternative and the social marketing training)
• people on Twitter… which is just … different!

Thoughts?

I found Kyle Lacy on Twitter recently and really like what I saw.  There are a number of his blog posts that are great.

In light of yesterday’s announcement I wanted to share his 25 tips on choosing a social media consultant, and MY thoughts on each of them:

1. They need to use the tools they are teaching.

I totally agree – they have to eat their own dog food.  I’ve seen social media experts who have made a lot of money (stay with me) selling products and coaching on how to use social media… but they haven’t ever sold any non-social-media stuff.  They have jumped on the bandwagon at the right time, made TONS of money, but haven’t really done it themselves.

2. They communicate with their audience.

True.  I’ve been not-as-great as this as I’ve wanted to… at the same time, I hate seeing a blog post where every other comment is from the blog author saying “thanks!”

3. Do they call themselves a Social Media Expert? Ask about the 10,000 hours rule.

I’ll typically let others call me an expert (in anything) rather than me saying I am one.  Same with guru, etc.  Let others give you the title.

With regard to the 10,000 rule, considering someone has spent the last 4 years immersed in social media (at 40 hours a week), they still wouldn’t have hit 10,000 hours… I doubt that some people who we all admire have 10k hours, but I get the point… a newbie vs. a veteran…

4. Ask them their definition of social media.

Kyle says: “If they give you a list of tools. Fail them.”  Oh my gosh. I can’t agree more.  I work with very busy people… they don’t want a list of 25 places to go, or tools to use, or accounts to have.  Give me a break – social media is not a list of the hundreds of places – think more about strategy and tactics.

5. They will run your Twitter account for you.

Kyle says: “It is impossible to ghost a Twitter account.” I agree.  Twitter has to have a genuine person, with a personality, behind it.  There are techniques to take the pressure off of constant updates, or posting daily, or whatever, but I would not suggest ghost tweeting if you are marketing your own stuff.

6. Their blog is less than six months old with no comments.

Considering blogging has been around for a long time I mostly agree… however, there will be many new blogs starting now, or that have started a few months ago, that are quite credible.  One way to get around this is to develop the persona of  ”I’m a newbie learning – won’t you learn along with me?  Let’s go!” … I’ve seen that work quite well.

With regard to no comments, I mostly agree there, also… although getting comments on blogs has gotten increasingly difficult because some people might comment on Twitter or Facebook or other places and that might now show up on the blog post… more on that here.

7. Ask them about social bookmarking. Do they know what it is? Do they use it?

I don’t use it.  Oops.  Or not oops.   I think it depends on your product/service and audience… for me it hasn’t hit my radar much, considering I have limited bandwidth.

8. Have they taught a class before on social media? Even a webinar?

I can see this point… I’m guessing that a “coach” in social media will have done multiple presentations.

9. Are they a Just-add-water expert?

Not sure what that means but I’m guessing it refers to all the people who have read a book or article and say they are an expert.  LOTS of those.

10. They actually have a personality and GET people.

Yep, agreed. Kyle says to not go to the extreme – either no personality or TOO MUCH.  Yeah, totally.

11. They blog more than once a week.

Totally.  I say your blog is the anchor of your social marketing strategy for a reason, you BETTER blog more than once a week!

12. They are linking and being linked.

Yeah, being known is good.  Although there are “experts” out there who are known but still don’t have real world experience… selling their own stuff….

13. Ask their opinion on viral marketing.

I don’t get what Kyle writes in his original post on this, but my thoughts go to “viral videos.”  You don’t make a viral video, you  make a video that goes viral.  You don’t send a viral message, you send a message that goes viral.

Regarding “viral marketing” in general, this is one of the most amazing aspects of the internet.

14. Check out their website.

yeah… if they don’t have a website, that might be a problem :p

15. What do other people think about them?

I think it might be hard to really figure this out – online I see a lot of ego stroking… people are pretty quick to say nice stuff and endorse… unless you are young and immature… but there are places to see this, like LinkedIn Recommendations, etc.

16. They advise you to start a Facebook page as the first step.

I would never suggest that – FB is so very misunderstood and even though they are beyond huge, they are not the first place I’d recommend for most businesses.

17. The instant success test.

Kyle says “If they promise instant results.. You should probably find another consultant.” Agreed – if you are looking for instant you might want to go back to your day job.  Let’s think about long-term… networking and relationships is LONG TERM.

Instantly results can lead to instant failure.

18. What do they think about traditional marketing and advertising?

He makes good points here.  I have strong opinions about this…

19. Ask them about Radian6.

Kyle says “If they have no idea about Radian6. FAIL.”  I totally disagree.  I have heard of Radian6 but couldn’t tell you what they do (well, I know now).  At the small business, entrepreneur level where you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on their types of services they are irrelevant – not knowing who they are is not a fail, it just means that they have impressed Kyle and he thinks they have awesome services (which they probably do).

20. How long have they been using Twitter?

Mostly important, but I’ve seen some social marketing practioners who have been using other tools well but have small followings on Twitter.  Twitter is not the be-all, end-all.  Powerful, important, etc. but not critical for all businesses.

I think this point suffers from the “when all you have is a hammer, all of your problems look like a nail” syndrome.

21. They believe in actually listening to your problems instead of convincing you about the world of social media.

Agree – because sometimes your important solutions might not even be social marketing.

22. If they are still using an @aol.com, @aim.com, @comcast.net, or @att.net email. Fail them.

LOL.  I have to agree with this… I know plenty of successful business people who use those email systems, but if you are in the social space, as an expert or consultant, that would be a red flag for me.

Notice he didn’t put gmail on the list?  I’m sure that is intentional.

23. Listen for new approaches to strategy.

Creative doesn’t always mean better or good… too many times I see these “new approaches” tried by early adopters … who always seem to be jumping from one thing to another… I like principle-based stuff and prefer not to jump all over the place, on all the networks.

24. Are they a used car salesman? Do they seem genuine?

Kyle says: “Do not work with someone you do not trust. Period.” Yep, trust your gut.  And if their sales page wears out your mouse scroll wheel.. um…

25.Do they have any success stories?

Success stories OF THEIR OWN.  That could be an increase of sales, a media gig (getting on TV or print), etc.

Thanks Kyle, for giving me stuff to think about and the opportunity to comment on stuff that’s also been bugging me a for a while!

It’s been a long time coming, and today’s the right day to announce this.  Today I’m announcing my 12 month social marketing training program for entrepreneurs and marketers. This is not geared towards job seekers, although job seekers can sign up.

I’ve done a lot of social training.  I’ve written two books and have spoken probably 300 times in the last 2.5 years.  I’ve done my own webinars, I’ve been on the road from California to Washington D.C, and even to Istanbul.  I’ve done teleseminars, webinars, and articles.  I’ve been the expert for social marketing training systems that other people have put together.

And I never get to share all the stuff I want to share.  Not anymore.  Now I get to share it all.

I know there are a lot of social marketing programs out there. I don’t consider any of them competition – not because I’m better than them, but because this is not my core business.

Instead, this is stuff I’m sharing based on WHAT I’VE DONE in my own business, with my own revenue streams.  From moving product (books, DVDs) to getting subscriptions (on JibberJobber.com) to building a brand as a SME and thought leader, I’ve lived it.  Each of those things have produced $ for me, and it is really the only reason why I have my own sustainable business.

I have lived it every day for almost four years – not just talking about it, but DOING IT.  And now I’m ready to share.  Here are the details of the program:

What it is

The focus of this program is to help you, the entrepreneur or marketing manager or CEO or founder, or speaker, or author, better utilize current online marketing tools to help you build your business.  The emphasis will be on strategy+tactic=growth.  You will understand the tools and different strategies, and you will know what tasks, techniques or tactics to employ.

Each month (see schedule below) you will have at least four hours of instruction and/or discussion, as follows:

Week 1: You will get a video to watch that will help you understand the month’s topic, including strategies and tactics, around that topic.  You will have things to DO.

Week 2: One hour webinar/call where we talk about the things you were supposed to DO, how you did them, what results you got, any questions you have, any suggestions, etc.  This will be an open, collaborative meeting.

Week 3: same as week 2 – the emphasis is on DOING things as well as answering any questions, following up on exceptions, etc.

Week 4: Open webinar – we can discuss anything you want from this month’s topic, or any month.  I left this open so if you have a question about something we aren’t talking about for 9 months, you don’t have to wait.

Each of the 4 weeks will be recorded and available for review (unless we have technology glitches) at your leisure – you don’t have to be on the calls but I suggest you are.

There will be a private Yahoo/Google Group where we can discuss things at any time – ask me questions, ask your peers questions, share wins and victories, etc.

This model of training (video and discussion and accountability) with the email forum to top it off.

In addition, each person will get a premium JibberJobber account, as relationship management is key, and we’ll use JibberJobber as a baseline CRM tool.

Tentative Schedule

• February: LinkedIn Marketing
• March: Blog Marketing
• April: Twitter Marketing
• May: Facebook Marketing
• June: video marketing sites (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
• July: Newsletters Marketing
• August: CRM / JibberJobber
• September: Website and SEO, shopping carts, etc.
• October: speaking and Webinars
• November: Products: books, DVDs, recorded webinars, etc.
• December: Article Marketing
• January 2011: Press Releases (includes $249 Killer Online Press Releases DVD if you have paid for at least 3 other months)

Price

One Person: $99/month, paid monthly.  No long-term obligation.

Discount if you buy 6 months (one month free) or 12 months (three months free) upfront.

Discounts for companies with multiple attendees – email for details.

To sign up simply go to the JibberJobber payment page and make any of the following payments:

One month, one time: $99 (make sure to put a comment that this is JUST for January)

Monthly subscription: $99 (make sure you say it’s for a subscription, and to bill you monthly (monthly draw will be on the first of each month))

Six month, one time: $495

Twelve months, one time: $891

I regularly charge $250/hour for consulting, so to get 4 hours * 12 months for $891 is a steal of a deal.

Refund Policy

If you are not satisfied with the course we will refund your money as follows:

Monthly payments: anytime during the month, if you are unsatisfied, cancel and ask for a refund for that month.

Six/Twelve month payments: We’ll refund the month you are not happy with and then cancel the rest of the plan.

I started my business with lots of money… no wait, no money.  No money.  Lots of time, but no money.

No one wanted to talk to me, because I was a nobody and people were waiting to see if I was a flash-in-the-pan entrepreneur.

So, with no money, and nobody wanting to talk to me, and lots of time, I wrote.

And I wrote, and I wrote.

I wrote blog posts and articles, and I wrote lots and lots of comments on other blogs.

This became what I now call part of my Blog Marketing Strategy.

If you want to get your name and brand out there, and find evangelists and customers, and get traditional press and new media buzz, you NEED to incorporate blogs into your marketing strategy.

I put together a video recording, about 2 hours, of what I did as part of my blog marketing strategy.  You can get it for $50.  It is one of my favorite recordings, because I LIVED this stuff.

And it worked for me.  And it can work for you.

Here’s what Kathy Bitschenauer, Certified Career Management Coach, had to say about it:

GREAT webinar, loved the way you presented it, and gained a ton of new information and explanations of things that I had not understood, such as what’s the value of Technorati, or the ways to use Google Alerts to your advantage. This is one I’ll review over and over. And I learned how important it really is to get going on creating a blog and writing in it.

Tools.  Your own blog. Other blogs.

Strategy and Tactics.

This webinar is AWESOME (yeah, I’m biased).

If you want it you can order it here.  Or learn more here.

(update: 12/28/09 – had to turn off comments as something with blogs and marketing gets a TON of spam comments.)

I have a lot of thoughts on marketing books.  I have two books and I have two published authors in my series and soon will have at least two more.

Yesterday at Thanksgiving I was talking to someone who has a brilliant idea that I want to put in front of all of my JibberJobber users.  And I thought of some new marketing ideas specific to that book.

Here are some miscellaneous, not comprehensive, thoughts on book marketing, in response to an email I got asking what to do to market books.  The email indicated the publisher and book distributors were pretty much doing what their role was, but once that’s done, what do you do?  (FYI, the book in the email is a novel, which is quite different than my own books)

1. Forget about the publisher and distributors. Don’t hold your breath and wait for them to succeed for you, or watch what they do, or wait for them before you do anything.  My publisher was quite accommodating to me but I think this was because my first book proved some of the potential (in other words, sold well).
2. Market it yourself via social tools. Andy Sernovitz sent me an email this morning saying something like “social marketing is not word of mouth marketing … social sites are merely tools.”  I totally agree.  But you sure better bring your tools to the job… get the social sites going and do what you need to do there.  I have a bunch of videos on this stuff.
3. Get a domain and fix your email address and signature. The person who emailed me had no email signature to point me to their blog, or twitter handle, or Facebook Group (yep, I singled those three out for a reason!).  The email address is a hotmail addy… I have no idea how to find out more.  I’m guessing she sends out dozens, maybe over 100, emails a day… what a missed opportunity!
4. Go to face to face networking events. Have your book with you at all times.  I admit I don’t do this, but I don’t need to or care to.  If you are wondering how to get the word out, you should be a walking billboard for your book.
5. Find channels. One of my favorite sales concepts… what group has your readership in it?  In other words, if I came and said “I’m speaking at the Association of _______ and I want to tell them about your book,” what association is that?  If you can identify groups (associations, chapters, societies, etc.) who are made up of your perfect reader, you need to get in there – speak, sponsor (can usually be done for around $100), write for the newsletter, get in their social network or online group or Yahoo group (fix your email signature!), etc.  Figure out how to become a passionate value-add member.
6. Give books away to the right people. I bought 200 books and my publisher told me to give them out.   I couldn’t.  I had to sell them because I was already broke when I bought them and had to go into debt to pay for them.  I wanted to recoup that.  But I had a current topic that would become hot.  I’m guessing that a novel needs to have a lot of people talking about it – can you get 100 books and send them to 100 sneezers (aka, evangelists, tippers, or people who will TALK about it?).  If you can, do it.  If you can’t, get 10 and send them out.  Maybe even to bloggers.  BTW, my Blog Marketing 201 – 501 video is pretty helpful with ideas.

What are your ideas? BTW, none of these ideas touch on how I’d market this new book that I talked to someone about last night.

Janet Thaeler wrote a book in my series titled I Need a Killer Press Release — Now What??? When people have seen it their response has been “I’ve needed something like that!”

Yes, it is that cool.

Guess what – even cooler, she is wrapping up a press release DVD that shows you how to do a lot of stuff – from navigating various websites where you submit press releases (what a pain) to finding keywords to make your press release strong (this is a BIG deal), Janet’s DVD is like a personal training session.

It’s going to be awesome.  Right now it’s in the editing stage – all of the chapters have been recorded – I hope to have it shipping in December (my team is producing the DVD).

You can get a significant discount by pre-ordering the DVD (for a limited time) by clicking the image below:

The list price of the DVD is $249… if you pre-order this week you get it for $186.  Pricey, but if you wanted consulting from Janet (or someone of her caliber) you’d pay more and have to take furious notes … this DVD is something you can watch again and again and again

There are two picture (avatar or image) problems that I constantly see online:

1. Picture is too dark.

This is usually an avatar on a social networking profile like LinkedIn or Twitter.  Mine was too dark, to the point of being accused of being GOTH (lol).  I loved my picture, actually, but I got too many complaints about it and finally changed it to something lighter.

I didn’t think too much about it but lately I have seen a number of pictures on LinkedIn or Twitter – these are SMALL pictures – they are so small that if you have a lot of dark shadows and background it won’t look good.

One reason I see too much shadow is because the image is cropped from a networking event – not an on-purpose picture.

2. Picture is too BIG.

This is a problem I see on many small business owners websites – it is either their professional picture they had taken, or a corporate picture, or something like that.

It’s easy to figure out if it is too big – the way I find out is when I go to an About Us page and the page takes forever to load.  Actually, the page loads while the picture slooooowly creeps up.  Any slowly creeping photo is TOO big.

If you right click the image you can see the properties, which will tell you the size.  Anything under 100K is good.  Anything over that can be optimized (in just a few seconds).  Anything over 500k or 1MB is HORRIFIC.

Change your picture size to something small (this is the file size, not the dimension of the image) and you’ll have that About Us page loading lickity-split!

(I know, kind of a weird post but it’s been on my mind :p)

It’s official – a new branch or division of JibberJobber offering an alternative to “traditional outplacement.”  You can see the Affordable Outplacement website here, and you can see my announcement on JibberJobber here.

What I wanted to share on this blog, since many entrepreneurs read it, is the SEO goodness we just got – I don’t know how long this will stay at the top (competition could easily snatch the #1 spot), but check this out:

UI -> User Interface… we still get the occassional email that says “I have NO idea what JibberJobber is/does!  What is it?”

I’ve lived in this world for too long to be unbiased, so we take this feedback seriously and work on little tweaks to help people get it.  Here’s the old home page (the stuff in the YELLOW is what we were changing – it wasn’t really YELLOW!  Also, I think this is the 3rd or 4th version):

And here’s what we just changed it to (one minute ago):

What do you think?

I started blogging three years ago this month.  It was a fantastic environment where you had your own “bully pulpit” … a place where you were in charge, you had the mic, and you could say whatever you wanted.

I soon learned that bloggers had quite the ego.  They used their bully pulpit to talk about boring stuff (that we were supposed to be interested in) as well as though leadership or subject matter expert stuff.  Bloggers had enough rope to hang themselves with – and some did.  Others became fantastically popular (Seth, Guy, Michael, Chris Brogan), and even internet celebrities.

One of the most empowering, ego-feeding things for a blogger is the comments – or, NUMBER of comments.  When someone leaves a comment on your blog it means (a) you have readers (aside from your momma), and (b) you touched someone intellectually to the point they wanted to weigh in.

Getting comments on a blog fed a blogger’s ego like Golden Coral feeds a hungry boy scout.  There are even bragging rights associated with getting comments.

Read a blog that doesn’t get comments?  You might just be the only reader of that blog.  Obviously, a blog with a few comments (if there are consistently a few), or dozens, or hundreds, or even tens of thousands, really validated the blogger.

And fed their ego.

Fast forward a bit and we come to the evolution, or perhaps the problem (if your ego is tied to your comments): the introduction of other social platforms where discussion can happen.

For example, three years ago I might have written a thought-provoking post and gotten 15 comments on the blog post – my ego is fed, I’m validated, and everyone knows I’m a force to be reckoned with.

Today, however, it’s different.  I write a blog post, and tweet a link to my Twitter followers.  I get NO comments on the blog.

But my tweet gets RT’d 6 times.

And 4 people reply to my tweet with their thoughts.

And 7 people comment on my “status” on Facebook, since my Tweets become my Facebook Status.

There are two problems with this scenerio:

The first problem is artificial… it isn’t really a problem, although it crushes the blogger’s ego.  If you get no comments on the blog, you start to look like a chump… right?  What happened to all of those validating comments?  Maybe you should QUIT BLOGGING?

You might have heard that blogs are dying (they aren’t!)… I think people who see the conversation go elsewhere wonder why they still blog and are somehow convincing themselves they should follow the discussion (as it travels through various platforms), as opposed to continue to initiate the discussion (on their blog).  I think this is a shortsighted mistake.

The second problem is what really irks me.  It is that someone who reads my blog post WILL NOT get the benefit of the wisdom of the crowd.

I try and write my blog posts from my perspective, and always wonder what other smarter folks would say – either agreeing or disagreeing – I don’t care their position, but I do want to get a well-rounded discussion.

It’s no one’s fault, but when people respond a little bit here (Twitter) and a little bit there (Facebook), and even in Facebook they respond on the Wall and/or the Notes section, the conversation is fragmented, and NO ONE can follow it, except me.

It makes me sad that the wisdom of the crowd gets lost amongst the platforms, and no one else can get the value of the conversation.

Are blogs dying?  No.  But there is an interesting evolution of where and how the conversation happens…. and this is an evolution that hasn’t been fun to watch