Category Archives: Social Marketing

Why Twitter is failing, and what their demise would be

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This is one of my biggest frustrations with Twitter (the frustrations have mounted over the last 18 months):

Have you ever seen a DM (direct message) in your email inbox with that exact message?

I get them regularly… probably once or twice a week for over a year.

Clicking on this link will infest my account with gremlins and probably spam all of my followers.

It’s a great virus/scam.  People are always like “oh my gosh… a picture of me? And it is an LOL, so it is either flatter, cool or embarrassing!  I’m so cool/vain I better click on it. ROFL!”

These very few words totally play into human nature.

I do not understand how Twitter continues to let this type of crap perpetuate their social network.

Why isn’t some brainiac at Twitter saying “Oh, we should filter messages that say “Did you see this pic of you? lol” and then have a bit.ly link.

HOW HARD IS THAT?

Why have they not done it?

There are third party apps/services that you can subscribe to to keep the spam down, but in my opinion this is Twitter’s responsibility and obligation.  They MUST work to keep this crap out of their system, and from what I’ve seen they don’t care.

Every single time I get another spam message from Twitter I think it’s another nail in their coffin.

I am dumbfounded.

Myspace: the company that won’t die

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I think MySpace led the way for what we now call social networking.

Except it got weird and creepy and had stigmas attached.

Apparently it just won’t die.  Here’s the latest on how it is seeking $50M and wants to relaunch as a music business, to compete with Spotify and Pandora.

Interesting.  My first thought was “why be a ‘spotify killer,’ why not just be your own thing?

My second thought was “this makes a lot of sense, since music is probably what has kept MySpace alive.”

It will be interesting to see what happens….

Are you using testimonials in your marketing strategy?

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Whether it’s a personal or corporate marketing strategy, are you using testimonials well and enough?

Check out Pete Leibman’s post: A Secret Weapon For Marketing Your Career Center

As I read through that I loved his advice and knew that it would apply to YOU, whether you are marketing a book, a career center, a service, or yourself!

What testimonials do you draw on in your marketing?

If your answer is “none” or “what?” then you need to read Pete’s article and apply it to yourself starting right now.

Robert Merrill asks What is the New Blogging?

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Check out Robert’s post here.

My answer was so long I thought I’d make it the subject of this post:

Robert, thanks for this post and inviting me to comment. This evolution has been frustrating to watch and live over the years.

As you know I’ve blogged for over 6 years, and have maintained multiple blogs. I currently maintain three of my own.

I also wrote a book on LinkedIn (I’m on LinkedIn – Now What???), coauthored a book on Facebook (I’m on Facebook – Now What???) and have done numerous live presentations, videos etc, on things like blogging, Twitter, etc.

Six years ago I wanted comments on my posts. When social became bigger, the comments went away because people would “comment” about my post on Facebook, or Twitter, or elsewhere. It was messing everything up :p

But I continued blogging… through all the social eruption.

Or should I say distraction.

I’ve seen Google not care about social posts (comments, walls, discussions, etc.) like they care about (or track) my posts. If I google certain keywords I find my posts from years ago, but never a tweet or discussion or wall post. The chatter that happened in social is… GONE.

If I were to leave this comment on your FB page only a small handful of people would ever see it. I could not refer back to it, ever (especially years/months later). But on this post it lives forever (as long as your blog doesn’t go down). That’s really powerful. I continue to send people links to my posts that are years-old.

What I’ve seen recently (in the last 18 months) is that people are getting really tired of all the places they “have to” be… LI, FB, Twitter were the Big Three. Oh but get on Google+ or you are a loser who is missing out! And Pinterest is better than them all! And what about ____ and ____ and ____!!!! It is just too much, and people don’t have time for it, nor do they have the energy.

That’s why you see people “going dark,” or “taking a one month social fast.” It’s just too much.

Where should you blog? On your blog. For years I’ve called my blog(s) the “anchor of my comprehensive social marketing strategy.” It continues to be. Even if I hit a grandslam elsewhere (like a LinkedIn Answers question) I’ll link to it from my blog, so it lives forever and can be accessed later.

The next best place, right now (and this could change but I don’t see anything that is near good enough to be a close second) is LinkedIn Group Discussions. They don’t live forever, but you have a built-in audience that might care about what you are talking about (which bloggers don’t necessarily have)…

Anyway, my two cents. Can’t wait to see where we’ll be in another six years :)

Are You Blogging Effectively?

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This morning I have written four blog posts, on four different blogs.  Well, with this one, make that FIVE.

Why do I do it?

Because blogging continues to be an incredibly effective tool for outreach, community development, sharing my thoughts, personal therapy, and even SEO.  It helps me stay connected, and it makes me think critically about my ideas.

Here’s what I’ve written just this morning:

Another Way to See Full Names on LinkedIn: Recommendations. On my LinkedIn blog. Had to schedule this for tomorrow since a prescheduled post went up this morning.

Finding Dignity, Finding Hope. Identifying Your Identity. On my JibberJobber blog. Perhaps the most important post I’ve written this month, maybe this year, about how job seekers tend to lose their identity, and how that is not good (and what to do/think about it).

What is the scariest thing about starting (or thinking about starting) a business? On my 51 Alternatives blog (this is for my newest book).  This was a soft-pitch post, easy to write. Basically I let those blog readers know about my LinkedIn question, which is totally relevant for this audience.

How has social marketing evolved? Please share your thoughts… On the Recruiting Blogs community. I posted this on a Group Discussion on LinkedIn, but thought that community would be a great place to have a conversation about it.

And now this post, which is a good teaching post about blogging (how, when, how often, why, what to write, etc.).

Are YOU blogging effectively? Do you know WHY you are blogging?

Social Media instead of Living Life

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Social media is… funny.

I wrote two books on social media. I train people how to use (mostly) LinkedIn. I talk about how job seekers can use these tools, and I talk a lot about personal branding, whether it is online or offline.

I’ve been on these tools for years. I’ve had heavy-use periods, and light-use periods (right now I’m going through a light-use phase).

I’ve seen people become consumed with social media, whether they think it is going to be the silver bullet to end their job search, or get them gobs of new customers, or just find a friend or share stuff… social media has become too-consuming.

Here’s a clip I found on TechCrunch where a comedian who has made over $.5M in one test/campaign using social media shares his thoughts on how we use it.

Some of my favorite parts:

Um, I don’t have any favorite parts.  The entire thing is a favorite.

So where does social media fit in? It’s a TOOL.

How can you use it as a tool, instead of YOU being the tool (see #4 here)??

 

New Email Signature

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I think about these things a lot, especially when I’m speaking.  I think “my heavens, I need a new email signature.”

Why?

Because the current one isn’t communicating what I want it to communicate.

Here’s the old one, from this morning:

Any guesses on what each number means?  I’ll list them below, but here’s the new signature:

Here’s what each number is for:

  1. This is a special string of characters I chose to tell JibberJobber to not make anything below it a log entry.  I could change it, and probably will, but this is a very important line, even though it really means nothing to anyone.
  2. I think it’s important to put LinkedIn DVD, instead of just DVD.
  3. I moved this description behind the link, to be consistent with the other lines.
  4. I decided to take this off… my Twitter followers hasn’t necessarily grown, and if you really want to find me you can search for me.  We’ll see if I flop back on this one.
  5. I took the JibberJobber mobile link out… I think there are more important things to communicate…. like the new line for my LinkedIn book!

Luckily I can change things as often as I want… make changes for yourself… if you hate it, you aren’t locked into anything!

Here are other posts one when I changed my signatures:

Today I (tearfully) retire my email signature
A new email signature

Want to write a book? Kill your darlings :)

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I just saw a link to a Harvard Business Review article by Jerry Weissman titled In Presentations, Kill Your Darlings.

I’ve talked a lot about being “concise,” but I’m not sure people know what that means.

So, here’s another way of saying it: GIVE THE SAME MESSAGE, BUT MAKE IT SHORTER.

In the spirit of keeping short, I’ll end with this: go read the post.  This applies to anyone who communicates (written, oral, body language, etc. :p).

Eight Lunches, Second Draft, Instructions

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I just finished the second draft of Eight Lunches.  Whew.

If you want to review it, leave a comment here and I’ll email it to you.

Here are the instructions for the review:

  1. I’m sending a word document in case you are dying to leave anything specific in the document (with Track Changes).  I do not want too much of this, though, because last time I was overwhelmed to the point of paralysis and didn’t know how to digest it.  So, do it if you must, otherwise, see #3.
  2. I’m sending it to my editor after I compile the feedback… so don’t worry about grammar, spelling, flow, etc.
  3. I’d love one or two paragraphs, or some bullet points, of your feedback. I’m specifically looking for feedback that will help me make this tighter, better, stronger.  Feel free to be critical and negative… so I can find out what bugs people about what I’ve done.
  4. IF YOU WANT TO ENDORSE THE BOOK I CAN PUT YOUR ENDORSEMENT IN THE BOOK… with a link to your company, etc.

I think that’s it… pretty simple… again, if you want to see it, please leave a comment on this other post.

I’d like to get this to the editor in the next 30 days… so I’d appreciate any thoughts in the next week or two. If you are a deadline person, consider July 31 your deadline 🙂