Getting “Mayberry” to Embrace Social Media

“Mayberry” has been used as a term for both idyllic small town life and for rural simplicity (for both good and ill). It’s a mindset of simplicity that refuses to accept change when applied to local city and organizations attempting to market themselves to the masses. Given the bleek plunge of the economy one would think that small communities would embrace the ease of technology to get the word out, alas many do not.

Social Media is information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal and business.

The main key to the use of social media is personalized content, or  as I call it: Inform, Empower and Engage.

Inform – Give people clear, concise and compelling information.

Empower- Make people want to react to your information. Be personal not a stick in the mud. Making announcements  is not empowering, it’s advertising.

Engage – Be ready to engage the people you have empowered. Respond in a  timely manner. Do you like one dimensional conversations?

It seems Mayberry wants to focus on the grand pie made but not concerned if the members even like pie.

The Mayberry generation seems to carry a mindset of ‘You Can’t Say That!” in other words everything must be professional and passed with approval from Aunt Bea.  The users of social Media do not want dry comments and proper conversation, the Net Gen wants to know the person not the objective. The net Gen wants the ability to contribute thier thoughts and ideas not be told how to act and respond.

Mayberry needs to stop controlling it’s simplicity of how they think things should be and what should be said, when and how.  The Mayberry mindsets need to understand that social media is the ultimate barn dance and is open 24/7. The stump fiddles have been replaced by Ipods, the attendeees are no longer waiting for a favorite song, they are tuning into what appeals to them and responding quickly…to fast for Mayberry.

I’d like to read some ideas from people on how to get the Mayberry Mindsets to better embrace social media.

Confessions of a Twitter Virgin

If you are like me, you’ve probably spent much time reading about how to maximize your time on Twitter. Though much of the information is great, I have found a lacking piece of substance from the big dogs on the platform.  Practice what you preach should be applied when taking any advice.  I’ve noticed several of the big dogs of the platform preaching, only a small hand full actually follow their own advice.

I personally joined Twitter in November of 08.  I quickly denounced the platform and compared Twitter to  a freeway of billboards.  It was like walking down a carnival midway and being cat called to play a game.  I was not sending clear, concise or compelling tweets. I  personally became the very billboard I whined about.

Why should you take my advice? I am still swimming in un-chartered waters and often feeling a bit awkward in my new twitter skin. I have though increased my daily followers slow and steady. In the last week I’ve connected with over 100 followers. My influence rating up and overall impact is up. In the short time I’ve typed this, I’ve added 18 new followers. Not big numbers to some of the high level Tweeters. I am though very content in quality over quantity – these new followers saw something they liked – ME!  No random Search & Destroys to get adds here.

Virgin Advice

Search & Destroy – The pundits playing off of the popularity of twitter advise to add as many followers as possible to grow your list. Just search and add. Do this and you will be bombarded with unqualified connections.  My de-flowering under this advice left me with blasted with direct messages advertising ways to grow my list.  It also left me with people who were not originally attracted to my posts and not responding.

Spending the time to add oodles of followers in hopes of getting a follow back is like a handsome man in a dark corner winking at a pretty lady – only he knows what he is doing.

Apply the Cocktail Party Rule

If you want to be boring, talk about yourself. If you want to be interesting, talk about something other than yourself.

It’s just that simple folks.  Share information from others, re-tweet (RT) often. Reply to others, let the other person know how much you liked their efforts and thank those who pass your info along. Build your followers with people who get you, don’t fret over the ones who do not.

The Virginal Bed of Twitter

Stop fussing with how to be the #1 Twitter head and the best. You’ll learn as you go, just as I am.  I still fumble with getting my tweets RT’d, sometimes I wonder if anyone sees my tweets, then like magic a beloved and gentle RT.

Take it slow, steady and straight forward. Be yourself and stop trying to be Joe Blow with 36,000 + followers. Joe Built his empire of followers one day at a time.  In Twitter land being asked to bed down on the first date is acceptable, be watchful though of how and where  you leave your crumbs with them after wards.  In other words, make sure you keep in touch after the seduction. *wink*

Inform-Empower- Engage!

Coming Soon!  The Virgins List of what Not To Tweet!

Hey, Your Chocolate is in my Peanut Butter

…and it is not forming a tasty union either!

Content theft is not a new concept, it’s been around since the first scrolls no doubt.  At least though in the many versions of the bible the correct person is most often given credit. Apologies to my religious readers.

Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representation of them as ones own original work.

In the blogo-sphere plagiarism is  high, too high. And now it’s not enough that some characters take to plagiarizing fellow bloggers, we now have nim-wits plagiarizing social network discussions.

The Mayhem:

This link (below) is to a persons blog posted on a Ryze discussion board. I use to run this group and the person was warned once before about posting plagiaristic rubbish.

http://small-business-resources-cafe.blogspot.com/2009/03/tax-cuts-for-business-right-thing-to-do.html

Now feast your eyes on a discussion on LinkedIn

You may notice the blogger robbing content had ZERO contribution to the discussion.  The dreaded discussion board lurker who follows discussions and uses for his/her own personal gain.

At the time of this entry NO credit to anyone for the discussion content provided. No source credit to content scrapped from LinkedIn.  When the person was warned before he only changed post to  sourced LinkedIn and gave no contributing members any credit.

Again, Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representation of them as ones own original work.

Who wants to do business with a thief?

Un-Mayhem Method: If your a blogger and stumble upon another bloggers work (or discussion) you enjoy and decide to use that. Contact that person(s). You’ll gain more respect from your readers by giving “proper” credit and be viewed as an ethical business person.  If you decide to chance using others ideas and content you’ll risk the loss of your chocolate bar. The chocolate and peanut butter can be a good match, only if each knows the others intentions.

Pull NOT Push

One thing that will trip my trigger easily on social sites is the pushy poster. Ya know whom I’m speaking of? The person who leaps onto the social site, joins groups adds friends and now you bombarded with messages to read this and do that. My favorite responses from the pusher? Thanks for adding me please visit my site…. *GAG*

Social networks are about conversations that build relationships, not indiscriminate come-ons. Be yourself, let people get to know you. If your own social sites to attract potential business remember that people do business with those they know and like.

The social-network omnipresence? You can’t be everywhere and should not try. Be a force on sites you feel might hold your best prospects. Also do not forget about other professionals who might refer you.

Makes distinctions between Social Sites, for example;
Ryze, LinkedIn, Ecademy – Your business office. Be professional.
Facebook, Myspace – Business Casual.
Twitter – the 24/7 business after hours social.

Create a pull and stay effect with your social marketing.
1. Use your real name VS a business name
2. Use an actual photo of yourself for an avatar
3. Be personal, Be yourself
4. Talk about others and not just yourself – Pay it forward
5. Get the feel of the atmosphere on any network or group. Don’t Topic Jump

The rules for social media have evolved just as quickly as site functions.

Kathy Buck

Mayhem Marketing

Tweets That Make Ya Go Twoooot

I by no means am no Twitter expert, nor do I care to be! Does this make any comments I have about Twitter mean nothing? According to some top “Twitter-heads” it does mean nothing.  I thought though Twitter was about information sharing and connecting with resources?

Bare with me as my ‘pit and pendulum” mindset towards Twitter sways back and forth. I’ve noticed a few characteistics in many Twit-heads

1. Positioners – These are the Tweets constantly positioning themselves. It is rare they acknowledge any comments.

2. Twammers – Tweet Spam: Come to my webinar for $$$, you’ll be happy I invited you. Etc Etc.

3. ADHD Twitter-holics- Like OMG, I wonder if they also tweet last successful bowel movement too?

4. Tweet-ho’s: The ones who flood the screen with like 12 posts and then RT those  several times a day.

5. The Apple Dumpling Twits:  Complete social misfits.

Just for the record I have not been very active on Twitter for two weeks, heck this is the first blog entry in that same time.  Now I have listed some negative factors of my limited  experiences  on Twitter, thats not to say I have not enjoyed a few of the connections I’ve made, After all I am only boasting under 100 followers /follows.  Do my low numbers underscore any opinions?

The Positioner’s – Make no mistake anyone with a business is positioning themselves, it’s how some go about it that yank my chain. I’ve been following one person since day 1. This person has a following of nearing ten thousand –WOW, Impressive! I was greeted the first day of my follow and responded. That person never answered a question. I’ve commented on posts, RT that persons messages and not once has the person responded to ONE thing I’ve posted in general or to any RT. Know why? In a nutshell, we both do marketing, very differing approaches.  I wonder if any of that persons followers notices equal non responses? MORAL: A huge list of followers is nice. If your publicly only responding to comments hailing your greatness while you ponitifcate your huge list. Enjoy the self gratification and ask yourself why your dining on Ramen noodles again.  In other words, don’t poo where ya wanna eat. A potential competitor can become a great alliance.

I think the other four categories are self explanatory.

The Irreverent Invite

“Jane Smith has invited you to join Two groups about Kids and or Moms working a home business
If you are not interested in this group please just delete this email. Or go to the bottom of this invite and hit “stop receiving emails from, (me )the sender.
No hard feelings.

Mompreneurs that are working from home and managing the little ones at the same time. (With No other full time job- just family and your own business)

1 member”

This is about the tenth invite I have received from this person whom will be known as “Jane” This person has invited me to join a group about salons, wigs, and I can’t even remember what else. All I know is each invite becomes more and more annoying. I have several times hit a “block sender” and seen no result. It’s not that I think “Jane” is a bad person, I’m sure she’s very nice and obviously enthusiastic about her groups.

Ring My Bell
What ‘Jane” (and many like her) fail to realize, is invites (ads) that are not targeted just annoy us. Pavlov was the father of associative memory, which is the core methodology to branding. Anyone remember Pavlov and his dog? Here’s a quick schooling;

Pavlov rang a bell and rubbed meat paste under his dogs nose. The reaction of the dog was to drool. Pavlov kept doing this consistently and frequently with the same result. Pavlov then stopped rubbing the meat paste and just rang the bell. The result? even with no meat paste the dog still drooled. The dog associated the bell to his love of meat, thus the reaction. If the dog had no love of meat paste the bell would have just annoyed it, just as so many ads annoy us.

Un-Mayhem Method: If your sending out invites to join social networking groups, make sure your targets will react to your bell. If the invite is irreverent, it will just annoy. There really is nothing social about not knowing anything about who you are inviting. It’s very easy to just hit send to a mass of people and hope for one or two. Are you content knowing the numbers you may have annoyed?

Religion & Business: Faith or Suicide?

Perhaps on odd time of the year to tackle this topic, that being ; one of the most sacred religious holiday’s  of the year passing, that being Christmas.  I’m not religious nor do I embrace this day as many do.  I though do respect and even admire the many ritual traditions of this day.

What sent my brain on fire trecently was a tweet from someone I was following on Twitter , notice I say “was” following.  The tweet stated in a quote from Samual Adams ““Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness.”  I responded and asked “if I have no religion does this mean I have no morals w/ no solid foundation?” The response I received: “Samuel Adams seems to think so. But I wish you a happy generic non-spiritual day none the less.” I then posted “Respects ALL beliefs but frowns on tweets that place ones beliefs on higher moral social grounds *click* Thanks for a blog topic !” I then sent the person a direct message stating it was unfair to label any non religious person as immoral and religious banter that labels is offensive.  The person took to a public response telling em to get over myself that a quote from a foundin father was hardly religious banter.

Hold the train, this person assumes I have no spirituality because I do not support religious banter aimed at placing that beleif system as having better morals?  Assumptions are the termites of relationships, and this person is a giant larve of a termite!

This is not the first time I’ve had a go around with someone who uses religion in marketing branding messages, and make no mistake even on Twitter you are branding yourself with every message. If your like the person I encountered, are you happy knowing you’ve repelled potential contacts? Are are you of the mindset that you seek to only do business with the same higher moral people?

Placing religious messages like presented has a potential of offending people who may have had an interest in doing business with you.

The Cocktail Party Rule For Marketing

Against my will I was  recently dragged to a holiday business social. Well okay, perhaps I was a little willing to partake in local business merriment. I really do enjoy meeting new people and chatting it up with ones I know in a relaxed setting, it is the ‘Bob’s” of Holiday Mixers that unglue me.

What About Bob?

I’m quite certain we all know a “Bob” or two, “Bob” is the person who can’t relax and engage in  social non – buisness conversation. Your stood with Jane, Mike and Sandy talking about those tastey crap role ups and the recipe and here comes “Bob” with his barging interruptus right flank. “Bob” is shaking hands and passing everyone a brochure and repeatng his name and business while pointing to his new groovy flashing name tag.  “Bob” then does a disappearing act, only seen from a distance launching his strategy on another group.

The other concerning facet to the “Bob’s” in social situations, is the crude remarks that disembowel any competitor.  Ask “Bob” how his product/service differs from “Jim’s” (who is stood over down the hall entertaining party goers with slight of hand tricks) “Bob” will respond harshly and remark how unprofessional his competitor is.

Acknowledge Thy Competitor

Myself once in a  esteemed titled position with an agency found myself in the CEO’s office having my ear bent over for saying nice things about our competitor.  I even took the steps to meet with the competitors COO to mull over some issues pertaining to our two companies working together on a local COC project.  I had to verbally slap up my boss and point out that in social situations it was better to be graceful then toxicily  garrulous. The CEO eventually came around and loosened back my leash.

Mayhem Method Minute: What’s true at cocktail parties is also true in marketing, KB says “If you want to be boring, talk about yourself. If you want to be interesting, talk about something other than yourself.”

Some Impure Thoughts About Blogging

In her keynote address at our Digital Marketing Mixer in Scottsdale, Arizona, Arianna Huffington gave her play-by-play for turning the eponymous Huffington Post into a social media juggernaut. Rohit Bhargava—himself a superstar blogger—was also at the event, and he discusses the secrets to Huffington’s blogging success at the Influential Marketing Blog. Here are a few of his observations:

Huffington makes it easy for contributors, even those who are technologically averse, to participate. “Not a purist about blogging,” notes Bhargava, “Arianna’s point of view on blog posts [is] simple—if someone shares their thoughts transparently and honestly, the site can publish it as a blog post.” There’s a “backstage” area where her enormous roster of bloggers may upload their essays electronically, but they can send posts by pigeon for all she cares. The late historian Arthur Schlesinger preferred communication by fax; superagent Ari Emmanuel, meanwhile, likes to give dictation over the phone.

She builds on her big hits. When gossip blogger Perez Hilton linked to her blog, Huffington not only earned the admiration of her daughter, she saw a serious spike in traffic. Though 72 percent of the visitors never returned, some came back periodically—and an impressive seven percent became regular readers. “Multiply that effect over three years of traffic and big hits, and the result is their current traffic of more than 20 million unique visitors per month,” says Bhargava.

The Po!nt: Huffington doesn’t get hung up on definitions of what makes a blog a blog—and neither should you.

Source: Influential Marketing Blog. http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2008/10/ariana-huffingt.html

Get The Right Business

Just about any business adviser will tell ya to be very particular about the business you pursue. ‘Target the types of business you want to work with” is usually the advice. Being focused on a particular market will help you refine and hone your expertise in that market.

There are three keys to achieving the right kind of business:

• Serve the people you’ve selected as your target market
• Choose challenging “missions”

• Walk away from the wrong kind of business.

For any new business just starting out, all three of the above listed can be difficult to achieve. For those in business who have been around for a awhile, the paths to business goals may have been lost.

Walking away from the wrong kind of business is probably the most difficult for the new business start up. When I started out I was hungry to build a portfolio of clients and took on a few projects that sucked the life out of me.  Looking back – I didn’t make my target  fee. I now stick to my financial target and goals.  I may get less business prospects and even fewer conversions, the relationships though with those I obtain have been long term and gained repeat challenges — good challenges.

For myself, I do not have tight niche market. I focus on small buisness owners, the micros. For some though focusing on a specific niche can cure many ills. For instance:  a web company might decide to focus on the pet industry and develop web sites for grooming, lodging and discipline. Working with a niche can position yourself as knowledgeable in that area.

I once worked for a company that had a high number of builders and related clients. You would think that a like company would steer clear of any services being used by a competitor – not so. I can’t tell you how many times I was summoned to speak to a building contractor because he has heard we did the competitors campaign. A friend of mine works for a production company – 99% of the commercial production he does is for the Auto market, ya those cheesy car commercials. The company is known as the “K-Mart” of Auto commericals. They even branched out and now have a division of folks who will go to a dealer and run a weekend blow out sale !

How do yourself and your own buisness as to the suggestions of how to persue the right kind of buisness?