I’m beginning to see online marketers trend away from forcing social media down the greenhorn’s throat. This is wonderful news, because it shows that we’re likewise beginning to stop a bit of our own shouting too. As online evangelists, we sometimes lose sight of how noisy we can get when we’re waving the social media flag to signal the troops. Read the rest of this entry »

“I don’t have time for all that, Scott.” That’s what most of my customers say when I suggest they use social media tools to engage with customers and prospects.

And you know what? That’s fair. I totally get it. As a small business owner, your sights are steadily fixed on keeping what you have happy and not so much on growth opportunities driven by methods that are (a) largely unfamiliar to you and (b) time-consuming to apply. You’ve got bills to pay, debts to manage, second and third mortgages and most importantly customers to keep happy. Your business is doing fine without the added labor burdens built in to socializing your company’s message using the likes of Facebook and Twitter. And Hell, blogging is something probably better suited to the young entrepreneur anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

Sales 101 tells us that if we find the pain, we find the sale. Of course this is an over simplification and yes the underlying habits surrounding this concept evolve, but it’s still an essential best practice. The fundamental presumption is that if I can uncover my prospects needs and meet them as desired, I will win the sale. In short, when I act as the authentic advocate to my customers, they are more likely to reward me by becoming advocates of my brand – loyalists, one might say. Do this well and you become what content marketing pioneers Chris Brogan and Julien Smith refer to as Trust Agents. Read the rest of this entry »

Why is it so easy for us to forget how to effectively speak to our audience? Why does it slip our minds so effortlessly how to delight our listeners? After all we know how to and we’ve done it many times before. We know that the content gods will reward us with subscribers, retweets and even sales when we do it right too. So why then, with so much at stake, with so much to gain or lose, do we fail to notice when we’re not considering the recipients of our messaging? And possibly more importantly, how can we avoid making this common, yet destructive error in the engagement process? Last summer, on an ordinary day like today, in the throes of an equally ordinary task, the answer to both of these questions came to me in the least ordinary way: while making my son a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyday I observe new ways to apply the principles of social media to the task of influencing people. In every facet of life, professional and personal, wisely leveraged new media marketing concepts can help us shape and change lives. As small business owners, I believe we need to divorce ourselves from what we want people to know about us and our wares and look deeply at the approach we take to speaking to those we expect to persuade. And yes, the techniques social media experts espouse are easily adapted to daily life, where maybe there’s nothing to sell beyond a point we want to make or an opinion we hope gets heard. Here’s a real life example, from my daily routine, of how the tenets of social media marketing can help you rethink your message’s packaging. Read the rest of this entry »