Trust. It’s not a very nebulous term. Yet in social media circles, it has lost some of its shine, some of its clarity, sort of the way Stairway to Heaven and Free Bird have due to overuse and overexposure. Trust, as a concept is, nevertheless, a fairly easy idea to digest. In much the same way we allow the time-tested, the reliable and the faithful access to our fragile and emotional squishy parts, consumers allow brands access to their wallets, if again, trust is and has been present.

Easy right? Not so much. Read the rest of this entry »

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’m tellin’ yah gang, my colleagues and I are getting less and less interested in the projects. The one-offs. The, here today, gone tomorrow, gigs. I suppose until we can afford that summer place in Tuscany, we’ll still accept project work, but to tell the truth, I don’t entirely dislike them, but I will confess that they hold far less appeal now, than they once did. Let me explain. Read the rest of this entry »

Does the stuff you buy offer more value, than hype? Think about it. I’m a musician. If I’m shopping for a new guitar, do I buy a $3,500 Gibson Les Paul because it’s among the most highly venerated guitars in history or do I make that purchase because it’s the right instrument for what I have planned? Now the term “value” can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, so don’t be easily fooled. Value can be subjective and is thus a buying consideration defined frequently by the buyer, not the item’s bells and whistles. Let me explain. Value, for instance, can be had in the attention the purchase gets you – the status owning it earns you. This post is going to discuss that very thing: buying perception. In some cases, buying perception doesn’t mean there is a loss in literal value – ala the item’s bells and whistles. In others, buying perception offers little literal value, but that doesn’t stop buyers from proceeding. Let’s examine a couple of cases where buying perception happens and evaluate the literal value of these purchase. 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 »