I get A LOT of emails, tweets, Facebook messages, LinkedIn requests and phone calls looking to connect with me for my resources and/or partnerships. I’m excited to share the wealth and see those around me succeed. If I believe in you, not just your product, I typically find a mutually beneficial opportunity to connect someone to. As the years go on the requests are multiplying in order to run my company effectively of course I need to be careful with my time managment. Jason Fried of 37 Signals blocks out specific weekly phone hours to connect with customers, business education seekers and fans. So as of late after receiving a request I respond with the questions, “What goal are you looking to achieve….how can I help?” And people seem to not know how to react. I am not looking or expecting anything in return and that just seems confusing to most. This is probably why the basic utility of social media seems so complicated. It is indeed basic. You listen to your audience and what their interests are and then you offer resource or insights based on their interest. That’s it. Pretty simple right? Or am I the one missing something…. I welcome your feedback.
This week I am reading “Getting Real” by 37 Signals AMAZING insights and perspective on how to manage time and build an effective organization. It’s been sitting on my desk for about a year to read. I wish I picked it up sooner. It’s that good.
WHERE’S WALDO? Finding Social Influencers & Decreasing Your Costs panel co produced by me, Espree Devora of ZexSports and Sabrina Hayat of Graffy Inc brought in over 11,000 viewers online via Tech Zulu on Thursday night. I am really proud of this event because we brought together a a group of panelists who have proven results in the online space and were ready to share their secrets how to find and connect with influencers in order to be successful marketing online.
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The conversation was centered around Influencers online and using them in your social media campaign:
- Who are they?
- How do you find them?
- How do you approach them to talk about what you’re selling?
- How do you measure your success?
- And how do you handle negative feedback from these influencers?
It was one of the best panels I have listened to so far. Everybody had lots of energy, they definitely knew what they were talking about and provided great insights to people that don’t know much about social media.
Here is a quick recap for those who missed it! Let’s get back to the questions above:
- Who are they? Influencers are the people who create compelling content to others. Their feedback shapes others’ opinion on a product, service, and so on.
- How do you find them? This takes time. Use sites such as Google Blog. When looking at potential Influencers, you have to evaluate factors such as number of subscribers, number of followers, friends, and content of whatever social media platform they use (FB, Twitter, Youtube, Blogs, etc.). You also cannot forgot those “Hidden Influencers”, who might not come as Influencers at first because they run a smaller blog or have fewer followers, but actually provides content to quality people that have a larger network of “friends”, “followers”, “subscribers”, etc. Basically they act as connectors to bigger Influencers.
- How do you approach them to talk about what you’re selling? The “pitch” needs to be extremely authentic and personal. You cannot be pushy and expect the Influencer to talk about your product, service, etc. First, do you homework. Go over the Influencer’s blog, content, interests, etc. to capture information that will help you connect with them. So use this information in your pitch, so when the Influencer reads it, first, he is stoked you actually pay attention and care about what he does, and second, you provide him with information that is relevant and compelling to him/her/
- How do you measure your success? The panelists agreed that positive feedback is extremely valuable. bigMETHOD, a social media agency, compares social media campaign success to advertorial and show the added value of positive comments by an Influencer speaking to a large audience of Followers and other Influencers. There are also a large number of tools out there that helps you track your social media campaign results. Google Analytics has been brought a few times as being an essential.
- And how do you handle negative feedback from these influencers? After pitching a blogger, if he ends up talking poorly about your product or service, don’t get mad, write him back thanking him for his feedback and indicating him that you took note of his comments and will do your best at making the necessary changes to improve the product or service. They typically appreciate the open and honest communication and might write something nice about you.
My new friend @Ribeezie direct messaged me, (also known as “DM”), on Twitter this morning and told me to “Now bring back some of that good stuff and share ” about Zappos Insights inaugural conference. Zappos, a billion dollar online commerce destination, is known for their leadership in customer service. Insights was created as an educational forum to guide entrepreneurs to successfully attain milestones. It was a privilege to be a part of their LIVE event, a revolution in leadership and corporate happiness. One of the speakers at the event, social media maven Brian Solis, said it perfectly, “In the end we’re measured by our actions, not our words.”
Three huge takes aways from the event that will transform the productivity and efficiency in our organizations.
Share….Stop self promoting and start listening. Share information that you know delivers value because you have been listening. Whether it be employees, personal relationships, twitter followers or facebook friends. The way to effectively intrigue people to take action is fueled by being inspired.
Discover your foundation before you start building.… The most crucial component in determining success in a company and in your personal development is first discovering what matters to you most.; Your core values. It starts with you, outside of your professional life. The business owner behind closed doors. When you look in the mirror what do you see? Integrity, Transparency, Adventure… Deceit…? In order to grow we must be honest with ourselves. It is so clear to me now that if I had taken the time to discover, write down, and share my core values with my team it would have reduced management, increased productivity and complimented my company vision. But instead I found ego was something in my company that created road blocks for our success. What’s interesting is ego is so far from my personal values. If I had taken the time to write down what’s important to me, I would have quickly discovered my team mate strayed from our core values and that situation could have been remedied with eloquence and efficiency.
3. Half of the world is searching for the other half of the world, but don’t know how to find them. Brian Solis emphasizes that before even planning an online marketing strategy establish your identity. Most brands don’t even strategize, they just jump on a band wagon. But lets say you are developing a strategy, before that DISCOVER your identity that you plan to communicate in this strategy. I LOVE that Brian reinforced this. I hadn’t even thought of charting out my brand identity before planning. I figured my identity is obvious. Surf brand means you’re a surfer right? No, not necessarily. You must establish your brand to stand for something. A Cause. Something bigger and selflLESS than selling a pair of board shorts.
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I am so excited! Tonight my company is hosting a panel on ROI Based Online Brand Engagement for the action sports industry. A bunch of you were bummed that you lived out of town so my friends at Tech Zulu are sponsoring a live stream! Woo hoo. At 7pm PST tonight go here: http://techzulu.com/live.html You’ll be able to ask questions online. I am honored viral video genius Dave Lehre who created “MySpace: The Movie” and “Facebook: The Movie” will be moderating. He’s been on 20/20, in GQ, Esquire, Rolling Stone. So cool! The panelists are the founders of bigMethod and possibly a guest panelist if I can get him to break away from training for an upcoming competition
I have stumbled upon Wordpress heaven. Blog oh Blog and Best Word Press Themes . I recently switched from wordpress.COM to wordpress.ORG… A lot of you don’t get what the difference is. Basically Wordpress.ORG allows way more customization and flexibility.
You do need to know a wee little bit of coding, so for that I found this free 7 day blogging course done by an amazing 20 year old entrepreneur from England. I’ve been raving about this guys blog like crazy called Income Diary. In the first day of the course it shows you step by step how to easily set up a wordpress.ORG blog.
And its absolutley crazy how far we have come on this foreign powerhouse called the internet where a website for your business is the same must as having a business card. So for business presence check out the top 20 wordpress theme for small businesses. So cool! I just can’t believe all these tools and designs are absolutley free. But its all about knowing they exist right. Right now I am on the hunt for a more social theme myself. Keep on the look out for my soon to be blog make over.
It's time to believe. I'm sick and tired of people making excuses for not going after their dreams. I'm going after mine and doing just fine. Crazy, sure. Manic, of course. Exhilarated, all the time. If you don't try then well... I am just sorry you missed out.
Zappos, a billion dollar online commerce destination, is known for their leadership in customer service. Insights was created as an educational forum to guide entrepreneurs to successfully attain milestones. It was a privilege to be a part of their LIVE event, a revolution in leadership and corporate happiness. One of the speakers at the event, social media maven Brian Solis, said it perfectly, “In the end we’re measured by our actions, not our words.”
I am absolutely exhilarated to to be visiting the Zappos headquarters tomorrow in Vegas. My company team has been vigorously studying the phenomenal Zappos culture which we do our best to emulate each day. I have personally been a fan of Zappos since about 2002 after discovering the site was the fastest loading site on the web. Being the geek that I am I was fascinated and had to know how they did it. I think their upload time was under 3 seconds and with a homepage full of graphics. Completely impressive.
Okay so this week at South by Southwest I went to “Getting Things Done the Simple Way” taught by John Zeratsky. I was not going to miss it. I rolled out of bed forgoed brushing my teeth or an awesome Austin shower to rush to the panel in order to achieve the treasure hunt of eliminating my email count and all my “contacters” feeling victory in receiving attention to their email. I mean if Tony Hsieh, CEO of the greatest customer service company ever Zappos.com and one of the most attentive entrepreneurs I’ve meet Gary Vaynerchuk can resend to 1000 plus emails a day, well then so can I! So I will keep you posted on what system I figure out works for me so I can “put a little Zappos in my day,” BUT in the meanwhile watch this. A little treat from Gary Vee and my tech crush Kevin Rose. (Who doesn’t crush on Kevin Rose?)
I welcome your feedback.
