Yesterday I spoke at Digital Leap, a “Digital Conference for Non-Profit Marketers and Fundraisers” where I talked about Social Media Success for Non-Profit. The entire session is below. I’ve also created an iPod/iPhone version for those that would like to watch it on the go. Just right click here and save it and then pull it into iTunes! (Big file: 160 megs)

Feel free to embed or share/save the below session, I would only ask that you link back to this post. That would be awesome of you.

That little book I wrote is available here for pre-order (34% off to boot!)

To download it, or the embed code, drop by the main Viddler page

A PDF version of the slides can be grabbed here

Enjoy! And comment below if you’re in the industry and what you thought and/or if you have any specific questions.

Busy at SXSWi, not blogging

Forgive me bloggers, for I have sinned. It’s been 6 weeks since my last post and I feel guilty about it.

Wait, no I don’t.

The topic of “blogging frequency” has always been something that gets bantered about. The quest for the magical equation of “how often” one should blog has never been answered perfectly. Which is the way it should be. There is no magic number. Daily, weekly, monthly, blogging is not dependent on how frequent, but more on how impactful.

Let me make this clear before going forward, I’m addressing blogs where you want more readers. If it’s something that’s a diary for you, a way for self-expression and not related to wanting to increase readership, this isn’t for you. Blog on!

I’m a huge believer of blogging with passion, whenever that strikes. I rather blog once every two weeks and really care about the topic, than put out a post every other day with some of it filler, because I’ve been told it’s “better for search engines” and “familiarity creates trust”. Making people blog out of a set frequency instead of out of passion for a point is a load of bull-jobbies, and here’s why:

1. Frequent futility can decrease readership. When I read someone like Jay Baer, I know every post is going to be a grand slam. Every one. If he started to write one everyday just to stay in front of me and “mailed a few in” his impact would be less. I would stop jumping to read them. Seriously, when I get an email saying he’s written a new blog post, I read it. Immediately. Shouldn’t that be the same reaction for readers of your blog? Not “I’ll get to it” not “that might be a good post I’ll read soon” but “I HAVE TO READ THIS NOW!”

2. Obligation doesn’t drive passion. I don’t know about you, but when I feel I “have to” do something, I don’t, or I mumble some obscenities then get it done. That’s the issue. Writing “something” is not better than nothing. I didn’t start my own business to hate doing it. It’s the passion and my own take on a subject that brings readers, and even more importantly sometimes, gets those readers to tell others about it. You don’t tweet something that is “meh” for the most part, you tweet awesomeness.

3. You’re hurting the reputation of your most loyal readers. (Ok, so it may not be so extreme, but a blogging course taught me to write compelling bullet points. Taa+Daa!). If you’re a loyal reader of someones blog, to the point of fanboy/girl level (meaning you say “ZOMG!! He/she wrote something!! SQUEEE!!”) and you tweet out a post from them that’s more filler than anything, just based on the fact that it’s “anything” and one of your followers clicks to read it, you’ve hurt your rep. It’s like crying wolf. The more you call something “EPIC” when it truly is not, the less people will click through something you recommend. Plus, when a new person reads your “obligation” post, that’s their only impression of you. Every post needs to be the one you want people to be introduced to you.

4. Search engines like relevance. Now, I’m no SEO expert, but as far as I know, one of the main things Google uses to rank relevancy is how many other relevant sites are linking to your post. People don’t highlight and backlink to things that are “ok” they link to great stuff. Write content that make people say “yes!” or even “no!”. Passion attracts passion.

5. Life happens, it’s only a freaking blog people. One of the reasons I haven’t blogged in 6 weeks is life happens. At the end of the day blogs, Twitter, Facebook are just sites. Sometimes the world is more important than the digital one we live in.

This isn’t meant to put pressure on you that every post has to be “epic”, but it kinda does. It’s a representation of your business and opinion, shouldn’t it be the best you’ve got at that moment?

I know the more I blog the more it generates readers, reputation and business. With the UnMarketing book coming out, I know I need to blog more. But it’s the quality of posts that generates that along with quantity. That’s the goal, blog as frequently as you can that generates quality. For some, that’s daily, others weekly and for people like me, it’s when life lets you. And I’m ok with that.

What say you? Comment below!

1. It allows you to reach people in other time zones

2. It allows you to make Twitter scalable

3. You get to build relationships when you’re not around!

*Sorry, give me a minute*

Ok, I’m back, I had to go throw-up in a garbage can. Automating tweets means you want people to listen to you, but you’re not listening to them.

There is no such thing as automated engagement.

There is no such thing as programmed authenticity.

Absent tweeting is dictation, not engagement. Lecturing, not listening.

Automating tweets is like sending a mannequin to a networking event. Stick a post-it note on it, and roll it in, to multiple events around the world! Think of all the Chamber of Commerce mixers you could cover! Different time zones! Let the relationships winfall begin!!! Boooyaa!!!

Obviously you realize why that’s not a good idea. The initial tweet doesn’t create the relationship, it’s the conversation after. That’s the best part! I’m not saying don’t send out “marketing” tweets, or pitch a product. I do it. But when I do, why in the name of Sly and the Family Stone would I not want to be around for questions or comments immediately after? Tweets have such a short shelf-life, it’s the conversation immediately following the tweet that’s so crucial, and if it’s a marketing tweet, may help close the sale.

It’s a different story if your account is a feed of events/news and that’s what people follow for. The problem is when people “think” it’s you tweeting to them, but you’re not even there. Once they find that out, it could hurt your relationship and your brand. That tweet tells people “I want the benefit of a relationship, but don’t want to put the time in to nurture it.”

I heard Guy Kawasaki talking about this at a recent event. He said to ignore the “Twitter Nazi’s” that tell you what to do, and you should automate a bunch of tweets. Besides the fact I have a huge issue with people using the term “Nazi”, the biggest problem is this: people at that event looked up to Guy for guidance and thought “this is how you become successful at Twitter!” and I actually read some tweets after saying they were looking forward to automating Twitter! Guy can say and do whatever he wants. What I find wrong is for people just starting out, this won’t work. You can’t replicate someone who has hundreds of thousands of followers and a celebrity name to your Twitter account for your home biz. You actually have the advantage of authenticity and one-to-one on Twitter. Why try to be a WalMart when you’re a small biz? You have the competitive advantage of being you. Automation hurts authenticty.

Relationships take time. If you try to shortcut social media, you’re shortcutting relationship building.

Agree? Disagree? Comment below!

PS – Finalizing the UnBook Tour in the fall. Ideas for places to stop, organizations/conference I should speak at? Lemme know in the comments or contact me! Speaker Demo video is here

Long hair can help hide a huge cranial circumference

Fast forward to the present day: The encyclopedia has been replaced by Wikipedia, The Big Book is now called The Internet, and the Yellow Pages are called Google. Yet, many businesses and phone directory sales reps continue to use these big hunks of paper and try to justify it.

I’ve had this debate with many people about businesses using tools like the Yellow Pages. Most people say it’s a great door-stop, booster seat or a thing to beat people with when they don’t pay up on a gambling debt (@EricaDurst inspired use), but let’s look at the case that most people say justifies using them: “They work in some markets! People still use them! Like old folks, shut-ins and people who are still locked into AOL contracts!”

So let’s roll with that: people who still potentially use them. I have a few issues with this way of thinking…

1. You’re aiming at the bottom of the barrel: No, I’m not saying people who use them are the lowest of the low, it’s that they’ve gone through every other resource that influences them to potentially buy before pulling out the directory. Have a look:

This is the Hierarchy of Buying I came up with 5 years ago after surveying a thousand or so people on how they hired a service provider. So your potential customer doesn’t already have a provider, doesn’t know anyone who could perform the service, doesn’t know anyone who knows anyone and hasn’t even heard of anyone in the field. So no relationships, no word-of-mouth. Nothing. (I should really make a new one, since Google would rank above Yellow Pages.)

2. Paper spam: Email spam works on the premise that if you blast it to a million people, a fraction of a fraction may be in the market for the product and a fraction of that may even click. Phone directories work on this same premise. 1.6 billion pounds of paper per year are used to produce the 500 million directories that go out in the United States every year in the hopes that you may be in the market for one of the 2,000 categories of businesses that are listed. It’s spam at its finest. You didn’t opt-in, the majority of people don’t use it, many not even taking it out of the plastic. Instead it ends up in landfill, might get recycled or thrown at random phone company trucks that drop them off. Sadly I don’t see them ever going opt-in, since like most things in the print industry, they charge due to bloated “circulation” numbers and I estimate the number of people who would actually ask for it at 14, give or take 12. Makes you want to go out and hug a tree and then go here to opt-out of them!

3. Price/Competition Sensitivity: The lower down on the hierarchy of buying you are, the more you’re up against lowest-price seekers and competition. It becomes a competition of who can have the most AAAAA’s in their legal name, just to rank as the first in their section, or who can put the biggest ad beside the rest of their competitors. It fascinates me that businesses pay good money to be listed next to all of their local competition. Since you have no clout/trust with the potential customer, the first and main question usually revolves around price. You instantly make yourself a commodity.

4. Lack of updates: Since they come out from a provider once a year, once you place an ad, that’s it for the next year. No testing on which ad converted to leads better, unless you do it on a year-to-year basis. That would mean to do a proper test, using three different ads, it would take you years to get any relevant comparative data. That’s like walking to Los Angeles from New York to see how your product is doing.

5. A dying market, literally: Through my totally non-scientific opinion, I’m gonna go ahead and guess that the amount of people who use a phone book to look for a service provider goes up with the age demographic. Hell, even seniors are ditchin them to jump online. According to Pew Internet & American Life Project, 45% of seniors over the age of 70 are online. Even 27% of those over 76 are surfin the Interweb tubes. Since the average life expectancy is around 80, I’m not sure who you’re aiming for. Those over 80? Go get em! Just make sure you buy the big ads with large font.

I understand there is still a lot of money to be made by businesses that aim for the bottom, when people have exhausted every other resource, but even those people are using Google at that point, and you can track your clicks, and have a concrete ROI on it.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Some other great posts about this:

Dear YellowBook: Why? – You must read this one, not just for the post, but the angry comments that were later found out to be actual employees of the YellowBook. Craptastic. Go get em Nicole

Yellow Pages Suck – Great post by Jim Brown (no, not that Jim Brown)

We Still Use Old Media – This picture sums it all up. Also made me snot laugh. Thanks @ShaneGibson

Do the New Rules of Marketing Apply Worldwide? – Great video by David Meerman Scott

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Part 1: My Transparency on Twitter

When I started getting some momentum on Twitter, gaining up to 500 new followers a day during the craziest of my tweeting addiction, I turned off notifications of new followers. I couldn’t keep up with them all. I then had a choice, become a Twitter Diva (or “Twiva” if you want to annoy the eggnog out of people) and not follow anyone back, or auto-follow everyone back who followed me. I picked the latter, since I figured it was a nice way to say thanks for following me, and hey, if they followed me they at least have that going for them

This was a mistake for three reasons:

A pic of me in a cow costume seemed suitable for #1

1. I followed back spammers/porn accounts and other undesirables. I got nothing against porn stars. I’m sure they wake up and put on their latex pants like the rest of us, but I had no desire to hear about the sequel to Long Dong Silver in my tweet stream. Also, on your profile page, it shows a collection of people you’ve recently began to follow. Some of those profile pics don’t reflect fondly on your brand, and why are you following @WhipsAndChainsForMen anyways?

2. I ended up following 30,000 people. I barely look at my “All Tweets” screen. I’ve removed it from Tweetdeck. There is so much noise, that I’ve had to make custom groups called “rockstars” and “awesomesauce” to read the tweets of people are learn from/know. I should’ve stayed selective in those I followed back and now only follow those I learn from/laugh from or that engage with me and I find them interesting (a great tool for that is ReFollow.com I check off “Not Following” and down below check off “Users who have @ mentioned me” to see whose been engaging with me but I haven’t followed.) And don’t get me started on all the auto-dm’s it opened me up to. Even after using socialtoo.com to block most of them, if I get one more “it lets your Facebook friends find you on Twitter” DM’s I’m gonna start getting all stabby.

3. It was not being transparent. I was trading authenticity for automation. Efficiency for transparency. People would tweet or DM me that they were flattered I followed them back, and I winced every time. I couldn’t tell them that it was automated.

Twitter is different than a newsletter. There is a much more personal connection on it. Just like auto-tweeting, which I’ll go over in the next post in the series, as soon as you throw automation into your relationships, they stop being that. Is it worth deceiving people, if that’s how they might see it, for the sake of automation? I realized a little too late, my answer is “no”.

What’s yours? Does it make you feel all warm and fuzzy if someone follows you and you get that notification? How do you feel about people auto-following back? Or any automation? Comment below! And sign-up for updates to get notified when the next post is up! I’ll cover what other people are doing with automation, and why it can kill your image.

And so it begins. Another reason why a business claims it doesn’t need to engage their marketplace. For geographic based businesses it’s always brought up that they have no need to connect with someone in Toronto if they run a pizza place in Dallas. Fair enough (although connecting on a large scale has many benefits, but that’s a rant post for another day.)

If your business is “local” there are a few things you can do to help focus your Twitter efforts:

1. Use a keyword location-specific search in Twitter for people in your area.

A lot of people suggest using keyword terms to search for potential customers, but it doesn’t work very well for a local business. Even if you put the name of your city/town, that would mean the person who tweeted would have to put both IN the tweet (i.e. I need a massage in Toronto VS I need a massage). The way to solve this is to do a “near” search. By putting “near:Toronto” beside your keyword, it will bring up all tweets from people who listed in their profile their location that are near Toronto. So now the person who tweets “I want a pizza” can now be found geographically. Use either the “search” bar on the right-side of Twitter, or Summize.

The screenshot above shows all the results for searching “Massage near:Toronto”.

NOW JUST YOU WAIT!!!

This isn’t an excuse to start replying to everyone on this list to say “COME USE US!! WE RULEZ TEH UNIVERSSSE! LOLZ!”. Reply to some people, say something like “Heya, we could help you out! Let us know, hope u feel better soon!”.

I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU!!

Please for the love of The Jesus and Mary Chain do not set-up a auto-reply system that will send replies to anyone that mentions a certain word in a tweet. Seriously, I will hunt you down and give you a stink-eye of epic proportions. These people have potentially raised their hand, the last thing you need to do is hit them up with a pre-written auto-tweet and then when they check out your profile, all they see is that same tweet to hundreds of others. Doesn’t make them feel all warm and fuzzy.

Most importantly, this tool should be used to see people in your area to start engaging with. Actually give a damn about them. Get to know them. You’re a person, and amazingly, so are they!

Set this search up in a program like TweetDeck so it automatically refreshes the search.

2. Use Twitter Grader to find the best in your area.

Twitter Grader ranks users by awesomeness (my word) not just by follower count. Using its location search you can find the best in your area to get to know.

Same rule applies here. Don’t be a jackass and follow just to send them ads. Engage, get to know people. It’s like a live networking event, except you can’t be cornered by the creepy-dude drinking scotch.

3. Twellow Pages. It’s like the Yellow Pages but people actually use it.

Using their Search function, you can search both by interests and location. This is a great site for finding people in specific industries.

Make sure you also list your own Twitter account in the directory under the “Register for FREE” link on the homepage

4. Tell them you’re there!

It sounds silly, but tell people you’re on Twitter. Put it in the company newsletter, in ads, at the check-out. You’d be amazed how many people are on Twitter and if they like you, they can spread the word to others in the Twitter world.

Any other tips you’d like to share? Any local biz that you know does a great job of this? Leave them in the comments and if they rock the casbah, I’ll add it to the post!

Be sure to sign-up for updates in the sign-up box below! It also makes you 43% cooler to others.

Other great posts on the topic:

Using Social Media to Market Your Montana Brand

How to Use Social Media to Build Your Brand Locally

It’s no secret I “enjoy” Las Vegas. After going there 14 times in the past four years I consider myself an unofficial tour guide and resident of Sin City.

A place you can’t miss on the strip is the Wynn. Very fancy, very pretty and very expensive. Since the place cost 2.7 billion dollars to build, I assume selling 99 cent hot dogs isn’t gonna make that money back.

I really didn’t care about the Wynn. Not in a negative way, it just wasn’t on my radar. After getting comfortable staying at MGM, Venetian, etc, I didn’t really see a need to change, until last Saturday.

I had a meeting at Wynn during the BlogWorld conference, and strolled in through the majestic doors with a friend of mine. As soon as we walked in we spotted a man (Wes) using a large carpet cleaning machine. Since he wasn’t in our way, we really thought nothing of it, but he thought differently.

He stopped what he was doing. Looked up…… and smiled. Not one of those “it’s part of my job to smile” ones, but a genuine, warm, authentic smile.

And then he said “Good afternoon, and welcome to the Wynn, please enjoy your day” all the while looking us right in the eye, like it was his mission to ensure we knew he meant business.

And that alone changed my entire perception of the Wynn. Almost 3 billion big ones went into making this mega casino resort, and it was one guy that made me want to stay there. Made me want to tweet about it. Made me want to blog about it. The carpet cleaning dude. I have passed hundreds of people cleaning in casino’s in Vegas, I’ve rarely been given eye contact, and not once felt welcome.

As a matter of fact… I have never, ever been greeted like that by anyone in Vegas.

It’s wonderful and sad at the same time. That this gentleman making us feel welcome at his place of employment was not only exceptional, it was extremely rare.

Casino’s (and probably most of you in business) all have the same “stuff” for the most part. The 5-star resorts all have fancy smells, spa’s, and pretty patterns. But only one resort has Wes.

Marketing is not a task.

Marketing is not a department.

Marketing is not a job.

Marketing happens everytime you engage (or not) with your past/present/potential customers.

(Thanks Wes, and yes, I did enjoy my day, and will even more when I stay at the Wynn, because of you)

Any place in Vegas that really impressed you with their engagement? Can one person really change your opinion of a company? Let me know in the comments below.