Successful Blog

Silly Out-of-Context Tweets — Can They Hurt?

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Ever heard someone describe something you weren’t prepared to hear about? Ever had it happen online? Ever had one of your random “tweets” show up in a Google Search or a Google Alert?

Tabz said: @lizstrauss Yep. Some of my random tweets show up in Google Blog Search.. it’s weird.

Aruni said: @lizstrauss yes, it’s weird. I’ll get a Google Alert with one of my tweets but it’s not consistent…

It can be weird. It can be funny. But the potential of words out of context doesn’t feel good. We know what we meant, but not everyone who see those out-of-context words would.

Imagine how a random tweet might seem to folks who just dropped in to see who we are, to get reference, or to explore some social media topic our comment was in. It’s probably a good thing most clients or family wouldn’t start with Google Blog Search or a Google Alert.

Can silly out-of-context Tweets hurt?
The Internet has a long memory and no eraser.

Andrew Lightheartsaid Re: Alerts – it does worry me a little. I *try* to not say anything too out there just in case…

Twitter is discoverable in court.
Twitter is findable by Google.
Twitter is more than 140 characters that float away on the stream.

As the phrase goes, I’m just sayin’ … what do you say to that?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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SOB Business Cafe 02-26-09

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Pick the Brain
Whether we are entrepreneurial spirited individuals, currently employed and even unemployed, we must operate with the proverbial “The Buck Stops Here” sign on our desks.

lip-sticking
Running a business can be like that, too. Trying to connect with a market that is always in flux can be challenging and fraught with the unexpected, almost as a matter of fact. The marketing to real women online shows this better than anything because it’s immediate, now, focused, relative, and maybe a little volatile, at times.

Manage to Change
Except for the Super Bowl, I never show much interest in TV commercials. But last week two new spots from Kaplan University got my attention.

Bold Enterprises
Words are power.

Their impact often out of proportion with their intent.

Attract More Customers
With corporations hemorrhaging jobs, it’s no surprise that interest in self-employment is skyrocketing. For me, personally, a pink slip was just the motivation I needed to get off my ass and finally start a business of my own.

Related ala carte selections include

Vandelay Design

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

The FIVE Ps of Irresistible Social Marketing

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Last year at SxSW, I told Richard at Dell that I thought the time of Brand You was over and the time of Product You had begun. What I meant was that brand is an interpretation of the “specs,” whereas product was the actuality. My point was that to build a career on concrete we have to build on the values and traits that are truly and always our own.

Now I’m thinking of traditional marking — the Four Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion — and in social media I’d add People.

In social media marketing, the view has shifted campaigns are about people not products. So lets start with the people.

People

It used to be these beings were outside a company. They were studied, feared, occasionally consulted, targeted, but considered “other” than the enterprise. Called buyers, customers, clients, eyeballs, users, and some terms less dignified, their value was often best understood by how they showed up on the bottom line. Many companies actually spoke of “customer proofing” their products, because they thought of their buying public as not too nimble or clever.

Now it’s people that we want to attract, connected and engage. It’s people who provide our best ideas and our most interesting content.

Product

It used to be that the product was what drove campaigns and the brand. Just putting a cool product in front of people hardly attract any more. Creatively featuring it, hardly makes enough single to get a mention if more interesting, informative, or intriguing conversations are nearby.

Now the product sits alongside to the ideas and actions the product enables or represents. Those ideas and actions are what connect people in conversations to form communities of fiercely loyal fans. The connection to has to be meaningful … the conversation has to be both intelligent and worth our time.

Price

The price was once derived solely from the cost of delivering a quality product into the people’s hands. Now the price is value. Value is based on the experience of being able to participate in the community, being able to meet with folks who can answer questions and who share the stardards and values the product represents.

Place

Place used to be where the product was offered — the footprint and location in relation to of ther products of the same ilk and kind. Now place is more about where people find the product helping other people and how we help customers find a place for the product in their lives.

Few of us need much more than we already have. What we’re looking for are things that give us more time and make our lives more efficient and meaningful.

Promotion

Promotion has turned inside out. It’s about showing and attracting, not telling and pushing.
Make a product that connects people with meaning and value that fits easily in their lives and they’ll it irresistble — so irresistible that they’ll tell their friends about it.

That’s social marketing.

How do you make your social marketing irresistible? What’s irresistible to you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Share a SOBCon weekend learning with Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
Brian Clark Liz StraussBrian Solis Kali Evans-Raoul KD Paine Geoff Nelson and Chris Aarons Denise Wakeman Wendy Piersall and David Bullock Stephen Smith and Michael Martine Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson
Saul Colt and Terry Starbucker Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson
The value — priceless.

The New World of Online to Offline Relationships

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, we’re talking about online and offline relationships in blog posts like this.


In the wee hours one morning, while finishing up a task, I left a message on Twitter that sparked a chain events that became quite a story. One of the people I met as the chain of events progressed is the editor of the 1to1media blog, Ginger Conlon. It only takes a look at their blog to see the quality person she is.

Our conversation covered friends we have in common, the art of publishing, the world of social media and our blogs. By the end of an hour, Ginger gracious invited me to write a post for her publication. I accepted and it’s there today. Click the link to the title, it’s called:

Speed, Trust, and the ROI of Relationships

I’m pleased to introduce you to the 1to1 media blog in this way. Would you stop over to say hello and to let Ginger know what you think.

Thanks!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

IttyBiz, Walmart, and You: The Secret to Serious Sponsor Love

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This week was a great week for learning and a great week for SOBCon09!

It started with an email from Naomi Dunford, CEO of IttyBiz. The subject line was “Sponsorship info, please?” About 6 emails later we had a full-company sponsor deal that means a win for everyone:

  • funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants (more on that below)
  • visibility for IttyBiz and direct sampling of new products to key influencers
  • Naomi’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how she built her business so quickly to a full sponsorship level.
  • about $700 worth of solid value for every attendee

The very next day, I enjoyed a call with John Andrews of Walmart. We extended the relationship we’d started at BlissDom09. In a short 9 or so minutes, we put together a package that included value in more directions than first meets the eye.

  • funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants (more on that below)
  • visibility for Walmart
  • John’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how Walmart is connecting their vendors with their blogger evangelists.
  • and some other surprises

Because They Invested in Us We Can Invest MORE in YOU!

Why Sponsor Love Is Good for All of Us

How can I say it better than this?

Love makes the world go round, but my landlord wants bankable currency.

Conferences are expensive events. We all know that. We’re doing all we can to make this one as valued packed and affordable as we possibly can. One huge way to do that is to form solid working relationships with sponsors who have the same goals as SOBCon — to learn more about business on the social web and to form long-term, working relationships that make our lives better, smarter, and more fun.

Conversation becomes relationship and respect. We set goals in the same direction. They invest. We invest back. We all commit to the plan. When they invest — funding, time, valuable product, and expertise, we get to pass that love to you.

Want to get sponsor attention? Show that you’re invested too!

The BlogIt EarnIt Discount

It’s called the “Blog It, Earn It” discount. We’d like to hear from you about what “The ROI of Relationships” means to you. Tell us why relationships matter. How they affect what you do every day and how you do it. Maybe you can tell us how you see them changing the face of tomorrow’s businesses. We want to know how relationships and personal connections shape your world.

Heck, you can even write a love letter to a sponsor you’d like to have a relationship with. Pick a company that’s done something great for bloggers in the past and tell them why you think it was important and valuable that they did what they did. Propose an idea for how you might do something a SOBCon sponsor already listed on the SOBCon blog.

Blog your thoughts, share it, link it back to this post, and broadcast it on Twitter (hash #blogitearnit). We’ll also link to you on the SOBCon blog for others to see and learn. And as a thank you for sharing your story, we’ll send you a special code to take $200 off the $795 FULL conference rate – that’s over a 25% savings!

Or, if you can’t make to SOBCon09, you could “pay it forward” and pass the discount on to one of your friends — or offer it back to us as a gift for us to pass on for you.

Like I said, was great week for learning and a great week for SOBCon09!
We got the chance to pass on sponsor love on in the form of a price discount — Thank you, Naomi and John.

The Secret to Serious Sponsor Love

Here’s the secret to getting serious sponsor interest and support for your goals … find sponsors with goals you’re seriously interested in and take every opportunity to reach out, talk about, and support them.

People don’t care about what you know until they know you care.
People notice when you value them.
Sponsors are people too.

If we do this together, we could make a powerful noise.

SOBCon09 is only picking sponsors who get what we stand for and then “we’re loving them to death.”

Join in. Would you? — C’mon! Blog, Tweet, Talk!! The more we talk about SOBCon09, the more we talk about sponsors who participate, the more potential sponsors everywhere will see value in supporting all of us in more and more ways.

Sponsors notice you when you love them.

Love the good sponsors loudly and proudly. Love loud enough to be heard by the sponsor’s boss.

Do that and you can bet reluctant sponsors will notice who gets the love … and where it’s coming from.

You already know, I notice the good things you do.
And I’m thanking you.
Sincerely.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

SOB Business Cafe 02-20-09

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

social media explorer
With so many different services, blogs, and sites out there, small business owners and other marketers who are usually already stretched thin often figure that monitoring and participating in social media will require a time commitment and technical savvy that they just don’t have.

Not true. It’s better to participate at a level you can manage than to ignore social media altogether.

Barry J. Moltz
Process needs to trump outcome. This is nearly an impossible goal because regardless of what we say, the common belief is that the ends always justify the means.

Direct Marketing Observations
There are people out there, that don’t like you. I know, shocking isn’t it? For some of you, it might be. In social media we talk about, and write even more about how social media creates these magical relationships of synergy, business alliances, and friendships. But what people rarely talk about, are the relationships that have originated from social networking-that have gone sour.

Divine Purpose Unleased
There are lots of ways the roles you play change; actually roles change often. Sometimes your role gets yanked out from under you like when you get fired from a job. Your role shifts when your children grow up and move out of the house. You might get married… or divorced.

RANDOM ACTS OF LEADERSHIP
As of today 316,641 results returned when searching Amazon for books on leadership. According to Warren Bennis in Leaders (1997) “academic analysis has given us more than 850 definitions of leadership”. I think it is fair to say that defining leadership will be studied and debated for a long time to come and it is likely we will never all agree on THE BEST definition.

Related ala carte selections include

Amy Derby wants to know …

Terry Starbucker is making a great offer …

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss