Archive for the ‘Observations’ Category
I may be slow but I am dumb
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Sometimes things are so obvious that you just completely forget about them. When these things smack you in the face you can’t help but feel stupid for not thinking of it earlier. Well, in true Kyle fashion, I had one of these realizations this week.
For those of you who do not know, I am a social media guy. I eat, live and breathe it, day in and day out. Whether it is my social media presence, or that of my clients, I am constantly working to expand networks and build communities.
One of the questions my clients generally ask is what they can do to help expand their network. I always suggest integrating social media invitations into their traditional marketing pieces to help build their community. This way the consumer not only learns about you but they also connect to your community, pretty cool stuff. Beyond the traditional forms of marketing, I also suggest they include links to their social media sites in their email signature.
Now, I am the subject matter expert, the one making these suggestions to my clients, you would think I would do this stuff for myself. But, low and behold, I realized this week that my email signature didn’t include any reference to my social media sites. How boneheaded! As I quickly updated my email signature I realized there are two lessons that you can take away from my oversight:
1) If you don’t have links to your social media sites in your email signature, add them. They are a great way to connect with people and share networks. Trust me, just because I was so aloof to the concept, does not mean that it is not a valuable add-on.
2) Take a look at what you advise your clients, customers, colleagues or employees to do. Do you follow suit in this action? I know we would all like to say that we do but unfortunately that is not always the case. Just take a quick second to run through what you ask of those around you to ensure you are meeting that expectation yourself. I wish I had done this a while ago!
I’ve always said that if I can start a company than anyone can. This just goes to prove that!
Tags: advertising, business, marketing, social media, social networking, strategy
Posted in Observations, social media | No Comments »
It’s not about you
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
A friend of mine recently sent me a great article by Joel Spolsky on why he was shutting down his blog. It appears Joel had great success in creating a blog about programming but he felt it was time to focus his time on taking his business to the next level. As he prepares to shut down the blog, he reflected back on what made the blog such a great tool in growing his business.
What Joel did, without even trying to, was create a community of programmers that were highly interested in his product. He did this by not focusing on himself or his company but rather the industry as a whole. This allowed him to draw-in over a million unique visitors a month that may have otherwise not had an interest in his company. While he admitted it was hard to not give into the impulse of self-promotion, he saw it as the key to his success.
As Joel shuts down his blog, he does so having used it to grow his company from a single person, bootstrap company, to over 30 employees and millions in revenue. Not bad for a man with a vision and a blog. What interested me in the story though was HOW he did it. Time and time again he pointed out that the only reason why the blog worked was because he didn’t focus on himself or his company, only on his industry.
This is an important lesson to take away. Even as a seasoned blogger I sometimes succumb to the temptation to self-promote, although the times are few and far between, they show how easy it is to do. All too often I run across blogs that have aired on the side of self-promotion and they immediately seal their fate that I will not return. Even if the writer is amazing, witty and captures my attention, it is not worth sifting through the sales pitch.
This is even a problem that I will run into with my clients. They will love the traffic and response they are getting and decide they want to through in a quick pitch for one of their products or services. I try to warn them against the move but it is ultimately their blog and their company. And although the results of this quick pitch might not be immediately felt, it is evident that repeated self-promotion leads to stagnated growth. Even an expert in growing a blog’s reach, like me, can do little if the content is not what people are looking for.
I guess my mom was right; it’s not all about me.
Tags: advertising, blog, business, communication, social media, social networking, strategy, web traffic
Posted in Observations, social media | No Comments »
The mother filter
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
My mom doesn’t approve of most of the things I do. Since the seventh grade I have seemed to make it my life’s mission to act in a way that she finds unacceptable. However, after over 20 years she has learned that I am going to do things my own way and that is (usually) okay. So as I go through my life I am happy to share with her all the details that she may or may not approve of.
When I started participating in social media several years ago I thought about what information I would or would not share. I looked back to my relationship with my mother. Beneath the disproval of my actions, there seemed to be a genuine appreciation of the honesty. And so I applied that open book policy to social media.
Yes, I do and share things that some people may not agree with. I am a young man and I like to work hard and play hard. There are no apologies about that. But even after years of allowing an open book approach to my life, I occasionally cringe at the thought of sharing certain information. However, I take a deep breath and remember that even the worse of me, is still me and even if people one hundred percent disagree with me, they can at least appreciate my honesty.
So when people object to the thought of sharing information, I instinctively wonder what it is they have to hide. Don’t get me wrong, I get where people are coming from. I understand the desire for privacy and not wanting certain people to know certain things about you. Believe it or not, I am a fairly private person that doesn’t generally like to mix my business and personal life. However, I am me, one hundred percent of the time.
For the people that do question about what they should or should not share with the social media world, consider the mother filter. Would you share the information with your mother? If so, I say go ahead and let the world know about it. If it is something you would not want your mom to know about, it is probably best kept off the internet entirely. Once something is posted to the internet you should assume the entire world, your mother included, can see it.
Tags: communication, social media, social networking, strategy
Posted in Observations, Opinion, social media | 2 Comments »
Who is to blame for my frustration?
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
As hard as it is for me to comprehend, there are people that disagree with me. I’m not sure what these people are thinking but apparently they don’t wholly and unquestionably accept my worldview. I’ve grown accustomed to this from a personal side of things (I’m a pretty unique character!) but when it comes down to business, it is still down right frustrating.
Now, I’m not saying I have all the answers; there are a lot of things that I suck at in life. However, one thing that I know I do not suck at is using social media to help companies grow. Therefore, when people question my tactics and procedures I am immediately defensive. This is what I do day in and day out, this is what I eat, breath and sleep, this is how I make my money, this is all I do!
Don’t worry; the point of this piece is not for me to grip. I point out my frustration because it is an internal obstacle I have to overcome from time to time. The fact of the matter is that when I am frustrated at others for not seeing my point of view, I should really be frustrated at myself for not properly explaining myself.
I am going through one of these internal/external struggles right now. A client of mine is not too pleased right now because they have received some negative response throughout the social media community. However, I am very used to negative responses and I simply see them as an opportunity to disprove critics. My client does not so easily accept the public criticism.
My initial reaction was to wholly reject my client’s objections and tell them to trust in my expertise. But then I realized that this does not really handle the issue at hand. What happens when more negative comments come? What happens when they disagree with something else? Telling them to simply ignore it will not suffice.
I need to take responsibility for not properly informing the client what a great opportunity a negative response presents. It will be my job in our phone call tomorrow to properly illustrate my worldview to the client so they can share my vision. Any frustration that I feel is simply because I had failed to do this earlier.
It is easy to become frustrated when others disagree with us. However, instead of pointing the finger outward, look inwards and you will most likely see who is to blame for your frustration.
Tags: advertising, business operation, entrepreneur, social media, strategy
Posted in Observations, Opinion | No Comments »
What a great problem to have?
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
All December I felt like a title wave of work has been pounding against me. New clients were signing up, existing clients were expanding and hot prospects were pounding on my door. As the work began to pile up, things began to slip. Projects were launched a week late, things I thought I sent never got sent and follow-ups were never completed.
When I would explain to people how tight my time was they would generally respond with “what a great problem to have!” Of course this would make me blush and agree, yes, it is wonderful to be busy because it means that business is booming. But is it really so great to be so busy? As I begin to pull myself out from the mess, the resounding answer is no.
A month plus of simply trying to keep my head above water certainly did nothing to help my business. New clients got started on shaky ground, prospects were turned off because I couldn’t answer their questions and current clients began to question my loyalty to them. All of this because I wanted to do everything at once and I was convinced that growth was good at any cost.
Now that I am getting reorganized and refocused I know things need to change. Yes, I do need more help and that is on the way soon. I also realized that I personally must change the way that I do business. Just because a prospect decides to sign-up does not mean that I need to drop everything to get them started at once. From now on I will only be launching one project at a time. This allows me to focus on the launch, ensure my current clients are still catered to and frees up time to return calls and emails.
Might I loose some clients because they do not want to have to wait to launch their campaign? Sure, but I would rather loose business because I could not meet their schedule than loose business because I could not meet their expectations. Time is a very valuable asset and I must carefully assess where I spend it.
So, yes, it is great that my business is growing and people are interested in my services. But is it great to be too busy? Absolutely not. Having clients that are too happy is the only great problem that I want have!
Tags: business, clients, prospects, Rebel, time management
Posted in Observations, Opinion | 1 Comment »
The six years the Corps and I shared
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
In July of this year I ended my 6th year in the United States Marine Corps. Today the Marine Corps celebrates its 234th year protecting this nation. I figured I would take this opportunity to reflect on the six years that the Corps and I shared.
For most, the memory of their time in the Corps starts when they are told to get off the bus and stand on the yellow footprints. For me this seems completely detached from my time in the Corps. Even the day I received my coveted Eagle, Globe and Anchor now seems meaningless in hindsight. The one thing that I do remember from boot camp though is when a drill instructor told us that we would not be “real” Marines until we came back from our first deployment.
This stuck with me as I finished up my training and, as fate would have, it would not take me long to learn what the drill instructor meant. The day I checked into my reserve unit I was told not to get a job, not to go to school, not to do anything: I was going to Iraq. I remember feeling proud because I was going to do what Marines were supposed to do.
The first time I left the safety of the base in Iraq I felt this flood of emotions pass over me. I was excited, scared and proud, all at once. It felt like I could not see, smell or feel fast enough. Every light was a possible enemy, every sound an ambush, every movement an attack. My job on that first day was to close off a road so that other Marines could search for explosives.
It was the summer months in Iraq and we had been out since early in the morning. I was hot, tired and convinced nothing was going to happen. As soon as these thoughts entered my head, a car came rushing past our stop signs, past the concertina wire and straight for my unit. After my shouts and arm signals would not stop him, I looked through the scope on my rifle, saw the driver and pulled the trigger.
There would be several more times that I would do this throughout my deployment, however, it was that first time that stays in my mind clear as day. It turned out that I missed, the driver stopped and everything was fine. But there would be days when I didn’t miss, when the driver wouldn’t stop or when everything wasn’t fine. For each of these days I felt myself slip further and further away from what boot camp taught me it meant to be a Marine and towards what I considered to be a “real” Marine.
After two combat deployments, several trips to other countries and six years, I try to define what that “real” Marine was that I was striving for. I think about the men that I know to be real Marines. I think about Sergeant Shogren who took me under his wing and forced me to be prepared for our deployment. I think about Staff Sergeant Conly who refused to leave the frontlines after being seriously injured and then snuck back onto the battlefield to be with his men. I think about Sergeant Jacobs who had us give all our money to a poor Iraqi family.
I think about these men and the definition of a real Marine comes into view. These are brave, selfless men that did more then they ever had to do, in the world’s worst conditions. It is hard for me to consider myself a “real” Marine when I compared myself to these amazing men. All I know is that I feel humbled to have stood next to men like these, humbled to have shared the title of Marine.
Tags: combat, Iraq, Marine Corps
Posted in Observations, Opinion | 6 Comments »
The art of desire
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
“I can’t make you love me.” And with that a two-year relationship ended. My girlfriend said she just didn’t feel the same way anymore and so I threw in the towel. Words would not change feelings. However, the truth is that I could have changed the way she felt but not then, not at the end. Over the previous two years, in the daily grind, I could have changed her desire.
It’s always the small things that add up. I let the dishes pile up. I left my clothes lying around the house. I constantly worked late. Each slip pushed her a little further away until it was too late: she was gone.
And so it is with advertising. It is not when you lose a customer that you really lose them. It is all the small concessions along the way that let them slip away. If you don’t pay your customers enough attention you will lose sight of both their priorities and changing needs. You must listen. If not, the advertisement might not be relevant. The lack of conversation may make you seem distant. The poor shopping experience may make purchasing difficult. These are the difference between a sale or no sale.
In advertising, as in relationships, you must constantly supply information that creates desire. Things like time, communication and trust are what make a relationship work and advertising is the creation of a relationship. When we form strong relationships, we create desire. Nurturing those relationships maintains that desire.
I will never get that girlfriend back, just as you may never get back the consumers you pushed away. But now I know that in order to create and maintain desire, I must constantly supply information that builds a relationship. And so must you supply the information to build relationships with your consumers, for when you build relationships, you master the art of desire.
Tags: advertising, marketing, social media
Posted in Observations, Opinion | 3 Comments »
The “why” of social media
Friday, June 19th, 2009
For those of you that are sick of hearing me talk, here is what some other people have said about the power of social media:
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who put effort into describing why they choose social media.
Tags: advertising, linkedin, marketing, social
Posted in Observations, social media | 2 Comments »
My sweet lady AIDA
Friday, June 12th, 2009
I’ve never been a big fan of love. A passionate night seemed to be about as close to love as I would ever get. But then I met AIDA and she changed my life.
I met her through Robert Grede, author of “Naked Marketing.” In his book, Grede discusses how an advertisement should use AIDA to gain Attention, give Information, create Desire and then call for Action. As I thought about this, I realized that AIDA could be so much more than that. Uncovered, AIDA is a sales process and if you follow that process, the results can be astounding. Let’s have a look at how she breaks down:
Attention: This should be the goal of your advertising or outreach. You do not have to give consumers all the information about why they should buy from you, simply get their attention. Too often companies try to squeeze the entire sales process into the first step. Stay focused and grab their attention and the rest of the process will move smoothly.
Information: Once your advertising or outreach has gotten the consumers’ attention, you need to drive them some place to get more information. Today this is often done on the internet, but the information could also come from a sales representative or literature. In this information, you give them the key reasons why they should buy from you. Not every reason, only the key things that will draw in a customer.
Desire: If you have done the Attention and Information stages correctly, this should come naturally. In fact, this is not a step you take at all, this is the step that the customer must take. As a company, it is your job to get your consumer to this point. Just about anyone can get someone’s attention and then shove information down his or her throat, but it takes an artist to create desire.
Action: The responsibility falls on your shoulders to enable action as soon as desire strikes the consumer. The where, when and how a consumer can buy from you must be immediately available. Furthermore, a sense of urgency needs to be created while the desire is still new and resonating strongly.
There may be some that scoff that this is too simple, but these are the fundamentals of what it takes to turn a consumer into a customer. The length and number of steps required to move through the AIDA process will vary from field to field but should you hit each mark along the way, success is imminent. This is what my sweet lady AIDA does for me.
Tags: advertising, consumer, customer, marketing, outreach
Posted in Observations, Sales Process | No Comments »
Defeating the Two Objections
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
It’s inevitable that I run into someone during the course of my day that thinks his or her company does not need to be involved in social media. The two main excuses I hear are that the company does not have the time to invest or the executive does not see how the company will get a return on the investment. Believe it or not, I understand these objections. The proper utilization of social media can be very time consuming. Furthermore, spending money to have someone run your social media campaign seems like a waste when a clear return is not quantified.
As a small business owner, I completely understand the importance of time. It is the one thing us owners and executives cannot get more of. However, we would all set aside time in our week if we knew it was going to increase our sales. We will get to return on investment in just a second, but first let’s look at the time commitment required to properly run a social media campaign. There are a couple of different options you could consider:
1. Run the social media campaign yourself: This is a very viable option for those that have flexibility in their schedule and have opportunities throughout the day to update and reply. However, total time commitment for this is around ten to twenty hours, if done properly. This is probably time not too many of us have.
2. Have an assistant publish your content: Though authenticity is important in social media, this option allows you to create your own content but have someone else publish it for you. This saves you time, but is likely to lead to your message not reaching the intended audience or being diluted.
3. Use a social media expert: I know this seems like a shameless plug, but hear me out. I ask for a four hour weekly time commitment from my clients and that is if they want to write a blog. Should they not want a blog, the time drops down to two hours. That time is spent authoring that week’s conversation topics and replies. It is then the social media expert’s job to publish those pieces, reach new consumers and respond to standard questions. The expert acts merely as a filter for the author and allows the company to maximize the social media tool, without a great time commitment.
So, assuming that a company is willing to make the minimum time commitment, there is still the matter of whether the work will lead to a return on the investment. To determine this, let’s look at your traditional advertising. Let’s say you advertise well in the area and you receive 100,000 impressions a day. The success of this advertising is measured by your penetration rate. For this example, we’ll be generous and say that two percent of people that see your advertising buy from you that day. Thus, you get about 2,000 customers a day from your traditional advertising.
Now with a little time invested in your social media, you should just as easily be able to put that same message in front of another 100,000 people per day. However, if you are utilizing social media properly, that should be a targeted group of consumers and your penetration rate will likely be much higher. Just to be on the safe side, let’s say that it is actually lower and only one percent of consumers buy from you a day. That is still 1,000 extra customers per day that you got from simply committing four hours a week and investing in a social media expert.
Undoubtedly the numbers in this example do not ring true for too many people, but the general principle remains the same. Social media allows you to reach a large number of people with relative ease. A solid message and consistent communication will then allow you to turn those consumers into customers. If you are not seeing that return, then you are either not reaching enough people or do not have a message that is relevant to who you are reaching.
Without a doubt, I will continue to hear these two objections on a daily basis. However, next time you hear someone raise such an objection, explain these assumptions are incorrect. There is time and that time will return a profit.
Tags: advertising, business owner, penetration rate, ROI, social media
Posted in Observations, social media | 2 Comments »