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Why bother with Social Media…

Blaine Millet — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:59:16 +0000

People everywhere are talking about the “buzz” of Social Media – in the darkest recesses of business. Twitter this, facebook that, blogs here, LinkedIn there – its everywhere. But with such mass awareness and potential adoption, there are two ugly words that raise their head – CONTROL and RISK.

However, I believe that with this new found freedom from Social Media, companies can “reach out and touch” people so much “faster, deeper and cheaper” than they ever could before while building “broader” and “stronger” relationships. At at the end of the day, isn’t that what we all want in business? As the “official tweeter” for Sharpie pens said (@SharpieSusan) said in a recent interview, “I think you’d have to be living in a cave to have missed the social media movement and the power it can wield over brands.”

Enter side stage, the “stalwarts” of traditional media and, of course, their “lock it down, don’t lose any control or assume any risk” – The Wall Street Journal. They recently published their “conduct rules” for such Social Media tools as twitter and facebook (among others). My question to them, “WHY BOTHER TO ENGAGE IN SOCIAL MEDIA?” There isn’t anything in these “conduct rules” that reinforces what Social Media is all about – engaging in a dialog with your audience in a personal, authentic and honest manner to share how you feel and what can help your audience.

My advice to the WSJ. Just keep doing what you’re doing and each morning when I back out of the driveway I won’t even realize I have run over the newspaper since it will be so thin it won’t even be a “bump” any longer.

Blaine

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Deer in headlights? Some deer move…

Blaine Millet — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:37:23 +0000

When clay and I first started doing seminars on “What CEOs need to know about Social Media, it was to address a real issue we were seeing in small and middle-market businesses. The CEOs and owners were clueless to what Social Media was all about and completely unaware of this Tsunami in communications heading toward them and their business.

What is interesting to me today is that after giving almost 30 speeches to close to 500 people, the percentage of top executives that are clueless remains over 80% – that is shocking to me. So while we continue our journey to help “educate” and “enlighten” as many as we can, we hope to reduce this number as rapidly as possible.

However, at the same time, what is also very encouraging to me is how many of the “deer are getting out of the way” of oncoming traffic and starting to do something about it – way to go! They are moving from the “experimental” and “enlightenment” arena to the “mainstream” – doing something about it and “engaging” in the Revolution. I would encourage anyone that has considered doing something to just do it (with a plan of course) but GET IN THE GAME.

This can’t be learned from the sidelines – only with active participation. And participation by top executives, owners, CEOs and others – not the 28 year old marketing person that happens to know Facebook really well. This is your business and livelihood – make the investment and get out of the way of the headlights and you will reap some massive rewards – faster, deeper and cheaper than you could ever have done before. Don’t be the deer that gets caught in the headlights…we all know how that story ends.

Blaine

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In a “Transparent” world, “Recognition” is key

Blaine Millet — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:23:39 +0000

Regardless of whether you like it or not, we are definitely living in a “transparent” world today. There practically isn’t anything someone can’t find out about you – and with only a few clicks of the mouse. Amazing, absolutely amazing. The world wide web has turned into the world wide “diary” and “history book” of your life. If you doubt this is the case, just Google your name or do a simple search on such social media tools such as twitter, facebook and others.

One area Clay and I don’t see enough of yet is the desire to recognize the source of our information. Too often someone gives a quote or supplies information that “appears” to be something they created or found on their own. Generally, this is not the case. It is vital, critical, imperative that you recognize and give credit where credit is due when it comes to sharing information. The last thing you want to do is provide your audience with information that you found and not give the originator credit or “recognition” for this. This is both the right thing to do and your audience will give you kudos for being “transparent” with them.

The other positive is that this really helps with SEO (search engine optimization). Search engines love it when you “link out” to other sites from your blog. So do both yourself and the author a favor – give credit where credit is due and recognize others for what they have contributed. After all, the reason they are reading your post is because they like your “lens” on the world – not just because of the content.

Blaine

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