The Wax Blog

Since we all just had a good time talking about what NOT to do on LinkedIn I thought I’d post some things you SHOULD do. LinkedIn, according to Mashable just surpassed 50 million users. Although it’s clearly not the sexiest of social networks (the media loves them some Facebook and Twitter) LinkedIn is incredibly valuable, especially for the B2B set.  You can definitely market your business but remember – you’re building relationships one to one. That means there are no shortcuts.

These are things that are working for me but I would love to hear any cool ways you’re using LinkedIn successfully. Remember,  there are no experts in social media just the intellectual capital of the collective. (Seriously I just made that up ) (more…)

(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Sorry old school journalists, savvy advertising experts and prickly control-freak publicists but it’s time to realize something. To survive you can no longer be storytellers – you have to be information managers.  Here are some examples:

Rachel Maddow is an information manager. She takes the current news trends, analyzes them and offers up her opinion. She translates and disseminates information using a liberal, celesbian lens. We know it, we’re fine with it, we’ll watch her if we like that slant – and her numbers are through the roof.

Katie Couric is a storyteller. She takes the current news, tells the story she thinks we will find most interesting (called a HOOK or ANGLE) and puts a pretty package together hoping no one else has that same ANGLE.  Boring, yawn, her numbers are in the toilet.

Jon Stewart is also an information manager. He takes the current news, translates and gives it to us with using the funny lens. His numbers are great. Even Perez Hilton, as much as we love to hate him, is  an information manager. Perez takes the celebrity news and translates it with a snarky, ‘I used to be a geek and now I’m more powerful than you’ lens. His traffic numbers are still incredible.

Just try to ‘package’ a story or launch a brand these days with a clever message and a nice dose of spin. What happens? The public’s immediate attitude is that ‘WE WILL TAKE YOU DOWN, MOTHERF*&#ER’. (Remember Motrin Moms?) Today’s social media/citizen journalists love nothing better than to debunk a story, expose an exclusive, steal a headline from a print paper, or do whatever else it takes to prove they can get there faster and more provocatively than traditional media. And guess what? They’re winning the race.

It’s time to admit what we haven’t wanted to admit for a long time -  information is  too real-time and too accessible for us to believe the ’stories’ any more. We want to pick our chosen lens and get our information there.

Who’s your favorite information manager?

Since I recently listed several of my favorite PR sites – I thought it would be a good idea to post some of my favorite sites on the marketing side here too. I love RSS feeds – not only is it easy to stay up to date it shows me how prolific and smart many of my colleagues are in this business. Here are some of the blogs I’m following right now – and why. If you don’t mind, take a minute and list your own favorites in the comments section.

If I was only allowed one blog to read, for sure it would be Marketing Profs Daily Although many of us on Twitter are quite familiar with the brilliant Beth Harte, there are TONS of great posts on any marketing topic from sales to social media. The archive is huge and easy to search. I don’t pay for the “premium” option but I’ve been told it’s well worth it if you have the time. I try to read anything by Stephanie Miller and Kim Stearns but the site also links good posts from other blogs as well. It’s  a great collection of articles on just about any topic I need from a broad range of experts.

Although most people bow down to the OTHER Chris, I really like Chris Garrett’s site. He’s taught me a ton about new media, and blogging in particular. I wouldn’t say his posts are for blog neophytes or those just dabbling in it, but for someone who’s really trying to become adept at blogging and using the new media toolset, ChrisG is an excellent resource. I haven’t shelled out the $397 for his Authority Blogger course – anyone out there tried it?

Everybody knows that Seth Godin is brilliant – although I think his books are MUCH better than his blogging, I still love to read his blog. (Everyone should read Tribes, by the way)  The guy can say more in a few sentences than anybody else I know.  One thing that drives me nuts is his insistence on just continuing to put several posts on one page, so you end up scrolling around alot. But that’s just a nit. Seth’s a god of marketing.

John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing is not a blog that I read daily, but it is required reading for my small business clients. This blog manages to take the mystery out of marketing and really boils it down to its simplest (but most effective) elements for small business. Case in point – his post on marketing strategy points out the critical questions every small business should ask themselves when planning a marketing campaign. Really good, back to the basics blog with some fun personal musings. Again, if you own a small business this should be a daily read.

Finally, maybe it’s because I’m the daughter of a pathologist but I love Brand Autopsy. The dramatic readings are hysterical and it’s a bit pop but it’s a fast read. The author, John Moore, is a former Starbucks/Whole Foods marketer who seems to know his stuff as far as word of mouth marketing goes. And it’s fun – I particularly like his “brands I would miss” series. Again, a fun, fast read.

AdAge’s has a great list of 150 marketing and PR sites if you’re looking for a specific topic.

It’s summer and so for that reason I’ll break from my insistence on pragmatic advice and write on a topic you might consider fluff. Yet it’s the biggest mistake I see small business owners make, including me. We have no patience. I think that it’s a given that a requirement for being an entrepreneur is to have a low grade case of ADD, or in my case, ADHD with an emphasis on the H. And in marketing, that will kill you.

I can’t tell you how many times a client tries something and when there are no immediate results says “Well that doesn’t work.” It’s like lifting weights one day and expecting a tricep cut to develop overnight. I’m not suggesting that we all go out and spend a bajillion dollars on advertising during American Idol. But I do think that in order for your PR, social media and marketing tactics to work you have to learn to wait a bit. Here are a few tips to use to figure out if you’re too impatient.

• Are you measuring your campaign results by the number of orders you’re getting off each initiative? In a word, DON’T. Look at your website hits instead, or the traffic in your store. What’s the first step toward buying your product or service? Do they request a brochure? Do they visit the website? Are you adding Twitter followers or Facebook fans like crazy? Measure by those “first steps” in the short term.

• Are you changing your marketing strategy on a weekly or monthly basis? WRONG. You had better have confidence in your strategy (or your consultant) from the start. Nothing works if you don’t believe in it 100% from the beginning. Switching around what you’re doing on a constant basis and you’ll end up running circles.
• Are you relying on only one outreach method? It may work now, but it will stop working eventually. Or you’ll end up trying one thing after another. BLEND your messaging channels. If you’re doing radio, connect it to a twitter promotion.. Trying guerilla marketing? Make sure you’ve got some PR working in conjunction with those “on the ground”techniques.

Particularly in the online world, patience is the key to success. Jay Conrad Levinson, the founder of Guerilla Marketing, believes that patience is the most important characteristic of successful entrepreneurs. Be confident in your approach. Measure it wisely. And then, like that old farmer in the field, be patient and watch the seeds of your marketing work grow.

Here’s a great post with some more tips on social media and patience – great stuff here!

I read an article the other day that said professionals should only have ‘professional’ ringtones on their cell. Then mine went off (currently George Thorogood’s ‘Bad to the Bone’) and I forgot about it until now. Next, I read an article about  being careful not to put too much personal info on your social media pages if you want to appear ‘professional’. Right after I had posted the details of my latest crash skiing, complete with raves about my visit to an incredibly good looking doc at the ER.

So which is it? Do we have to be all stuffy and proper if we use social media for work and for pleasure? I don’t think so and here’s why. I want to do business with people that I know and I suspect you do too. Yet in the virtual world we live in we don’t always get to meet our clients and colleagues in person. Facebook in particular gives me a chance to connect personally, something years ago I would have done in a golf game. For those new to social media here are a few tips I’ve learned in the past year or so to help you blend the personal and private to deepen your work relationships without risking damage to your business:

• Don’t post trivial activities like dropping hubby off at the train station
• If you really like putting trivial activities on Facebook don’t be-friend anyone you might want to have a professional relationship with
• On the other hand, don’t use Facebook ONLY for blasting client deals and promotions. That is just as inappropriate as a pic of  baby’s first poopy diaper (SERIOUSLY I SAW THIS ONCE)
• Post mostly “work like” comments during work hours – it’s more likely that’s when clients and colleagues will be reading
• Keep most of your tweets work-ish during the day or it looks like you’re a goof off
• If you’re on LinkedIn write only VERY professional posts. That is a strictly business site!
• If you’re going to use twitter for something inane to build followers (like my live tweets during American Idol) send a warning tweet that for the next couple hours you’ll be hashtagging wife swap like crazy
• Don’t ever use profanity. Not even with asterisks.
• Think about every post before you hit that enter button. In other words, post consciously!!
• Don’t post the same things over and over to try to get a reaction. This just shows you’re annoying.
• Always assume that everyone reads ALL your posts, even if you know that’s not true.
• Add your twitter, facebook, linkedin and other social media to your work email signature.
• Follow me on twitter to see how it’s done. (just kidding – but do follow me)

Sure, save the bad jokes for your closest friends in private. But if you really want to engage, open up and let people see your humor and a bit about your daily life. I’ll bet it takes the conversations with your virtual colleagues a whole lot deeper.

Here’s a great article from Chris Brogan on personal branding and social media if you want to read someone who REALLY knows what they’re talking about!

EatonWeb Blog Directory

Recently I’ve started seeing little spats between people on Twitter. Most of the time one “tweep” thinks the other “tweep” has cross a boundary in terms of political correctness. This of course has happened for years in chat rooms and on discussion boards. But a particular interaction this week caught my attention – I think it tells us a bit about why this social media tool is so different. And so much more powerful.

First of all, let me introduce you to @isweatbutter. Apparently he’s a chef somewhere who also happens to be hilariously adept at sarcasm. “Sweaty” as his friends call him is known for his “snarky” (that’s what sarcasm is called on Twitter) comments during American Idol.  Last Tuesday he made a reference to Adam Lambert and Liberace I think the tweet went something like “Hey Adam, Liberace called he wants his suit back” It caught the eye of another tweep who found it offensive, and called @isweatbutter a gaybasher.

What happened next was interesting to me. Instead of just two guys hurling insults at each other across the twitterverse, a whole host of people came to the defense of our Sweaty. One guy even re-read all of sweaty’s tweets that night to assure him that “there was nothing offensive in there.” One woman sent a photo in of a “team butter” t-shirt and people were talking about ordering it on Zazzle. @isweatbutter had 117 DM’s that night, most of which I’m sure were showing support for what eventually became the hashtag #isweatbuttergate.

This means Twitter is different. People were coming to the defense of someone they’ve never met, but someone they truly feel is their FRIEND. I cant think of another social media where relationships like this are being hatched purely online between people who have no other connection, not even a common interest other than communicating.  I don’t know if I would go as far as Ashton Kutcher has in his rant for Time on the topic, but I do think this is a difference that makes Twitter a much more powerful phenomenon than Facebook or other forms of social media.

What is also means is that marketers can’t just go in there and sell. I think Twitter is kind of a new age speakers corner, and when we all step down from our boxes we go have coffee somewhere. But the people who aren’t willing to spend time making friends and creating real relationships certainly won’t get asked to hang out later.

If you want to follow me, I’m @waxgirl333.  But watch out for my own juvenile humor on Tues/Wed.

I was absorbed in some lunchtime tweets today and started to feel a little schizophrenic. My Twitter path consists of client promotion, Wax info, personal thoughts and conversations with friends. (Not to mention that weird story about the hair weave stopping a bullet…still freaked out about that one)  No wonder big business is scared to hop into social media. All that stuff we learned about “protecting the brand” goes out the window when you’re swimming in the sea of online chatter.  But should we really care? After all a brand is the perception of a product or service in the mind of the customer. Too many fat cat marketers have forgetten that – you don’t “create” a brand. It evolves based on your integrity, your service and yes…your personality.

Maybe Twitter is destroying that supposedly required separation of “personal” vs. “business”.  Customers buy from brands and people they trust.  So maybe by letting them see our personal side, even if it’s only online, we’re actually building that intangible part of our brand that has to do with trust. Trust that comes from knowing what to expect, because you know the character of the person – or company. @zappos has taken that idea and embraced it wholeheartedly. I imagine the company is thriving because of it. We feel like we all know the guy at the top…on his good AND his bad days. He’s our friend so that’s where we get our shoes.

At least that’s what I tell Charlton when the giant box of shoes arrives weekly at our door.

So tell me, what other CEO’s are doing a great job of using social media?

Okay, this is also a thinly-veiled – well I guess it’s not veiled at all now – attempt to get more followers on twitter. I’m waxgirl333, in case you didn’t know. 

But the 5 million people on twitter are learning a valuable lesson – how to communicate your message in 140 characters or less. People still write pitches the old fashioned way. We used to call the reporter, get them interested, and then send a long backgrounder with all the detail. And today many of the old school publicists still send out horrifically long emails as their first contact. Guess what? If you can’t get them hooked in the first sentence these days, you’re done. They won’t read the rest unless they know you very well or they are incredibly bored.

You’ve got to have a good hook. That hook may not have much to do with the rest of your message. Or it may be a tiny detail that just happens to grab attention.  For example, I got a ton of hits about a successful restaurant chain by telling the reporters that the owner had to sell her car to come up with the money to buy her first cafe. That certainly wasn’t the core message but it got their attention. Then I could reel them in.

Use twitter and see if you can create meaningful messages in 140 characters. Then take your email pitches and read the first 1 or 2 sentence to someone else. If they’re boring, write it again. It’s all about the hook. THEN you can thrill them with your dynamic and compelling message.