Being a media planner & buyer by trade, and an avid personal consumer of all media, it struck me that the last 15 minutes of Dr. Phil today seemed to be all advertising and sponsor recognition.  Anyone know what’s going on there? 

RESPONSE TO FACEBOOK GROUP CONVERSATION: “HOW NOT TO USE TWITTER”

There are no rules, but there are definately best practices. Since Twitter is growing so rapidly in comparison to all other social media, the best practices are being defined by early adopter successes & lessons learned. If you are on Twitter now - congratulations! - you are an early adopter and will join us in defining and discovering Twitter’s uses and limitations.

Using Twitter, or any social media tool, is most effective when you create and work a system for integrating it into your business communication needs.

Imagine your communication needs today are:

a) Generate audience and comments on your new blog post

b) Important indusry information for inclusion in your monthly newsletter/whitepaper/email

c) A Virtual Assistant to take a little bit of the stress off your upcoming Request For Proposal

I like how Twitter use clearly defines the need for businesses to approach social media first from a social perspective, instead of our instinctual focus on advertising/results, pushing our business/promotional message or closing sales. There are a lot of examples on Twitter of people and businesses who simply use Twitter and other social media as simply free advertising, and although it may work for them to a certain extent, never as well as it could - creating stronger relationships with existing clients and getting people to talk about you (activating Word of Mouth Marketing for your business).

How do you get people to talk about and follow you?

• Share interesting, useful, valuable information - always include useful links, which can be shortened at www.Tinyurl.com
• ReTweet - give other people credit for finding and sharing the great information; you are RT (ReTweeting) to your “followers”
• “Send” influencers useful information they may RT to their large audience (giving you the @yourname credit, which may be RT again & again)
• Chat with people (using the @username in your Tweet)
• Chat in live ongoing topic-based conversations (using # hashtags and www.search.twitter.com)
• HELP people out - when you overhear someone asking for information or thoughts on a product/service/issue
• Ask questions! People will respond and send helpful links 

How would you do this at a live business networking conference?

1. scope out the room & identify groups of people who are working in or discussing topics that are interesting or an expertise that you have/need right now
2. listen in on their conversation (unless their Tweets are protected/private) and respond
3. give, help and suggest - reciprocity will do the rest

The basic principle to keep in mind is that people will do business with people they know, like and trust.

KNOW - People get to know you (or your company) through everyday real tweets about interesting meetings, announcements, blog post conversations, comments, #followfriday and your general status updates on what you are doing, thinking, why.  I’ve heard some experts suggest a 80/20 rule of Tweets 80% focused on sharing business links 20% on personal thoughts and happenings.

LIKE - They will like you, for who you are really, based on how you converse and socialize on Twitter - if they unfollow you then they’ve decided (at least for now), they aren’t interested in listening to what you have to say.

TRUST - Trust takes time to develop. If you’re on Twitter often and make strong connections with people, you can shorten how long it takes for people to trust you - to the point where they want to do business with you.

Once you’ve invested the time to develop a relationship so that your followers know, like and trust you, when the time comes they immediately need your product/service you will be one of the 1st people they consider. It’s an investment in time, not money that will grow your business.

For the moment, most of my Teach Me To Tweet, shared articles are posted to my facebook profile click here

And general marketing, media, etc conversations are on Twitter click here

Have you thought about using Twitter to help in your job hunting efforts?  

While I’m waiting to confirm my application to the OSEB program, I’m still required to be job hunting (the primary purpose of this blog) full time, which is the reason for my somewhat out of place talk about job hunting while I’m networking at small business events.  I’ve always enjoyed working as an employee and part of a team, primarily because I love the social interaction and accessibility of interesting and influential people.

So I have to wonder about the current etiquette on Twitter for job seekers: When the hiring manager is on the uber social networking site, Twitter & Tweeting about the job, is it OK to contact them directly and ask about the position?  

I almost feel compelled to pick up the phone and talk to the person, since they’re so easily available online I’d bet most people contact them through those channels.  What do you think?

For at least a few years, marketers have been talking about “integration” - instead of buying obvious advertising, we’ll find ways to integrate our client products, promotions and messages in with TV & Radio shows, magazine articles and more.

At the same time, a growing trend that was sparked by reality TV and then supercharged with easy YouTube videos is people getting their own few minutes of fame, and even if they don’t get a lot of views - its still nice that we have easy access to broadcast ourselves to the world.

Now Disney has taken it a step further with this promotional video that is almost impossible to resist and spreading across the internet at lightening speed, all while promoting Disney vacation packages, parks & merchandise.  It’s brilliant, and according to reports from the author of Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Paul Gillin, the promotion paid for itself in approx 18&1/2 hours.

It really is hard to resist - be sure to watch to the end & listen for Goofy~

Want it?  You can have it too - spread the Disney love~

HOW WEB 2.0 PUBLICITY (HARO) CAN HELP YOU FIND A JOB OR PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS

Early in my blogging days, I blogged about Peter Shankman’s new project, HARO (”Everyone’s An Expert At Something”), which brings regular people & business owners together with journalists looking for specific people to feature/include in stories they’re working on.  At the time of my 1st YDM blog post on HARO, I didn’t really believe it would work, and I thought I would get tired of the 3 times daily emails…  Reporters pay for including requests in Peter’s emails, for everyone else, it’s free!  Be sure to read and follow the important terms, so that you don’t find yourself blacklisted by the service for grabbing reporter contacts or sending unsolicited press releases.  That would be bad.

What is good is Peter’s encouragement that if you feel like you should be paying to contribute to his project, you should simply make a donation to a local animal shelter and continue to further the good Karma.

After shooting off a quick note to a reporter Peter had identified as looking for stories about how people are job hunting in the weeks following the start of the economic crisis (late October 2008), I quickly forgot about HARO and moved on to tackle other Web 2.0 projects.  

Recently though, someone in my industy found me on Facebook and asked how I managed to get mentioned on MSN, and I had to go looking for the article, by Google-ing myself! As it turns out my quick note to the reporter was picked up by multiple blogs and job hunting websites for my initiative in deciding to take “the bull by the horns” and develop an in-depth knowledge of Web 2.0 & Social Media for integrating into agency brand campaigns.

This is also a great example of how a little bit of online publicity can mushroom on its own, from one media mention/quote to many other blogs and articles.

“I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of Web 2.0 as it relates to my industry,” explains Debbie Horovitch, a marketing and media specialist. She decided to start a blog and use its content as a virtual calling card, where she can show readers what she’s learned. 

“The results of my efforts are online for all potential employers. They can see that I am a self-starter, and understand business trends, opportunities and needs.”

Even last month, bloggers writing about job hunting in the new economy have seen some of the articles and continued to mention me by name, further helping establish my Web 2.0 calling card.

• The Zen of Blog “The New Media Way to Job-Search“
• Financial Matters by Vik Dulat “Start a blog and land a job“
• Wibo’s Weblog “Start your own blog“

Seth Godin is so excellent.  His blog is really valuable to me; it gets me regularly questioning everything I’ve thought about marketing and advertising, customer service and corporate communications.  

Here’s a quick video interview with Seth from T.E.D. conference (who wouldn’t want to be there?)

Seth is honest when he says he responds to everyone who emails him - before I knew what a big name he is in marketing I took exception to the tone I thought was inferred in an early blog post (early in my following him), and I responded!  By Email!  And he responded back personally.  I’m almost embarrassed now.  ;  )

This was a HUGE lesson for me in how I conduct business and represent myself online, that it is like having a one-on-one conversation, in the most public forum in the world.

That’s a big change of thinking for me, after years of mass media buying on behalf of top-tier brands.

Ultimately, Seth is changing the way we all think, as his message infiltrates agency folks (like me) and our clients, and eventually their advertising strategies & tactics, which in turn affects the business model & execution of all our ‘branded’ communication forms like newspapers, TV, radio, etc.

I’m on Twitter, a lot.  Why?  So that I can be the most knowledgeable on behalf of my clients & readers on how Twitter may be an effective way to start/contribute to developing your Tribe of close contacts.

Leave comments here, but talk to me publicly on Twitter, please! Click here:  @Debbie_h2o

Want help on Twitter? All the Twitter experts are there; just ask.  Want a quick, free survey for your business?  Just ask; your Twitter followers will answer.

PLANNING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET AHEAD CAN GIVE YOUR BUSINESS A COMPETITIVE EDGE

According to Microsoft Small Business center, #4 of the list of 7 Biggest Mistakes Of Business Startups is that they are “Clueless about marketing”, either thinking that marketing is an unnecessary expense, or confusing marketing with sales.  Of course you want sales immediately, but the reality is that there is a process to sales that can take some time - the lesson being to make sure you get your message to target consumers before trying to close sales.  

With a well communicated marketing message, you’ll close a higher volume of sales and most of your customers will be coming to you, already having made the decision to buy from you.  It’s your marketing/communication information that gives them reasons to buy from you before they need to make the decision and financial commitment of purchase.

Like every business decision that carries a financial commitment, planning your marketing activities is critical to being satisfied with the results of your investment.  

Even when some of your marketing efforts are not as successful as you had hoped, clear planning lets you approach each activitiy as a TEST.  Know at the start that you’ll measure various factors of success with each campaign and determine through trial & error the best investment in marketing for your business.

So the first question I get most often is “How much money should I invest in marketing, each year?”.  It depends.  It’s different for every business, business owner and market.  For each year of operation, you’ll want to determine a percentage of total business revenue you’ll invest in marketing activities. 

Depending on how ambitious and aggressive you are, a small business owner might want to invest 5%-15% of annual revenue on marketing activities, according to Andrew Patricio (co-founder of BizLaunch), at last week’s FREE Staples seminar “How To Brand, Promote & Advertise Your Business”.  View Upcoming Seminar Schedule Here.

You’ll also want to consider factors that indicate a larger marketing budget may be needed:

• You are Launching a New Business, Product or Service Division: you’ll want to announce and generate awareness of your business as soon as you’re ready to accept customers.
• You have a lot of competition: You need to Develop Your Brand (your new customers used to be your competition’s customers); you’ll want to communicate to potential customers why they want to buy from you, instead.
• You have NO competition: people have been getting along just fine without your product/service in the past; you want to Develop the Market, answering their question “why do I need this now?”  Once you answer that question, they can only purchase it from your business.

OVERDRIVE INTERACTIVE HAS DEVELOPED A FANTASTIC SOCIAL MEDIA MAP TO HELP YOU IDENTIFY YOUR TOP OPTIONS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY BUILDING AND MARKETING

Here’s a helpful Social Media Map, developed by Overdrive Interactive - feel free to pass it on to your contacts, don’t forget to give credit (and links!) back to Overdrive Interactive.  Thank you for all the hard work (it is well done), Overdrive Interactive, and for sharing!

Click on the picture to link back to Overdrive & download a copy of the map if you’d like one for yourself.

Overdrive Interactive is an online marketing services firm that helps companies create genuine and lasting connections with their target audiences and customers using Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Online Media.

Follow Up: I’ve been asking around Twitter and it appears there’s been some controversy over Magpie in Twitterland. While I take the time to consider what else I want to “test” on my Facebook, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, I have disabled the Magpie “promote” activity and require pre-approval of any ads purchased to run in my Twitterstream. I guess I just have to decide which of the two distinct groups of internet marketers I want to be -

1. Smash & Grab - build up links & traffic for people I never know or meet or talk to & just try to earn, earn, EARN!
2. Community Builder - take my expertise (traditional advertising media planning & negotiating) and gain a better understanding of how large & small companies can take advantage of the opportunity to interact with online communities (Social Media), to improve their offerings.

Jan 26th: I’ve been trying something new recently, instead of blogging often, short posts, I’ve been wandering around Twitter and trying to figure it out - how users use it and how real small businesses can use Twitter to promote themselves.

Click on the ad above and see if you can earn money and advertise your business on Twitter.

I am going through a bit of a phase where I find myself absolutely compelled to interact with fictional people online…  

First, Detective Hank Gillespie from the novel Raincloud posts previously unreleased police files to his blog.

Then, Nan Flanagan of the American Vampire League (True Blood) is on Twitter, from Washington, DC (where she lobbys for Vampire rights) 

Now I’ve come across a blog penned by Betty Draper, the depressed ’60s housewife of AMC’s Mad Men

Oddly, I had seen Mad Men when I started blogging, but I really thought my idea of having an “around the water cooler” category was more original…  I just found the Sterling Cooper website and at least they posted their Around The Water Cooler after I started blogging!