There’s a courting process in business. A mating dance, if you will, that exists between potential client and service provider while both flutter around determining if they’re a match. Traditional logic says it is the client who has all the power in this situation. He has the money and it’s up to him to decide where he wants to spend it. The service provider is the one, we’re told, who must prove herself and show that she is capable of performing the task. She is the one on trial.
I’m here to tell you that traditional logic is wrong.
Yesterday, my friend Michael Dorausch tweeted something that caught my eye.
He’s right. [read the full post…]
mmm, viral
Writing for AdAge, Jim Louderback says we should screw viral videos. As marketers and content producers, we’ve developed an unhealthy fascination with viral and it’s making us fat as we focus on artificial flavor instead of repeatability. And, perhaps surprisingly since I did fawn over the Old Spice campaign, I agree with him. We’re all getting way too fat on viral.
My distaste appears to be rooted in reasons different from Jim’s. His concern comes from the videos themselves, calling them unpredictable, easy to manipulate and ineffective from an advertising standpoint. My concern is that it’s teaching businesses to become shiny instead of helpful. It’s teaching them to become brands, instead of small businesses. We chase elusive unicorns instead of committing to providing valuable resources that we can build upon, repeatedly, over time. And it’s when you start down that slope that you begin to lose focus. It’s when you lose customers.
I agree with Jim: We need to stop chasing viral, and start looking closely at [content] that delivers repeatable, measurable and sustainable views. That’s where your livelihood is. And though Jim may be talking specifically about video content, the rule applies to all of your content marketing. [read the full post…]
Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt behind the curve. If you weren’t on Twitter in 2007 or blogging in 2000 and came in feeling like you were already playing catch up. Or maybe you entered SEO in 2006 while the “first gen” was already rolling around in their blog spam earnings, working in their pajamas and just mounting their high horses (we love you, really). It was intimidating, right? Of course it was. While it seems counter intuitive, sometimes it’s scarier to enter a crowd than to walk into an empty room. And at some point, in some context, we’ve all felt it. Unfortunately, there’s little comfort in that.
New readers may not know that when I’m not hanging out at Outspoken Media, I’m acting as the Social Media Editor for SmallBizTrends. That’s where I go to chat directly with small business owners and get a taste of what’s on their mind. Often I’m finding that many small business owners feel like they’re behind in the Web race. They were late to the game and now they’re struggling to catch up. Where should they start? What’s most important and what can they wait on? [read the full post…]
Happy Saturday! I’m glad you’re here because today is a big day in the world of Outspoken Media. It’s the day that me and Rhea move into our brand new Troy office. I KNOW! It’s almost like we have real jobs. I can’t wait to tell my dad. But…that’s not why you’re here. It’s Weekend Coffee Links time. The one day of the week we dedicate to sharing our best Web finds, all the stuff that made us laugh, made us think, or maybe had us shaking our fists at our computer monitor. It’s all served up hot for your amusement. You supply the coffee.
Ready to go?
I’ve stopped responding to new comments on our Philly blogger tax post (don’t worry, still reading them). It’s not that I’m disinterested in the conversation or that I don’t value the time people are spending engaging there, it’s just too much. That conversation has spun in so many different directions and taken so many turns that I can’t find right side up anymore. It feels a little like the conversation I tried to start has now been lost. I don’t know how to get it back on track. I should have been sterner when the pursuit was still in progress.
A recent post on the Sphinn blog informed community members that site moderators would now be paying closer attention to enforcing longstanding guidelines. They’ll be keeping a close eye on voting patterns and taking steps to remove unexceptional content from the Sphinn home page. I think they feel a bit like their own conversation has been lost as the community is diluted with content of little value, pushed to the front page large writing teams or artificial voting circles. I’d encourage you to read the lengthy Sphinn conversation happening here because it’s quite good.
They’re both cases where someone or something was needed to step in and manage the actions of a community. Someone had to affirm their presence to help things remain productive and useful to members. However, one of us was a lot more successful at asserting that. And it sure wasn’t me. [read the full post…]
I’ve read hundreds of articles on how to corral your employees in social media. Posts on how to make sure they don’t reveal too much, waste too much time, or annoy people to the point that customers hate you. However, all that assumes that your employees and your team are comfortable stepping into social media and that they WANT to be there. It doesn’t account for the people who aren’t. The people who are fearful of the new tools, of casting bad light on the company they work for, or, even worse, accidentally getting themselves fired. While attending CapitolCamp here in Albany last week I was reminded that not every employee is socially-savvy and dreams of waking up to 15,000 Twitter followers. Some are still coming to the terms with the idea that our job means engaging with people in a brand new way. Some are absolutely terrified.
If you’re responsible for a team skeptical of social media, how do you calm their fears? How do you comfortably bring employees into the social media mix so that they see it as an opportunity instead of something that may get them fired? [read the full post…]
You’ve probably heard about it already. Last week the Philadelphia City Paper posted an article discussing the city’s Business Privilege Tax that taxes residents who engage in any sort of “activity for profit” – even if the activity has never profited them as much as a latte. Ever. The trouble started when bloggers discovered this tax applied to them and they, predictably, went out-of-their-mind berserk. Blog posts were written, tweets were ALL CAPS LOCKED and I even had one person tell me it was unconstitutional to tax a blogger. [I did a Ctrl+F on the Constitution to verify this but couldn’t find any mention of “blog”. Sorry.] It was pretty amusing.
In the aftermath of the outrage, I was left to wonder if taxing bloggers was such a bad thing. In fact, I think it could help bring professionalism to a “hobby” that’s long needed a push into maturity. I will totally agree that, as is, what Philadelphia is putting together makes little sense. The idea of taxing a grandmother and her crochet blog is extreme. However, tax or no tax, bloggers need to start thinking of themselves as small business owners. And maybe taxing them is just the way to start that new line of thinking. We may find it would actually help, not hinder them.
My name is Lisa and I support taxing bloggers. Here’s why. [read the full post…]
There’s a lot of bad advice on the Web. We know this and we’re all getting pretty good at ignoring it. However, sometimes when I land on bad advice, I can actually feel parts of my brain exploding. And that’s usually when I say something that gets me in trouble.
While in the midst of liveblogging Affiliate Summit East, I noticed a tweet sent out by Ruud Hein promoting a post written by Roko Nastic entitled Four Ways To Become An Authority Blogger . Curious to see if I was “doing it right”, I clicked on Ruud’s link during a slow point in a session [hi speakers!]. I then did what I always do when I want to share an opinion but don’t have time to comment or create a new post – I tweeted.
A couple of people asked why I would tweet something I don’t agree with. Personally, I think it’s important to bring awareness to all sorts of content – whether you agree with it or not. I also was pretty sure this post would get a bunch of RTs since it was coming from an influential circle so I wanted to at least bring the other side of the coin. Of course, being at a conference meant I did a pretty crappy job doing that. Luckily, I have friends who will call me out. :) [read the full post…]
Your clients chose you as their SEO agency because they have complete and utter trust in your capabilities, right? So why do they keep calling to check up? Why can’t they just let you do your work and report back to them when you’re finished?
Well, because they probably don’t completely trust you. Because you probably did a crappy job of ensuring they could trust you.
To companies, their website is their baby. Handing over their FTP info to a new agency is like handing the house keys over to the new babysitter. Will junior be ok for a few hours? Will they remember to feed him and bathe him and not let him play in traffic? Did they make the right decision!?
Websites have become the cornerstone of our businesses, the hub that all of our marketing efforts lead back to. If something goes wrong, how will the business fare?
The solution (to most of life’s problems, actually), is in managing expectations. [read the full post…]
Well, we made it! It’s the final session of Affiliate Summit East and I can’t think of a better way to end it then with a presentation from social media golden boy (and fancy pants) Scott Stratten.
Scott’s been in NYC for two weeks. He’s staying in Chelsea market. On Saturday he was wondering what was up with all the tourists there. He’s been here two weeks and he’s already really bitter about people being in his city even though it’s not his city. Canadians are silly. And possessive. I know this through Rae. Wait…what?
Scott says there’s been a lot of talk about leads and ROI at the conference. What there hasn’t been is a lot of talk about people and relationships. Not in a we-are-the-world kind of way, but just recognizing that we are all human.
Oh, oh, Scott has rules for his presentation. [read the full post…]
