Welcome to SuperBowl weekend.  Are you ready to watch the Patriots destroy the Giants and get a little payback? I know I am. ;) But before all that, let’s snack on some Weekend Coffee Links. They’re nutritious AND hilarious. What more could you ask for? Nothing, I say.

First we’ll share what caught our eye this week, then you can share your own links in the comments.

• Flash Fans: This commercial will run during Sunday’s game but you can see it here first. It’s the work of Budweiser Canada and, fine, I was completely crying by the end of it.  I love when brands do awesome things.  This will be remembered way after the Patriots tromp the Giants.
• It’s not me, it’s you: A New York Times article about how Facebook has made the “defriending” process easier, if not more blunt. Also some good information about how we form friends and then, sometimes, grow out of them.
• The wilderness survival skills everyone should know: I’m not sure where I was when they were handing out survival skills in school, but I definitely didn’t get any.  If you’re in the same boat, this guide may just be the paddle you were looking for but didn’t know how to carve yourself.
• 28 words that don’t exist in the English language: Oh, but how we wish they did.
• Lost in translation: No one tells a story like The Bloggess.  And apparently no one creates mugs like she does either.  And if you haven’t pre-ordered her book, you should. Because it’s going to be awesome. I already have.
• Kirsten Bell’s Sloth Meltdown: If you haven’t watched this yet, you must.  Even if you don’t know who Kristen Bell is, it’ll be worth it.
• How to pronounce things hilariously: Just trust me. Go check it out.
• 10 awesome ways to have a really great time with your friends: I originally clicked on this thinking it might be give me some good ideas on what to do this weekend…but then I immediately started laughing. Because I have NO idea what this article is talking about. ;)

That’s it from us.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we’ll meet you back here next week.

I’ve been on both sides of the small business SEO coin.

I’ve been an SEO. Having done the intensive SEO work I know the value of good SEO and why it comes at such a premium. SEO is labor-intensive and ever-evolving, but extremely effective when executed well.

I’ve been the lone marketing manager in a small business, wearing fourteen different hats and trying to figure out how I am supposed to fit SEO into the schedule… and the budget. And I’ll be totally honest:  Working for a small business, even though I knew how important SEO was and even though I wanted to do it all myself… I honestly just didn’t have the time.

But I didn’t want SEO to fall by the wayside. So I sought outside help.

I reached out to some local SEO companies in the hopes of finding someone who could help me prioritize our SEO efforts at a price that I could actually present to my boss. Here’s what I discovered. It’s not pretty.

• Many SEO companies don’t really understand what a “reasonable budget” is for a small business.
• Many SEO companies offer off-the-shelf “packaged” solutions for small businesses, in an attempt to streamline their services and make attractive presentations. Unfortunately, there are pitfalls to this approach.
• Many SEO companies fail to prove the value of SEO during the sales pitch process . My feeling is that many SEO firms are used to dealing with IT or website development teams for larger companies (who already have at least a working knowledge of what SEO is), and when faced with a small business owner who doesn’t have the time to learn much about SEO, they forget to actually outline why SEO is important or what it entails for their site and business. When small businesses are doing everything they can to cut costs in a down economy- you MUST to be able to explain what it is you do and how it is going to translate into money for your clients.

From a small business stand point, the truth is that many of them know that SEO is something they should be doing (because that’s what they have heard), but they don’t understand it, and they don’t have the time or manpower to be able to do it themselves… so they are coming to you. It’s your job to lay it out for them and help them see the benefits of an SEO investment. So how can we do that? How do we bridge the gap and bring SEO and SMB budgets together?

3 Ways SEO Companies Can Improve their Small Business SEO

1. Understand your clients’ unique budgetary needs:  Maybe a small business can only afford $300 a month. Or maybe it’s a one-time payment of $3,000. Each company is different. A small budget doesn’t mean you can’t do good work for them… it just means that you are going to have to prioritize and pinpoint your efforts to achieve very specific goals. And when a small business owner says that their budget is $3000… please don’t send them a proposal for services costing twice that amount. That happened to me on more than one occasion, and I was not appreciative.
2. Respect their business by customizing your approach: No small business is alike. Each one is going to have its own customer niche, its own unique set of challenges, and its own unique brand. However, I interviewed some SEO service providers who didn’t seem to understand this. For example, after one young man pitched his company’s new SEO service to me, I asked him how it would work for us. He proceeded to tell me about how successful it was for a local pizza shop. Except, I was in real estate… and there is a huge difference between selling a house, and selling a pizza. That meeting didn’t end well. I needed to hear how SEO was going to help my business, not someone else’s.
3. Set realistic expectations with your small business clients: There are a lot of bad SEOs out there that make big and empty promises to unsuspecting small business owners. And this , in turn, creates one of two scenarios:
1. It gives those business owner the illusion that SEO is a magic bullet, and results are almost instantaneous OR
2. The business owner gets burned and becomes convinced that all SEO is a scam

I’ve seen both, and both offer their own challenges. However, each situation can be somewhat healed through transparency and honest communication. Tell your prospective client exactly what you would like to do for their business, why you want to do it, what it’s going to cost, and what the realistic payoff will be. Keep it short, simple, and specific to them.

And of course, for small business owners who may be looking to hire an SEO.

3 Ways Small Businesses Can Make Their SEO Efforts More Effective

1. Become SEO educated: The more you know, the easier it will be to spot scams and shady SEO tactics and protect yourself and your company from making a costly mistake. Having that knowledge base and shared language, you’ll also be able to better understand what is happening on your Web site and to ask better question. The more you know, the more you’ll come to appreciate the value of good, high quality SEO services and choose the firm that will be the best fit for your business.
2. Focus your efforts on things that matter: If you are running a location-driven business like a store or restaurant, your SEO efforts should be focused on the things that will have the biggest impact on a local scale. Therefore, your first SEO priorities should be:
• Having a clean, simple, easy-to-navigate website
• Creating a social media presence in your local community
• Setting up and optimizing local listings for your business in all the places where your customers may try to find you
• Creating fresh, relevant, hyper-local content that people in your community are likely to share with one another
• Focusing on a few, targeted keywords that you can realistically rank for and which will drive relevant traffic to your site
3. Understand that SEO is an investment in your company: Search engine optimization should be considered a vital component of your online marketing strategy. SEO can improve your business’ visibility, help protect your brand’s reputation, and increase revenue. But, it’s not a magic bullet, and it is not going to come cheap. Don’t quit doing the other marketing activities that work for you (whether it is newspaper ads or mailers), but make it a priority to set aside some of your marketing budget for SEO, and stick with it long term so you can see all the good things that it can do for your business.

Are you an SEO specialist that specializes or caters to small businesses? What would you add? I’d love to hear your point of view…

You’ve probably heard the news. According to findings released by UMass Dartmouth [hat tip RWW] the number of Inc. 500 companies maintaining corporate blogs has dropped for the first time since 2007. Did you hear that? IT DROPPED! According to Dartmouth’s research, just 37 percent of companies interviewed said they had a corporate blog, down from 50 percent in 2010.

So where are these fast-moving companies moving to? Shinier pastures, of course.

• 74 percent of companies are maintaining a Facebook page
• 73 percent are using LinkedIn.
• 64 percent are using Twitter

Naturally, much of the blogosphere took the headline of the UMass report and ran with it all the way to the linkbait bank.

Is blogging really plummeting? Probably not.
Is it declining slightly? Maybe. People have more options.

And if it is declining, let it. You hear me? Let your blog be the last blog standing because while sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may be effective and sexy all in their own right, they don’t hold a candle to the sexiness and superpowers possessed by your blog.

Don’t believe me?

Below are just ten things your BLOG can do that your FACEBOOK (or Twitter. Or LinkedIn. Or other social networking sites) cannot.

1. Stand as your social media hub

Regardless of what you do elsewhere in social media, your blog is your home base. It’s the hub of all your other social interaction because it’s the one place on the Web that you own, that you can control the context, and that you can use to get out your complete message. Yes, engage on Twitter, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, and wherever else your audience is hanging out online. But when you’re done chatting with them on these satellite networks, make sure you’re directing them back to your blog to finish their transaction (even if it’s an information transaction) with you. All of your other activity should point back to the one social media portal your own – your corporate blog. If you’re not directing your social media relationships back here, you’re wasting your time.

2. Acts as a central knowledge repository

Your corporate blog gives you the opportunity to answer your customer’s most common questions, concerns, issues, fears, hopes, and dreams and then call on that information when someone else asks the same question three weeks later. It creates a central knowledge repository that you can direct people to – whether it’s to answer a question, show expertise, or give a client more insight into what you offer. Having this information on your site makes you a resource of knowledge and it gives prospective customers something to read and look at when they’re evaluating vendors, long before they ever call you or get in touch.

3. Gives you room to establish expertise

You know what’s really difficult to do? Have an intelligent, in-depth conversation on Twitter. Either you end up fragmenting your messages between five different tweets or you start typing like a tween, ignoring proper spelling and punctuation like it’s a Justin Bieber song. It’s not always easy to go in-depth on social channels, but your blog opens up that opportunity. You have all the room you need to dig into an issue from all different angles, share stories, give insight, and make your case.

4. Blogging improves how you speak to customers

Blogging is great practice for learning how to talk to your customers in THEIR language and in how to refer to your products/services the same way they do. It improves your communication skills with customers by re-introducing you to their language. That language you stopped using when you became such a skillful expert. It also keeps you forever exposed to their pain points, their issues, who they want to be like, what they’re looking for, etc. Once you know these things you can address them in your marketing to your customers. By being an SMB who blogs you become an SMB who understand how to communicate with the people they’re trying to reach.

5. Helps you reach a larger audience

There isn’t a week that goes by that a new friend I haven’t met yet emails me in response to someone in our community forwarded them a post we’ve written (thanks for that, BTW). It happens all the time and you probably wouldn’t expect it. But blog content is easily shareable. We share it on Twitter, we share it to the company intranet, we share it with friends who we think may find the information helpful. And when your blog content is shared, your audience increases. It helps to cast that net wider than it would naturally be on its own. Do people share Tweets and Facebook photos? Yeah, they do. But they don’t have the staying power that a full blog post does in terms of making an impact and creating trust.

6. Is something you own, control and have a say in

Let’s a play game for a second, yes?

Imagine you’re kind of a big deal. Got that picture ready? I’m sure you do. Okay, now because you’re a big deal, you have not only own a house in Santa Monica, CA but you rent a crash pad apartment in New York City. Now which one are you going to spend time renovating, getting attached to, and giving out the address for? If you’re smart, you’ll focus most of your energy on the house. Because you own the house and you know that someone won’t be coming out of the woodwork in six months to take it away from you. It’s the same thing when we’re talking about your blog and Facebook.

You own your blog. You do not own Facebook. So while it may be beneficial to your company to rent a Facebook presence, you absolutely need to build the infrastructure for your Forever Home. This is the place where you’ll be able to build a family, weather hard storms, and rearrange to your liking so that your guests are cozy. The other sites? Not so much. In a few months Facebook’s going to go public. Then what? You have no idea. But you do know what will happen to your blog in a few months because you’re the one steering the ship.

7. Contributes to additional search engine rankings

Why do so many SEOs and social media companies encourage businesses to create blogs? It’s not because we enjoy watching you pull your hair out trying to come up with at daily content. It’s because having a b log allows business owners to focus on creating keyword-rich content that attracts links, sharing and search engine rankings. You’re probably not going to get your Twitter account to rank for your industry’s money terms. However, through strategic content development, you can get your blog to rank for it. And in the battle of search dominance, that’s what matters when it comes to increasing conversions.

8. Gives you centralized content

You’re producing blog post. You’re creating photos. You’re putting together infographics. You’re make videos. You’re uploading presentations to SlideShare. Your brand is now associated with a virual menagerie of content. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had one central place where you could post about it all to make it findable to your customers?
Oh, wait? There is one central place. It’s called your blog. Use it.

9. Is a link magnet

When you say something smart on your blog, people are going to link to your site and talk about you. When you say something dumb on your blog, people are also going to link to your site and talk about you. These links then help increase your site’s overall authority, earn you higher rankings, and help people to find your site when they’re looking for the types of information that you offer. When you say something smart on Facebook, people are going to Like the status update. And then move on. Not nearly the same effect.

10. Is measureable

Your blog is attached to your analytics. That means if anyone does anything on your site, you’re going to know about it. You’re going to know where people are visitng your blog from, how they got there, who sent them there, how long they stayed, where they left, and a host of other information you can’t get from a social media site that you do not own. With data and metrics comes the opportunity to make improvements and work in the light instead of the pitch dark.

Is it true that corporate blogs are dying? I don’t believe so. But if they were. Awesome. Let everyone else leave. It just makes your voice and footprint louder.

Hey, hey, guess what?  It’s time for the first monthly link find post of 2012. Are you ready for it? It’s the one day of the month (the last day, to be exact) where the Outspoken Media staff get together to share with your the one link that they found most useful all month long.  It’s a good way to see what’s been on our minds and where our individual passionate points sit.  We’ll go first and then you’re invited to share your top link pick from January.  Tell us the post that most racked your brain or made you think about things differently. And yes, it can be your own post. Just make sure it’s worthy or we’ll flog you in the comments. ;)

Ready to hear from us?

Danika’s Top Link: What ‘marketing as a service’ means for media companies

Every time Google sneezes, cries of “SEO is dead!” resound across the blogosphere. And after reading Scott Vaughan’s definition of “marketing as a service,” I almost agree. The traditional one-off model of SEO is dying (and may already be dead). In its place, a sustained, relationship-based SEO partnership based on a strategic implementation strategy has emerged. Those seeking an SEO consultant should be prepared to take on this type of relationship to ensure the success of your search marketing investment.

Joe’s Top Link: Why Websites Are Slow and Why Speed Really Matters

It’s not uncommon in a website audit to review site speed and the reasons why a website is slow. It’s also not uncommon to propose fixes that will speed it up for the sake of a quality experience. It is, though, just as important to help clients realize the importance of speed for conversions – statistics like “A 1-second delay in page load time can cause a 7% loss in conversions, 11% fewer page views and 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.” My link pick of the week is the infographic that says it all on Mashable.

Emily’s Top Link: 6 Fatal Symptoms You’re In The Wrong Niche

One of my favorite quotes of all time is by the great Maya Angelou: “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” And one of my favorite topics to read and write about is blogging. This post? Pretty much a perfect combination of the two. Except, in the end, you do make money your goal.

Rhea’s Top Link: The Marketing Agency Blueprint

My find is actually a book (blasphemy!) that was recommended by Ric Dragon during a late night DM conversation. The kind of conversation where we’re supportive and inspiring, because only crazy people choose to run an agency. ;) “The Marketing Agency Blueprint” was written by Paul Roetzer and is a fantastic discussion of how most marketing agencies currently do business and why those practices are outdated. It’s a must-read for agency owners and anyone tasked with managing a marketing budget. It looks at where the industry is headed and how to be (or select) an agency/consultant that is changing with the tide. It’s thought-provoking and challenges conventional agency wisdom — I love that.

Michelle’s Top Link: Coca Cola Bets the Farm on Content Marketing: Content 2020

If you still think content marketing sucks, you may change your mind when you read this post about Coca Cola’s content marketing strategy, Content 2020. The company intends to “move from creative excellence to content excellence,” a goal aptly demonstrated by the two videos that lay out the entire strategy. I was intrigued by how they plan to implement liquid content, and apply the 70/20/10 investment rule to content creation. If you’re a business looking for ways to get ahead in 2012, it’s time to take a hard look at the content you’re providing to your customers. And if you provide content creation services, you need to step up your game.

Lisa’s Top Link: Scalable Link Outreach with Gmail and Boomerang

I know. You were probably weren’t expecting me to drop a link building post right now but, I think this one rocks. I’ve long been encouraging the team here to use Boomerang to help them manage email but this post takes that idea and runs it all the way to the bank. Included you’ll find tips for not only reclaiming your email sanity, but a solid understanding of how a single Gmail app can turn you into a link building ninja. By far the most valuable and actionable post I stumbled upon all month.

Okay, now it’s your turn. What was YOUR top link find of the month?

Hello, friends. Welcome back to your weekend. I do hope you’ll use it to do something totally rockin’ and weekend-worthy. You deserve it. To help get you into the spirit of things, check out our fun link finds from the week that was January 23. I hope it was a good one for you.  I had a blast.

Onto the links:

• Who Are You Online? A 360-degree view: A scaled assessment to figure out who you really are when you go online.
• An Introvert’s Guide to Networking: Just because you’re an introvert doesn’t mean you can’t use conferences and events as a valuable way to make connections and get your foot in the door. You’ll find some advice for how to do it here. If nothing else, you’ll also realize you’re not alone.  There are a lot of us introverts out there who tweet about parties we’re not actually at. Um, not that I’ve ever done that.
• Does Google Accurately Guess Your Age And Gender:  For some reason you’d think Google would be better at this. However, based on my searching, Google says I’m a 35-44 year old man.  Google? You get an F.
• No Pet For You: Why it’s sometimes easier to get a kidney on the black market than rescue a puppy from a shelter.
• How Sitting All Day Is Damaging Your Body: Yes, I know, we’re all aware of how our desk jobs are literally sending us to an early grave. However, this article gives you a timeline of that deterioration AND shows you how to counteract it. So, reading this can save your life. No charge.
• The most common causes of a check engine light and what you should do about them: Why am I including this? Because my check engine light was on for two and half years (SHUT UP!) before I finally got it checked out.  The root of my issue is the first mentioned on this list.  It cost me $17 to fix.
• Bronx Zoo offers roach naming promotion ahead of Valentine’s Day: Not sure what to get your sweetie for Valentine’s Day? Why not name a ROACH after them?!  Um, yes. Please never do this.
• T-Rex Trying to Paint His House: Sometimes it’s the little things in life. GET IT?! LITTLE ARMS!
• 20 of the World’s Wittiest Twitter Bios: See, had I know there was a competition I would have shown up to compete. I’ll get ‘em next time.
• How I see things vs how my cat see things: I try not to include too many content that revolves around cats because I’m not sure it helps my street cred, however, this one actually made me laugh. So here you go.

That’s it from me. As always, the comments are yours.  Have a great weekend and I’ll see you crazy kids on Monday.

Even the newest of SEOs and marketers understand how important content is to developing a brand presence. Your content is who you are. It’s your voice in the market and what you use to convey your message to customers. It’s through the combination of your Web site copy, your blog, your article marketing, your pitches, and your social updates that you reach prospective customers and turn them on until they become full-blown customers. There’s just one problem.

You…well, you can’t write. Or at least that’s what you’ve been telling yourself for the past thirty years.

Because you don’t believe you can write, you seek out advice, often from writers (or self-proclaimed ones). You ask for their tools of the trade and writing advice. The problem is sometimes these folks point you in the wrong direction. They don’t mean to feed you lies or bad best practices. It just, well, happens.

For example, below are five well-intentioned pieces of writing advice that may actually do more harm than good when you’re trying to build content for an SEO campaign. Break these “words of wisdom” and the content you put out will thank you. It will also probably suck less.

“Listen to music while writing!”

This might be the worst piece of advice ever told. And how many times have you heard it? About a million. You’re told that if you listen to music while you write it will help you block out distractions and make you focus better. And it will. If you’re listening to jazz or classical music or anything that doesn’t have actual words happening. But most of us aren’t listening to that. We’re listening to the music we like. Music with catchy beats, sweet lyrics, and that makes us dance around in our chair without a hint of shame. Essentially, it creates an even more powerful distraction – the need to get all Kevin Bacon up in our office.

Because our brain can’t help but focus on the words we’re hearing, listening to music ends up making us less focused and more ADD than we’d be on our own. It’s not music that helps you tune out the world, noise does. Want to put yourself into a trance of super-focus? Let SimplyNoise help you white-noise your way to productivity or check out RainyMood to let rain and thunder guide the words out.  These two sites will help you block out disruptions WITHOUT adding more to the fire.

“Just write what you know!”

Not sure what to write about in your blog today or what to create a sizzling new infographic around? Just write what you know! I’m not sure what that really means, but it’s terrible, vague and misleading advice. You should not write about what you know. No one really cares about all the things you know. What they do care about is what they WANT to know. The information they’re interested in and the advice that’s going to help them do something in their lives better. It’s not about you at all.

But fret not! The truly fantastic thing about having customers on the Web is that they tell you, every day, exactly what it is they want to know. They’re leaving you messages in your analytics, your site logs, through the conversations they have with you via social channels, and through the search modifiers they use. Don’t write what you know. Write what they’re asking for. And use all the information you have at your disposal to figure out what the heck that is. Then serve it back to them.

“Write to impress!”

Telling someone they need to “come off smart”, “impress their audience” or “sound like an expert” in the content they write is a fantastic way to paralyze them or put them on a sad journey of incredibly awkward writing where their Web site copy reads like their 10th grade essay on Shakespeare. You don’t need to sound intelligent or like a scientist when talking to your customers. You just need to sound like them.

• You need to use the same words they do.
• You need to use the same paint points.
• You need to show the same fears, the same concerns, the same wants.
• You need to be weird like them.

The best way to ruin the writing you’re doing for your SEO campaign is to focus on yourself or your company. Focus on them. Sound and represent them. That’s where the magic happens.

“Writing is serious business!”

You’re writing content to introduce people to your brand, to communicate with them, and to drive them to take a particular action. You’re not curing cancer (unless you are) or saving puppies (again, unless you are). So take off the cape and remove all that pressure that goes along with having to save the world on a daily or weekly basis and just write.

Write to your audience. Tell them exactly what you want them to know, in your own words but in their language. Talk to them like you’re talking to your closest friend. If it helps you get the words out, have a drink or two while you’re trying to find your magic and get it all out. You can write buzzed, you just have to make sure you edit sober. Do whatever you need to do to remove the pressure. It’s not going to help you speak to your audience any more effectively.

“Only share when you have an original idea!”

If you truly believe that you can’t put finger to keyboard until you have something truly original and remarkable to say…you’re going to spend a lot of time NOT writing content to help your search engine optimization efforts. There are no original ideas left. Everything you produce is going to be a reflection of things you’ve consumed, thought about, were inspired by from someone else. And that’s okay to admit. It’s okay to mention how reading a blog post from Copyblogger changed the way you looked at copy and how Rhea’s post on OODA loops changed the way you handle the SEO process. You don’t have to be 100 percent original. You have to be interesting and valuable. Sometimes we confuse those and don’t write content that could be great.

Those are just a handful of “good writing myths” that I’ve seen suck the life out of many SEO campaigns or blog posts. What stumps your writing? Or what’s helped you break through and write content that your audience relates to?

Monday was Community Manager Appreciation Day, an online event started by Jeremiah Owyang three years ago to honor and recognize those who fight on the brand front lines every day. Last year I honored the day by offering up 8 ingredients that make a community manager and paid homage to a few folks who I think do it really well. This year I wanted to talk about something different.

I recently gave a community manager interview where I was asked whether CMs were finally being given the respect they deserve, what goes into the position, and what their roles are within an organization. You can read my answers to those questions and more over there but what was really on my mind is something I don’t think gets talked about enough – just how easily it is to burn out from the position.

As I’ve written before, being an online public face isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. There’s a dark side associated with always being on, having to manage several different social media identities (at minimum, yours + one branded account), a host of different platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Q&A sites, etc), your own blog (holla), wrangling fans, bringing out the best in people, responding to attacks, and constantly defending what you do to people in your organization and in your life. Those who spend their days working to build these communities and living such public lives can easily find themselves burning out from working on too many problems, too many sites, and trying to be too many things to too many people.

If you’re a Community Manager, how do you protect yourself?
Or, if you’re a brand, how do you protect the person you’ve put into this role and ensure they stay in it for a long time? Hiring and re-hiring not only gets expensive, but it makes it more difficult for your community to trust your public face.

Below are a few tips.

Set Boundaries

Don’t be a dummy; set boundaries for yourself and your community.

For example:

• When are you “on” as a Community Manager and at what time do you turn off?
• How often will you “check in” with the various social networks?
• What’s the priority level assigned to each site?
• What will you track and what won’t you track?

These questions are important to answer because they’ll help guide interaction and set limits that will help your Community Manager maintain their sanity. Not long too, it was expected that just because a Community Manager COULD do their job 24/7 thanks to Web-enabled phones and a constant Internet connection that they should essentially be on-call for the brand. However, we’re starting to see people step away from that belief and set up core operating times. This is beneficial for a couple of reasons.

First, it tells your community WHEN you’re there and actively listening and ready to engage. This is helpful for setting user expectations. If you tell your community you’re only there between 10am-6pm, then they won’t go looking for you at 10pm when they have a question. It also gives a Community Manager the time they need to detach. We can’t live on all the time. That’s how people die. Or go crazy and take lots of people with them.

Find Your Tools

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel or feel like you need to do everything by hand in order to be engaging with your community the right way. To help save time and mental energy, seek out tools that can help you do your Community Manager responsibilities more efficiently and more powerfully.

What types of tools should you seek out?

A tool like UberVu will provide you with real-time analytics; one dashboard to track all your social metrics like fans, followers, mentions, etc; the ability to assign tasks and manage your team from a central dashboard (!), provide demographic information, and more. Community Managers working for larger brands will have something like this already waiting for them in-house, however, for small- and medium-sized companies, UberVu can help streamline what can otherwise be a very fragmented and time-consuming process.

ViralHeat is another social analytics program to help you track mentions, measure sentiment, provide analytics and help give you the insight you need to essentially be in multiple places at the same time. It also integrates with SalesForce to help you do something with those leads you’re acquiring through social channels.

If you hung around during our 12 Days of SEO, you’ll remember that Joe, Outspoken Media’s SEO Manager, introduced us to Mention Mapp, a tool that helps you discover groups of people that Twitter users connect with the most. Enter in a username, and it will generate a visual representation of that person’s relationships. If you’re looking to understand who influences whom or find clusters you think your community should be part of, this can help you identify those pretty easily.

The tools listed above are just a tiny sample of what’s around there. As a Community Manager, depending on what you find yourself doing most often, there are tools to help with content management, tracking events, managing multiple Twitter accounts, etc.

Befriend Other Community Managers

We all need to vent and be around people who understand what we do and what we’re struggling with. It’s for that reason that attending BlogWorld Expo has become one of the absolute highlights of my year. It’s one of the few conferences I can go to and be surrounded by people who do exactly what I do, understand the pressures, and who are passionate about it. As Community Managers, it’s really important that we have that outlet. If you can’t get to a show like BlogWorld, participate in Twitter Chats related to the subject. There’s a Communication Manager Chat every Wednesday from 2pm-3pm Eastern. Get involved. Or if you’re not ready to talk yet, at least listen. Not only is it a chance for you, the CM, to hear about issues your colleagues are facing but it can also be a way to highlight your brand and the community you’re forming there.

If that’s not your scene, talk to your boss or the people on your team about the stresses you’re feeling or what your day looks like. Sometimes talking through problems can help you find answers you wouldn’t have found on your own. Or someone will say something in that meeting that will put your brain on a different path and open up new doors.

Keep your perspective

• If you can’t blog today, the world will not explode.
• If you can’t tweet today you’re sick, your community will be there waiting tomorrow.
• If you put off responding to that blog comment for an hour to eat lunch, the world will forgive you.

No, I swear, that’s all true even if it doesn’t feel like it is!

We hire Community Managers to be work on the front lines of our brand. It’s a huge investment – both for the CM and for the company whose put them in that position. Make sure you’re taking care of your brand’s public face. Because why burn out is dangerous, it’s even more dangerous when the person burning out for your company has access to your company Twitter account. ;)

For all the CMs out there, how have you avoid burning out? What works for you?

Oh, and video meme anyone?

It started innocently enough. My buddy Matt Sullivan read an article on Fast Company about Chobani tickling the taste of Pinterest. He thought it sounded similar to the love letter I had written earlier, so he sent it to me via Twitter knowing I might want to check it out.

The “flavor Tourettes” line is in reference to a quote found in the Fast Company article. When discussing how fanatical people are about engaging with the Chobani Facebook page, Chobani’s digital communications manager Emily Schildt is quoted as saying:

“We call it ‘flavor Turettes’ in-house,” she quips. “We get about a tweet per minute, and I would say 50% are about our newest flavor, apple cinnamon.”

No. Really. That was printed in Fast Company.

I wouldn’t call myself easily offended but I was surprised to see that when speaking on behalf of Chobani, Emily told the entire audience of Fast Company that internally the company refers to their Facebook page that way. That’s probably something you want to keep in-house. Or, you know, not do at all.

But it didn’t end there. @Chobani saw that Matt had sent me the link and decided to “engage” and “hop in the conversation”.
They did so with the following tweet:

That sound you just heard? That was Chobani falling in the 6-foot hole they had already dug for themselves.

This post isn’t meant to jump on Chobani. They made a mistake (and apologized for it) just like every company is prone to make mistakes when they enter new territories. But that’s the point, we’re all prone to these mistakes and some of us don’t all have the “forgiveableness” of an established brand like Chobani.

If you’re entering social media, you or someone on your team is going to do something stupid. I mean colossally stupid. What can you do to help avoid the mistakes instead of bulldozing right into them?

These three things.

1. Learn how to best leverage “human” for your business

We hear all the time how social media allows us to put a human face on our business, but I’d venture to say that most brands have absolutely no idea how to use that. It’s great advice for talking points or to sound really smart when you’re talking to your higher ups, but what does human business really mean for your brand? What is it going to get you?

I look at the idea of human business or social business as an opportunity to find an engaged audience by leveraging what is weird about you. To me, being human means accepting that we’re all weird and strategically letting our customers see what’s weird and authentic about us. It’s about picking what’s real, relevant, and appropriate for your audience and then serving it to them.

You probably want an example.

How about Buckley’s? If you’re not familiar with Buckley’s, it’s a Canadian cough syrup that I was first introduced to via another Fast Company article about authenticity vs perfection. In the article, Steve Jones writes about how Buckley’s has found an unlikely way to stand out in its market. Instead of trying to hide, sugarcoat or make excuses for what people have been saying about the product for years, Buckley decided to base its marketing around tackling it head-on and just admitting it.

Buckleys – It tastes awful, but it works.

That’s actually the product’s slogan. And it’s been effective. Buckley’s isn’t going after everyone who is sick, they’re going after adults who are sick and need some tough love. And, personally, I think it’s genius. They’ve found a relevant, real and appropriate way to market themselves in a crowded market. I’d venture that most cough syrups tastes pretty awful, but Buckley’s is the only one I know of that admits it, uses it, and doesn’t apologize for it. They’re not perfect and, you know what? You’re not either. Their honesty makes it easier for customers to trust the brand.

2. Create a company-wide social media policy. (And then stick to it.)

With a vision for how you’ll use social media in mind, you want to make it official and create some guidelines that employees (and even yourself) will be able to use to direct their involvement.

Matt already wrote about how companies shouldn’t make Tourette’s jokes on social media. And obviously he’s right, but these are exactly the kinds of things that happen when you attempt to “wing” social media or when you’re engaging with an unclear purpose or an undeveloped idea of what your company voice is. When you don’t take the time to iron down these details beforehand you open yourself up to employees going a little too far or making a quick that, in hindsight, maybe they should have saved for company IM instead of the company Twitter.

By writing a corporate social media policy you get the opportunity to ask and educate your staff on those important “where is the line” questions before you need to know them and put everything down on paper. In the post linked above, we went over some important questions that every business should ask when coming up with their own corporate social media plan.

For example:

• What is your purpose for being in social media?
• How does social media integrate into your employees’ existing roles?
• Who are they and what is their role?
• What sites should they be engaging on?
• What are the best practices for engagement?
• How should you handle common issues?

The best way to avoid someone driving off the road and creating a horrible, horrible accident is to teach them how to drive the car before they get in it. Not after they’ve already crashed.

Define what “being human” is NOT

Okay, so let’s be real. You never want to tell an employee they have full permission to “be weird” and “human” while speaking in the voice of your brand because they’re not going to know what that means. You also can’t tell them to “use common sense” because, well, not everyone was born with it. While you’re laying out the ground rules for what is expected of your team in social media, you may also want to explain what behing human does not mean.

For example, giving life to your brand does not mean:

• Being disrespectful.
• Being offensive.
• Being rude/difficult to deal with and calling it “authentic.”
• Being viciously snarky
• Talking to your audience like you’re both drunk at the bar.
• Sharing every thought that enters your head.

That sounds like stuff everyone on your team should already know, right? Yeah, they don’t. And you don’t want that one bit of stupidity to bring down your entire company.

Social media is helping all of us to pull back the curtain and let our customers see more of us and our brand. But that doesn’t mean letting everything hang out in the process. Have a vision, create a plan, and then put it into action. Because your customers are listening. Know what you’re telling them.

Hi! Oh…you’re here.  Fine. I guess that means I have to stop eating cake now. Did you hear we celebrated a birthday this week? If not, check out Rhea’s post from earlier this week where she talks about Outspoken Media in 2012, what we’ve been up to and what’s still to come.  It’ll give you a pretty good glimpse into why we walk around so excited all the time. [It's because our team is awesome.]

But it’s time for Weekend Coffee Links! Our collection of everything that caught our eye this week. Ready to jump in?

• How to be an effective CEO: Chief Emotions Officer: This post takes the idea of that color wheel we all learned about back in kindergarten and flips it on its head to talk about the emotions we all need to unpack. It’s a surprisingly interesting read.
• The science of willpower: Everything you ever wanted to know about willpower and how to get more of it.
• The rise of the new groupthink: How teamwork hinders creativity and why introverts like yours truly have it all figured out. ;)
• 20 great excuses for not getting anything done at the coffee shop: I know, you have absolutely no idea what this article is talking about. We won’t judge.
• The Twitter bot devoted to a single grammatical error: Long live the Internet!
• The commoditisation of the entrepreneur: My buddy Ezra Butler makes the argument that entrepreneurship has become “the Ritalin of the masses”, focusing their efforts on doing something “positive”. Yeah. Go read it.
• Follow All the Morons Confused by Wikipedia’s Blackout in One Place: Wikipedia went dark earlier this week in its protest of SOPA.  However, not everyone go the memo as to why the site was taking the day off.  So the did what people on the Internet always do. They freaked the hell out.

And that’s it. What cool stuff did you stumble upon this week? Give it to me, Interwebz.

It’s January 19th. Crack open the champagne, because it’s time to celebrate!

What’s so special about today? Today is Outspoken Media’s birthday. A birthday that comes a couple weeks after the New Year, which means Lisa and I have been in a period of intense introspection (or holiday food comas, who knows). But isn’t that what we do on birthdays and at New Years? We think about the past and how we got here and we think about where we’re going.

When you own a business, those are the most important questions to ask yourself:

How did we get here?

Where are we going?

So, stop and think about those questions for a minute. Whether you own a business or not. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Where do you want to be?

Your vision might be crystal clear, completely clouded-over or shifted a few degrees. Regardless of the answer, you probably have a vision, which is what drives you to do what you do everyday.

Defining the vision of a company can often feel incredibly complicated. You have to have a shared vision with your partners and shareholders and getting everyone on the same page can be difficult. You also have to develop a system of accountability for every stakeholder to ensure that you’re working towards that vision. And, you have to communicate that vision tirelessly to your team, customers and community because they will help keep you accountable to it.

When we started this agency we didn’t have a clear vision of what the business would look like in three years. What we did know without question was that we wanted to work with people we respect and we wanted to be proud of the work we produced. Those may seem like incredibly simple ideals, but for many businesses and employees, it’s difficult to achieve one or both.

With Outspoken Media, there is so much strength in this business, because of the team and community behind it. Our team believes in being fulfilled professionally and personally. And we don’t support them because we have to, but because we want to. In return their support, curiosity, drive, voice and quirkiness make this office the fun, fulfilling environment that it is. Then we turn to you, our community, and we see just as much insight, excitement and candidness. Sometimes it’s downright overwhelming to see what’s been built here.

So, I want to take just a couple more minutes of your time to talk about the future. What can you expect from Outspoken Media in 2012?

An outspoken team

Lisa has been the resident blogger for Outspoken Media since day one and we’ll never pretend to have an ounce the skill she possesses in just one pinky finger. But, you’ve heard a lot from Lisa and it’s time to hear more from the rest of the team as well, because they have unique insight into the daily challenges of SEO, reputation management, link building, client management, business operations and project management. Besides their experience, they have individual voices and interests that go beyond our company services and we want you to benefit from those voices as much as we do. Our vision changes with them, because the company is nothing without the team behind it and sometimes, someone will bring a skill set that can shake everything up.

So, you’ll be hearing more from our seasoned vets, Michelle Lowery and Danika Atkins, as well as, our newest members, Joseph Schaefer and Emily Cote.

Meet Emily

We haven’t publicly talked about Emily outside of hints in the 12 Days of SEO when “Elf Emily” gave us her Twitter confession and shared tips for conversion rate optimization. We had to see if she’d complete us and not only does she fit in, she keeps us on our toes. Literally. She’s got us doing daily exercises when we hit that awful post-lunch energy plateau.

Take a minute to welcome Emily and get ready, because you’ll be seeing more of her, as well as, the rest of the entire team in 2012.

An outspoken brand

As a company, we’re pretty passive. What I mean by that is we’re fortunate to have a strong branding officer who keeps us in your feeds and conversations. And, through our conference coverage and speaking schedule, we make some phenomenal connections. Those two channels alone mean we get a lot of leads. That makes it easy to put the brand on auto-pilot, because we’re so busy with client work. Unfortunately, there’s nothing worse than not pushing ourselves to evolve, especially to evolve to the level that we advise our own clients! At its core, a brand is nothing without relationships. Relationships with our amazing readers (THANK YOU!), our clients, our team and even our local community.

We get that and it’s time to do more with those relationships. We’re tired of dating casually, lets take this to the next level. We want to go steady with you. I know, actions speak louder than words, so stay tuned as we dive into the wonderful world of email marketing and other methods of connecting with and rewarding you, our loyal community members.

We want to give you more of us and our individual personalities. And, if you’re ever in the neighborhood of Troy NY, stop by the new office and co-work for the day or just say hi, the door is open.

We get asked often why we chose to stay in Troy to build Outspoken Media. After three years, I can say that there is no better fit for our bold, boutique business. We’ve gotten to know the talented professionals and startups that keep Troy’s numerous cafes and sandwich shops open and they keep us energized. You can’t spot these businesses so easily from the road, but they’re there, just like us. Troy’s tech community is booming from Ruby on Rails developers, app developers and gaming communities to data center management and web designers who also keep our walls stocked with whimsical and inspiring prints. As much as you give to us online, they give to us offline and in 2012 we will be just as outspoken with this local community.

An outspoken strategy

I read an article recently that discussed research on what CEOs actually do and it was really interesting to see the level of productivity increase when CEOs took the time to be *IN* their business rather than out of it schmoozing over expensive lunches. In 2012 I want to continue to work closely with this team, because while we want to be more of an outspoken team and brand, there is nothing more vital to the future of this business than the services we provide. We are finding ways to bring more value to our clients and our methods. In 2012 this will take the shape of structural changes, education, development and much more.

Lisa already told us which Internet marketing trends to watch in 2012 and we’re seeing the same.

Local. Mobile. Social. Cloud. Apps. Security.

There’s so much going on in 2012 and it’s only the 19th of January! The role of the SEO has grown and though we define ourselves by that term, we are truly becoming digital strategists. We have to to fit the needs of our clients and the demands placed on them by new technology and every-changing search features (and sometimes shrinking) and new social networks like Pinterest or Google+. We’ll be working to find the most effective ways to leverage these changes and offer value to our clients through them.

Beyond the educational arm of Outspoken Media, we’re improving our internal processes to make training rock. And, we’re BUILDING TOOLS! I’ve mentioned this before and it’s still probably my favorite part, because it’s giving the team ways to maximize their time and stop feeling bored by the mundane tasks. It frees up our brains to focus on the most important part — analysis and strategy. For our group of nerds, that’s like Christmas morning and we’re proud of that.

There’s a lot more going on under the hood of course outside of the team, the brand and the strategy. We have big plans internally for continued education, process development, new services, project management, business development, client management, tool development, employee benefits, organizational development and business operations. However, unless you’re a freak like myself, you probably don’t want to talk business theory and management for another hour. If you do, feel free to contact me directly of course (rhea@outspokenmedia.com), I love this stuff! :)

And, circling back to that one precious word (vision), I hope what we’re trying to do here with Outspoken Media is a little clearer, because we’ve been having so much fun behind closed doors, it’s time we let you in on more of us and hopefully you’ll do the same. Thank you for your continued support and readership.

Photo credit: Aih.