I live a digital life. I don’t mean that I’m involved in digital media, though I am (hey, you’re reading this, right, and you probably got here via Facebook, Twitter, or Google). I mean that my first instinct to discover, research, connect or share now involves digital platforms. Cases in point:

I saw a tweet by Heather Caliendo on Twitter about the movie Inception last Friday. It was positive, and I know and like Heather and more importantly, respect her opinions and know she has high standards for smart stories. So, when my husband and I considered a movie on Saturday night, guess what we saw? Yep… Inception, based in large part on Heather’s tweet to the world. I’ve not seen Heather in months, since she’s moved to Colorado, but our relationship matters to me regardless of our “face-to-face” interaction (or lack thereof).

I recently dropped my iPhone into a toilet. It suffered a severe case of PTSD (Post Toilet Submergance Dysfunction) and then died. Through my digital friendship with Bobby Rettew, who sympathized with my phoneless plight and had also recently upgraded to an iPhone 4, I became the very happy owner of his lovely 3G S phone. I’ve never met Bobby in person, though we keep threatening to make that happen. However, I consider him a friend, not just a “friend” in the Facebook sense of the word.

On a trip through southeast Kansas over the weekend, we stopped in Pittsburg to eat dinner. I used my UrbanSpoon app to check out possibilities and we discovered some awesome Italian food at a place called Napoli’s, located on Broadway in Pittsburg. I posted via Foursquare & shared the post to Facebook that we’d really enjoyed our visit. A FB friend, local to the area and someone I’ve not seen in person for many years, said they’d been hesitant to try it, but now they might after hearing our experience.

What is the point of all this? Digital relationships matter. People do pay attention. The relevance quotient for digital relationships is high…. I didn’t do a Google search for restaurants in Pittsburg since I didn’t want to know about all of them… just the good ones. I didn’t buy a phone from Craigslist because I depend (and Crossroads Communications depends) on my phone for my business and I trusted Bobby. And the movie… we see maybe two or three a year. So we choose carefully… and Heather is a writer. She knows a good story when she sees one. Her recommendation elevated Inception to the level of “worth spending one of our two movie nights left this year on” status.

Relevance is the engine that drives our digital decisions. The future of the web as a connection medium  lies not in creating more information nor in more platforms for sharing information. It lies in better ways for relevant information to be funneled to the people who care about it. When you think about how to use the web to drive business, or use social media, or anything else “2.0″ related, start with answering the question, “Who cares?” because that forces the question of relevance. It’s not about creating buzz, or getting hits, or driving traffic… it’s about nurturing relationships that allow your offering, be it information or an iPhone, to become relevant to a very specific set of consumers at exactly the right time. THAT is what translates digital interest into business or brand success.

Many thanks to Doug Stewart, a guy dedicated to helping small businesses dominate their space on the web, for asking me to talk with him for a few minutes about effectively using social media and PR together to market businesses. If you’ve never heard me speak, here’s your chance If you have and you’re game for more… bless you, firstly, and secondly, enjoy the interview!

Have a topic you want to see me cover here? I’ve been toying with the idea of breaking my no-video style… what would you most like to see/hear for the first vid post on this blog?

The most overused business phrase from 1995 through about 2005 was “increase shareholder value.” It appeared in more corporate mission statements, vision statements and annual reports than “be environmentally responsible” does today. The worst part wasn’t the monotony (litany?) of corporate speak during those years… it was that the strategy wasn’t really a strategy. It was a result.

The best companies didn’t focus on creating shareholder value. They focused on their customers, products, services… delivering what people wanted, in the way they wanted it, in exchange for fairly valued compensation. The right focus and smart execution drove success, which ultimately increased shareholder value. Regardless of its inclusion in any mission statement, I might add. Do you think employees can all rally around the idea of doing their very best so they can increase the value of stock owned by someone else? Or even their own stock, which generally is a tiny portion of their compensation or retirement? Doubtful. Employees rarely care about shareholders.

Today, companies are urged to be responsive, engaging, transparent and social. Employees tweet or manage facebook pages for themselves and for businesses. There are videos, photos, review sites… so many ways to share information. And the customers are out there… tweeting, facebooking, reviewing, too. The companies who are engaging, who are social, who are transparent (which is just to say, HONEST), build this army of fans or friends. When something negative is posted to the facebook wall, fans defend the brand. When a tweetstorm erupts over someone’s negative experience, the brand responds, the followers defend and retweet, and all is rosy and well in the social sphere. Until… a major crisis hits, and those fans want answers.

They have been trained through interaction to feel like part of the team. Fed a diet of transparency and access, they feel entitled to answers, honesty and truth in short (very short) order. And they are correct. Those fans you’ve been cultivating? They are your businesses’ social shareholders. They have an (emotional) stake in your company. They defend, but they also demand. Just like in the old days of increasing shareholder value, creating raving fans is still a result, not a strategy.

Serve the customers…. in the immortal words of Becky McCray at the recent Get Social conference in OKC, “Customer service is all you’ve got.” She didn’t mean just the basic idea of customer service (being nice, greeting them, sacking the groceries correctly, etc.); she meant truly serving them. Putting those customers first, in all ways. Then, right after you take care of those customers and create those loyal followers, friends and fans, go take care of your social shareholders. They deserve it, too.

My big takeaways from the conference?

The Context / Content stuff is going to come together for another post soon

What do you think? Do you believe in the idea of social shareholders?

Thanks to Blake Jackson… the inspiration for this post came from his opening discussion at Get Social.

Takes courage to share your voice, but the reward is worth it.

I’ve talked to many groups, clients, friends, family members and even some random strangers (it’s my husband’s fault, he’s just like that) about blogging and content generation over the past year. Many of those hearing my words looked at me like I had recently grown a second head. For all those out there who are struggling with the question, “Why do I (or does my business) need a blog?” or “Why do I need to update the content on my website more often than once every year or two?” here are some things to ponder:

Search engines are hungry creatures. They are always seeking new content to digest. And like any animal, the people they like best are the ones who regularly provide food. Feed the beast, and it will be your friend. Continuing with the analogy, make sure it’s good stuff you feed the beast… no one likes to receive rubber chicken when they were promised chicken cordon bleu.

If it takes three impressions at a minimum for someone to internalize a message and seven touches before they’ll take action (conventional marketing wisdom), why do you only want people to stop by your website once every 18 months? If they know fresh content is a mainstay on your digital hub (whether that’s your Facebook Fan/Like page, your website & blog, your Twitter stream, or ideally all of the above) they’ll return more frequently to check out what you’ve got.

Most of my clients tell me they want to be known as the expert in their niche or market. A blog is a great way to build that rep. Talk about what you know… about what you wish people knew about your field, about products, services, ideas or challenges in your field. Help educate your marketplace. If the challenge is no one knows they are making bad decisions, then HELP THEM know better.

Recognize that you’re in it for the long haul, and it costs way less to work with someone to help you develop a blog editorial calender, maybe edit or polish your posts and help you generate content ideas than your average yearly yellow pages ad buy.

Lots of resources are out there on blogging well. Here are a couple to get you started:

Mack Collier’s The Viral Garden

Copyblogger‘s site

Liz Strauss’s blog

And, if you’re on Twitter, follow and participate in #blogchat every Sunday night, 8PM central to 9PM central, to share, learn and connect with bloggers of all stripes, topics and backgrounds.

It’s not just another social media conference… rather than a collection of “gurus” or “experts” whose expertise is in self-promotion, the May 4th Get Social event in Tulsa will help business owners, marketing professionals, HR directors, managers and brand builders put into practice what works in new media.

Beyond Twitter or Facebook set up and basics, this event brings global talent to Tulsa in addition to Oklahoma practitioners who are using new media to drive real businesses forward.

Presented in an unconference format, Get Social allows participants to, well, get social… be part of determining what they most want to learn, network extensively with other attendees and track leaders, and share what they know in a format that encourages interaction and active learning.

I am leading two tracks tomorrow, both geared toward my business expertise. I am definitely looking forward to meeting all those who attend, being part of the other tracks and learning alongside the participants.

The “new” in new media is the technology and channels being employed to connect people and other people, ideas, places, spaces and things. The role of media (a method for broadcast or sharing of a message) hasn’t changed. Social and Mobile media have exponentially increased the speed of travel and the overall load of messages, meaning potential customers’ or potential employees’ abilities to filter, organize and retain information is now a critical factor in success.

At Get Social, we’ll be sharing how to make your message stick… whether you need to share what makes your company a great place to work, what makes your product or idea different, or how your latest innovation will change your industry.

If you’re coming, tweet me or Facebook me and let me know to look for you! Or… I guess you could just comment below

PS > Can’t make the Tulsa event? Be sure to visit the Events page on the getsocial.com site for other upcoming events. This stuff is just too good not to share in multiple cities!

My Gowalla Page

The mantra in real estate has always been, “Location, Location, Location!” Over the past year, since the advent of  location-based apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla, it’s seemed the plugged-in community has adopted the location motto as its own. Predictions were made, and disputed, about how important these apps could be.

I resisted the allure for a while but succumbed to the new avenue for connection. I’m a sucker for connecting. After several months of using both Foursquare and Gowalla… here’s what I think about the potential and the problems:

Problems I see:

Spam abounds. (It’s possible to drive by a strip center slowly and “check in” to a dozen places in a few minutes.) I’ve “turned off” several people on either service who did this routinely and made my phone go nuts with their check in message. And their poor Twitter or Facebook friends! *shudder*

Stalker potential is high. Early on, I was enamored with the newness of it all and checked in to both services most everywhere I went. Then the sobering reality of just how much information I was giddily sharing with the known world made me pause… and rethink a bit. I still check in often, but not usually if I’m traveling alone. And I keep many of my check ins off of Twitter and FB…. only the connections I’ve accepted on the location services see where I’m visiting.

Reward factor is low. I’m the Mayor of 18 places on Foursquare. Yes, it’s true… 18. And the rewards for that, so far? Nil. Nada. Zilch.

Connection potential is limited. Yes, I can see the possibility of real-world connections happening because of online posting. That’s why I’m still using the services. What bothers me is that when I see someone has checked into St. Francis Hospital, for instance, there’s no mechanism through the service for me to say, “Hey, you OK? Need anything?” or, if they’ve checked into my favorite Mexican restaurant, to say, “Hey, ask for Melinda’s section, she’s fabulous!”

What I’d like to see happen, in order to make location-based services really take off:

Stop the spam. Limit the time between check-ins, perhaps? Reward frequency at the same venues rather than overall number of check ins?

Build actual rewards into the service… Oh, my… the potential here is incredible. Location based apps are the digital convergence of direct mail and intent-based web search. Take for example Pei Wei Asian diner… no dessert offered there. In Tulsa, one of their locations sits adjacent to a Maggie Moo’s store. When I check in to Pei Wei, I ought to get a coupon or offer sent to me from the app for 20% off my order THAT NIGHT at Maggie Moo’s next door. Why, oh why, don’t they do this? They know where I am, they know what I’m doing (location, intent) and the potential to offer me something that is timed perfectly and co-located is huge. Why limit the rewards to free fries for the “Mayor?” Seriously… the data they are developing on customer behavior is worth lots of money and can be leveraged in so many ways. Would bring new meaning to point-of-purchase advertising.

Add connectivity. Let me respond to the shout-outs of my friends. Actually foster real-world connection. What about a badge that’s earned any time 5 people simultaneously check in to the same venue? (the Lemming badge?) Or maybe a trigger for free fries if you and 3 of your friends all check in to the same venue within 20 minutes (long enough to get the ping, decide to go, and get in the door)?

Those are my thoughts… what did I miss and what do you think?

Results from my Social Circle for "Marketing"

I noticed yesterday that new results were on my Google results page (entry on the page, above?).  A bit stalker-ish, I guess, but its the beginnings of mainstreaming the relevant web the way we’ve been talking about on this blog and many others.

Google’s take on Social Search mirrors what I’ve been saying (or my thoughts mirror theirs, I guess… probably should go ahead and assume they thought of this whole relevance thing first… ) for a while: Results from people we’ve chosen to connect to are more relevant to us. Now that Google is showing me results from people I’m connected to online (Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, etc.) the size and quality of that network matters more than ever.

The search page above is one for “Marketing.” Since I am connected online to a number of talented, prolific, smart and creative marketing people, the results returned for me were a list of awesomeness I could peruse. Blog posts I missed, white papers, web sites, all sorts of goodness. From people I’ve already chosen to listen to. In one place, regardless of how I’m connected to that person and where the content resided originally.

Some of the "Marketing" results from my social circle via Google

If I were only connected to a few great marketers, I’d miss out on some of the great resources I found. Social search filters the web through my definition of relevant and shows me more of who I trust. I am very, very happy.

Where do you see this going? How will it change how businesses view connecting with people? How they treat their web sites? Social results are on the bottom of the coveted first page… maybe the best new way to get first page placement is to be (drum roll…) RELEVANT to your prospect rather than merely the best SEO-’d web site out there. Here’s hoping.

This is the first in a series of posts about how Small Businesses can perform a Do-It-Yourself brand audit.

Overheard:

“You can’t embark on any new marketing until you’ve had a brand audit done!”

“I don’t even know what that is… seriously.”

“You hire a marketing firm or ad agency and they come in and tell you how people see you brand.”

“You mean, what they think of my logo and my ads?”

“Yeah, and then what you need to do to meet your goals.”

Assumptions (before you read further): You understand that your brand and your logo are NOT the same thing. You understand that while advertising is a form of marketing, all marketing is not advertising. And that branding is more (much more) than either one of them.

A brand audit is a good idea for all businesses, but unless you have many locations, lots of employees, multiple campaigns across multiple channels… you can do at least a preliminary one on your own. Here’s how:

Accept that you’ve made mistakes - begin with the attitude that you will discover some things about your brand and company that might be painful. Decide (now) that this is a voyage of discovery and the end result will be a stronger, better-positioned company.

Map your touchpoints - Every way you interact with your customers and every place you attempt to influence them. Obvious ones include ads (yellow pages? online? TV? newspaper? Football booster poster?) and brochures. Less obvious ones might include the signage on your company van, envelopes, invoices, how the phone is answered, what your front door looks like, employee uniforms/appearances, online presence, community involvement… Really think about this. It doesn’t matter what the INTENT was (ad on the football booster program to support the program, not to gain customers). If it does or potentially could touch your customers or prospects, include it. Visuals work well here (take a snapshot of your front door, your van, one of your employees on the job, etc.). Ask your employees to help you think of ways you touch customers that might be out of the ordinary.

Gather some opinion - If you aren’t tech-savvy, a friend who knows how to help you set up Google alerts, search social networks and generally do some listening is really helpful for this part. If you are interweb-friendly, take a look around the web. What are people saying on sites like Yelp, Epinions and CitySearch? Look up what local sites have to say about you… if you’re a dentist, for instance, search for common phrases like, “dentist in [your community]” to see what’s being said, on what sites. Many sites exist out there purporting to be “portals” for people to find information on services (like dentists) but really are just scraping the web, listing what they find, and making money off of serving Google ads (for dentists, teeth whitening, etc.) when people visit the “listings page.” If inaccurate info is out there (wrong phone numbers, work hours, specialties, etc.) then try to get it updated or changed.

Gather your financials, invoices, etc. - You need to know where your money comes from… and from whom. Where does the profit in your business really live? Many businesses we’ve worked with have started the audit process telling us they want to move their brand to “x” but when we delve into this part… their money, lifeblood, where people trust and connect with them, is “y.” Unless there’s a very, very good reason, trying to change y to x is a difficult (at best) and disastrous (at worst) proposition. A better one is to see where in the y space you can expand, improve or illuminate new markets.

This is a good time of year to begin an audit process… you’re dealing with your end-of-the-year financials anyway, and most businesses are thinking about next year’s marketing initiatives.

In the next post in this series, we’ll be talking about what to DO with all this fabulous info you’ve gathered. If you think of/know of other types of info you think would be relevant to beginning a brand audit, please share them in the comments. Also… have you been through an audit? Good outcome? Bad outcome? Please share!

Image credit from Flikr user tiffanyday

Yeah… bubbles. Stay with me… you’ll see

After another furious #blogchat on Twitter where smart people were discussing the differences between passion and influence as it pertains to blogging and why (if?) it mattered, some things I’ve been thinking about began to crystallize. And because it’s what I do when that happens, here I am writing about it.

Before we dive in, thanks to @spikejones for inspiring some of this, @MackCollier for #blogchat (and lots of inspiration over time) and @edosegal, who wrote the ambient streams post I read recently.

First, some definitions (well, mine, anyway):

Passion (in the marketing sense) = commitment to/attachment to a brand, product, idea or position regardless of compensation.

It’s a feeling, an internal condition. It cannot be manufactured or externally created. Passion is a choice the individual makes… I choose to love Godiva dark chocolate. Godiva hasn’t asked me to love it, paid me to love it, and doesn’t particularly care that I do so… I, on an individual level, am not influential in their marketing planning. (Oversight on their part? Perhaps… )

Influence = ability to affect other’s perceptions or awareness.

Influence CAN be purchased/created. It’s an external perception… Billions of ad dollars are spent every year trying to influence the awareness and perception of potential customers. Is it possible for an individual blogger to have influence in a space he or she is not passionate about? Long term, I think the answer is no. Bloggers who have influence in a particular space usually have earned that right through good information, solid community, earned respect. Not always… because, as we’ve already said, influence can be purchased. Programs and tools and schemes exist to “grow your blog” and “get thousands of followers” to jump-start influence.

At least initially. Some of the current “stars” of the social media world, for instance, may not be around in a year or two. If they aren’t passionate about the relevant, interactive web, they will run out of things to say that resonate with the community marketers are hoping to reach through their influence. If they stop resonating, they will lose influence, and their relevance.

Someone who is passionate about an idea or product or brand keeps on learning, and loving, and sharing experiences and interactions born of the love affair. And those shared moments will typically only resonate with those who are interested in the same brand or idea. Maybe the audience isn’t in love yet… maybe just experimenting or looking for a first date. That’s where passionate people and influence intersect.

I can be influenced only by those people or messages I choose to pay attention to. Repeat… I can only be influenced by those people or messages I choose to pay attention to.

Why do I care what TechCrunch thinks in general about [insert brand here]? I don’t. I don’t care about what TechCrunch thinks about a lot of things. But I <3 Apple products. I tend to pay attention to what TechCrunch says about all things Apple… I am passionate about that brand and TechCrunch’s opinion is more relevant to me when they are talking about Apple than when they are talking about XBox360. I choose to pay attention… and then TechCrunch has a chance to influence me and my opinion.

What is missing from all this influence and passion is a way to filter relevance. It’s a fact that humans filter information and stimuli all the time. The web’s current model is based on active search:

Random thought triggers question…

Brain can’t supply answer…

Enter phrase into Google, or more typical for me, Twitter (or your weapon of choice)…

Scan results… (FOR WHAT… ?)

Click on choice that seems THE MOST RELEVANT to me (I trust the source/know the source or believe Google’s method for determining importance and value)

The future of the web, I believe, won’t be based on active search, but on ambient streams. Already, who I choose to follow on Twitter creates ambient streams that bubble up the information I care about. As more and more of the web dabbles in relevance… more information will find us rather than us going to look for it.

Who we choose to be influenced by (who we let control our information streams) will matter a great deal more than it does now. I suspect we’ll get more picky, too. More fragmented as a marketplace, more determined to know what we want to know and not see the rest. How will we determine who makes the cut? Passion… who we believe. Influence… who we trust. And relevance… who we perceive to “understand who and where we are in life.”

Already, the web can tell where I’m located, who is tweeting or geotagging near me, what sites/locations/stores I’ve visited recently (and if I positively or negatively reviewed them), and who I’m choosing to be influenced by (who am I connected to on Twitter, Facebook, Ning groups, LinkedIn, etc). How far off is that one app/program/site that will analyze that info, assign relative relevance scores to the possible streams of info, and show me what is relevant to me based on ME, not on Google’s basic algorithms?

Heady, and scary, stuff. What do you think… what’s next?

Google's Real Time Search is the "oh, Shiny!" topic we need to talk about.

I don’t claim to be an SEO expert…. But I DO know something about marketing. This post is about the future, the possibilities, and what people who are using any form of online marketing need to be thinking about NOW to get ready for what is coming. And it’s coming much faster than you might think.

Buzz is beginning about Google’s search integration deals with Facebook and Twitter… here are a couple of other people’s posts with more of the details, if you wanna know the specifics:

Info from Mashable

More, especially about Facebook

What does it mean for marketing? It means “integrated marketing” can’t just be about cross-platform and multi-channel. It now has to be about timing and velocity, too. If enough people on Twitter and Facebook are talking about your company’s product release, blog post or other shiny new thing, will you achieve the golden Google award of auto-real time search? What drives Google to choose which search terms/items get an auto real-time feed? I (obviously) don’t know the algorithm. But I bet it’s got everything to do with velocity and relevance. If Mashable tweets a post, and lots of people retweet it, is that out of the ordinary? Or a “blip” in the search world? Not really. If I tweet a post, and two hundred people retweet it, is THAT out of the ordinary? uh.. yes. Quite. It makes a blip on the search radar. It means something that WASN’T relevant a short time ago (my blog) is now relevant to (proportionally) many more people. Maybe I get my own Google live feed for a bit while people are tweeting, facebooking and commenting on the post. And then it goes away… rather like the auto live-feed for “Tiger Woods Mistress.” Was there… then not. May be again when another “revelation” breaks from someone else.

The point? “Buzz” has another dimension now. Real time matters because it gives the whole world (well, the whole Google-ized world, anyway) a snapshot of what’s important to EVERYONE, right now. Think of it as Twitter trending topics, writ large. Companies need to be ready…

Imagine a major hail storm hits the midwest in the United States. Guess what would suddenly start being very relevant?

“Roofing damage”

“Hail damage”

“local roofing in [city]“

These searches would all gain immediate, non-characteristic, traffic. They would form a blip, and the real time, relevant web will respond with live updates. If you’re a local roofing company, will your tweets/FB page/web site/blog be ready to take advantage of the traffic potential?

What do you see as the dangers? Benefits? Strategies needed? Future? So much to discuss here… looking forward to your thoughts!

UPDATE >> the number of results on Google for “Mandy Vavrinak” has jumped by about 1,500 since I last searched, about a week ago. THAT is what adding results from Facebook and Twitter means…