Liz Strauss recently told her community what her plans were to make sure she’s making good on her promises and backing up her talk with action. So I set out to articulate what I believe my social contract is with the communities I participate in and who are kind enough to allow me to be part of their world. The term Social Contract stuck in my head thanks to Bryan Eisenberg.
So what follows is my version of a Social Contract, my pledge to my community about my involvement in the online world.
1. You’ll always get me, pretty WYSIWYG. (Minus the curse words that I tend to throw about rather liberally in sympathetic company). I’ll make sure that my personality is part of my business so that you can decide for yourself whether I’m someone you want to connect with and trust.
2. I will always maintain a hefty ratio in favor of telling you what someone else has done that’s smart (vs. the one thing I did that’s probably less so). It’s important for me to make sure that I give credit to the brilliant people that surround me and teach me and let me ride on their coattails. In many ways, I credit them with any success I have, anyway.
3. When I screw up, I’ll say so. And apologize. And do what I can to make it right. I’m human too, and failure is part of the game.
4. I’m committing to never, ever posting a “sorry I haven’t posted in a while” post on my blog. Why? Because that’s very much my conduit to the people that I can’t talk to daily, but whose feedback, insights, and collaboration are so critical to my work. If it’s important enough for me to have, it’s important enough for me to find time for.
5. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll say so. Making sh!t up benefits no one. And if I can find the answer, I will, and I’ll come back and share it.
6. I’m going to keep giving it away. Because it’s part of my DNA, and I think it’s important. And I’m going to keep drumming up new ways to do it whenever I can. You’re going to keep hearing about the real world success stories, learnings, and screwups because social media needs as many examples as it can get.
7. You’ll get a little bit of humor from me a lot of the time. The world is far, far too serious a place and I don’t intend to wallow in that fact. The positive perspective is a powerful one, and I’m going to keep trying my best to deliver the silver lining more than the cloud.
8. You’ll always get the best I have to give, and follow through will be central. I’m not super human, but I’m sure as hell going to try and make sure you’re glad we’re connected. And if I’m laying down on the job, I sure hope you’ll tell me. Which reminds me…
9. I will accept criticism gracefully. There’s so much to know about this space that I can’t possibly get it right all the time. And I’m going to value that feedback to improve my work (and quit taking it personally, as I’m quite apt to do).
10. My mind will always stay open to new things, new perspectives, and new friends.
A lot of these sentences start with “I”, only because I’m speaking in the first person. But it’s really about you. About the people whose businesses I’m trying so hard to help, whether it be a client or the communications pro that’s learning something from all the stuff I throw out here. It’s hard for me to find the words sometimes to tell you just how crazy passionate I am about what I’m doing, even if it means that I have to go work at Starbucks part time to keep doing it. I’m driven by a fierce desire to be part of something bigger than me, and I haven’t seen a revolution or sea change in my professional career that has as much potential as this era of new communications does. It makes me excited, and sometimes act like a complete dork.
There are a great number of people who, every day, are delivering on their social contracts. I’m fortunate to know and work with many of them, and I think you should know them too.
So how about your social contract? Do you have one? What’s the commitment you’ve made to your community, silent or otherwise? Would you consider putting yours on (virtual) paper and telling us what we can look forward to from you? Share away.
Photo credit: Thanks For the Memories (and just because I liked it).
I wasn’t going to blog about the Motrin fiasco, because I thought all of the points had been covered, really, and I didn’t have much else to say other than “me too” or “that’s interesting“. But what’s been festering with me is the idea that the lynch mob came out en force, and among the angriness, there were precious few level-headed solutions that were offered or positive perspectives to be had.
Companies cannot learn how to immerse themselves in social media unless they have guideposts. Real solutions. Real concepts that tie back to their business, and that they can implement in their existing framework.
And mistakes happen. Ill-conceived ads will get run, someone will leak insider information, bad judgment will prevail. So when we’re finished bludgeoning a company with a sledgehammer over how they’ve wronged their community, how do we help them to build on that learning?
If our answer to every social media or marketing misstep is to shred the companies who have screwed up, what incentive do they have to believe us social media types when we tell them that there’s brand building potential in transparency? How do we ensure that we haven’t made them think that social media is a snake pit just waiting to devour them? They’ve just stuck their head out and gotten it lopped off.
So let’s find a few positives, shall we, and focus on some outcomes and solutions?
The Twitter Community Has A Significant Voice
Twitter was once merely a niche, geek-infested (yes, me too) site with little mainstream application. But today, a big connection was made between a Big Brand and this little (?) universe for which so many of us are evangelists.
This is GOOD for showing the potential of this medium for distributing a message, or at the very least, for listening to it. If we can now take that learning and translate it into how we can also transmit positive, valuable messages, that’d be even better.
So for a bit of Twitter Done Right, a Success Story: A smaller brand learning to use Twitter for business results.
Transparency Isn’t Always Easy.
In this particular instance, the pharmaceutical industry has very particular regulations about adverse events reporting, and it makes it more challenging for them to engage directly with customers. Am I suggesting that they shouldn’t? No. (There were probably other channels available to them that they probably should have taken advantage of - would love to hear your suggestions). But it behooves us all to understand the vertical in which we’re dealing so that the implications for transparent communications are fully understood.
While many of us have the most altruistic aspirations regarding social media’s potential, this has opened our eyes to the possibility that not every business can embrace it the same way.(If you disagree with the regulation in the first place, that’s not social media’s fault. Try the government.)
For a success story of overcoming transparency barriers: Listen to what Lego did.
Listening Is Important (And Expectations are High)
Monitoring and stewarding your brand are critically important anywhere, and even moreso now in the fast-moving social flash flood. The Motrin folks got skewered for not hearing the conversation the instant it caught fire on a Saturday morning (it took them about 18 hours to respond). The positive here is that setting up listening posts isn’t too complicated - there are lots of free and paid tools (disclosure: client) that can help with that.
Also, it raises awareness for the need for the human factor in listening (since the tools can’t decide what to do with that information once they have it). On the other hand, how the response is handled is often as important as how quickly it’s disseminated. So we can learn from this that listening applies not just to your social media efforts, but to your overall branding and marketing. It’s what facilitates you as a business being able to make a level-headed, intelligent response once you’ve taken stock and considered the feedback you’ve gathered.
There’s More Than One Lens Through Which To Look
Many of us were speculating about whether or not Motrin did any testing of these ads before sending them off into the big wide world. To be fair, not everyone was offended by it (I thought it was a little flip, but not tragic. And I’m a mom).
I’d be interested to know what if any kind of focus group work or testing or feedback they got on the ad before they ran it. It’s entirely possible that the audience they tapped thought it was great. Whether that included a bunch of moms or just their internal group and their agency remains to be seen.
What it shows me, though, is that we need to carefully point out to companies that it’s important to consider their brand through eyes other than their own (or those on their payrolls). We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again. Brands are defined by the customers, not the businesses. But there’s no such thing as a unanimous home run, and that’s ok. You do your research, you test, you ask for as much feedback as you reasonably can, and you go.
Apologies Amidst Crisis Can Make a Difference.
Saying you’re sorry and that you’ve heard the uproar is a good thing. You can change your tune, say you’re sorry you screwed up, and move on.
Success story: Nike admitted their gaffe with the Nike Women’s Marathon and earned some respect for it. And by now, you know what Comcast has been doing to admit their shortcomings and fix problems on the fly. Network Solutions has been successfully stemming a negative tide through genuine, authentic outreach.
I’d really hate for something like poorly worded website and print ads to be a fear-mongering exercise that forces more companies to stick their heads in the sand in hopes that the SM firestorm never shows up on their doorstep. I do sure hope we continue to educate companies about the right ways to participate in this space.
But I for one would like to do so by shining some light on the positives, the learnings and outcomes (even from the missteps), and real solutions that companies can employ. If companies are truly not ready to talk to their customers, how do we keep from proving to them that all of their fears are real? In our quest to demonstrate that our voices are legitimate, can we also show that we know how to elevate the tide for everyone?
What do you have to say?
Photo credit: jvh33
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The questions abound with social media and marketing in a new communications environment.
How do I convince people that this is important?
How can I marry social media with my existing communication efforts?
How does this translate into sales?
How can we succeed with social media?
I have the answer for you. Are you ready for it?
Hard. Work.
Once again, I’ll say that social media isn’t an answer to your prayers. As Chris Penn so brilliantly said, it’s not a rescue for your failed business plan. It’s not a silver bullet or a pile of magic beans.
It’s strategic, focused work that requires research, preparation, internal education and training, careful selection of tools and tactics, a holistic business approach, and careful testing and analysis to figure out what’s appropriate for your business. There are challenges and risks. It takes time, resources, and commitment as well as a willingness to fail on occasion. It takes work, folks.
There are lots of talkers out there, telling you its as simple as “joining the conversation” or “connecting with your community”. And while those are important tenets of a successful social media-ready culture, it’s not enough to just say it.
The tactics will change, evolve, and adapt to your particular company, culture, and industry. But one fact will never change. There is no easy way or short cut. Social media deserves the same dedication you’d give any other important business decision, and you will absolutely reap what you sow.
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It’s just not winner-take-all anymore, and the ruthless and selfish are going to get left on the curb somewhere. Why? Because it’s the age of “us”, of community, of collective wisdom and thought. It’s time now to stop locking our knowledge away and saving it for the highest bidder, but rather invest in ourselves and our colleagues and lift up those around us.
It’s the step beyond talking about community, and doing your part to actually move the community somewhere (and yourself along with it).
Here are a few ideas I’ve had and used for how to spread the wealth a bit. Will you add yours?
1. Keep up with your Delicious.com links so that others can benefit from the information you find while you’re doing research or just bopping around the ‘net. Make sure you publish it somewhere prominent. (Find mine here, which I’m in the process of cleaning up and overhauling).
2. Commit to blogging about real world examples and case studies, full of executable ideas that others can build upon and learn from. Better yet, share your own best practices - and mistakes.
3. Put every presentation you do on Slideshare.
4. If you’ve got more to say than just a blog post or two, put together an ebook. Publish it free.
5. Answer lots of questions on LinkedIn Q&A. Be specific and offer real solutions, not just “call me and I’ll send you a proposal” stuff.
6. Donate an hour of your time to a non-profit who needs to learn more about your area of expertise. Better yet, tap into an organization like the Taproot Foundation and let them connect you with an organization that needs you.
7. Think of a way to use your Twitter network for good. Can you drum up some volunteers for a local conference or fundraiser? Raise money or awareness? What can you do that’s beyond fleeting conversation?
8. Find a PodCamp or a BarCamp in your area, show up, and share your knowledge. Don’t have one local? Organize one.
9. Do 10 minute phone interviews with 10 people in your network about a specific topic, like how they’ve solved a specific marketing or branding challenge. (One I’ve been asking around lately is how people are initiating the conversations about social media internally before even doing anything). Publish it as a quick article, write a blog post, or use something like BlogTalkRadio to publish them live.
10. Mentor someone new to your industry. Tap into a professional organization you belong to, or reach out to a local university to find someone young and eager to soak up all of your knowledge. Help them get plugged in and set up on the social networks you value, and make some introductions on their behalf.
So that’s a start. We’re all richer when we empower each other to be better. How do you like to give back to your community, and what are you doing to encourage others to do the same? I’d love to have you join the comments and share your thoughts with me.
image by Saquan Stimpson
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I’ve heard several people lately discussing the uses for social media in a business-to-business (B2B) environment. Should we? Is it valuable? Can it move the needle?
Yes, yes, and more yes.
Perhaps the single most valuable ongoing activity in a B2B environment is business development. The act of nurturing and cultivating relationships with prospects, embracing a longer sales cycle with the idea that a loyal customer or client will be exponentially more valuable than a transactional one. We even have a term for it: lifetime value. We believe in the inherent richness of a long term relationship.
We spend a lot of money on business development. We spring an average of $2,000 per person to send folks to conferences and trade shows in pursuit of the almighty warm lead. We golf with our clients, with our clients friends. We buy cocktails, break bread together, all in the name of establishing favorable connections on a personal level. We hope that by being hospitable, by being gracious and personable, we can engender a level of trust and affinity for our business that will ultimately lead these clients and customers to our door first.
We embrace the idea that there may not be immediate need. But the very act of investing in these relationships over time demonstrates our willingness to wager that the investment itself will be paid for several fold with a sale. Or two or three. We spend thousands of dollars on CRM systems and processes to steward our prospects through the system, ensure that we keep connected with them at every step of the process and maintain that personal relationship.
Referrals are golden. We know as business people that a recommendation from a happy client is exponentially more effective in closing a new sale. So we cultivate our clients after the sale is over, understanding that not only are they more likely to return, but they’re more likely to bring a friend next time.
We have many tools we use to make these connections: telephone, email, in-person meetings, websites, surveys, client appreciation dinners and awards and events. We get on planes and drive cars to business development appointments. We dedicate full time people to the art and science of business development, and we rest easy in the idea that the payoff is the culmination of all of these efforts over time.
In a 2.0 world, we have evolved business development. We have new and boundless ways to connect with our clients and prospects, to continue stewarding those relationships along the business development cycle. Perhaps we’ve misnamed it.
But social media *is* business development. It’s merely a set of tools - yes, an overwhelming set at times - designed to better connect one person to another, to connect businesses and brands with the people that need and want them. The messages they carry are only as good as the lasting relationships they foster.
What say you?
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As my Twitter stream has grown, I’ve noticed that about 1 in every 5 new followers sends me a message like this after I follow back:
“Hi, thanks for following my tweets! Here’s a link to my website, please click it!”
Ok, I’m paraphrasing. But if you’re on Twitter, you’ve undoubtedly had a few of these. (If you’re not, go there! And then follow me here.)
This turns me off, almost instantly. Here’s why it bugs me.
1) When I decide to follow someone back, it’s usually because they’ve got interesting conversation going on in their stream or a fun bio, or both. If you hit me with a spammy sounding DM right when we get connected, I instantly think your community participation is a sham. Or at the very least, that you’re looking at this endeavor bass ackwards.
2) You don’t know a thing about me yet, except what you read on my profile. How on earth do you know that what you offer is of value to me in the least?
4) Your website is in your profile. Before I follow you, I’ll be going there to check you out. And I’m pretty smart (most days). If I want to click to your site and see what you’re about, I will.
5) I’m a very social person, and dig meeting new people. Truly. So I’m excited that you’re following me. But I’d much rather learn about who you are on a personal level. I guarantee you that’s more interesting than what you do for a living. You’re not letting me see the best of you.
6) If your business proposition is more important than saying hello and getting acquainted, then it’s clear to me that you don’t feel the same way about people as I do, which means we’ll probably have little in common anyway.
7) Like many, many other people, I do business with people I like and trust. But like and trust are not instant affinities. Hitting me with your junk right off the bat tells me that you’re impatient and not willing to invest in like and trust.
I participate in social networks for business, yes. But I’m also there to connect with people I just enjoy interacting with. Usually the second part comes first.
9) I’m going to be a much more loyal reader of your blog or patron of your business if I feel like your reached out to me to do more than build your subscriber base. I’m human too, and I’d really like to think you find something interesting about me besides the click I make on your site. Call me sensitive.
10) Introducing yourself by using my name at least lets me know that I wasn’t part of a mass message.
So let’s find the positive in this, shall we? For as many of you as have slipped me a link, hundreds and hundreds of you are doing the right thing. Here are a few intro DM’s I’ve gotten lately that made me glad I’d followed back:
“Hey Amber, thanks for the add! Looking forward to having some fun conversation.”
“Hi Amber, thanks for the follow! Can’t wait to chat more about beer. Cosmos suck.”
“Hi Amber, thanks for the follow. I like your blog and content. I’m getting mine rolling, hope to share cool content soon! ”
“thanks for the reciprocated follow, Amber. Looking forward to sharing tweets.”
“Hey Amber, hope you had a great weekend! Thanks for the follow back.”
“Amber, thx for the follow. I hope we can learn, communicate, and collaborate here on twitter–enjoy a beer for me too!”
So there are lots like this. I guess what they all have in common is that they feel personal, they feel real, and they make me want to start a conversation with these people. Linky spamlicious crud (yes, that’s a very official term) makes me afraid to start talking to you lest you start pushing your wares on me. And that’s not exactly what you want, is it?
No, I’m not that darned important. I’m just one person, and this is just my opinion. But there are so many things that I can pick out from the list above that apply to just about any communications endeavor that I couldn’t resist talking about it.
So tell me then. Do you plunk links into your welcome tweets? Why or why not? And if you do, tell me why you think it’s a smart move. If it bugs you too, tell me what I’m missing.
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I’ve been writing this blog for less than a year, but I’m already staggered by the comraderie, community, insight and fun stuff I’ve discovered this way. Not only through my readers, but by connecting the dots across the community and finding new friends, new blogs, and amazingly smart people all over the place.
Unfortunately for us bloggy types, no matter how good our analytics package is, we can’t see much beyond your email or location to learn about who you are. And you’re far more than a statistic, anyway. I have and will continue to follow my commenters back to their sites and blogs to learn what they’re about, but I know that on any given day, about 5% of you are leaving comments which leaves me far short of knowing as much about you as I’d like to.
So would you do me a favor? If you’re not already, follow me on Twitter and send me an @. Give me 140 characters about what makes you tick. Need a bit more space than that? Send me an email. Give me a picture of who you are, what keeps you coming back, and what I can do to make your experience here and around the web more fun, interesting, whatever. You can even leave me a comment here, or connect with me somewhere like Facebook or LinkedIn. Tell me about your business or your adventures, whatever you like.
This isn’t about inflating a bunch of profile numbers - I don’t really give a rip about that. I’m keen to learn about you, person to person. Build relationships with each of you, qualitatively. And thankfully no matter where you are in the world, this nifty interwebz thing makes that easy.
So I’ll start: You can poke around here to know about what I do for a living so I’ll forego that part. I’m a voracious reader (sometimes 3 or 4 books at a time), I was a music performance major in college (flute, and yes I went to band camp). I have four rescue animals - two dogs and two cats - and an amazing daughter. I’m a huge music nut and a hell of a cook (at least in my own mind). I rode horses for years (jumpy stuff, like they do in the olympics only not quite that high), and I think I’ve broken 11 bones doing it over the years. Most evenings you can find me with a beer in one hand and my laptop on my lap. It’s like an appendage. My friends and family are the riches in my life, and I have little patience for arrogance or snobbishness.
So there you have it. A bit about the Amber behind the blog. Will you share with me a little about you? I mean it. Let’s get to know one another.
I’ve come to hate this term. Why?
The phrase “value proposition” has lost its way, staggering aimlessly through a sea of buzzwords and empty turns of phrase that confuse, befuddle, and daze corporate advisory boards into believing that the marketing department is doing something.
Let’s break it apart.
Value: n. 1. Relative worth, merit or importance. 2. Monetary or material worth, as in commerce or trade.
Proposition: n. 1. the act of offering or suggesting something to be considered, accepted, adopted, or done. 2. An offer for terms for a transaction, as in business.
There are several other definitions of course, but these being the most prevalent.
In essence, then, we can define a “value proposition” as the act of offering something worthwhile. Yes?
Seems simple enough. So why do so many people screw it up? And why are we stopping at attaching a bunch of words to our “value proposition” and walking away as though our job is done?
I submit that a value proposition is a living, breathing, and ongoing thing. It changes over time, shifting in perspective based upon the needs, challenges, and issues your clients and customers have. And although the terms are nouns, never forget that the word “deliver” is a verb.
Delivering something worthwhile is not achieved in a board room with big flip charts and spreadsheets and ideation sessions. It’s not delivered with a slick brochure or well-written copy, or a stack of press hits in the Wall Street Journal. It’s not delivered in key messages or brand attributes, even. It’s delivered in the work that you do with and for your customers, each and every day. The hard stuff, where you roll up your sleeves and show what you’re made of. Solving real problems for real people.
Your value proposition doesn’t even belong to you. It belongs in the hands of the people who rely on you to provide that something of worth. What is that ’something’ in their eyes? Ask them. Then consider carefully how you and the depth and breadth of your brand can provide it.
Today’s environment insists upon it. We have a hybrid world where offline and online tangle together, and your brand - your value proposition - must bridge the divide. Your clients and customers are not only making up their own minds, but social proof, social capital and trust economies are forcing many businesses to realize that their communities are making up their minds collectively. That the value proposition is only as steadfast as the values of those who put it to the test.
I am surrounded each day by an amazing number of brilliant, generous, action-oriented people that inspire me to always, always be trying to deliver something of substance. And my job will be best done if there’s little trace of my presence aside from an enduring, evolving brand.
Are you spending your time today putting your value proposition on paper and shoving it in a file or in a mission statement? Or are you out there, shepherding your flock, sailing your pirate ship, stewarding social good, sharpening your skates, connecting dots, taking the pulse of your community? (Hint: these people are. Go meet them.)
The comments belong to you.
My friend Geoff Livingston has penned what I think is a brilliant post today about personal branding. He rails against the fact that people are using “personal branding” as a substitute for contributing value to the business community.
There’s a big difference - albeit semantically a subtle one - between reputation and personal branding. To me, the former is substantive and earned based on your valuable contributions to business. And it comes only after you’ve added said value. The latter is a facade; scaffolding built to shore up what would otherwise be a very weak structure. It’s built deliberately as a marketing or promotional effort (versus the part of your individuality that’s inherently you).
You can argue the definitions of the words all you want, but the truth is that if you’re defining your “personal brand” in terms of your popularity instead of building a reputation built on making a difference to people and businesses, you’re letting everyone down - most notably yourself.
So go here and read Geoff’s post today. I’m trying to ensure that for all of you, the contributions I make to the community and your businesses comes first. Let me know how I’m doing.
One of the most frequent questions I get asked, especially by those in smaller businesses, is “where do I start?” Getting off the ground in social media can be like trying to eat an elephant all in one sitting, but it doesn’t have to be.
So I’ve taken some of my best practices for getting started, and packaged them into this free e-book called Getting a Foothold In Social Media: A Get-Started Guide for Small and Medium Businesses. I focused it on this group because they seem to have the fewest resources and most questions, but by all means, I think many of the tenets remain the same no matter what size business you’re in.
I’m working on a companion workshop for this e-book that I’ll be rolling out and live beta testing with some great companies here in Chicago and elsewhere. (If you’re interested in that, feel free to ping me and I can give you more details.)
My goal is to put out practical, common-sense strategies and tactics that actually make sense for business. It’s a little bit of theory, and a lot of the what and how.
It’s not too long - only 16 pages - but I think it’s packed full of stuff to get you off on the right foot. So please grab it, share it, pass it around, print it, whatever you wanna do. And I welcome your feedback. This e-book is for you, to help you in your day to day business. If I’ve missed something or if you have questions, please reach out to me. That’s what I’m here for.
And hey, leave me a comment and let me know what you think?
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