I Have an Opinion About That

During an  update on Facebook I made a remark about not knowing what to do before I had Wifi in public while visiting the hospital during my wife’s recent surgery.  On of the posters said I should read one of last years magazines on the table in the waiting room.  More interestingly though was the thoughts of my favorite designer Alex who had this to say about magazines, “Did Dan say something about a magazine? What are those? Are they anything like a blog, because if I can’t tell the world what I think about what I’m reading, I”m just not interested.”

I had to smile to myself and I must explain that Alex is a twenty something who obviously loves social media.  Alex “gets” social media and uses it as a regular part of his daily life.  He and I often swap ideas about the latest app that comes along that helps up better manage all of out various feeds, lists, and on line persona.

I also had to be a bit sad, as there are a great number of folks who don’t get social media much.  I have a marketing group I am part of and one of our members believes that social media is another channel to broadcast his message, my mom finds social media a waste of time, and others liken it to an evil cult that has brainwashed us into drinking the kool-aid of the worldly masses.

I have really gotten involved pretty heavily and even created a bit of business teaching or as I put it evangelizing the benefits of social media.  I am working to educate people in the various ways social media can improve, influence, empower, and even liberate.  Social media isn’t some passing fad, it is a main stream part of life.  A recent article in the New York Times found a large majority of us are checking email, texting, or on line socially even before we eat or have coffee.  Social media is the best way for many of us to communicate to a broad spectrum of people in an efficient way that was never before possible.

I blog, tweet, post, and text large amounts of information daily and in the midst of all of that touch the lives of at least 500 people.  I have found tools that are easy and I enjoy using.  Think about that for a moment tools that are easy and fun!  I overheard a conversation this weekend from a group of soccer moms that sat behind me at a sporting event.  They were chirping away about their new Black Berries and Smart Phones.  The killer apps that kept them all connected and on track.  How much they loved texting and tweeting from their phones.

Facebook me!  Get with me on LinkedIn.  Give me your value added proposition in 140 characters or less.  This is all on a personal level, I now have the ability to befriend and become a fan of a myriad of businesses I spend money with, I can contact the developer of software I use  or author of the last book I read and tell them how much their work means to me …or not.  And believe me I have and I  must tell you that some of these on line contacts have become off line friendships that would have never happened in the past.  Professionally I have be able to be accessible to my clients in a way that could or would not have happened as little as three years ago.  I love talking to my fans and clients one on one.  My relationships are just as important on screen as they are face to face.

I have an opinion and so do you.  How many times have you said,” I’d love to call that 800 number or I am going to write the owner and tell them off.”  Social media has now placed a great number of companies brands, mine included, squarely in the hands of you the consumer.  And those of us wanting to survive and flourish in the digital age will need to continue to meet you where you are.

Looking forward to serving you tomorrow and every day!

Michael Mock

Do You Have an Audience?

I am a big fan of movies and I even like the old medieval black and whites where the knight or knave requests an audience with the king.  I always found that line so funny, “I would like an audience with the king.”  I guess I just slip into Monty Python mode and start thinking of the Knights that say nee!”

Anyway, the place I am going is I have been blogging, tweeting, and posting for some time now.  I just watched Perry Belchers’  video on YouTube and he made a couple of statements that really hit me.  First if you are getting into social media marketing today for the first time you are screwed.  Secondly Oprah can sell Frito’s and Fords, not a problem.  Do you know why?  She has an audience.  Millions of viewers who just hang on her every word and recommendation.  Used to be Carson, now the endorsement lies with Oprah.

So that being said, I know I have an audience because the analytics tell me so, but I have many clients that want to sink all of their money in a website and then just wait for the leads to come rolling in.  Marketing on the Internet is not a set it and forget it kind of thing.  More than 75% of your efforts are outside of your site.

Working for a point of purchase display manufacturer I know we can make the the coolest display but if the end users doesn’t unpack them, set them up, place product on them and open the doors to the store what good is marketing at retail?  Imagine your web page as a product display and the store is the size of freaking Russia!  Good luck getting noticed pal.  Every firm we make displays for is just a small part of the “total package”.  It take print, radio, television, product placement in the store, and word of mouth.  We have the audience and get the clients product noticed.

All of that being said, think of it as this; Twitter is a news flash, Facebook is your scrapbook (thanks to Perry for the analogy), your blog and web site are the heart and soul of your business.  Kind of like meeting a pretty girl, it starts with a little conversation, a little hand holding, a little flirting, long walks and more conversation and then you move on to bigger and better things like serious life long relations.  But if you are not willing to engage in the conversation then you are standing at the dance along the wall watching all the pretty girls dance with other guys.

If you are little shy, even hesitant about the whole idea of social media, then really look at getting some guidance in getting started.  Drop by my website, sign up for our mailing list and I will send you some free ebooks to get you started!

www.technologyworkgroup.com

-Michael

Email Marketing | The New Pony Express?

So have you gotten the message on email marketing? If you didn’t, perhaps it is time you start to take advantage of this wonderful marketing tool.

There are many business and organizations that are already using email marketing to create additional business and to leverage technology to have an advantage over their competition. Isn’t it about time you should start exploring this? I am hoping this post will provide information on email marketing which should be useful to business owners and organizations that have been hesitant to use this form of advertising.

The first thing is to understand are the options available to you in terms of email marketing. The most common options include sending out mass emails with promotional materials, publishing and distributing e-newsletters, and offering correspondence courses via email. The advantage to all of these marketing strategies is the ability to reach a worldwide audience. Unlike traditional methods of marketing such as television, radio, or print media which only reaches an audience in a limited area; anyone with access to the Internet can benefit from your email marketing techniques.

• Mass emails are the most popular form of email marketing. This includes emails which are sent to hundreds, thousands or even millions of recipients at once. The problem with this type of marketing is the potential for having your emails tagged as spam. This is likely to happen if you send your emails to people who have no interest in your products or services and have not expressed interest in getting emails from you.

• E-newsletters are becoming increasingly popular as a form of email marketing. E-newsletters can be a simple or as complex as you prefer and may include text, graphics, advertisements, and links to your company web site or product pages. One of the big decisions you will have to make is whether you want to make your e-newsletter strictly text or include graphics in the e-newsletter. This is a great debate as not everyone will allow HTML email to be viewed by their various email clients. HTML also will not show up the same in the various browser offerings, so testing of each browser takes time to insure a good end-user experience.
• White-papers and How to Courses offered by email is the final email marketing strategy I want to look at. These courses or white-papers may be either offered for a fee and turn into a source of income themselves or they may be made available for free. The theory behind offering these courses for free is they often contain subtle advertising urging visitors to purchase the products and services offered by your business. Whether you charge for your email white-papers and courses or offer them for free, be careful to ensure the information contained is completely accurate. This is very important as potential clients who receive these emails will be judging your business based on the quality and accuracy of these materials. If your information is filled with errors then these prospects may doubt the quality of your work and look to the products and services offered by others including your direct competitors.

I hope this gets you to thinking about spreading your message or brand in a new way.  If you are already using email marketing is it worth the time and effort?  Let me know.

-Michael