Category: Social media

Friend, mentor and client Nilofer Merchant posted recently about the problem of fragmentation:

It’s a fragmented world. And it’s only becoming more so. It used to be that when people wrote, they wrote more deeply. In the early days of the web (pre-twitter), I remember hand picking the few voices I would listen to and then putting them into my RSS feeder and checking for their essays. Essays, not tweets, were the way we shared what we were thinking. But as “content” has become more important to maintain a standing online, more and more people are entering into the fray. More and more people who may not even have a point of view to advocate but just want to participate in the conversation.

As content becomes more fragmented, you could try and compete with that by doing more and more, by curating other people’s content, by then running your content through Twylah, by having that “twitter magazine” come out which puts all your tweets and links in one place so that people can catch it if they missed each particular one.

Or you could do the opposite. You could go deep. You could be that voice that everyone listens to because when it speaks, it is so deep and rich that it’s worth slowing down to listen to. Sort of a Morgan Freeman voice, in the times of Justin Bieber bop. Maybe it will allow the light of an idea to be seen more clearly.” There’s more at the source: In a fragmented world, go deep – Nilofer Merchant

If I were talking with Nilofer, I’d gently push back on this one. ‘Going deep’ does not preclude using Twylah; rather, I think, the answer to fragmentation and ‘going deep’ is focus…

When I first started blogging I was not confident in my own skillset and my focus was a mile wide and six inches deep. My tagline was “Marketing, Sales and Technology for small business, non-profits and academic institutions”. It makes me laugh now because there are no dozen websites that can cover THIS landscape effectively. I used to curate anything and everything related to those topics sometimes posting over 20 times a day! I got traffic but it wasn’t really relevant and it didn’t get me customers. Over time, Nilofer helped me go deep and realize my ‘onlyness’ was really helping thinkers to become thought leaders through the use of a minimal toolkit for content marketing. Now my tagline is “content marketing for thought leadership” and I help experts get found when people are looking for what they do. By going deeper, I may lose the opportunity to develop a small business website but I might gain the opportunity to work with a TED Fellow like Nina Tandon which is much more rewarding in the long run. Now, too, I’m more confident in my onlyness, I only post a couple of times per week…

Nilofer and I have had this discussion before and I think we both agree: If our thoughts are going to resonate with our target audience we need to understand the questions they are asking and align our answers with their queries. If we position ourselves as the obvious answer to the questions of the people we want to attract, we will get found when people are looking for ‘that one voice’. It’s not good enough however simply to think deep thoughts; we need to let people know that we are thinking them. Nilofer is a great thinker on strategy but I direct my energy toward ‘thoughts, tools and tactics’ for content marketing and ‘thought leadership’ marketing; I think the answer here is not either/or it’s both/and. I don’t think Nilofer’s saying that Twylah is a bad thing and I think she’d agree you need to go deep thoughtwise AND master ‘thought leadership’ marketing toolwise because the two go together like peanut butter and chocolate — it’s just that mindlessly tweeting and retweeting doesn’t do much to add value…

In closing, here are the 3 tools I recommend for ‘thought leadership’ marketing:

  • Google Reader
  • WordPress
  • Twylah

Ed. 2019: The current version of this list would be:

  • Google News or Inoreader
  • WordPress
  • Buffer

I posted about them here just last week. They are the tools that will help you get found when you decide to ‘go deep’ and become the one voice [because it doesn’t matter how deep you go if no one can find you]…

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Sometimes, I think I post more about how much I love Twylah than the folks at Twylah do. Whether that’s true or not, I’m a huge fan and the main reason why is Twylah is the only social networking tool I know of that actually adds Search Engine Optimization [SEO] to your domain simply by tweeting. Still, if the DNS manager of your domain host is unfamiliar territory you may not be getting the maximum value out of Twylah and Twitter. I talk you through it here…

So, in summary, the three things you must do are:

  • Use Twylah
  • Add the Twylah widget to your WordPress sidebar
  • Host Twylah on your domain

Questions? Feedback? Comment below or connect with me so we can talk about how this applies to you and your situation…

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Going back to our Getting Things Done [GTD] decision diagram for a minute…

The in basket I’m using more often than not is Google Reader. When I see ‘actionable’ content, I decide where is the best place to share that content using the following diagram:

I focused in an earlier post about sharing via Twylah and other tools — today the focus is on curation and blogging as a means of Getting Things Done [GTD]…

How do I decide that something is bloggable? Well here are some guidelines that I use…

  • When I come across content that is so brilliant that I could have written it myself if I would only take the time. Seriously, when I come across really good content that I want to expound upon and call out to my clients and readers…
  • When I find a great illustration or infographic
  • When I find a great YouTube video
  • When commenting on this content gives me a change to share something about my brand by agreeing, disagreeing, adding or subtracting…

You get the idea, right? Anything I find on the Internet is fair game as long as I remember to do three things:

  • Block quote and indent the content I am curating
  • Provide a link back to the original source
  • Be ready to move the content if requested by the owner

I firmly believe that when you curate effectively everybody wins. The original author gives exposure to my readers. My readers get a different perspective. Finally, my post is easier to write and I get the Search Engine Optimization [SEO] benefits from the content I curate…

Here are some thoughts from Suzanne Bird-Harris and a few others on the rationale for curation and some ideas on how to structure a curative post along with a screencast on how I do it using Windows Live Writer, a free blog editor from Microsoft…

Personally? I think curation is one of the best ways to supplement the original thinking on my blog. Here are some thoughts on curation in the blogging process…

Personally? I think curation is one of the best ways to supplement the original thinking on my blog. Here are some thoughts on curation in the blogging process…

Personally? I think curation is one of the best ways to supplement the original thinking on my blog. Here are some thoughts on curation in the blogging process…

http://storify.com/e1evation/thoughts-on-getting-things-done-gtd-in-curation

Here’s the diagram from the video…

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Heidi Cohen shares this valuable tidbit today:

About nine out of ten B2B marketers use social media to distribute their content marketing according to recent research by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs. On average these marketers use five social media sites to spread their content marketing more broadly through social sharing.

For B2B marketers, this requires that your content marketing be formatted to work well on the social media platforms where you place it and that you encourage readers to share it. (Here’s a chart showing how to leverage different types of content marketing across social media.)

Respondents cited fourteen different social media platforms that they used to distribute content. (Here’s additional research and analysis from the content marketing survey.) Half of the social media venues were used by over 20% of respondents.

Source: Social Media: Where to Distribute B2B Content Marketing [Research/Chart] | Heidi Cohen

Go to the source if you’d like to have the rest of Heidi’s insights – come back here if you’re not sure how to put them into practice!

Open-mouthed smile

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Guy Kawasaki has a clever quote on Inbound Marketing. It goes like this:

“If you have more money than brains, spend it on outbound marketing but if you have more brains then money, spend it on inbound marketing”.

Let’s take a look at inbound marketing HubSpot style…

 

With all due respect to Guy, inbound marketing may be smarter, but many of the top tier inbound marketing ‘suites’ still carry a hefty price tag. Here are 4 that emphasize content marketing and curation that come to mind [listed most expensive first]:

My own ‘e1evation workflow‘ on the other hand costs less than $25 per year if you know what you’re doing and all the products used meet the following criteria:

  • Best in class
  • Free or freemium
  • Completely cross platform down to the smartphone level

Great inbound marketing doesn’t have to cost and arm and a leg. Comment below or connect with me so we can talk about how this applies to you and your situation. Remember, the key is to get found when people are looking for you and what you do and that doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg!

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There are three main reasons why I think of Twylah as my ULTIMATE lifestream repository. First, let me share a definition of ‘lifestreaming‘ for those of you unfamiliar with the concept:

The term lifestream was coined by Eric Freeman and David Gelernter at Yale University in the mid-1990s to describe “…a time-ordered stream of documents that functions as a diary of your electronic life; every document you create and every document other people send you is stored in your lifestream. The tail of your stream contains documents from the past (starting with your electronic birth certificate). Moving away from the tail and toward the present, your stream contains more recent documents — papers in progress or new electronic mail; other documents (pictures, correspondence, bills, movies, voice mail, software) are stored in between. Moving beyond the present and into the future, the stream contains documents you will need: reminders, calendar items, to-do lists.”[1]

Lifestreams are also referred to as social activity streams or social streams.

Social network aggregators adapt Freeman and Gelernters original concept to address the vast flows of personal information and exchange created by social network services such as MySpace or Facebook “Web companies large and small are embracing this stream” of providing lifestreaming.[2] Other online applications have emerged to facilitate a users lifestream. Posterous offers a variety of unique features to enhance its basic blogging function. Tumblr is a similar concept, but with slightly different features.” via Lifestreaming – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Now, why do I think Twylah is the ultimate lifestreaming tool? Because…

  • Twylah can be the ultimate container for EVERYTHING you curate or create online [because you can ultimately get EVERYTHING into Twitter!]
  • Twylah drives enagement 40x better than Twitter alone
  • Twylah converts your tweets into valuable Search Engine Optimization [SEO]

Here’s how it works:

Bottom line? If you can get it to Twitter, Twylah will do the rest. Automatically! Now, because I’d rather talk than type, I’ll talk you through the concept below…

Questions? Feedback? Comment below…

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I’m always trying to explain things in a way that is as simple as possible but no simpler, so I thought of another way to take a pass at David Allen’s Getting Things Done [GTD] principles as applied to the curation process. Here is the workflow map:

Here is how I apply it to the curation process:


Now, let me talk you through it:

Here are the two posts I mentioned in the screencast:

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The ever brilliant Heidi Cohen shares this:

Pinterest is the fourth largest source of traffic in the world according to data from Shareaholic. Pinterest’s traffic has doubled since May making it an important entryway to your business.

Since the beginning of 2012, Pinterest has passed other social media platforms including LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Twitter and StubbleUpon, in terms of the amount of traffic it refers to other sites. Additionally, Pinterest refers more traffic than Bing and Yahoo. (Here are nineteen other reasons to use Pinterest with charts.)” Get the rest here: Pinterest: The Best New Source of Traffic [Research] | Heidi Cohen.

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Here’s my approach to blogging and social media in a nutshell…

“You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene”

Whether you’re a solopreneur or the ‘Director, Corporate Marketing and Brand Communications Worldwide’ for a large farm implement manufacturer you can use good, fast and cheap social media tools to implement the ‘Perry Como’ approach to publicizing your business. Did you find some great news about your company on the web? “Accentuate the positive” by posting it to your corporate blog. Is someone harassing you online? “Eliminate the negative” by posting positive content and feeding your fans. Get the picture? Old Perry had it right, even if social media didn’t exist in 1958 when he recorded that song…

So, you latch on to the Perry Como method when you think about promoting your own personal brand…

PS Originally posted 02/24/2010, updated 9/21/2012; still true over two years later…

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How to make your blog more ‘pinteresting’…

Afraid it’s a massive time suck? Here are two ideas for having your Pinterest cake and eating it too…

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Heidi Cohen writes:

“Social media isn’t the holy grail,” according to Social Media Examiner’s Mike Stelzner, author of Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, speaking at Content Marketing World 2012. At first blush this may sound ludicrous coming from the founder of one of the largest social media blogs but the reality is that social media isn’t a business goal!

Rather, social media is a conduit for delivering content to and engaging with your prospects, customers, fans and the public, and to answer their questions. To this end, Mike Stelzner recommended becoming a publisher in order to build your own audience cost effectively by creating valuable content for your target audience. This requires knowing who you want to reach and asking them what they want to know. Once you have answers to these two questions, it’s a matter of giving your audience relevant content that’s educational and easy-to-digest.

Otherwise, “social media is just talk without listening” in the words of Content Rules  co-author, C.C. Chapman. Without taking the time to hear what your prospects and customers want to know, you’ll never create what Social Media Explorer’s Jason Falls, co-author of No Bullshit Social Media, refers to as “holy smokes content.” This information drives social media because it gets you in front of your prospects and customers by providing solutions to their problems. Therefore, optimize your content for people by using the words your audience uses to get found because your ultimate goal is to sell your prospects and customers your products and services, not just build a social media following as an end in itself.” Get the rest here: Why Social Media Isn’t The Holy Grail (& Neither is Content Marketing) | Heidi Cohen.

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A few resources for my Facebook class today…

http://storify.com/e1evation/facebook-thoughts-tactics-and-tools-7-24-2012

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Tim Allen is one of my favorite comedians and I love the show ‘Home Improvement’…

For three years, I’ve been wanting to do a weekly live broadcast and now — thanks to Google+ Hangouts on Air — today’s the day! Watch this…

You can connect with me in Google+ at toddlohenry@gmail.com to participate live at 15:00 CDST [GMT-6] [only people in my circles can attend] or you can watch the stream here:

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…are one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen and believe me, I’ve seen a lot of cool things. Here’s my take…

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…featuring a tool called Gist and you can see it here over the internet!

Here’s a brief outline of my intro:

This event is hosted by my friend Dana VanDen Heuvel at The Docking Station in Green Bay, however, thanks to the new functionality in Google+ of being able to broadcast a hangout over the air in YouTube, I’ll be broadcasting and recording the event in this post at Noon CDT. You can either watch it here or join more directly by connecting with toddlohenry@gmail.com in Google+…

Here is the Google+ Hangout video from the event:

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Featuring yours truly, of course…

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Get more great infographics here:

“Visual content has taken 2012 by storm, and leading the pack is the much beloved and sometimes bemoaned infographic. What on earth is an infographic, you ask?Ha, just kidding. You know what infographics are! Theyre this, and this, and this. But those are all so 2011. What has 2012 delivered marketers in the way of awesome infographics? This post has rounded up the best of the best — the ones that are chock full of information, excel at data visualization, and deliver brand new data to marketers. Take a look at our favorite marketing infographics so far in 2012!” via The 10 Best Marketing Infographics of 2012 So Far.

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I find a lot of helpful infographics. Here’s another one…

Go to the source if you need a bigger version: Flowchart: How to Develop a Social Media Strategy

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Brian Cavoli of BzzAgent shares…

You could say there’s a universe of ways people measure the ROI from their social media marketing. Some of the more popular methods, like counting Facebook “likes” and re-tweets, have very little meaning to the CFO, while other newly developed formulas around engagement can be, well, rather creative.

Only one method, the analysis of sales revenue generated relative to the program investment, delivers ROI in the way it is meant to be measured –  in financial terms. If you think of that as the center of the measurement universe, here’s how the rest of the social measurement solar system might look:

via [Infographic] The Social Media ROI Solar System « BzzAgent Blog – Social Marketing Insights.

The Social Media ROI Universe « The WOMMA Word

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Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn And The Social Media Bill Of Rights [INFOGRAPHIC] – AllTwitter

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I’m a huge fan of curation as a means of attracting attention to your thought leadership position. Here’s a great perspective from HubSpot on the value of curation done well…

Curated content, or content aggregated from various sources into one comprehensive resource (be it a blog post, an ebook, a presentation, etc.) can be a valuable part of any marketer’s content mix. That said, the process of actually curating it isn’t easy.

There’s a misconception among marketers that curated content is lazy and unoriginal, but we think it’s the complete opposite. It takes time and careful evaluation to create quality curated content, and the result is oftentimes a very valuable piece of content that helps people seeking information on a given topic to cut through the clutter on the web and save time. After all, what’s better than one awesome resource? How about 15 awesome resources? All accessible in one place! There’s a reason art galleries are so popular.

So how can you take advantage of the power of curated content? Here are our top 10 ideas for great curated content.

Source: 10 Great Ideas for Valuable Curated Content

Go to the source if you want the 10 great ideas. Here are some of my greatest posts and screencasts on the topic of how to do it…
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Some of my ‘greatest hits’ on the topic of curation for content marketing…

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