My buddy Ronnie Bincer brought this Hangout on Air [HoA] to my attention…
Ronnie’s already done a thorough analysis that I’ll share here:
Why it is different, how to maximize it for your business be it small or large. +Google+Your Business with +Caroline McCarthy as the HOA host guides the Featured Panel Members: +Chris Brogan, +Mike Elgan, +Chad Wiebesick, & +Justin Williams in a great discussion on how G+ works for business.
Very, VERY Insightful Stuff here…
Chris has some great points and states them very eliquently… Mike at 23:42 speaks about how you can Use Google+ Search to enter into a conversation about a topic with thought leaders or enthusiasts, it really struck a chord with me, Fantastic Business Strategy +Mike Elgan
The main challenge with Mike’s point/strategy is if you are working G+ as a Page, you can’t necessarily join in the conversation, you need to do that as a Profile… one thing I still find troubling about Google+… a point +Chris Brogan speaks to at 34:12 and talks about how a business should have a solid ‘bench’ ready to interact as Profiles before engaging as a Brand Page.
Plenty of useful tips and a little encouragement to get Chris’s Book http://goo.gl/LEno8 Google+ for Business. This is one of the best videos put out by Google+ Your Business to date IMO… check it out… it is just shy of 1 hour long… the real content starts at 2:00
52:13 Not wise to use G+ to drive traffic to your blog…. hmmmm. I like that idea, but there are plenty of folks that say that is Exactly why there are here! Love to hear +Chris Brogan or +Mike Elgan’s perspective on why they dropped that little ‘bomb’ at the end! Wouldn’t you? (“leave them wanting more”, eh?).
Interesting how when I’m thinking about something — like how I need to get more ‘real’ [curate less/create more] — Google Reader delivers all kinds of great information along those lines. I redid the look and feel of my blog this weekend with more transparency in mind. Then I find this from Chris Brogan this morning:
There are many ways in which we somehow tumble into being someone other than our true self:
We are worried about how the culture around us will react.
We lack enough self confidence to not care what others think.
We perceive that our livelihood depends on the way we dress and speak and act. (And it certainly does to some extent.)
We’ve tried being ourselves once ever in one specific situation, and someone said something unkind about it and now you’ve decided that this singular experience is now the “avatar” of any time you might ever decide to be yourself in the future, so why bother anyway? (phew)
Sometimes, we really can’t be ourselves. If you are a nudist and a fry cook at McDonalds, you’ll probably find it hard to express that particular passion (besides – ouch!). Other times, we probably could be ourselves, but maybe we’ve forgotten to do so for some reason. Most times, though, it’s because we’re chicken for some reason or another.
Men, for instance, hate showing their weakness. Women sometimes have to struggle with the “when men do it, they’re considered ‘tough’ and when women do it, they’re a bitch” problem. Most people hate to show their ignorance. These are all valid and true feelings. But I have to ask anyway: what’s stopping you from being who you really are?” Go to the source to get the rest:People Want the Real You.
After almost 5,000 posts, here comes the ‘real’ me…
Chris Brogan’s in disguise (Photo credit: acnatta)
Chris Brogan wrote this morning:
I think often about this: if _____ died, would I have said everything I want to say? I try to keep that answer “yes” all the time. So, if you live that way, you don’t have to worry about Father’s Day. It’s not some false holiday. It’s just a pointed highlight to a year long celebration. If we’re not thanking people for their amazing part in our lives all the time, then we’re missing an opportunity, aren’t we?
Just in time for this ‘milestone’ post, Chris Brogan provided this handy list that I’ll use as a preamble to what it is that I already wanted to share with you…
If you would like to get further into blogging, here is a brief primer:
Get a blog. (Easy: tumblr.com, wordpress.com, blogger.com. Better: host your own -affiliate link.)
Pick an area of focus, but one that has broad sides. (Mine: helping people do digital business in a human way.)
Start writing.
Start by planning to publish 1 post a week.
Get daring and try for 2 posts a week (eventually).
Make the posts more than 100 words and less than 1000 words most days.
Spell-check.
Delete the sentences that don’t matter.
Realize that posts that are helpful to others get shared more than posts that are merely interesting.
Never write a “sorry I haven’t written” post. Ever.
Posts that just comment on other people’s posts and sum things up aren’t all that interesting.
Do NOT get hung up on the tech. Get hung up on passion.
The best way to write better is to read more. Second best: write more (often).
Don’t try to copy other people’s style. Try to copy their proliferation.
My best (most popular) posts were the ones I spent the least time writing.
My least popular posts were the ones that took me more than a half hour to write.
Pictures are a great place to start a post idea.
Inspiration is a verb and a muscle.
Lazy is, too.
You’re doing it wrong. So is everyone.
There’s not a single rule on this list that isn’t breakable. Break all the rules you want and enjoy yourself.
There. Write. Stop what you’re doing. Don’t comment. Don’t even share this post. Go write. On whatever came to mind. Delete it, if you hate it. But write. Now.
Far be it from me to take issue with the great Chris Brogan, but regarding #1 I’ll say choose WordPress.com if you’re just getting started. Tumblr and Blogger are nice, but if you’re looking for traffic, nothing is better for Search Engine Optimization [SEO] than WordPress.com. You can always graduate to the self-hosted version of WordPress later if you want…
Regarding #2, sooner or later, you’ll have to face up to the fact that if you want to get good at it, your blog will have a brand. What is a brand?
“A brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” Branding began as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. A modern example of a brand is Coca Cola which belongs to the Coca-Cola Company.” Source: Brand – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Simply put, if you’re going to find faithful readers, you’ll have to curate or create information on a narrow scope of topics so that people will know what to expect from you – what they come to expect of you is your brand. A blog gives you a share of voice on the internet which gives you a share of mind which may ultimately give you a share of market if you pursue it. You might even become a thought leader like Chris Brogan if you work your blog well enough! Thought leader? To me that’s a recognized expert that can be found in Google search. To become one you only need to do two things well; deepen your expertise [continuously learn – stay on top of your craft] and document your expertise [blog and engage in social media].
Regarding #11, I think curation is an important part of thought leadership and I think Chris ‘sums up’ more than he realizes! In this age of information proliferation, you have the ability to become a source that people trust through your blog by consistently curating and creating information that is useful to them. Also, I’m following rule #21 by breaking rule #11 and quoting Chris himself twice in this post! Here’s another great post he did this weekend about having a plan and working it;
“It’s a gorgeous and sunny day as I write this. I would like to be outside, maybe grilling up some steaks and drinking a beer or 12. But I’m working because that’s the plan. I have a short window of time to get a bunch of things done before I hit the road again, and because part of my business is to create media, that means writing and creating information that might be useful to you. Work the plan. That’s the message of the day. Work the Plan My media plan says I should be writing one of six types of posts:
How to
Vision/Perspective
Promotion
Interview
Do it Better
Review
In this case, I’ll call this post a “how-to.” It’s not the best I’ve ever written, especially because it’s so self-referential, but it proves the point. If your goal is to reach into the heads of the people you hope to reach, you’d best have a plan. If your goal is to make money, and this digital strategy is part of the plan, then what are you doing to stick to it?” Source: Work the Plan.
Only you can decide if my summary of Chris’ posts is ‘not all that interesting’…
btw, yesterday, I passed the 3,000 post milestone on my personal blog and I’m fast approaching 5,000 on my business blog but these are just the posts that have been published! Counting other blogs that I’ve done since I started 7 years ago I conservatively estimate I’ve created over 20,000 posts. I’m no Chris Brogan, but I have developed an efficient ‘lather rinse repeat’ cycle of blogging using Google Reader and WordPress. This screencast above shares some of my best blogging secrets with you – I promise you’ll learn at least one time-saving tactic if you watch the whole think [‘typo’ intentional]…
Just in time for this ‘milestone’ post, Chris Brogan provided this handy list that I’ll use as a preamble to what it is that I already wanted to share with you…
If you would like to get further into blogging, here is a brief primer:
Get a blog. (Easy: tumblr.com, wordpress.com, blogger.com. Better: host your own -affiliate link.)
Pick an area of focus, but one that has broad sides. (Mine: helping people do digital business in a human way.)
Start writing.
Start by planning to publish 1 post a week.
Get daring and try for 2 posts a week (eventually).
Make the posts more than 100 words and less than 1000 words most days.
Spell-check.
Delete the sentences that don’t matter.
Realize that posts that are helpful to others get shared more than posts that are merely interesting.
Never write a “sorry I haven’t written” post. Ever.
Posts that just comment on other people’s posts and sum things up aren’t all that interesting.
Do NOT get hung up on the tech. Get hung up on passion.
The best way to write better is to read more. Second best: write more (often).
Don’t try to copy other people’s style. Try to copy their proliferation.
My best (most popular) posts were the ones I spent the least time writing.
My least popular posts were the ones that took me more than a half hour to write.
Pictures are a great place to start a post idea.
Inspiration is a verb and a muscle.
Lazy is, too.
You’re doing it wrong. So is everyone.
There’s not a single rule on this list that isn’t breakable. Break all the rules you want and enjoy yourself.
There. Write. Stop what you’re doing. Don’t comment. Don’t even share this post. Go write. On whatever came to mind. Delete it, if you hate it. But write. Now.
Far be it from me to take issue with the great Chris Brogan, but regarding #1 I’ll say choose WordPress.com if you’re just getting started. Tumblr and Blogger are nice, but if you’re looking for traffic, nothing is better for Search Engine Optimization [SEO] than WordPress.com. You can always graduate to the self-hosted version of WordPress later if you want…
Regarding #2, sooner or later, you’ll have to face up to the fact that if you want to get good at it, your blog will have a brand. What is a brand?
“A brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” Branding began as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. A modern example of a brand is Coca Cola which belongs to the Coca-Cola Company.” Source: Brand – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Simply put, if you’re going to find faithful readers, you’ll have to curate or create information on a narrow scope of topics so that people will know what to expect from you – what they come to expect of you is your brand. A blog gives you a share of voice on the internet which gives you a share of mind which may ultimately give you a share of market if you pursue it. You might even become a thought leader like Chris Brogan if you work your blog well enough! Thought leader? To me that’s a recognized expert that can be found in Google search. To become one you only need to do two things well; deepen your expertise [continuously learn – stay on top of your craft] and document your expertise [blog and engage in social media].
Regarding #11, I think curation is an important part of thought leadership and I think Chris ‘sums up’ more than he realizes! In this age of information proliferation, you have the ability to become a source that people trust through your blog by consistently curating and creating information that is useful to them. Also, I’m following rule #21 by breaking rule #11 and quoting Chris himself twice in this post! Here’s another great post he did this weekend about having a plan and working it;
“It’s a gorgeous and sunny day as I write this. I would like to be outside, maybe grilling up some steaks and drinking a beer or 12. But I’m working because that’s the plan. I have a short window of time to get a bunch of things done before I hit the road again, and because part of my business is to create media, that means writing and creating information that might be useful to you. Work the plan. That’s the message of the day. Work the PlanMy media plan says I should be writing one of six types of posts:
How to
Vision/Perspective
Promotion
Interview
Do it Better
Review
In this case, I’ll call this post a “how-to.” It’s not the best I’ve ever written, especially because it’s so self-referential, but it proves the point. If your goal is to reach into the heads of the people you hope to reach, you’d best have a plan. If your goal is to make money, and this digital strategy is part of the plan, then what are you doing to stick to it?” Source: Work the Plan.
Only you can decide if my post is ‘not all that interesting’ because I ‘summed up’ Chris’ post — obviously I think it’s beneficial or else I wouldn’t do it…
btw, yesterday I passed the 3,000 post milestone on my personal blog and I’m fast approaching 5,000 on my business blog but these are just the posts that have been published! Counting other blogs that I’ve done since I started 7 years ago I conservatively estimate I’ve created over 20,000 posts. I’m no Chris Brogan, but I have developed an efficient ‘lather rinse repeat’ cycle of blogging using Google Reader and WordPress. This screencast shares some of my best blogging secrets with you – I promised you’ll learn at least one time-saving tactic if you watch the whole think…
Chris Brogan starts the week with a very zen-like perspective on social media…
A lot of what we do in social networks certainly seems busy and active. We tweet. We share. We pass on articles (sometimes because we’ve been asked/begged/pleaded with to share them). We skim a lot. We glance over a post or concept and pass it on without adding much except for that valuable pass-through.
Agencies and other organizations quite often pat their clients on the back and say, “Wow! Look at that! Your article got 1000 retweets and 2900 likes!” The company owner then smiles politely back and asks, “And that gives me….”
We can surely look very busy, doing all this social media work. But that’s not the real work.
The real work is earning a valuable share from a trusted resource to a network of thoughtful and potentially like-minded individuals.
Seek those opportunities for business, and not the blind retweets and busy-ness that can otherwise glitter just as brightly.
Sure, I could have just retweeted this but it’s such a good thought to start the week I wanted to do a little more! It’s a good reminder to be intentional about sharing and curation this week. Go to the source if you’d like the rest of his perspective…
I had an interesting opportunity to sit on a panel of ‘experts’ yesterday and advise website development students on how they should develop a portfolio of their work and present it to prospective hiring authorities or clients. To be honest, I don’t know how I got on the panel; the others were truly experts — I’m just a lowly WordPress developer who creates websites out of necessity because of their role in ‘thought leadership’ marketing…
As I thought about it in hindsight there’s an important piece of advice that I left out but it’s a good one for all of us. When it comes to displaying a ‘portfolio’ [btw, to me a blog is a kind of a portfolio of thoughts so bear with me] of your life’s work I think there are only two activities that matter:
Deepening your understanding of your craft [or continuous ongoing education]
Letting people know you have deepened your understanding of your craft
I think all of ‘thought leadership’ marketing can be summed up in this statement: become and be known as the expert.
In order to do this you need a system that will help you effectively manage the content you need to master in order to become an actual expert. I wrote just last week about the tools I use to accomplish this. They are:
As it applies to this particular topic, the two most important tools in this process are Google Reader and Gist. Google Reader allows me to create a virtual newspaper of the sites and searches that I need to track in order to stay on top of my craft — my areas of ‘subject matter expertise’. Gist is like Google Reader but for people and companies. In an easy to use dashboard I can see everything that someone has produced on the internet for the past 24 hours so I never miss a thing that someone who is important to me has said. The two go together like peanut butter and chocolate to help me become more of an expert…
Getting smarter is only half the battle — letting the world know you have gotten smarter is the other part. Blogging and social media are perfect for this! As Chris Brogan said in Trust Agents “As you now know, if you have no Google results, in a sense you don’t exist.” Active blogging on your area of expertise is a great way to let the world know you are an expert. Does it work? Well, are you reading this? Sharing your ideas in a public forum like the internet gets you a share of the voice which may get you share of mind if your ideas are good enough and may eventually lead to share of market. My tools of choice for getting found are:
WordPress
Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Google+
The order here is intentional and they tools are stack ranked in order of priority. Master one and move on to the next.I’ve written often about homebases and outposts — blogging should be the first priority because it is OWNED media — everything else should be evaluated based on the audience you’re trying to reach. Here in Northeast Wisconsin, LinkedIn rules — things might be different in your world…
Looking to sink your teeth into some good strategic thoughts for a Saturday? Chris Brogan’s got you covered…
2012 is the year where social media oversaturation hits hard. We will scale back on our participation in social networks, and we will most certainly scale back who we choose to follow as sources. This won’t be because someone is bad or good. It will be based on whether the connection with that person adds value to the stream of information we’re cultivating or not.
In determining how to deliver value and stay relevant and visible in this new landscape, I’ve written down 97 ideas to help you build a valuable platform. Note: some of this thinking comes from writing a new book with Julien Smith that isn’t out until Fall 2012. Want some up front hints? Read this post.
Go to the source if you’d like to consider all 97 ideas. Me? I like #66: “The old “ABC” from Glengarry Glen Ross was “Always Be Closing.” The new ABC is “Always Be Connecting.” Networks are what make selling easier. Your platform is part of how you network.” This is the second time ABC has come up in a couple of days and I was surprised that the person I mentioned it to was not familiar with this scene. It won Alec Baldwin an Oscar… [Warning; Not safe for work!]
For me, ABC means “Always Be Content” marketing – the connecting comes later! Chris has the ideas. I have a repeatable workflow for implementing them. Comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to you and your organization…
You’re fat. You know what to do. There’s not really a new book that will change it. It’s you who will change it.
You’re unemployed. That’s temporary, even if temporary is stretching into 14 months. You know what you need, even if that means education, a move, a change of circumstances. But I promise you that you know.
You’re broke. Money exchanges hands every day. More money than we’ll ever earn in a lifetime flows all around you. You can find ways to have some of it. You know some of those ways. Very few books or speeches will amaze you and set you on a path to claim them all.
Then Why Do We Read and Overstudy?
Because we’re afraid, because we’re procrastinating, because we feel many emotions that “seem” like uncertainty, but are more often good old fashioned lack of self-esteem. Because we’ve tried and failed one too many times and we’re upset with ourselves for this. Because we listen to our Inner Critic and we believe that He or She is right (is yours a male or female?).
Why do I read and overstudy? Because I’m not confident I’m good enough yet the things I read resonate with what I already believe. How short a distance would it be from consuming to producing with what I already know?
Chris Brogan is doing some very deep work inside himself these days and I’m grateful that he is sharing it with the rest of us…
The biggest realization that came out of 9/11 for me was that nobody was coming to save me (us). I mean this in a gazillion ways. My company’s HR department couldn’t care less about my career development. No one at all would ultimately be responsible for my happiness, but myself. All of this came crashing into reality for me because of 9/11. And since then, I forget the lesson quite often. But just lately, I’ve had reason to think about it again, for my own purposes, and based on two recent conversations.
You Are Your Own Superhero
We’ve already agreed that you know what to do. We realize that part of what we have to do involves getting stronger with our choices. We know that letting the emotions and thoughts of others affect how we see ourselves is a problem and that we have to get untangled. We’ve thought about how important discipline is to our world. We know that we have to say no faster. So what’s left?
The work.
You are your own superhero. No one has to save you. You don’t have to say “if only.” You just have to do the work. Do you need to make more money? Then start working on that. Do you need to lose weight or get healthy? Today’s the day.
Superheroes are part of a very powerful mythology that says this: you’re not strong enough, so some outside force will have to come and help you.
That is, unless YOU are the superhero. Right? Mmmmmm. Isn’t that neato?
Pick Out Your Cape and Tights!
What kind of superhero do you need in your own life right now? You probably need the kind of superhero that knows how to do things right. Competence matters. Learn how to be a better builder. You need a brave hero who can face the waves. You need to be the kind of hero that knows that there really are no enemies. And frankly, you need a practical hero who can help you find time.
“Shareaholic makes it easy for you to submit the web page you’re on to your favorite sharing or bookmarking service, including: digg, del.icio.us, facebook, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader notes, kaboodle, magnolia, mixx, myspace, pownce, reddit, stumbleupon, tumblr, twitter, and ycombinator. You can also e-mail the web page directly to a friend.” Shareaholic – The browser add-on extension to share, bookmark and e-mail web pages quickly
If you’re a blogger, one of the most important things you can do is to get your content out into the social media stream is to share, share, share. Shareaholic is the fastest, easiest way I’ve seen to do that so far…
6/29/2011 My old friend the ‘Blog Post Promoter’ tells me via this post that I’ve been officially loving Shareaholic for over three years now. Although I have moved from Firefox to Chrome as my primary browser, Chrome remains the one extension or add-on that I could not live without. While I’m not a Chris Brogan or Darren Rowse, when an internet mechanic like me says this extension rocks, I’d suggest you find out why…
First, your headline matters. It’s what people see when they accept your invite, and it’s probably the fastest first impression one receives. If you work for a company, put that name in the headline. When I don’t see a company name, I wonder if you’re solo.
Your Summary
Here’s where I think the most work can be done. When I look at my profile, I think it’s a bit long, but otherwise, I’ve done the following:
Lead with what I do most.
Lead with the type of business I want to do.
Move into the reasons why you’d do business with me.
Move from there into all the nuances of what I do.
In every case within the summary, your plan should be to write from the mindset of the prospective employer (or client), such that when they read it, they think, “I need to hire this person.”
Thanks, Chris, for posting this. My LinkedIn profile is the ‘red headed step child’ of my social media empire! If you’re like me, you can follow the ‘via’ link above to spiff up your profile…
If you want better answers, ask better questions. I most recently heard that by listening to a Tony Robbins CD (wrote about that here), but I’ve heard it before. The thing is, with all good advice, if you don’t hear it often, it falls under the waves. So, I’m here to repeat it.
“If you want better answers, ask better questions.”…
I was reading the latest issue of Entrepreneur magazine, about the guy who started the Ace Hotel, and about how it’s turning into a branding thing. I felt a bit of joy and a bit of envy. I started thinking, “What can’t I have a brand like that?” Of course, if you look at the phrasing of the question, what I’m asking is for all the negative reasons why I don’t have that. So, I rephrased:
“What could I do to roll out a brand that means something and transforms across more than one platform?”
This answer was much better. It then made me think of ways that I could grow what I’m working on and really get it into the mindset of a brand. How?
I love Chris Brogan! Here’s an excerpt from his latest post:
“STACKING WOOD: A LIST
Blogging is stacking wood. More content means more readers, more search terms, more opportunities to sell.
Email marketing is stacking wood. Reaching out to people with useful information that maintains your relationship lures in more sales.
Connecting on LinkedIn is stacking wood. The larger your network, the more potential you have to help others, or find help for yourself.
Getting coffee with a friend is stacking wood. I owe Jon Swanson another long phone call soon.
Reading is stacking wood. The more I learn, the more I can improve on my execution and my abilities.
Fitness and nutrition are stacking wood. The more fuel you have in your body for the fire, the better your chances at success become.
You could add to this list, couldn’t you?
And how are you doing at stacking wood these days? Are you preparing and doing the chores that keep the fire tended? Or are you burning and enjoying the warmth?”
If you’re intrigued by the idea of applying social media to your business, you’ll want to follow the ‘via’ link to this article by Chris Brogan who nets out the basics for you…
I apply Chris’ wisdom in what I call the ‘e1evation workflow’; a system and process of ‘consume, create, communicate‘ that makes Chris’ ideas easy to implement on a daily basis. Comment, call or use the contact form to connect so we can talk about how this applies to your business…
This post from Darren Rowse has me thinking about myself and the people in my trusted network…
“I recently was chatting with a new blogger and they made the comment that after 3 weeks of blogging that they’d run out of things to write about. They had written 10 posts so far but felt that they’d nothing else to share of value on the topic.
What surprised me about their comments was that the blogger was actually a seasoned pro in their niche. They were new to blogging about their topic but they’d been working in their industry for 25 years and were seen as an expert in their field…. yet they didn’t feel like they had anything to say about the topic!
I dug a little deeper and it turned out that the reason for their issue was not that they didn’t have much to write about – but that they were taking for granted the level of knowledge that they actually had. Much of what they’d learned over the years was now so basic to them that they didn’t realise how valuable it was for someone at a lower level of expertise.” Source: What Are You Taking For Granted That Might Be Useful to Others?
Are you one of those that doesn’t appreciate the fact that she’s an expert? Well — you’re wrong! You don’t get to this point in life without having gained expertise at something. Your expertise might only be interesting to 100 people on the planet, but by blogging, you’ll find them. Or more likely they’ll find you…
Having taught classes before on ‘finding your gift’, the one thing I’ve learned is that the more you exercise your ‘gift’, the more it feels like breathing. In other words, it becomes so natural that it’s just a part of you. And who would be interested in little old you?
Well? Your wrong. You’re an expert and your point of view is interesting to other people who aren’t as far along their path. Or who are. Or who are ahead of you. Here’s a dirty little secret; there are no experts. The body of knowledge is expanding so fast that no one can master it all. Your point of view is a valuable part of the puzzle but no one will ever know it unless you make your point of view public; searchable, findable and knowable!
How do you get started? I’ve researched all the tools and I haven’t found anything easier or more powerful than Posterous and the Posterous bookmarklet. Your expertise can turn you into a thought leader if you’ll only publish and promote your work! Comment, call or contact me to discuss how this applies to your business if I didn’t make myself clear…
It has been awhile since I wrote about tactic #8; using branded mail…
Today I’m going to talk about the third pillar of the e1evation system; promoting your online brand and reputation through the leveraging of homebases and outposts. Pillars 1 and 2 are ‘finding your passion’ and ‘publishing’. Once you’re publishing and you’ve found your voice, it’s time to promote your content through the use of social media outposts. Chris Brogan starts us off here…
“Social networks are great places to meet new people, to build new business relationships, and to learn about information from non-traditional sources. But another great way to use social networking sites is as an outpost. What do I mean by this? It turns out that people getting to know you on social networks might also find your content for the first time, and/or something you post to those networks might bring you an opportunity that wouldn’t immediately come to you in other ways. ” Source: Using Outposts in Your Media Strategy
I first noticed the power of leveraging social media outposts during my ‘reign’ as one of the top political bloggers in Wisconsin. I noticed during that time that if I would cross-post to Facebook or some other social media tool, that the post would get more traffic. Although this idea seemed original to me, I found that other great minds like Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse were already heading down this path… Continue reading “Tactic #9: Leverage the ‘homebases and outposts’ strategy”→
I’m fond of saying “the answer is rarely either/or but frequently both/and”. Mitch Joel talks about the roles and relationships of websites and social media and how the answer may be both/and…
“There are two schools of thought when it comes to marketing brands online and the presence they need.
1. Build a website that houses everything – all of your text, images, audio and video – in one, centralized, location.
2. Use the existing platforms and build your presence within their community (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc…).
Both have merit, and you can also do a little bit of both. For example you can house all of your branded content in your own website, and use the existing online communities to set-up outposts (as Chris Brogan calls them) – a specific Facebook Fan Page or a YouTube Channel – to further promote what you’re about with strong links back to your mothership (or website). You can also use a Facebook Page as your home base and direct people to a microsite for more information or to gather more data from them than Facebook might allow based on their terms of service. Personally, I advocate for owning your own space, building it and nurturing it and using those other/existing platforms to promote or extend the brand. Brands should own their content, community and type of conversation and not be beholden to the terms of service or whims of someone else.” Source: What A Website Will Be… And Never Be | Six Pixels of Separation – Marketing and Communications Blog – By Mitch Joel at Twist Image
This blog is a great example [in my humble opinion] of both/and. Both/and, however, does not have to take a lot of extra time. It’s easy to connect your social media outposts to your website for maximum effectiveness and traffic. Call, comment or contact — I’d love to connect with you around ‘how’…
…is an insanely great post by Chris Brogan on the topic of where I would start today if I wanted to use the internet and social media to promote my thought leadership position — NOW I understand why people like Darren Rowse of ProBlogger rave about him!
I came across it looking for the killer article for a prospective client that I really want to land and I couldn’t have picked a better one to help him make the right decision…
“Okay, so you’ve heard from someone that this social media and social networking stuff is great and you should get involved, and it’s really going to help you out. Maybe it will help you in the economic downturn. Maybe you have heard how you can use Twitter for business. But there’s a lot to it all.
Where would you start? What would come first? How might you think about getting out there and joining in on the experience?” Source: If I Started Today
You’ll have to go to the source to get the answers but it’s well worth the trip — and let’s hope that client ‘gets it’ whatever it is… ;-)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png)
Bright, shiny objects! 
You must be logged in to post a comment.