Tag: Wisconsin

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Cute! Heidi Cohen has 13 ways social media scares marketers for Friday the 13th. The first one comes up in every social media class and preso her in Northeast Wisconsin…

Social media is scary for marketers. Used to controlling their brand and messages, they feel most comfortable using one-to-many media for distribution. By contrast, social media allows for multi-directional socializing and interaction.

As a result, marketers only control one aspect of the current communications ecosystem while consumers and the public have media platforms that provide low cost content creation and distribution.

Here are thirteen ways social media instills marketers with fear and actionable marketing tips to help your firm overcome it.

  1. People can say bad things about us. With social media, every consumer has a media platform, a built-in audience and a megaphone to amplify their message. A disgruntled customer can use his smartphone to capture an incident and quickly distribute it. Actionable Marketing Tactic.  Use social media’s public forum to engage customers and determine how to improve your offering, gather insights for future improvements, and provide additional service where needed.

Source: 13 Ways Social Media Scares Marketers | Heidi Cohen

Go to the source if you want the other 12. Comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to you and your organization…

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Yesterday I spoke at an in-service day for teachers at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College on the topic of social media for academic thought leaders. Here’s my preso…

Publish or Perish 2.0 http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=nwtcpreso-120111043946-phpapp02&stripped_title=publish-or-perish-20&userName=toddlohenry

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Craig BadingsCraig Badings has put together an epic post on thought leadership trends for 2012. He starts…

I asked 12 people who I consider to be leading global commentators on thought leadership as well as a couple who have produced some amazing thought leadership programs in-house over the years to comment on four critical thought leadership questions for 2012.

Source: Thought Leadership – 12 experts on the key thought leadership trends for 2012 – content curation

In it, he quotes my friend Dana VanDen Heuvel on the topic of curation alone as a means of thought leadership marketing…

“No, I don’t think so.

“I think content curation may perhaps be a reason why critics are inveighing against thought leadership in the first place.

“Of course it is a useful way of identifying and re-branding an issue. But I think the trend will be to move towards more sophisticated thought leadership initiatives. For that to happen, a thought leader must be authentic.

“Authenticity, transparency and trust are values that will become even more important in the coming years.”

Source: Thought Leadership – 12 experts on the key thought leadership trends for 2012 – content curation

I agree with Craig, Dana and the general consensus of the article. Curation alone does not a thought leader make. It is, however, an effective means of bolstering a thought leadership position.  “Content curation as a blogging model is widely misunderstood by most bloggers and marketers.” says curation enthusiast Jack Humphrey:

You absolutely must tie the content you curate into a post (i.e. links to different angles from different authors, bloggers, and news stories around the same topic) with original commentary.  Commentary that makes sense and seeks to draw new connections, parallels, or shed new light on a topic others are writing and sharing information about.

Source: The Content Curation Guide for Bloggers | Internet Marketing Consultant Jack Humphrey

I was recently taken to task on my curation style and I readily admin it may not be for everybody. In response I wrote this:

I always attribute content that I curate under Fair Use Guidelinesso that everyone benefits; the original author, the reader and me and I always encourage my readers to go to the source and read the original author’s entire article. I frequently use a curation post simply to share great content with my clients – my standard close of ‘Comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to you and your organization…’ – is an invitation to get customized ‘value add’ that I deliver via telephone to fill windshield time as I drive across the great State of Wisconsin.

Source: Content Curation and Adding Value | Power Tools for Thought Leaders

How you do it is up to you, but I strongly encourage you to consider Craig’s article before embarking on a thought leadership marketing strategy. Perhaps it would be a good idea to read his entire 4 post series? Should you decide to pursue thought leadership marketing, please connect with me so we can talk about how the ‘e1evation workflow’ can help. I’ve developed a ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ cycle of thought leadership marketing that can help take your strategy to new levels. Questions? Feedback?

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Wisconsin sheds 8,200 jobs

Scott Walker - Cartoon
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July was a rough month for Wisconsin’s economy, giving up much of the big employment gains the Badger State boasted in June.

Uncertainty and worry about the national economic picture played a part in last month’s disappearance of more than 8,000 jobs, Gov. Scott Walker and others say.

Bloody numbers

Wisconsin shed 8,200 total jobs in July, according to the latest seasonally adjusted data from the state’s Department of Workforce Development.

The private sector cut 12,500 jobs last month on a seasonally adjusted rate, but public sector growth made up the difference.

It’s a monthly reversal of fortune for an economy that saw the creation of 9,500 jobs in June, more than half of the meager job growth nationwide.

“Wisconsin is not immune to the national economic slowdown this summer, and we are seeing the effects of the national economy in our July numbers,” DWD Secretary Scott C. Baumbach in a news release.

via wisconsinreporter.com
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Things looked promising for rural geeks this time last year. Engadget reported here:

“As we’ve seen in the decidedly botched digital TV transition, nothing involving government and technology is ever straightforward. With that in mind, let us present to you the most germane portion of the recently passed economic stimulus package with respect to gadgets and the overall nerd kingdom: $7.2 billion. That amount is what President Obama has set aside for “broadband grant and loan programs,” though things get confusing right from the start. $4.7 billion will be distributed through a program run by the Commerce Department, while $2.5 billion is handed out by the Agriculture Department. In theory, at least, that latter chunk would go specifically to rural and underserved areas, but having one goal with two masters just seems like trouble waiting to happen. Oh, and then there’s the mandate to the FCC that instructs it to create (within one year, mind you) a “national broadband plan to ensure that everyone in the US has broadband access.” Granted, these aren’t entirely unheard of — Britain just did the same sort of thing a few weeks ago, and South Korea’s already aiming at 1Gbps for all. We appreciate that the money’s there, but only time will tell if leads to anything meaningful.” Stimulus bill seeks plan to ensure all Americans have broadband access — Engadget

One year later? Yet another major policy failure on the part of the Obama administration! In the next couple of posts I’m going talk about the sad state of broadband outside of major and minor metros, how many communities are failing to see the importance of broadband for business development, and what solutions I have found as a webworker living in a 100 year old farmhouse in Wisconsin. Stay tuned!

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Nilofer Merchant; Author, Speaker, Inspirer

The good Lord has put some amazing people in my path. For a guy ‘straight outta Wisconsin’, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to collaborate with some pretty high octane people. One of them is Nilofer Merchant. Now Nilofer herself is not in need of a ‘total beauty makeover’ but her web presence was another issue altogether…

Nilofer and I met and worked together at Apple during the ‘Think Different‘ campaign — she at the ‘mothership’ in Cupertino and me at the field office in Chicago. We both left Apple and went on to other things; she to GoLive, Rubicon Consulting, writing a couple of books and me to eventually start e1evation, llc. Thanks to social networking, our paths crossed again recently. I commented to her that I was surprised to see a global thought leader like her using Posterous for her blog. She remembered that comment and a couple of weeks ago asked if I would guide her through the process of moving to WordPress…

The old Posterous site; click to enlarge...

For her theme, we chose the highly modifiable Canvas from Woo Themes and designing the site was ‘easy peasy lemon squeezy’ due to their flexible and powerful approach to WordPress theme design. We still have a few things to clean up, but Nilofer, being the hard charging kick ass girl she is, couldn’t wait to ‘go live’. You can view her site online at http://nilofermerchant.com but don’t follow her unless you want your world rocked!

The new site; click to enlarge

Are you a great thinker that wants to engage in ‘thought leadership’ marketing? Do what Nilofer did. Ask me to guide you through the process. Comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can get started…

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Donna
Image by nooccar via Flickr
Growing a blog?

Do you want to attract more readers?

Do you want to grab the attention of the big players in your industry and leverage their star power?

Silly questions, right?

In this article I’ll share how you can grow a loyal and sustained fan base by working with the top experts in your niche.

They’re out there, and it’s not nearly as hard as you think to get them on your team.

Why do I need an expert?

Everyone wants entertaining, useful content. That’s what content marketing is all about.

But they also want access to great people. When you present a new idea or a new voice to your audience, your blog becomes a valuable source people will want to visit again and again. Bringing in expert voices rounds out your site and adds dimension.

Getting outside experts involved also validates your own expertise. When you can attract the best, people will see you as an expert in your own right.

Finally, there’s an often-overlooked benefit of working with experts. If you work well together, some may turn out to be strategic partners who can take your business places you never dreamed.

Experts can include:

  • Authors, particularly those who have new books out
  • People who frequently speak on relevant topics
  • Bloggers who are creating exceptional content
  • Practitioners working inside companies
via donnadenil.com

Great advice from Wisconsin business blogger Donna Denil. I’m available if you were asking…

:-)

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Desert

In December of last year, I embarked upon an experiment to see if I could leverage a website with a blog combined with social media tools to increase traffic to a site. In that month, my sandbox site had a grand total of 670 pageviews. In the month that ended yesterday, I had a total of 15,985 — an approximate 25 fold increase in traffic! This morning I got 670 pageviews by 10:00. Here are some other statistics… Continue reading “Is your website a ‘billboard in the desert’?” →

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The beautiful view from my deck in rural northeast Wisconsin is a great reminder of the power I have to publish and promote; from anywhere to the ends of the internet!

I’ve worked hard to develop a simple blogging workflow that can empower even the most basic computer user. I don’t care if you’re Mac, Windows, Linux, or even Smartphone or iPad — my practical, tactical approach to social media can help  you publish and promote your passion whatever it might be. But “Wah!”, you might say, “I don’t want to learn anything new!” Can you send an email? Can you save a bookmark? Then I can teach you how you can leverage social media to help establish your thought leadership position…

We’re now in an unparalleled time in history where everyone has the power to publish — the question is, will you take advantage of it? I post here every day, day after day, the best of the insight God has given me into leveraging these new media tools. If it makes sense to you, use it, great! If not you know the drill — comment, call or contact me and I’ll be happy to net it out for you!

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I have a lot of preconceived notions about blogging and one of them is that blogs drive traffic to your site, especially if you update them on a regular basis. Along comes HubSpot — one of the best social media sites on the internet — with a great blog post about websites and blogs and what a blog adds to your business. The HubSpot content was difficult to bring into this post in a way that made sense so I encourage you to go to the site and read the whole article — it only takes a minute or two — but it demonstrates in a graphic way why blogging is good for business…

I’ve seen this happen in a very graphic way in my own political blog. By using tools that update search engines and drive content into social media, my blog continues to rise in the rankings. Last week for example I was ranked 7th most influential in the State of Wisconsin and my one week Alexa ranking average was 1,077,607 in the world — not bad for a little political blog!

What’s my secret? I use WordPress to custom design websites that have blogs and use blogging combined with a well thought out strategy using search engine optimization and social media. You can check out some of my projects here. If you’ve got a point that you’d like to get across, I’d love to show you how you can do the same things I do easily and economically!

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Yesterday, I passed the 400 post mark. 400 posts over 18 months. Wow! Roughly a post a day for a year and a half. Is that a lot? Is that too little? I really don’t know. What I do know is this — when I use my ‘pass or play’ methodology, traffic to my site increases and my ‘pipeline’ fills…

My good friend [and brother in law] Jim Gilligan has a blog that he’s starting for his life coaching business at EffectiveLiving, LLC. Jim asked me how many posts he should create before he goes ‘live’. I told him a dozen or so is enough to get started but recently I did an experiment and I believe the number at which you start to see good results is closer to 100 over a 3 month period. Here’s a real world case study… Continue reading “400 posts” →

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AGCO

AgWired, the social media voice of the agriculture industry reports that AGCO, one of the world’s largest agricultural equipment manufacturers, is effectively using social media to stimulate sales in a down economy…

AGCO is providing a great example of how to integrate social media and networking into their communications strategy and to learn more about what they’re doing I spoke with Sue Otten, Director, Corporate Communications & Brand Communications Worldwide. In our conversation we talk about why the company has invested in very active social communications channels. Sue says that it’s a great way to “learn” from their customers and target a new demographic too. Source: AgWired » Blog Archives » AGCO Shows How To Go Social

Want to know their secret?

One of the recommendations Sue makes is to not be afraid to get started with social media. She says that there are some great consultants out there who can help you too. I’ll use this opportunity to make a little plug for Todd Lohenry with e1evation, Inc. who has worked with AGCO. Source: AgWired » Blog Archives » AGCO Shows How To Go Social

Their social media effort is powered by e1evation and Envano — straight outta Wisconsin! Using the same free, open source tools that are available to every entrepreneur, AGCO is rocking the ag world using social media. Comment, call or use the contact form to talk about how you, too, can effectively leverage social media for your marketing efforts…

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“A common perception is that in the aftermath of the dotcom crash of 2001, the market remains flooded with information technology (IT) workers with skills, but no jobs.

However, the reality is just the opposite. In fact, an IT worker shortage is hitting companies across the nation, including southeastern Wisconsin.

As the baby boom generation drifts off into retirement, the next generation is not as large, and the talent pool is not as deep. That equation recently prompted Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates to declare that North America has a “pretty significant shortage” of IT workers.

The Wisconsin Department of Work Force Development projects that there will be approximately 12,745 IT jobs in Wisconsin by the year 2014, which would be up 12.3 percent since 2004.” Click here to read more…

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400 posts redux; Lesson #1

Image representing Alexa as depicted in CrunchBase
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This is the first post in what I anticipate will be a 7 part series…

11 months ago, I posted this introspective piece on the results I was getting from blogging…

Yesterday, I passed the 400 post mark. 400 posts over 18 months. Wow! Roughly a post a day for a year and a half. Is that a lot? Is that too little? I really don’t know. What I do know is this — when I use my ‘pass or play’ methodology, traffic to my site increases and my ‘pipeline’ fills…

My good friend [and brother in law] Jim Gilligan has a blog that he’s starting for his life coaching business at EffectiveLiving, LLC. Jim asked me how many posts he should create before he goes ‘live’. I told him a dozen or so is enough to get started but recently I did an experiment and I believe the number at which you start to see good results is closer to 100 over a 3 month period. Here’s a real world case study…

I had neglected my business blog for a little over a year — my passion was politics and I was attempting to leverage my social media skills in the political space. My political blog was ranked most influential in Wisconsin a dozen times earlier this year and my Alexa ranking rose to within the top million sites in the world, but it didn’t get me what I wanted. More business. One year ago today, my business blog, however, had only served up 147 page views for the month. The whole month. Two weeks ago, I got 233 pageviews in a single day and my traffic so far this month is 11 times greater than a year ago [and the month’s not even finished yet]. By the way, the Alexa rank on my blog is currently 338,142. [That was in the US at the time — now my rank is 341,593 global. ed.]. All this as a result of 100 posts over a 3 month period. Pretty good return on investment, I think.

Yesterday, I passed 2,400 posts — 2,000 additional posts — in less than 11 months. What do I think I’ve learned? Here are some more or less random observations…

1. Blogging is the best, fastest, least expensive way to establish a thought leadership position. Period.

The key to thought leadership is having a point of view that is ‘searchable, findable, knowable and shareable‘ as I say in my seminars. There is not better way to do that then frequent reiteration of that point of view on the internet. If you use the right set of tools, it’s easy and fun to do as well…You can read my posts on blogging here, but two of the best I posted within the past week; read ‘Why I blog’ and ‘Confessions of a really new blogger‘ for two different perspectives on why blogging rocks. It is helpful, however, if you have a simple, repeatable process so that you don’t burn out…

There are 6 more lessons that I’ll roll out over the course of the next week or so; be sure to collect all 7…

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Blogging is the answer. Now, what is the question?

My business website is one of the most visited sites in Wisconsin, outranking websites with much bigger brands, more popular products, and bigger marketing staffs. How do I do it all by myself? The short answer is that I blog. The longer answer is that I have a documented workflow that anyone can use to drive traffic to their website and value proposition and it’s driven by email and bookmarking – two skills that almost everyone has mastered in this new millennium…

Now I don’t know a whole lot about search engine optimization or SEO – if that’s what you’re after, you want to call my friends at Envano. I do know however, that if you use the right tools and process, there’s a natural SEO that occurs through frequent posting. That ‘right tool’ is a blog…

“B2B blogging experts understand that a blog is a lead generation machine. This blog generates more traffic than our main company website. Each month, tens of thousands of people find this blog through search engines and social media websites, and thousands of them like the content enough to take the next step and respond to one of our offers and become a lead.

Some B2B bloggers think a business blog is just about thought leadership. Yes, B2B blogging is great for thought leadership and brand building. But, with this blog we get all the benefits of thought leadership, and also get lots of leads. By maximizing the lead generation potential of your B2B blog, you can have your cake (thought leadership) and eat it too (leads).” Source: How to Turn a Blog into a B2B Lead Generation Machine

There are options to consider whether you have a website or not. The first situation may actually be easier to resolve, depending on how much you want your new blog to resemble your existing website. I used to be a real stickler on this, but as time has gone on, I’ve become less concerned about matching the exact look and feel of the site [just know there are options for you regardless of your perspective] and more concerned about just driving traffic.

It’s an easy thing for me to add a blog to an existing site that will drive traffic using my ‘e1evation workflow’. From a design perspective, it’s much easier to just start from scratch using WordPress – a blogging platform that offers blogs that are already integrated with websites – but starting from scratch begs the issue of how you will populate the other pages on your site with information about your brand and products…

The bottom line is that whether you have an existing website or not, there are a couple of “good, fast, and cheap” solutions that are available to you. If you’re trying to figure out how you can add blogging and social media to your already overflowing plate and still get home for supper, comment, call or contact me — I’d love to show you how…

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Field trip!!!

Sue Otten of AGCO, David Sauter of Envano, and I are meeting Randy Sprenger, Electronic Advertising & Direct Promotions, Harley Davidson, for lunch today — can’t wait!!! HD is one of the great global brands and their home is right here in Wisconsin. I’m really looking forward to hearing the inside scoop on how HD is leveraging social media…

Posted via email from e1evation, llc

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[Lifestyles of the] Lazy and ‘low-bandwidth’ed

Almost every advancement in simplifying my social media toolkit comes from the simple fact that I do most of my news consumption and production with a 1Mb/s connection from a hundred year old farmhome in rural Wisconsin over a cellular modem. I simply have to be effective in order to be productive! My ‘low-bandwith’ lifestyle is actually a blessing in disquise…

Oh, that and I’m lazy so my toolkit is very efficient as well!

:-D

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

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Some straightforward thoughts on social media…

…from Wisconsin social media guru [no, that’s not an oxymoron!] Dana VanDen Heuvel…

“Social media is an umbrella term for online technologies that connect people through networking, according to Dana VanDen Heuvel, founder and president of the Marketing Savant Group, Green Bay.” Source: Social media connects organizations, customers | greenbaypressgazette.com | Green Bay Press-Gazette

He goes on to say…

“”The value of social media is that it connects customers to us or to each other. It’s not just a list of Web sites or things to download,” VanDen Heuvel said. “It’s about meeting people in their medium. That is really what social media is designed to help you do.”

Businesses should care about social media, because it has changed people’s expectations of what organizations do online as compared with five years ago, he said. Also, three out of four Americans use some form of social technology: blogging, micro-blogging (Twitter), social networking (Facebook), sharing videos and others.” Source: Social media connects organizations, customers | greenbaypressgazette.com | Green Bay Press-Gazette

He goes on to talk about offering unique value through your social media outposts and such practical things as how often your should update Facebook pages, etc. Follow the link to read the rest of article — it’s really good stuff…

btw, Dana’s a great speaker and I owe a lot to him in terms of my growth and development in social media over the past year. Do take the opportunity to see him speak if you ever get the chance — you can see his schedule here. When you want to talk tactics and tools for IMPLEMENTING Dana’s strategies, however, comment, call or contact me! I’ll help you put Dana’s strategies into practice…

;-)

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