The long-anticipated 2013 In-House Counsel Use of Social Media Survey conducted by Inside Counsel, Greentarget and Zeughauser Group was released today.

Relative to other forms of media and communication in law firms, Social Media use is still in its infancy, so legal business and marketing strategists, law firms, lawyers and legal marketers study information like this in hopes of finding a compass by which they can direct their social, digital, and integrated marketing strategies.

Although these surveys must be blended with an intelligent dose of customized marketing and social media strategy that is appropriate for each lawyer and firm, these surveys prove to be useful in staying in touch with how one target audience, in-house counsel, use Social Media.

In another blog post today, titled Summarized: The 2013 New Media Engagement Survey, I provided a quick overview of the survey. I recommend that you read the original survey results to glean additional insight, but my summary should help you get started.

Along with the articles and survey that were released, Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia interviewed John Corey, Founding Partner and CEO of PR Firm, Greentarget, about the survey.  I listened to the interview in addition to studying the results so that I can share what is memorable with you.

I have transcribed the interview below for those of you who prefer to read, but here is the actual interview. The transcription can be found below the video.

WHAT IS AN INVISIBLE USER?

Background:

Invisible user is a term that is used in this survey to mean those who listen and aren’t actively engaging in conversation in Social Media.

Lee Pacchia:

“This is the 3rd year for this survey.  Walk us through what invisible user means.”

John Corey:

“We termed ‘invisible user’ back in 2012 when we did our 2nd study. We were measuring how in-house counsel were becoming voracious consumers of content.  Well, we started to see they were going to blogs, often, to read content not to contribute to it, going to LinkedIn to build connections, to receive news and information, but not necessarily to initiate discussions.

It’s really about using the tools to consume information, and what we were finding is that, because of that, you cannot use consumer marketing metrics to this set of tools.  There’s a lot of people in legal marketing that want to try to apply old techniques to how you measure, but it’s not conversation. They’re not looking for dialogue. They’re not looking for discussion. They’re looking for good information.

If firms can produce that on the channels where they’re congregating, such as blogs and LinkedIn, then we’re finding that they’re going to be able to build a good following.

In our view, it’s all about converting online relationships to offline.”

HOW DO LAWYERS & LAW FIRMS ENGAGE?

Lee Pacchia:

“Once you know that the vast majority of in-house counsel aren’t really there to contribute to the conversation, they’re really just there to listen in a sense, how does a law firm, or a solo practitioner that’s trying to pitch them to get work take the knowledge gleaned from your survey to the final endpoint of actually getting a client that’s going to pay them?”

John Corey:

“It gets down to quality; producing good content; understanding where counsel are congregating online. We know that they’re on blogs. We know that LinkedIn comprises the greatest concentration of lawyers anywhere on the social web today.

They’re using it in multiple ways. They’re using it to connect with in-house colleagues.  They’re using it to connect with outside counsel with whom they work.  They’re using it to connect with outside counsel with whom they don’t work. They’re using it to get news and information. They’re connecting with business leaders. They’re using the tool in multiple ways, and it’s the most frequently used platform for professional reasons.”

WIKIPEDIA

Lee Pacchia:

“Wikipedia usage is up. Don’t tell me that in-house lawyers are using Wikipedia to do their work? They’re not looking up terms of art in Wikipedia that they’re supposed to know already, are they?”

John Corey:

“You know it’s interesting. The last couple of years, the Wikipedia issue has raised more questions. People are like ‘Really? Is Wikipedia really being used that frequently?’ We found that it’s among the most frequently used platforms for professional reasons, for personal reasons, and we’ve seen the last couple of years that’s it’s inching up on the credibility scale as well.

The way they’re using it is for research. Over the last couple of years, the majority were using it to research topics of personal interest. In the last year, we’ve seen a pretty significant jump in the percentage of counsel who are using it to conduct business and industry research. 50% were using it for business purposes in 2012, and we’ve seen that jump up to 65% in 2013.  It’s actually one of the biggest percentage leaps that we’ve seen in our 2013 data.”

THE USE OF VIDEO

Lee Pacchia:

“The report was interesting because of what we’re finding in the video sphere.  How are we doing?”

John Corey:

“On the video side, we asked  a very specific question on video., but a few of the lead-up questions were:

How often are you using video, just in general, to get professional content?

About 25% of counsel are going to Youtube and other video channels to get professional content. About 60% of counsel are going to Youtube and other channels to get video of a personal nature.

When it comes to law firms actually publishing video, either on their websites, or on their firm-branded YouTube channels, very few of them are actually getting traction with inside counsel.

Now, we don’t think many firms are doing it today, and many firms aren’t investing the time and the resources in the production types of technologies to be able to do it well.

We think there’s an opportunity.  We didn’t specifically ask ‘If law firms provided higher-quality content through video, would you come?’ but we think we can infer from the data that if firms start to move into this direction, then we think there will be an audience if it’s done well.”

IS THERE A GENERATIONAL DIVIDE?

Lee Pacchia then asked about the generational gap that is frequently discussed, asking:

“Are we going to be as willing and able to engage in social media as [our] younger peers.  I would think that at some point this begins to even out. I’m starting to see older and older people use Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter. What are you seeing in your study?”

John Corey:

“Going back to 2010, we saw a sharp generational divide. Now, take blogs aside.  Regardless of company size and age group, we saw that counsel were viewing blogs as reliable and credible sources. It was very even. but when we got into specific platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, we saw that counsel in their 30s, the young users, were very active on these platforms. As we got into subsequent age groups, counsel in their 40s, 50s and 60s, we started to see a pretty sharp decline in usage.

Fast-forward to 2012. It started to even out a little bit. Counsel in their 30s, their usage stabilized, but counsel in their 50s and 60s, the older group, started to substantially increase their usage.

…and now, in 2013, we’re starting to see older counsel taper off a little bit in how they’re using the tools.  There could be any number of things that are driving that. They’re in the latter stages of their careers, of course, so they’re not vying for that next promotion or that growth in income progression, for example, as their younger peers.

I think generationaly  it’s not as much a part of their DNA. We saw that there was a big jump last year, and now it’s just tapering off a little.  It’s not as low as it was in 2010, but I think it’s safe to say that younger lawyers are using the tools much more than older lawyers.”

Lee Pacchia:

“For a solo practitioner, or someone who’s at a law firm trying to get more work from in-house counsel, what’s the key takeaway? What’s do you tell them at the end of the day they need to focus on?”

WHAT NEXT…KEY TAKEAWAYS

John Corey:

“I’d have to break it down into a few points. LinkedIn remains the serious social platform. It comprises the greatest concentration of lawyers. 67% have used the platform professionally in the past week; 40% in the last 24 hours. If there were one tool that law firms were going to invest in it would have to be LinkedIn because there are more lawyers there than anywhere else.

Blogs also continue to be valuable owned media assets. They’re growing in influencing credibility, and when done well, and this is a key point, we’ve measured this for three years now, when blogs are well-executed, we have measured that in-house counsel feel that that they do have an influence on hiring decisions. We found this year that 53% of counsel agreed or somewhat agreed with that statement. 55% agreed with it in 2012, and 50% agreed with it in 2010, so it’s been a very steady, even view that there is a connection between high-quality content delivered through blogs and hiring decisions.”

[End interview]

As always, I am here should you need help with your Marketing and Social Media strategy, execution or meeting presentation needs, and can be reached here.

Those of us who care about all forms of marketing, networking and communication for lawyers anticipate surveys that study the use of Social Media, as well as all marketing tools, when it comes to lawyers’ clients.

They can help us wade through the possibilities that lie in front of us in terms of marketing strategy.

Today, the 2013 In-House Counsel new Media Engagement Survey conducted by Greentarget, Inside Counsel and Zeughauser Group was released. This is the third survey released by this partnership. The 1st was in 2010. The 2nd was in 2012.

I recommend studying the entire survey results, but have compiled what I hope is an easy-to-read, quick summary of the findings for you.

I have also posted and transcribed an interview with Greentarget CEO, John Corey, conducted by Bloomberg’s Lee Pacchia about the survey.

To begin, I’m pleased to see the number of in-house counsel taking part in the survey was 379, which was an all-time high. My files show me that number was 334 in 2012 and 164 in 2010.

QUICK QUOTES FROM THE PAST THREE YEARS

In 2013, quotes of interest from the survey are:

“Mark 2013 as the year it became hard to find lawyers not using new media tools.”

“The trend is irreversible.”

“In 2013, the lawyer who has his paralegal print his emails for him, gets all his news from the print edition of The New York Times, and thinks a blog is a smudge on his tie is part of a dying breed.”

In 2012, the survey showed that the move toward new media had advanced considerably.

Quotes of interest:

“The primary utility of social media – at least for this survey’s audience – is as an intelligent filter of useful information.”

“They [inside counsel] are relatively invisible users who increasingly consume content via these channels, but give little public indication that they are doing so.”

Back in 2010, a quote in the survey summary included:

“Change is more extensive than many pundits have appreciated to date.”

KEY FINDINGS

The report goes on to state that key findings were that:

• This year’s report offers ample evidence that social media tools have gone mainstream, providing strong insight to guide the marketing efforts of law firm marketers seeking to reach this important audience.
• Consumption of media “on the go” is increasing as large numbers of in-house counsel prefer to consume information on smartphones, tablets and mobile apps.
• Wikipedia is widely regarded as a legitimate professional tool for research and information.
• Blogs continue to serve as an important information resource with a strong impact on hiring decisions.

In the Executive Summary, titled A Tipping Point, the survey shows that some of the most popular new media are not being fully utilized, and that “pioneering” lawyers and law firms that create high-quality content that grabs attention on those channels have great opportunity in front of them.

HIGHLIGHTS

1. The Luddites Are Disappearing: The percentage of respondents not using new media tools has shrunk to 27% from 43% in 2010.
2. Mobile Consumption Is Rising: In-house counsel are consuming daily business media via smartphone (53%), tablets (39%) and mobile apps (23%).
3. Blogs Are A Preferred & Influential News Source: 55% indicate they read attorney-authored blogs, on par with blogs written by professional journalists at 54%. 53% envision hiring decisions being influenced by a well-executed blog.
4. Wikipedia Use Is Growing: The percentage using Wikipedia to conduct company & industry research is 65%, up from 51% in 2012.
5. The Serious Social Network Is LinkedIn. They are using Facebook for personal reasons [take this to heart], but 66% report using LinkedIn in the past week for professional reasons.
6. The Next Big Thing: Online Video? Although not frequently, 55% access video via law firm website & YouTube channels.
7. Invisible Users Are Growing: Those using social media in listen-only mode is 74%, up from 68% in 2012.
8. Peer-Driven Rankings Yield Little Influence: Referrals from trusted sources and online biographies are more important than rankings.
9. Is A Generational Divide Back Again? A divide that closed a bit in 2012 is back, mostly in the use of LinkedIn and blogs.

ANALYSIS

Regarding in-house counsel Social Media use, the survey summary shows:

• Only 27% said they didn’t use Social Media, meaning 73% do use it.
• They are using Facebook mainly for personal use.
• They are using work hours to research on Wikipedia and firm sites.
• They are using LinkedIn to strengthen professional contacts.
• They are reading industry news on blogs.
• They are quiet or invisible users of Social Media.
• A growing number of in-house counsel are consumers rather than contributors of professional content.
• They read blogs rather than write blogs.
• They read others’ LinkedIn posts more than they broadcast their own thoughts.
• They are finding social media sources, such as Wikipedia, LinkedIn and blogs, more credible & legitimate.
• They are turning to these sources with the same frequency as they turn to more traditional media outlets such as newspapers.
• They may conduct general case-related research on Wikipedia.
• They may keep up on industry news by reading legal or other niche blogs.
• Ages 40 and up are using Social Media more widely, but a generational gap does remain in terms of Social Media use, with younger lawyers using some sites much more frequently than their older colleagues.
• Older colleagues are still using Social Media weekly, and are keeping pace with, & sometimes getting ahead of, the younger generation.

For my visual readers, here is the infographic that showcases the survey’s key findings:

Stay tuned as I will be summarizing more data and interviews.

As always, I am here should you need help with your Social Media strategy, execution or presentation needs, and can be reached here.

Tweets about “#lma13″

I know LinkedIn has been avoiding getting all Facebookified, and didn’t want their mostly business-minded site to get all Twitterized, and certainly not all Google Plussy, but this is looooong overdue.

Beginning today, LinkedIn will begin rolling out the ability to “mention” other users in our updates. Hallelujah!

Some might find this obnoxious, and don’t look forward to their inboxes filling up with notices of people actually having conversations with them, but I find that a desirable feature because I’m actually interested in…well…conversations in these spaces. Conversations put the Social in Social Media.

It’s not active on my account, yet, thus confirming that I’m not one of the chosen few like my pup, Ernie, thinks I am, so I can’t give you my own screen shots.

Here is how it’s going to happen:

On your Home Page, when you type your update, you can begin to type someone’s name. You don’t even need an @ or a + or anything very fancy at all…just type, sort of the way it happens on Facebook….well, other than the times when it doesn’t work on Facebook, but that’s another story.

You will then see a drop-down list of 1st-degree connections whose names begin with those characters.  Just choose the one you want, and poof, there you go, they’re tagged, or mentioned!

After you have “mentioned” them, they will receive notification they have been mentioned on LinkedIn.

You can also tag those who are not 1st-degree connections IF you are in the comments section of another post, and if that potential connection has also commented there.  We see this on Facebook and Google+, too.

Here’s another feature LinkedIn has built in to mentions. If you have your Twitter account connected, it appears you can tag, or mention, one of your Twitter connections and your comment will appear in their Twitter feed. They show a screenshot (see below), but don’t talk about it, so I will have to research the ins and out of this a bit more and get back to you. It is reminiscent of Twitter mentions in blog-commenting plugins, such as Livefyre, which is what I use on this blog. When you tag a Twitter follower in your comment, it tells them so on Twitter.

Just for the record, I’m not a proponent of linking your LinkedIn account to Twitter, but we can discuss that another time if you’d like. Actual time on actual site leads to actual conversation…let’s just leave it at that for now.

This is a good step for LinkedIn as the ability to follow up with people in this manner was sorely missing. This should encourage more conversation and interaction, which is, as I mentioned above, what Social Media networking is all about. It will also enable better real-time conversation, thus reducing the amount of catching someone’s comment directed toward you not being seen until a few days later when you happen to run across it, if you do at all. This all breeds connection, and that’s positive.

For now, this is only active on your Home Page, but LinkedIn tells us to stay tuned as we should begin seeing it in other areas of the site. Let’s hope adding it to Groups is next.

I do understand this will be abused, and some might get sick of it, but you have to take this for a spin because we’re not all out here on LinkedIn because it’s our hobby, after all.

Well-played, LinkedIn. You might actually find a bit more activity on-site as a result of this. But you knew that, didn’t you, you crazy kid!

Now let’s see how long it takes them to add photo-sharing features…countdown….10, 9, 8, 7, 6…….

On behalf of my 4 wonderful Co-Leaders of the LMA, Legal Marketing Association, Social Media SIG, I have gathered a few of our thoughts about using Social Media at the #LMA13 conference, or any conference.

We know our members are very smart, social media-savvy professionals, but we thought we’d send along a few reminders just in case you need to share them with anyone along the way…you know, friends who might need a few reminders.

Here you go!

• Know that someone at your firm could be following you, maybe even your boss. Post accordingly.
• Try not to do something that will get you fired.
• Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your mother to see.
• Sometimes it’s okay to “just say no” when you’re tempted to post something controversial….really.
• Before posting anything online, ask yourself “When this gets out, will it cause me trouble?” If the answer is yes, or even “maybe,” don’t post it.
• Use the conference hashtags to make connections: #LMA13 overall & add #SocialSIG to photos
• Be careful what you post on Social Media “after hours,” if you know what we mean.
• Remember that anything you post online will live there forever, even if you delete it.
• Read this post from Peter Shankman.
• If you make mistakes, admit it and apologize immediately.
• Even though it’s tempting to scold presenters via Social Media, make sure it serves a purpose.
• Don’t be lured into an argument via social media. It’s never pretty.
• Be mindful of every piece of content you put out to the world. The moment you’re off your guard, you’re vulnerable. Some people love to pounce.
• Avoid complaining about your job on any public forum, particularly if your account is associated with your company in any way (i.e. you list yourself as working for XYZ firm on Facebook).
• Avoid discussing politics, sex, and religion. These are topics everyone has strong opinions about, and you might not know where you differ with your employer or your clients until it’s too late.
• Know your audience – are you connected to clients? Do you use Twitter as a more professional forum? It’s great to share personal information, but you want to be wary of sharing too much.
• Presenters, don’t share anything about your firms that you would be embarrassed to have your name attached to. The days of demanding people not Tweet in public places are quickly passing.

Because we care…no, really, we do!

Your Social Media SIG Co-Leaders,

Lance Godard, Gail Lamarche, Lindsay Griffiths, Laura Toledo and Nancy Myrland

What would you add?

If you’d like a little more light reading connected to the LMA conference:

#LMA13: It’s Almost Time!

Networking: Would You Rather Have A Root Canal?

LMA13 Attendees –  The Twitter Edition! by Lindsay Griffiths

Don’t Forget To Bring Your Passion To LMA’s Annual Conference by Heather Morse

The #LMA13 Annual Conference Pinterest Board

#LMA13: It’s Vegas Time. Let’s Get Social! by Laura Toledo

#LMA13 Show Us Your Conference Experience! by Laura Toledo

Because I know you’ve been sitting around, waiting for yet another industry term to become familiar with, I thought I’d introduce you to one you might not have heard yet.

Social Echo

PR Newswire coined the term “Social Echo” to describe

“the powerful reverberation around brands that occurs through [the millions of] conversations in the social networks and communities where people gather today.”

In PR Newswire’s view,

“A brand’s Social Echo has enormous power to shape reputation, influence mass opinion and drive growth. Social Echo has equal – and perhaps even greater – power to stop a brand dead in its tracks.”

They go on to say that…

“Marketers and communicators who understand this are actively engaged in listening to their Social Echo and in finding ways to participate in the conversations that comprise their Social Echo. Importantly, they are also gleaning real-time insights to apply back to their brands in every area – customer care, product development, brand positioning and messaging, innovation and more.

Questions To Ask Yourself

Does my brand echo across Social Media?

Am I actively listening to what others in the echo say about us or in our practice areas?

Am I a one-shot wonder when it comes to promoting our people, practices and presence?

Do I understand what it takes to help our messages live on so others will hear and see them?

Am I taking our messages, dissecting them 20 different ways, and finding ways to communicate them effectively in all forms of media and messaging for the next year or two?

Never Before

Never before have we had the tools that are now available to help us take control of the messages we want to send. We no longer have to sit back and wait for reporters to pick up our release, include our firm names and tell our story for us. If they do, that’s now the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.

We have the ability to talk about our people, create news, communicate accomplishments, highlight clients, take the lead and to be coordinated and complementary in our marketing and communication plans using our schedule, and that of our clients.

We also have the ability to listen and have conversations with people previously untouchable because they weren’t accessible.

How’s Your Echo?

Does your firm, your brand, really echo, or are you wondering why no one is hearing your messages, causing you to tap your proverbial microphone, asking “is anyone out there?”

They’re out there. Now you need to go about finding them, listening to them, talking with them, and working on a true Social Echo that will find its way to the eyes and ears of your intended audiences.

Gone are the days of only casual use for business. It’s time to get serious with these tools. It’s time to think strategically about their use and how they fit into your Social Echo.

Your thoughts?

Yesterday, one of my legal marketing colleagues, Kevin O’Keefe, owner of LexBlog, wrote about Sree Sreenivasan, pronounced ”sree sree-knee-VAH-sun,” a Professor at Columbia University, who is also the school’s first Chief Digital Officer.

Sree conducted a three-hour live (yes, live, I know…gasp!) advanced workshop for journalists, bloggers and media professionals in Seattle last week. Kevin and several of his LexBlog team members attended.

Kevin wrote that he learned a great deal about the attributes necessary for effective Social Networking from Professor Sree.

Professor Sree suggested the following characteristics:

• Helpful
• Useful
• Timely
• Informative
• Relevant
• Practical
• Actionable
• Generous
• Credible
• Brief
• Entertaining
• Fun
• Occasionally funny

As Kevin said:

“I see no reason these attributes cannot be included in your contributions as a lawyer.”

My comment on Kevin’s post was:

“Amen!  Around here, when we see someone who is self-absorbed, or does something that appears to be all about him/her, we teasingly draw an imaginary ring above our head (picture a halo), and we mouth ‘It’s all about me.’”

I continued:

“That’s exactly what Social Networking and Social Marketing are not. They are a little bit about you, and A LOT about everyone else, and how you can help them by displaying the attributes mentioned above.”

As I like to share with my clients:

“Absolutely anyone, anywhere at any time can be a talking head on Social Media. That takes no skill or talent. But to be able to truly engage another person…now that is what will make you stand out among the rest.”

I see these attributes as gifts you can give others. When others embody these characteristics, they have given us the gift of themselves. We like that. We like them, and we want more of them.

What about you?

Do you stand out?

Do you practice Professor Sree’s characteristics?

Do you know others who you think embody these attributes?

I’d like to know what you think.

Thanks to Kevin and Professor Sree for inspiring today’s post.

Who among us wouldn’t love to find a marketing tool that would cause our phone to ring with…

• Lots of clients
• The right clients in the areas we serve
• Those who know how to pay their bills
• Those who LOVE us, I mean REALLY love us
• Media who want to write about all the wonderful things we do
• People who want to refer profitable business to us
• Conference organizers who want to pay us huge sums of money to speak
• Colleagues who want to cross-sell our services to their clients

Well, sure, I’d love it! Wouldn’t you?

I’d love for my only problems to be…

• Finding enough time to answer the phone
• Meeting with people
• Performing the work they need to the best of my abilities

Wouldn’t life be grand?

When it comes to Social Media, many have the expectations I outlined above. They want them to produce results pronto, and for life to be much easier as a result of  just signing on in these spaces.

I used to inhabit the direct-response marketing and promotional world at Time Warner. We used lots of  direct response “quick fixes” for every promotion. I can tell you that, for the most part, Social Media aren’t that.

I was being facetious when I titled this “If You’re Looking For A Quick Fix, Move Along.”  I don’t really want you to move along. I want you to readjust your expectations when it comes to the fine skill of relationship marketing.

I want you to…

• Have an idea what you want to do in these spaces
• Know who you want to do it with
• Take the time to go through the stages of social media networking
• Understand how these Social Media, these tools, integrate with your existing practice
• and last but not least, I want you to remember that this takes time

Yes, I know most of us were born in an era of instant gratification, of disposable everything (including relationships), of little patience when it comes to staying the course until we get what we want, and of being so plugged in 24 hours a day that we find it difficult to find time to eat a healthy meal much less build relationships. I get that.

I’m sorry. There are no two ways around it. If you want to build a network of people who know, like and trust you, which is important in the legal profession, and who might want to do business with you one of these days, then you’re just going to have to put in the time to make it happen.

Do you agree?

As always, I can be contacted at nancy@myrlandmarketing.com.

The Florida Bar Association continues to encroach on lawyers’ digital real estate.

The Florida Supreme Court just released new advertising rules for Florida lawyers, as well as those who practice law in the State of Florida.

The advertising rules were revisited in an attempt to make them easier to understand, and to clarify what some of them mean.

There are many changes, and many who have written about them, but I want to discuss 1 of them with you today because it is an odd, and not necessarily clear, change.

1) Regarding The Use of Social Media: Rule 4-7.11, Application of Rules, we are told that, regarding Type of Media:

“Unless otherwise indicated, this subchapter applies to all forms of communication in any print or electronic forum, including but not limited to newspapers, magazines, brochures, flyers, television, radio, direct mail, electronic mail, and Internet, including banners, pop-ups, websites, social networking, and video sharing media.”

If we then look to Rule 4-7.12 Required Content, we find out what must be included in all updates on Social Media:

(a) Name and Office Location. All advertisements for legal employment must include:

1. the name of at least 1 lawyer, the law firm, the lawyer referral service if the advertisement is for the lawyer referral service, or the lawyer directory if the advertisement is for the lawyer directory, responsible for the content of the advertisement; and
2. the city, town, or county of 1 or more bona fide office locations of the lawyer who will perform the services advertised.

What?

This made me wonder what in heaven’s name are lawyers and law firms supposed to do when it comes to Twitter? As you all know, we only have 140 characters with which to communicate, so our real estate there is extremely valuable.

Pretending I’m a lawyer, which I’m not (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night), would all of my Tweets have to include the following, thus eating up 44 characters, not to mention a (shortened) URL I might add if I was referring to a post?

• Nancy Myrland
• Myrland Marketing
• Indianapolis

I decided to call the Florida Bar’s helpful hotline to clarify. I was forwarded to Jeff Hazen, a Staff Attorney for the Florida Bar Association.

Jeff confirmed that we are to include the name of the lawyer OR the law firm, as well as the geographic location.  I told him I thought this was taking the Rules backward, and were more restrictive than before. He politely listened as I told him this rule almost defeats the purpose of Tweeting, and perhaps that was their intent.

As I see it, we take care of the attorney name by making sure we use our name as our Twitter handle, right? Jeff said that yes, this made sense. Thus, @NancyMyrland would already be in my Tweet.

There…we’ve taken care of that one, right?

Next, I told him it sounds like I would be in compliance if I Tweeted:

“Holding a webinar on (the sanity of) the Florida Bar advertising rules just released, bit.ly/pretendURL, Indianapolis”

…and asked him if that would suffice.

He told me that no, that wouldn’t work because it was not clearly understood what “Indianapolis” meant, and that it would have to have an identifier such as :

“Office: Indianapolis”

Well, that sure makes it much clearer to you, the reader, if you see that hanging off the end of my Tweet, right?

You don’t have to answer that.

These rules go into effect May 1, 2013, so we have between now and then to begin modifying our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Vine, FourSquare, Tout, blog posts or any other Social Networking updates in order to comply with the now-clear-as-can-be Florida Advertising Rules.

There is good news about client testimonials, but I’ll deal with that next time, okay?

Your thoughts?

Do you practice law in Florida?

How do you plan on changing your current Social Networking and Content Marketing practices?

I’d love to know what you think of this.

My online friend, Bill Dorman, published a post today asking what we would change if we could turn back the clock to start in this world of Social Media today.

He writes often about the big kids of Social Media, those who are perceived to be important, the ones who are always tapped to speak at national and international conferences on the subject of Social Media, and those who some observers feel the need to be connected to in order to somehow feel worthy.

I wouldn’t change much at all about how I’ve used these tools. I have loved my journey, and needed every inch of it to become more informed about how my clients can integrate these tools into their existing marketing and business development strategies.

I think some became frustrated, or maybe disillusioned, because they came to “the dance” by themselves, not knowing what they wanted to do once they got here.

They didn’t necessarily view Social Media as more tools to plug into “the plan,” even if one of the goals in that plan was pure networking in their field. They just knew they liked to dance.

I get that.

I like “the dance,” too.

It’s fun spending time on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, this Myrland Marketing Minutes blog, Tout, Instagram, Pinterest, SoundCloud and FourSquare, just to name a few.

I have made many friends that I know I will call friends for a long time.

What becomes important is to figure out how this activity fits into your business life. If you sell widgets to wombats, then, by golly, connect with all the widgety wombats and related parties you can in order to get to know, learn from and help them.

Along the way, you’ll meet lots of non-wombats who will be an absolute joy to meet, or at least pique your curiosity, and you will find that you like to spend time interacting with them, too. There’s nothing wrong with adding them to the mix as long as you continue to work on your widget connections, too, and don’t get so distracted that you neglect the business case for being in Social.

The bonus is finding out we can learn a great deal by listening to these non-wombatty people, too…you know…getting outside of our comfortable surroundings long enough to see how others do things.

My dear friend, Heather Morse, writes about that here in a post titled I Broke Out Of Legal Marketing and It Feels GREAT! It’s amazing to discover that people outside of our profession have been doing what we’ve doing for a very long time, and might actually have some valuable insight that we can apply to our own marketing efforts…{wink, wink}.

In Bill’s comments section, I shared that this is all still pretty new in the grand scheme of life and marketing, so people are still figuring out how they want to use these tools. If playing in the sandboxes of “the big kids” of Social Media is a goal that supports your business, then go for it. It’s when we make that a goal because we feel we aren’t worthy unless we are “in their league” (whatever that means) that we become hamsters on a wheel that never stops spinning, and that doesn’t feel very productive to me.

If you have a minute, I’d love to know how you would turn back the clock on your use of Social Media. Let me know how you think your “dance” is going down there in the comments section….thanks!

THE NUMBERS ARE TELLING

Regardless of which Marketing and Social Networking sites we use, we can learn something from the following numbers.

• Instagram has 90 million monthly active users
• 40 million photos are uploaded per day
• 8500 likes per second
• 1000 comments per second

Instagram launched in October, 2010, and had 14 million users one year later.  They now have 90 million 1.25 years later.

Human beings like photos, don’t they?

WHY?

• Photos help show other sides of us.
• Photos help build those “know, like and trust” factors we all talk about everyday.
• Photos bring words to life by evoking thoughts, emotion or relativity
• Photos help some find words to say when conversation doesn’t come easy.

10 WAYS YOU CAN BEGIN SHARING PHOTOS

• Pro bono and other community activity
• Conferences your partners and administrators attend
• Your clients speaking
• Your new associates
• Your employees working on a project
• Your primary receptionists so people know who the person is on the other end of the call
• Powerpoint slides of individual client service guidelines and promises
• Your valued alumni group members
• News conferences others hold that have to do with your primary practice and industry groups
• Take your child to work days (see photo above…they photograph you!)

10 PLACES YOU CAN SHARE PHOTOS

• Every blog post ( and I do mean every)
• Twitter
• Facebook Pages
• Facebook Profiles
• Google+
• Website
• Flickr
  
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Reception Area
  

This isn’t an exhaustive list. What would you add?

How often do your firms share photos of your people and activity?

What could your firms share to make you more visual to your clients and target audiences?

Where could you share it?

Thanks to Social Fresh for the Instagram numbers.

Times of tragedy seem to bring about the best, the worst and the oddest behavior.

The past few years have brought us some of the most powerful communication tools of our times. We thought we had mass communication down pat until Social Media came on the scene. We were humming along, very carefully plotting out messages that we would then place in…

• Print
• Radio
• TV
• Outdoor
• On telelemarketers’ scripts
• In salespeoples’ heads
• …and a myriad of other places.

We knew exactly when these messages would run, what people were likely doing, watching or listening to when our message was presented, and all was good.

ENTER SOCIAL MEDIA

The world, thankfully, has never been the same. I grew up in sales and marketing learning about the media mentioned above, but I find the addition of Social Media to our marketing mix exhilarating, interesting, life-changing, freeing and effective…..when used correctly, that is. I study it constantly, and I see it used in many different ways.

Regardless of all the different ways Social Media are used today, this is nothing compared to what we will see in the future as our minds adapt and bend even more to innovate and advance communication.

Recent national tragedies have made me think about this “art” of thinking and communicating effectively in times of crisis, and how we, as marketers, business owners, professionals, entrepreneurs, executives, leaders of education and all communicators must be vigilant when it comes to crises…..even others’ crises.

Even though it isn’t your tragedy, event, mishap or crisis that has suddenly taken the spotlight, it doesn’t mean it isn’t your responsibility to be prepared. We can no longer take a pass on being aware of how we should operate in others’ situations as well as our own. Whether we plan for it to, or not, all of our actions have the potential to become intertwined.

WHAT TO DO?

Among other things…

• We need to have conversations with ourselves, with everyone in our organization and with those who represent us regarding how we will, or will not, react in times of heightened emotion and awareness.
• With every situation that is attracting a great deal of attention or emotion, both internally and externally, we must sit down immediately, either in-person or virtually, with all parties responsible for communicating, and ask ourselves if there are implications for our business.
• We must then decide what our tone, our conversations and our messages will look and sound like.
• What is acceptable?
• What language do we stay away from?
• Who do we need to communicate with immediately?
• How often do we need to communicate with each party?
• Does our product or service have anything to do with this situation?
• Should we refrain from connecting our company, product or service to this situation?
• What are all the possible ways we could find ourselves connected to this situaion in the next few days, weeks and months?

THREE VERY DIFFERENT EXAMPLES

1) Saturday, as I was running errands, I heard a commercial for a radio station that used a tongue-in-cheek reference to making sure you tune in for all of the up-to-the-minute, end-of-the-world news you need as we approach the Mayan End of the World. The words annihilation of the human race were also used in this brief 60-second commercial.

At any other time, I might have listened with amusement, then dismissed the message. Saturday was different. It struck me that those words might be a bit raw to some listeners only two days after a national tragedy that took the lives of many human beings, most of them children. Knowing the owner of the station, and knowing these messages are prepared and scheduled well in advance of the day, I sent him a quick email, letting him know I had just heard this message, and giving him the heads up there might be people out there who might find that message a bit inappropriate for the time. I didn’t want it to come back to haunt him when they meant no harm. As is his style, he kindly replied before the end of the day, thanking me for my email, then passed it along to his station managers to discuss.

2) The other day, the well-known shoe manufacturer, Dansko Footwear, decided to place a rather odd message, connecting their footwear to the shooting tragedy at Newtown, Connecticut. There were people who thought it was inappropriate for them to use this tragedy to advance their brand, and the Interweb erupted with discussion. More about that on Techolu.

3) In 2011, during the Egyptian uprising, while scores of Egyptians were being murdered in their streets, the iconic brand, Kenneth Cole, decided to connect itself to that tragedy by promoting its upcoming line of Spring clothing.  Kenneth Cole himself Tweeted this controversial message. I wrote more about that in this post about Kenneth Cole.

BOTTOM LINE

Think!

Think before tragedies and incidents occur.

Anticipate all the what-ifs.

Ask yourself what all the potential implications of your message are, and decide if it’s worth it.

Get the right people in the right positions who know how to think critically and strategically, not just opportunistically.

If you’d like to read more about this topic, I wrote another post for your review:

Social Media: Are You Prepared For Negative Publicity?

As always, if you need my help with Social Media and Marketing training, coaching and strategy, I can be contacted at nancy@myrlandmarketing.com, or any of these places.

I’m in the midst of researching and gathering posts that deal with predictions for 2013 in all areas of marketing and communication. As you might guess, the ones that are written about the most have to do with digital and social media.

I’ll curate and publish this ever-growing list of predictions for you in the days to come, but today we will talk about the need for exploration, and how you might want to think about it as it pertains to your job.

Changes in digital communication are rapid and abundant, so it makes sense that those of us who write about impending changes in marketing focus on digital media, and the social networking that takes place within these media.

As Olof Schybergson, Co-Founder and CEO of Fjord, a global service design consultancy that works with top clients including BBC, Citibank, ESPN, Flickr, Foursquare, Nokia, and Qualcomm wrote in his article on Fast Company today…

“The constant presence of “new” in our work feeds our curiosity, and makes exploration a necessity.”

Indeed, Olof!

Because there are numerous daily changes in these spaces, to sit back for very long means we miss discovering amazing advancements, progress, warnings, nuances, challenges, new approaches and connections that help us do our jobs better. They help us do our jobs better because we stay informed, connected and in touch with how we might better serve our clients.

This isn’t to say that every one of you has the time to take a deep dive into Social every day of your life. That’s not realistic. You have your own practice areas of expertise that you have to stay on top of, to explore and to strive to perfect so you can best take care of your clients.

Exploration is a necessity.

I take the time, which is NEVER enough for what I want to explore, because it is my responsibility to help my clients stay in touch with marketing, strategy and implementation, and because I love doing so. Exploring these spaces comes easy to me because I have a natural desire to learn, to serve and to connect, which is easier these days because of Social Media.

Exploration is a necessity.

That is no different than what you have chosen to do for a living. Hopefully, you have a hunger to constantly explore your area of expertise because you love it, and because you know you can better serve your clients if you do so. They look to you to become their experts, their guides, their counselors and, sometimes, their conscience when it comes to making wise decisions.

Exploration is a necessity.

To break the cycle of exploration, or your desire to learn as much as you are able, whether in Social and Digital, or in any other space, is doing a disservice to your clients. It is also shortchanging you because you aren’t growing, and that typically doesn’t make people feel good for very long.

If you don’t have time to explore, ask for help. That is still exploring. When I have an area I need to learn, or perhaps isn’t at the core of what I do, I often go about tapping into other resources to get up to speed. That’s still exploring.

So, yes, to take Olof’s quote even further, the world around us doesn’t stop.

Our clients’ needs don’t stop.

…and he’s right:

“The constant presence of “new” in our work feeds our curiosity, and makes exploration a necessity.”

Don’t ever stop exploring, okay?

Don’t become complacent, or overwhelmed to the point of advancement-paralysis.

I don’t plan to, and I hope you don’t, either.

Myrland Marketing Moments are short, direct, to-the-point Marketing words of advice that only take a “Moment” to read.

For more on LinkedIn Skills’ Endorsements, you might find these two posts informative:

LinkedIn Skills’ Endorsements: What’s Going On? and

LinkedIn Skills’ Endorsements – Part 2: Take Control of Your Skills

It looks like our favorite…

…Twitter, might be in the midst of making a little change to your Favorite button.

I wrote about a few other changes Twitter recently made that really irritated some people, but this latest one is pretty minor in my book.

As you know, when you want to archive a Tweet for any reason, you can click Favorite, and it will be saved in, you guessed it, your Favorites list so you can go back at any time and see it. Others can view your Favorites also, a feature I wish would be made optional by user.

A bit of Social Media feature convergence appears to be happening as Twitter is testing the replacement of the Favorite button with a star and the word “Like” as you can see here.

There are only a few people that have it today as it appears they are just testing it. If they decide they “like” it, I would imagine we will see it rolled out to everyone soon.

Questions for you:

1. How do you use your Favorite button?
2. Will this make any difference to you?
3. Will you Like it better this way?

THERE’S SOME CONCERN OUT THERE

After writing my 1st post about LinkedIn’s New Skills’ Endorsements, a frustrated connection in one of my LinkedIn groups asked why skills that have nothing to do with her skills are being added and endorsed by her connections.

She felt these skills were at odds with her expertise, and wanted to know why it’s happening.

First, LinkedIn offers others suggested skills to endorse based on those skills you have already added to your Profile, and also those they are extrapolating based on the remaining content of your profile.  They’re trying to be relevant, but they’re not hitting the mark in some cases.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SKILLS

My recommendation to her and you is to take control of your skills.  If we want LinkedIn to make reasonable and logical recommendations to others to endorse skills we actually have, then go in and add them to your Profile so LinkedIn has these skills from which to choose.

Log on to your LinkedIn Profile.

Go to your Skills and Expertise section, and click on the “+ Add a skill” link over to the right.

You can now begin adding the skills you have, or that you want others to know you offer. As you can see below, you can now begin adding your skills or expertise.

As you begin to type, LinkedIn will offer you variations on the terms you use for skills when you start typing one. If one or more make sense, go ahead and use their suggestions. If they don’t make sense, keep typing your own, then add them.

You are allowed to add up to 50, so spend a little time thinking about what you do. Keep it focused to your practice, the skills and benefits you offer, and what might resonate with your target audiences based on the terminology they commonly use.

I KNOW THIS IS TOUGH FOR SOME

I know identifying your own skills makes some of you uncomfortable. Many of us were trained at an early age to be humble, and not to brag. This, however, is not the time to make people guess what it is you do for a living, or where your expertise lies.

You are in practice, or business, to help others in some way and, as a result, to make a living. You need to try to get past the feeling you are bragging when you describe your skills to others. Doing it in written form is the least assertive way to do this, so take advantage of the tools and spaces that allow others to understand what you might be able to do for them.

THESE TOOLS AREN’T GOING AWAY

Even if you don’t care for this feature, I don’t believe it is going away any time soon, so it is best to maximize its potential.

BOTTOM LINE

These tools are there to help you and others, and to encourage traffic and activity on LinkedIn.

They aren’t perfect, but they are now a part of the Profile.

Use them, but take control of them as much as possible, okay?

Take a few minutes right now, and go add your skills to your profile.

If others suggest skills that you don’t care for, don’t approve them.

Help LinkedIn show others the skills you want to be showcased.

Let me know how it goes, okay?

LINKEDIN HAS BEEN VERY BUSY THIS WEEK

They just rolled out a new feature called Skills Endorsements that allows your 1st degree connections to “endorse” your skills and expertise with one click. It is an interesting feature as it allows the credibility that can come from others speaking up on your behalf.

Some might say it is a bit Klout-like in allowing others to say they think you’re good at one or more of your skills. These are skills that you have previously added to your Profile (more about that later in this post). This allows others to say they, too, think you have these skills.

LET’S TAKE A LOOK

Someone decides to endorse my skills in a particular area I have listed. Again, these are skills I have already chosen to add to my LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t done so, you should as they are all searchable by people who might be interested in those skills, not to mention it’s okay to help people know what you do for a living.

YOU’RE SUDDENLY GETTING ENDORSEMENT EMAILS FROM LINKEDIN

When someone endorses my skills, LinkedIn then sends me an email to let me know someone, or some people, have endorsed my skills.

Here’s an example of that email:

I then click Continue in my email to see what’s going on. I am taken to my Profile on LinkedIn, where I might see a blue box above my Profile that suggests others I can endorse, four at a time. I can choose to follow LinkedIn’s suggestions to endorse any or all of these four connections, and/or ask to see more as you can see in the bottom right corner of the blue box.

When your connections choose to endorse your skills, it then adds their very small avatar next to those skills in the Skills and Expertise section of your profile.

This is what that that looks like:

HOW DO I ENDORSE SOMEONE?

If you would like to endorse someone, but don’t see the aforementioned blue box at the top of your profile, you can scroll down to the Skills & Expertise section of your 1st degree connections, where you will be able to click on that skill, or click the + symbol next to the skill.

When you endorse others’ skills, your name and picture will then appear next to the skill on that person’s profile, and an update regarding the endorsement will appear in your network update stream, as well as the update stream of the connection you have endorsed.

As we discussed at the top of this post, an email will also be sent to the person you’ve endorsed.

One’s most endorsed skills will move to the top of their Skills & Expertise section.

Another way to endorse a connection’s skills is to go to their profile, where you may see a box above their photo that asks you if this person is skilled in particular areas. The skills listed in this box allow you to suggest and endorse multiple skills your connection hasn’t necessarily added to their profile. Suggested skills that you choose won’t appear on your connection’s profile until they approve them.

Here is what that section on your connection’s profile looks like:

TO HIDE OR REMOVE AN ENDORSEMENT

If you don’t want someone’s endorsement of your skills to show, you can hide it. Be careful when hiding someone’s endorsement of your skills because LinkedIn has not yet enabled us to unhide someone’s endorsement of us. When looking at your Skills & Expertise section, you will notice a small gray arrow below the avatars of a particular skill:

When you click on the gray arrow, a box pops up that allows you to then hide specific endorsements. Click on Hide Endorsement, then close the box.

YOU’VE CHANGED YOUR MIND

If you change your mind, and you want to remove your endorsement of someone’s skills, you can do so by going to their profile, finding the skill in the Skills & Expertise section where your avatar shows next to that skill you endorsed. When you hover over that skill, it will then give you the option to Undo your endorsement. The Undo doesn’t show below as it only works when hovering.

What do you think about the new Skills Endorsement feature?

Like?

Dislike?

Worried about ethical implications?

Follow-up: I’ve written Part 2 titled LinkedIn Skills’ Endorsements: Take Control Of Your Skills to address additional questions.

Thoughts while driving:

I started thinking about the frequent conversation that revolves around the need to create viral videos, and what I think of that mindset.

Here’s a short podcast. Let me know your thoughts, okay?

Have you spent time thinking about what Social Media really are?

Here’s my definition:

“In their purest form, Social Media are those media, or methods of communication, that are virtual, and that offer the ability to interact and establish relationships by being ‘social’ with our intended audiences.”

Social Networking occurs within Social Media.

Let’s take a look at what Merriam-Webster has to say about the word Social:

Webster has a host of definitions, a few you can see here. Hmmm…let’s see if any of these apply to what we all know about Social Networking.

1. Involving allies:

When we engage in Social Networking, we definitely find likely allies in our line of work, or our interests, forming relationships with them, often going the extra mile to do what we can to protect them, and sharing the best of them with the rest of the world.

2. Pleasant companionship with friends or associates:

When we engage in Social Networking, we often show a side of ourselves that helps others understand what we are like to do business with. This helps complete the know, like and trust factors that all of us who market our services strive for because our clients need one or more of those components to decide if they want to do business with us.

3. The interaction of the individual and the group; welfare of human beings:

Yes, yes, interaction is key to what we are doing here. If we are here just to broadcast without the connection to other human beings, we aren’t using these tools to the best of our ability.

4.  Cooperative and interdependent relationships with others:

Well, thank you Mr. Webster! You had no idea this would be so closely tied to Social Media when you added it to your dictionary, did you? When we spend time using Social Media, this is what it is all about. These aren’t media to be used in a self-centered manner, only worried about our interests.

If we approach Social Networking, and what we are doing in these spaces, as completely dependent on others, always searching for ways to interact, to help, to serve, to educate, to mentor and to bring others along, then we are beginning to see its true potential.

I’d have to say Social Networking has everything to do with the definition of Social. Therefore, lets make it our passion to use these tools in the way they are intended, thinking about the social aspect of them, and constantly finding ways to interact with, and help, others.

Isn’t that marketing that is more fulfilling than what we had in the past?

Social Media takes more than one person to work.

YOU have to put the Social in Social Media.

Social Media means nothing without you, so let’s be Social out there, okay?

AH, CHANGE

When it comes to the Social Media landscape, one thing we know for sure is this:

It changes regularly, and will continue to do so.

There’s nothing we can do to stop the momentum, so hang on tight, and let’s enjoy the ride together, okay?

Alright, alright, you don’t have to enjoy the ride. I’ll enjoy it while you ride along with me, deal? Deal!

This might not sound like rocket science to you, but keeping up with the changes might be akin to rocket science for some. As is my practice, allow me to attempt to explain some of this in everyday terms.

SIMPLY PUT

Leaving all the industry jargon and acronyms aside, most of the recent changes Twitter has made have to do with limiting what other applications can do to help you interact with your Twitter followers while on these other, non-Twitter, apps, or sites.

Twitter has restricted access to its user data to LinkedIn, Tumblr and Instagram, as well as a whole host of other apps that have been built solely to interact with Twitter and its followers.

No longer can you cross-post to LinkedIn from your Twitter account. Drats, that means you actually have to spend time on LinkedIn, actually posting there, and monitoring your and other’s activity? Hmmm…..what a shame (she says sarcastically.)

No longer can you give permission to many of these apps to look at who you follow on Twitter to see if those people are also using that app. In the past, this allowed you to decide if you wanted to follow them on that app as well. This allowed you to more efficiently build your network across sites. We’re all for efficiency when it comes to marketing these days, aren’t we?

For example, if I joined Instagram, the photo-sharing site that is on fire these days, Instagram would tell me who from Twitter was also there, and I could choose to follow you there, too. In other words, it helped me build relationships even easier because I could interact with some of the same people there, too, and get to know a completely different side of them. You know…the know and like part of know, like and trust that is so important to service providers? Pretty nice, huh?

Users weren’t happy when these announcements were made, unless we had already signed on before the new restriction because Instagram had already showed us our Twitter followers…phew!

Twitter, you naughty bird!

WHO ELSE ISN’T HAPPY?

Developers of these other apps are not very happy. They’re being shut out of the Twitter game, and not being allowed to play with the cool kids over at Twitter, who will no longer open up their bag of users to share on the Social Media playground.

Twitter wants to keep their users, who are you and your followers, on their own Twitter infrastructure without having to share you with others. If you think about it for a moment, you can see Twitter’s perspective. It loves it when you come to visit at their house. It doesn’t want to make it too easy for you to play with other sites by inviting them over to their house, too.  They are competition for your time, or are they?

Why would they want to make it so easy for you to spend time interacting with other sites when they can have you all to themselves? But if you think about it for another minute, you can also see how this could backfire, and damage Twitter in the long run by making it difficult for you, the user, to find what you need at their house.

Twitter claims it is also trying to preserve its bandwidth, keeping it lean, mean, quick and easy to use, but many believe that’s a baseless claim that shouldn’t be an issue in today’s social landscape. If your users want it, you should be able to give it to them.

Over on CNET, in his post titled Developers Slam Twitter’s New Restrictions On Access, Chief political correspondent and Senior Writer, Declan McCullagh, likens it to a marriage that has gone sour. It’s as if Twitter is telling all of its spouses:

“It’s not that things were always this bad, but, well, our needs have changed, and we want different things than we did six years ago.”

Declan goes on to say that:

“The divorce papers arrived Thursday afternoon in the form of an announcement saying that certain app developers — some of the folks who contributed to Twitter’s rapid ascent in the first place — should no longer feel welcome in the Twitterverse. Tweetbot and Echofon were singled out by name, prompting other programmers in Silicon Valley’s tight-knit community to denounce the social network’s unilateral decision to break things off.”

SOME USERS WILL LIKE THIS LATEST CHANGE

Before today, if you Tweeted from another site, sometimes called a Twitter management tool, such as Hootsuite, Twitter would post that originating site below your Tweet.

This did two things:

1. It brought awareness to the other apps that are out there interacting with Twitter, which began to make Twitter sweat a bit as it changed its philosophy to keep other apps off its site. They are competition after all, right? Hmm…really?
2. It made it clear you weren’t necessarily camped out on Twitter, Tweeting, watching what others were saying and networking. As you spend more time on Twitter, you begin to realize that Twitter purists aren’t fond of people who don’t take the time to actually visit and network, but are only in it for pure broadcasting reasons. Remember, this is called “Social” Media for a reason, right?

Anyhow, what this latest change might do is make those off-site users happy because they can sneak around behind Twitter’s back, and actually broadcast, I mean Tweet, from afar without their location being discovered. The purists won’t judge them as harshly, right?

YOUR THOUGHTS?

What do you think about all of these changes?

What do you like, or not like, about Twitter?

Just so you know, I happen to love Twitter as a communication and networking tool. I’ve been a student and user of the site for a little more than 4 years, so I welcome your input and questions.

Twitter bird photo credit: Travelin’ Librarian on Flickr

Yesterday, we talked about being confronted with unexpected negative publicity, and that we need to get all the right people around the table to talk about the what-ifs, and to prepare for them.

Another critical component we must consider, and which is increasingly possible today because of Social Media, is the importance of building equity in your brand every day.

Building brand equity is HUGE in times of trouble.

What Is Brand Equity?

If you and your firm have spent time and resources building relationships with your friends and followers, these unexpected episodes can be softened by the padding I will call pre-existing support and admiration, or Brand Equity. When we are referring to efforts solely online, it can be referred to as Social Capital.

It is that part of you (the brand) people have decided they want to buy, or support, or do business with. This doesn’t always mean they are going to spend money with you, but they have decided they like you, and they will go out of their way to support you. In essence, they feel like they own a part of you (the equity). They have bought in to you, and they’re happy about that.

It doesn’t happen overnight.

It takes regular interaction and conversation in Social Media, as well as in many other non-digital ways.

How does it work?

Picture it like a beach ball at a baseball game. You’ve seen them. They get tossed in to the crowd to bat around until someone is holding them when the music stops. They often win something for being the last one to hold that beach ball.

Similar to that beach ball, if you have built Brand Equity and you get in trouble, or experience negative publicity about your firm, those who already know, like and trust you might be willing to keep you up in the air while you issue apologies, comments, good deeds, remorse and whatever else needs to be done to make it right, or as right as possible.

The people who do this are sometimes called your Brand Advocates.  We will talk more about them in another post, but let me tell you, they are pure gold in the life of your business.

Sure, another negative comment will come along and, just like the ball, you’ll get dropped by someone every once in a while.  Then, suddenly, someone who wants to support you might just pick you up, post positive comments on your behalf, and try to help put you back in the game.

Even if they aren’t willing to post something positive on your behalf, those who are invested in you will be less likely to pile on, and will be much more forgiving, letting the matter slide, than those who have not.

That’s the power of Brand Equity.

Are you building Brand Equity?

Are you out there establishing the relationships necessary to not only build business, but to also encourage the kind of relationships that cause others to become your Brand Advocates?

There’s no time like the present to organize your efforts.

There’s no better time than today to begin finding those who will support you, and help keep you up in the air when crises arise.

Do you have Brand Advocates who will help support you in times of trouble?

Are you the beach ball others want to keep up in the air?

You’re ready, right?

Everything’s under control, isn’t it?

You’re about to watch a firestorm of negative publicity hit because of something you didn’t even mean to do, but you aren’t worried, right?

It could be anything…

• Your recent merger is falling apart at the seams, and blogs are swelling with excitement.
• You just had your entire Intellectual Property Team leave for Big Firm LLP down the street, and it’s all over Twitter.
• Someone in the firm just posted a photo from a firm event on Facebook that shows your client in a less than positive light, and it’s being shared.
• One of your partners was just pulled in on a DUI last night, and LinkedIn seems to know about it before you do.
• You could slip up like clothing brand Kenneth Cole, and say something unnecessarily callous in Social Media.

You and I could think of 50 different situations that might occur in your firm that could cause trouble for you in the public eye. We might consider one or two probable, a few possible, some remotely possible, some that would fall in to the “there’s no way” category, and some that would cause us to look at each other and shake our heads in disbelief.

Now we’re making progress!

Why? Because we’re talking about it.  We’re sitting around a table, on Skype, in a Google+ Hangout, or on the phone, planning strategy for what you should do if any of these happen to your firm.

Yesterday, my friend, Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich, a talented PR and Social Media strategist, wrote an excellent blog post titled Is All Publicity Good? on her Spin Sucks blog.  You really should take a few minutes to read it.

Gini’s bottom line, with which I wholeheartedly agree, is:

“Not all publicity is good for you, for your business, or for your community.”

One of the most important points Gini makes is this:

“Sure, not all news will be good news. Even the best companies will have some negative things written about them, but it’s in how you respond that makes, or breaks, the game.”

Another friend, Bill Dorman, Principal with insurance and risk management firm, Lanier Upshaw, asked how one should handle the kind of negative publicity that can ultimately take them under, and acknowledged that hindsight is much clearer than foresight.

I added my two, okay maybe four, cents to the discussion by adding:

“You can’t necessarily control it [the firestorm of bad publicity], but you can be smarter in the first place by thinking through what is being said in your firm, by training everyone about what has the potential to cause damage, come up with solutions, then train again and again and again, and then ten times more.”

Because of Social Media, positive and negative messages have the ability to spread like wildfire.

We are all vulnerable, but we can’t avoid it by ignoring Social Media.  As long as others have these communication tools at their disposal, we have no choice but to join them, and make good use of them.

It’s time to prepare.

It’s time to talk strategy with your Marketing, Social Media and Public Relations advisors.

It’s time to deal with all the what-ifs, even if you never need to employ the tactics suggested.

Then it’s time to continuously train those people who have any responsibility for dealing with human beings, then train them again, and again, and again.

Thanks Gini Dietrich and Bill Dorman for contributing to this post!

Thanks to Victor1558 for use of his photo under Creative Commons license.

The Social Media Lifecycle is like a roller coaster.

The conversation that revolves around Social Media, and Marketing overall, is evolving.   Many are becoming more sophisticated in their study and use of these communication tools, but many are not.

Some are becoming more comfortable with their use, but more confused about how they ramp up the understanding of the nuts and bolts of measurement, ROI, sales, the concept of inbound vs. outbound marketing, and much more.

As with any new product, practice team, development, revolution or service, there are Product Life Cycles that cause our marketing and business strategies to evolve.

Depending on where you study, what you read, or who you talk to, the stages of this Product Life Cycle resemble the following:

• Development
• Introduction
• Growth
• Maturity
• Saturation
• Decline
• Withdrawal

In the grand scheme of marketing and communication, social media are still very, very new.  Knowing that, it makes sense that not only Social Media will go through some iteration of the above product life cycle, but so will our knowledge of these topics.

As with any other study or discipline, we find that many go through different stages at the same time.  We will even go in and out, and up and down, through these stages multiple times….like a roller coaster!

This can cause a great deal of excitement, frustration, opportunity, disappointment, or any combination of these emotions and conditions, depending on where you and your firm are at the moment.

What becomes important during these stages is that we stay in touch with marketing, and all of its components in order to best serve our internal and external clients.

Keep these 5 lessons in mind:

1. Don’t assume you have all the answers.  Most of the answers haven’t even been developed yet!  Many of us know a lot, but we are constantly climbing the learning curve.
2. Crowdsource your ideas and knowledge.  If you don’t know how to do something, and you have time to do it yourself, ask for ideas, suggestions and answers.   If you don’t have time, or you should be focusing on another part of your business, see the next point.
3. Outsource your marketing and Social Media strategy if you don’t know what you’re doing.  After all, you wouldn’t design and build you own building if you didn’t know how to, would you?  Find someone to work with you to make it all make sense.
4. Never stop learning.  I don’t care what it is you’re trying to master….whether it’s marketing, finance, IT, golf, grilling the best steak in town or social media.  If it is important enough to you, never stop seeking the knowledge you need to do it better.
5. Be focused.  If you haven’t established goals for your business, your marketing efforts will likely be wasted.  Remember, random acts of kindness are wonderful. Random acts of marketing are not.

As always, please remember that I’m close-by if you need help evening out your roller coaster: nancy@myrlandmarketing.com

A week or so ago, my Social Media friend, attorney Brian Cuban, posted a link on his Facebook wall, leading to a Facebook story on FoxNews.com where a journalist prognosticated about the Social Networking site, saying it will disappear in less than a decade.

The author shared that:

“Facebook’s success will be short lived, according to one Wall Street analyst, predicting the site will ‘disappear’ in under a decade.”

and that…..

“despite all the hype and user growth, [Facebook] is still a one-and-done company that will fade away — like AOL and Yahoo before it.”

Several of us had a good time commenting on Brian’s wall about that, and pretty much came to the conclusion that sure, it might happen, or it might not, and that just about anyone can guess what the future will bring when it comes to Social Media because, what we all know is that, inevitably, it will change.  Someone mentioned Nostradamus, to which I (sarcastically, sorry) replied, “Nostraobvious!”

Seriously, the author made some very good points.  We were just having a little fun in the Prediction & Sarcasm Department.

What we all need to remember is that Social Media are relatively new tools in the world of Communication and Marketing.  Just yesterday, I found my first blog post on another platform that I had forgotten about, and it was dated 2007.  Who knows…I might run in to another one out there somewhere…maybe even dating back to, dare I say it, 2005!

My point is that even though 2007 sounds like a long time ago, and WOW, I’ve been blogging for 5 years, that is nothing compared to how long businesses have been marketing, and when we look at how long businesses have been marketing, we realize that Social Media are brand new tools, and still in their infancy.

They will definitely change.

They will grow.

Some will stay.

Some will go.

Wait, I’m beginning to sound like Dr. Seuss here….

Bottom line:  Change is the norm.  Flexibility is a requirement.

As marketers, communicators, businesspeople, professionals, educators, CEOs, or whatever your title might be today, you must learn what you can whenever you can when it comes to marketing your business, even if it means change, and force your mind to be as flexible as possible when it comes to integrating these tools in to your marketing efforts.

This is no time to sit back and watch because we think it’s all going to change tomorrow.  That has never been, and never will be, a valid excuse for not marketing our businesses.

(Image released under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

Image via CrunchBase

This morning I read an interesting post about the Facebook IPO by Innosight Manager Rebecca Waber on one of Harvard Business Review’s blogs.  It was titled The Facebook Investor You Never Want To Become.

Rebecca writes about the approach used by many investors of Facebook stock, which was to use “availability bias” in making their decision to buy the stock. Rebecca tells us that…

“Availability bias is the mental rule-of-thumb whereby we call to mind our personal knowledge of a topic in order to work out how important it is.”

She goes on to say that…

“It’s the reason so many people overestimate the danger of flying in airplanes or of having their children abducted, and underestimate the risk of getting cancer from lack of sunscreen or getting in a car accident. Airplane accidents and abductions are big news; they are memorable and easy to call to mind, so we overestimate their importance.”

What struck me was the decision-making process Rebecca suggested in her blog post, which she advises will help protect our organizations against making decisions using the availability bias.

• Focus on discovering customers’ needs. When you discover unmet customer needs, you naturally create a differentiated offering with true market value. Easy to say, but the trick here is to make sure you really are looking for customers’ needs — not just convincing yourself that customers need what you, or everyone else, want to make.
• Pursue a long-term strategy. In an effective strategy, short-term moves should be leading you toward a desired outcome in the long term. A collection of opportunistic bets, no matter how sure they seem in the moment, is not a strategy. Would any solid personal financial plan have advocated liquidating mutual and bond funds to bet the farm on Facebook?
• Don’t follow the herd. We’re all human, and there’s emotional comfort in doing what everyone else is doing. Recognize that feeling — and then make sure that you’re not letting it cloud your judgment. Be vigilant and actually evaluate each investment opportunity on its merits, not on its media profile.

I shared with Rebecca that her three suggestions articulate how I try to advise my clients, which is to create business and marketing plans keeping the following thoughts in mind:

• Use real intelligence from potential/clients, not just our own assumptions (or availability bias)
• To remember that marketing is not a sprint but a marathon
• Know that a me-too marketing strategy will get them exactly where they planned, and that’s looking just like those they are following or copying, if they are lucky.

Don’t we owe it to ourselves, stakeholders, staff, investors and families to make decisions based on the sound criteria outlined above?

Is jumping in to daily business and marketing decisions without a solid plan to back us up the way we know deep-down is sound and long-lasting?

Thanks, Rebecca, for inspiring this conversation, and thanks to Director of Digital Strategy for TMG, Andrew Hanelly, for sharing this post on Twitter.

I’ve been around long enough to have witnessed the beauty of advertising on broadcast media when broadcast media was all we had.

I cut my teeth in a heavily promotional environment at Time Warner Cable, where I spent nearly 10 years in Marketing Management, where we used existing tools such as radio, TV, direct mail, telemarketing, door-to-door sales, outdoor (billboard), special events and more to send our messages, and help super-charge our roughly 52-week promotional schedule.

DIRECT RESPONSE MARKETING & MARKET SOFTENERS

I loved it!

Boy, did we ever love making the phone ring.  We were doing our jobs right when that happened.  This was direct response marketing at its finest.  Dealing with the churn rate (turnover as a percentage of total customers) that came from a challenging market, along with the inability to form lasting relationships with our advertising, is another story for another day, but not one to be ignored in this story.   Stick with me because I’ll touch on this in a minute.

We “softened” the market with our promotional messages so our CSRs (customer service reps) could answer the phones, help current and potential customers figure out what they might like to buy, then take their order.  We also helped our door-to-door salespeople so the services they offered were more familiar when doors opened (which I’m still surprised people do in this day and age).

DISAPPOINTING PRACTICES USED BY THE TOP 50

Fast forward to today.  We have been given the gift of media that is a mixture of everything we need to begin to develop relationships with our current and potential clients and customers, as well as to sell our products and services.

My marketing heart breaks, however, when I see and read about some of the methods businesses and professionals are using in Social Media.  Reading a post by Marissa McNaughton, Community Manager for Modern Media, in The Realtime Report is what gave me pause, and got me thinking about how some are using Social Media these days.

Among other points, Marissa reported that in a December, 2011 study,

“94% [of the Top 50 brands] direct Facebook comments to a one-way communication page - either a tab or closed Facebook wall where users do not have the ability to initiate conversation.  This has changed little since 2010, when 91% of the top 50 brands led consumers to one-way communication on Facebook.  The majority of these brands are also not responding to fan comments: 56% did not respond to a single customer comment on their Facebook page in 2011 (the same as in 2010).”

Do you remember what I said above when I talked about not having the ability to form lasting relationships with our current and potential customers in our advertising at Time Warner, and how that was partially responsible for the churn we experienced?

I’m not blaming it all on our one-way, broadcast-based advertising and communication because a portion of the market we served was economically-challenged.  Knowing what I know now, I realize it was definitely a contributing factor.

WHAT HAS CHANGED?

We now have tools at our disposal that allow us…

• To actually talk to people
• To find out what’s on their minds
• To find out what they like
• To find out what they don’t like
• To find out what they wish they had
• To find out what their problems are
• To find out what delivery methods they prefer
• To find out what goes on in their day-to-day lives that might impact their ability to survive
• To find out what our competitors offer
• …and a thousand more ideas

…yet some of us are using Social Media to broadcast our messages, and no more?

Please!

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

The days of only having one-way broadcast media, with nothing to complement it that helps to form relationships, is long gone my friends.

If we are using Social Media as a one-way tool to broadcast our messages, we are not only disrespecting and abusing the tools we have been given as marketers and communicators, but we are disrespecting the people with whom we have decided we would like to do business.

If this describes your brand, please stop it TODAY!

How?

For starters:

1. Begin to have conversations.
2. Follow up on comments that people make that tell you they are in need.
3. Thank people.
4. Apologize to people.
5. Answer their questions.
6. Acknowledge their frustrations.
7. Get off your pedestals and meet your clients where they are, not where you want them to be.
8. Don’t hide.
9. Be humble.
10. Don’t sell before you have earned the right to.

Here we are….in a world of Social Media, where Social means just what it says….being social with people in an effort to develop lasting relationships….and we have reverted to a world of broadcast media because it’s safe, it takes too much time to do otherwise, or it’s all we know how to do?

As Bruce Buchanan, Marketing Copywriter with the 550-attorney global law firm, Womble Carlyle, shared with me on Twitter:

“Social Media is a dialogue.”

We have to get past this, okay?

Stop broadcasting.

Begin communicating, really communicating, which implies conversation, or dialogue.

After all, you are much more interested in lasting relationships than one-hit, one-time direct-response marketing transactions, aren’t you?

If you are interested in this topic, you might like to read: Please Don’t Tape My Mouth Shut

You signed up for this thing called Twitter a while back for one of a few reasons:

Do any of these sound familiar?

1. You weren’t quite sure what to do with it, but you knew you needed to reserve your name so it wouldn’t be taken when you were ready.
2. You were ready to reach out to others that you want to do business with.
3. You were ready to develop relationships with people important to the development of your business.
4. You were ready to learn more in your practice area.
5. You wanted to watch how others tackled Twitter.

During the past week, I’ve been using a site, ManageFlitter, that will help me manage my Twitter followers.  I wanted to see who wasn’t following me back, who has been inactive, who has certain keywords in their profiles, and a few other selection criteria that will help me add and clean up some followers.

One of the criterion they offer, which we’ll address today, is to find those who have the Twitter egg as their avatar…the one you see above.  It’s Twitter’s default avatar that is used before you upload your photo.  It helps you get started quickly so you can begin to establish your presence and make contact with others.

Here’s my friendly advice to those of you who still have the egg:  Get rid of it!

Nothing says “I’m not committed to marketing” more on Twitter than allowing the newbie egg that hasn’t hatched to stay on your profile.

Whether you mean for it to, or not, it says:

• You aren’t serious about presenting yourself to the public.
• You are hiding behind the egg.
• You aren’t serious about having people get to know you here.
• You’re not yet ready for prime time.

As I said, this may not be your intention, but it is probably how you’re being perceived.

People like to have an idea who they’re networking with in Social Media.  They do this not only by your words, but also by being able to see your face.  Would you like your new Followers to think:

“Hi…nice to meet you Egg!  You’ve never looked so…well, oval.”

You are risking a lot of “unfollows” by people you might be interested in getting to know by leaving the egg up as your avatar.  How do I know this?  Because one of the criteria on ManageFlitter is to take a look at those followers who have No Profile Image, which means the Twitter egg.

It’s one of the criteria I’m using to review those I’m following to see who’s serious about being on Twitter.  What I’m finding is that there are people who have Tweeted often, and recently, and still haven’t uploaded a photo.

There are also those who haven’t Tweeted in months or years, and those don’t surprise me, but it’s those who are conversational and still haven’t uploaded a photo that took me by surprise.

C’mon, let’s take care of this today.  Log on to your Twitter account, and get a real picture uploaded so we can see your face.  It will only take a few seconds.

After all, you don’t walk in to networking lunch or a board room with a mask on your face, do you?  You shouldn’t be doing that here either.

About a year ago, Twitterville author Shel Israel wrote a blog post titled “My Predictions for 2011″ on his blog Global Neighbourhoods.

One of his predictions that resonated with me at the time was Number 9. Shel wrote:

“The Chinese government will accelerate its suppression of free speech on the Internet. Simultaneously, more Chinese people will bypass the government censors. It will be many years before the government realizes there are too many voices and they have too few ears and that control simply cannot work.”

The comment I shared on his blog was:

“Number 9 will have monumental consequences around the world. The practice of governments demonstrating arrogance, fear and suppression by taming human beings from the simple act of communicating with others around the world has been the norm for many centuries, but they will have no choice but to loosen as people become smarter than those who govern them. This will cause governments to act even more idiotic, and more suppressive, and attempt to inflict more punishment, but the will and the passion of people around the world will make their attempts laughable at best. This will change the face of the world as these people will begin to shape the conversation of their oppressive leaders. I look forward to welcoming [these] fellow human beings to the conversation.”

As I look back, it is apparent Shel and I agreed about events that ended up coming to fruition. Governments didn’t necessarily “loosen” their grip on communication, but their power did slip away as people found strength in words, actions, support and alliances, and found ways around restrictions that became surmountable because of the passion and creativity that was driven by their hunger for freedom.

It is interesting to look back at the major revolutionary events that took place around the world in 2011 that were aided by the people’s ability to organize and communicate via Social Media.

• Mathew Ingram reported in GigaOm in January that a revolution in Tunisia may have been affected by Twitter.
• Craig Kanally provided links to summaries of the Egyptian revolution in The Huffington Post in January.
• In May, the Christian Science Monitor‘s Gloria Goodale wrote about how Libya’s revolution was fought out across Social Media.

One comment Gloria wrote that stood out to me was:

“Every generation’s revolutionaries have harnessed the latest technology, from patriots pamphleting in 1775 to Egyptians texting in 2011. Thanks to YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, today’s Libyan rebels are having a dialogue with the globe, not just each other.”

We are, indeed, living in a remarkable time when we can have dialogue with anyone, anywhere in the world about just about anything we choose at any time.

We can even share our predictions with friends, acquaintances and those we may never meet face-to-face, right Shel?

Now, kind readers, it’s your turn…

• What happened this year in Social Media that made an impression on you?
• What did you predict for 2011?
• Did anything surprise you?
• Did anything disappoint you?
• Did something happen that you never would  have predicted?

Special thanks to my friends Kenan Farrell, Megan McCready, Deborah Hendrickson and Rob Hart for answering my post on Facebook asking for a list of revolutions that took place in 2011.

Myrland Marketing Moment:

Blog posts don’t always have to be keynote-worthy. Sometimes short is better!

Related articles

• Should Social Media Be in the Hands of Interns? (myrlandmarketing.com)
• Social Media: No One Starts in the Middle (myrlandmarketing.com)
• Social Media: Who Should Lead the Charge? (myrlandmarketing.com)

Over on Facebook, my friend and colleague, Tim Corcoran, a senior executive with Hubbard One, posted a link to an MSNBC Technolog story about Google+, which stated there was a 60% drop in use after a 1200% surge in users after opening up to the public in mid-September.

Tim said:

“I joined G+ the first week, but haven’t spent more than 10 minutes there since.  90% of the friend requests are from people I don’t know, whereas 95% of my FB friends and 75% of my LinkedIn connections are familiar to me.  I just don’t have the energy to dig in at the moment.”

I joined the conversation by sharing:

“I’m not spending as much time there as I did in the first 6-8 weeks, but that’s partially because I was in a heavy learning phase at that point.  This happens with every new product or service I use.  I’m also distracted by other responsibilities, which adds to less time there overall.  Given those two factors, I regret that I am not spending as much time there as I’d like to because I like what I’m learning over there.  There is a great deal of sharing going on, so the ability to learn and educate is strong.”

INTEREST AND EXCLUSIVITY

I continued:

“There is another issue that has been on my mind since Google Plus’s early days.  There was a great deal of interest and enthusiasm for G+ when it launched on June 28.  It got A LOT of press, conversation, WOMM (word of mouth marketing) and interest from all over the world.  It wasn’t open to everyone, so that caused some pent-up demand as it was beginning to be perceived as the place to be…’if they would just let me in!’ “

A MISSED WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY?

“However, Google let too much time slip by, perhaps missing a window that stayed open for several weeks. Enthusiasm from potential users was diminished, partially because they got irritated that is was too exclusive with the invitation-only entry, but also because people are very busy, and somewhat overwhelmed with the other tools they are still using and learning.”

WHEN PEOPLE ARE EXCITED, THEY MAKE THE TIME.

This doesn’t mean they won’t recover that momentum, and that good marketing and product development can’t help them relaunch to the masses in addition to those of us who were early adopters, particularly when they launch business pages, but they have now given themselves an additional obstacle to overcome, haven’t they?  When people are excited about something, they make the time to investigate and use it.  When their enthusiasm is dampened, it takes extra effort to build it up again.”

Our discussion continued, when our friend, Mike O’Horo, Co-founder of RainmakerVT, shared his perspective:

“It may be that Google is simply too late to the party because few people have the mental bandwidth or time to support another social network.”

To which I replied:

“People ARE definitely stretching themselves to support the Social that they are involved in, so your statement is on target.  The reality, however, is that these tools will come and go, new ones will be developed, and our involvement will continue to grow.

We will probably see new tools developed to help people choose, target, economize, find efficiencies, measure, etc., but I don’t see how we will be able to stand still for long.  Change and growth in tools will force change in behavior.  Resources will have to grow to enable use of appropriate marketing tools….the same issues we’ve been challenged with in marketing for years, right?

The difference today is that these tools are not as passive as the traditional ones we’ve used in the past.  They require involvement and engagement, so if our potential/clients are using them, we have to find ways to meet or lead them, or we risk losing opportunity.”

Don’t get me wrong.  I like Google+.  I hope it finds a way to thrive because I like the conversation, Google+’s nuances, the amount of content and education that exists there, the ability to “hang out” with people via video from all over the world, and other interesting features.  It’s simply that, from my marketing and sales perspective, an initial window of opportunity, when tremendous interest and enthusiasm was present and growing, was missed.  I know the service was being perfected because it was still in Beta, or field trial as Google called it, and Google was admirably taking advantage of generous feedback being given by many of us using it from the start.

A LESSON TO BE LEARNED

Let this be a lesson to every firm, company and organization out there that has a new, shiny practice, a rockstar addition to add to its staff, a new office or location, or a new book, product or service to offer.  Yes, build your marketing plans so that you build momentum in phases, but be careful not to tire your audience before you ever let them have what it is you’ve spent so much time and money planning and building.  There are too many other choices and distractions out there.

Sure, tease your audiences with announcements if you can get away with it, but watch your timing, exclusivity and messaging closely so you are ready to announce, or launch, when you’ve built enthusiasm to its peak.

Don’t miss meeting passion at its peak.

THE SOLUTION

Do I know the exact solution for Google at this moment?  No, I don’t.  There’s no way a marketing or business adviser worth his/her salt could provide an informed solution to any business without further analysis and discussion, which is why I’ve invited you here today.

SO NOW IT’S YOUR TURN….

What do you think about Google+?

• Do you use it?
• Do you like it?
• Do you agree with me?
• What is the future of Google+?
• What should Google+ do to continue to build momentum?

For related posts on Google+, I invite you to read: