Using Our Social Networks to Affect Change

In the past two years I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with great minds like Brian Solis on my book, and later folks like Toby Bloomberg, Jason Falls, Amber Naslund and Beth Harte on blog posts. This week I collaborated with Joseph Jaffe for one of his Jaffe Juice podcasts; a fantastic discussion about how we as social media voices have the power to affect great change with our social networks (download here).

We often get stuck in the conversations about marketing and communications here, but social networks are about people. And we have a great opportunity to make a difference every day and affect change. There are many ways to do that, including fundraising, political activism, education, and much more. We in many ways have an obligation as members of larger communities to do this.

We discussed Dave Armano’s effort to help a victim of domestic abuse. For further information and analysis see Beth’s blog for a marketplace discussion of Armano’s effort.

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We also talked about LComm’s project with Save Darfur, and were joined by Allyn Brooks, who talked about about Social Philanthropy and the Darfur crisis.

Our question to you, the social media consumer: What are you waiting for? Add your voice now: http://www.addyourvoice.org/ – send President Obama a postcard and play your part to Save Darfur. Or do something else and affect change within your network and the world… One person at a time.

 

DC’s Big O Party

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This post may seem a little bit off the beaten path, but as one of the leading marketing blogosphere outposts from the Capitol Region, it seemed appropriate to shed a little light on a once in a lifetime phenomenon happening here. The Obama inauguration is transforming DC into a gigantic celebration similar to a New Orleans Mardi Gras or a New Year in the Big Apple.

This will be my fifth inauguration since moving to the district in 1992 (I’ve live here for 16 of the last 17 years), and none of them have been as celebratory as this one. Longer term residents, including some who saw Kennedy inugurated, say that this is a completely unique event.

Consider the parties. The usual events — dubbed inaugural balls — feature several black tie parties. This year, in addition to the ten official inaugural sponsored balls, wide swaths of congressional delegations, political bodies and special interests are throwing their own balls and parties. Further, the District has passed a temporary waiver on late night bar hours for the four-day festivus weekend.

It’s to the point that the city will pretty much shut down next Tuesday for security reasons as 1-3 million visitors flood the National Mall to witness the 44th president taking his vows. We actually are closing for the four day inaugural weekend as the preceding Monday is MLK day, a federal holiday, and most of LComm lives across the bridges and could not come to work on inauguration Tuesday anyway.

I will be attending my first ball on Sunday night, the Lincoln 2.0 ball sponsored by the District of Columbia. This one is particularly fitting as the inauguration has taken on the Lincoln theme, celebrating the other famous president from Illinois. Lincoln 2.0 is being held at the same place as Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 Inaugural Ball, what is known today as the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Then there are the floods of celebrities and performers coming in to witness history. It may as well be Oscar night!

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Every administration seems to affect the city (Washington Post’s Linda Davidson photo shows Obama visiting Washington institution Ben’s Chili Bowl). The Bush I years were conservative yet solid. The Clinton years, well, they were wild, but open, fun, and sometimes contentious. The Bush II years were just downright repressive at times. I’ll never forget driving across the Key Bridge months after 9-11 and seeing a tank pointing its canon across the bridge from Georgetown.

Like the rest of the country, Obama’s win seems to have set off a sigh of relief in DC. And one hell of a big inauguration party. Only time will tell how the cultural feel of the city will change, but until then all eyes are on O.

What about your neck of the woods? Any special inaugural activities planned?

 

Geoff Livingston Embraces and Changes Personal Brand for 2009

After much thinking and several conversations with the LComm team, I’ve decided to embrace the personal brand marketing theory. And, based on that theory it is evident that I need a new image for 2009. I mean, who needs value?

Thanks for the great year of interaction and discussion on the Buzz Bin. From all of us at Livingston Communications have a fantastic holiday season, and we’ll see you in 2009.

 

Ducati Streetfighter: The Social Media Campaign That Never Was

Ducati recently launched its new Streetfighter motorcycle with a reveal video and at the EICMA conference. Both events have been captured on YouTube, but for several reasons this online launch marks another corporate social media failure.

Yay. YouTube, but is that really social? Consider the lack of discussion on Twitter. How about blog posts? Only 285 in Technorati in all languages, including all of the prelaunch rumors.

In my mind, that means the community was not engaged. Companies who experiment with social media often make this mistake. They publish content instead of interacting with their stakeholders. They push messaging instead of engaging the community. Influencer relations and knowing the prominent Ducati owner and motorcycle influencers to involve them in the launch would have been savvy. Consider India’s Bikers on the Fastrack Facebook Group.

Heck, even the official web site doesn’t have the basic tagging and sharing principles that any major online product release should have. I don’t care whether you call that a social media release or just common sense. Consider that the reveal photos were not issued on Flickr though lots of folks at the show took them.

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In addition to influencer relations and posting content in socially accessible locations, here are several pointers that Ducati could have benefited from:

  • Choose the right medium. Was a private URL with a flash video the right place? Or a blog where people could comment? Or a Facebook group? It all depends on the Ducati community.
  • Bookmarks: Let people bookmark and share your content with their communities
  • Whether direct marketing or PR, know what you want searched. Make that text prominent!
  • Campaigns like this can use specific hashtags. Encourage the community to use a specific tag! Have the hashtag or tag clearly and prominently associated with the effort or content (calls to action, too).
  • What else would you suggest for this effort?

     

    The Now Is Gone Bookiversary

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    Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of Now Is Gone’s release! So much has happened since then, it’s been amazing and humbling at the same time. Thank you to everyone who supported Now Is Gone (image by lunaweb).

    I know Brian Solis also was humbled by the reception towards the book. For me, it was a life changing event (may write more about this on Off Hours), and the culmination of a 15 year dream of becoming an author.

    Consider some of the milestones:

  • Thousands of people have read the book
  • We’ve received hundreds of thank yous from folks who said it changed their business life
  • Ike Pigott, Lauren Vargas and I wrote 200 accompanying blog posts on the Now Is Gone blog
  • Now Is Gone received more than 50 positive reviews
  • It was cited by the Wall Street Journal as a resource for small businesses (thank you, Scott Monty)
  • and, it won a silver Axiom Business Book Award
  • Perhaps the most exciting news is that we are approximately 2/3 of the way through the first print edition, and are starting to weigh edits/changes to the original manuscript. The second edition will provide an update, as well as the lessons learned. Some likely changes include more on influencer relations, more on social networks, less on blogs, more on the media’s use of social media, and fewer typos

    A Final Bow for First Edition Sources

    The following bloggers had either blog posts cited in and/or were interviewed for the first edition of Now Is Gone. Some of them won’t make it to the second edition as the book will change quite a bit.

    These sources will remain listed permanently on the Now Is Gone blog to honor them and provide business readers additional source material. If you have questions about marketing the book, or the use of bloggers as sources, I refer you to the previous post, “Marketing Now Is Gone.” To the bloggers, thank you for creating great content in the new media world. The book’s sources are:

     

    Rebutting Six Arguments for Personal Brands

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    Since last Thursday’s post, “I Don’t Care About Your Personal Brand,” there have been many conversations about why personal brands are or are not valid marketing models (image by Nirav Mehta). There have been some threads that unite to form general arguments for the personal brand, which deserve some discussion. Why? Because they fail to serve social media communicators who work with actual companies.

    1) Self-centeredness: I’ve heard self awareness and self fulfillment as reasons to cultivate personal brands. Why don’t we just call this category self-centered since it’s the personal brand using excuses about self worth to cultivate a personal brand.

    How does ego-centric branding help a corporation? Why would deploying self-centered brands positively help them affect change, stop contrived messaging and engage in real conversations?

    Like the personal brand, companies have been too self-centered, and not market centric. This is the heart of the Cluetrain Manifesto. Any social media consultant needs to read this book, otherwise they will not understand the underpinnings of the social web.

    Companies need to stop BS, and start conversing in real dialogue, as opposed to employing rock stars who may or may not offer value in conversations about larger products/solutions and market needs. Social media requires a human voice, not a rock star personal brand. Just a real person with a real voice reaching out in a genuine conversation.

    I will say the two can coincide if the personality adheres to the company role. Consider Scott Monty and Shashi Bellamkonda.

    2) Personal brands work for consultants: True. It works for the person. That’s great if you are an author or an independent “Army of One.”

    See, the problem is an individual consultant’s model – personal branding – is being sold to companies, and it doesn’t work on a large scale. It does not work for corporate communications – my primary focus. Companies by their very definition are more than one person.

    If you are Microsoft do you really want another Robert Scoble to come and go? Further, personal brands and rock stars undermine teams and the kind of collaborative cultures necessary for corporate success.

    It’s about we, not me. This is a universal facet of all successful life relationships — personal or business. Look how $200 million worth of all-stars have benefited the New York Yankees. Zero rings since 2000.

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    3) Social Media: But it’s social media! Really? I don’t think there’s anything social about a contrived personal brand. I think being genuine and allowing your personality to come through in a conversation is social. Social media implies more than one (as does communications) in a conversation, and conversations offer genuine dialogue between people, not personal brands.

    Personal branding is all about the individual. So when we communicate personal brands in social media spaces we’re messaging at people, rather than engaging with them. That makes for a pretty bad conversation, IMO. See Cluetrain again, and spare me the personal brand BS.

    If you are over-cultivating an intentional personal brand, it’s contrived for business (or vanity) and does not equate to a real conversation. Conversations become a notch in your belt towards achieving your self-image rather than a meaningful, sincere two way conversation.

    4) Personal branding is about building value: Really? Maybe. The way I was taught branding is that a brand is a promise about a service to the marketplace that’s communicated through visual and verbal communications, as well as the actual product/service experiences.

    Building value is about selling stuff to people. Trust me, I do it everyday when I send emails to prospects that contain links to valuable articles related to their business.

    So is personal branding promising to deliver something to the market, or is it salesmanship? If that persona is a consultant or an author then I would say a personal brand. But if not, I might argue the latter — it’s selling in the classic Jeffrey Gitomer sense.

    And if building value is really branding an individual vis a vis thought leadership, how does that personal brand translate to a company’s brand and value proposition? It doesn’t do so very naturally, and I don’t see it as a smart social communications strategy for a company.

    5) You need personality online: Yes! This is true. That’s why we recommend Rohit Bharagava’s book to clients who struggle with this. But there’s a difference between being yourself, and manifesting contrived “Flair” online. Sooner or later BS like this gets called out, or loses attention from the community.

    The most successful individuals with thousands of followers on Twitter (the home of the personal brand) are those that just let it hang out in a natural way. They don’t monitor Qwitter for optimal following, etc. Instead, they do what they do, and share what they want. There’s no real formal strategy.

    6) But you yourself are a personal brand: Am I? Umm, until someone else besides me gets Now Is Gone tattooed on their body, I’m not buying it. It’s gotta take more than a couple thousand friends and followers to become a brand. That bar is way too low. No, I’m just another mouthy blogger. Search Technorati, you’ll find we’re a dime a dozen (image by Shashi Bellamkonda).

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    No one comes to this company because I ride a Ducati. Or because I am particularly vocal on Twitter and on marketing issues like this one. In fact, one could argue that while my personality online rings through and I am genuine, that these aspects of my personality turn away some business opportunities. Clients come to us because of a proven, award-winning track record of social media successes.

    Further, Geoff Livingston, the individual, is not Livingston Communications. There is more than a handful of people operating under this masthead, all with their own personal brand identities. In reality, promising me as Livingston Communications would be bad branding because it would be a lie. I can’t do all or even most of the work. That’s why we are a company, and one that hopes to add ownership partners in 2009.

    I made this same point to personal brander Dan Schawbel. For the record, if you are an individual seeking to build a good consulting brand, I do think Dan’s blog offers great value..

     

    Solutions Stars: Building Web Presence

    Solutions Stars Video Conference | Starts October 29 at 1 PM EST

    Originally, when we began planning the Solutions Stars Video Conference for Network Solutions (Oct. 29 at 1, don’t miss it!), we originally though we’d feature individual interviews of our 32 marketing experts. However, upon reviewing the interviews it became clear that content themes were occurring across the interviews, creating areas of particular interest. Namely:

    * Building Web Presence
    * The Social Opportunity
    * Start with Listening
    * Strategy Drives Outreach
    * You Need Social Networks
    * To Blog or Not to Blog
    * Visibility Through Search
    * Rising Above the Noise
    * Time Demands

    As we prepare for the conference in 9 days, which will provide free insights and online marketing tips to small businesses, it seems like a good idea to provide some Buzz Bin thoughts on each section. As a fellow marketer and editor of the videos, selecting the themes and then thinking about them afterwards caused me to reflect. So I’ll do nine posts in nine days, one on each section. The first is web presence.

    Building Web Presence

    The marketers featured in this section are:

  • Tim Ferriss, Best Selling Author of Four Hour Work Week
  • Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder, All-Top
  • Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
  • Wendy Piersall, CEO of Sparkplugging.com
  • Warren Whitlock, Book Marketing Strategist, BestSellerAuthors.com
  • Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Software
  • Richard Becker, CEO of Copywrite, Ink
  • David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media and Client Strategy, 360i
  • Mari Smith, Relationship Marketing Specialist
  • Becky McCray, Author, SmallBizSurvival.com
  • Jason Falls, Blogger, Social Media Explorer
  • Gina McCauley, Founder of Blogging While Brown
  • Jay Berkowitz, Author , Podcaster, and Keynote Speaker, Ten Golden Rules
  • In today’s economic world where the accessibility of the American dream seems endangered, there still lies the web. In fact, many businesses – from part-time stay at home parents to billion dollar powerhouses like Amazon and Zappos — have built their entire front facing organization online. Here, on the Internet, anything goes, and wild dreams come true.

    Web presence offers the great equalizer. David can earnestly fight Goliath on the Internet, because one domain is just as good as another. It’s what you do with it. And often subject matter expertise can become diluted or lost in large organizations, providing David the opportunity to win.
    For a company not to have a web presence today – even a dry cleaner – seems foolish. It’s the first place people go to find anything. Search dominates everything. I found my local Chinese delivery joint using Google!

    So failing to have a web presence is simply turning away the greatest marketing opportunity a small business has. In addition, B2B organizations and consultants, which are often relationship driven businesses, have an even greater opportunity to build one on one opportunities online without expending hundreds, thousands of dollars on networking events.

    Creating the Presence

    Building a web presence can be an extremely fear-filled experience for an entrepreneur. There’s so much technical jargon, and boot strap start-ups often find hiring a consultant to be cost prohibitive.
    In 1994, my first job was writing articles for the Consumer Electronics Association’s CE Network News. One of my first assignments was writing up this funny Internet software called Mosaic (now mostly experienced via FireFox), created by this fellow named Marc Andressen.

    So much has changed since then, and the tools have become much easier to use. Whether it’s starting your web presence using free blog tools like WordPress or Blogger, or getting an early version web site via a domain name registrar and hosting company (thank you to Solutions Stars Video Conference Financier Network Solutions), companies can pretty much use simple templates and fill in text and graphics.

    Software packages like WordPress and Blogger even allow you to use your own domain. And owning your own domain is critical. Consider the value of search engines again. Do you want to send someone to the WordPress site where your presence is just one of many, or drive in bound links to a unique URL. The long term and intelligent thing to do from a branding and search perspective is to invest in your domain and hosting, regardless of how you build the site.

    From there, it comes down to marketing savoir faire and the viability of your product and service. Marketing online has its own nuances, and the remaining eight Solutions Stars Video Conference sessions focus on getting the word out.

    In addition to the main site, please visit the Solutions Stars Video Conference event pages on Facebook and Upcoming:

     

    Solutions Stars Video Conference Delivers Online Marketing Tips

    Solutions Stars Video Conference | Starts October 29 at 1 PM EST

    Network Solutions is producing the Solutions Stars Video Conference on October 29 at 1 p.m. This free video conference aims to provide insights and online marketing tips to small businesses. It will be of great service to small businesses, particularly now that the economy has gotten tough, and it’s not as easy to attend a conference in person.

    As author of Now Is Gone, it was an honor to work with Network Solutions Social Media Swami Shashi Bellamkonda and the 32 top bloggers who participated and shot videos with us at BlogWorld Expo.  The conference features nine different documentary style video sessions:

    • Building Web Presence
    • The Social Opportunity
    • Start with Listening
    • Strategy Drives Outreach
    • You Need Social Networks
    • To Blog or Not to Blog
    • Visibility Through Search
    • Rising Above the Noise
    • Time Demands

    In addition to Now Is Gone Co-Author Brian Solis, Solutions Stars include:

  • Tim Ferriss, Best Selling Author of Four Hour Work Week
  • Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder, All-Top
  • Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
  • Darren Rowse, Author, ProBlogger
  • Chris Brogan, Vice President of Strategy, CrossTech Media
  • Rohit Bhargava, Author of Personality Not Included
  • Wendy Piersall, CEO of Sparkplugging.com
  • Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger, Dell
  • Steve Hall, Publisher and Editor of Ad Rants
  • Scott Monty, Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager, Ford Motor Company
  • Liz Strauss, Social Web Strategist, Successful Blog
  • Toby Bloomberg, CEO, Bloomberg Marketing
  • I hope you can participate in this  conference and conversation. It will be well worth your while, with lots of great insights.

    In addition to the main site, please visit the Solutions Stars Video Conference event pages on Facebook and Upcoming:

     

    Attitude and Actions

    Much to do about the economic times. Rumors of layoffs at the big agencies are percolating in the DC area. Accounts are starting to get cut. Many folks are waiting for the other shoe to drop. But this fear creates more issues than one can imagine, and in some cases can be a self fulfilling prophecy.

    I remember the last recession, we had so many telecom clients it required my agency at that time to lay off people in four or five different waves. It was like someone dropped a bomb in the office. Those of us left were shell-shocked, but we pulled out of it.

    Though we were disturbed, we kept focused and continued to work. In fact, we worked smarter, focusing our actions on intelligent activities that would make our time valuable.

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    “Twin” Greg Verdino (right) and I demonstrate positive attitudes. Earlier that day the stock market crashed.

    The big secret was that by getting results we felt better about our own futures and contributions. Attitude — feelings — followed action. Feelings and attitudes, while very powerful, are not facts. Business facts and results get determined by actions. Therefore, in a time like this with headlines like these, it’s even more important to keep moving forward.

    In an email to my team this week, I wrote:

    This kind of fear can be contagious. Empathy and sympathy are obvious reactions, but we need to guard ourselves from letting this fear into our hearts. We cannot afford it… we need to focus on taking small, actionable steps in the right direction. These right steps will keep our minds focused, deliver results, and maintain positive attitudes.

    It’s easy to get fancy with theory and wild campaigns in a time like this, but really survival success is based on executing on the little things. Basic fundamentals make the difference.

    Another key aspect of success lies in eliminating busy work, and focusing on actions that deliver meaningful results. Anyone can fill a time sheet with junk, but sooner or later it comes back to the results. And if the results are lacking in a down economy, it’s likely they will be called into question sooner rather than later. That’s why making sure actions are geared towards producing results is even more important now.

    For example, if you are a sales executive does it make sense to worry about the next generation brochure or a new contact manager right now? Should you be reinventing the sales PPT template? Or would it make more sense to make some phone calls, attend an events, and schedule meetings with old clients?

    Just an old tip for this recession: Mood follows action.

     

    Media Responsibility in a Time of Crisis

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    The media’s sensational coverage of the current financial crisis has exacerbated the situation, creating widespread public fear. As mentioned on Friday’s post about the recession’s impact on our sector, no better story typifies this than CNN’s outlandish interpretation of a poll as depicted in this story, “Poll: 60% say depression ‘likely.’” Capitalizing even further, CNN ran an associated video this weekend about safe jobs in their forecasted nuclear winter.

    But as the Washington Post reported on Saturday, the sensational headlines were widespread last week. The word crisis was mentioned in headlines 92 times. Fear was used 21 times, and meltdown 15 times. The Post went so far as to question what doomsday words like Bubble and Crash actually mean.

    As the Inquisitr points out, while the media may be calling for the end of the world, this is not 1929. No one is jumping out windows. It was great to see the Washington Post take a step back and question the media’s coverage.

    Frankly, this will be a serious correction. But the world will not end. After Wall Street stops its self-flagellation, there will be repercussions, much of which is unclear. If the media was doing a better job reporting this story, the facts would be easier to grasp.

    No one really trusts the media anymore, and last week’s hysterics were just another reason not to believe. Rather than running side by side with Wall Street in a panic stricken freak out, the media should act more professionally. Fear-mongering does not represent a professional effort… Unless you write horror movie scripts!

    As we move into the layoff phase of the downturn, the media owes it to the public to do more than pour gasoline on everyone’s fears. It’s time for journalists to be responsible and get back to checking facts, and educate the public about the actual economics of the financial crisis and resulting job market. Maybe then the public can intelligently approach the new market conditions, as opposed to simply reacting.