New Media Mavens

So You've Been to the White House Tweetup, Now What?

 

Yesterday had a great thrill to visit the White House, take pics and meet President Obama. Yes, it was thrilling!

I was one of a handful of people invited to the first ever White House Tweetup. (Note: If you want to read my moment-by-moment Tweeting, check out my Twitter page @alisonwoo.)

But being with a group of cool, digitally connected people made me think...what if we took this ball and ran with it? Clearly the big issue of the day is jobs and the economy. What if each of the "tweeps" (that's Twitter people, people) went back to their local communities and held Tweetups to talk not just about the problems but maybe start to brainstorm solutions about what everyone can do to start getting the economy moving forward again.

Clearly, there are a lot of issues when it comes to jobs and the economy. Many of them are interlinked. A hint of some of the topics that came up yesterday included:

• Creating jobs
• Sustaining jobs
• Helping entrepreneurs with start-ups
• Building a stronger economy
• Housing
• Helping veterans
• The need for better education
• Finding support for teachers and students in classrooms
• Sustainability issues
• The need for technology and innovation

This idea doesn't even have to be limited to the original "tweeps" who attended the event. This could be done by anyone, anywhere.

I'll put myself out on the line and say I'm going to start today to start arranging groups in NYC (my hometown), Charlotte, NC (where I've lived for the last nine years) and Princeton, NJ (my new hometown.)

In the coming days, weeks, months, I'll use this space to share ideas, best practices, etc.

It's so easy to feel like the problems we face as a nation are so overwhelming and what could one person do to change that. But if we band together...aka Tweetup...maybe we just may find some solutions. At the very least, we should try! Isn't that what enlightened democracy is about?

Anybody interested?

Alison Woo. Digital Strategist. Co-author "How to Say It: Marketing with New Media" Penguin, 2008. E-mail me at woo at alisonwoo dot com. Follow me @alisonwoo.

What the Oscars Can Teach You About How to Use New Media

 

The awards have been given out; the parties are over and now it's time to figure out what's next.

If you watched last night's Oscar telecast, while you may not have loved James Franco, the whole thing gave me pause to wonder, is this the wave of the future?

Before the event, they made a huge splash about how this was going to be the hip, new Oscars and not just a TV show but a multimedia event. How did they do? Like everything there was some good, some bad and some things every business can do better.

The Good...

• Tons of promotion in both online and offline venues from the onset. There was huge use of TV ads, print and publicity to get the point across that there would be additional content online.
• There's an app for that. The iPhone/iPad ap was only $0.99 vs. the $4.99 all-access pass you could get if you wanted to watch exactly the same content on your laptop. Best part, even after the show, the ap had the best part of the ceremonies: those very smart clips and highlight reels. Hello P.S. 22 singers...we wish you were on earlier!
• A lot of different types of content. At any given time there were at least 8-10 additional camera feeds  you could watch and a great interactive map to help you figure out where you want to be. From a user design standpoint, it was fabulous!

The Bad...

• You need to be entertained. Let's not forget that at the heart of this entertainment extravaganza, you need to be entertained. Those additional feeds had very little to offer. The backstage camera was positioned so that I watched the back of Gayle King for the entire show as she grabbed winners off the stage. If you want people to tune in at various times, give them something to tune in for.
• You need a host. During the red carpet arrivals, there was E!, the official ABC sanctioned telecast, the Oscar.com website and the ap all providing feed. What was the most compelling? Hands down it was E! Who not only had compelling interviews with each celeb but also had fashion analysis from Giuliana Rancic and Kelly Osbourne. It was well-paced, interesting, and entertaining! See point No. 1.
• You needed a way for all this to come together in one space. It might have been helpful to have had a live blogging element. Perhaps there could have been some information, perhaps provided from Internet movie powerhouse, IMDB.com to fill in and give some backstory and fascinating tidbits to carry us along the quite dry telecast. There was a lot of talk about the "mominees" - aka moms of nominees tweeting during the telecast. It would have been nice if the Twitter feed from them was on the site rather than having to go search for it.

 

We'll forgo talking about "The Ugly" as there was nothing dreadful or exciting like a train wreck happening. But what would be bad is if people planning events with multimedia coverage didn't learn from this example. Imagine what the Super Bowl could be like or any big event!

Want to know how your event could be scintillating? Call or e-mail me directly and I'll share more.

Alison Woo

Chief Media Maven, New Media Mavens 

 

 

 

How to Use Foursquare to Market Your Business

 

To Foursquare or not to Foursquare? That seems to be the question I keep hearing from my clients who are wondering if this relative newcomer is the latest killer ap to market their business.

The answer: It depends.

Foursquare is a location-based application good for brick-and-mortar businesses who want to drive awareness and customers to their location. You get points, aka badges, for showing up and if you really go to a place a lot of times, you become the mayor. Not like Michael Bloomberg, but you get the drift.

Like any other social media platform, it takes consistency and an interesting approach to stand out. You might want to reward your customers for coming, much like a loyalty program. And it might be a cool place to find out new hip customers, it that's who your target audience is.

To figure out if that's your target, it helps to know the demographics. Here's a great snapshot of who's using Foursquare. Mainly it's people ages 18-34, with no kids who make between $30-60K a year. If that's your group, great. If not, try another social ap with wider appeal (Facebook, blog, Twitter, etc.)

Need more help? Here's a great article done by my fav people at the NY Times to fill in the blanks.

Alison Woo is the Chief Media Maven for New Media Mavens. Contact her at alison at newmediamavens dot com.

Sir Richard Branson On Starting a Company in 2010

I don't I've blogged enough about my abject love for Sir Richard Branson...in a purely business sense, that is. Don't get your knickers in a twist people!

Webex has a great webinar series called Pass the Ball, where they interview top business leaders and cull their secrets. They also offered entrepreneurs the opportunity to ask Sir Richard a question. How could I resist? Well, they picked one of my questions for him! I was BLOWN away! Here's the question and answer:

My question: If you were starting a business right now, what are the three things an entrepreneur should know, do or have?

Sir Richard's answer:

1. Find the right people to run the business. That's critical.

2. You must have a compelling reason to start a business…a.k.a. a screaming need to go into business. There should be a big gapping gap in the market place. But most importantly, you need make a difference to people’s lives

3. You have got to enjoy what you do. If you’re starting a business from scratch it will take a lot of time. Make sure you enjoy and that you feel strong about and that It’s worth doing.

The byproduct is that it might make money one day. The most important you are going to make a difference to someone else’s lives. If you are going to make a difference. You should  be able to pay the bills and make decent money. You can’t think how you can make a fortune by starting a business because if you do, I doubt you’ll ever make a fortune.

The other question Sir Richard shared that I thought was incredibly touching was the answer to this question:

In 2010, is it better to start a company on a shoestring or should you find funds to capitalize your business?

He talked about how he wanted to start a magazine but had no money. Then his mum found a beautiful necklace in the street and turned it into the police. After three months when no one claimed it, the police returned it to his mom, who sold it and gave her son the money (100 pounds) to start his magazine.

That's the power of synchronicity and sharing your dreams with your mom, who are almost always the most awesome people in an entrepreneur's life! Shout out to my mom, Vera, who always has been mine!

Here's to Sir Richard and all the moms of entrepreneurs who help us know that our dreams are possible and help us live out the dream!

Alison Woo

Chief Media Maven

Entrepreneurs Question the Value of Social Media

That was the brazen headline on a fascinating Wall Street Journal article Monday, which looked at some entrepreneurs who are succeeding and some who are sinking using new media and social media efforts.

I have a lot of thoughts about the article.

First of all, it all comes down to strategy. As anyone who has a Facebook account knows, you can spend a lot of time on the web without accomplishing anything. When it comes to using new media for business, you have to have a strategy and take action daily to accomplish your goal.

Secondly, you have to focus on the customer. It doesn't matter whether you're using a tablet or Twitter, the fundamentals of business have not changed just because the way to reach your customer may have.

Lastly, you have to be unique. There's a lot of white noise out there on the web. What makes you different? What makes you stand out?

Join me LIVE on Thursday at 9:30 AM EST on Mitch Phillips' radio show where I'll be chatting about this and more PLUS you can ask your new media questions there and get answers!

So entrepreneurs out there, what do you think about the value of new media?

Share in the comments below!

Alison Woo

Chief Media Maven

How to Put New Media Into Context

Hello all!

Ever wonder how fast this new world of new media is evolving? Whether you're using Twitter or Facebook, it often helps to take the longer view of this evolution of technology. It's a remarkable age to be living in.

A friend sent me this link to a presentation on YouTube that puts it quite succinctly.

What do you think this all means for business? We'll spend all month discussing the implications for you and your business.

Alison Woo

Chief Media Maven, New Media Mavens

Do You Need to Manage Your Tweets?

The Tower of Babel, from the Book of Genesis, was a man-made fortress originally intended to foster one, clear and unified language. For whatever reason, God was displeased with them and turned the city into a noisy, chaotic environment where no one understood each other. Twitter reminds me of this biblical Tower of Babel where the language has disintegrated into babble.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

As a business person, tools are available to cut through the noise and effectively get your message out there to your intended audience.

Of the many popular tools, HootSuite is my favorite.  You can manage multiple social networks (including Facebook), track statistics, manage your brand and multiple users, but best of all, schedule your messages (tweets) for future dates. And you can do this all in one fell swoop! One panel shows what's going on in Twitter at any time -- the "Home" panel. Another shows who is talking about you. Still another lists all your tweets and there's much more.

To learn all you need to know in five minutes or less take the guided video tour here:

Lena Claxton, Chief New Media Strategist co-author, How to Say It Marketing with New Media

What Every Business Owner Should Be Doing Right Now

With only two months left for the year, there's still time gather your successes for 2009 and build your platform for 2010. While this has been a year for the record books, I'm certain next year will bring a powerhouse of possibilities. If you are a small business owner, thinking of starting a business or may be a corporate division head thinking what you need to do to expand your outreach using social and new media, here's the four step game plan you need:

Step 1: Assess your market

Who is your target market? If you haven't narrowed it down, this is the time. If you talk to everyone, you're really talking to no one. Find out who's your niche: Who can afford what you offer right now? This may be vastly different than last year or last month's answer. But it's time to drill down and get specific.

Step 2: Are you finding your target audience where they are online?

You can only know this by asking the people in your target audience. If you're trying to sell a fabulous fantasy trip to restore your spirit, mind and body to Malta for next spring and know your audience is women from 45-65, find out where they are online. Would Twitter be your best bet? Probably not since the market for that platform skews younger. But e-mail would be perfect and also using blogs and e-zine databases to build up your SEO.

Step 3: Are you offering and communicating value?

This is a tough concept since as business owners we like to think that everything we do confers value but ask someone outside of your office to look at what you're offering and give you feedback. Ideally, ask someone in your target audience. What is valuable to a boomer may not be valuable to a Gen Xer.

Step 4: Are you marketing consistently?

Marketing is a process, not an event. It's tough if you approach your marketing in a stop-and-start fashion to get any real traction. Schedule it on your calendar or use software to help do things automatically and disperse it over the week such as software to publish your blog posts.

What marketing plans or initiatives are you working on now or are you playing it safe? Click comment below and share.

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

Why You Can't Fake Passion in Baseball or Business

For Yankee fans, the morning after the New York Yankees' 27th World Series win is a bit bleary-eyed but full of heart. The team, who had not won since 2000, battled back over the last nine years and had to find its soul again and its passion. Much of the credit of returning this amazing All-Star team back to its baseball loving roots, goes to manager Joe Giradi. As I read the NY Times recap of the game this morning, I'm struck by Alex Rodriguez's (A-Rod to fans) quote:

As Rodriguez stood on a platform holding the championship trophy over his head, he said:

“You have 25 guys who bought into Joe Girardi’s system,” he said. “I wish we could come out and play again tomorrow for no reason; that’s how much we love each other.

For complete coverage of the Yankees' win, visit the NY Times' fabulous sports site.

How does this transcend into business? Passion transcends into every area of life! How could it NOT transcend business?

When you have a natural passion and affinity, it fuels everything you do.  Whether its the marketing, accounting or sales roles you fulfill in your business, passion is the energy that drives you.

We talk a lot about HOW to do things on this blog, how to market yourself, how to market your business, where to reach your audience. But we'll be spending some time on WHY, too.

Thanks, Yankees, for reminding us of that!

The key question now is this: How do you stay connected to the passion you have for your business? Click "Reply" and comment. We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

The 4C's of Using New Media

As I tour around the nation, I often meet business owners who realize they need to take a more proactive stance on marketing their business but are often overwhelmed or "beaten down by life," as my mother likes to call it. Sure, it's easy to run astray but the bottom line is this: Marketing your business is an essential part of keeping the lifeblood in your business flowing.

If you are too tired to market your business then maybe you are in the wrong business. If you are drained and exhausted, please remember that life is too short to be wasting away your days doing something you don't love. Now we all have our moments where we're tired. But if this is a constant, re-evaluation is needed.

I like business owners to focus on benefits. Why? Because it's what your customers focus on, too! When they look at your product or service, they want to know, "How am I going to benefit from this?" You, too, should be asking, "What are the benefits of marketing my business with new media?"

To make this easy, I've created a quick guide for you to understand the 4C's or Benefits of Using New Media. And just like my favorite late night host David Letterman, I'm going to count them down.

# 4: Conservation. The planet has finite resources. Why are you still using paper to distribute your newsletter when you could be more green and use an e-zine, or online newsletter?

# 3: Consistency. Marketing studies show you need to have at least 7-12 touch points with a prospect before they become a customer.

# 2: Consciousness. The key to success in marketing online is authenticity. You need to be tied into your core values. This keeps those values right in front of you where you can act on them day after day.

# 1: Cost. New media is low, cost and high impact. You can't say that about advertising, direct mail or commercials.

You need to market online because, increasingly, that's where your customers are. This is not a one-size-fit-all solution. You have to know your target audience, their demographics, their psychographics to understand where they are. And if, like millions of people, they are online, then that is where you need to be.

Think of the 4C's as you apply new media solutions in your business and you'll be well on your way to cementing your success!

Alison Woo
New Media Maven

Your Relationships Matter

We've talked about how important it is to build and sustain relationships with your prospects and customers.Too often business owners send out a couple of e-zines or blog a few times and sit back and wait to see whether they made an impact. Then nothing happens and they give up.

That's the wrong approach!

Remember, people need to see your message at least 7-12 times before they'll purchase from you. In other words you must follow-up.

More and more business owners are finding out that the money's in the follow-up!

The perfect tool for following up and building a relationship with your prospect/customer is with an e-zine. You can send it weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Here are some quick tips from our book, "How to Say It: Marketing with New Media"

• Write conversationally. Use words that you'd normally say out loud to engage your reader
• Address your readers by name
• Write relevant content
• Use graphics
• Create an attention-getting subject line
• Use a soft sell approach.

What tips would you like to share on building a relationship with prospects and customers? Click on the comment link to share your thoughts.

Lena Claxton
Author/New Media Strategist/Principal, New Media Mavens. Contact me.

How to Stand Out from the Crowd

Anyone who thinks that one of the side effects of the digital age is information fatigue is absolutely correct. For those who want to know more, be sure to read the wonderful article in this week's The Globe and Mail on the topic. Journalist Peter Nicholson discusses how and why we are now information-rich and attention poor.

For business owners, this again underlies the fact that in the midst of this "information flow' it is more important now than ever before to stand out from the crowd. There is only ONE lasting way to do that: be yourself.

Yes, it's true. The business to business and online success lies in the refrain of the Sting song, "Englishman in New York."

Be yourself, no matter what they say.

Here's why: the only thing that truly makes you unique is you. We are each like snowflakes. Just as no two people are alike, no two businesses are exactly alike. It's you who makes the difference. Even if two businesses may sell the same product or service. No one will have the same people working there, the same motivation or the same way to do something. That's what makes business so wonderful!

How to Showcase Your Uniqueness Online

• Make sure your website copy reflects you and your business's unique spirit and personality
• Use your greeting in your monthly or weekly e-zine to reflect on something that happened this month in your business
• Record conversations with people you admire that your customers/clients want to hear about and share them as podcasts
• Have a blog and post interesting things about why you went into business

To take a master series on blogging, visit here.

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

Does Your Business Need a Community Site?

Customers are the lifeblood of any business. But how do you translate the fervor they have for your product or service into a thriving online community?

One of the hottest new online trends is the creation of community websites to. How do you know if you need one and, if you do, where do you begin?

Your business needs a community site if you:

• Have customers who would benefit from interacting with each other in an online space (think iPhone lovers looking for the best apps)
• Have customers who are interested in interacting together and don't have a space or community to do so online
• If you have customers who use your product or service in an interesting way and want to share those ways with each other (think Saturn's online community)
• Your business lends itself to discussion and you want a place to listen, share and engage with your customers 

To start a community site, you should ask yourself what your goals are. Is this site for research only? What can you offer your customers that will be of value to them? Do you have the resources to create content that will be compelling and engaging?

If the answer to all the above is yes, you may be ready.

COMMUNITY PLATFORMS

If you want to start your own community, you have a number of options.

For the business owner who wants to dip your toe in the community idea without a major commitment of time and energy, setting up a Facebook profile page is a great way to start.

First, you must have a personal profile. Secondly, start your own page. Then, invite your current customers or e-zine or online newsletter subscribers to join. Think about what content you can feed into your FB page. You can use your blog feed, YouTube channel, post videos and a host of other elements. Make sure to claim your name. After a set number of fans (check FB for details), you can choose your name. Make sure it aligns with your branding and promote it to your customers.

If your community might be more B2B minded, you might want to start a LinkedIn group. First search on the "Groups" tab and search to see what's out there already. Ask yourself, what would bevaluabl e? Who could you bring together and over what topic? What would be a value-add to these busy professionals? And what kind of content can you offer to feed the group? If you are confident that there isn't anything to meet the needs of your community, click on the "Create a Group" on the "Groups" page.

You will be asked to upload a logo, choose a name, create a description, and decide whether you want the group to be public or private. Then start to invite the people who you believe would make vibrant community members. Put the group's information at the bottom of  your signature line. It's often noted that the largest benefit of a group is conferred to the group leader. Take your role as community leader seriously and you will glean many benefits.

If you are ready to dive into the deep end of community creation, there's no better website than Ning. It offers a full comprehensive set of options. If you just want to get a site up and running in a few minutes, you can pick a template and set in less than five minutes. If you want to get fancy, you can customize the template so it looks like all your other online entities, such as your website, blog, (this is recommended!) It also recently announced new integrated apps such as Wordpress (for your blog or website), Blog Talk Radio widgets (for your podcasts or radio shows) and UStream.com (for your video podcasts and shows).

Creating a thriving community is the No. 1 way to engage your customers. When they're inspired, they recommend your product or service. And there is no price you can put on that.

Want a step-by-step plan to create your own community? E-mail me today!

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven

Frustrated with Marketing Your Business Online?

I hear the complaints all the time --"I'm a jewelry designer, I don't have time to be blogging, Facebooking and God forbid, tweeting!" 

Or, "It is draining for me to spend so much time on activities that are not my strengths." And yada, yada. I'm sure you've heard these complaints too -- maybe you've even had these thoughts yourself.

When business owners cease to believe that "these online activities" are separate from their "marketing activities" they will accept the facts of business. The facts are:

Marketing your business online is necessary to survive and thrive in the 21st Century.

If you do not have a strong web presence you do not exist in the minds of your customers.

Getting active online gives you the greatest visibility so that you're top-of-mind whenever your prospects or customers need your service. For example, you may feel that you're sending out your e-zine into a black hole every month without much response. Many business owners give up at this point. Then lo and behold you start to get orders -- which leads me to the next point.

Your prospects and customers need to receive your message at least 7-12 times before they buy.

Marketing online is not instant gratification. It's all about building and sustaining relationships.

Online tools such as an e-zine, blog and social networking sites are crucial in getting your messages across to the right people.

A tactic that most coaches learn in coaching school is to reframe the way one thinks about a troublesome situation. Borrow their tactic. Stop thinking of marketing your business online as a chore and reframe it to think of it as a vital and necessary marketing tool that will reap rewards in the long run.

Regards,

Lena Claxton
Need an online strategy for your business? E-mail me

How to Use Your Customer's Brain (For Good, Not Evil!)

We talk a lot on this blog about the underlying premise of Web 2.0: which is founded in the root concepts of listening and sharing. But now let's talk about what benefit this can do for you, the business owner who is short on time and long on things to do.

Listening to your prospects, customers and clients can give you ideas for new ways to do business. As in new and PROFITABLE ways to do business. The best ideas can come from people using your service or product. Creatively speaking, even though you birthed the idea of your business, it's your customers who own a part of it now. That's why it can be a great idea to go to them and ask them what your next great invention should be.

This idea of going directly to the masses is a topic that was covered brilliantly in the book, "Crowdsourcing." I heard author Jeff Howe speak at this year's MediaBistro conference in NYC in June and he reinspired me to delve into this idea for business. If you haven't picked up his book, run, don't walk to get it.

Business owners who have reaped the rewards of tapping into their customer's brain have gone far. And they're using social media platforms such as Twitter andFacebook to do it. Now comes word from producer Ken Davenport's blog that the producers of the Broadway musical Next to Nothing are using Twitter to ask their followers for ideas for a new song for their show.

What all of this tapping into your customers does is increase their own buy in to your product or service. Everyone likes to feel like they had some part in creating something. You have to know that even the people who have shelled out $100 bucks a ticket for a Broadway show would come see it again if they knew "their song" was in the show.

While very few of us have the luck of joy of producing on Broadway, this is a concept that we can all apply. Ask yourself, "What part of my business can be crowdsourced?" You may be surprised by the answer.

Let us know your ideas by clicking on the "comment" tab below.

Alison Woo, Chief Media Maven