Even though I know you want to hear me answer “yes,” to this question, I can’t. When I hear you ask this question, what I really hear is “we don’t want to invest in a real strategy or bother with executing a plan that will bring results. We want to instead execute tactics and random acts of marketing because we think they deliver instant results.”

Stop the Random Acts of Marketing!

Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) will destruct your ROI morsel by morsel, post by post. There is no way around it. RAMs may deliver instant gratification as you can cross tactics off your list as completed. However, they will not provide real business results that will help you sustain your business for the medium or long term.

Be very careful when prioritizing based upon instant gratification versus investing in social media strategies and tactics that drive real results. Far too many business leaders confuse random acts of social media and buzz with social business success.

Focusing only on creating buzz for your brand using social media will not help you nurture relationships, nor grow your business. Plus chances are if you are just starting out with social media you have nobody listening to your self proclaimed “awesome buzz” as you haven’t invested the time or resource to build community.

Community does not happen overnight. Winning the hearts of real people eager to listen to your messages, hear your brand stories, read your posts, and share your photos takes investment. Loyal brand evangelists and engaged community members are earned over time, not purchased over night.

Who Is Listening to Your Brand?

Who is on the other end of your yelling, noisy, screaming offers of sales & bargains? Do you know who is listening on the other end? Is anyone listening?

One of the first steps in creating a social media strategy for business is to understand your audience. You simply can not skip this step no matter how smart you are. It doesn’t matter how long you have been doing business, marketing, writing, social media or whatever it is you do.

Think about this for a minute…

Social media is about people.

Social media is about content.

Social media is about conversations.

Social media is about relationships.

Social media starts with people. How can you be successful in social media if you don’t know WHO it is you want to have a conversation with so you can nurture a relationship? How will you know what content you should write, tweet, post, pin and +1 on Google if you don’t know who you are writing for?

How can you optimize your blog, website and social media profiles for search if you don’t know who is searching and what words they are using. You must know what they want, how they want it and how they communicate about it to be relevant in their hearts and minds.

Who is your audience? How old are they? Do they have kids? Grandkids? Where do they live? Why do they live there? What brands do they like? Why do they like those brands? Why should they like your brand or care it exists?

Telling me you want to only create buzz, get right to tactics without a strategy is like telling me you want to go fishing without a boat or a fishing rod. Yes, you can fish on the side of the lake, but being married to a man who LOVES to fish, I can tell you he much prefers and usually catches better fish being in his boat in the gulf of Mexico or right smack dab in the middle of the lake.

Communities Create Markets:

I recently wrote this post about how communities create markets. In the graphic below you will see that the only way you can move your social communities filled with real human beings from the left side to the right side is if you know who they are.

You can’t move them to a loyal, paying customer and evangelist by shouting buzz and sales at them all day on Twitter and Facebook. You need to invest time in them, help them achieve their goals, help them solve problems, inspire them to do better, be better and live their life with empowerment. You can’t do any of these things if you don’t know who they are. There is simply no way around it.

Don’t Start With Tactics!

Download this Audience Analysis Worksheet to help you prioritize and analyze your audience. It is based upon the Forrester POST methodology and will guide you through a series of questions that will help you segment and know your audience better.

The biggest mistake business leaders make when developing and executing their social media strategy is to start with the tactics and technology first before they know who their audience is.

You must know who your audience is, who you are and how you can help them solve problems. It’s only after you have this foundational knowledge that you can determine your social strategy and approach for building your social media plan.

The tactics and technology come last. Setting up a Facebook page or Twitter account is the easy part. It’s free and only takes a few minutes. It’s leveraging them with tact, smarts, and in an integrated approach focused on your audience and business goals as a top priority that will bring results.

There is no social media easy button. You must take time to research, listen, and understand your audience. A good social strategist often listens far more hours in a day than they do talk or spam social profiles. If  you aren’t paying attention to who your audience is, what they are saying, how they are engaging and trying to understand deeply what exactly it is they need from you, I recommend you start today.

The heartbeat of social media is people. You can never go wrong by investing in human beings. Don’t waste another day on Twitter spamming, blasting noise. Make a commitment to be part of the beating heartbeat that helps the social ecosystem thrive with value, empowerment, relationships and more.

Your goal each day should be to inspire your audiences to connect with you with a goal of helping them achieve their goals. When you help them achieve their goals, you achieve yours by default. Inspire – Connect Achieve! Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be. Got it?

Heartbeat of Social Media Series

This blog post is part of a series titled “The Heartbeat of Social Media“. It includes a deep look at how communities work, what people are doing within them and how businesses can better understand how they can fit in, provide value and derive benefit as both a business as well as individual people.

Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be part of what makes the social network heartbeat healthy and alive!

The truth is that communities take time. Just like relationships are built on trust that is earned over time, communities are no different. The higher the patience, the greater the end results. Communities are made up of people coming from different backgrounds and education. They have different understandings and expectations what a community is and why they have joined your community.

Earning the trust of community members early on is critical. Community members start out in the “community” or “opportunity” zone and will move to loyal evangelists or paying customers over time, after trust is earned. Moving them from a “free” community member to a “paying” customer takes investment of time, sharing of information and patience.

Below are a few tips to help community leaders build loyal tribes of evangelists.

1. Be aware of the needs of new community members versus long standing members. New members have different needs than someone who has been a member of your community for a longer period of time. Be sensitive to their need for communication, introduction to other members and help getting acquainted with the norms of the group.

2. Set expectations and guidelines for all members in the community. Keep the guidelines positive but direct enough to provide the needed structure and safety for all.

3. Provide opportunities for members to converse openly. Invite them to special online or offline events. Encourage them to introduce themselves, share their needs from the community as well as what they can offer others.

4. Be available. If you are leading a community, make sure that you are simply available. You don’t need to be available 24/7. However, be available to answer questions, join conversations and help the community learn and grow. Make it clear when you are and are not available by setting proper expectations.

5. Be supportive of organic role development. If people in the community volunteer to take a leadership role for a specific area or task, openly invite, encourage and empower them to do such. Some of the best communities are self governed. If you as the leader of the community are the only one leading, it is likely to become a silo’d dictatorship versus a thriving, healthy community.

6. Be supportive of the OPC (other people’s communities.) One of the greatest benefits of community is the ability for community members to tap into the OPC. There is much power in bringing multiple communities together. Offer structure for these types of dialogs to happen and don’t be afraid you will lose community members by integrating the OPC. Be confident in and know the OPC will help you.

7. Set goals. Know what your goals and objectives are for the community. Take time to understand your audience and community members. Know what you want to get out of the community as well as what members want to achieve.

8. Share your best stuff. When it comes to offering value to the community, don’t hold back. Share your best tips, strategies and information you can that will help them. If you do this, others will do the same. A community of value is a community set to grow and succeed.

9. Be patient and acknowledge where in life cycle of community member growth the person is. Don’t expect new members to become loyal evangelists overnight. Give them time to build relationships, absorb information, learn, and feel comfortable with you and the other members.

10. Reward good behavior. Acknowledge when community members do really good things. If someone has been helping you with moderation, responding to questions then thank them publicly for such. Same goes for people sharing great information that provides value to others.

11. Offer unique information only available to the community. Don’t share the exact same posts to the community group you share on your public tweets, Facebook pages and Pinterest. Instead create unique content only available to members.

12. Inspire your audience to connect with you with a goal of helping them achieve their goals. If you focus on their goals, you will then achieve your goals by default. Inspire – connect – achieve. You can never go wrong by investing in real people.

13. Focus on the heartbeat of social media. The heartbeat of social media is you and me, it’s people. Focus on contributing to the healthy heartbeat of your communities as well as others. Don’t be the person spamming, trying to get more likes and follows. Instead, offer real value, invest in people. You’ll be amazed at the organic results with this small differentiation from what most are doing. Trust me, it works.

Heartbeat of Social Media Series

This blog post is part of a series titled “The Heartbeat of Social Media“. It includes a deep look at how communities work, what people are doing within them and how businesses can better understand how they can fit in, provide value and derive benefit as both a business as well as individual people.

Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be part of what makes the social network heartbeat healthy and alive!

The truth is your brand is all of these things and more. It’s what you tweet, post, pin, +1, Instagram and offer as a call to action. It’s what you write in emails, and what you don’t. It’s whether you talk about yourself all day on Facebook or if you offer real value.

Your brand is what you say, do and think. It’s what your employees do online and offline. It’s everything from your privacy policy, social media policy to the amount of spam email you send.

It’s how you manage crisis or how you don’t. It’s how well you listen and most importantly how quickly you respond when people request help or engage with you online or offline.

The Living, Breathing, Human Brand

The human brand is much like a living, breathing organism. It’s true definition is determined by those that love, like or even dislike you. A brand is made up of humans within your organization and finally defined by those outside your organization.

You can’t create a brand with a robot or algorithm. Yes, you can use data, analytics, research and more as inputs to develop your brand, it’s brand promise, core messages, vision and mission. Yet, it’s people that select the final colors and tagline. It’s humans who post the status updates. It’s humans who read them. It’s humans who click like, pin, post and share the content the humans in your organization write.

On average it takes a minimum of 6-7 brand touches for someone to remember your brand. You better make every touch count. It’s humans who decide if they like you or not, if they tell their friends good or bad things about you.

The sooner you can acknowledge the importance of becoming a human brand and the need to truly inspire and connect with your audiences, the sooner you will see results and progress as you integrate social media into the DNA of your organization.

Below are 13 characteristics of the human brand. I could write 100 of these because you can’t simply define a human nor a human brand in a short list of characteristics. However, here are 13 straight forward characteristics of human brands. If you are wondering what human brands do and think this is a good place to start.

This post is part of  a series I am writing on the topic of brand humanization. Subscribe to the series, “Talk Human to Me” for updates, free webinars, brand worksheets, podcasts, tweet chats and more.

13 Characteristics of the Human Brand

1. Think like humans. You may be thinking that brands can’t think. Well, yes they can. Human brands have people on the inside that think like humans. They don’t think like a cash register or corporate building. They think about things that human beings do, eat, like and believe.

2. Care about humans. They care about the humans they engage with. They care if they are happy, sad, satisfied, frustrated, hungry or full. They care about their needs, wants, problems, desires and offering them real value, not just non-sense marketing tactics. It matters to them that they are cared for. They care about all the people in their ecosystem from customers to board of directors. They keep them at the front of all decisions.

3. Value relationships. Human brands value the people more than the dollar signs. They are not willing to trade a dollar for relationships gone bad. They know that investing in people is the only way and that relationships are both the cake and the icing of business and personal or professional success. You won’t see the human brand buying fake Twitter follower or Facebook fans. They value real human to human interaction and authentic relationships.

4. Listen to other humans. Human brands listen more than they talk. They speak when they need to speak but always have an ear to how their audience, clients, partners and stakeholders respond. They know their Google Analytics and other website data and analytics is a gold mine.  They use the data to listen and learn about their audience, not only convert the transaction to a sale. You may find them listening more than talking when it comes to social media.

5. Talk like humans. Human brands don’t talk like robots or corporate collateral. They speak in language other humans read, listen to and understand.

6. Have a personality. What is your brand personality? Is it serious? Fun? Engaging? Inspiring? All of the above? Human brands have a personality that inspires and connects them with their audiences.

7. Show their “human”. Right in line with the personality, human brands aren’t afraid to let their human show. They laugh, giggle, sing, dance, talk, and may even get frustrated sometimes. They often let you see the people behind the avatars as they know they are their own best ambassador.

8. Make and own their mistakes. No human being is perfect and no brand is perfect because it is made up and defined by humans. Human brands are humble. They make mistakes just like you and me and they aren’t afraid to own it..

9. Are available. Are you available when your online or offline audience wants you to be? Do you respond to questions in a timely manner? Are you even available to answer questions? Or do you hide behind a corporate web form, fill your Twitter and Facebook stream with corporate speak? Human brands make themselves available. Even if they aren’t available 24/7 they let their audience know when they are available.

10. Know themselves. They know who they are and what they offer their customers, partners, online community and friends. They know their strengths, weaknesses and sweet spots. They know how to talk, listen and what makes them shine. They don’t guess what to post or pin as they engage in social with confidence and pride.

11. Know their audience. Just as they know themselves, they also know their audience. They know what their audience wants and how to provide it. They know how to inspire them, connect with them and help them achieve their goals. They know if they inspire, connect and help their audience achieve their goals that they will by default achieve their goals as well.

12. Agile. Human brands do not sit static, they evolve. Because they are always learning, listening more than talking, they are able to move with agility. They don’t have to jump on every shiny new object. They are able to jump with confidence at the right time. This offers them an extreme level of competitive differentiation. As those brands who are not in touch with their audience, who aren’t listening, and not focused on the goals and objectives of their audience have difficulty saying no to shiny objects as they’re always looking for the next best thing to magically bring them success. Human brands evolve with confidence and agility combined.

13. Invest in people. Human brands know they can never go wrong by investing in people. They invest in listening, learning, training, empowering, building teams and creating a culture that enables their brand to shine from the inside out. As Sandy Carter of IBM says, “Culture eats strategy for lunch.” Even though I am a strong believer of strategy, I agree with her. Without investing in culture and the people both internal and external brands can’t be human.

What You Say?

Is your brand human? Do you wish it was more human? What about your brand is human? What is your favorite human brand? What is it that attracts them to you? Is it the way they talk, think, act, or simply everything about them?

Talk Human to Me Series

This blog post is part of a series titled “Talk Human to Me“. It includes a deep look at brand humanization and the power of the human brand.

Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training, worksheets and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be more human from the inside out within our lives and business.

Additional Resources: 

• Worksheet: Download our POST audience analysis worksheet to help you identify and prioritize your top audiences. It is based upon the Forrester POST methodology.
• Whitepaper: Download 15 Tips to Zoom Your Brand Whitepaper
• Social Brand Humanization: Authenticity vs Transparency
• Talk Human to Me: 20 Tips to Humanize Your Brand
• KitchenAid: Bad Tweets Happen to Good Brands
• Are Your Employees Your Employees 24/7?
• Social Brands Can’t Be Perfect Because Human Beings Aren’t Perfect
• 20 Tips to Avoid Being a Social Brand Gone Wrong
• Social Trust Factor: 10 Tips to Establish Social Business Credibility
• How to Build a Social Brand That’s a Sweet Orange in a World of Bitter Apples

You’ve decided to run a promotion on your Facebook Page.

You’ve setup the tab and you’ve launched it live.

So where is all the traffic?

It’s the “if you build it, they will come” mistake.

Simply having it live is not the end.  You’ve got to capture attention and drive fans and their friends to the tab on your Facebook Page.

To many businesses are failing at this key juncture.

Getting the attention of and making it easy for all fans (desktop and mobile) to access the promotion can totally make or break your promotion getting traction!  It can mean the difference between 5 entries and 500 entries; between 5 Likes and Shares and 5000 Likes and Shares!

So how do you best get the word out on Facebook?

Tip #1 

Post a Photo to the News Feed with a Call to Action.

Why a Photo?

Facebook, in its own research, found that the most successful posts for capturing the attention of users and inspiring action are visual. Photo albums generated 180 percent more engagement than other types of posts, and individual photos 120 percent more. Since 40 percent of a Facebook user’s time is spent in the News feed, capturing attention to inspire a “Like,” comment or share by using images is critical.

With images continually performing better in engagement (Likes, Shares, and Comments) this method is the best current practice for sharing your promotion on Facebook.

Tip #2 

Announce Promotion on Page Cover Image

To get even further traction, consider updating your Facebook Page Cover Image during the active promotion time period with an image that alerts users to the promotion.  See example below of a Cover image that notes the contest promotion that is currently running.  Facebook recently loosened the Cover image guidelines.  It is now OK to have a Call-to-Action in the Cover image.

Tip #3

Create a Custom 111 x 74 Tab Image

Create a custom image that draws attention to your promotion.  This way, those on your fan page can easily see and be drawn to the tab. As well,  make sure your Facebook Page Tab 111 x 74 image is in the top row and encourages the user to take action to go to the tab and participate in your Facebook promotion.

Do not add too much text.  Simple and bold is beautiful for this!

Tip #4

Use a Smart URL

The Facebook App and mobile site version does not include tab apps when navigating to the page on  mobile device.  This is something that hopefully Facebook will change but they do not currently show them.  This means that you must make your promotion accessible to mobile users by using a service that offers this function.

Services like TabSite offer a Smart URL to enable mobile viewers easy access to the promotion.  The Smart URL they provide should be used in all posts about the promotion.  When a user clicks on the Smart URL, the type of device the user is on is detected and a proper version is shown to them.  One simple tool, the Smart URL, used everywhere, enables users on a mobile, tablet, and PC/notebook to all have access to the promotion tab.

SUMMARY:

The tips above are Facebook specific.  Another item to consider is a Facebook Ad or Promoted Post to your target demographic.  For as little as $15.00 a Facebook ad can dramatically raise the reach of your promotion.

As well, Page Managers should consider announcing the promotion and linking to it via their blog, Twitter, Google +, and via a email blast to their list.  Promotion communication is an important aspect of a successful venture.

Together these tips help ensure that “when you promote it right, they will come!“
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Every piece of content you create should have a marketing plan to support it. Why invest in something if you don’t have a plan for how you are going to reap benefit from such?

Below are 16 Golden Rules for Content Marketing. I could write a much longer list of these. However, to keep things simple, we’ll stick to short and simple for now.

16 Golden Rules of Content Marketing for Real Results

1. Slow down to speed up. This is pretty straight forward. Take time to do the following things on this list before you invest in a copy writer. Content marketing is much bigger than a blog post or words on a page. Content marketing involves knowing your audience, setting goals, determining and executing marketing tactics to leverage the content to help you meet business goals and the list goes on. Take time to slow down so that you can speed up over time and continuously drive higher and higher return and efficiencies.

2. Build your content foundation. Think brand and message architecture versus random acts of messaging. Random Acts of Marketing will eat every last morsel of return for breakfast and lunch. Same goes for content marketing. Your brand architecture should include images, design and content. The content should be broken down into tiered messaging versus everything having equal value. For example, the highest tier would be your vision and mission statement where a product or service level message is several tiers lower. If you communicate with your audience not understanding these tiers and what they mean to your audience you will likely confuse them greatly.

If you are lacking at minimum a basic message and brand framework you will likely have a difficult time answering and/or following the rest of the tips on this list. If you having trouble knowing what to write about, how to integrate your content marketing then chances are you need to slow down to speed up and focus on your foundation before you execute additional random content marketing tactics.

3. Set goals. If you don’t know where you are going, you won’t know when you get there. Set goals that are SMART – Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound.

4. Know who you are. Know who you are and what value you offer your audience. Know what you mean to them. Know your strengths, weaknesses and how you differentiate from your competitors and replacement products or services.

5. Know what your audience wants. What do your customers, partners, clients, prospective customers, stakeholders and community want from you? How can you help them solve problems? What keeps them up at night? How can you offer them the highest value possible. Download our POST audience analysis worksheet to help you identify and prioritize your top audiences.

6. Know what ya’ got. What content do you have that you can leverage? Start by doing a content asset inventory.  Identify all assets including but not limited to video, podcasts, written content, blog posts, whitepapers, and presentations. For each piece of content mark it as a status of “IN”, “OUT” or “UPDATE”. This basically means each piece of content is either going to be used, will not be used, or needs updated before it gets used externally. Download this content asset inventory worksheet to help you get started.

7. Embrace Imperfect Perfection. You must start somewhere. If you wait until everything is absolutely perfect you’ll never launch, or by the time you do it will be old news and not relevant. Focus on value to your audience over perfection.

8. Create once, use many. Focus on creating the framework mentioned in #2 above. When you invest in a solid foundation and create a “Message House” or “Message Bible” it enables you to create once and use many. This increases the ROI on all content. You start by developing a foundation from which you can build upon. From the foundational messaging and content you can tweak for different audiences, niches and campaigns as needed.

9. Integrate and avoid Random Acts of Marketing. Make it a goal to eliminate Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) wherever and whenver possible. The bast way to do this is to ensure content marketing is integrated with your business and marketing. Content should not be used as a band-aid to a bad sales or marketing week. Instead leverage it as a competitive weapon to inspire and connect with your audience. Focus on integrating content with every step of the sales and marketing funnel.

10. Be You. There is only one you, so be that person or that brand, period. Don’t copy your partners, customers or competitors. Build your own plan, brand and content marketing strategy. As I always say there is only one way to do social media, social business and content marketing, and that is the way that works for you and your business.

11. Stay fresh. Don’t get stuck in old ways. Stay up to date on industry trends, data, and news. Keeping your content fresh will help you stay relevant in the eyes of your most important audiences.

12. Try the cow. Think out of the box. The image to the right of this tip is a simple cow stuck on a fence. I have used this image in presentations, blog posts, ads and more with high return. It is one of the highest perfoming images of any we have used. Who “woulda thunk” a cow would work so well? Try it. You never know what results you may have. Your “cow” image may not be a cow. It may be a monkey, human being, plant or anything that makes people laugh or think different. My point here is to try something different.

13. Create a real conversion funnel. Don’t trick your audience into multiple opt-ins making them think they are getting something free when in reality you just want their email address so you can spam them. Focus on real value and a conversion funnel that quickly delivers them the content requested and helps you achieve the desired conversion over time.

14. Don’t over complicate it. Bottom line, you don’t need to over complicate content marketing. Focus on building your content and message foundation and brand, knowing your audience and the other things on this list. When you do such the content marketing becomes easier and easier.

15. Take them on a journey. If you are just starting out with a new venture, business, brand, campaign, research project or anything, take your readers along for the journey. Humble yourself and your brand. Let them know you are starting something new. Share with them the highs and lows. When you do this they become a closer part of your community. When you achieve success, they then feel as if they were part of building you, because they were. They will then celebrate the wins, achievements with you.

16. When in doubt inspire them. If you are new to all of this, the best thing you can do is to inspire your audiences as you work on the foundation of brand and message architecture. If you focus on inspiring your audiences to connect with you with a goal of helping them achieve their objectives, you will then achieve your objectives by default. Inspire – Connect – Achieve!

Additional resources: 

• Worksheet: Download our POST audience analysis worksheet to help you identify and prioritize your top audiences. It is based upon the Forrester POST methodology.
• Worksheet: Download our Content Marketing Asset Inventory Worksheet
• Slideshare Presentation: 16 Content Marketing Golden Rules for Real Results
• Blog Post: 25 Content Marketing Ideas for People Who Don’t Like to Write
• Blog Post: 28 Attributes of Good Content Marketing to Rock Your Social Business!
• Blog Post: Content marketing is not a new shiny object invented via social media
• Blog Post: 15 Reasons Random Acts of Marketing & Social Media Don’t Work (Marketing Nutz)
• Blog Post: You Can’t Fake Relevance in Social Media, Business & Life
• Blog Post:  Is Your Content Worthy of a Like, Share, Pin, Retweet or Google +1? (includes definition of content marketing)
• Blog Post: Social Media Buzz, the False Perception of Social Media Success
•  Blog Post: Are You Ignoring the Social Inspiration People Metrics?
• Blog Post: Inspiration Made Simple: Pick 3 Things
• Report/ Blog Post: Content and the new Marketing Equation (Brian Solis)
• Blog Post: The Definition of Social Business
• Website: Content Marketing Institute

I’ll be sharing more of the inspiration that poured from this event over the coming weeks as it’s just too good not to share!

The three words that quickly became the theme from the event were inspiration, passion and honesty. These words exuded naturally throughout the two day workshop and #SocialMediaTapas event.

 As I watched the news unfold regarding the Boston Marathon bombings, and the China earthquake my heart broke. I was reminded of my many blessings and how much I have to be thankful for that money simply can’t buy. It was the first time I have been away from America during a crisis and it was difficult. My deepest prayers and heart go to all impacted by these tragedies.

Today, as I strolled the vibrant streets of Spain, I took the time to simply enjoy the moment. I didn’t check into Foursquare or snap mobile images to upload to Instagram and Facebook. Instead I just walked, watched, listened, engaged with the locals.  I took in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and experiences from everything and everyone around me.

I think back to just a few years ago when I left all the perks of a high paying 15 year career in corporate America to venture out to the world of social entrepreneurship. Wow, it’s been a crazy ride, but a ride I wouldn’t change for anything. You can learn more about my journey here “75 Things I Learned On My Journey to 100k Twitter Followers.”

Every obstacle that has come my way, every boulder jumped, every mountain climbed, has only made me, our business and our family stronger. It is these life experiences, good and bad, that build us and make me who I am and make you who you are.

We help clients from startups and entrepreneurs to Fortune 50 corporations. I have been in the shoes of our clients. I know their world and challenges because I lived it for 15 years. Every ounce of sweat, every tear and late night made me who I am. Those sacrifices also helped me learn and gave me experiences I can now use to help others. I can help them avoid challenges and jump over the obstacles with more agility.

Passion Stomps Writers Block 

I’d had a bit of writers block the past month as I wasn’t giving myself enough time to let my mind rest and just “be me.” I knew I needed time to let my passion for life fill me up again so I could pour it out and share with others.

As I took the time “off” this afternoon hundreds of blog post ideas poured into mind.  Although I was tempted to take out the iPhone to start jotting down notes for blog posts, I didn’t. I knew if I did I would immediately wind up on Twitter, Facebook, and who knows where else!?  I stayed strong and kept the phone in pocket and simply kept dreaming, thinking and living.

The sun began to set, I was in complete peace. I am living my dream.  There is nothing better than to know the work I do impacts the businesses and lives of others.

I know it is my passion for these things that has kept me going. I know it is focused passion that got me here this week with an amazing client who exudes a culture of focused passion from the inside out. I was honored to have the opportunity to pour all I had into them and for them. I received back more than words can describe.

The Focused Passion Within

Within me there is a desire and a passion to help others. To share knowledge to help people learn, grow and also fulfill their dreams. I have a dream and a goal to leverage the skills I have for the greater good.

I will measure success when one day I will spend 90%+ of my time on social good related initiatives. I know this chapter is what will get me there and it is one of the reasons I am so passionate about what I do. I know these are all stepping stones to the next journey, to the life that will never quit winding and delivering surprises, new friends and opportunities.

Let Your Passion Energize You

You must take time to let your passion energize you. Remember the reasons you started your business. What are the reasons you do what you do?  When the going gets tough, focus on the passion, the reasons why. Don’t focus on the bits, bytes, blog posts, gadets, tweets, pins and check-ins.

When you feel you are losing your place in life, when you have more questions than answers, dig deep into the heart of what got you there to begin with. Quit asking yourself “how” you are going to get it all done.

Take time to breathe, experience and listen. Let the answers come to you. Let yourself be filled up with life so that you can pour it out to others and help fill them up too.

I look forward to the next month ahead. We have some amazing projects on deck and will be attending the IBM Smarter Commerce Event in May. If you are going to be there, hopefully we can connect and talk about your passions and your dreams in real life!

Though the next couple months are packed with client projects, tweet chats, blog posts, speaking panels / engagements and more, I am not going to let my life get so filled that I forget why I am living to begin with. I promise to turn off the “things” and focus on letting life experiences fuel my passions with focus. Can you do the same?

As I always say the heartbeat of social is you and me. If we don’t take time to nurture the heartbeat, it begins to lose it’s purpose and meaning. Take time to live, breathe and nurture your own heartbeat so you can do the same for others.

Slow down to speed up and let life and business come to  you instead of always chasing it as fast as you can.

Heartbeat of Social Media Series

This blog post is part of a series titled “The Heartbeat of Social Media“. It includes a deep look at how communities work, what people are doing within them and how businesses can better understand how they can fit in, provide value and derive benefit as both a business as well as individual people.

Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be part of what makes the social network heartbeat healthy and alive!

The worst part is these are the same people who are tweeting and preaching the importance of authenticity, relationships, and how to build and be a human social brand.

A few of them are even trusted by some of the world’s most respected brands. It is the definition of failure and a sign of true insecurity in my humble opinion. More of my thoughts on this topic will come in a separate post as this one is specifically written to help you identify if a Facebook page is loaded with real fans or is being gamed by an influence, short fix craving cheater.

It’s pretty easy to check if a Twitter account has fake follwers. You can go to Status People Fake Follower checker and get instant statistics on any Twitter account, including yours. Below is a quick screen capture of the results from Status People for a Twitter account. The account is that of a CEO for popular Twitter measurement tool. On the company website they tout the success of their CEO in building community and that he/she has over 100k Twitter followers. Well, according to Status People, they are fake as fake can get. This lost instant credibility for me and is likely not a tool I will recommend nor take into the accounts and business of our clients. Quite unfortunate.

Note: If you have a large Twitter following, Status people only analyzes a portion of them. The statistics are not perfect.

So how do you determine if a Facebook page has fake fans? While not quite as simple, you can still put multiple data elements together to make a pretty good judgement call on the authenticity of their proclaimed community.

In late 2012, Facebook started to crack down on Fake fans and accounts. Many business pages lost a good portion of their fans if in fact they were fake. Facebook claimed that 8.7% of accounts were at that time fake or undesirable.

Too good to be true? Yes, it sure is! 

Have you ever looked at a Facebook page of someone who recently launched a blog or business? You check out their Facebook page and find that they have tens of thousands of fans in just a short time.

At first you may think to yourself, wow, this person must really know how to rock social media and build community.

However, as you dig deeper and do the double click you see that the engagement is nonexistent, even if they have thousands of fans. You click on some of the “likes” they have received on recent posts and it’s obvious they are from a country foreign to them. It’s also obvious the likes are from fake accounts.

The social trust factor you had when first clicking on their page is pretty much out the door. You do the double click around their page, blog stats and realize they are bogus, cheaters, and buying their fans, period.

The chance that you are going to trust them to help your business is now becoming slim to none. If they’re willing to cheat at something as simple as a Facebook fan, what else will they game for themselves or a buck to make from you and your business?

These cheaters think they can game the system. They hope that you will not do the double click on what’s behind the black curtain. They hope you will just see the high number of Facebook fans and that you will have instant trust for them. They hope that you will now opt in to their email list and comment on their posts.  If they are really successful at fooling you, you might even share the content or their page with your friends and colleagues.

Building a community takes time and investment. Purchasing fake fans is cheating, unethical and wrong. Oh and by the way, it’s also in direct violation with Facebook terms and conditions.

The best and only way to see real success in social business and life is by investing in people. By this I am referring to real people, real relationships with human beings, not robots!  I am not referring to fake accounts, fake followers or gamed strategies.

A lie has speed, but truth has endurance. ~Edgar J. Mohn 

3 Ways to Identify if a Facebook Page has Fake Fans

1. Verify source city / location and age of their fans.  With this step you are checking if it is possible their Facebook likes are coming from a foreign country for which they have purchased fans. This can be done via paid services through agencies who offer such.

a. Click on the number of likes on the page via the big box underneath the Facebook page cover photo. You may need to click the arrow to show the box if they have ordered the number of likes to be shown lower in the list.

b. Assess the results.

Next you will then see a page which highlights the following information:

• Most popular week.
• Most popular city.
• Most popular age group.

Is the popular city their city or a city they do business in? Or is it a far away country? Do they do business in that country? Do they have a large following in that country? Or is it a foreign country which they do not do business in, do not have a valid following from and likely purchased fans?

What is the most popular age of the fans? Are they 18-24 yr olds? Are they 35-44 years of age or older? Or a different age category? Does the age match their target demographic? Does it make sense this age group would be so engaged with their content and services?

2. How many people are talking about them on Facebook? If they have 35,000 fans/likes but only 50 are talking about them, well you have a red flag. Are they posting content daily? If yes, either a.) they suck at engaging their fans or b.) their fans are not real so they can’t engage.

Below I posted a couple examples from Facebook pages. The first is from my own personal business page. The second is from a page that could potentially  have fake likes. Note that my page with only 25% of the fans of the other page has more people talking about it. A proof point that it is not about having a large number of fans if they are fake or not engaging with you and your content.

3. Who is “liking” their daily posts and content. 

This one is super easy to check. Just do a quick scan of the content they are posting. How many likes are they getting? Is there an equal distribution of likes? Or are there tons of likes on one day and zero engagement on other posts. Yes, it could be the posts were more engaging or they just rocked Facebook edge rank that day. However, you should be able to see any trends as you scroll the page.

Click on the number of likes link under any post that seems to have a substantial number of likes. It will then take you to a page where you can see the profiles of the likes. Click on a few of them. Are they real accounts? Or are they fake? Do they appear to be from a same foreign country for which their most popular city is in the Facebook insights? If yes, you have another red flag and they may be paying for those likes.

4. When Did Their Fans Become Fans? 

On most pages you can see the monthly activity within the timeline. Did they jump from 1,000 fans to 20,000 fans in one month? If yes, they may have had a very successful campaign, became an overnight success online and offline. This is all possible. However, if the data analysis above shows red flags and they show an unrealistic jump in the first few months of launching a page or in any given single month, the chances they are fakers just increased.

The Whole is Greater Than The Pieces

You can’t really assess if an account has fake fans from only one data element. It’s important to give people and brands the benefit of the doubt. Look at several data elements. If all four of the above data elements don’t look right you may have a faker on your hands. It’s up to you what you want to do from this point and if you trust them with your customers, data and business success.

Be Human! 

Remember relationships happen between real people, between two human beings. Real communities are made up of real people, not robots. Robots do not read, engage, get inspired, laugh, contribute or own a credit card. Building a brand, business or community based upon fake numbers is unethical and in the long run will get you no where.

Invest in real content that helps your audience, employees, customers, partners and greater community solve problems.  Inspire them to do better, be better. Focus on their goals and objectives.  You can never go wrong by investing in people, period. Investment in robots will get you quick gains that are fake. They will not help build your business for the long term.

What You Say? 

What are your thoughts when you come across a business page who has fake followers? What happens to the trust you had for the organization? Do you think it shows a sign of integrity, good ethics? Would you trust the business? What if you trusted them and really liked them before finding this out? Will it make you think differently of them?

I’ll be writing up a few more posts on this topic to get to the heart of the matter, digging into why people decide to cheat when in reality it’s buying them nothing but robots.

Please comment below and let’s help make a difference in the social ecosystem. Let’s encourage people to come clean on this behavior, to stop faking it and trying to fake us out. We should ask, expect and demand more. It is a silent elephant in the room that needs to be pushed out, period.

Talk Human to Me Series

This blog post is part of a series titled “Talk Human to Me“. It includes a deep look at brand humanization and the power of the human brand.

Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training, worksheets and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be more human from the inside out within our lives and business.

Additional Resources: 

• Worksheet: Download our POST audience analysis worksheet to help you identify and prioritize your top audiences. It is based upon the Forrester POST methodology.
• Talk Human to Me: 20 Tips to Humanize Your Brand
• Social Brand Humanization: Transparency vs Authenticity
• KitchenAid: Bad Tweets Happen to Good Brands
• Are Your Employees Your Employees 24/7?
• Social Brands Can’t Be Perfect Because Human Beings Aren’t Perfect
• 20 Tips to Avoid Being a Social Brand Gone Wrong
• Social Trust Factor: 10 Tips to Establish Social Business Credibility
• How to Build a Social Brand That’s a Sweet Orange in a World of Bitter Apples

How many different ways can we say it before it finally sinks in as truth?

There is no easy button for social media.

There is no fast track.

There is no magic social media pill.

There is no magic carpet ride.

Facebook will not fix your broken business.

A social party is already happening in your honor, regardless if you’re there or not.

It’s not about the next big thing.

It’s not about you.

You must know your audience.

You must set goals.

You must integrate social into the DNA of your business.

You must deal with the skeletons in the closet, and fast!

You must focus on the needs of your audience.

You must help them solve their problems.

You need to create compelling content.

You need to get in the head of your target audience.

You need to inspire and connect with your audience.

You need to nurture relationships.

You need to read, understand and learn from your Google Analytics and Facebook insights.

Email is not dead yet. You can use it to nurture real relationships, not just spam prospects.

Social media is not a tool for you to blast your brand messages over and over. That is called spam.

Spam is not cool. It sucks. It makes you look like you suck when you do it.

You can not create “buzz” without a community and people to “buzz” for you.

The analogy of “buzz” has it’s origins in bees buzzing in a colony. If you don’t have a community, you don’t have a colony and therefore, have nobody to buzz with, for or about you.

I could write a book on the above same tips and truths. If I had $1,000 for every day I am required to speak them to business leaders, let’s just say I wouldn’t be writing this post. I would definitely be sitting on a warm beach somewhere with my toes in the sand and an umbrella drink in hand.

I speak the above words into the lives of business leaders we work with daily. Why? Because social business is hard to understand. It is hard for even the smartest people on the planet to understand that there is no easy button to social media or social business.

The Heartbeat of Social Media

There is only one button and that is people. The heartbeat of social media, social business, planning, integration, goals, objectives, measurement, content, ROI, ROR (return on relationships), marketing, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, blogs, and more is you. It’s you and me and everyone else out there. It’s people. It’s human beings behind the avatars that keep the heart beating, not the spam links and self promotion, automated Twitter and Facebook accounts.

If you are struggling with how to “create buzz” for your next promotion, campaign or big sale, maybe you need to change your thinking. QUIT focusing on only the buzz, how loud you can shout and focus on who is listening to you.

Does anyone care what you have to say? Are you saying, tweeting, posting, Facebooking, pinning anything worth value? Is anyone listening on the other end? Is it bringing the people hearing it closer to you and your brand or pushing them away?

If you don’t focus on providing the most relevant content you possibly can and building community based on real relationships, the chance you are ever going to make it out of “buzz wanna be hell” is slim to none.

The heartbeat of social media is you and me. It’s people. It’s human. It’s humans talking together, working together, learning together, succeeding together, living life together.

There is no fast track to social buzz. There is only one track and that is the investment in the heartbeat, which is you and me.

You can never go wrong by investing in people, period.

If you clicked to this blog post thinking you were going to find the “easy button” I have likely let you down, maybe even ticked you off.

However, I encourage you to take a deep breath. Re-read this entire post but with an open mind.  Try to take this entire post to heart, deep within your heart and brain. Do this with all your might and I guarantee you within a few days, weeks, months or maybe even years you will remember it.

You may continue searching the next two years for the easy button. You may call me names today. You may say I am just trying to complicate your life and business.  However, I know I am right and you are wrong.

I know at some point in time you will remember this post and you will wish you would have listened to me. Why not do it now? Quit looking for the easy button. You will never find it. Take the same time and focus on the heartbeat of social media. Focus on how you can contribute to the positive beating heart of the social ecosystem. Try it and you might be simply blown away at your results… and possibly even the buzz you think you so desperately need today

What You Say? 

Are you looking for an easy button? Did you at one time seek it? Did you finally realize it does not exist? Do you need help in ending your search for it? How can you help others in the same boat you use to be in? Share your thoughts below in the comments. The sooner we can help those holding on to the journey to the “easy button” the better we will all be.

Heartbeat of Social Media Series

This blog post is part of a series titled “The Heartbeat of Social Media“. It includes a deep look at how communities work, what people are doing within them and how businesses can better understand how they can fit in, provide value and derive benefit as both a business as well as individual people.

Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be part of what makes the social network heartbeat healthy and alive!

Given that most people do NOT know what to talk about, many wind up either boring their social community to death or they turn them off because they default to talking about themselves.

Never fear. You do not need to default to tweeting like a self centered, babbling idiot.

Check out these 100 ideas to inspire, connect, entertain and delight your audiences. No, not every one of them is going to work for every tweeter and every audience. However, many of them will work for most people and most businesses.

As I always say “there is only one way to do social media, and that is the way that works for you and your business.”  Listen to the advice others have for you, but determine priorities for investment of time, resource, conversation content based upon your objectives and goals.

Remember your number one goal is to inspire and connect with your audience. Help them achieve their goals and by default you will achieve yours. Inspire – connect – achieve! Don’t over complicate it.

100 Things to Tweet On Twitter Besides Yourself! 

1. Tips to help your customers solve their business problems.

2. Tips to help your audience solve life problems.

3. Tips to help your audience, clients and friends live a better life.

4. Anything that shows you are human. Be real, engaging and talk like a human being, not a robot. Subscribe to our “Talk Human to Me” series for more tips on humanizing your brand.

5. Industry news.

6. News about your city, state, country or the world.

7. Content that will strike an emotion. Make them laugh, cry, and think. Made them feel something.

8. Links to videos, podcasts or other materials that inspire, connect and delight them.

9. Inspirational quotes. Did you know quotes are the #1 retweeted content on Twitter?

10. Quotes of famous authors, artists or business leaders.

11. Tips to help people save money, time and resource. No, this does not mean you tweet coupons for your own business.

12. Information about a charity that needs help.

13. Photos of you doing something fun, inspiring or helpful to your community.

14. Photos of others doing something interesting. Remember, every tweet shouldn’t be about you!

15. Tips for how to get started with a new business or idea.

16. Tips for starting a business. If you are business owner, share your story, ups and downs.

17. Tips for how to use a product such as software, hardware, game or other.

18. Funny jokes.

19. Tips for local discounts or fun and unique things to do.

20. Adventures you experience while not working. Could include concerts, visits to the zoo, park, or even the neighbors house.

21. Photos of nature, sunsets or anything beautiful, funny, inspiring and entertaining.

22. Friendly reminders of important dates or holidays.

23. Holiday wishes.

24. Birthday wishes.

25. A simple hello, good morning or goodnight.

26. Thank someone for inspiring and delighting you.

27. Thank a favorite blogger, writer, thought leader, business, or artist for what they do.

28. Let someone know you appreciate them for simply being who they are.

29. Share tips from an event or presentation.

30. Share funny moments from a movie, sports game or event of any kind.

31. Information to help people avoid risk in business or life. This could include traffic avoidance, deadlines for state government requirements and the list goes on.

32. Share a song.

33. Start a conversation about anything other than yourself or your own business.

34. Ask a question that requires an answer other than yes or no.

35. Thank someone for commenting on your blog.

36. Ask a question to support a research project.

37. Conduct a poll.

38. Thank your community for following you.

39. Ask your community what they would like you to talk about.

40. Tweet pictures of your favorite food dish, restaurant or recipe.

41. Tell a story over a few tweets.

42. Ask for help.

43. Offer help to others.

44. Ask for tips for finding a product or service you want to buy.

45. Ask for opinions on a product or service you are considering buying.

46. Share your favorite content from other blogs and news media outlets.

47. Ask for tips of where to find good content that pertains to your industry, business or community.

48. Ask questions of others to learn about them.

49. Curate the best possible content you can find. Do NOT be afraid to share your top competitors content. Show confidence in who you are and what you do.

50. Let people know something interesting or funny that happens to you during the day.

51. Share a frustration, though do this with caution. I usually don’t recommend talking negatively excessively as it will turn many people off.

52. Do the mama test. Tweet like nobody is listenin’ except yo’ mama!

53. Share a new recipe.

54. Share tips on a hobby such as fishing, biking, skiing, rc cars and the list goes on.

55. Share your journey on reaching a goal such as weight loss, shedding a bad habit. By doing this you may inspire others as well as connect with people with the same interests.

56. Celebrations and milestones. Reach a big goal? Share it. As long as you are humble and share your good days, mediocre and even bad days your community will gladly celebrate with you as they will have helped build you!

57. Fun photos of an amusement park.

58. Photos of your business team enjoying life outside of the office.

59. Tips for others to take a break from work.

60. Tips for others to enjoy more life balance.

61. Connect and talk about many topics and meet new friends via a Twitter chat. You can join our chat, #GetRealChat, Tuesday nights at 9pm et.

62. Stock market or other financial tips.

63. Breaking news from national and world media outlets.

64. Progress toward goals and objectives in business and life.

65. Encouragement for a friend or colleague who you know needs inspired.

66. Retweets of other people’s awesome tweets and content.

67. Replies to others who tweet and talk to you.

68. Reviews, opinions and formal evaluations on products and services you have tried.

69. Check-in at your favorite restaurant or store via FourSquare or other geo application.

70. Weather tips if there is a storm in the area.

71. Statistics about products, services, industries or niches.

72. Data of any sort that can educate and teach others.

73. How to information and guides.

74. Maps or other helpful advice for tourists if you are in the tourism or hospitality business.

75. Welcome tweets when people check in to your business location.

76. Reply to people who tweet about your brand /business.

77. What you are thinking about. Tweet a deep thought daily tweet.

78. What you are dreaming about. Share your dreams and aspirations. Some may have the same dreams and you will be able to connect with them in a very unique way.

79. Customer services tweets to those who need help from your business.

80. Thank you messages to your customers for stopping in, purchasing something or simply being your customer.

81. Help other people achieve their goals. Share their content, promotions or charity fundraisers.

82. Be a connector.

83. Help people get answers to their questions.

84. Tweet and acknowledge similar interests. If you notice a new follower lives in a town you use to live in, let them know.

85. Compliment someone’s profile, bio or other information that inspires you.

86. Refer your followers to some of your favorite businesses, authors or colleagues.

87. Share something funny your kid or family member did that made you laugh. It might make others laugh too.

88. Share simple moments of life that share a part of you, show your human side but don’t come off as self centered.

89. Share a prediction.

90. Tweet a good Pinterest board.

91. Tweet a good Google+ community.

92. Tweet an engaging and inspiring group on LinkedIn.

93. Tweet a cool and inspiring Facebook business page, group or community.

94. Share a poll or focus group research which results will be shared with those who participate.

95. Share or start a poll.

96. Start or share a list on list.ly.

97. Teach others how to do something.

98. Help people simply do more, do less or simply be better.

99. Tweet this post so your friends can stop tweeting like self centered, babbling idiots.

100. You think of something. I have give you 99 ideas. You can at least come up with one and then add it in the comment section, can’t you? That way people won’t yell at me and say I only offered 99 tips when the blog title states 100!

What You Say? 

Anything else I left off? What do you like to tweet about? What types of tweets do you like to read and engage with?

Heartbeat of Social Media Series

This blog post is part of a series titled “The Heartbeat of Social Media“. It includes a deep look at how communities work, what people are doing within them and how businesses can better understand how they can fit in, provide value and derive benefit as both a business as well as individual people.

Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be part of what makes the social network heartbeat healthy and alive!

I had a website built by some guy. It’s never worked.

We have a website, we just need you to help us get more sales.

My current website is fine. However, it doesn’t show up on Google and nobody knows we exist.

Our website is fine, it really is. I just need more customers.

We don’t have budget to invest in market research, business planning, strategy development, internal training or planning right now. We just need a website and Facebook page with lots of likes. 

Can we meet to talk about a strategy to generate revenue for my business? I don’t have any money because I already spent it on the last agency that built my website, Facebook pages, printed collateral and new business cards.

Will you consider revenue share? We know our website is going to kick butt but we just don’t have any money right now. You can be a millionaire with us if you just help us for free right now!

This post is not for the social faint at heart. I am going to tell you what others want to tell you but don’t have the guts. It may not be what you want to hear. Yet it is likely what many of you NEED to hear.

The others in your social business and digital marketing ecosystem may have not told you what I am about to tell you because they wanted to sell you the website, coaching, training, Facebook pages, logo, video, Google Adwords setup or who knows what.  Or maybe they haven’t told you because they don’t know how to fix it.

Your current social media efforts are not working because you started at the wrong place.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Change your thinking.  Think digital social fabric, not website or Facebook page.

You need to quit thinking you “need a website.” The truth is you don’t. If you don’t know your audience, and don’t have a plan, the last thing you need to do right now is build a website that will be nothing more than a band-aid to a much bigger problem you may not know you have.

You can download our POST Audience Analysis Worksheet here. It will get you off to a good start in prioritizing and analyzing your audience.

Don’t even think about building a website if you can’t answer the majority of these questions:

• Who are you?
• What are you to your target audience?
• Who is your target audience?
• What are their demographics? Psychographics?
• What are their goals? What keeps them up at night?
• Why do you need a website?
• What do you want to achieve with it?
• What are your goals, objectives? What does success look like in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year?
• What will you do to inspire, connect and engage your audience when they land on your website? What will you do to inspire them to stick around for longer than 30 seconds?
• What do you offer that the other 100 websites or businesses just like yours don’t already offer?
• Why should anyone care that your business exists? Why should they care your website exists?
• How will you nurture relationships?
• How will you communicate with them? What tone do they speak in?
• What social platforms are they hanging out on?
• Who do they hang out with?
• Why do they hang out on those platforms?
• When do they hang out on what social platform?
• How will you earn their trust, build credibility?

I could list 100 questions here but won’t. I think you get the point.  We help our clients from entrepreneurs to Fortune 50, answer these questions every day with our social media and social business audits, social business and social media strategy development, consulting and execution services. I’m speaking from experience, not theory.

We often work more on the inside of organizations than we do on the digital outside because that is where most businesses need help. It’s important you start from the inside out. As Sandy Carter of IBM states, “culture eats strategy for lunch.” I agree with her statement 100% even though I am a lover and strong believer of strategy.

You are the Thread of the Social Fabric

What is the social web today? It is not a singular website, Facebook page, Twitter profile or Google + account.

It is not one singular blog post, tweet, status update, or pin. It is not one single experience but a series of experiences.

A series of conversations that weave a beautiful, relevant, vibrant, dynamic, breathing fabric that connects consumers, influencers, business leaders, moms, dads, entrepreneurs, teens, teachers, plumbers, gamers, programmers, geeks, fashion models, comedians, sailors, photographers, entrepreneurs and even grandma.

It connects them via threads of conversations, posts, pictures, pins, quotes, content, education, inspiration, laughs, prayers and even tears.

If you are not a positive contributing part of this intricately weaved social fabric the chances of you seeing any real return on your investment in your website or other digital assets are few and far between.

You need an integrated social business platform.

You need to develop an integrated business platform that will inspire, connect, entertain and attract your target customers to you. It must inspire, educate and engage them in a way that builds trust, nurtures relationships and makes them know you are relevant to their business and / or life.

I know it may not be what you want to hear from me when you fill out a web form on our website. We’ve had many business leaders asking for help making their current, broken platform work.

The truth is if your website is built on old technology, doesn’t have a user experience designed for your target audience it is often more cost efficient for us to start over than to clean up what you have. The reason is that your current digital platform is a mess. It was probably done by someone that didn’t understand or work under the constraints of what I describe in this post. They instead sold you on a random act of marketing, random act of social media or random act of website. It’s simply not how it works folks.

Avoid Random Acts of Marketing! 

Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) will eat any morsel of a chance of ROI for lunch before you have time to open the fridge to see what your options are.

One of the biggest misconception is that you can just “do social media” and have overnight success. Many preach this and tout that you can just jump on Twitter or Facebook and you can be an overnight millionaire. While this may have happened for a few, it doesn’t happen for the majority.  What these folks are really selling is quick fixes, band-aids and random acts of social media and marketing. I am not stating you shouldn’t hop on Twitter or Facebook. I am stating you should not expect overnight results.

If you do the double click on the folks preaching overnight success you will find many of them learned the hard way, though they may not tell you such. Many took years if not decades to finally make money online. Few of them have real business experience outside of their own internet marketing startup. Yes, they may be able to help you get where you need to go eventually based on tactics and a random set of deliverables. However, you need to know where you are going, first. This post is dedicated to those who of you who don’t know where you’re going and why you are going there in the first place.

If this post resonates with you, take a deep breath. It’s time you slow down to speed up. You may need to take a step back to take two steps forward. Quit listening to every self proclaimed “social media guru” selling you every Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + class and instead do what you know needs done.

It’s time you plan yer’ work and work yer’ plan as Granny would say! It’s time you get in the head of your target audience. It’s time to truly understand what it means to humanize your brand, story telling and your conversations.

The Language Is Changing

The social fabric is speaking a different language today than that of the days of corporate websites, collateral and traditional advertising. If you don’t learn the language you are going to be left behind in a big way. It IS the reason why your website is not working. So quit blaming it on the web developer you hired. He or she probably did what you told them to do. Stand up, take responsibility for your business and do what needs to be done, period!

If your current methods aren’t working, then fix them. We are happy to help you but we can’t help you unless you want to help yourself. Help me help you. Change your mindset and delete the notion of overnight success from your thinking.

Achieving real results is going to take commitment, research, analysis, late nights, and hard work. Quit cryin’ and do something about it.  If you want help, call us. No, we can’t meet with you for free to help you plan your strategy and put a proposal the size of Texas together that you’ll try to go implement yourself.  We can spot these “free lunch” seekers from a mile away

For the brave and the strong we promise to work in the trenches with you. We will help you answer all of the above questions and more. We’ll help you develop and execute a strategy, plan, and integrated digital platform that will simply kick butt! If you don’t call us, call somebody. Your excuses are done. You can and will do this!

What You Say?

Did this post hit home for you? If it did, don’t be embarrassed. The first step is to acknowledge. The second is to take steps to change. If you have already been down this path, what tips can you offer to help others? If you are an agency or consultant, how often do you see this? If you had $1000 for every time you heard the questions would you also be on the warm beach with me?

Additional Resources: 

Subscribe to our “Get a Grip on Social Media” newsletter for tips & tricks to get your business in shape for real social business!

Subscribe to our “Talk Human to Me” Series for tips on Brand Humanization and Nurturing Relationships

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