When I worked at Brazen Careerist, Penelope Trunk was constantly watching the news at work.

“I don’t have a TV,” she said. And then she added, “The only reason people don’t have TVs is so they can tell other people that they don’t watch TV.” (This is also a Stuff White People Like post).

She’s right though. I never watched much TV anyway, but it was only with my recent move to Atlanta that I completely got rid of my television.

I am still alive, thank you.

Actually, I am really productive. I have more time to read, do good work, and generally conquer the world. So yes, I have become one of those intellectuals who is so above watching TV that I have to write a blog post about it’s demise. Here are 3 reasons cable television will be dead three years from now:

Cable companies suck.

On a scale of 1 to evil, Comcast ranks somewhere between Lex Luthor and AT&T’s 3G network. Not only is the cost ridiculous, but the service is so spotty it is stealing thunder from giraffes and dalmatians and even lady bugs.

But don’t take my word for it; just read what Wikipedia has to say:

“A recent third party survey of citizens found approximately 62% of the respondents were very dissatisfied (along with another 25% who were dissatisfied) with the cost of cable television service. A majority of the respondents were satisfied with the friendliness and courtesy of customer service personnel, however, approximately 30% of the respondents rated the cable company’s performance as poor.”

In Chicago, we were paying $150+ per month for a regular cable package, plus internet and phone (under Comcast’s “triple play,” which should just be called “triple rip-off”). All of that, for the three shows I watch regularly.

Then, when I moved to Atlanta, Comcast wanted $60 and a one year contract just for standard internet. Are you kidding? So instead, I got the unlimited wireless USB under the Clear network, which costs me $30 a month with no contract. I watch my three shows online, talk on my cell phone or Skype, and keep the extra $120 a month in my bank account.

Consumers are done with bundled services.

In grad. school, they taught us that bundling was one of the best ways to maximize profits. This is how cable television survives now, of course; they give you 100 channels when you only care about 3 channels and you end up watching terrible programming most of the time because there is “nothing on.” (It’s mind-blowing, really, that you can turn on the TV and say there is “nothing on” when you are paying for 100 channels. Think about it.)

Purchasing a la carte (or getting content for free) has happened in the music industry and now the publishing industry. What makes cable television any different?

Nothing, of course. Cable television will follow suite because consumers are sick of bundling and companies that force bundling are losing power. The internet makes it cheap to deliver and disperse content in all forms. That’s why iTunes and Hulu are well-positioned for the digital age, but cable television companies are not. Which brings me to my next point.

Advertising dollars are shifting.

There was once a time when if you wanted to listen to music you turned on a radio. In exchange for hearing free music, you also had to listen to announcements, radio promotions, and advertising during the breaks. Now, if you want to listen to music, you use your mp3 player and listen to your own music, commercial free.

Here are the facts on how this translates to cable television:

• 90% of people who can Tivo (skip) through ads do so
• Only 18% of TV campaigns generate positive ROI
• Traditional advertising expenditures continue to decline, while digital advertising grows

Television networks are moving their shows online and selling the ad space there. Netflix let’s you rent movies digitally. The launch of the Apple iPad will make purchasing shows a la carte even more appealing.

The list of disruptive technology goes on and on, and cable companies are doing nothing about it. Well, here is their warning. Times are changing, and if they start rethinking their business model now, they can maybe salvage a piece of the pie from their competitors who are, quite frankly, chipping away at them aggressively in 2010.

Will you watch TV online in three years?

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2010. | Permalink | 28 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Apple iPad, cable television, Comcast sucks, Opinions

The Biggest Stories is a new feature on Social Pollination where I share information on the biggest stories in social media from that week. It’s a great place to catch up on the digital space if you’ve had a busy week!

Facebook

Wondering if all this social media stuff really works? New research from Rice University shows that Facebook Fan pages actually work as a marketing tool… when targeting Facebook users. Click through to read the results from the survey about local restaurant chain, Dessert Gallery.

Also, social media is proving to be an innovative way to conduct marketing research. Insider Facebook reports, “Lisa Zhang, a University of Waterloo student interning on Facebook’s data team, posted the Valentine’s Day note in which she said happiness of Facebook users was measured by analyzing positive and negative words in status updates as defined by it Gross National Happiness Index during one week in January.” The results? Married people are happier than people in a relationship, who are happier than single people. (Side note: Lisa Zhang’s job is the coolest. OR I’m a huge marketing nerd.)

Small Businesses

Small businesses are getting into the game of social media, according to MarketingCharts. “Social media adoption by small businesses doubled from 12% in 2008 to 24% in 2009. The biggest expectation small business owners have from social media is expanding external marketing and engagement, including identifying and attracting new customers, building brand awareness and staying engaged with customers.”

MarketingProfs also shares that SMBs are planning to build social media into their ad plans. “Nearly one-third (32%) of SMBs plan to use a page on a social networking site in the next year, and 39% plan to use customer-generated ratings or reviews on their website.”

If you are a small business reader, here is a great resource from Lee Odden of Online Marketing Blog about how to start a small business blog.

Gaining Exposure in Web 2.0

Mitch Joel from Six Pixels of Separation comments on how exposure is devalued as more people trade work for exposure rather than money. Excellent read if you are a blogger or business owner trying to figure out what the value of guest posting and followers on social media are. If you are interested in my thoughts on the question he posts at the end, “In one word, yes. At some point you have to charge for the work you are doing. I also try to consider ROI when I do guest blogging – for example, will I get exposed to a completely new set of people or will it be the same as my current blog? The former is worth the exposure, but after writing several times for the same publication, the latter posts’ value plummets in comparison to the first or second exposure.”

Getting Things Done

This doesn’t strictly deal with things I normally post on my blog, but I really love this post by Leo Babouta from Zen Habits about getting to completion on projects. He lays out 4 simple principles which could really be boiled down to one – keep projects small and get them out as quickly as possible. Iterate. While details are important, real-time allows for quick changes that make “getting it right the first time” much less valuable.

Also, like many who work in the digital space, I’m inundated with strangers who want to build relationships, and I can’t keep up. Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz urges us all to stop feeling guilty when we can’t realistically “build community” the way we are told to by top social media experts. I truly believe in building relationships NOT for the sake of self-promotion, but rather because both parties can offer great value to each other. Maybe that’s too transactional for some, but it certainly helps me get things done.

HuffPo Likes Me!

It’s always great to have your work recognized by the industry leaders. My post about Why I love Google Buzz was featured in an article written by Megan Berry of the Huffington Post this week. Read Google Buzz: Power Trumps Innovation to see it!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, facebook, Happiness, Huffington Post, IttyBiz, Leo Babouta, Mitch Joel, Naomi Dunford, Six Pixels of Separation, Small Businesses, social media, social media marketing, Zen Habits

The Biggest Stories is a new feature on Social Pollination where I share information on the biggest stories in social media from that week. It’s a great place to catch up on the digital space if you’ve had a busy week!

Google Buzz

From ReadWriteWeb: “Google rolled out a social stream service today called Buzz. It looks on the surface like Facebook, FriendFeed and other stream reading and writing services. It will compete with Facebook and Twitter. Under the covers, though, this major product was built by a team of people taking a radical new approach to online publishing: Buzz is all about open, standardized user data.”

While many people complained about the service’s inexplicable link to email, I laid out the reasons why I love Google Buzz as a data manager for all the noisy social media accounts I have.

Christopher Penn agrees that Google launched Buzz to further it’s mission as data manager of the web. “Buzz also incentivizes us in a couple of ways. It tells us to prune back our own spewage lest our friends, the ones we care about truly, unfollow us and eliminate us. It tells us that redundancy of information is of no value to anyone using Buzz, since you can get blog posts and status updates already from FriendFaceTwitterFeedBookSquareWallReader service (now with more blatant self-promotion from social media experts!). So we share and discuss only the stuff that’s either super high quality that we just can’t afford to miss, even if it’s redundant, because of the quality, or we share stuff that’s not being shared elsewhere.”

TANGENT: More evidence that Google is staking it’s claim as ultimate data manager - Google acquires Aardvark, a website where you can ask and answer questions from your friends this week. Back to topic…

It wasn’t long after Google Buzz launched that people found major privacy holes in the new service. Tech Journal reports “When a user logs into Buzz, it automatically provides them with followers and people to follow, based on how frequently users email and chat with their acquaintances. The problem, the magazine points out, is that both the people who follow you, and the people you follow, can be viewed by default by anyone who checks out your profile.” There were talks that Buzz might be removed from Gmail, but according to The Next Web, Google replied by saying “No, we’re not planning to remove Buzz from Gmail. Among some of the features we’re considering is building a standalone Buzz experience in addition to the one in Gmail at some point in the future.”

Some people still wish Google Buzz wasn’t so noisy, but maybe a potential solution is GTriage. Sarah Perez of Read Write Web explains that GTriage “is a new service that aims to help Gmail users suffering from “information overload” due to an overcrowded inbox – a problem affecting the majority of email users today. The way the service works is that it scans all your email messages and to determine which ones are the most important to you. It then tags those messages “Important” with bright red labels so they don’t get missed.”

Either way, I think Google Buzz is here to stay and can provide a great deal of value for companies. If you need to catch up, Steven Woods does a great job of laying out 6 reasons companies should care about Google Buzz on Digital Body Language.

Trust

Edelman released their annual trust barometer this week, and the results were surprising to many. Jordan McCollum of Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim reports, “The executive summary shows traditional media trust is diving, with TV news down 20%, radio news down 17% and print news down 12%. However, digital media isn’t exactly making up the gap—radio and TV news coverage still slightly beat out online search engines (38%, 36% and 35%, respectively), and newspaper articles close behind (34%). Corporate communications (press releases, I guess) were also in the same tier—significantly ahead of social networking sites (19%), which only barely edged out product advertising (17%).”

The most surprising news is that trust of CEOs and government officials has gone up, while trust of “a person like yourself” is sinking. Maybe the number of con-artists in the digital world has jaded every day people who don’t try to game the system for marketing purposes? Just a thought.

iPad

iPad news continues to dominate this week as Apple announces their plans to lower standard definition TV show prices to $1 in April to coincide with the launch of iPad. Standard definition shows are viewable on the iPad, and Ars Technica reports, “‘If you move five times the volume [of sales] at half the price, it’s a good idea,’ a source at one US media conglomerate told Financial Times. ‘The argument for holding the line gets bad quickly.’”

iPad is also battling it out on the eBook front, though I think it’s chances of killing the Kindle are not as strong as it’s chances of killing evil Comcast.

Associated Press

All is not lost for analog media, as Mashable reports that the Associated Press has returned to Google News. “The AP and Google have been in talks to establish a new agreement that would allow Google to continue to aggregate and host AP content, but because the AP has adopted a hawkish stance with regard to controlling its content online, Google stopped posting new AP stories in anticipation of a fall-through in talks.”

Google’s official statement is “We have a licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits us to host its content on Google properties such as Google News. The licensing agreement is the subject of ongoing discussion so we won’t be commenting further at this time.”

Sounds like Google is selling out a bit. Perhaps this is in light of the recent news that Bing is gaining share on both Google and Yahoo! in the search engine space?

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to follow me on Google Buzz, where I share links like this and more every day. Have a splendid weekend!

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

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Post tags: Aardvark, Associated Press, Edelman, Google Buzz, Google News, GTriage, iPad, social media

The big news this week is Google Buzz and the questions are numerous:

• Is this a [insert social network here] killer?
• What do I do with Buzz?
• Is the service redundant when we have Twitter and Facebook already?

I love Google Buzz. I checked my email all day and signed up for the service within minutes of getting activated. As I used it for the first time, I felt a tiny ounce of how I imagine a drug addict feels when they shoot up. Yes, it’s that addictive. After playing with the service for a little while, I wanted to offer my initial thoughts on the service and what I think it means for individuals, companies, and the social digital industry as a whole.

Why I love Google Buzz (and why you should too!)

• No character limit – 140 characters on Twitter is tiring. It’s arbitrary and it leaves less room for true conversation. At this point, Twitter is mostly a directory to the good stuff. Google Buzz is the good stuff.
• No link to click – With Google Buzz, you don’t have to leave your window to see all the cool information that’s coming across your screen. In fact, it’s not a traffic-driver at all, but rather a data manager.
• Threaded conversation – Twitter’s lack of threading is a burden on the user, and has made the platform messily loud. Google Buzz is much quieter because you can pick and choose which conversations you want to follow.
• Ability to share privately or publicly – This is a feature that is not available on Twitter and that is mind-blowingly complicated on Facebook. Google Buzz simplifies settings for who you share each item with, making it as intuitive as emailing.
• Ability to Mute certain posts without muting all posts or unfollowing the person – On other networks you have the option to follow or unfollow, hide all updates or hide no updates, etc. With Google Buzz, you can mute a specific conversation, but still keep up with the person’s future updates.
• Subtle follower notification – Unlike Twitter, you don’t receive obnoxious emails every single time someone follows you. Many of us have turned those off, which means I so rarely know if someone new and important is following me. In Google Buzz, there is a subtle pop-up that shows you who has followed you since you last checked, and gives you a one-click way to follow each person back if you desire.
• Subtle inbox notification – Some people complained about this, but you can turn it off. Basically, if you want notification on what is happening in Buzz, the message thread appears in your inbox every time there is a new message.
• No extra accounts – I didn’t have to sign-up with a new username or password. Google Buzz also found many of my other social accounts and gave me a one-click option to add them.
• Automatically finds friends for you – I started out with 53 friends. That made it easy to jump right in and start conversing.
• Mobility – Google Buzz works with many smartphones. It still isn’t integrated with BlackBerry as far as I know, but then again what social media lover has one of those still? Furthermore, Google Buzz lets you write comments about specific locations as you are out and about. I haven’t tested this feature yet, but from the posts I’ve seen it’s pretty neat.
• Fun stuff floats to the top – Rather than reading in real-time like Twitter, and similar to reading the Top News in Facebook, Google Buzz floats the most engaging conversations to the top. The difference between Buzz and Facebook is that the “Top News” is probably more relevant. Facebook’s top news tends to be “9 of your friends joined Can this pickle get more fans than Nickleback?” or “Jackie Kennedy sent you a Farmville Crocodile!” Google Buzz floats less superficial news to the top: like “Journalism Fellowships Adapt to Meet Economic, Digital Challenges” and “Mice Endure Electrical Shocks for Chocolate”
• Authenticity is currency – You can’t get any closer to being yourself online than your primary email address. There is no way to hide behind usernames under Google Buzz because your entire network is based on the people you email with the most. Even if you create a separate account, you will have a hard time finding friends. This may be a good thing for combating spammers too (though they tend to find their way onto any platform).
• General focus on conversation – If I could sum up Google Buzz in one word, it would be “Conversation.” The service is set up for some serious talking, and the conversations are addictive due to their integration with email. Unlike other social networks, I don’t think Google will sell out to things like social ads, Mob wars, and PayPerTweet services. Why? Because they don’t need to. Google already has a business model; it doesn’t need to make one up for the sake of pleasing investors.

3 Ways Individuals Can Use Google Buzz

• To conduct impromptu research – Google Buzz is the ultimate research tool. It’s better than Twitter because there is more room for full responses and everyone who responds can see the other people’s points. That means people can build off each others ideas, rather than sending in their one-off (140 character) answer and calling it a day.
• To write blog posts – Dan Schawbel asked a question and received 50+ detailed responses. He could literally copy and paste the entire conversation into a blog editor and hit “Publish.”
• To collaborate privately – I love that you can have a private chat with a small number of people and let them and only them see the comment thread. Sure, this sounds suspiciously like sending an email, but it’s simpler and more conversational.

3 Ways Companies Can Use Google Buzz

• Internally, to quickly share ideas, pictures, and video (without links) – Google Buzz is like Yammer but a million times better. It’s a chat room that you can configure any way you want.
• To find niche influencers through the Buzz search engine – Search for your brand on Google Buzz and see what people are talking about. Track the whole conversation right there in your Buzz window, quickly add your 2 cents, then quickly find every other social profile that influencer has on the web. Or just follow all the influencer’s accounts right there in Buzz.
• To aggregate full social profiles of anyone with a Gmail address – Hinted at in the last bullet point. There is a new service called FlowTown that creates full social profiles for a fee. While Google Buzz doesn’t have all the features of FlowTown, I wouldn’t be surprised if marketers started using it this way.

Services that Google Buzz Can Probably Replace if You Let It

• Twitter – Twitter can’t hold a flame to Google Buzz, period. The service made a smart move by integrating, but I can’t see myself messing with Twitter anymore now that I have an elegant new solution.
• Yammer – Yeah, this one is toast. Why log into a separate network to share information with your coworkers when you can do it right there in your email? I realize that no Fortune 500’s use Gmail… then again, they aren’t the ones who use Yammer either.
• Friendfeed – Well, technically the Facebook acquisition killed Friendfeed. But in case it were still kicking, Google Buzz has now twisted the knife.
• FourSquare et al. – Google Buzz is prompting users to not only check in from their locations via mobile, but also to write a review of the location! Then lots of people comment on it. FourSquare and it’s competitors are dead meat if Buzz takes off.
• Social bookmarking sites – Unless you use tagging support, you don’t need most social bookmarking sites because Buzz integrates so well with Google Reader. I can find all of my favorite links just by looking at what I’ve posted to my Google Reader blog. I can also find what other people are reading because the best stuff bubbles up to the top of Buzz. After all, who cares what the Digg crowd thinks is cool? A better indicator is what your like-minded friends think is cool.
• Blogs? – You can post full blog posts in Google Buzz, then people can comment on them. Why mess with a setting up and designing a blog again? I’m interested to see how people will use this feature in the future.

*Note: If you want more ideas for how individuals and/or companies can use Google Buzz, there will surely be blog posts out in the next couple days… or you could simply Google any of these companies above for ideas. If the idea works on Twitter, it will probably work on Google Buzz too, and so on for any of the networks I’ve listed.

Services that Google Buzz Cannot Replace Yet

• Facebook – Profiles, photos, fan pages, groups, and pretty much everything else besides the Live Feed are better on Facebook than on Google. Sorry, this is soooo not a Facebook killer.
• LinkedIn – Until Google provides better profile support, LinkedIn will continue to rule the roost in professional networking.
• Slideshare et. al – Google doesn’t integrate presentation slides yet, which is unfortunate. I’d love to see it support viewing Google Docs within the system.

Those are my initial thoughts on the service. Have you tried it yet? What do you think?

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2010. | Permalink | 35 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, Conversation, facebook, Foursquare, Google, Google Buzz, social media, social media marketing, Twitter

This is a (non-affiliate) post about Adam Baker’s new ebook, Unautomate Your Finances. Adam is a friend of mine in the online space and he is someone that I regularly learn new things from, so I’m very excited to be sharing this guide with you today . Included in the guide:

• 84-pages of ebook, broken into:
  • Theory (core principles)
  • Science (exercise to design ideal life and isolate the “next step”)
  • Application (deeper topics like tracking, budgeting, paying off debt, credit cards, etc…)
• A 27 minute interview with Leo Babauta (ZenHabits) as a bonus
• An audio interview with J.D. Roth of Getrichslowly.org as a bonus
• a 2-page printable PDF budgeting template (of the budget described in Section 3)
• a minimalist excel template of same budget
• $17 dollar price for guide + access to bonuses

I know you probably skimmed over that part, but don’t skip this next part, because it’s good. Here are 3 things you can learn from Adam Baker today, even if you don’t purchase his ebook.

People with flexible lives are better equipped for success

I have a co-worker who illustrates this point well. Actually, she is not really a co-worker, because she makes an exhorbent amount of money (high six figures) and still lives paycheck to paycheck. She would like to be my coworker, but she can’t afford to quit the job she hates for one she wants.

Her story is the norm. Adam, on the other hand, is one of those people that everyone thinks is nuts. He and his wife quit their jobs, sold all their belongings, and moved to New Zealand with a 1 year old in tow. They even have a list of their belongings on their website, which is detailed with tidbits like Courtney ditched one of her regular bras during the course of their journey, and now owns just one regular bra and one sports bra.

Their entire reasoning process is sound, however, and despite some setbacks, it seems the family is liberated, happier, and less in debt as a result.

If less debt sounds good to you, you can read more about how to do it at this non-affiliate link: http://manvsdebt.com/unautomate-your-finances

I repeat, that’s not an affiliate link. It should be, because I am not independently wealthy and cannot afford to snub free money. Adam would probably chastise me for not putting an affiliate link there, but hey, that’s why I use my blog to build a career rather than to monetize – because I suck at it.

Un-automating forces you to stop and think

As a society, we are so fixed on automating everything in the name of productivity. We automate our finances so we don’t have to look at them. We automate our social media accounts so we don’t have to connect. We automate our careers so we don’t have to step out of our comfort zones. We are swamped with automation – automated emails, automated bill-pay, automated marketing, automated posting, automated routines, automated education.

We put ourselves on autopilot because we think it’s good for us, but really it’s so we don’t have to think. It’s a coping mechanism. It’s scary, it’s inauthentic, and those are both problems in their own right. But Adam points out a bigger problem – that automation let’s our bad habits spin out of control without us noticing. We spend more than we should. We own more than we need. We read more than we can implement.

Adam was on the path of automation for awhile. He has spent years learning to un-automate his life, so he can make decisions consciously, and essentially begin to live again. His ebook is geared towards finance, but it’s really the culmination of the lifestyle lessons he’s learned along the way.

Good networkers buy other people’s products

I didn’t have to buy Adam’s product today. Adam and I are both co-founders of Untemplater, and there was never a question of whether I could get the product for free or not. I did. But I chose to go back and buy Adam’s product because Adam buys everyone else’s products, and Adam has an insanely great network as a result.

If you want a great network, you have to demonstrate that you value others. Everyone wants to feel like they are making what they are worth, and in a world of free, sometimes that means putting down actual cash to set yourself apart.

Also, it’s counterintuitive when people try to get something for free just because they are friends with someone. In fact, the opposite is true – the more you value someone, the more you should be willing to pay them for the goods and services they provide.

Adam is a rockstar. Even if you aren’t looking for financial advice today, you should still consider purchasing Adam’s guide to Un-Automating Your Finances, because it gives you a reason to connect with Adam.

Again, here is the non-affiliate link: http://manvsdebt.com/unautomate-your-finances

Adam’s friendship is worth far more than $17 to me, but this is a start.

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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My friends and I are launching a new venture today called Untemplater and we are so excited to share it with you! The site is for Gen Y’ers who want to “untemplate” their lives and take advantages of the many opportunities available to our generation. We truly have an all-star team here…

• Jun Loayza, our CEO with several successful start-ups under his belt
• Adam Baker, a father, husband, and world-traveler who writes about personal finance
• Cody McKibben, a digital nomad who runs a successful business from Thailand
• Carlos Miceli, a sharp-witted philosopher from Argentina who recently quit his job to study in Australia
• Andrew Norcross, a wordpress/programming ninja who has developed enough freelance work to quit his job
• Dariane Nabor, a UCLA student who is managing the Untemplater community
• and myself, who you hopefully know something about already

Do check out the Untemplater Manifesto to learn more about our project and the founders – the download is completely free and the manifesto has gotten awesome reviews already, even from people who don’t like ebooks. Also, make sure you watch our site this week and sign up for our exclusive email list because we have lots of pretty valuable stuff to give away!

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Happy New Year!

I wanted to quickly share my plans for 2010 with the blogging community. The theme for my 2010 is scaling back and focusing on doing just a few things with all my heart. I’ve gotten my list down to three goals:

We’re moving and I’m (hopefully) getting a new job

I’ve been in Chicago since graduating from undergrad 4 years ago, and my husband and I are ready for a change. As much as we love the city life and our friends here, the decision to leave Chicago in 2010 came easily for us. We have both had it at the back of our minds for awhile now, and barely needed discussion to know what we both wanted.

As we finish up our studies at our respective programs (I am done and he has 5 more months), we are more aware of how little time we’ve had to relax since getting married 3 years ago. Between school and networking and yuppie jobs and bars and parties and friends and family, we literally haven’t stopped running for the last 4 years. While we are happy we “made it” in Chicago, we’re ready to move on to a place just slightly more relaxing.

So where to exactly? That is yet to be decided. There is an amazing job in Atlanta, Georgia that I am in the final round of interviews for, and I’d be perfectly happy to move there. I’ve been consulting for over a year and I feel like it’s time to make a change and take my career to the next level, because I have found it hard to really make a difference in the marketing profession at my age as a consultant.

If the job doesn’t pan out, we’ll almost certainly be moving somewhere else and looking at other job opportunities south of the Chicago area. Either way, we are selling our 2 bedroom condo in Logan Square, so if you know anyone in the market – let us know!

I’m finishing my fiction novel.

Two Christmases ago I started writing a novel about angels and demons. I made it to about 100 pages and then stopped for whatever reason – I’m not even sure why now. Well, every night I still think about the story. The story is written out in my head with two sequels in outline – and I’m determined to make 2010 the year that I finish this novel already.

Bradley Will’s new site Unstrapp’d recently featured Social Pollination as one of the top 30 entrepreneurship blogs for young people. I love the post mostly because I received feedback I didn’t know about myself: I can be a good storyteller. I don’t tell many stories on my blog because I have a penchant for embellishing them to make them sound more interesting. It doesn’t bode well for a non-fiction blog, but I’m looking forward to building my storytelling skills with this novel.

I’m launching a fun website called Untemplater with friends.

Every time I think about my career it makes me think of Untemplater, a new website my friends and I are launching on January 5th. I have not had a normal career – for example, very few people work at startups or spend a year as a consultant of digital media. Almost no one graduates from a top 5 business school at 25 years old, or publishes a how-to/reference book. I’ve done a lot of interesting and unconventional things in my career, but that’s not what the untemplated life is really about.

A lot of people think my career is perfect or that the so-called untemplated life of ditching Corporate America is the only career change that will save your soul. But really, what is soul-saving is the things you do that make you happy – and you can be passionate about a job in Corporate America just as easily as you can be passionate about quitting your job and moving to Thailand Tim Ferriss style. That’s what Untemplater is about – helping people find happiness through sharing our stories. That’s why I’m part of this project, to show people that you can weave the career that works for you. I look forward to sharing more about it with you in the next week!

It’s been a crazy last few years for me, and I’m looking forward to a passionate life in 2010. With a new location, potential new job, and a few fun hobbies to focus on, I think I’m in for some actual free time to hang out with my husband, travel, and play with my dog.

Chris Brogan recently asked each of us to think of three words we wanted to use when describing 2010 next December. My three words are simple, playful, and passionate. I plan to focus my time on just a few things – a passionate career, writing what I want when I want to, and my family. I want to play a little this year.

What are your three words?

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Back in high school, one of my teachers told the class that he never had a glass of wine when he went out to dinner with his wife. It wasn’t because he didn’t drink, he said, but rather because if he were pulled over on the way home, a DUI would tarnish his reputation in the community and ruin his chances of becoming principal someday. I remember thinking, the guy never stops being a disciplinarian – an example for others. He never lets loose.

And I knew that day that I never wanted a profession where I couldn’t have a regular life after work.

10 years later, the entire world is doing exactly what my former teacher (now high school principal) did to manage his career. Nowadays, everyone has a personal brand – a way to demonstrate value to others quickly and succinctly. And everyone’s personal brand seems to combine professional pursuits with interests and hobbies, blending the traditional worker and his relationships into a 24/7 experience put on display for all to see.

And yet, there seems to be an ongoing war between the people who use social media for personal relationships and the people who use social media for business. The personal side looks at the others and says, “Man, stop selling your stuff to us, we just want to chat with each other and be cool,” and the business side replies, “Dudes, why are you investing so much effort – working so hard at this social media thing – if you can’t eventually feed yourself from it?”

I use my accounts for both personal and professional – but I know from the feedback I get that I have a “personal branding issue.” My clients complain that I tweet too much about things they don’t care about with people they don’t know. My friends who knew me before I was consulting complain that I’m not fun, that all I ever do is talk about what I’m reading and learning, and that I never share my personal stories on my blog anymore – the reason they initially subscribed.

Personal branding is a conundrum for most people – we don’t want to be boring or sales-ish or an expert and we don’t want to be wild or gossipy or strange, and the two words are unmashable, like trying to force two magnets with opposite charges to touch. There is no win, no way to talk to people in our personal and professional lives the same way.

But it has to be done, because there is also no way to separate our personal lives from our professional ones. So here are my thoughts on how to handle the issue:

Accept that social media is a marketplace.

Everyone has something to sell, even the cool kids. Maybe it’s a website – maybe they are trying to get a promotion at work. Maybe they are just trying to cure self-esteem issues with @replies and comments, or maybe they have a product that they want you to purchase. The sooner we all accept this, the better.

Use Twitter and Facebook and your blog to both sell stuff and to talk to friends.

People think they don’t want to be friends with anyone who is a salesperson. But nobody want to buy something from a robot, so part of personal branding is learning how to sell to your friends without damaging the friendship. I write about online marketing mostly, but not always – I sometimes write about eating chocolate before a work out, or Obama winning the Nobel Peace prize. I want to be friends with you, but I also want to tell you what I’m up to professionally.

Refrain from ranting on social media, even if you would in real life to your friends.

I don’t think the world is a better place when people say what they want, rather than what’s nice. I refrain from ranting not because I’m afraid of confrontation, but because some of my clients can find it – and I want them to trust me, not think I’m an insane person with a bad attitude who can’t control her emotions.

Realize it’s expensive to be flippant.

Like this writer I know, who writes about sex a lot. But she represents a company, and sometimes when she writes about sex one of the potential partner companies calls to pull out of a deal. Negative ROI, baby.

To end, I leave you with a great quote I found today:

“You might think that going for years without ‘pitching’ anything would endear you to your audience. But in fact, it tends to just make them cranky when you finally get around to asking for the sale.” ~ Sonia Simone

How do you combine personal and professional online?

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2009. | Permalink | 78 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Personal Branding

My new book is out. Yay!

The book is officially called Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination is about how small businesses can and should be using social media – starting with creating goals and strategy, to the optimizing the 12 social media success factors on any platform, to measuring social media ROI, all the way to building a social media team when you see that social media is so much more important than advertising for 2010.

The target audience for the book is entrepreneurs, wannabe entrepreneurs, small business owners, startups, sales/marketing/PR types at any size company, and anyone who wants to build their “personal brand” in a strategic way. (And my mom. Hi mom.) Since 2010 is going to be an even bigger year for small business + social media than 2009 was, this book makes an awesome Christmas gift to any of the above who could use a little help with their small business/personal goals for 2010.

Of course, I would LOVE if all 2000 subscribers to this blog headed over to Amazon (or Barnes and Noble) to purchase the book TODAY. Not only would I probably hit some random Amazon bestseller list, but I would be able to pay my rent for like, 3 months. (That would really make my husband happy.) So, if you are in the target audience or know someone who’s in the target audience, treat yourself (or them) to a fun Christmas gift.

Amazon Link: http://bit.ly/6XFPof

Barnes and Noble Link: http://bit.ly/55xnPB

Since the book is aimed at entrepreneurial types interested in becoming thought leaders in their industry and therefore want to write their own books, I also wanted to share some behind-the-scenes info on the Social Pollination process. If this is interesting to you, make sure you leave a comment with your questions so I can answer them in upcoming blog posts. I’m happy to talk about the experience and give you the low-down on all the mistakes I made in the process of getting here – I just need to know what you want to hear about.

Writing

It took me 3 years to learn, practice, and digest the material for this book, and about a month to write down everything I learned and edit it. Don’t get me wrong – that month was like a vacation to hell for me – and I LOVE writing. I’ve heard A LOT of business authors say this about their first book, so it’s not surprising that this journey isn’t for the faint-hearted. And the writing has just begun for me, because marketing this book is probably the same amount of writing as I did for the book in the first place.

I’m happy it’s done though, and I feel pretty good, like maybe I just ran a marathon or something. I would definitely do it again. I know a ton of people want to learn how to turn their blog into a book, so leave your questions in the comments and I’ll write more about this in the future!

Pricing

You’d be shocked by how little control I as the author have over the pricing of my own book. Right now it is $20 on Amazon and $18 on Barnes and Noble. Those prices are bound to go up or down over the next several weeks due to the holiday season, and I can’t do much about it.

BUT what I can say is that companies have paid me $1500 to share with them a small fraction of the information in Social Pollination. This information has gained me 2000 blog subscribers and 6300 (real, non follow-back) followers on Twitter as a solopreneur. At $20, the book is a steal for the do-it-yourself types or anyone who wants to get up to speed on social media quickly.

Distribution

A ton of people have asked me how to get the book in their country. Right now the (English version of) Social Pollination is listed on Amazon in the US, UK, France, and Germany, as far as I know.

I am working to get the book available on the Kindle as well, so that should be up in a week or so, and I believe that should be available globally, though I don’t really know for sure.

If that doesn’t work, I may also set up a PDF version download, but I’m pretty wary of that for obvious reasons. The other option I can think of is ordering and sending copies of the book on my own (as in, I’m the distributor) but that could be an operational nightmare as well. So I am thinking through mass solutions to this problem and in the meantime, working one on one with a couple people who are serious about purchasing.

Marketing

A couple people asked me about my marketing plan for the book. My big online PR push will be in early January, so at the end of that push, I will probably write a long post about what exactly I did and what the results were. I’m hesitant to commit anything to digital at the moment because one or more of my ideas might change, or might suck and completely fail .

After the online push, I will do a huge offline push, which will involve more speaking, direct marketing, radio, book signings, etc. I’m pretty excited to get to that point too, and will probably write about it also.

They say it takes a year to market your book well. I really hope that’s not true, but I’m looking forward to at least 3-6 months of hardcore promotion.

*******

Lastly, I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to YOU. The book would not be a physical object without this community that has supported me over the years. I know it’s the cliche thing to say, but out of all the things I’ve done to reach success (like, ahem, getting a really expensive MBA), this blog has probably given me the largest return on investment. So for that, I am sincerely thankful.

Don’t forget to check out the book if you haven’t already, and have a fantastic day!

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2009. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: book publicity, social pollination

I was lucky enough to meet Ted Wright, founding partner of Fizz Word of Mouth Marketing, last night in my Integrated Brand Communications class. He was charming, funny, and had incredible word of mouth marketing tips drawn from a decade of experience declaring that broadcast advertising is dead and word of mouth is the new way to go.

Ted’s experience includes creating 8% growth per year for Pabst Blue Ribbon (as the rest of the category declines by 5%) and launching the insanely popular Crocs brand. He claims that a word of mouth marketing strategy can produce 8 times the profits that an advertising strategy produces.

I’m a huge fan of word of mouth marketing, so much so that I when I wrote my book (Social Pollination, December 2009) I wrote quite a bit about how companies should do word of mouth marketing online. I’m publishing all my notes from the talk for those people who want to better understand how word of mouth marketing happens. Please note that all of this information came from my interpretation of what Ted answered in response to questions from about 30 MBA students.

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Why is broadcast dead?

People in the US are blind to advertising. We are hit with thousands of advertisements every day, almost all of which we block out. There is no ROI for advertising. It’s wasted dollars. Anytime a company tries to interrupt or intercept a consumer, it loses.

If broadcast is dead, why do companies still do it?

Two reasons -

• Fear – it’s hard to cut a budget when others in the company attribute sales to advertising
• Inertia – Advertising worked in the ’90s so it still works. This is true in places like India and China who have only recently been introduced to heavy advertising through broadcast, but not in mature media markets like the US.

How do companies generate organic word of mouth?

By telling good stories that influentials feel are worth sharing.

Who are influentials?

Only one person out of 10 is a true influential. Influentials have three traits:

• They try things just because they are new
• They tell stories to friends
• They get intrinsic value from sharing their stories

Note #1: Influentials are not people who like free stuff simply because it’s free! True influentials are happy to buy the things they are interested in.

Note #2: Bloggers are not necessarily influentials and influentials are not necessarily bloggers, though many influentials use blogs as an outlet for sharing.

Note #3: Influentials self-identify, because they are proactive about finding new things and sharing stories with their friends.

What types of stories get shared?

Anything that gets passed along organically about a brand has to be interesting, relevant, and authentic. Without each of these three elements, your brand story is dead.

• Interesting – something unique, that no one in the industry or brand category has ever done before.
• Relevant – the audience has to care. The example given was if you don’t have kids you don’t care if I tell you about the best baby wipes on the planet.
• Authentic – pretty self-explanatory. You can’t pay people, bribe people, or even ask people to share the story – they have to do it because they want to, on their own timelines.

Why does word of mouth marketing work?

• 76% of Americans talk about at least one brand a day, and the average is 10 brands a day (TalkTrack, Keller Fay Group, 2008)
• 15% of conversations in the US include something about a product or service (Northeastern University)
• The average person has 112 conversations a day, with 56 of those conversations including brands – that’s 50%
• For influentials, the numbers are higher – 177 conversations with 116 about brands – 65.5%

How does social media work with word of mouth?

10% of word of mouth happens on the internet. This is substantial market share, so having an online presence matters. However, “Twitter is not a different animal, it’s a faster animal.”

71% of word of mouth happens face-to-face, so even with an internet presence, companies still must find a way to facilitate face-to-face conversation.

Monica’s Note: This does NOT mean that only 10% of WOM about your company is generated BY the internet. Someone can see what your company is doing online and talk about it in regular conversation, and vice-versa.

What about negative word of mouth?

People will share a negative story 7 times and a positive story 21 times. So if you are focusing on a sharing strategy, the positive will far outweigh the negative.

Plus, research shows that true influentials get no intrinsic value in sharing negative stories. Tim also points out, “Even if there is no online, you can’t control the message.” So essentially, don’t worry about it!

When does advertising work?

Advertising comes AFTER a good experience, when you already have strong word of mouth. Then, the influentials who see the advertisement are prompted to tell the story AGAIN, generating more word of mouth.

Brand stories have a shelf life of about 6-7 months, at which point you must create a new story to talk about.

Ted also shared the four-step process his company uses to create word of mouth:

1. Focus – create the a story that meets the IRA criteria, and test using WGAF (Who gives a F*ck?)
2. Design – create opportunities for the brand to interact with its true fans (the influentials) and if needed, create opportunities for the influentials to tell their friends
3. Delivery – sticking to your mission, and not letting anyone steer you off your message
4. Report – WOM works slower than advertising because it spreads organically, so show momentum before the cash starts coming in

How can I get my company to buy into this idea?

Start with one market and prove that the results are better than advertising. Keep adding markets at the company’s comfort level. Cities to target include New York, LA, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Miami.

Good reporting is also essential for this. At one point, Fizz used epidemiologists (people who study viruses) to map out where word-of-mouth about a brand started.

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So, what do you think of word of mouth marketing? Should companies “go dark” (cut out all advertising) and focus on a word of mouth campaign? What other questions do you have about word of mouth marketing?

Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination provides a strategic blueprint that helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth! For a limited time, purchase Social Pollination and get a free membership to Monica's private coaching forum.

© Monica for Social Pollination, 2009. | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fizz word of mouth marketing, Marketing, social media, word of mouth

There is no wrong way to use social media. Just like there is no wrong way to wear a tattoo. The question is, do you know who your audience is? For example, don't get this tattoo unless your wife's name is Leslie.

Image by leslie adams on Flickr