“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” said William Shakespeare. In a sense, parting is what I’ve decided to do with my business.

For years, I’ve been known as the “Social Media Handyman,” a moniker given to me by a friend who said she needed a “handyman” to help her set up a blog. I volunteered, the title was conferred, and because I’m somewhat blue collar, it felt like a good fit, so I adopted it.

However, both social media and I have taken a turn. Social media is now more or less an accepted part of an integrated marketing approach. It has found its place among SEO, PPC, email, demand generation and other forms of online marketing.

I’ve tried to evolve along with it and am now to a point similar to where I was back in 2005, when I formed a boutique agency known as Radiant Marketing Group. In those days I referred to myself as an “Internet marketing consultant” and darned if I’m not doing so again, yet with a slight twist.

Much is being made these days of content marketing. Clearly, content is what drives the Internet and my approach over the past few years, though focused primarily around social media, was very content-centric. That’s the direction I want to take what I’m now calling Chaney Marketing Group.

From a business development standpoint, it’s a step beyond seeing myself as a subject matter expert and individual resource. That got me this far, but in 2013, I feel compelled to grow my business into something that’s bigger than just me as an individual.

At the same time I didn’t want to take my name completely off the shingle; hence the new brand, which builds on my personal brand reputation combined with a description of what it is I do – marketing. (The “group” will evolve over time, or so I hope.)

Needless to say, this decision was not easy in coming. I wrestled for a long period over whether to retain my current standing or strive to build something bigger. The latter won out and I’m glad the struggle is over. I know what I want to do, who I want to target, and some idea of how to get there. I succor your support and encouragement.

It will take a few days (dare I say “weeks”) to make the necessary changes to this site in terms of design and content (mainly it’s my services that will change), so please be patient.

In the meantime, consider this a “soft launch” of the new Chaney Marketing Group!

This is a guest post from Alex Clifford, Content Marketing Executive at Virally, a company that empowers marketers to run hosted content marketing campaigns, make content more social, and gain deeper insights when their content goes viral.

Alex Clifford

The internet is an ocean. It’s full of people to catch and as a marketer, you’re the fisherman. Ads used to bait loads of customers into your net, but you now have to use better bait – content marketing. You’re producing blog articles, guides and videos to help bring them towards you. But how can you make your content marketing more effective?

Put on your overalls, start up the boat, and let’s head off on a voyage. Let me show you why your content marketing needs to be more social.

1. People aren’t on your website, they’re on Facebook

Your customers spend their time on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, not your company website. You company website is unlikely to be a hub of traffic. So if your content doesn’t reach social networks it’s like fishing in an empty pond. You’re limiting your reach.

2. People trust their friends more than you

Fish swim in schools to thwart their predators. They trust each other. They’re likely to follow the moves of their friends if they’ve recommended something. Social networks are how your customers communicate with each other. It’s how say “the coast is clear”. If your content is recommended by their friends, they know they can trust your company.

3. Your content needs a viral reach

If you only promote your content on your site, it’s a drop in the ocean. Literally. It’ll go nowhere. Once you have social tools embedded into your content marketing campaign, people can pass it on. Then their friends can pass it on. Then their friends can pass it on. Suddenly your content can ‘go viral’.

4. Some of your contacts have more influence than others

The Codfathers. These are the people you need to be talking to. People listen when they speak. They’re trendsetters. They’re the fish at the front of the school. They lead. By having content which spreads via social networks, you can find the key influencers and talk to them directly, about issues among their school.

You can build relationships with these key influences to get more sales.

5. You need to nurture your leads

People will take your bait of great content. But how do you turn them into customers? You need to nurture them along. You need to feed them more and more great content, until you catch them as a customer. With your content spreading socially, you can continue to deliver valuable content. Then convert them.

Use social networks to catch more customers with your content

Content marketing is immensely powerful. You can win a lot of attention, leads and new customers with it. However if you want to catch more people, you need your content marketing to use social networks more.

Mounting evidence supports a conjecture that I’ve held to for some time – by and large daily deals for small businesses don’t work.

If you don’t believe me, then believe Bloomberg, which reported on a survey run by Manta, the small business listing service, that found of its 1,087 members surveyed 82 percent do not intend to run daily deal promotions this year, and only three percent said such campaigns garnered any repeat business. Three percent said they lost money on daily deal coupons.

On face value, it sounds like a grand idea. Here’s a way to advertise your business and get potentially large numbers of new customers walking through your door without any upfront costs. That brings an old axiom to mind: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And, in the case of daily deals, it is.

The problem with daily deal sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial (and innumerable clones) is that their users are loyal to deals, not to the businesses that provide them.

But the real problem runs even deeper; deal buyers don’t come back.

With the deep discounts and slim margins, not to mention the money owed to deal sites, small business owners can’t make a profit, especially when those deals don’t result in repeat business.

But with every problem comes an opportunity. And the opportunity here is to create a system that converts one-time coupon users into repeat customers. The daily deal purveyors have yet to do it (they take their money and run), so that leaves someone else to craft a solution.

Believe me when I tell you my mental wheels are turning in hopes of coming up with a feasible solution. But I can use your help. What ideas might you have to finding a remedy to this no repeat business malady? If you have one, please leave a comment.

Perhaps between us, we can hand small businesses owners a golden key that unlocks the door to daily deal success. In the meantime, my advice to businesses – send the daily deal salespeople who visit you right back through the door.

Every few years I have to reinvent myself, at least where my business is concerned.

For example, when I started doing online marketing in 1996 my focus was on web design, so I called myself a web designer. Later, I added email marketing, affiliate marketing and SEO to my skill set and adopted the title online marketer.

In 2004, having become enamored with blogging and its marketing potential, I became a business blog consultant. Then, in 2006, in an effort to stay current and relevant, changed my title to social media consultant.

The latter has served me well these past few years. Three books were written and I have been afforded speaking and training opportunities that took me all over the globe. But, social media has jumped the shark and social media consultants can be found under every bush. From a career standpoint, it’s become a red ocean.

From Service Provider to Product Producer

To be honest, what gets me excited these days is not consulting, but producing. I love journalism and blogging, and I love teaching. As such, I’ve decided it’s time to focus my efforts in those two areas.

Over the next few months, I’m going to transition away from consulting as a primary revenue driver and move to freelance writing, editing and digital content production. I’m doing some of that now through Social Commerce Today and Practical Ecommerce and am adding a few more clients as well.

I also plan to create my own content and offer it for sale here and through licensing agreements. As a result, my business model will change from being a service provider to becoming a digital content producer.

You can thank Sonia Simone and Brian Clark over at Copyblogger for that. (I’ve become a real devotee of their methods.) They’ve convinced me this is a business model that has long-term viability.

Watching my dear friend Denise Wakeman build this type of business has had an strong impact, as well. Oh, and some kudos belong to Tim Ferriss, the 4-Hour Work Week guy, who said it’s better to produce a product that can generate a constant stream of passive income than provide a service where one trades dollars for hours.

I believe it’s a truism that the only constant is change. The benefit to journalism is that it provides a rationale for staying on top of change as it happens. Being a teacher means that I can take what I learn about such changes and share that with others.

Change brings with it opportunity, and reinventing oneself in order to stay relevant is a good thing. Now, it’s time to do it yet again.