(click here to see part one of this two-part series)

I’ve seen this sign on the way out of my neighborhood recently.

While I feel sad for the owners, I think they have totally nailed the messaging.  I saw this a few weeks ago, and said “that sign is perfect.”  And then, just a few days ago, I was driving by it again, this time with my family.  We stopped at the traffic signal.  I looked over at the sign again.  My wife noticed me look at the sign, and she said to me:

“That’s such a great sign.”

“What do you mean?”, I asked.

“It’s perfect,” she said.  “Two lines and a picture.  That’s all I need.  In two words, the sign tells me what the issue is.  Then there’s a picture to convey that message.  And then there’s a way to contact someone if I’ve seen the cat.  How much simpler could it be?”

And there it is.  No “responds to…”  or “last seen…”  It’s unnecessary.  The signs are up and around the areas where the cat was last seen.  I know what the cat looks like.  I know what to do if I see it.  Huge sign.  No clutter.  Big photograph.   Big words. Big telephone number.

Simplicity in messaging.  And my wife doesn’t even work in marketing.  Maybe that’s why she gets it.  :)

(of course, no missing cat poster story can go without reference to Missy the Missing cat)

If you like what you’re reading here, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or signing up via e-mail (upper right corner) to be alerted when more new posts are added.

Simplicity in Messaging – Part 2 is a post from Alan Belniak's Subjectively Speaking blog. Click through to read more.

I pass by this billboard every day on the way to work:

And every time I see it, I shake my head.  What a missed opportunity.  (For the record, I’m not picking on Coan.  I’ve never used their products or services.  I’m pointing out this advertising faux pas).  Here’s what I mean by the missed opportunity.

The speed limit on this road and the billboard size is such that you might get to view the entire media for a few seconds, tops.  So, in that time – and I recognize it’s a challenge – you’ve really got to get across your message or call to action.  In this instance, Coan tells me that they want to be associated with happy women, who smile, and wear green.

Again – what a missed opportunity.

Why not use the space differently?  Here’s a suggestion: try a bit of cognitive disonnace.  Or a before/after.  Get me to understand what the ‘cash for clunker furnaces’ means to me, as a homeowner, coming from you, a heating specialist.  Maybe a picture of what a run-down, or ideal trade-in furnace looks like.  Maybe it’s a super-old piece of junk that we all know could be traded in.  Or, they could use a picture of one that’s ‘jut old enough’.  That might make me think “gee, mine looks like that – heck, it even looks worse!  I wonder if i could trade in my furnace.”  And then juxtapose that next to a new furnace, one that Coan can sell, install, and service.

Now you’ve given me a reason to think about your company, and a reason to call.

This makes the most use of the space and the limited time I have to see it.

Tomorrow, I’ll share an example of Simplicity in Messaging, done the right way.

If you like what you’re reading here, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or signing up via e-mail (upper right corner) to be alerted when more new posts are added.

Simplicity In Messaging – Part 1 is a post from Alan Belniak's Subjectively Speaking blog. Click through to read more.

Recently I was interviewed Gulnara Mirzakarimova over at Two-Side Brain.  Her mission? “[Re-shape the] Washington D.C. metro area into a vibrant startup playground.”  In conversations with her, the passion extends beyond the metro DC area, but this is where she’s starting.  If you’re a start-up or know someone who is, reach out to Gulnara for a chat and peruse the site.

In this interview, we spoke about how start-ups might leverage social media for its product, service, or offering.  Click the image below to see the video.  Jump down below the image to see what we cover in the video.

(Can’t see the video?  Click here)

• How should a startup use social media to market their product or service?
• What are the available channels?  What are the right channels?
• Why is ‘just having a website’ not enough?
• How important is it to have a blog on your company’s website?
• How can a company make their content more engaging?
• Can you give an example of value a startup can offer to its followers?

Be sure to check out some of the other great videos on Two-Side Brain.

If you like what you’re reading here, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or signing up via e-mail (upper right corner) to be alerted when more new posts are added.

Video Interview – How Start-ups Can Use Social Media is a post from Alan Belniak's Subjectively Speaking blog. Click through to read more.

The State of Influencer Theory, by Geoff Livingston

A few days ago, I guest-posted over at Comparz (new business owners/start-ups: tons of user reviews on software to aid in the decision-making process).  That post is titled “Identifying Your Business’s Key Influencers on Twitter – Should You Care?”  The central theme of the post is whether it’s a good idea to do so, and if you do, how might you go about it.  Below is an excerpt.

No doubt there are people online who can make or break a product or service with a review or comment.  Conversely, a chorus of tiny screams might not even get noticed.  Yet they are all important to some degree.  After all, these are your customers. […] The looming question for many brand managers and business owners is this: How can I pay the right amount of attention, the right kind of attention, to the right audience, to have the best (not necessarily the largest) impact on my business?

You can read the whole post by clicking on the link above.

image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoliv/5931664162/

If you like what you’re reading here, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or signing up via e-mail (upper right corner) to be alerted when more new posts are added.

Guest post: Identifying Key Influencers is a post from Alan Belniak's Subjectively Speaking blog. Click through to read more.

The end of the year means a wrap-up post.  Well, not always.  But it is a bit of fun to do a brief retrospective, as it pertains to this blog.  I have three categories this year for you to peruse.

The Five Most Viewed Posts on Subjectively Speaking (Authored in 2011)

Of the posts I wrote in 2011, these were the ones that got the most clicks, according to Google Analytics.

• Social Media Best Practices presentation (February 9, 2011) – I was set to co-present at a MarketingProfs B2B event in (normally) warm Austin, Texas.  A snowstorm belted the US, and left me grounded here in the northeast.  My co-presenters, Jeff Cohen and Sharon Mostyn, carried on just swell without me.  But the contributions I had to the presentation still remain.

• Awareness-Exploring Social Media Business Summit Recap (October 18, 2011) – I attended the one-day Awareness/Social Media Explorer seminar in the fall of 2011.  I recapped the sessions here.

• Google and Motorola: A Case For Vertical Integration (August 18, 2011) – Google announced it had acquired Motorola.  Rumors swirled about what it meant.  I offered my viewpoint here.

• The Tablet Wars – iPad, Xoom, or Wait (March 4, 2011) – Apple announced the iPad 2 was going to be released in March.  The Motorola Xoom was already on the market, and frankly had more features.  So, which do you pick (if any)?  I share an evaluation process in this post.  The key take-away is whether or not you are the target market.

• Southwest Airlines, Real-Time PR, and a Failure to Communicate: Two Mini-Case Studies (August 3, 2011) – I had a little travel mishap over the summer on Southwest.  In one incident, they get both a plus and a minus: one for their real-time reaction, and one for their lack of communication.  How many times as something as innocuous as a cancelled flight happened to you?  How did the airline deal with it?

The Five Most Viewed Posts on Subjectively Speaking (Authored anytime)

Of the posts I wrote since the blog started, these were the ones that got the most clicks, according to Google Analytics.  What’s interesting is that some are (by the mere inclusion of this category) outside of 2011, indicating to me that some of you are finding these posts by searching.  Google may value freshness, but it also values relevance to a search string, too.

• Hearing vs. Listening (December 1, 2009) – There’s quite a difference, and the two are certainly not synonymous.  This seems  to be a lesson we get when we are children, but forget as we get older.

• Social Media Best Practices presentation (February 9, 2011)

• Awareness-Exploring Social Media Business Summit Recap (October 18, 2011)

• Google and Motorola: A Case For Vertical Integration (August 18, 2011)

• The Difference Between a Group and a Community (December 12, 2010) – With this post, I took my hand at a bit of xkcd-ish cartoon style.  I tried more of a metaphor and less of a long narrative.  I suspect people find this post by searching for that particular phrase.  I’m not sure if they are disappointed when they see this post or not.  I bet a review of my bounce rate would be a decent proxy.

The Five Least Viewed Posts on Subjectively Speaking (Authored in 2011)

I had this idea back around late November, as I was planning out the rest of my posts for the year.  And then lo and behold, Christopher S. Penn goes and does the same thing before me.  Kudos to him for thinking and posting faster (kudos to him in general – go check out all his great, free content).

• MP Daily Fix Post – Who Knows What’s Best For Your Product? (March 10, 2011) – I used my blog to excerpt and tease a post I wrote over on the Marketing Profs Daily Fix blog.  On that site, it got tweeted and shared on LinkedIn a handful of times.  So I think that if people stumbled on the content there, they read it.  If they saw the topic/post title on my site, it just didn’t interest them as much.  Or, there’s an overlapping audience.

• Santa, You Forgot To Give Me More Content Marketing Ideas (December 27, 2011) – To be fair, this post is only a day old (as of the time of this post).  That, and it’s smack in the middle of the holiday season.  This, too, is also a tease to a Marketing Profs Daily Fix post.  I wonder if teasing content that I post elsewhere is bad karma for me.

• The New Space Race: The Rush to Cloud Music Offerings (June 9, 2011) – Several new entries into online music storage emerged within about 60 days of each other – yet the problem has been around for a while.  Was it that no one could solve it?  Or were they all waiting to see who would move first?  A classic review of first mover advantage, and if it really is an advantage.

• A Content Marketing Appetizer (November 23, 2011) – In this post, I share a light-hearted video about how content marketing is all around you, including a guide on how to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner.  But this, too, was posted right before the US Thanksgiving holiday.  And it was a video, versus a text-heavy post.  I wonder if my audience prefers to not see + hear me.

• A new take on the FAQ (March 31, 2011) – In this post, I talk about the real reason people create FAQs and post them online.  As a teaser, ask yourself this: can a new venture/start-up really have a frequently-asked set of questions?  Probably not.  Read here for a reason why, then, they are created.

—-

So that’s it.  That’s how I’m closing out 2011.  I hope 2012 is as much fun.  I enjoy writing and posting here.  I hope you have as much fun reading it.  If so, take 90 seconds and drop me a note in the comments.  I’d love to read what you liked most about Subjectively Speaking on 2011 (or any other time for that matter).

image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucasverheij/2727511327/ 

Subjectively Speaking’s Greatest Clicks of 2011 is a post from Alan Belniak's Subjectively Speaking blog. Click through to read more.

I recently guest-posted again over at MarketingProfs’ Daily Fix about an unconventional way to source ideas for content marketing: your personal Facebook feed.  In this case, a few co-workers and Facebook friends sparked the idea.  I can’t take credit for the idea – that goes to Stacey Clement and Bettina Giemsa.  But I wrote it up here.  Below is an excerpt:

A co-worker of mine (with whom I’m friends on Facebook) lamented last night that she’s struggling for a gift for her five-year-old son.  Specifically, he wants Santa to make something in his workshop.  As a parent, that can be a tall order!

Another co-worker of mine (also a Facebook friend) saw our mutual friend’s post and said, “I’ve got an idea.”

I work in marketing at PTC, a company that creates, among other things, 3-D design software.  So, what did my second co-worker do?  She wrote up a short, light-hearted blog post for our PTC-run customer community,PlanetPTC.

You can read the rest of the post by clicking here.  And I’d love to read your thoughts.  Drop a note in the comments here or there – I check both.

I hope Santa or whomever got you whatever you wanted for the holidays this year.  More importantly, I hope you got to see someone’s face light up when they got something from you – whether it be a gift or even just your company.

If you like what you’re reading here, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or signing up via e-mail (upper right corner) to be alerted when more new posts are added.

Santa, You Forgot To Give Me More Content Marketing Ideas is a post from Alan Belniak's Subjectively Speaking blog. Click through to read more.

If you’ve followed the news recently, you’ve probably heard about the Alec Baldwin / American Airlines / Words With Friends incident.  If not, here it is, in one sentence: Baldwin was boarded on an American Airlines flight, and allegedly was asked to depart the plane prior to take off because he allegedly would not cease playing his Words With Friends game.  I’m not a journalist, and am not taking sides, so go read some of the articles and form your own opinion.

Zynga, the creators/purveyors of Words With Friends, made a fantastic play.  They could have issued a press release, a blog, or a video.  A quick review of their site shows me that they didn’t.  Instead, I saw the image in this post all over the Internet (see for yourself).

In one iPhone-like screen-size image, they communicate quite a bit, even if it is tongue-in-cheek….

• ‘LET ALEC PLAY’
• on a Words With Friends board
• with ‘ZYNGA’ left on the play rack
• the players are A Baldwin and American Air
• the score is 1 to 0 (and you can guess who is winning)

Zynga’s position on this incident is clear.  They communicated it in a screen capture of a mock game, and they let anyone covering this story use the image.  That’s a pretty rapid, low-cost, interesting response from the company.  They took part in the story without actually saying anything.

The lesson here?  This is a real-time, low-cost, funny and interesting response from the company, resulting in additional media coverage.  David Meerman Scott must be smiling right about now.

image source: The Washington Post (but really, it’s Zynga, because isn’t that the point of this post?)

If you like what you’re reading here, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or signing up via e-mail (upper right corner) to be alerted when more new posts are added.

Zynga and Their Real-Time Response: ‘Let Alec Play’ Image is a post from Alan Belniak's Subjectively Speaking blog. Click through to read more.

We are awash in the biggest information deluges we’ve ever faced, and its showing no signs of letting up.  That’s both a blessing and a curse, because with loads of content, one needs context.  How can we mine that and make sense of it all for something useful?  This is what I will explain today.

Note at the outset that this will be a lengthy post.  It’s not meant to be consumed linearly or even in one sitting (though you’ll be fine if you do). It’s more a collection of tools to get smarter on a topic.  It’s a mix of digital listening (which I’ve covered here in the past) as well as using some other tools to better understand a topic based on what others are saying.  Some of this may seem remedial for you, while some of this content is entirely new for others.  Again, feel free to skip around and use relevant bits.  (A note upfront, before someone inevitably posts in the comments: yes, this is work.  It’s going to take some time.  It’s not impossible. But it takes time to read, it takes effort to make inferences, and it takes a bit of critical thinking to weave together some concepts to be useful.  But you WILL be smarter for it.)

In this post, we cover: Google, blogging (including blog search, comments, and blog rolls), Twitter search, Topsy, hashtag searching (using The Archivist and Tweetreach), Twitter bio searching, FollowerWonk, OneForty, LinkedIn (including profile searching, groups, using group statistics, LinkedIn Answers (Q+A and expert identification), delicious, SlideShare, and content curation (like Thoora).

Let’s say you work in marketing and need to get smart on a new topic.  It could be a new product, an industry vertical, a product or solution space.  The point is, you have a little information to go on, but need to really be well-versed.  Here’s how I’d get going.  (know a technique I didn’t write about?  leave a note in the comments)

Basic Googling

• Use Google to search on the one or two things you know.  A three-letter acronym?  The name of the company?  Anything?  Great.  Google and go.  Next, use Google’s advanced search and use the tools to limit the searching a bit.  Look into understanding how link: and related: are used to find other sites that link to a particular site, and other sites that are similar in content to a particular site.

Blogging

• Google Blog Search, formerly a separate site, is now embedded into basic Google.  You can select blog content only from the left vertical menu under ‘Search’ after the results are returned.  This is useful for narrowing your results to just images, videos, or in this case – blogs.
• Find a few blogs on a topic and subscribe to them.  The more the merrier.  You can always go back and unsubscribe.  It’s two clicks.  Don’t worry about getting inundated – that’s the point.
• If you use Google Reader as your feed aggregator, then let Google help you find more content.  Use the ‘More Like This…’ option inside Google Reader.
  

  Google Reader - 'More Like This'

  If you start with 6 blogs, and you can find at least one related blog for each (sometimes more, sometimes, none, sometimes a duplicate), you’ll be following 12 blogs in no time.

• Now, go and read the blog.  Yep, the actual posts.  If you read them for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, you’ll see that the blogger will link out to other data sources.  Fantastic.  Follow these links.  Make note.  Bookmark them (publicly, though, not privately – see the ‘delicious’ section below).  Wash, rinse, repeat.
• Read the comments.  Typically, a blogger in a professional setting will have a professional following.  Some of these people will offer comments on the blog.  Reading them will help you understand different perspectives on the issue.  They may even drop in a link or two in the comments for further reading.  Perfect.  More for you to consume.

blog roll example

• Some authors display a blog roll in one of the sidebars of their blog.  Here’s an image of the blogroll for one of the PLM bloggers I follow.  When I work with others at my company, and they ask me, “Who should I read or follow?”, I recommend this person, and I also say, “And look at their blogroll.  This is who they find interesting.”  Don’t just click, though.  RSSthose links.

Twitter

• Twitter search in general is pretty poor.  It’s limited.  What’s slightly more powerful is http://search.twitter.com/advanced – here you can enter criteria to make the search more relevant.  Example 1: search for a competitor’s product, then scroll down, check ‘on’ the frown face (believe it or not, people use it) – the results?  With a little filtering, here are some leads.  Example 2: search on a topic you want to get smart about, and in the ‘Any of these words’ section, enter http:// – this says to Twitter search “only return results that have links in them” – perfect for you to go off and learn more about what people are talking about as it relates to your search term/s.
• You’ll quickly learn that Twitter search decays quickly – somewhere between 7 and 14 days.  This in and of itself is fine – Twitter is a good beacon for fresh, relevant content.  But that doesn’t mean that there was good stuff once shared.  For that, use a site like Topsyfor longer Twitter searching.  Use the advanced search to really tweak the query.  On the left side of the results page, you can select and filter to get just the content you want.  Note that some searches can go out beyond 30 days.  This is especially useful for researching a topic that you know has been discussed on Twitter, but happened more than two weeks ago.
  

  sample Topsy results

• Hashtags at events are particularly useful, because they serve as an attraction in an otherwise cluttered Twitter stream.  If you know an event is happening, search (Google) for a hashtag relating to the event.  Then, use a tool like The Archivist to get a bunch of relevant stats about that hashtag.  Note that the results will not be comprehensive.  But you’re not looking for a legal digital record – you’re looking to get smart.  So, enter a hashtag, and look at the results.  Here’s an example about the recent news surrounding the new conference structure for the National Hockey League in North America.  Hockey isn’t really my thing, but I now have a nice dashboard to see popular words, links shared, top users, and the like.  Tweetreach(one of my favorite services) offers something similar.  They use a freemium model – free for up to a 50-tweet range, and then you have to pay per report, or go on a subscription model.  The reports they generate are in nice.pdf format – perfect for sharing.
  

  sample Tweetreach results

• Let’s move beyond the text for a moment and focus on profiles.  One can say a lot in 160 characters, and Twitter hopes you do.  As an experiment, I varied what I had in my own Twitter bio (you can read it here) a while back.  As soon as I added the part about liking craft beers, I started to attract followers that were based on beer.  Granted, this is a sample size of 1, but the point is that people use the bios to determine if you are an interesting person to follow or not.
• Here’s taking the Twitter bio search to the next level: use a service like FollowerWonk.  FollowerWonk lets you search a bio for a bit of text (spend a few minutes to learn how to used Boolean search for OR strings and the like), and then lets you sort those results by number of followers, tweets, and other categories.  Instantly you get a sense of how long the person has been around the block.  Next, click on the ‘Compare Users’, enter two or three names, and select ‘compare their followers’ from the drop-down box.  You’ll get a nice page of interesting results, and one of the most important results is the followers they have in common.  Take a minute and explore this, and you’ll see how the data on these pages starts to become very relevant and useful.
  

  sample FollowerWonk results

• I shouldn’t just single out FollowerWonk (though I think they have a really great offering).  To find more great Twitter tools, check out OneForty.  Enter a search string (e.g., manage my followers, find new people), and a wonderful set of results return, all categorized and rated.

LinkedIn

• I’m assuming that you’re searching for content that’s business-related, so we need to head over to LinkedIn next (if you, you can probably find another dedicated social networkto suit your interest).  Start by searching for at least one industry luminary.  Try searching by name.  If you are truly new to this space, then use the advanced search tool and search by keywords, industry, etc.  What do you do once you find these people?
  

  LinkedIn advanced search

• Connect with them.  If you know them at all or can write a compelling message, reach out to them and simply ask to connect.  Don’t use the standard, stock LinkedIn message.  It shows that you aren’t willing to put forth the effort to hand-craft the welcome note.
• See what groups they belong to.  Chances are, they are using groups to follow some industry news inside LinkedIn (or at the very least, using groups as ‘badges’).  Go and check out those groups.  Read the summary.  Is it interesting?  Is there an audience there that will resonate with you?  To find out, …
• … use the LinkedIn groups statsfeature.  Go to a group, click on ‘More…’ up in the upper navigation bar, and then click on Group Statistics.  You’ll quickly see some demographic information that will give you a snapshot of that group’s audience, participation level, and the like.
  

  LinkedIn group stats

• After you join the groups, monitor the discussions (take a minute to configure your settings in the group to get mail and notifications on a schedule that works for you).  See what others are saying.  Pay attention to the links they share.  See who makes the most comments, or the most salient comments.  Then, go connect with them on LinkedIn.  Use this group as the basis for your introduction.  Start a conversation.  Learn more.  See what other groups those people belong to.  Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

LinkedIn Answers

• Lastly, on LinkedIn, consider scanning the Answers section.  This is where people can ask (or answer) questions on a variety of topics.  What makes this useful is the way one can interact.  I can filter based on all questions, or just open questions.  I can sort based on date or relevance.  And so on.  How is this useful?  Imagine searching Answers for questions about environmental pollution in suburbs.  And you see one name pop up over and over again as answering questions on that topic.  This is implicit expert identification.  Go and connect with that person.

Other Sites

• Another site I like for digital sleuthing is delicious.  For about three years or so, I haven’t saved a bookmark on my own PC.  Instead, I’ve saved all of my bookmarks on delicious.  This is for a few reasons.  One – I can access my bookmarks on any PC that has an internet connection.  So my bookmarks ‘on’ my work PC are the same as my home PC.  Two – I can add tags and notes to them so recalling good links later is easy.  And three – I can see what others think about this site, see how they tag it, and see how often it is tagged.  As an example, let’s search for ‘PLM’ on delicious.  Wow – 920 results.  Scroll down to the results where it shows all of the results save that match the PLM tag.  From here, you’ll see other tags people use when tagging sites with PLM (kind of like a Rorschach test).  You’ll also see who saved those sites.  What if you start to see a name pop up over and over and over again?  Looks like you two have some common interests.  Click on that user name and you can see a profile.  They might have disclosed an email address or a link to a LinkedIn profile.  Go forth and connect. 
  

  delicious bookmarking example

• Another great site for content is SlideShare.  Go ahead and search SlideShare for content – let’s use PLM again.  Pick any result.  What you see next is a treasure trove of useful data.  You see some social proof on the left (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ shares), you see viewership/consumption stats on the right (might have to scroll down a bit), in the form of favorites, views, embeds, and downloads.  You see the specific sites on which it was embedded. You can see related content (more reading!).  You can see categories and tags.  And, you can see a comment stream by those that chose to leave comments.  Oh, and the actual content itself.
• Lastly, consider curation as a way to get smart about a topic.  ‘Content curation’, defined, is similar to an art curator – a collection of interesting or relevant content.  In a sea of information, culling the useful information, collecting it, and sharing it is becoming increasingly valuable.  SocialMediaB2B offers these posts every so often.  The post is simply a collection of other stories, and packaged up in one post.  Each has a short description of what that post is about, and then a link to it.  They do the work so you don’t have to.
• You can hunt the Internet down for these kinds of sites that do this.  Another source to consider is a content curation engine.  One example that comes to mind is Thoora.  The site even does some pre-grouping for you into popular topics, featured topics, and top Thoora-ites.  Consider searching this site for, say, startups.  Your results are people who have created a Thoora account and started curating news and links on their own into their own categories.  It’s similar to delicious, but with a twist.
  

  Thoora example

If you got this far, and have read everything, congratulations.  You’ve read about 2,000 words.  Hopefully you learned something here.  If not, I hope the post at least sparked an idea for you.  There are easily a dozen tools I didn’t cover here.  If you use one of those, why not drop a note in the comments and let others know?

image sources: author screen captures from representative websites

If you like what you’re reading here, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or signing up via e-mail (upper right corner) to be alerted when more new posts are added.

Digital Detective: How to Get Smart on Practically Anything on the Internet is a post from Alan Belniak's Subjectively Speaking blog. Click through to read more.