Tomorrow, August 25 is the official launch of Article Traffic Pro, a new article marketing course from my buddy, John Oszajca.

(Product packaging design by yours truly, I might add…)

I am really excited to see this product launch because I really think the people who take this course are going to be blown away by how effective John’s system is. Article Traffic Pro is in my opinion, the best and most comprehensive article marketing course available and is really something unique in the marketplace.

One of the biggest challenges I hear over and over from clients when marketing their products online always ends up being traffic generation.

You go though so much time and effort to create a great product and build a slick website, but if you cant get anyone to go to your site, well… you ain’t gonna sell much…

This course finally takes the mystery and guess work out of promoting websites online, buy using effective traffic generating strategies that really work.

I don’t promote products on my blog that I don’t believe in 100% and as I mentioned, John is a close friend, so I can tell you that I have personally seen the impressive results of his system and having applied them myself, I know for a fact how well they work.

If you are interested in a high quality Article Marketing Course from a true master, I would highly recommend you checking out Article Traffic Pro.

Please be aware though that there are only going to be a limited number of courses John is making available at his special introductory rate, so it will be a first come first serve basis, so I highly recommend jumping in line on this ASAP.

Click Here to learn more about Article Traffic Pro for yourself.

All apologies for not posting much lately and the lack of activity on the social networks. After much thought and soul searching, as well as a very demanding new job, I had to make the decision to put off quite a few projects that I was working on and return down to the laboratory for some experimenting.

For one, this means that the Twitter book has been put off indefinitely in order to make more room for some much more important projects.

There are things in this world that demand way more focus than just simple shallow marketing and social media blah blah, and I feel my talents and energy would be better spent in better places, so consider this a little warning of an eventual shift in focus towards something much bigger, much different and hopefully much more impactful on many levels.

Two hints at things to come:

Mecha (derived from mechanism)
1. a term to describe a large robot usually humanoid; or in the original Japanese definition, machinery in general.

And

phil·an·throp·ic
Pronunciation: \?fi-l?n-?thrä-pik\

1 : of, relating to, or characterized by philanthropy : humanitarian
2 : dispensing or receiving aid from funds set aside for humanitarian purposes

I will see you very soon.

-Sean

Twitter Lists are an awesome way to sort and categorize lots of people that you follow, but did you know that they are also a very powerful tool for growing a targeted base of followers?

Let me explain.

If you follow a lot of people on Twitter, you will quickly start to realize the usefulness of Twitter Lists. After you follow around 50 people or so, your main Twitter feed starts to turn into this huge unmanageable waterfall of random stuff and it becomes nearly impossible to follow all of it.

Don’t worry, nobody expects you to follow every post. At some point, there becomes simply too much information rushing by to read everything getting posted

To remedy this, Twitter created lists, so that you can organize and categorize all these people in to smaller manageable groups of lists to follow, so you don’t miss anything important.

To create a list, simply find the list icon located on the top right of a Tweet. (See image below) When you click it, it gives you a drop down menu that lets you create a list.

You can then access your lists via the Lists area in the right sidebar of your Twitter profile

How I Use Twitter Lists

At the time I am writing this, I follow about 800 people, so I make LOTS of lists. Twitter lets you have 20 currently, and I usually have a few main ones I follow instead of my main twitter feed on my home page.

Most of my lists are private, but I have a few that are public for strategic purposes.

My Private lists are mostly for research and organization:

• I have a list just for close friends
• I have a main list called “Interesting Tweets” which is the list I follow instead of my main feed. Sort of a bulk “good stuff” list.
• I have a News List
• I have research lists to follow certain niches to get product ideas.
• I have a Marketing Guru List
• I have an interesting quotes list
• I have a products list, to follow all the products I purchase or are interested in.
• I have a Whatever List, which I use to classify anyone who follows me first and I follow them back, but are unsure if I think they are interesting enough to get on my “Interesting” list yet. If I am bored, I sometimes go to this list and browse to see if anything interesting pops up that would qualify making it to my interesting list.
• I have a Jobs list for keeping track of upcoming projects or contracts.

Uses for Public Lists

As you can see, creating private lists for following certain users are a great way to keep things organized, but why would anyone want to make their lists public?

There are two main reasons:

Followers – Public lists are a great way to share all the cool people you follow on Twitter. If you make a great list of interesting people based on a certain topic,  people will see it, follow it and better yet, follow you back. It is an excellent way to build a highly targeted follower base, because people of like minded interests have a much better way of following each other.

Reciprocity – Second, adding people to your list it is a way of forcing reciprocity. If you are familiar with Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion(Amazon Affiliate Link) you will understand the power of reciprocation. People love getting listed and are usually compelled to at least follow the list back, if not follow the person who added them, just to be nice. Yep, it’s sneaky but it works.

Here’s a trick:

If you offer a specific type of product or service, create a public list for it and add yourself. Then go out and find other people or businesses related to that topic and add them to the list as well.

They can be complimentary or even competition, either way, it groups you in with the rest for others to discover. The more lists you are on, usually the better it looks because it shows you as having more value and gravity.

Before you know it, those others you added will check out that list and follow it back. It may not happen immediately, but I have found that within about a month, my followers start compounding like crazy.

Note: Please make sure when creating lists to add people to, that these lists are positive in nature.  Nobody wants to be on the “scumbag” list for example…

Promote Your List

Just like you can promote your mailing list, you can also promote your Twitter List. Try building a public list and then post a link to it via your blog or a forum signature and watch it grow! Heck why not just tweet the link to your list and see who follows it?

For example I recently created a public list called marketing minds.  You can follow it here and if I like what you tweet about, maybe i’ll even ad you to it. Give it a try and see what happens!.

Follow my List Here: http://twitter.com/seanearleyrocks/marketing-minds

If you like these tips, be sure to Sign Up to My Mailing List via the sidebar for more great ideas and marketing insight form yours truly. I also love comments, so feel free to leave a comment let me know how this works out for you.

Here are my Twitter Follow Friday people recommendations for this week: #ff

Jane McGonigal

Although we haven’t met (yet), I read an awesome article in Wired UK magazine about a game designer in California named Jane McGonigal who is attempting to save the world by designing games that in order to level up and win, you are required making changes in real life that benefit society as a whole. You know… little stuff like poverty, hunger, global warming.

There is a really powerful speech she made at TED a couple months ago, and being as my new job is in the game industry, her speech really made an impact on me.

What really got me is when she referenced Malcome Gladwell’s book “Outliers” and talked about how as Gladwell stated, it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice for someone to become an expert at something. Then she referenced statistics on how much of time is spent by teenagers playing video games and suggested how amazing the world would be if all that time spent perfecting their game play could be used for solving problems in actual life instead of just in virtual worlds like World of Warcraft.

Very cool stuff and a very interesting and refreshing person.

Website: http://blog.avantgame.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/avantgame

Matt Lawrence

I connected with Matt Lawrence the owner of the business social network Biznik this week. He was nice enough to offer me a free month trial membership, which I happily accepted. I mentioned checking out Biznik last week and since then I have really been enjoying the community there and it looks like there are a lot of really interesting people there to meet.
Matt seems like a great guy and actually contributes to the community as well, so it was refreshing seeing a social network owner actually being involved in his own community. Imagine that?

Biznik Profile: http://biznik.com/members/matt-lawrence
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BiznikTweets

Deborah Drake

Deborah Drake is a Writing Marketing Coach & Business Catalyst that I also connected with on Biznik. She does weekly webinars as well as hosts a Writer’s Support Group for Reticent Bloggers in Bellevue, WA.
Website: http://deborahdrake.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/deborahdrake

Billy Burke

Maybe you’ve heard of Billy Burke? I did a website for him a little while back.
Oh yeah, he also happens to be the actor who plays Charlie Swan, Bella’s father, in the Twilight Vampire Movie Series, not to mention a slew of other movies. Anyway he has his first solo album coming out June 22 and so I couldn’t resist giving him some props. If you sign up to his mailing list on his website you can download a free mp3 of his latest single. Also a little bird told me that he has a lot of other cool stuff planned for mailing list subscribers. Check it out.

Website: http://www.billyburke.net/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/billy_burke

Who did you connect with this week?

If you want to be successful in business and in life, the more connected you are, the better.  It’s a simple fact.

One of the most powerful aspects of social media is in its ability to connect you with new people. To expand your network and grow your reach.

One even more potentially powerful aspect is its ability for you to help connect other people to each other and to help expand their networks as well.

Sometimes it really amazes me that we have such powerful, free networking tools sitting there at our disposal that allow us to do so much good and have so much potential at just a couple clicks or a Retweet, and yet, so many of us are just sitting there letting it all go to waste watching that stupid timer count down in Mafia Wars, or some other equally useless time sucking activity.

Am I making you feel just a little bit guilty yet? Good.

Ok, so here is my plan.

It’s pretty easy and not very time consuming, so you can do this once a week and then get back to your game, or picking lint from your belly button or whatever it was you were doing.

Follow Friday

I got this idea after reading one of Chris Brogan’s blog posts regarding Follow Friday on Twitter.

Follow Friday (aka. #ff or also sometimes know as Favorite Friend Friday) is something Twitter users started doing every Friday, where they post Tweets that include only a list of user names for their favorite friends. The way to identify these Tweets is by the #ff keyword they include along with all the user names. The point is basically to give a shout out and promote their favorite friends to their follower lists and the result is exposure and potentially more followers for those friends that got Tweeted.

The problem though with these #ff Tweets is that they are usually just a bunch of user names and they don’t include any way to describe to anyone why these people are special and worth following, other than the fact that you are Tweeting them and thus have your cool stamp of approval.

What Chris proposed and what I would like to make a habit of doing is, instead of firing off a huge list of user names in an #ff Tweet, instead get in the habit of posting a link to a blog post every Friday that talks about some of the interesting people you discovered over the past week, or that you think are noteworthy.

So without further ado, here is my weekly #ff list of people I met and/or networked with this week.

The Tightrope

My good friend Dan Filbin is in the process of directing a documentary on mental illness called “The Tightrope” and I think it’s turning out to be something really special.

He is currently looking for people to interview as well as seeking funding and it looks like he is on his way to an amazing first film. If you are in any way involved in the mental health profession, this would be an excellent way to get involved and do something positive for a great cause.

You can lean more about The Tightrope on the website or on the Facebook page.

Lauren Becker

Lauren is a freelance writer who is currently putting together a non-fiction project entitled “New Yorkers for a Day: Memories of 9/11 from Around the World” that will be published next year. She is currently seeking essay submissions, so if you think you have something to contribute, you can contact her via her website:

Zack Stokes

To say that Zack Stokes is an incredible musician would be an understatement. I helped Zack produce his first demo on a laptop and two mics a few years back and he is now in the process of mixing his first full length album to shop to the labels and is also seeking representation.

Having been a musician myself and speaking from many years of experience, I can honestly say that if you are a record label, you would be a complete idiot to pass up the opportunity to snatch Zack up. Do it before it is too late or before he decides he doesn’t need you after all.

You can check out some of his music on his Facebook page or follow Zack on Twitter

Pascal Eggert

Pascal is a designer and new coworker that I met last week and as it turns out, besides being a cool guy with a nice car, is an AMAZING 3D weapon designer. You can check out his work, including his very intimidating looking new design “Thor” on his website or follow him on Twitter

Brendan Winans

Brendan is a realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Westminster, CO. He was so kind as to offer a truckload of free real estate advice for a marketing project I was working on and is a true professional, so I owe him a huge thanks. You can check Brendan’s website or follow him on Twitter

Biznik

I stumbled across Biznik the other day (it’s tag line is “Business Networking that Doesn’t Suck”) and so I decided to strike up a conversation about Self Branding. As a result, I got some feedback from some really interesting and helpful people, so I thought I would give them a shout out below:

Suzy Griffin

Speaking of networking! Suzy is the Community Manager at Weedle.com a new site that helps you connect with people who need your skills.  I just signed up and am looking around.  You should check it out.
Biznik, Twitter

Maximus Kang

Maximus specializes in small business SEO consulting
Biznik, Twitter

Judy Dunn

Judy is a copywriter and runs her own website Cat’s Eye Writer
Biznik, Twitter

Michael Irving

Michael is a designer and Creative Project Manager from Overland Park, Kansas
Biznik

Ken Mears

Ken is marketer for a Xerox Sales Company in Gainesville FLA called Office Automation Inc.
Biznik, Twitter

Have you met anyone interesting this week? Maybe someone who needs a little help, or motivated you in a positive way, or maybe just moves the needle and deserves paying attention to? Do them a huge favor and give theses people a shout out once a week.

Do you have a personal networking success story you would like to share? Feel free to leave a comment and tell me about it.

Before you make the decision to use any social media platform as a marketing tool, you need to evaluate it first and ask yourself how it best serves a specific purpose, otherwise there is the potential to just waste a lot of valuable time, energy and resources without gauging the results.

How, why and even if you use it can and will directly effect the bottom line.

So, before you go tearing into Twitter, or any social platform for that matter, first ask yourself a few, basic, key questions, make some decisions based on these questions and set some goals.

Basically, “how will this tool or platform help me?”

In order to do so, I suggest following the P.O.S.T acronym (originally put out by Forrester)

POST stands for: People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology.

1. People: Who are the people you want to be targeting and how do you identify them? Who is your demographic and where can you find them?

Is Twitter the best place to find them? Is Facebook? Is linkedIn? Or maybe Sprouter, Buzz, Etsy, Ning, Xbiz, Foursquare? Or…

Are there other platforms that might be better? Maybe there is a forum based on your niche that would be much more effective instead? Maybe a group? Does this demographic even use social networks?

2. Objectives: What are your objectives and what are you hoping to achieve?

Are you broadcasting a message or researching and gathering information? Are you trying to build a mailing list, or get more traffic to your website? Is it for education, communication, relationship building, or customer service? Is it a tool to generating leads, or to build upon existing leads?

Do you want to use it for input or output? Or both?

3. Strategy: What is your strategy? What is the ultimate goal of your efforts? How will you be using this tool to achieve your objectives?

How much time can you afford to spend with these tools in order to positively effect your ROI? How much time is too much time? Will you be in charge of this process or will you outsource?

4. Technology: Based on your plans, which platform is best suited to serve up these goals?

Once you decide on a platform, do you have a good understanding of how to use it? Are you comfortable using it or do you need training? Do you need tools or additional software?

So to summarize, Social media can be a powerful marketing tool, but it can also be an incredible time suck. Following this basic process and asking yourself some very important key questions first will ultimately define success or failure.

Join my Mailing List

I hope that you found this post useful. I’m going to be writing a lot more on the subject and I am even writing a book about it, so if you liked this one, don’t forget to go to the sidebar and sign up to my mailing list to receive all the latest updates and maybe some cool free stuff!

As always, if you have any input or questions, please leave me a comment.

Here is a list of some of the most recent books I’ve been reading over the past few months. I’ve been putting in a lot of travel time on the train, so I have been downloading and reading books on my Kindle (Amazon Affiliate Link) like crazy.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (Free Download)
One of the first major personal development books and still one of the best. It has inspired some of the greatest minds in business and still holds the trophy in my mind as “the” handbook for success. You can download it for free on Lynn Terry’s website from the link above.

All of the Following by Dan Kennedy:

No BS Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs (Amazon Affiliate Link)

No BS Marketing to the Affluent by Dan Kennedy (Amazon Affiliate Link)

Uncensored Sales Strategies: A Radical New Approach to Selling Your Customers What They Really Want – No Matter What Business You’re In – Sydney Biddle Barrows and Dan Kennedy (Amazon Affiliate Link)

No B.S. Business Success in The New Economy (Amazon Affiliate Link)

No BS Time Management for Entrepreneurs (Amazon Affiliate Link)

No BS Ruthless Management of People and Profits (Amazon Affiliate Link)

The Ultimate Sales Letter (Amazon Affiliate Link)

The Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing (Amazon Affiliate Link)

I can’t say enough about Dan Kennedy. His work has been an invaluable resource for me and I have learned more and received more value out of every one of Dan’s books in the short time since discovering them, than I think I gained in my entire working career. He may not be the most politically correct, but he says it like it is and holds no punches. A must have in your business and marketing library.

Sex Money Kiss (Gene Simmons Family Jewels)
(Amazon Affiliate Link)
I have a whole new found respect for Gene after reading this book. I originally bought it because it looked like an interesting read about the band Kiss (and it was on sale at Borders) but little did I know that it was actually an amazing business book and an in depth look into the mind of a business and marketing genius. Gene is the man.

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan (Amazon Affiliate Link)
I have been following Chris brogan for some time now online and I can honestly say that if you use social media for business or marketing, Chris’s book should be the benchmark for best practice. I am constantly getting ideas by following him on Twitter and on his blog.

Linchpin by Seth Godan(Amazon Affiliate Link)
An invaluable and relevant point is made in this book about self branding and living and honoring the creative above all else and it has really helped to change my focus about how I approach life and business. I’ll admit that I have sort of a love hate relationship with Seth Godan though. In some ways I think he is super smart and makes great points and in other ways I feel like he whines a lot on his blog and really doesn’t seem to ever have much of anything nice to say. But I get tough love though, so it’s all good Seth…

The Power of Creative Selling by Earl Prevette (Amazon Affiliate Link)
I don’t remember where, but I found this book as a free download off of another marketing site. It turned out to be a really valuable sales resource and a great inside peek into the mind of a charming old door to door sales dog from back in the day.

Art of War – By Sun Tsu (Free Download)
What can I say about this book? It is a classic strategy book and is apparently required reading for military and special forces trainees, so that’s pretty hardcore! I have read it and re-read it and was thrilled to find it was provided for free when I downloaded Aldiko Premium book reader for my Android Phone

Marketing Products:

I haven’t been buying too many info products lately, but I am a big fan of Jason Fladlien and recently picked up a couple of his products. I like him because he is a product creation speed demon and provides really good, short but useful marketing tips. Also due to his interesting past, as a result seems to have some really interesting insight into the art of persuasion. Sure wish he had an affiliate program though…

Stopwatch Copywriting by Jason Fladlien

Profit Equation by Jason Fladlien

Recommendations?
What have you been reading lately? If you have any recommendations, feel free to leave a comment.

When was the last time you made a decision?

No, i’m not talking about basic, every day crap like to get out of bed, to mow the lawn, to go get a coffee or to get off the toilet or whatever… I mean a real decision?

Maybe even a “life changing” decision?

The dictionary defines the word decision as:
- a conclusion or resolution reached after consideration
- a formal judgment

It comes from the Latin word decidere: de – ‘off’ + caedere – ‘ to cut.’

This means that a decision is the final word, a commitment. It’s a done deal and there is no turning back. A declaration of the imminent. An “it will be because I say it will be and I want it more than anything and there will be no other alternative” declaration.

It kind of brings the word into a whole new perspective doesn’t it?

So again, when was the last time you made one? Have you ever really made one? Or do you just let things get decided for you?

I bet you’ve made some bad decisions? Sure, we’ve all made plenty of those, but what about an intentional good decision?

Are there things in your life that you would like to change? Maybe you want to quit smoking or drinking or doing drugs, or lose weight or better your financial situation? Maybe you want to become more involved with the community, or plant a tree or better your relationship with a loved one, or quit wasting your life away in front of the TV, or learn something new or to help out another person in need? Maybe to just be a better person, whatever that means to you?

Well, these things require decisions.

Everyone has things they would “like to” do or to change in their lives, but so many of us ultimately don’t change them because we don’t put forth the effort to make a decision to change them.

It’s not that we can’t, it’s just that we don’t. Or maybe we really just don’t want to.

Change doesn’t happen with just thoughts or good intentions. Change means that you make a decision and hold to your convictions. Not a maybe. A decision. Period.

I would like to propose that today, you make a decision that will positively effect your life for the better. A good decision. A life changing decision. A brave decision.

It could be large or small, but regardless of what it is, just make a decision and stick to it. After all, if you don’t stick to it, its not really a decision after all, is it?

Better yet, why stop there? I think that once you finally do make “that” decision (and you all know which one i’m talking about, because everyone has some sort of “that” decision to make in some shape or form) I think you’ll start to find that you will be making even more decisions. Imagine that? Being more decisive? Wouldn’t that be a great decision?

I would even propose you make a public declaration of your decision, either out loud to your friends or family, or via your social network of choice. Hell, why not just spray paint it on your garage door? What better way to secure the outcome of your decision than to be held publicly accountable if you fail to follow through? Just a little motivator. An insurance policy towards something better.

Lets make today, May 21th, a day of global decision making. Decisions to better our lives no matter how small and hold ourselves accountable for them. What do you have to lose? Accept for maybe something that would change your life?

Speaking of decisions, today in 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed in Europe after he made the decision to climb into a tin can full of fuel and began what was to be the world’s first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. That was a life changing decision.

How did he do it and end up making history? I don’t know… he just decided to i guess.

Feel free to post your decisions as a comment on this blog if you’d like. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.

I am always on the lookout for new ideas and niches and magazine stands are one of the BEST places to discover new things.

I love magazines. They are nice little bundles of targeted demographics and are full of even more targeted advertising for products within those niches.

One of my most favorite things to do is go to a magazine stand and browse strange, random publications. Ever since moving to Germany, I realized that I don’t allow myself that little indulgence quite as much as I did back in the “States” plus since English magazines sold here are outrageously priced, I don’t buy too many.

It’s too bad too because they have all KINDS of crazy new stuff to discover here and it turns out one of my new favorite magazines in the world right now was right under my nose all this time in the form of a new German publication called: Business Punk.

I guess targeted to higher income hipster German men who… like to wear Rolexes, make good money, but still skate to work?

I don’t know, but I like it. Kind of a mish-mash of Forbes, Maxim and Wired all munged together in a nice, edgy package with some pretty decent hipster-ish,-businessy articles.

How’s that for a demographic for ya though? Business Punk. Two words I would never have thought to naturally link together until now, but for some reason, doesn’t seem really too far fetched anymore. It got me thinking though, what other kinds of interesting niches are waiting for me in this new, foreign, magazine wonderland?

I’ll have to explore and will share what I come up with.

But back to the magazine though, it’s actually funny because after I picked up my copy, I had it sitting on my desk and a coworker walked by and said “oh yeah, I know that magazine. Weird, you’re kind of like the perfect target demographic for that.”

Strange, considering i’m 40 and never once considered myself a punk (although i was a skater in high school)

My question is: Is this age demographic right? Business Punk claims to be targeted to men aged 25-39, but the punk movement started in the early to mid 70′s so is it actually off?

Or is it more like, old punk new punk?

Or is it so not punk it’s really punk, or is it really not punk, or is it?

I’m confused… but I still like the magazine.

But then again, isn’t to like something really not punk? Or is to admit that you like something these days so rebellious that it’s actually the new punk. Again, i’m confused…

Anyway… you can check out Business Punk for yourself on their website or on their Facebook page.

What are your thoughts on this demographic?
Love it, Hate it?
Leave a comment and let me know.

Want to know one sure fire way I can tell if a large company is failing in their social media strategy?

Watch for it because it happens every Friday or Saturday on both Facebook and Twitter, and it shows up like clockwork in the form of a post usually from a large number of major corporate brands, and it always looks something like this:

“So what are you up to this weekend?”

Now seriously… do you, Mr. or Mrs. Corporation, really want to know? Is that can of soda pop really curious about Me Me Me? Really?

Now think about it. REALLY think about it…. if you are one of these guilty companies, what do you really expect to get from posting something like that?

You’re seriously asking me what am I doing??

I am sitting here waiting for you to sell me some %&$ hamburgers! Duh!

Now, I understand your need to create engaging content that people feel compelled to respond to and yes… it is a very personal and engaging conversation inducing question and people DO in fact respond. After all Social media is all about engaging with people and sure you get a couple brownie points for just putting yourself out there in the social space, i suppose.

The problem is that this is now 2010. Online social media marketing in it’s current form has been around for a few years now, some might argue much much longer depending on how you look at it, so you would think companies would “get it” by now.

Sure a couple years ago, everyone was experimenting. It was new to the mainstream and we all stumbled a little and posted some odd things. But in my opinion, we’ve had our time to kick the tires and the question now shouldn’t be IF your company or brand should have a profile on Facebook. Of course it should.

The question NOW should be: HOW do you use it properly as a business tool?

We already know (or hopefully know by now) that social media is a powerful tool for engaging, researching, getting feedback and spreading a message, but we are learning that it is also costly in both time and resources, so by now if you still dont see positive results, you should take a big step back and check yourself.

The way I see it, the honeymoon phase is over and it’s time to stop and evaluate what you are doing with your business in the social space and why you are there in the first place. If you really truly have the balls to REALLY put yourself out there to engage with your customers on a personal level and establish trust in what you are selling, PLEASE do us all a favor and show me that you know what you are doing.

It amazes me that with all the bazillions of dollars invested recently in social media strategy and consulting, and teams of people who’s job it is just to market your company image and products in the social space, that all they can come up with is, “What are you up to this weekend?”

In fact, I would like here and now to officially declare “What are you up to this weekend?” as a benchmark for what NOT to do in social media marketing, shall we? If that is the best your people can do, then fire them all and get a new consultant. Do it NOW.

Keep this in mind too: If you’re not representing an actual personality in the social space, don’t come off as a person.

Sure, if you ARE your brand (aka Martha Stuart, Gene Simmons, Tony Robbins, Ivanka Trump ect…) then you can get away with an occasional personal question to connect and make some friends. It’s just human.

But if you are representing a product, an inanimate object, please don’t ask personal questions.

I don’t know about you, but when I see a post like this from an iconic brand, I kind of feel like I am starting a conversation with a hand puppet.

“Well, my weekend is doing awesome hamburger clown!! Thanks for asking! How are you? Really? suuuuperrrr….”
Or maybe more like Hal 9000 saying “What are you doing Dave?”

See what I mean?

Instead of being my buddy and making small talk, I want Mr. Soda Pop Can or Mr. Running Shoe to do what they should be doing and representing it’s company in the best possible way by sharing information about the product or company, providing value and making themselves open to their customers in a productive way.

If that means marketing to me, so be it.  I would rather be marketed to by a brand than have it try to be my pal.

Having a Ford give me info about its product is ok.  Having it want to have a beer with me and hang out on the weekend is weird…

Here are a few tips:

Instead of just posting “something” in hopes that people will respond, first ask yourself a few questions.

1. How is the feedback from your post going to provide value to you or your customers?

• Are you asking for opinions regarding a new product that you can use for research and development?
• What do you think of our new packaging, or our new veggie burger?
• What is your favorite Burger Clown franchise location and why?

2. How is the content of your post valuable in itself?

• Announcing our new lactose free menu options, let us know what you think.
• We have just opened a charitable foundation to help in the cleanup of the oil spill in the Gulf.
• Here are some cool vintage photos of our locations from the old days that have been submitted by our followers. Feel free to share your own.
• Here is a great book by “Author Name” about the history of cheesburgers. You should check it out if you love cheeseburgers as much as we do.

3. Do you have separate profiles for corporate personality, news and customer service?

• There have been reports that the binding on our guitars is coming loose and becoming very sharp and abrasive. Thanks for your feedback and we are doing our best to address the situation on newer models.
• We have had several complaints that our stores are not accessible enough for people who are handicapped. Have you had similar experiences? If so, please let us know and how we can help address these problems.
• What are we doing right?
• What are we doing wrong?
• How can we make things better?

4. Provide creative ways of engagement.

• The person with the 100th post gets a free trip to Disneyland!
• What should we call this new product? Give us your input and we will pick the best.
• Who is your favorite salesperson and why. Pick our employee of the month.

These are just a few ideas that help to show your customers that you are willing to engage, and that you have something of value to say or share instead of some pointless, shallow conversational blah blah… Sure, maybe my suggestions are also a little shallow, but maybe just a “tick” above “what are you doing….”.

So, if you really want to know how my weekend was, or how I am doing, here is my response.

I’m fine thanks, burger clown… Now how are YOU doooin’?

Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.