Shannon's thoughts on marketing, public relations, social technology, entrepreneurship and other things

Shannon Mouton
Shannon Mouton

the principal at Topaz Consulting, is a relationship marketing professional, with a passion for utilizing social technology for building B2B/B2C relationships, sharing information, networking and advancing the greater good. She has over 20 years of public relations, marketing and community building experience. Her combination of political, nonprofit, higher ed and corporate experience has afforded her opportunities to build communities where none existed, develop and launch innovative programming and bridge generational, economic and racial divides.

Shannon serves on the board of directors for the In Series, a Washington, DC performing arts organization. She is a regular contributor to Women Grow Business and Discover Exceptionalism, and her blog, Shannon Sez So, examines life's joys, pains and idiosyncrasies. Shannon is the founder of Topaz Consulting, a DC based marketing consultancy with a nationwide portfolio of clients. She graduated from Mount Vernon College (now part of The George Washington University) and is a proud native Washingtonian.

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2011 (31)
2010 (74)
 

Use social tools to get found

It's all about the search:
Brand generated content + Customer generated content = getting Found.

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Yes, I use social stuff, I'm on the social whatchamacallit

Wordle: Naming

Calling a thing by its proper name is typically easy: car, house, dog, elephant, desk, tree and so on. Often it only takes a simple and discreet correction if the thing is incorrectly identified. However, with the proliferation of social technology, and the subsequent plethora of developers, early adopters, power-users and "experts," this category of thing has gotten mislabeled and become confusing, especially to the newbie.

Social (adj.), “pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations” Thus all of your online social activities should center on “friendly companionship or relations.”

Social technology – web-based tools and platforms used for social purposes, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.

Social network – followers, fans, friends and connections developed and maintaned on social platforms

Social media – user-generated content -- composition, video, photograph or spoken word -- created for and disseminated via social platforms

Social marketing – process of creating customer interest in a product via social technology

Information is power!

 

 

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The Influencer Project: 60 Speakers in 60 Minutes

I attended The Influencer Project: 60 Speakers in 60 Minutes on Tuesday afternoon. It was billed as “the shortest marketing project ever.” The speakers shared valuable information in bite-sized nuggets with the audience.

The format – each presenter had only 60 seconds to share their best tip on becoming influential in the social media space – forced the speakers to organize their thinking and focus their remarks to the most salient points. I live-tweeted the event and these are some of the takeaways…in tweet form of course.

  • figure out value / expertise you have & connect w/ folks already in the space, building community around your thought-leadership
  • online influence is a slow-burn, organically grown...giving more than you get, influence comes from a passive place    
  • give as much as you can give & help others achieve their goals   
  • building a community of readers by engaging w/ thought-provoking content
  • consistency, strength in connecting practical w/ profound, listening for silence for wisdom of your own heart     
  • connect the who with the what...think about authenticity & consistency of your voice & messaging
  • provide great value     
  • building digital dimensionality, showing as many sides of yourself and your business as you can
  • get active in other people's communities  
  • what expertise do you have that you can leverage to help others     
  • find a niche & become master of it, promote good content, do webinars to give back
  • understand your audience  
  • learn to talk more about other people     
  • its about "passion conversations, not product conversations"...let your passion shine...share who you are w/ the world    
  • share good content & do it consistently     
  • good content, be passionate about it, reach out, make comments on other's blogs, get over your fear     
  • online video is quick way to get messaging out there, create content re: your subject matter     
  • get OFFLINE and meet folks IRL; introduce folks to each other
  • people buy into the story, are you telling a story people can see themselves in, a platform for relationship     
  • wanna get started --> just start talking to people, "SM is really just talking to people"     
  • create content that stands for something     
  • make connections online and then meet them IRL, effective & powerful way to build trustful & genuine relationships     
  • "consistency demonstrates commitment" way to earn trust

A full transcript and mp3 is available here.

 
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