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

This video epitomizes what the Internet has become in the last five to seven years. Mateusz Zdziebko, the musician, has taken the ordinary and made it extraordinary by looking at it differently. Where most people see duct tape as an adhesive, he saw a musical instrument. In the same way, social media has taken the notion of community from those you can see to a global spectrum of people you may never meet and who are equally as valuable and important.

It is realm of the possible that makes the new frontier of social technology so exciting. For marketers, public relations professionals and entrepreneurs, now is the time to experiment on what can become viral, what will draw clicks to the site and how far can you push the envelope. Just as television opened up the realm of the possible in the middle of the 20th century, the social Internet has extended the reach.

Sampled Room from Mateusz Zdziebko on Vimeo.

Does this conversation sound vaguely familiar?

Consultant: Your business should have a social marketing strategy.
Brand XYZ: Why?
Consultant: Because social technology will help you generate buzz, get people talking about our brand and in general help people know who you are.
Brand XYZ: Ok, but why is any of that important?
Consultant: Because you want to engage your customers and begin building relationships with them.
Brand XYZ: And why exactly do I want to build relationships with my customers?

Have you been on one or the other of this conversation?

Most communication vehicles had their turn as the shiny new marketing toy, billboards lined the horizon as cars began to venture cross country, radios gave voices to a generation and televisions brought products into homes like never imagined. By now, most businesses "get" they need some sort of social technology plan, if for no other reason than everyone else is doing it. However, remember what Mom used to say, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump to?"

Keeping the age old adage in mind, there should be solid business reasons for getting into the social space. Just as a business gives serious thought to choosing location, messaging and product delivery, so to should serious deliberation be given to social technology. It will take up resources, time, money, man power, etc. that could be used for other revenue generating activities. Is it going to be worth the effort?

To ensure your social technology efforts are yielding the expected results, you must first know what results you want from social technology. Right? Right. Begin by answering these basic questions: how is social media going to help your business and what are your objectives for your social media?*

Consider these sample objectives as you begin outlining your social marketing plan:

• Bring fresh ideas into the organization
• Create word of mouth
• Increase customer loyalty
• Increase product and brand awareness
• Enhance public relations efforts
• Lower customer acquisition costs
• Lower customer support costs
• Lower market research costs
• Lower product development costs

Nugget of knowledge: Your business objectives should be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based.

*Social technology may not be the right communication or marketing vehicle for your business, and that is okay.

Professional marketers have to get in touch with their inner love, peace and light...and it's all social marketing's fault.

Social technology consultants are telling traditional marketing professionals to be transparent, authentic, trustworthy and community focused. What??? Stop the presses!!!

Yes, social marketing revolves around a level of forthrightness, openness and collaboration that has been unheard of (at least not widely embraced) in the marketing profession. For years, traditional marketers controlled the brand and have cut their teeth on knowing how to deliver it to  the right audience at the right time for the right price. Marketing has been about brand management, conversion rates & conversion velocities, lead generation & close rates, paid media and surveys & focus groups. Then comes along social technology, and consultants are encouraging traditional marketers to listen AND engage with customers in public dialogue, as well as share OR relinquish control of the brand.

You mean...
You're kidding...
You want me to do what...

For some brands this is a sea change in the corporate culture, and for others, it is where they have wanted to go and didn't know how or have the capacity to do so. The key factor to keep in mind, social technology marketing and traditional marketing work together, they complement each other. As 2011 begins, it is imperative that social tools and tactics become a key component of your marketing plans, not a one-off or an add-on. It can provide marketers:

• unbiased market research: marketers should embrace customer ideas, comments and complaints; a user generated comment can be the impetus for the next great campaign;

• unique public relations opportunities: online contests are not a new idea; however, utilizing bloggers, Facebook, Twitter and niche online communities can increase awareness and participation exponentially;

• creative customer service: the ubiquitous 1-800 is still useful; listening to and monitoring online chatter about your brand is more effective as research shows most people won't congratulate or complain, consumers speak with their wallets;

• additional messaging channels: first there was the newspaper, then mail-order catalogs, radio, billboards, TV, direct mail, email and banner ads; now there are sponsored tweets, Facebook ads, Foursquare check-in specials, blog ads...and this is just paid media, imagine the possibilities for earned media;

• and out-of-the-box lead generation: all of the above efforts can lead to increased lead generation and increased sales.

Nugget of knowledge: Traditional Marketing + Social Marketing = A Successful Campaign

Social technology is fantastic!

It has made ways for you to connect, link, friend, fan, like and follow people, causes, organizations and brands around the world. People who would have otherwise never met have established business and personal relationships via social technology. However, getting to know someone, even a organization or a brand, online is only the beginning. It is "social" technology, meaning you eventually have to come from behind the computer screen.

To that end, meetup.com is a great tool that uses a social platform to facilitate people meeting in real life. There are people, places and things for you to discover and explore, and meetup.com helps you do it in geek-fashion. The first video shows you the "what" and "how" and the second video shows you the "why" of meetup.

What is Indie Business?
Indie Business is Indie Business Media, LLC, the company I own with my husband. One of our subsidiaries is the Indie Beauty Network, a trade organization that provides educational and small business networking services, and products liability insurance, for our small manufacturers of health, beauty and lifestyle products. Another subsidiary is INDIEgu, an e-commerce hub for American handmade and artisan products like soaps, candles, fragrances and confectionery goodies.

When did you start?
We launched on January 16, 2000, the day we also published our first online newsletter. Launching this business with a newsletter was the biggest and most important professional achievement of my life.

Really, launching a newsletter was momentous?
Yes, because the newsletter is one of the most fun and effective tools I use to connect with my customers and other stakeholders. It allows me to do four things that are important to me: have fun, help others, increase profitability and stay in touch with people easily and consistently.

Are these four things your priority?
Yes, in the sense that I use them to evaluate how I am doing as a business leader. If I am having fun, helping others, earning a profit and staying in touch with those whom I serve, then I am achieving my purposes as a woman and a business owner. In the case of the newsletter, for example, since I was a journalist/public relations major in college, I learned a lot about publishing. I combined this formal education with my love for the writing process, and this makes newsletter publishing not only effective, but also fun for me. Writing is professionally and personally satisfying for me, as is reaching out and connecting with other people.

Tell me about the newsletter.
The Indie Experience Newsletter is published each Monday. The tagline for the newsletter is my own personal motto, "Enjoy your life! Build your business! Have your way." It is a news, business and product resource.

How do you use media to get the word out about your business?
Connecting with and nurturing relationships with all kinds of media outlets is an integral and enjoyable part of my business. I share information and publish content that helps people, and this ultimately grows my business. I enjoy training others to use their own branded media outlets to do the same through my one-day The Media Is You training workshops. When it comes to media, I employ what I call the trifecta: passion, instincts and training. It's a part of my purpose to help others use media outlets, to discover their voice and share their passions and ideas with the world.

Nugget of knowledge: Everyone needs to be their own best media outlet.

How did you get started on our entrepreneurial journey?
I had a traditional 9-5 job and I was unfulfilled because I didn’t learn anything about myself. I was paid to perform, not to grow. I wanted to grow, and when I realized that a traditional workplace was not helping me do that, I decided to create my own workplace by launching a business that I could design to fit my life -- instead of designing my life to fit my profession. I decided I wanted my life mantra to be, “Enjoy my life! Build my business! Have my way!" So I created that for myself and my family, and now, I help others do the same.

You’ve also found another stream of income as a public speaker, what are some of the messages you share with young people when you talk with them?
This is a great question, since I'm just back from lecturing to graduate students at Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business. I encourage young people to start a blog, to be in control of their online identity, their brand and to use technology to reflect skills, integrity, humanity, and professionalism. Young people must be careful to take control of their online personas. If they don't, future employers, business partners, spouses and children could uncover unfavorable things (true or not), which can hurt them in down the road.

"You may not be able to control what people say about you online, but if you aren't a proactive part of the conversations about you on the Internet, you're abdicating your responsibility to present the best possible reflection of yourself to the world."

What are some of the keys to your success?

• Patience: I am willing to do tiny things no one else sees in order to take the big steps that are more visible.
• Focus: I'm not trying to be all things to all people. I have a niche and I do my best to serve it.
• Faith and Family: My husband and personal faith are integral to everything I do, and everything that is done to me.
• Persistence: I don't give up. When an obstacle comes, I assess it and figure out how to go over, around, under or through it so I can achieve.
• Humility: I ask for help when I need it. This is one of the most effective ways to achieve your goals.
• Relationships: Life and business are nothing without them so I try to maintain healthy, interdependent relationships.
• Technology: I embrace it every step of the way. I use it to position myself as someone here to help, offer a service you need, and bringing value to your life.

Finally, life is a process of constant rebranding...I’m in a constant state of beta.

William T. Dillard is credited with the famous real estate quote, 'location, location, location," simply put, when it comes to real estate, location is the priority and a key to success.

Today, I'm taking credit for the soon-to-be-famous social technology quote, "conversation, conversation, conversation," simply put, when it comes to social technology, conversation is priority and a key to success.

Yes, when it comes to social technology it is all about the conversation. Not the diatribe, though it can be interesting, not the rant, though it can be entertaining and not even the meme, though it can be wickedly funny.

To be clear, a conversation is an "informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons; association or social intercourse..." The takeaways from the definition are "interchange of thoughts" and "communication between persons." Based on this definition a conversation requires at least two individuals who share-listen-respond-listen-share/respond-listen-and so on, and so on, and so on. There is back & forth, give & take, call & response.

As you utilize social technology platforms to establish your personal or professional brand, ask yourself these questions:

• Am I asking questions to illicit responses from my fans, friends, tweeps, connections, etc.?


• Am I participating in conversations (tweet chats, forums, discussions), offering my opinions or subject matter expertise?


• Am I only pushing out information, such as my blog posts, links, and RTs?


• Am I responding to people who ask me questions and am I doing it in a timely manner (w/in 24 hours)?


• Am I consistently engaging my communities in "interchange[s] of thoughts?"

Remember, your brand is what people think about you, so talk to them, give them something to think about.

Questions marketing professionals are asking and the answers they need to remember:

When did social marketing become a young people's profession?
Marketing professionals have adapted to new technologies for centuries from print to radio to television to web, and they will adopt social technology.

When did experience become the antithesis of creativity, ingenuity and inspiration?
Thinking outside of the box begins with experienced people who know what it means to be in the box.

When did working harder become better than working smarter?
Experience teaches people to prioritize, manage and delegate to efficiently and effectively reach objectives.

The perception of social techology as the marketing pervue of the young is understandable. Facebook was started in a college dorm room and former Twitter CEO Evan Williams, isn't yet 40 years old. However, the reality is experience is the best teacher. Experience teaches self discipline, decorum and humility, all of which are the foundations to successful marketing and PR campaigns, regardless of the medium or platform.

Marketing generalists need to know the basics of social marketing in order to stay current, keep up their skills and remain marketable in a tough economy. New people in the industry should consider expanding their knowledge beyond social to expand their skillset and be competitive. Marketing campaigns, especially based in the social space, require cross-functional cooperation across the organization to be effective.

Nugget of knowledge: Communication + Collaboration = Campaign Success

Most Americans begin driving in their teen years. They are woefully inexperienced and highly enthusiastic. They tend to drive too fast, take too many chances and not give the road their full attention.

• When do they become "expert" drivers?
• When do they have "enough" experience that their judgment isn't questioned?
• For that matter, are the automotive engineers experts at driving by the fact they design cars?
• Do mechanics hold the title of driving expert because they know how to fix cars?
• And what about adults, does daily usage give them expertise?

Just as driving has become ubiquitous, the regular use of social technology is quickly becoming mainstream. This begs the question, if everyone is doing it, how can you be an expert at it?

The answer is quite simple, everyone can be a social technology expert; however, only a few will be social technology professionals. In the same vein that everyone can be an expert driver; however, only a few will be professional drivers. This is where the activity of driving isn't a way to get to work, it is the work. When you hear the phrase professional drivers, what comes to mind...race car drivers, truck drivers and bus drivers. These men and women take the simple act of driving to the next level. Professional drivers take extra classes, earn additional credentials and participate in their profession.

This scenario should sound familiar because it is how the majority of professionals are made, with training (education), credentialing (certification) and participating in the profession (publish, speak, mentor). This is true for social technology professionals as well, as you take blogging, tweeting, connecting and engaging to the next level. You attend webinars, unconferences and tweet-ups; you share your knowledge via tweet chats, meet-ups and conferences and your experience level is beyond par because you are power-user with a body of work behind you.

Yes, everyone can be a social technology expert, YOU are a social technology professional.

This is the first in the new professionalism series.

This week’s Awesomely Fantabulous Woman is @DigitalSista aka Shireen Mitchell, if you don't know her, then you must be brand-spanking-new to the social space. She has a passion for inclusionary technology that is accessible to everyone regardless of ethnicity, class or education. Shireen was tech savvy before it became cool.

How did you get started in technology?
My first introduction was through Pac-Man, which was originally designed for girls. Ironically, today most video games are geared to boys and men.

Pac-Man, how old were you?
I was 10 years old and I played every day until it was dark outside, which was my curfew. The store owners didn’t want me there because they couldn’t make money off of me. I would go to the corner store and beat everyone.

You say you beat “everyone,” does that include the boys too?
It was only boys; I was the only girl playing at that level.

What did your Mom think about you spending all of your time playing video games at the store?
My Mom didn’t believe I was down there playing video games. She thought I was going there because of some boy, so to keep me home she bought me an Atari game console.

Really, a sort of “if you can’t beat them, join them” strategy.
You can say that, she even bought me my first home computer.

When did you become interested in technology?
It was 1984, I was 14 years old and technology became a core part of my being. I played games and experimented with different programs. And by high school people began trying to direct my interests away from technology.

That doesn’t make sense, why do you think they did that?
I had been in accelerated academic programs since the 7^th grade, which meant I was taking mostly math and science classes. For instance, I took law instead of history. I was doing 11^th grade math in 9^th grade, so it didn’t make much sense but the comments I continued to hear was that I couldn’t get a job doing this. At the time I didn’t know what they meant; I understand these tracking methods now.

It wasn’t easy for my Mom. I know I was a little rebel. I was smart; I knew it and I wouldn’t back down from it. I was doing work above my classmates and many of my teachers didn’t know what to do with me. So, I got bored because I felt like I was being ignored; I was insulted. The principal said I had an “attitude problem.”

How did you handle it?
By college, I acquiesced some and majored in psychology, while spending my spare time with my techie friends. I would study for school and study tech manuals for fun. It was nuts. My tech click only studied the manuals while I studied both. We were very competitive, the guys would try to hide things from me and keep me from learning, but they couldn’t. I would buy individual components and build my own PCs and servers.

The “guys,” they were guys?
Yep, it was four guys and me. Gender didn’t come up. It wasn’t a trigger in my head at the time. When AOL comes on the scene, a couple of them drop out of school and go there to work. They still haven’t finished school and still work at AOL. Another one became a CIO. I decided to finish school. Every now and then, I think about what if I had gone to AOL in its heyday, with the stock options…hmm.

How did you get from psychology to digitalsista?
I was doing the back end work for Sister Circle, one of the first communities for Black women and the founder encouraged me to start my own web management firm. I jumped in and began to notice I’m only one of a few women in the field, so I started doing trainings at a local bookstore. Men would attend the sessions and try to challenge me by using tech terms. I wasn’t intimidated at all; I knew what I was talking about and they usually used a term in the wrong context. What happened is the men intimidated the women in the classes, not me. I started holding women only sessions, which would eventually grow into DigitalSistas, a place for girls and women to support and encourage their tech dreams. “Someone will always present a barrier; it’s up to you whether or not you’re going to accept it.”