Gary Vaynerchuk explains how Google recently changed it's search algorithm. This is a HUGE shift, it's not a fad. Social media continues to evolve and disrupt...and it's getting deeper. Imagine how search will change now that it is becoming more and more social? If you haven't gotten involved, you are way behind. The ROI of social media will take six months to a year. The major investment is in your time. It's a process, so don't treat it like a project. Be patient, many have given up because they got into it thinking they were going to make $$$ right away - this kind of approach is completely wrong. You have to build relationships and gain trust before you can start selling your stuff. Once you've carefully invested the time and proven that you care, you will begin to see the sales come in from your social media efforts. Trying to sell and push products before relationships are established is just spamming and it's tacky. The best advice I can give is to get into social media to listen, learn, and share. Be generous, respectful, and kind. Share your personal story, opinion, expertise, and spin on the issues that affect you. Trust me, if you share meaningful content people will listen. Everyone loves a good story. It takes time to build a tribe so get started. Listen+Learn+Share.
I've been enjoying these amazing TED Business Talks on my awesome new LG Tone Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Headset with my iPhone 5 on my 19 minute drive to work. It's so refreshing to gain such amazing insight and knowledge every morning before I dive into work. Here are three perspicacious talks I hope you'll take the time to listen to this week
Recently, in an effort to better understand our national economy I read Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future. I wanted to understand why we have such high unemployment, yet leave so many jobs go unfilled in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). To gain a better grasp on the STEM crisis (and it is a HUGE crisis by the way), this brief Executive Summary will bring you up to speed. Currently, only four percent of our nation’s workforce is composed of scientists and engineers - and this number has been rapidly declining in recent years. Why is this important? Well, because this group disproportionately creates jobs for the other 96 percent. Leverage is at play in our economy. Everyone benefits when we have more science nerds, gear heads, tech geeks, and mathletes. When there's progress in the lab the multiplier goes into affect, starting with the scientist and engineer inventors, then streams down to benefit the entrepreneurs who rally investors and manage the risk, their skilled workers who build the products, the marketer who connects it with consumers and creates demand, the truck driver who delivers, the salesperson who sells, and the maintenance person who repairs, and of course the consumer who realizes the benefits. Additionally, for every job that is directly created in this said chain of manufacturing and marketing activity, on average another 2.5 jobs in disparate labor such as: operating restaurants, grocery stores, barber shops, filling stations and banks is generated. Progress enabling products like: smartphone apps, MRI machines, robot exoskeletons, genetically modified silk, invisibility cloaks, spray on skin, 3-D printers, self-driving cars, artificial bone, sustainable disposable solar panels, eye implants, and flexible glass are built on the work of a few scientists. In several years (or less) these breakthroughs will create millions of jobs. Right now we have the jobs we do because of products that were still in research just a few decades go: the Internet, CT scanners, iPods, and GPS. When our children are young they are sponges. They enjoy learning letters and numbers. Eventually they discover they enjoy STEM subjects because they can be fun to learn and it's personally satisfying to solve a math problem, build a robot, or reach a conclusion for the school science fair project. Then something happens at the end of high school and in college. STEM is not as fun and it gets hard. They hit the dip - the learning curve. Learning gets harder and they opt to drop out or focus on something easier because they're afraid, discouraged, and/or can't see the bigger picture of how they can be a part of something huge. We can't let this happen. If your son and/or daughter is interested even slightly in STEM, then motivate and guide them to pursue their interests to their full potential.
This video is all about Seth Godin's triangle of: Strategy, Tactics, and Caring. Here's a preview of what you'll learn: We now live in a 'Connection Economy.' It's now easier than ever for you to speak up and be heard. Normal is crumbling. Be willing to fail. Work without a map. Create scarcity. How to market: Tell stories to pockets of people who share a world view. Spend most of your time doing work that is revolutionary.
My favorite author Seth Godin sits down with Jonathan Fields to discuss books, business, life, art, being stuck, pressing forward, and quitting. All the the inspiring things I like to talk about with my friends, family, 4-H'ers, and colleagues.
Anyone with a website that wants increased traffic must watch this video...THEN GO TO WORK ON IT!
In a blog post Seth Godin expressed the necessity to have video and multimedia skills by stating: Learn to produce extraordinary video and multimedia. This is just like writing, but for people who don’t like to read. Even better, be sure to mix this skill with significant tech skills. Yes, you can learn to code. The fact that you don't feel like it is one reason it's a scarce skill.I've been working on my video editing skills with iMovie for the past year or so. I think I'm getting better, see for yourself and let me know.
WeFollow is a cool site for anyone who's into Twitter. It's a social directory, so if you're in an industry and want to look for other people who have the same interests as you, search by key words and find those most followed folks. I searched for a term that didn't exist and this was what came up: Now I'm blogging about this not only because I'm a huge fan of Back to the Future, but because I believe that everything a company does needs to go back to marketing. Instead of returning a lame response like "Sorry, the page you are looking for does not exist," I got this hilarious response and here I am sharing it with you.
This is just a creative way to think about marketing. I've seen this kind of clever stuff before and I think organizations are really starting to catch on.
Some might wonder why business is slow? Why are sales lagging? How come no one responds to the ads in the paper anymore? Marketing is a waste, right?
I remember this quote from somewhere:
"I'm absolutely sure at least half go my marketing budget is wasted...I'm just not sure which half."
This is what I understand about why marketing to the masses is a complete waste of time and money: Over time, we as consumers have become so inundated with Choices that we don't have the Time to pay attention to everything. There is not enough time in the day to pay attention to all the mass ads vying for my attention. They are everywhere and they are generic so I tune out, everyone else does too...that is, unless they don't have enough going on in their lives.
If you want people to pay attention to what you have to offer then you need to be remarkable...OR get their permission. Instead of marketing by interrupting people, try marketing to people who are listening.
Recently, a company called Neenah Paper, a high-end paper manufacturer, discovered it was becoming increasingly difficult to attract new customers. Marketers at the company realized that conventional mediums like face-to-face meetings and phone conversations were not as prosperous as they used to be and they felt like potential customers were ignoring their efforts to attract new business. Sound familiar?
In this case, the marketing manager at Neenah decided to engage customers through social media. This was a good path to follow since it was observed that a majority of the company’s prospects were spending most of their day in front of a computer. Under his direction, the marketing department at Neenah began finding prospects by searching for keywords in Twitter and joining in on the conversations. They learned that social media is simply a more effective way of engaging with their prospects and one sales person expressed, “It’s an invitation to have a conversation. You’re getting permission to have a conversation—a conversation that used to only happen in person.”
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