Archives for 2010

A Charitable Social Media Mission for 2011

This post wasn’t meant to be here – it sprung from a thought I had, which I then posted as a status on my Facebook page. Here’s the thought:

Wouldn’t it be cool if big corporations that supported charities took an allocation of their donation, and paid for consultants to help non-profits learn about social media? The consultants don’t have to charge the charity, the corporation is still helping the charity, and the charity can allocate these funds back into the organization and those who need it the most. Just a thought…

From that simple thought, I got a ton of feedback and stories.

From the conversations with Abbie, Shana, Catherine and Kimberly, it’s clear there continues to be a huge need for social media within the non-profit sector.

Not only can it help reduce costs from an advertising standpoint, but (as we discovered with the 12for12k project), it can help raise awareness and reach like no other medium.

The problem is, too many charities can’t afford the extra cost of hiring a consultant or agency to train them on how to use social media to its fullest.

On the flip side, people that offer their time pro-bono to try and help educate non-profits often find they can’t continue to allocate free time and still work their own job to pay the bills. Sadly, this leads to them giving up, and the charity is back to square one.

So. Here’s a challenge for 2011. A mission statement, if you like.

Let’s build a database of social media consultants and agencies, either with expertise in the non-profit sector or working with clients that donates funds to non-profits, and look at how we can use their skills.

Let’s add companies and corporations to that database that are willing to fund social media education for their chosen charity, or ones that we can help suggest and connect.

Let’s find and add quality, creative agencies that understand the power of storytelling and want to make a change, and can bring amazing visuals to a charity’s words.

Simply put, let’s make it a mission to connect people who can help each other – consultant-to-business-to-charity-to-consultant.

Along with my business partner Troy Claus, I’ll be speaking with a bunch of folks over the next couple of weeks as we put in place some of the stuff we’ll be doing with 12for12k next year as it returns from its sabbatical.

I’m now making this mission one of the key goals for 12for12k next year.

I’m pretty sure we can find enough willing parties from all aspects of this mission to make a good start on the database and how it’ll work. Then the real fun can begin.

Interested?

Leave your details in the form below (it’s just for letting you know when the database is up, as well as ideas along the way – no spamming, I promise!) and let’s see what magic we can create next year.

Thanks!

[gravityform id=4 name=SocialMedia for NPO’s Mission 2011]

image: niznoz

Attitude is Everything

Two of my favourite actors are Joe Pesci and Danny DeVito. Both different actors, yet also so very similar.

Pesci is more your serious actor that?s famous for his gangster roles (Goodfellas, Casino, Once Upon a Time in America) although he?s had some great comedy roles too (My Cousin Vinny, Lethal Weapon 2, Home Alone). DeVito is more known for his comedic roles ? Romancing the Stone, Twins and the TV series Taxi.

Yet while they?re both great actors, that?s not the main reason I like them. It?s more to do with their attitude of being different and using that as their strength. Neither are what you would call your typical Hollywood heroes, yet it hasn?t stopped them from taking the movie industry by storm and becoming major players.

This makes them great role models for small businesses.

If the Internet hadn?t narrowed the division between large businesses and small ones enough already, the economic meltdown of the last 18 months or so has made it even smaller. Large businesses are feeling the pinch and making cutbacks, while smaller businesses are finding that their value-based services are more in demand.

Now?s the time to take advantage of that. Now?s the time to be Joe Pesci or Danny DeVito.

Small Is Good.

Small businesses have never had a better opportunity to play on a level field with the big boys. Clients are looking for value for money and the personal touch more as large companies become fragmented and lose touch with their customers.

Use that to your advantage. Offer the kind of personal service that only small businesses can. Make every client feel that they?re your only one. Build the personal relationships that mean something, as opposed to the impersonal relationships that are old news.

Brand loyalty is everything ? customer relations foster this and for the small business owner, the opportunity for this is has never been greater.

Be Different.

As I mentioned, where Pesci and DeVito excel is using their difference from the standard Hollywood stereotype and making it work for them. They refuse to be handed roles and descriptions relating to their size, and stand toe-to-toe with some of the biggest heavyweights on the scene.

Use your business?s differences to the maximum.

Be proud of the fact that you may be small but you offer a service that will stand next to any of your larger competitors. Because you?re small, you actually have more intimate relationships with your suppliers and that transposes itself to your clients. The fact that you?re different separates you from the pack ? celebrate it and people will respond to it.

Attitude is Everything.

No matter what movie Joe Pesci is in, one thing that stands head and shoulders above everything else is his ?F**k you!? attitude. You seriously believe that this guy may be small but he has an attitude and belief that many people twice his size could only hope for.

You probably started your business with the belief that you were going to be just as good as the big guys, if not better. Do you still have that belief? Are you passionate about your company when you meet new clients or catch up with old ones?

Think back to why you found these clients in the first place ? belief in that you could do the job of competitors many times your size.

Keep that belief. Have the attitude that your business is the best at what you do, because you live and breathe for making it the best.

Encourage greatness in your employees and instill the same ?We may not be the biggest but we?re going to be the best? attitude that started you off in the first place, and that attitude will both promote and attract confidence in you and your business.

The next couple of years promise to have some tough times ahead for businesses, small and large. Yet with the reduced overheads and the more focused framework that smaller businesses have the advantage of, they can also be the years you really stand toe-to-toe with the big boys.

Aiming Beyond Business

This post has been pretty much about small business and how you, as a small business owner, can compete with the bigger boys. But it doesn’t need to just be for business.

Look at some of the comparisons between Devito, Pesci and the Hollywood mindset, and see how you can take that attitude and implement in your own surroundings.

Blogging; single parent home worker; inventor; artist; storyteller and more. It doesn’t matter how small you currently think you are – it’s how big you want to be viewed moving forward.

Joe Pesci and Danny DeVito have shown the way for the little guys. Ready to join them?

image: Omega Man

The Power of Ideas

I’ve written before why I’m passionate about creativity being allowed to shine.

Without it, we’d be left in a boring world where only the few would have a say in what we watch, say or do. Companies would be filled with drones, businesses would be drab affairs, and artists would be virtually non-existent.

We wouldn’t have videos like the one below, either, and that would be a shame.

Taking a fantastical look at the cityscape of Toronto, the video shows the immense scope a person has when their creativity is let loose.

Sexy might not always sell when it comes to business – but that doesn’t mean we can’t mix it up once in a while. Agree?

(For a cool interactive experience, check out the Batelco Infinity Facebook Page. And hat-tip to Randy Matheson for making me aware of the video.)

This post contains a video. If you can’t see it properly in your feed, you can watch it directly here.

25 Ways to Use the Web to Find Content for Your Blog

As a blogger, you know that sometimes the hardest thing to do is come up with content for your blog. Finding ideas for your blog (especially if you want to post regularly) can often lead to you not blogging at all, because you start hitting the wall when it comes to what to blog about.

So I thought it might be useful to offer up 25 ways to use the web to find content for your blog. Here they are.

Blog Comments

1. Using a plug-in like CommentLuv allows your commenter to share their most recent post. I’ve seen blog titles that have intrigued me and clicked through to read, and given me an idea for a post of my own. We use CommentLuv on For Bloggers By Bloggers.

2. If you see a comment that really resonates and offers a great viewpoint, ask the poster if they’d like to guest for you and expand on the original comment.

3. Similar to above, if you see a comment you disagree with, expand your own view into a post and offer reasons why your viewpoint is different.

Other Blogs

4. As #1 points out, CommentLuv is great for sharing the most recent post of a blogger, but not every blog uses it. So click through the URL of someone’s comment and see what they’re writing about, to see if you can gather ideas from there.

5. Blogrolls. While some have called blogrolls out of date, many bloggers still use them to share what they’re reading. Visit the blogs of those your favourite blogger reads, and see what ideas you can get from them.

6. A lot of bloggers have category lists for Top 10 Tips and popular posts in their navigation menu. Have a look and see what’s there, and use them to build your own content from.

7. Speaking of popular posts, if a blogger has their most popular posts on display in their sidebar, click on a couple to read and see what made them popular. Then see how you can take inspiration from them.

Social Bookmarks

8. Delicious is a great resource for finding blog content. Just type your topic into the Delicious search bar and you’ll find a ton of results from people that have saved articles or blog posts about your chosen topic.

9. Stumbleupon is a cool browser add-on that lets you browse websites at random. You can land on some great content that will give you your own ideas for your blog.

10. While not as popular as it used to be, Digg still has some great shared posts and news on its site. Look at the most popular and see what take you can offer.

11. BizSugar is becoming more popular, as it concentrates on small business news. If your blog is in this niche, you can get some great ideas from here.

12. A mix of social bookmarking and community, Blog Engage is similar to Digg and BizSugar with its voting system, but it focuses a lot on just bloggers and is a great starting point for ideas.

Blog Resources

13. One of my favourite blog communities is Scribnia. You can find authors and bloggers based on niches, and this can really help you target content to get inspiration from.

14. Alltop offers a great collection of blogs in a veritable feast of topics – if you can’t find something to write about there, then I’m stuck!

15. Still viewed by many as the Blogger’s Bible, Technorati has more than 133 million blogs registered with them. Use the categories or top topics to find content you can get ideas from.

16. Google Blog Search offers up a huge resource of blogs on every topic under the sun. Much like Alltop and Technorati, use the topic search to find your interests.

17. Another resource from Google is their Trends platform. If you’re quick off the mark, you can write a blog post about a trending topic, optimize it for SEO, and (hopefully) be found by those looking at the trends for that moment.

18. Junta 42 offers some great tips on content marketing – check out their articles for ways to get ideas for your own blog.

Social Networks

19. If you’re on Twitter, one of the best ways to find content for your blog is to jump into the weekly #blogchat discussion. Great bloggers, great topics – what more do you need?

20. Sticking with Twitter, have a look at what’s trending at any time on that platform then see if you can get a post out about it (just don’t go all spammy with your hashtags when your post is ready). Trendsmap is a great resource for global trends.

21. And yet again with Twitter, Twitter Search is great for finding out what people are saying regarding the stuff you blog about – type in a keyword, and see if any conversations inspire you to expand on them in a blog post.

22. On Facebook there’s a great app called Networked Blogs, that shares content from Facebook users with blogs, and the Networked Blogs directory. You can get a widget with different blogs in it, and use this to build some ideas for your own content.

23. LinkedIn Groups are perfect for finding blog content. Look at the questions being asked on there and write a blog post as your answer.

24. Seen by many as a place for file and document sharing, Slideshare has great presentations that are just chock full of ideas for you to take away and build several blog posts from.

25. YouTube is more than just a video upload site – think about grabbing a tips video, for example, embedding it into a blog post and then riffing on what else could have been added to the video to make it a better resource.

Your Turn

As you can see, there are a ton of ideas that you can get from places you’re already using, but may not have thought of. These are just 25 – but there’s bound to be a ton more.

So how about you – what are some of the ways you find content for your blog? Share your tips in the comments!

image: hugovk

The Problem with Influence

I just read something by a friend that’s both interesting and sad at the same time (and sad as in lame, not as in Bambi).

My friend mentioned that he was speaking to a well-known PR guy and author a few months back.

The topic of the conversation was a site for bloggers and authors that my friend works at. According to the PR guy, the site would never be much of a success because he (the PR guy and author) wasn’t ranked high enough.

The PR guy then went on to say that the site wouldn’t be a success because, “You have to make sure the biggest influencers are ranked at the top.”

As my friend so eloquently put it, well f*ck me sideways.

Influence Shminfluence

The problem with influence is that it all boils down to relevancy. You can’t tell me that a pig farmer in Alaska (tough old pigs out there!) is influenced by what a PR guy is saying about the 2.0 or 3.0 world.

Instead, I’d think he’d be more influenced by bacon writers and pork chefs, and analysts looking at how the pork buy trade will look in the next two years.

When it comes to influence, the folks that matter to us are the ones that are in our industry, or affect the industries of our customers and clients. That’s what influences our business and its success (or lack of it), not someone who’s in an industry that has little to no relevance to us.

There’s no doubting that the PR guy is influential in his sphere – but does that mean he should be viewed as such in all spheres, and “ranked higher” because of it?

Egos and Eggheads

And this is where the real “problem” with influence comes in – when it starts to make you feel you automatically deserve to be in a certain position, or recognized more by something or someone.

The quote my friend uses – “You have to make sure the biggest influencers are ranked at the top” – is possibly the biggest reason why influence is coming under so much flak at the minute (just Google “Klout sucks” to see some examples).

We seem to be creating an environment where people expect to “be someone” because you have some success in a certain field, which is a shame.

There’s nothing wrong with success, and there’s nothing wrong with pride in your achievements. Hell, success should be celebrated.

Ego, on the other hand (especially one where your head gets as big as an egg’s on a pin tack) is a different beast altogether. When it reaches the stage that someone says a venture won’t be successful because the influencers aren’t ranked higher – then we have a problem.

Influence and Success

We need influence. Consumers buy from their favourite celebrities and their recommendations of a product. Professionals buy from people they trust when that person makes a recommendation. Brands use “names” to help promote products and services.

So influence works. But wouldn’t it be better to be the right influence, as opposed to the type that’s defined by someone who appears to have a huge dose of self-importance?

And as for that site that would never be a success?

There are about 30,000 authors and bloggers registered with the site. The company had a great Blog World Expo, and are about to launch a new platform that (ironically) will help people like the critical PR guy connect with bloggers for PR campaigns.

Not too bad for something that defines its own influence, huh?

image: Divine Harvester