Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

The Business of Dating

Dating is a tricky business. Building up the courage to ask someone out; the nerves of the first date; the choices that you make deciding whether you’ll have a second date or not; and keeping conversation flowing being just some of the hazards.

Then you have to worry about the success of the second date. And the third. And so on. Then (if you’re lucky) it becomes a relationship and you can begin making long-term plans together.

Are you treating your customers like a date? Are you keeping the conversation flowing and making the right choices to keep them interested in you? How are you building the long-term relationships with them?

Dating is a tricky business. How successful are you in the dating game?

It’s Still Your Blog – Isn’t It?

There’s a bit of a hullabaloo floating around the Internet at the minute concerning the Momdot mommy blogger network and their proposed PR Blackout for one week in August.

The topic is being discussed on Twitter pretty vocally and bloggers and PR pros are coming out with their take on both sides of the argument.

Indeed, the flak got so bad that it led to a follow-up post on Momdot asking who’s more whiny, PR or bloggers?

I’m not going to get into the whole “she said, they said” argument as there’s enough of that in the comments of both Momdot blog posts, as well as via the Twitter discussion and other bloggers. The Momdot admins say it wasn’t an attack on PR per se, and reading the original post I believe them.

But here’s the thing.

While the reasoning behind the PR Blackout is sound – giving moms more time with their families and reclaiming their blogs – should it even have come to a blackout call in the first place?

A blog is, ultimately, your baby. Your voice; your home from home. What you do with it is up to you. It can be a personal blog, a business blog, or? you can try make income from it, either part-time as most review bloggers do, or full-time as a professional blogger. But the key thing is this.

It. Is. Up. To. You.

If you want to be a reviewer of products, you’ll be contacted by PR companies. If you want to make money blogging, it is going to be hard at times – it’s one of the sacrifices you make when working for yourself, knowing that hours are no longer straightforward nine-to-five.

Heck, even being “just a blogger” with no reviews and giveaways is hard work and why so many give it up within six months. But how hard blogging is is up to you.

You don’t have to say yes to every review. You don’t have to say yes to every PR pitch. Over at Momdot, Trish makes a point in her Last Word video message that for every one PR pitch you agree to, you get six more.

That’s only if you let that happen.

I know there are crappy PR pros that harass bloggers constantly with pitches, follow-up calls and deadline blackmail. They tell you that you’ll be taken off their blogger list and that their clients won’t be sent to you. Here’s what you do with PR “pros” like that:

Tell them to go f*ck themselves.

If they’re so crap at their jobs that they have to harass the people that are putting their clients in front of thousands of eyeballs, they’re not worth dealing with to start with. Let them go; find the great PR companies instead and work with them.

Make it even easier for yourself – have a visible page on your blog that explains to PR pros how to pitch you, and the process after that. If they can’t adhere to your instructions, then they only have themselves to blame for being blacklisted and ignored.

Blog communities need to do their bit too. If you’re hearing from your members that a PR agency is causing issues, speak with the agency in question and voice your concerns. Good PR pros know the importance of blogger relations – if they can’t accept and work with your concerns, then your duty lies with your bloggers. Stop accepting that agency’s pitches and blacklist them and only put your bloggers in touch with approved agencies.

The buzz (for and against) the Momdot PR Blackout shows there is a growing problem with burned out review bloggers and that’s sad. No-one likes to hear of people’s health and relationships suffering.

But a little bit of me can’t help but feel that if you keep control of your blog, the issues being talked about at the minute would be a lot less visible. No?

photo credit: Daquella manera

Are You Abusing Your Social Media Voice?

We’re told (and tell our clients) that one of the key benefits of social media is that it’s allowing a channel to be opened between customers and business, and vice versa. But is this new openness simply leading to abuse of the system?

Are people now using this new voice they have to bypass proper channels and cause as much havoc as they can, purely because they have the ability to?

Take a look at Doug Meacham’s recent experience with Best Buy. Doug’s post covers everything in full, but the gist is that he was upset at the price difference between store and online and decided to take it up on Twitter with Best Buy’s Chief Marketing Officer, Barry Judge. The resulting exchange and Doug’s unhappiness with that is the basis of his blog post.

In the comments, there are two clear camps – one for Doug and his approach and one against. I’m swaying toward the latter.

It’s not that I don’t think customers shouldn’t have a voice and be able to air concerns. One of my old jobs was working with the Director of British Telecom in the U.K. and resolving high level complaints, and I’m a huge advocate of businesses listening to and conversing with their customers.

But there are ways to do that, and I don’t think Doug’s approach was the right one for a couple of reasons.

Problem Resolved

Looking at the story, Doug is unhappy that a Best Buy product is priced differently in-store from online. Yet Best Buy’s website has a disclaimer that reads:

“Online prices and selection generally match our retail stores, but may vary.”

So although there was quite a difference in the price (probably due to a simple error), they didn’t have to be the same. However, as Doug mentions, he brought this to the store salesperson’s attention and the price difference was overridden. So in that respect, his issue was dealt with.

Channel Surfing

However, Doug decides that he wants to bring this to Best Buy’s attention – fair enough, and it may just help other customers not have to pay the higher price of the product. Doug’s method was to tweet the CMO of Best Buy and that led to even more issues.

This is where I feel we need to question just how much people are “abusing” (for lack of a better word) social media and the conversations it allows.

Without knowing Best Buy’s procedure, the normal channels for a customer complaint/issue would be – Customer Service, Supervisor, escalated call, Manager and then some form of high level complaints team if none of the previous roads worked.

Why take it to the CMO? Because he or she is responsible for the marketing strategy of Best Buy’s products and offers? Does this warrant the question about a price difference? I don’t think it does.

I’m kind of surprised Doug took his issue to the CMO. Doug has an immense amount of experience in retailing customer service and I would have assumed he’d take his points to either @BestBuy or one of the many other?Best Buy Twitter account(s) if he wanted to ask more questions.

It’s the questioning of the CMO (and the accusatory tone of Doug’s points) that has me wondering about social media’s role in customer service. Sure, Barry’s response could have been more helpful but should he have had to respond in the first place?

Chris Brogan writes a complementary piece to Doug’s post about how we’re “always on”. While this is true, there has to be some sense kept from the customer’s point of view. Just because social media allows you to tap into a higher level of employee doesn’t automatically mean you should.

Or does it? Does social media mean there’s no such thing as customer service procedure and everyone is open to any and every question? Or are people using that new power inappropriately? Where’s the common ground?

photo credit: Jennifer Pickens

Twitter Tips from a True Twitter Expert

As Twitter continues its rise in popularity, there are a bunch of tips and books out (or coming out) on how to best use it.

There’s The Twitter Book from Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein; the upcoming Twitterville from Shel Israel; the TwiTip blog from Darren Rowse; and I even chipped in with the Twitter Rulebook.

But for all these and the other numerous guides floating around online and off, they can all offering differing viewpoints. What’s needed is one coherent collection from a true Twitter expert.

Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce Larry Possum and the only Twitter tips you’ll ever need. Enjoy!

From Twitter to Blog – #FollowFriday Vol. 5

Recently I wrote why I was moving my #followfriday recommendations from Twitter to this blog. So, without further ado, here are my recommendations for this week.

I hope you check them out – they’re all worth getting to know.

Community. Khayyam Wakil (@iamkhayyam). Khayyam is an outstanding person and one that just keeps on giving. He’s one of these Twitter users that shares so much and never asks for anything in return. And away from Twitter he’s a pretty fine comedian as well – what’s not to like?
Ladies of Twitter. Mickey Gomez (@mickeygomez). One of the biggest hearts around, Mickey encapsulates everything that is right not just on Twitter, but the world. She offers unconditional support if you need it and anyone that plays a mean guitar like she does and is a fan of Joss Whedon is a-ok by me!
Gentlemen of Twitter. Matt Leonard (@mjleonard). To me, Matt is the epitomone of the phrase “gentle giant”. Who knows, maybe he’s only 5-foot but he looks like a big guy! This man is all heart – he’s an Internet marketer that doesn’t push, he wants to offer everyone a way to share their voice, and to Matt, family is everything. ‘Nuff said.
Non-Profits. Gabe O’Neill (@kidsareheroes). Simply put, Gabe inspires. We talk about heroes like our favourite sportsman, or actor, or musician. Gabe, on the other hand, makes every single child a hero. He shares their inspiring stories, encourages them to change the wold, and is a downright humble and awesome guy. Gabe, you rock man!
Marketing. Brian Carter (@briancarter). If you don’t already know Brian, you’re in for a treat. Not only is he an incredibly smart marketer who’s just launched TweetROI, he’s also an inanely funny comedian-type who thinks way outside any box. Check Google for his alter-ego Larry Possum to see the madness.
Public Relations. Heather Whaling (@PRtini). Heather is one of these people that sneak up on you and you realize you’ve been constantly learning from her without even knowing. She’s an incredibly smart PR gal that runs a great personal blog, and also one of the most engagingly chatty people I know.
Social Media. Brett Borders (@BrettBorders). Brett may not be as well known as people like Chris Brogan or Jason Falls, but his social media smarts are excellent. He runs the always entertaining Social Media Rockstar blog, and anyone that can be both a reformed hippie as well as lover of ambient music has definitely got my interest.
The “Everyone Should Know” Wildcard Entry. Avatar Koo (@avatarkoo). What can I say about Avatar Koo? Umm… she’s unorthodox; incredibly funny; entertaining; writes erotic romance stories; and for one hour in June, took 12for12k into the naughty side of life. Don’t take my word for it – go check her out now!

Cheers, guys, for being who you are every day of the week.