Yes, that is the smokin' hot Jake Ryan...

Yes. Tis true. I am not on Pinterest.

Based on what I am observing on my Twitter, Facebook and Google+ streams, I believe I am the only one who has NOT opened an account.

Funny thing is, the Sun still came up this morning.

The world is still turning.

Look, I am not dissing Pinterest. From everything I’ve heard, it sounds like a wicked cool tool.

But hey, I have a business to run. Clients to serve. A book to write. Radio shows to edit and produce. I am a busy guy.

I don’t have time to look at collections of baseball diamonds, glassware, wedding images, cute shmutzy animal pics. Man, I wish I did, but I just don’t.

I am not suggesting there isn’t a business application for Pinterest. If there is any marketing utility to sharing some sort of visual portfolio, then Pinterest might be a cool app for you. And you are an idiot to not check it out and explore it.

But not me.

At least yet.

Why do we act like teenagers succumbing to cliquey pure pressure to simply HAVE TO sign up for the newest thing?

And you know, my simple message here is to say this:

You aren’t a loser if you too aren’t on Pinterest yet. In fact, most of us still suck at effectively utilizing Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Facebook to grow our business, much less new shiny objects like Pinterest.

Why don’t you figure out first how to move the needle with Twitter before you rush to the front of the line and sign-up for the latest toy? Where you are very likely connecting with the same damn people you are connecting with on every other social network…

I remember a guy mocking me because I hadn’t signed up for Quora yet. Well, I did. And I admit, it was a cool space. Very helpful. And I haven’t been there since October.

Focus your time where it moves the needle. And serves clients.

Then, and only then, can Toddy come out to play…

P.S. When I grabbed the screen shot of the Pinterest home page to share on this post, I saw the Jake Ryan image. So, honestly, I may reconsider and get on Pinterest right away. Jake is so damn cute…

###

[isn't it time to join a cool family of intrepid marketers? i say yes]

Thrilled to be working with Social Media Today and crew on a new online video series, SalesChaosTV. Here is our first episode, first published here:

As we ramp up, the team plans to bring you one new episode each week. The goal: to stir up some conversation and debate around common, everyday issues around sales, marketing, business strategy and social media. However, we intend to be extreme, unconventional, in-your-face, contrarian… In other words, to make you think and act differently about this subject matter.

In fact, you are welcome to email questions and subjects you want us to cover here.

Todd and Dan

[Editor's note: I will, as often as I remember, publish the SalesChaosTV videos here on Intrepid. But, they will be published first, and exclusively, on the Social Media Today family of sites. Stay tuned here to see the freshest new content...]

Yeah, yeah, I know that social proof is important. Someone is more likely to retweet something that already has a bunch of retweets, verses an article with a big, fat zero.

But I think the whole thing is hooey.

No, not that I believe that concept is wrong. I just think the idea of it, and our desire to capitalize on it, makes us do stupid things.

But first, some stats to give some perspective:

The world population might reach 7 BILLION in calendar 2011.

There are over 165 MILLION public blogs in 2011, according to Wikipedia…although it seems more than that.

Over 750 MILLION people on Facebook… give or take a few million.

Around 200 MILLION people on Twitter, according to someone on Twitter.

Already 25 MILLION people on Google+, which just launched a few months ago.

So when I do a quick scan of Seth Godin’s blog, which is arguably the BEST business and marketing blog on the planet, and the best posts show only 900+ retweets…

[disclaimer: I only reviewed the last three to four dozen posts on Seth's site...]

…there are a lot of people on the earth NOT retweeting his content.

So, the purpose here is to beg you…

Please, please, please don’t get hung up on how many retweets, shares, likes, etc. that you and your content receive from your audience.

Remember. Almost 7 BILLION people on the planet. And the best blogger doesn’t normally get over 1,000 retweets.

Get over yourself.

All that matters is that your content speaks to the small audience it is really intended for.

I saw a promotion on LinkedIn recently. “Get your blog post seen by ONE MILLION people…. in less than 10 minutes.”

Seriously.

Really?

Hey look…if getting ONE MILLION hits to your blog matters, subscribe to this service. If getting nearly 1,000 retweets helps you feel like you matter in the universe…

Do it.

But I have got to say…that promotion felt way schwarmy to me. Didn’t seem honest. And more importantly, it didn’t seem realistic to me.

I have a wee small blog. Geared towards a very small audience of both potential customers and informing current customers. Yeah, I would love 1,000 true fans. But I will be happy if I achieve 100.

And honestly…that makes me feel good. Because what I say matters to those people. And that makes for a good day.

Now, my two businesses are growing. Intrepid is a one-man shop. There is only so much work I can achieve, on behalf of my clients, on a given day. Dreamland is a three-man shop. There is only so much work the three of us can achieve on a given day.

I couldn’t possibly handle the workload if ONE MILLION people came to my blog in ten minutes, and a small percentage of them wanted to do business…

I guess I am saying that while lots of traffic, lots of subscriptions, lots of comments and lots of retweets would be nice, not having that isn’t negatively impacting my business. I have more than enough prospects, thank you very much.

But just what does trying to maximize social proof make us do? Well, a few examples:

1. We offer programs to people promising ONE MILLION blog hits in ten minutes.

2. We use the social web to blast content one-way instead of using it to engage with real people one-on-one.

3. We stuff our content with relevant – and mostly irrelevant – keywords to overtly influence the search engines, diluting the message to the people who need it most.

4. We ask people to retweet, who don’t really want to retweet.

5. We obsess over stats – instead of engaging with people, or doing real work.

6. We worry more about building giant counts of subscribers, followers, connections…than worrying about mindfully connecting with a few people that matter.

Hey look, I get it. If your goal is to sell ONE MILLION copies of a book, sure, you need a larger audience. For me? I am looking for a handful of GREAT clients to do some meaningful work. The goals are different.

But let’s be honest. Most of us aren’t trying to sell ONE MILLION copies of our book. We are trying to run a small enterprise, earn a comfortable living, and enjoy and be challenged by the work that we do.

Most of us won’t die if a recent blog post doesn’t get very many retweets. I used to worry about it. A lot. I used to endlessly refresh the browser to see if people were retweeting my latest post.

Thankfully, I realized it was a waste of time. And in the end, it didn’t matter to my business. So now, I enjoy my interaction with the few people that matter. I try to write meaningful content that serves that small, important, and relevant audience.

And that’s still resulting in growing my two businesses.

That’s what matters.

What do you think?

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[cartoon by hugh macleod]

Do You Believe?

As you might have heard, Google+ has launched over the past week. You can find me here.

Clients are beginning to ask me is it worth it? My answer is yes. If you believe.

If you believe that the social web moves the needle for your business. If you believe that conversation and relationships are what drive sales. If you believe that interacting with human beings – using social platforms – move people to action.

Most don’t believe.

In fact, a majority of small business people still need to be convinced of the value of blogging. Of Twitter. Of using Facebook for business. Of podcasting. Heck, some still need to believe that LinkedIn can drive business opportunity.

So my recommendation is this: if you are still futzin’ around with and learning the value of blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc…it probably isn’t worth your time diving into Google+. Yet.

How will I use Google+? I will use it as a better way to keep in touch with close friends. I will use it as a way to deepen relationships with people I want to get to know better. And of course, I will use it for prospecting…both for new business and to recruit guests for all my radio shows.

Google+ does two things that change the game, in my opinion. One, they have a feature called Hangouts, where you can have a group video chat with up to ten people. Think of the collaborative opportunities with that… Two-way skyping is so 2010. Ten-way collaboration, learning, sharing…now that’s social, and that’s powerful…

And two, you can very easily group your connections into small, organized groups, called Circles.

Why does Circles matter? On Twitter, for instance, when I share a news article, my entire following of 5,100+ sees it. On Circles, if I only want my close friends to see something, I can opt for that. If I build a circle for prospects, which I’ve done, then I can choose to only share content with my prospects.

Circles makes it very easy to target specific content with a specific audience. You can do this on Facebook, but it isn’t easy and it is very cumbersome. And you can’t do it on Twitter.

For me, I will be very strict in who I let into my Google+ world. I am only connecting with people I know, and very specific people that I want to get to know. I am NOT blindly following anyone who wants to connect. My Twitter and Facebook worlds are too big. With Google+, I will closely monitor who I let into my little world.

So, Google+ is a game changer, in my opinion. But don’t join in just to half-ass it. If you believe that social connection matters, if building and cultivating human relationships matter, Google+ might be the best social network yet.

But don’t engage anywhere on the social web until you believe…

###

[Todd Schnick is a marketing strategist, helping entrepreneurs become intrepid marketers...]
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What I am about to report, is nothing you haven’t heard before. But the story bears repeating again. Because you just never know where business opportunities will come from.

My old high school...

I got a lead on a new consulting gig yesterday…

…from a guy I haven’t seen in 24 years.

Yes, from a guy in my senior class in high school. He and I connected on Facebook a few years back. And just yesterday, he connected with me on LinkedIn when he reached out to see if I was interested in exploring the gig.

Now, I don’t know if this will go anywhere. It might not.

But isn’t that just exciting? He and I weren’t the closest of friends in high school. We didn’t hang out on weekends and such. But we sat together often. And had fun messin’ around in class from time to time.

So, as I said, nothing profound to report here with this post.

This is just a story, happening in real time, for all the people who tell me that social media isn’t a place to market your business, especially Facebook.

And to be honest, I don’t really “market” my business on Facebook, I just promote my content when I publish something.

So over time, this guy just happened to learn enough about what I do for a living to inquire.

In fact, the real lesson here is to spend more time on Facebook cultivating relationships with people such as my old friend. Imagine if we all used the tools the way they are designed, and actually dialog with people.

That’s the lesson for me. I engage with people more than the average fellow, but not enough. And trust me, I will adjust my strategy a bit…

You should too.

And you should also remember, there is value in every friend, connection, and follower. Even one you haven’t seen in 24 years.

If you just engage…

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[pic found here]

One of several pieces I Twitpicked...

Just got back from the Decatur Arts Festival. It was a lovely event, but very frustrating.

Observed a ton of missed opportunities for these amazing artists to build a community around their art. Here are a few thoughts:

1. When I checked in at Foursquare, there was a respectable amount of attendees also checking-in. But no artist set up their own “location” and offered a special – such as a free post card print of their art. More importantly, no artist sent me a tweet inviting me to come by.

2. Too many artists refused to let me take photographs of their art and twitpick them to my network. What a wasted opportunity to spread the word about their art. [I will be writing more about this]

Are you sharing your great works?

3. We stopped in many booths and became seriously interested in a particular piece. Viewing it carefully and discussing what room it might go in. Now, most artists offered to ship it, or give us a discount if we bought it on site. But that’s it. Not seriously intending to buy anything that day, we would say something like “we’ll think about it and get back to you.”

Here is where Twitter strategy comes into play. If I am the artist, and I hear a potential customer utter those words, I ask for their email address and/or their Twitter handle. I record the potential customer’s name, and take a quick photograph of the art they were interested in. And do three things:

From an artist who didn't want me to photograph his stuff. Don't tell him!

a. Send me an email – or a Tweet with a picture of the piece – a couple hours later reminding me the piece is still available and perhaps offering an incentive.

b. Send a follow-up email or Tweet a few days later, again with the attached picture, and seeing if any interest remains.

c. Ask permission to add me to a mailing list to see future work. Since I was interested in one of their pieces, certainly I might like something new down the road…

NONE of this happened yesterday. And we probably ventured into 36 booths…

In fact, most booths we ventured into, the artist was sitting in a chair, reading and/or relaxing. So don’t give me the “I didn’t have time to connect with real people interested-in-art who made a special trip to leave home, drive all the way there, and walk around viewing art on an incredibly hot day” excuse.

24 hours later, and still no contact from my Foursquare check-in or any of the several tweets (including images) I sent around on Twitter.

What a missed opportunity. What are your thoughts? And how can you use this simple approach in your business?

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An Example...

But the latest reason you should be using an RSS reader?

You can now subscribe to the RSS feed on Facebook Fan pages. So, yeah, all those pages you’ve liked? You can now more easily keep an eye on the actual pages you care about.

All you have to do is click on the Subscribe Via RSS button on the left sidebar on a Facebook Fan page. You then will be prompted to put the feed into the RSS reader of your choice.

Probably like you, I “like” too many pages, and it is virtually impossible to follow any of them. But now? I can go to the few pages I want to monitor, subscribe to the feed, and see what content they are publishing on those pages, such as for my client’s pages, or that of a prospect…

This action just made Facebook more important to me…

Here is a quick reminder of a few other important uses of your RSS reader:

1. An obvious way to manage all the blogs you follow. Your RSS reader aggregates all that blog content into one place. You can now much more easily follow hundreds of blogs at any given time. You can quickly glance at post content to determine if it worth a deeper read, and you are notified when a blog publishes new content. Secret: this is how you monitor hundreds of blogs. Most don’t update but a few times a month…

2. Twitter Search. Monitoring key word searches on Twitter, such as your name, your company, your target market is the best way to keep an eye on what people are saying about you. When you set up a Twitter Search query, you can have the results fed into your RSS reader. Having all this content go to one place makes it easier to monitor.

3. LinkedIn Status. You can have the status updates of all your LinkedIn connections fed into your RSS reader. This is a great way to view a daily snapshot of what your friends and business connections on LinkedIn are doing, saying, and connecting with, again, all in one place.

4. Google Alerts. Most of us are familiar with using Google Alerts to send web mentions of you and your company. But most people have those results sent to them via email. I did too at one point, until it clogged up my inbox. You can have those query results fed into your RSS reader.

5. News. Honestly, this is how I get my news. I subscribe to the RSS feed of the news sources I want, and have those results fed into my RSS reader. Thus, all my news is gathered in one place. My RSS reader enables me to quickly scan the headlines, and select a specific news article if it interests me…

What others ways do you use your RSS reader?

And yes, using those six methods as I do, I get a TON of content fed into my reader every day. But, I promise, you will get the hang of how to move and sort quickly through all that content and find those valuable nuggets of information that are worth your time. Having all that content sent to my RSS reader is an amazing time saver for me, yet keeps me easily plugged in to all the content my network produces on a daily basis.

Let me know what you think.

###

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Sent a tweet late yesterday morning to one of my favorite restaurants. I was going to be driving by, so I tweeted asking about take-out options…

And within 15 minutes, I got messaged back with a phone number to call to place my order.

Good show Verde!

To be honest, if you are a restaurant, you need to be on Twitter. If you are not, you are slowly bleeding to death.

You need to respond quickly to inquiries like mine… Because if you are missing them, you are losing opportunities to restaurants that are responding.

Don’t give me any crap about not having time. It is simply a matter of having someone at the restaurant, monitoring their Twitter page on a smart phone clipped to their waist.

Simple. No excuses.

It is just the price of doing restaurant business today.

Here are other things I’d do with this:

1. Obviously, respond quickly to tweets like the one I sent above.

2. I’d send Twitpics out frequently, and/or upload pics to your restaurant Facebook page. Send out pics of good meals, send out pics of people celebrating their birthdays, send out pics of cool cocktails, bottles of wine that you offer…

3. Wanting to build up a lunchtime crowd, send out pics of large office parties and tweet out specials. Direct from your smart phone as you walk around the restaurant…

4. Send out tweets like this: “We currently have a waiting list, but first person to come in and ask for Gary’s table, you’ll get seated right away!”

5. As long as you have the smart phone attached to the hip, you really ought to be monitoring your geolocation check-ins — Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places…respond to comments, or go say hello to people who have just checked-in…

6. Why does having people check-in on Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places matter? Because when they do, those announcements generally show up in people’s twitter streams and/or Facebook streams. This builds awareness of your restaurant. Demonstrates that your joint is vibrant and happening!

What else would you add?

If you own or operate a restaurant, and you aren’t active on Twitter, you are missing opportunities to build deeper relationships with people in your community, and building more loyal customers.

Simple.

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I just don’t know why cold calling is necessary. I don’t understand why you would make a phone call to someone you don’t know, who isn’t expecting your call, and expect to advance a sale as a result.

I know it works…if you believe a response rate of one percent “works.”

First, my definition of cold calling: When you call through a phone list of (unqualified) leads, and they don’t know you, and have no idea who you are or why you are calling (other than to harass them and try to potentially sell them something).

I thank my lucky Gods that I have never had to cold call in my work. Because I wouldn’t do it. I’d prefer inserting toothpicks into my eyes.

But there is opportunity in those lists of leads. Here is how I would hack the cold-calling process:

1. Get the list of leads. Whatever the list. Whether you are responsible for procurring the list, or whether your sales manager gives you a list, perhaps marketing provides them, or maybe you have to bribe the boss to get the Glengarry leads. I don’t care. Get your hands on your list.

2. Google them. Find out what you can. In my mind, you are looking for a few things. Find their LinkedIn profile. See if they are on Facebook. Are they on Twitter? And most importantly, see if they have a website and/or blog. And keep an eye open for anything else interesting, such as your lead being quoted in an article somewhere.

3. Set up a Google Alert. This is especially true for any leads that look promising. This way, you can capture any online mention of these people, and from this, you might find a bit of information that you can use to your advantage, as well as simply getting to learn more about them. Finding an excuse to contact someone is much easier than the traditional cold call, such as reaching out to comment on their mention in a news article.

4. If they are active on Twitter, set up a Twitter Search query. Here is how to do this. Monitor the Twitter stream of the people on your list. What are they tweeting? What films are they seeing? Where are they going to dinner? Where are they going on vacation? Here are 14 ways to strike up a conversation on Twitter.

5. Find common interests on Facebook. Facebook is trickier, since the person must give you permission to formally connect. And it also depends on your security settings. But when I search a lot of people that are not my “friends” on Facebook, their profiles still provide me with a lot of information about who this person is by providing the list of people and organizations they are fans of. You can very likely find some sort of common interest by reviewing these lists. File this away, it will be helpful later.

6. See where they engage on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, like Facebook, requires this person to formally agree to connect with you. But most likely, you are able to review their profile and can look for bits on their resume that can be helpful, or more importantly, show you what LinkedIn groups they are active in. Here, you can also join those groups and look for a way to connect.

7. Yes, you can even use Foursquare to your advantage. What? Really? Yes really. See if any of the names on your list have Foursquare profiles. If they do, they are probably also active on Twitter, and you can likely see where they check-in on either their Foursquare profile or on Twitter. Why does this matter? Because if you monitor their stream, you can strike up a conversation. How? Well, if they check into a bookstore on Foursquare, in addition to now knowing they like to read, you can also reach out and ask what book they got, and did they like it. You have just started conversation, and also a new relationship.

8. Do they have a blog? If they do, this is the best news yet. You can get a peek into their mind, their thought process, their interests. And you can read their posts, and comment on them! This is the best way to connect with someone. They will appreciate you taking the time to comment on their blog, and this will do more to advance your relationship that virtually anything else.

9. ENGAGE! This is obviously the most important step. After the preliminary work you have done with steps one through eight, you now have knowledge. You have details. You have data. You can now make strategic moves to connect with this once unknown name on a list. They are no longer a name. They are now a person with a history. You have things in common (most likely). The GREAT thing about the social web is that it is accepted to reach out to people and connect and dialog.

No, people don’t like to be cold called. But they don’t mind you reaching out on Twitter. Take advantage of this phenomenon.

You see, in the film clip from Glengarry Glen Ross above, the lead sales guy talks about AIDA (Attention, Interest, Decision, Action). Think how much easier this process would be if you could do a little advance work using social media to connect with those leads? Using the internet to get to know these people a bit more, see what they are interested in, seeing what they write, seeing how they work.

Can you now see how much easier it would be to gain attention and interest, using the tactics described above? You have the beginnings of a relationship now.

With your new friendship, you can suggest a quiet cup of coffee. Or make arrangements to chat by phone to discuss common interests. And the miserable existence that is cold-calling will soon become a distant memory…

What do you think? What are some other ways to hack cold-calling that I missed?

###

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I have just launched a new project. I have started my first paid subscription-based newsletter. It is called Be An Intrepid Marketer…Or Die. You can sign-up for it here.

The gist of this new newsletter is to continue the conversation about marketing…but to do it with an edge. NSFW, perhaps. To provide a forum where people can discuss the stupid things people do in marketing, but more importantly, have an honest, no holds barred conversation to talk about how to fix these things. In the end, we will all learn from one another. And have some fun along the way…

There is a growing list of people who believe that paid content is the wave of the future as far as online revenue is concerned. That remains to be seen, but I will tell you this: Many of the people I have followed for years are suddenly coming out with subscription-based content. So the future is here.

Now. The questions remains, how does this apply to marketing a business or organization?

I have recently subscribed to several sources of paid content. And I also subscribe to a bunch of (free) blogs on my RSS. And what I know is this. I read every word of the content I pay for. If I have time, and if the content seems meaningful, I will read a (free) blog post. Heck, I don’t even always read the books I sometimes buy for myself.

The future of the web is secure. It will dominate our future. And the only problem will be to determine how best to wade through all the content that will be available. Paid content may be one way to break thru the clutter, and reach people who truly want your content. A smaller audience, yes. But perhaps the true dedicated audience we clamor for.

I have long been an advocate for distributing free content on the web, from sources like a company or personal blog. That won’t change. At least anytime soon. And I will continue to publish free content.

But I am curious to see what happens with my personal experiment, and the whole notion of paid content (in this context, paid content via micropayments).

I see all kinds of chatter that blogging is dead. Namely, I suspect, from people who don’t like the process of generating content.

I, for one, do NOT think blogging is dead. In fact, I think we are only just beginning with it’s possibilities. I do think, however, how organizations leverage the content to move their constituencies to action will continue to evolve. And, I think we have only begun to see what’s possible.

But that said, a quick survey on Twitter yesterday afternoon indicated that MOST people are not ready to start paying for content that is currently found for free. Will this change? I think it can. I assume it is fair to assume that not long ago people weren’t willing to spend $1 on iTunes to buy one song. But will this micropayment acceptance for music translate to content? Especially content that is likely to be read ONE time? I could see a way where online news is delivered via micropayment (25 cents for a news story?). I don’t know. We’ll see.

I don’t deny that I’d love to make a living simply sitting in a coffee shop writing content all day long. That might be possible someday. But, the fact remains, the world is slowly setting us up to build a living that way.

The bigger question for me is this: Is it possible that all the (free) blogging, Facebooking, Twittering that we do simply becomes a feeding system to move people into making the decision to purchase your paid content? I mean, it certainly can be. In fact, that’s how a lot of people move people into buying e-books, or subscription-based products. Will it reach down to micropayments for single pieces of content?

I see so many possibilities down the road: really niched content about how to conduct B2B sales on social media, how to run a bricks + mortar retail establishment, how to fully leverage geolocation apps for retail, etc… The list goes on. I think this could work for really niched “how to” content.

So, I am curious how my experiment with paid content will work out. I will obviously keep you informed on how it plays out. But I don’t think we can deny this is where the direction of content distribution is heading. The only question may be the pace it happens.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

###

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