Intrepid LLC

cartoon by @gapingvoid

OK, so reading this blog, you’ve heard me say time and again that success on the social web is all about starting the conversation. To engage. To dialog. Blah, blah, blah…

And yet many of my readers, and some of my clients, still don’t get it.

I was talking to a gentleman the other day about using twitter to initiate conversations – which could lead to new relationships – where they might end up as new prospects – or at least refer others to him – and I swear I heard crickets chirping on the other end of the phone.

So, I thought I would prepare a cheat sheet of no-brainer ideas to help you identify “tweets” that can be YOUR conversation-starting triggers.

Simple. Enjoy.

1. ORIGINAL TWEET: “Just had coffee with Julie Smith. What a smart and vibrant lady!”

YOU: Isn’t she great? She’s a wonderful person to have in your network. Do you read her blog?”

2. ORIGINAL TWEET: “Heading to Birmingham AL for business. Any good ideas for a dinner spot?”

YOU: “You are a fool NOT to check out Dreamland BBQ. I trust you like BBQ?”

3. ORIGINAL TWEET: “Heading out to buy a new video camera. Any ideas?”

YOU: “Lots of good products on the market, but I can’t live without my Flip Cam! What do you need a camera for exactly?”

4. ORIGINAL TWEET: “What is the best collaborative tool to use to work with someone in a different time zone? #smallbizchat”

YOU: “I’ve had a lot of success with Google Wave. It has been great for our team. How many people working on the project? #smallbizchat”

5. ORIGINAL TWEET: “Having a lousy day. Struggling with [insert business problem here]. Can’t wait til 5 o’clock!

YOU: “Sorry to hear that. I’ve had a lot of success with [insert potential solution here]. Have you tried that before?”

6. ORIGINAL TWEET: “RT @zen_habits: on mnmlist: empower people to create http://bit.ly/9jOetk.”

YOU: “Hey, I loved that post. Really spoke to me. Have you been reading Leo for a while?”

7. ORIGINAL TWEET: “Just sat down, and looking forward to hearing Chris Brogan speak!”

YOU: “Oh, I saw him at New Media Atlanta. You’ll learn a lot. Did you read Trust Agents?”

8. ORIGINAL TWEET: “Holy smokes, you cannot believe the line to get into this #SXSW panel…”

YOU: “Oh, let me know how that goes. What has been your favorite panel so far?”

9. ORIGINAL TWEET: “http://twitpic.com/10j5js – On a cold and rainy day, the crappiest job in marketing.”

YOU: “I hear that. But I dunno, doesn’t seeing those people make you notice the biz they’re promoting?”

10. ORIGINAL TWEET: “I’m at FuegoMundo (5590 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs) http://4sq.com.”

YOU: “Oh man, I love that place. Have you had their sangria?”

11. ORIGINAL TWEET: “You are a fool to not follow @StephanieALloyd + @Keppie_Careers if you want the best job search and job hunting advice! #followfriday”

YOU: “Wow, thanks. Got a friend looking for a job and I will put him in touch with these two! How did you get to know them?”

12. ORIGINAL TWEET: “Listening to my Metallica Pandora channel!”

YOU: “I dig those guys too. They free my mind after a long day. What’s your favorite album?”

13. ORIGINAL TWEET: “My Gosh, why do the Red Sox always give me such heartburn?”

YOU: “No kidding. These guys have haunted me for years. How long have you been a fan?”

14. ORIGINAL TWEET: “Just sitting down to watch Celebrity Apprentice!”

YOU: Oh come on, how can you stand to listen to that blowhard Trump for more than five minutes?”

KEYS TO SUCCESS:
1. You can do this with people you don’t know.
2. In fact, this is how you get to know people.
2.5. At least, I’ve read that somewhere…
3. How are you going to get to know people if you don’t ask them questions?
4. I mean seriously, do you go to face-to-face networking meetings – stand on a chair – and just broadcast details of your latest products?
5. And when these good folks respond to your questions? Answer them back. This is called a “conversation!”
6. It really works!
7. I promise!
8. It is actually easy. You just gotta decide to do it.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

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Popularity: 9% [?]

Usually, something that is solid, that doesn’t move, that is unchanging, immobile, etc…is something we rely on, something that can be counted on, something that seems like a steady foundation. Almost comforting, if you will.

But not in the modern world of marketing. When it comes to your web presence, you don’t want to be described as unchanging or immobile. Your web presence needs to be…ENGAGING.

That’s what intrepid marketers do. [More text below video]

[In the video below, I discuss the value of an engaging web presence:]

Here are a few tactical ideas you can use to provide an engaging web presence:

1. Incorporate a blog into your site.
2. Allow comments on your blog.
3. Respond and engage people when they comment.
4. Provide forums to facilitate conversation.
5. Invite guest contributors.
6. Connect people to your social web tools, like Twitter.
7. Utilize surveys tools.
8. Solicit questions from your audience…
9. …and be sure to answer them!
10. Make it easy to share your content.
11. Invite people to join your e-newsletter.
12. Use an Instant Messenger plug in to invite conversation. Hold regular hours.
13. Provide content with various mediums, such as video and audio.

The items listed above are not new. They are not rocket science. In fact, I suppose when you reviewed the list, you probably said something along the lines of “no kidding.”

Yet I continue to be amazed how many entrepreneurs have chosen not to incorporate these simple tactical options into their web presence.

But that said, it is what you do with these ideas that matter. Here are a few reasons why having an engaging presence matters:

1. Strengthens your brand.
2. Allows relationships to develop. This is where the sales come from.
3. Simplifies process of testing – and getting feedback on – new ideas.
4. Does a better job educating people about you and your business.
5. Makes it easier to teach and help and serve others.
6. Allows for better story telling.
7. Not to mention provides fresh and unique content – updated regularly – that keeps people coming back for more.
8. Oh, and added Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strength.

At the end of the day, it is the safe and easy path to build a static website – one that is solid, reliable, and unchanging. But dare I say it is lazy? And boring? Static sites just don’t cut it any more in this fast-paced, conversational, and engaging world we now live in.

What do you think?

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Popularity: 6% [?]

cartoon by @gapingvoid

I am as big an advocate of fully engaging on the social web as anyone…

By this, I mean that you should blog. You should read other blogs via your RSS reader, and be a part of conversations on those blogs. And you should be active on all those other social web tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Foursquare, etc. etc…

But you know as well as I do that if you are not careful, you can lose control. And your activity on the social web will be ALL CONSUMING. And you can spend HOURS playing in the sandbox and not advance your business goals.

It has happened to me. And I am working hard to figure out ways to simplify my presence and activity there. Without sacrificing the benefits.

Here is my best advice to you in terms of how you should view the social web as a marketing strategy for your business:

FOCUS ONLY ON ENGAGING AND SERVING PEOPLE.

If you only do this, you will be on the right path to getting the results you want on the social web. Here are some tips to apply minimalist principles to your social web strategy:

Keep Connections Relevant. It really is quality over quantity. Who cares if you have 100,000 followers if none of them care what you say? Don’t focus time and energy on just racking up hollow follower counts (and do the things listed below, and your list will grow naturally).

Look out for a few key words. If you help authors, you should be searching for messages that contain the word “authors.” You will find someone who needs your help – if you are looking and listening.

Strike up sincere conversation. Don’t just send out one-way sales messages. Find people you can help or want to know, and talk to them. It is these conversations that will lead to business opportunities.

Share with your community. If you are not trying to generate a meaningful conversation, then you should be focused on sharing meaningful content. This helps your network, and can lead to conversations too…

That’s it. Your time on the social web really should be kept that simple. Make it a goal to connect in a meaningful way with ONE person a day. Before long, you have quite a powerful network.

Too often, we get distracted and just lose our way. We get caught up artificially growing our followers, or playing with shiny new tools, or focused on self-promotion.

So keep it minimal. Keep it simple. It is easy to lose sight of your real business purpose on the social web. Keep your goals, and the activity you do on the social web, simple. Follow only the right people. Read only the blogs that help you advance your cause. Do this, and you’re on the right path!

What do you think?

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Popularity: 6% [?]

I was reading Leo Babauta’s e-book about focus recently, and he was talking about the importance of rituals. He says it is easy to get distracted in this modern age, but when you engage in rituals, you are more likely to be focused and in the moment. He writes:

A ritual is a set of actions you repeat habitually — you might have a pre-bed ritual or a religious ritual or a just-started-up-my-computer ritual. One of the powerful things about rituals is that we often give them a special importance: they can be almost spiritual (and sometimes actually spiritual, depending on the ritual). And when they become special, we are more mindful of them — we don’t just rush through them mindlessly.

And I thought, I bet intrepid marketers have marketing rituals. So let’s examine this idea…

If intrepid marketers (CLICK HERE to learn what an intrepid marketer is) engage in rituals, based on Leo’s writing above, we should assume they are focused. On this point, I don’t think there is any argument. The question then becomes, what are they focused on? And thus, what part of their marketing process is cemented into daily ritual…

Are you focused on the customer? It is my opinion that each business needs to be more customer-focused, and thus, we need to devote more time – each day – to thinking about every customer interaction. We often overlook even the little ways our customers interface with our business.

What to do? Setting a ritual where you review these interactions – on a regular basis – is vital to success of your business. How about creating a series of questions you ask yourself – maybe at the end of each day – that help keep you focused and review how each customer interacted with your business, and how you can improve those. Include everything, from products, to voice mail, to your invoicing process.

Are you creatively focused? If being creative is an important part of your work, and it is for most of us, then ritual is probably a very critical element in your creative process. What does it take to get you in the creative mood? Do you need to remove all distractions, such as email? Twitter? Phones? Do you need to use a specific creative space, such as your studio, coffee shop, or the conference room?

What to do? Figure out what you need and then execute on the ritual so you can deliver your best creative work. And don’t let ANYTHING disrupt the ritual process.

Are you focused on process? Or results? These are two very different things, process and results. How you might ritualize to focus on these two would be different in my opinion.

What to do? First of all, do you have your process committed to paper? Can you measure the results of each step in the process? A regular examination of this process, and ritualizing to determine what is working and what can be improved might be a good thing to always be getting better at what you do.

As for results, well, isn’t this what we are after? Most people are more worried about the process than the results, and that’s why they have NO cash flow. It might be helpful to set a weekly ritual where you focus on thinking through all you are doing to be sure they are leading to actual positive results for your business…

Are you focused on conversation with your marketplace? Is interacting on the social web important to you and your business? Well, then you need a ritual. And I am not talking about getting on Twitter and just doing whatever for several hours.

What to do? What is your goal on the social web? If it is to identify and make relationships with new prospects, then create a ritual where you listen for keywords that are of interest to you, and begin a conversation. Then share information with that new contact. This three-step ritual might work for you. Here is what I do to help bring some sense of ritual to one element of my social web activity.

See, I am thinking most small business people don’t have marketing rituals. We are all too busy trying to manage the mundane and time consuming tasks of running our shop day-to-day. But, if Leo is right and rituals are a set of actions you repeat habitually, then we all need to formulate some new rituals. Life is too hectic, and we probably don’t have the discipline to focus our minds – on a regular basis – on the important things related to our business.

What do you think? What are your rituals? What works for you?

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Popularity: 11% [?]

A friend, very confused about Twitter, asked me how I manage my time on it. I told her about a little process I go through that helps keep me on the right track. And thought I’d share it with my community. Nothing profound, but maybe a few of you might find it helpful. So, this is for my friend. Hope this helps!

Randomly, once a week, I go through and organize a full day’s tweets into three simple categories: sharing (when I promote someone else’s work for the benefit of my community), conversation (when I am just chatting with other folks), and “ME” (when I promote my events, my blog posts, my services, etc.).

My analytical process is quite simple – you know, for a guy like me tabulating results in a moleskin. But here is the goal – and your target – for this exercise:

No more than 10% of the total tweets should go in the “ME” category.

If your “ME” percentage is higher than 10%, you are probably not utilizing Twitter effectively. And yeah, I’ve heard all the talk about everyone using it differently, what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for the other, etc..

I say hooey. If you are conversing with people and learning how you can help them and sharing valuable content with your community, then you are on the right track. Whether you are a person, a brand, or a business, or all of the above.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I just did a quick analysis on my Twitter profile from yesterday. Which showed 13% of my tweets sharing other’s work, 74% of my tweets conversing with people, and 13% of my tweets promoting something of mine, in this case, yesterday’s radio show. A quick review of yesterday’s numbers tells me I need to simply share more content from other’s work, and I will get the “ME” number under 10%. Easy.

If your “ME” number is consistently higher than 10%, here are some things to think about:

1. You need to come to grips with the fact that marketing is two-way, a conversation, a dialog. Understand this, and treasure this opportunity, and you will no longer struggle with something like Twitter.
2. It is actually possible to get to know someone on Twitter. Just decide to engage in a conversation. Ask about their kids. Ask about their favorite music. And ask about their business, not because you want to sell them something, because you really are interested in knowing.
3. Celebrate the tools that allow the sharing of other people’s work, such as TweetMeme. They make it so easy. You have NO excuses.
4. Do your best to concentrate on “REAL” interaction. Don’t focus on building up impressive amounts of followers, and don’t automate responses to people. You don’t play a recording at a face-to-face networking function, and you don’t (you better not) walk around to everyone at an event and give a business card to all guests – hoping someone will call.

So what do you think? Is 10% too high? But honestly, if you can manage a “ME” number of 10%, that’s a good start. I welcome additional thoughts…

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Popularity: 17% [?]

cartoon by @gapingvoid

OK. I’ve had two very busy days, but I finally got to spend some time on Twitter this evening.

And in about 90 minutes time, these are the things I observed that just really, well, bother me.

And know that if you are doing these things, your “friends” in the community are quietly murmuring about you. And that isn’t good….

So, here are Todd’s Tips To Avoid Twitter Murmuring About You (and please add ones I miss in the comments!):

1. Be honest. If you fudge facts, we will know. And we will never, ever, trust you again.
2. Don’t gloat. We secretly hate show offs…
3. When you retweet something without citing the orginal source, and making it appear that it comes from you? Bad.
4. If you want your community to retweet something, leave us some extra space. If I have to spend 30 minutes editing to knock it down to 140 characters? Forget it…
5. Don’t send out a tweet with JUST a hyperlink. It smells so MLM-ish…
6. Auto-DMs = Nails on a chalkboard.
7. More than ten tweets per day about Trump’s latest scheme is enough. Way enough.
8. If you are tweeting about someone on Twitter, USE THEIR DAMN TWITTER HANDLE!
9. And oh, don’t type in ALL CAPS. The shouting is annoying…
10. If you’re going to tweet about politics, don’t get mad when someone from the other side fights back…
11. Understand the differences between lol, LOL, and ROFL…
12. Plz dn’t abbrevi8 evy wrd n a twt. Hrd 2 follw…
13. If you are on Foursquare and you tell me you are at Publix, don’t get upset when I ask you to get me some chips and dip…
14. If you are only going to tweet once a day, don’t just push your latest blog post…
15. Honestly, if I want to connect with you on Facebook, I will seek you out. Don’t DM me a %*&$# link to your Facebook page…
16. Just because you add to the end of a tweet doesn’t allow you to be mean…
17. Really? Did that person just RT their own tweet?
18. I get the value of hashtags… but don’t overdo it. #twitter #socialmedia #helpfultips #advice #socialmediarules #howtostoptwittermurmuringaboutyou
19. I love twitpics, but if I am still working at the end of a long day, and you send around a pic of an ice-cold beer? I am probably going to unfollow you out of spite. Just saying…
20. Did I mention gloating?
21. If you SPAM us? Don’t be surprised when you are hunted down and shot…
22. …Mercilessly.

Popularity: 19% [?]

My video message above is a testament to the power of the social web. When I started blogging at the Intrepid Runner about my half-marathon training, I never knew that it would lead to so many new enriching personal friendships.

The process has indeed opened my eyes. I mean, yes, I knew that using social media was a powerful way to build relationships, but I was never prepared for how this small blog about marathon training was going to expose me to so many new people, and increase the size of my social network.

And meeting and interacting with Kat Cole is just one example (You can see a video about her guest appearance on High Velocity RIGHT HERE). Yes, she ultimately accepted an invitation to participate on High Velocity Radio as a result of she and I connecting on Twitter. But what is more important to understand is that our friendship will extend far beyond today’s guest appearance.

As I said on the video, using the social web to talk about and share passions of yours will connect you to new people, but only if you are willing to engage. Making the effort to journal and chronicle about your passions will also result in strengthening your personal brand, creating deeper personal relationships, marketing you and your business, and yes, enriching your life.

Popularity: 12% [?]

cartoon by @gapingvoid

There is an awful lot of conversation about personal branding these days – books, blogs, social media, webinars, conferences, etc. And a lot of what they all say is important.

I was talking with my friend Stephanie A. Lloyd about her 2010 plans the other day, and she was telling me some of her thinking about personal branding.

She helped boil down my thinking on personal branding to a mere three critical steps. And they aren’t complicated, despite so many people making this process harder than it has to be. They are:

1. The need for FOCUS and CLARITY on your specialty. You cannot be all things to all people. You must be clear about the one thing you can do to serve and help people. You can’t be known as a master of ten different things. A lot of people can’t really tell you the one thing they do well, because they don’t want to miss an opportunity by being too narrowly defined. Get over that fear. It will kill you.

2. The ability to clearly articulate what that is. You’ve heard people say that you should be able to describe your story in one sentence. As in, “FDR got us out of the Depression and helped win WWII.” If you cannot clearly articulate what your specialty or skill is, your personal brand will be muddled and confusing. You have to make it clear. You have to make it easy to understand. And if you have to explain in detail what you do, you’ve already lost.

3. Consistency delivering this well-articulated message both online and offline. Most people’s problem? They aren’t consistent in telling their story over and over. Or they say one thing on Twitter, and another thing at a Chamber mixer. Or explaining what you do in different ways, to different people. Or changing what you do again and again and again. I tell my political clients to stay on message. Same thing applies here.

The three concepts above aren’t rocket science. So what’s the hard part? Being disciplined enough to execute on these three points over time. If you can do that, you will be on the right path…and your personal brand will be one that resonates and helps you go-to-market with strength and clarity.

So ask yourself, “Am I really following these three key steps?” Be honest, and good luck. Got any other thoughts?

Popularity: 59% [?]

Is Your Brand Experience Memorable?

Ok, so Seth Godin defines a brand this way: 

A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.

So I used to think brands were created by hiring some fancy schmancy consultant to come in, retool the message, and redesign the letterhead.

No.

In fact, what I’ve learned is that YOU have all the power you need to create this brand experience that Godin talks about. So, in this final post for 2009, I wanted to share some simple, actionable ideas that ANONE can do to rock your brand – and begin to build up this brand value that Seth Godin talks about above.

So here are some ideas. Good luck, and let’s kick some butt in 2010!

1. Publish an eBook/book – Yeah, sure. Everyone is publishing books these days. Well. Not really. But it is easier than ever to publish a book. And it really does help you stand out in the crowd. And modern marketing tools make it easy to build a community around the book’s concepts – and build interest in both you and your book!

2. Host a radio show/publish a podcast – These days, it is so easy to produce a podcast or host a radio show. Having a content engine that excites and educates your community is where marketing is going.

3. Commit to blogging at least twice a week – To rock your brand, you must blog on a regular basis. It not only serves your audience, but it does amazing things for your search engine results. Can you get away with blogging less? Sure. But I have evidence to show that blogging several times a week does wonders for your online presence. If you have something valuable to say, say it. Get your thought leadership out there.

4. Engage in conversation – You simply have got to have DISCIPLINE yourself to engage in real, honest-to-goodness conversation with people. Every day. I had a simple conversation on Twitter over the last week that may prove to not only be a fun project to be associated with – but potentially a lucrative one as well. How did it happen? Two dudes said hello on Twitter…

5. Do something to connect like-minded people. This is something I learned, in a big way, in 2009. Connecting people is a way cool way to build your personal brand. I had a ball hosting multiple TweetUps and events over the past year. The most amazing thing about it? Observing people connecting and making cool stuff happen – right in front of your eyes – is a most amazing experience.

6. Take a hobby – and build community around it. People love knowing what you do to pass the time. This notion that we really don’t care what you had for breakfast, is a bunch of hooey. We do. We love knowing what people we care about are up to. We just might not admit it. So, embrace that. Tell the story of how you are writing a book. Learning how to play the piano. Or training for a half-marathon… People want to know, and it makes your personal story and brand that much stronger…

7. Shift your thinking to mixing personal and work. Ok, this notion of keeping Facebook for friends, LinkedIn for business, and Twitter for someone else is total bunk. Your life is you. Don’t tell me you don’t talk about your kids or your hobbies at the office. We are ALL connected now. Life is an open book. Embrace it!

8. Be yourself. Not someone else. These days, you need to be you. Not some fake person that doesn’t really exist. You have to be you. There is nobody else like you. Take advantage of that, and let the world know you are there. And what you stand for!

9. Update all your social network profiles. I was looking at my LinkedIn profile the other day. It needs to be updated. I will tackle that task soon. You should review all your social network profiles, and be sure they are all current and up-to-speed. The world is moving fast. You need to keep up and keep your story current!

These are just a few ideas. Have any others?

Have a happy and prosperous New Year!!

[photo credit: Anita363]

Popularity: 11% [?]

I had the pleasure of co-hosting a TweetUp last night at FuegoMundo, the PunkRock Champagne Holiday TweetUp. It was a thrill to host along with Stephanie A. Lloyd and Laurie Ruettimann. I thought you would enjoy seeing a quick video of the anarchy!

Let me just tell you from experience: putting on an event like this is a lot of work. But connecting people, and seeing things happen when people meet, is priceless. Make it an intrepid goal in 2010 to be a better connector of people. It will grow your business and enrich your life…

Popularity: 11% [?]