Lynnelle Wilson's BOLD Business

Nuts About Social Media & Southwest Airlines

In the previous post I talked about a key reason I believe the big advertising / PR firms haven't jumped into social media when so much is going on in this space. I think companies, in general also suffer from this mindset; fearing the (seeming) loss of control, the inability to use the old metrics to measure success, the fear-factor about the economy, etc.

Something else that stumps (panics?) companies is that implementing a social media component into the business; whether it's in communications, marketing, customer service, or R&D; it requires a reorganization of company structure to be successful. Depending on the company and the social media use, change may be minor - i.e. reassigning / editing job responsibilities. In another company it may need a big shake-up; requiring an entire new unit with cross-company lines of reporting.

The organization - where social media fits in your company will depend on a number of factors. First and foremost it depends on your business objective and the role social media plays in helping to achieve this objective. What do you want social media to do? Regardless of the objective, however, social media will require a unique set of skills and knowledge. You have to determine what knowledge and skills are needed and what knowledge and skill gaps you have to fill.

But figuring out what kind of special skills you'll need isn't the hard part. The hard part is coming up with a new business org-chart that will support sharing this special knowledge and skill-set across all business divisions. Companies with a traditional silo-like org-structure will be most challenged by these changes. PLUS the grass-roots, bottom-up style of social media flies in the face of a top-down, hierarchical organization.

"Isn't there an easier way???", you ask. Well, yes... and no.

  You can just put your toe in the water to play around with it. No real plan, no real expectations, no real results - just a test to familiarize yourself - with Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc. That's sort of what Southwest Airlines did, although they did have a plan.

Paula Berg, Manager of Emerging Media, launched Southwest's blog "Nuts about Southwest" in 2006. She put an "open-call" out to Southwest employees who were passionate about their jobs to form the blog-team. 30 employees were selected and their blog mission was originally to give customers an inside view of the Southwest Airlines culture and operations as well as to interact and build personal relationships.  The kicker; These Southwest employees initially did their blogging on their own time - it wasn't a company-paid gig. Another kicker? In 2007, “Nuts” was named Best Blog by PR News and has been recognized in major publications ranging from Wired Magazine to The Wall Street Journal.

Paula started this role without an official department - on her own time.... Now her Emerging Media group has 7 or 8 full-time employees as well as the 30+ Employee Bloggers.  By the way. "Nuts About Southwest 2.0" was launched last May (2008). Within months of the launch, visits were up 25%; page views were up 40% and visitor were staying 26% longer on the site. Oh yes, and "Nuts" was named Best Blog again in 2008 by PR News.

It can be done. You just have to be BOLD. (and Nuts?) :-)

PS - Hey Paula (and Herb!), when can we expect SWA in Portland, ME?? I'm a Dallas girl and miss my company plane!

Social Media - Where are the Big Dogs?

Last week I attended a great 2-day conference sponsored by New Marketing Labs (aka Chris Brogan and Justin Levy). It's my second social media conference in as many weeks and again, I'm completely surprised at how few Marketing and PR people were in attendance. What's up with this??

I truly believe we are in the midst of a communication revolution. What is marketing about, anyway, if not communication? It boggles my mind that so few marketing professionals were there - and I'm talking about the big dogs in particular. It's a dangerous position they're putting themselves in for a couple of reasons.

1. It's a difficult economy. Businesses, in general, are hunkering down. I've read it over and over that one of the worst things you can do in an economic downturn is stop planning for the future. Whether it's R&D, product development, strategic planning - tomorrow WILL get here eventually and the business environment will improve. If you've put your mind & business in moth balls you're going to be left behind when that happens.
2. One of the hardest things for us to do, as humans, is to change our perspective - to change our paradigms . That is what social media demands of traditional business models.

Social media is new; difficult to measure by traditional standards; requires one to use (simple, yet) new technologies and was initially adopted by 'kids' for 'kids' to chat and share music/photo/videos. Putting on blinders and discounting the new because "that's not the way we do it" is deadly.

Social media is about communication, yes, but it's the WAY of social media that seems contradictory to "the way they've always don it" before and, therefore, difficult to embrace. Social media is about transparency, about sharing and opening up, providing real value to our customers for… FREE without a direct, immediate payback.  This doesn’t come naturally – nor change easily – in traditional business environments. Old school top-down management runs contrary to successful social media strategies, which is a true Bottom-up  / Grass-roots style. 

To be successful businesses must be willing to give up control and take some risks that, to your traditional mindset, seem awfully scary. 

What hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that communications, marketing and PR are still – communications, marketing and PR. Some of the basics are still critical to success:

• Objective
• Strategy
• Plan
• Execution
• Measure
• Revise / Relaunch
• Measure
• And so on.

Short-term social media campaigns can be successful, but are generally supported by a long-term social media strategy. 

It’s still about the basics – seen from a new perspective. You have to be BOLD.

More Friday Twitter memes - Beyond #FollowFriday

This from a Mashable article:

---

 #shabbatshalom - For the Jewish tweeps out there, offline until Saturday night.

 #leadfriday - Tired of following? How about being a leader?

 #goodnewsfriday - Good news comes on Friday.

And then there's the original Friday Twitter meme #followfriday . #FollowFriday was created by @Micah.

Read about #followfriday here, in @Micah's own words...

Social Media and Time Management = More Structure

Lisa Call
Structures #2 ©2003
lisa@lisacall.com 

My last post addressed time management from a perspective of increasing productivity. If you become more productive, you may not have more time but you accomplish more in the time you do have.

Another way to accomplish more is to be more organized and focused. This is a tough one for many of us. It doesn't take anything off our plate, it just rearranges it and adds more structure and procedures to our day. That's tough, but important.

Regarding social media - my first comment would be to set a goal.

The whole reason why social media and time management are such a challenging duo is that social media is ...well... social. We get caught up in the social aspect, chatting and tweeting with all our 'friends'. In business you're there for a reason. What is it? Awareness-Product promotion-Site traffic - etc.

All the social media tools can be a time sink, but I find Twitter to be especially challenging because of the ongoing, real-time conversations that take place. An organizational tip I can suggest is set up and RSS search feed and then schedule Twitter appointment(s) on your calendar to monitor. Don't keep Twitter open on your computer all day. For example: if your business is a travel agency and your Twitter objective is to track conversations around business travel, you might set up RSS feeds for terms such as BOS, JFK, ORD, SFO, "business trip", "travel for business", etc.  Have a schedule when you read through the feeds a couple of times a day and comment on those that are of relevance to your business; you can suggest resources, accommodations, feedback, etc. The same with Facebook, LInkedIn or other social networks. Update your status, read through other comments and respond as appropriate, then get off.

Facebook and LinkedIn also have the discussion board component. If this is part of your social media efforts, schedule time to browse new questions on your LInkedIn Group(s) and respond as appropriate. Similarly with your Facebook group(s) / page(s). The ultimate objective of social media is to engage. This means being present, participating and being consistent.

The BIG issue is You Have to Be disciplined. You don't have to participate in every single group, forum and network out there. You don't have to spend massive time. Target well and Start small. Schedule 'social media' time with yourself on your calendar every day. Review the conversations. Connect and engage.  Be disciplined and keep in mind 'why' you're there.

Social Media Time Management & What's Your Time Worth?

Time management - Sheesh!  As you may have noticed it's been a while since my last post. Yes, as my last tweet (@BOLDBusiness) indicated - I've fallen off the blogging wagon and I can't get up!

As a small business owner, time management was challenging enough and then comes along social media... at times it can be overwhelming. From one small business professional to another - HELP!

You add a little success to the equation and it means "doing" the work is now taking more time than even before - which is GREAT - yet adds even more time imbalance, all things being equal. Social media is an important tool for all businesses, large and small. Similarly ALL businesses, large and small, need to reorganize to effectively leverage its power.

The BOLD Business blog focuses primarily on small business growth and sales challenges, so for you larger businesses all I'll say here is you need to rethink your organization model. Old corporate organizations were designed to foster collaboration - either internally or with customers. If you want to integrate the use of social media to connect and engage with your market, you need to think "social" business design.

Now, for you small biz owners and professionals (and you big-dogs too) it's personal.  It's about productivity as well as discipline. Put your business owner hat on and read the following from that perspective. Julie Roads of Writingroads wrote a guest-post for Chris Brogan's blog back in January. It got me to thinking about how important productivity is to time management. We all want a magic formula or secret outline that, when followed, stress will fall away and hours will free up in our day. ...not gonna happen. Here I'll share three things she highlighted in her post that were important for me.

1. A good space. She says that she worked out of her kids’ playroom - on a desk we shoved in the corner. I don't have kids - and I can't even imagine THAT situation, but I did used to have an office in the 2nd bedroom of a tiny 2-bedroom house. At that time I was married and now I'm wondering if a desk in the corner of a kid's playroom would have been preferable... but that's another post. Regardless, it was not conducive to productivity. I finally invested in a small off-premises office. It was one of the better decisions I made. I know there are many people who have home offices and get along fine. If you are one of those people who do but don't 'get along fine', it's an important investment you can make for yourself and your business. I'm in Portland, Maine and there are shared spaces, co-working spaces and any number of other options out here - as there are in most communities.

2. The right computer. I am now a MAC. I have a foxy MacBook Air and an iMac. Like Julie experienced, my old laptop died (replaced with the MacBook Air) and then my PC started going crazy. You are a professional.  It's a new world - a social media world.  You have to have technology that works and can keep up with you.

3. A Virtual Assistant. This is verbatim from Julie's post. I couldn't have said it better myself. "Yes, I’ve taken the plunge. Do you know that I was holding myself back from growing my business because I couldn’t do all of the ‘things’ I needed to be able to do in order to grow it? If that isn’t ass-backwards, I don’t know what is." Mine is a new relationship and I'm still learning how to use her. There's still an element of time management to manage how you use a VA, but like anything else - it's change. It will take some practice. Before long I'll also be publishing eBooks, offering regular webinars and doing many other things I’ve been meaning to do. The best part? I get to grow my business.

Yes, there’s an investment in all three of these points. But the return can be so much greater than the investment. What is your time worth? How much time - and business - do you spend (or lose) because of any / all of these situations? What COULD you be doing for your business and what would that mean?

I decided that my business is worth it. I made a plan - I figured out what things would cost, what the likely return was for making the investment - I prioritized the investments and almost 4 years later, here I am. It hasn't been easy - but I believe it was important.

For you, it might not be a space issue or a VA, it may be technology, learning a specific skill or needing to add an integral staff member that’s been missing. Again, as Julie stated so well in her post, "The question here is: what are you doing that someone else could do for you? Faster, better and more efficiently so that you can focus on what you do best."  This will go a long way to helping you manage your priorities - aka time.

There ARE a few things you can do and use that will help you manage your time and priorities when it comes to social media - and I'll cover a few of them in the next post - THIS WEEK. I'm back on the blogging wagon.

btw, Be BOLD and follow BOLD Business on Twitter at http://www.twitter/BOLDBusiness !!

The tulips don't have anything to do with social media or time management other than to take time and admire the unfolding of Spring. It's finally coming to Maine!

Social Media - It doesn't have to hurt.

Cute heading.

"Put down the Twitter and no one gets hurt"

I agree with the first statement in Carl Natale's blog post, that not every business owner should star in a broadcast commercial. (You date yourself, young man. Crazy Eddie is from... well, if I disclosed it here I'd be dating myself...)

Overall, this is a super post and a very good primer for how to get even the most shy and reclusive business owner involved in social media; which however, flies in the face of Carl's Twitter comment linking to this post "Maybe not every business owner should be participating in social media." (7:39 am from @mainebusiness)

Barry Donnellan, Camera Man, Director, BOLD as Brass

Yes, EVERY business should be involved with social media. Know your strengths and know where you need support. Do it yourself, this is a great way to begin; familiarize yourself with the "new world", get introduced and get involved. This is step one.

You need support? There are tons of resources out there. I'm sure you can advise your readers of several. I am hosting a social media 101 workshop for beginning businesses on 3/31 at the Cumberland Club. I'll be happy to provide more info to anyone interested in knowing more.

Yes, ever business DOES need to Be BOLD and be involved with social media. Every business owner does NOT have to do it alone. That's what I'm for.

Follow Carl on Twitter - http://Twitter.com/mainebusiness
Follow me on Twitter - http://Twitter.com/Lynnelle

Social Media Marketing - Why?

I'm leading a workshop tomorrow about integrating social media into your marketing mix. In finalizing some of the information for the workshop I thought I would share "the first step" with you. I know you've heard this before ...but hold onto your seats, kids - here it comes again... When it comes to social media and your marketing - Social Media is just a tool. It is not a miracle. It is not marketing in and of itself. It is another tool to use that can help you achieve an objective - in this case, a marketing objective.

You want to add "Internet marketing", "web marketing", "social networks" to your marketing mix? My first reaction would be to act like a two-year old and ask, "WHY?" 

Try to take a few moments to scan your current marketing plan (I'm sure you all have one...<clearing throat>

#1) Who is your ideal client? Create a "person" than embodies the characteristics of your ideal client. Where do they live, what do they do, where do they hang out, what are their hobbies, religious persuasion, political leanings, etc. Create a character as if you are writing a story. Don't forget to understand how they use technology / the Internet. Forrester's Technographics Chart

#2) What are two key marketing objectives? In other words, why are you investing your resources - time, money and emotion? 

Keep in mind:

1) Your market position (are you new? known? respected?...); and

2) The typical "buying process" for your product / service. (Do you know?) For example: are you a new business or new to an area or product? Regarding "buying process", it is rare (nice, but rare) that our phone rings, we say "hello", and the person on the other end says "I'd like to buy your product / service. Do you take American Express?" The cycle typically begins with information gathering and evolves through developing trust and matures into the purchase.

Keeping both of these things in mind, where are you weakest?  ...market awareness, market reputation, developing more leads, building trust, establishing credibility, closing sales... Clearly we all want sales, but without the prospects that trust us - the sales aren't going to happen...

And now, to have come full circle: What are your two top marketing objectives?

Now you have your ideal client and your key objectives. Next time, we'll look at the tools you can use to achieve these objectives.

Outsourcing: Is it About Time - Cost - or Survival?

Today I turn the view-finder inward. I had a conversation last night on Twitter ...would that be a twonversation?... that lead me to rethink how I've been working in my own business.

I work with businesses who don't have an internal marketing function. I am typically brought in to educate and / or then help integrate new media into a traditional business / marketing strategy. Depending on the client, I help them with everything from broad strategy to hands-on, ongoing implementation of things like Twitter, blogs, Facebook groups / pages, LinkedIn, etc.

As we all know, there's a whole lot of "stuff" (another "s" word comes to mind, but this is a G-rated blog) that must be addressed in running a business - much of which has nothing to do with your client-focused job, per se. Paying the bills, invoicing, keeping the books, planning and executing your own marketing and promotion, sweeping the floor, and on, and on.

Like many, I have been doing it all myself. The "been doing" is a bit of a misnomer. More appropriate would be to say, I haven't outsourced any of it, not that much has been "getting done". It's a funny thing, too. I've been working so hard!

So the question is, how does - when does one decide to outsource? Some of us hit a wall and have no choice. That's unfortunate. Others, you might consider asking yourself some pointed questions; which brings me to today's blog post by by Stoney deGeyter,  The Big, Bad List of Pre-SEO Questions You Need to Answer, Part I.

It's a synchronicity thing; first the twonversation on Twitter last night - now the blog post. My challenge isn't in SEO, but other "stuff" that isn't getting done and how to know what to do myself and what to outsource. deGeyter's post helped me decide. He gives you 11 questions to ask yourself. If you're honest, this will guide you to the right decision - for your business, yourself and your clients.

"Question 1: Do I do it myself? This is no small matter. Thinking through the process of whether you are able to manage the SEO for your site (or other "stuff") is an important one. While you can always "try", in some cases, failing at SEO (your "stuff") can be worse than not having done it at all. So before you decide that you can do it yourself, answer these questions:

Question 2: Do I have the time? As a business owner your time is your most valuable asset, and the simple fact is: you can't do everything. You have to prioritize your time and think about what you can and can't do, and where productivity--and results--will be the greatest.

Question 3: What is my time worth? Take an objective look at the value of your time. Now, if you're the business owner and you crunched the numbers you'll probably find that you make somewhere close to minimum wage. But that's just because you are a hard worker determined to succeed. The value of your time can be better assessed by looking at what you charge for your product or services. If you can put a dollar amount for what your time is worth that can help you determine if you can make time for SEO (your "stuff").

Question 4: Is my time better spent on other things? Just because you have time to work on something doesn't mean that you should. We can all make time for the urgent/important tasks, but that isn't to say there are not more important tasks or tasks better suited for our skills. You may find that you are more adept at (and therefore your time is better spent on) customer relations. Or perhaps you're an idea person, therefore your time is better spent developing new products, services or tools. Think about what you can do that provides the greatest benefit for the company before you decide that you should allocate your valuable time to the SEO ("stuff")."

There are 7 other questions for those of you still hanging on to your "stuff". He has me a #4.

There are two points I want to make.

First - Being in business for yourself doesn't mean you have to do it all yourself. It takes a village and sometimes increasing your expenses to get "stuff" done, you increases your overall success.

Second - Is Twitter a productive business tool? Absolutely, YES. My whole line of thinking re: outsourcing, the conversation I will be having with @MarketersVA tomorrow, and an inevitable realignment of my "stuff" started with a twonversation last night.

Want to know more about social media and how it can help you, your clients, your business? Be BOLD. Engage. Follow me on Twitter: @Lynnelle.

LinkedIn or Facebook - Is that the question?

People ask me all the time, "Would you recommend LinkedIn or Facebook?"  The answer is yes; and no; and maybe.  What is the REAL answer? Ok, now - all together...

"It depends." 

Good. Remember - we're talking about a business tool. Just as with any other tool; a hammer, a wrench, a shovel... there are certain jobs for which the tools are designed to perform. If you wanted to plant a tree you wouldn't invest your resources on using a wrench or a hammer. The same is true for social media.

LinkedIn and Facebook are both social networks, just one form of social media. There are a gazillion (that's a technical term - only we social media gurus understand...) social networks out there, each with their own focus. LinkedIn and Facebook are but two and each has a different focus.

Simply put, Facebook is more "social" and LinkedIn is more "network".

The foundation to both networks is your profile; not your business or organization profile - YOU.

First LinkedIn:  Think of it this way - LinkedIn is a database of people. You are on LinkedIn to find or to be found. It is not a replacement for Outlook, ACT! or any other CRM. You cannot use LinkedIn to store phone numbers or call reports. LinkedIn is for making connections; to find and be found by other people.

Furthermore, the real power of LinkedIn is NOT in your direct contacts. You know these people already, right? LinkedIn doesn't improve that level of connection, necessarily. The real power is in the connections you can make through the contacts of your contacts... and their contacts. For example, I have just over 225 contacts. Based on those 225 contacts I have access to over 3 Million people on LinkedIn. THREE MILLION people are in my network going down only two levels.

Would it help your business if you had a network of 3 million people on which to draw? LinkedIn is a huge opportunity for so many of us if we will just use it. Like anything else that is new, it can take some time to get comfortable with it. We'll talk more about LinkedIn later. Until then, Be BOLD and create your profile. Then connect with me.  http://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnellewilson 

The next series of Web 2.0h! workshops begin March 26. Leave a comment here and recieve a 15% discount!

hands-free communication

This is a first. I finally installed MacSpeech Dictate and this is the first document on creating completely hands-free. So far, I've not told the program to capitalize anything, corrected in a spelling, or touch the keyboard. This will be a short blog post and will be exactly as I speak.

This is an amazing program. I've deleted a line, I deleted a word, and doublespaced all through dictation. This requires a new way of thinking to use this program in creating blog posts. So I will sign off right now and get to practicing.

Learning to use speech to text dictation is similar to learning how to use social media. It's a new way of thinking and a new way of communicating. Eventually this will make me much more productive and able to communicate much easier. I just need to get used to it and the only way I can do that is to use it.

If you want a beginning lesson on using face book for business consider joining my webinar next Thursday, March 5, from 1 PM to 2:30 PM. The regular cost is $49 but if you reply to this blog post I'll send you a link for discounted registration of $29.

I can tell I'm going to love this hands-free writing. It bold! (Not sure how to get BOLD, there it is!) Let's try this again. It's BOLD!