Marijean Oldham (Jaggers), a social media specialist and public relations professional, is president and CEO of Jaggers Communications LLC, a strategic communications firm based in Charlottesville, Va.
I’m new to Spotify.
Let’s face it: we all are new to Spotify. But I think I’m in love with it. I certainly spent a lot of time with it, and it brought back some amazing memories of mix tapes past (and the boys associated with them). But I digress . . .
I filled in for SuzySaid C’ville on C’ville Plugged In on The Newsplex and talked about the awesomeness that is Spotify.
Lisa Gerber is the author of today’s guest post, the chief content officer of Spin Sucks and the soon to launch Spin Sucks Pro. She is an Idaho expat in Chicago, trying to make mountains out these molehills. They aren’t even molehills really. She also tweets for @spinsucksIt’s Tuesday night. I’m in the office wrapping up my day and creating my list for Wednesday. Here is what it looks like:
6 am: Get up
Ride bike to office – try not to be angry biker chick.
Coffee cup #1.
7:30 to 9: Spend about 90 minutes checking, commenting and responding to emails, my Google Reader, Twitter for both @lisagerber and @spinsucks, Facebook, and Google Plus.
9 am and coffee cup #2: My brain is optimally caffeinated at 1 ½ cups. It’s time to write. Close out the distractions and write content for Spin Sucks Pro.
11 am: My world revolves around a big fat spreadsheet called curriculum.xls. It’s the editorial calendar and the pivotal piece to any work for a CCO. I have several tabs set up, divided into big areas such as professional development, blogging, SEO, website, social marketing, and the last one is for random ideas – a sort of dumping ground to be sorted later. Each line has a topic, a deadline, an assigned person and it’s supposedly organized in sub-topics, steps and order of scheduled publication date.
I keep this open all day. As I go about my business, and ideas spark, I add them in the appropriate tab. Last week, I moderated a Spin Sucks Pro webinar with Marcus Sheridan, The Sales Lion. He is never lacking in content topics. He gets them every day from his sales team, and his customers. Every time anyone asks a question of their pool business, he asks himself, “Have I blogged about this?” He keeps a notebook in his car. I have my notebook too. and I have my spreadsheet.
Break and Reward: Facebook time!! Then, check all the networks and respond to anything that needs immediate attention.
Early afternoon: Screen queries and pitches for Spin Sucks. We typically invite guest bloggers, but still entertain pitches and queries. Our team has been working together to refine the blog guidelines and ensure we’re providing content that matters, and that provoke ideas and conversation.
Next, review the guest submissions for the following week. Edit or return to writer for requested edits. That was something that was hard for me to do at first; send it back for edits. No one has ever complained. Don’t be afraid to send guest submissions back for changes. It’s your house.
Late afternoon: Spins Sucks Pro contributions: Each week I brainstorm with the team on what subject matter experts we’d like to invite to contribute in the form of articles, videos, audio or webinars. I work with guest contributors on topics and guidelines.
4 or 5: Take a break for a run or a yoga class. I use that time to resolve any unresolved issues floating in my brain.
Evening: Wrap up loose ends, respond to emails, input Thursday’s guest post, comment on Spin Sucks, and write my list for Thursday.
That’s what the list looks like, anyway; not that the day ends up looking like that. Because, then I arrive at the office in the morning and well, the universe usually has other things in store for me. But a girl can dream, right?
I know a lot of you are chief content officers of your own businesses, whether by title or not. What would you add to the list?
Lisa Gerber is the chief content officer of Spin Sucks and the soon to launch Spin Sucks Pro. She is an Idaho expat in Chicago, trying to make mountains out these molehills. They aren’t even molehills really. She also tweets for @spinsucks
Brad McCarty of The Next Web interviewed NASA’s Social Media Manager Stephanie Schierholz about NASA’s outreach and ongoing social strategy for a fascinating post. I love
watching a major presence evolve its use of social tools. It’s even better if, as NASA has, they share what they’ve learned from the experience. I’ve distilled the lessons from NASA down to these:
It will be very interesting to see how NASA’s online presence evolves as its brand and mission changes. There’s much we can learn from the organization beyond what’s happened in space.
Just about everyone I know has written about the new “yuppie flu” we’re calling “social media fatigue.” There are valid perspectives on the position that we (consumers, corporations)
are inundated with and overwhelmed by the demand to be social. Communication overload is as old an affliction as, probably, speech itself. I’m pretty sure the third phrase that ever evolved was loosely translated to “would ya just shut up already?” (The first had to do with food, the second; sex. I’m sure of it.)
On the business side — I totally agree with my friend Rusty Speidel who wrote his opinion that not all businesses require a social solution. It may surprise you to know Idon’t think social platforms are the be-all, end-all to doing business and I certainly don’t think that social media represents a series of stand-alone tactics. I have a really hard time with a business that wants to plunge into social media engagement without even knowing where they’re going. The companies without consistent branding, messaging and media relations plans in place too often are getting ahead of themselves creating an online presence not remotely supported by content that is strategic or that has a recognizable purpose.
That’s the kind of stuff I, too, would like to see stop.
As a consumer, I don’t feel the need to engage socially 24/7. Even though I make part of my living providing social media counsel and education, I typically totally unplug on the weekends. I manage my engagement to a level of comfort, and freely unsubscribe, unfollow, remove and delete without compunction or guilt.
I will not (ever) “friend” a business and I have to really be interested in your content to actively follow you on Twitter, like your business page, or read your blog content. There is just FAR to much content, for even a hyper content consumer such as myself, to absorb. I value my time — all of it — and I’m not going to waste it on anyone offering me yet another solution I don’t need, a sale I’m not going to take advantage of or a loyalty program that has no pull on my purse strings.
Many people have reached a saturation point — so many that it’s been branded “social media fatigue.” I’m tired of hearing about it, frankly. (Sitting, drinking a beer between this guy and this guy as they argued about it pushed me to my breaking point.) Enough already.
Social strategy is part of communications strategy. Social media represents a fleet of tools we can use to help us communicate. For businesses, this must be applied carefully and not with the broad brush formerly used in media relations or direct marketing.
As consumers, it’s our individual personal responsibility to “clear the mechanism.” That quote comes from one of my favorite baseball movies, For Love of the Game, which I realize dates me and makes you realize that I’m older than you thought I was. In it, the pitcher played by Kevin Costner, uses the mantra “clear the mechanism” while on the pitcher’s mound to negate the sound of the crowd and to focus only on sending a perfect pitch over the plate. (*Editor’s note: I changed this post; originally I said the movie was Bull Durham, another baseball movie favorite but thanks to Jeff Uphoff, a baseball movie authority, realized my mistake. Thanks, Jeff!)
Consumers need to do this as well — clear the deck, shut down the programs, pare down the reading lists and above all, get rid of the crazy amounts of notifications you’re getting from all of these platforms. I’m stunned to learn how many of you get e-mail notifications daily from LinkedIn, from Facebook, from Twitter and/or Google+. For goodness’ sakes, no wonder you’re fatigued — get rid of that stuff. You don’t need it. Lord knows the last thing anyone needs is more e-mail.
If you’re a consumer feeling overwrought by communication, clear the mechanism.
If you’re a business feeling the pressure to use social media, question the process, the tools and the direction that strategy is headed. There may very well be steps you’re unwisely leapfrogging to get there.
Back when Saturday Night Live was funny, Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtain did a bit called Point, Counterpoint in which the pair argued and tossed barbs while delivering the news with anchorperson false cheer and seriousness. The line made famous by this sketch is “Jane, you ignorant slut,” shot off casually by the in-character Akroyd (see video below).
Megan Gibson writes for Time about a new movement that is trying to re-brand the word slut, using it as the focal point of a campaign for consent; an anti-assault, anti-rape movement with demonstrations called SlutWalks, designed to raise awareness and generate conversation. The word and its brand are gaining attention, and that’s the point, but is it effective?
Can a word with such a negative connotation really be altered to have a positive, empowered meaning? Will women ever want to be referred to as sluts? I don’t think so.
The campaign is relying on the shock factor of using an unexpected word to generate attention, but I think its use only muddles and detracts from the message. People will be so hung up on the word, the demonstration’s participants’ wearing of “slutty” attire, the controversy surrounding the shock factor itself that we’ll forget the point entirely.
What was it this demonstration was about, anyway?
