Nov 14
Love0

Facebook: The Best Place to Celebrate a Birthday

By Social Media

November 13 was my birthday. It’s OK if you missed it. (SNIFF!) Just make sure you make a note of it for next year.

I am a big fan of birthdays; I celebrate mine in a big way and my friends’ birthdays as well. I used to spend much of my birthday on the phone and getting together with friends — I still do a lot of that but Facebook has expanded my birthday into a pangalactic holiday. (That’s right. Aliens celebrate it, too.) Throughout the day I heard from childhood friends, cousins, clients, former clients, colleagues, people I only know online and close family and friends wishing me well on my Facebook profile.

It’s fantastic!

If there’s a so far unconvinced social media-interested person in your life, make sure they have a Facebook account and connect with all their contacts and friends before their birthday — they’ll get a kick out of all the birthday wishes and begin to understand how the platform keeps people connected to one another in the simplest of ways.

Nov 14
Love0

Americans Spend More Time on Facebook Than any Other U.S. Website

By Social Media

About a year ago in a client meeting a CEO of a business I worked with said to me, “Facebook is just for kids. We don’t need to pay attention to that.”

Really?

As business owners and marketers it’s no longer possible to ignore the fact that Facebook has won the eyes and rapt attention of millions for hours every single week. Nielsen reports that Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other U.S. website. Facebook had more than 140 million visitors in May of 2011 alone.

Facebook attracts an astounding 70 percent of active internet users.

This may be stating the obvious, but it is not enough to simply have a presence for your business on Facebook. Your business, whether a consumer business or B2B should have a business page, but that’s not all. Your business should have a plan for updating the page with content valuable to your community. Someone in your organization should be responsible for generating and posting that content, for tagging and liking others’ content and pages, for generating conversation and for being responsive to the community that gathers there.

How are you managing your business’s Facebook presence?

 

I’m teaching a workshop, Social Networking for Business Growth this Wednesday — you should come!

Nov 10
Love0

The Launching of a New Brand Identity: Six Concepts to Consider

By Communications, Jaggers Communications News, Public Relations

For a couple of years and a number of client projects, I’ve collaborated with Watermark Design to bring design excellence and solid web development to my clients. That was why, when it came time for me to focus on the creation of my own firm’s brand identity, there was no where else I’d rather turn.

I’ve worked with so many brands to help them with new design or redesign; working on this inward-facing project was a different experience! While, as an entrepreneur, I enjoy having the opportunity to make decisions on my own, it was great to have people to whom I could turn with great style, a good eye and opinions I deeply trust.

Wes and Darcey at Watermark have a great process and it was exciting to sit through it as the customer instead of a partner or collaborator. The logo that resulted from our conversations is exactly what I’d hoped to have. Some of the considerations Watermark asked me to ponder included:

  1. The gender of the identity. I was pretty adamant that I didn’t want the logo to be too feminine. It needed to be neutral in color and in style.
  2. The personality. I didn’t want a logo that was too serious or corporate and yet, since the clients I wish to attract are both of these, it needed to convey a larger-firm feel. I also want the brand identity to continue to fit my growing business. I think this meets both of those needs.
  3. The message. When I told Wes that the name of my blog is “Change the Conversation” I could see the wheels in his head begin spinning out of control. The interlocking J and C portrayed as speech bubbles conveys both communications and a conversation and I LOVE the look of them.
  4. The style. With the platforms I use frequently a mark as well as a stylized version of the company name is what I was looking for. I want to be able to use the mark (the JC speech bubbles) independently and to have the brand identified by the mark, even when it appears without the name.
  5. The font. Upon seeing the logo, someone said, “I like the hugging Gs.” Something about the font in the name appealed to me right away — I like to think it is a nod to relationships and how we’re all, somehow, entertwined.
  6. The colors! Oh, this was the hard part, for sure, and the time when I had to pull in my cadre of friends in marketing and design to solicit their opinions. I wavered, I waffled, but I’m very pleased with where I landed. Green was almost a sure thing as one of the elements, as my interest in science, green business and energy and the work I continue to do in these areas is a focus. The blue is a beautiful accompaniment; the two work so well together and I think, offer just the overall look I desired for my business.

I’d love to know what you think of the new look!

Nov 09
Love0

Top 3 Questions asked at Social Media Speaking Gigs

By Communications, Social Media

I’ve been doing a lot of speaking about social media for the last several years but have done a number of larger presentations focused on specific industries in recent months. It’s interesting for me to consider the challenges of attracting specific and different audiences and building communities of and for different kinds of people.

No matter the audience, the same three questions come up:

  1. How do you do it all?
  2. What should we do first?
  3. How do we get more fans?
The answers:
  1. I don’t do everything; I focus my efforts on a few things, namely, blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and on producing quality content for speaking engagements and business building outreach in my community. I delegate when I can and I say no when I’m overburdened. I’ve limited my volunteer efforts significantly and rely on technology to help me manage my time for the rest. 
  2. First, you should make sure your infrastructure is sound, and by that I mean you have a quality website that works and provides you the ability to publish content (i.e. a blog). Once this is accomplished, then sharing across social platforms is the next, natural step. 
  3. How many fans do you really need? Concentrate on developing real relationships and providing valuable content and real, engaged, loyal fans will find and support you. 
If you have a group that would be interested in a fun, informative social media learning session, let me know.
Nov 07
Love0

Social Media Success: Forget about the Numbers!

By Social Media

I’ve been working a lot with clients to develop plans, to track the analytics and success of campaigns, to measure our progress against goals and count the eyeballs viewing content and equating that to footsteps in the door or orders placed online.

But today, I want everyone to stop and forget about the numbers.

It’s so easy to get caught up in thinking about the traffic — the pageviews, the visits, the unique visitors — and forget, for a bit, anyway that these numbers represent people and relationships.

So whether your website sees 10 visits today or 10,000, instead of the numbers, think about what you’re giving to the people who are interested enough in you, your business, your products and services that they’ve come to visit, to read your content and to ask a question, leave a comment, click “like” or share your blog post with a friend. Who are these kind and generous souls behind these numbers? If you don’t know, today’s the day to find out.