Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I’ve been doing a bit of networking lately, and have received some fascinating feedback as a result:

“I occasionally read your blog to catch up, and rarely understand a word you say; but you sound very, very smart.”

<ouch>

“I’ve seen your blog, and it’s quite a collection of ‘bright and shiny things’ you talk about.”

<guilty as charged>

“I went through your paper, and it’s very, very technical. Who’s your audience?”

<great question!>

These comments have given me pause, and they couldn’t have come at a better time, as I am personally trying to define my own use of social media tools in my business, in order to better clarify their uses for others.

In an effort to do so in public, here’s a stake in the ground:

RSS: Every time I get a new client, I set up a new RSS feed in my Attensa RSS reader to gather news and information about them. (I posted screen shots on SlideShare, in case you like pictures to walk you through how it works.) I also subscribe to a few blogs that I find interesting - and read them within Attensa because it’s more convenient to have one place to go to read and comment on them all.

RSS is like the nervous system of social media - it grabs news from the entire universe and routes it to the brain.

RSS readers are the brains of social media - we train them to understand what we pay attention to, and the smart readers anticipate how to prioritize the information to feed our attention properly.

Blog: I use my blog to personally comment upon things that move me. Whether it be a new tool, a personal experience, or software to help marketers. I agree with Ken, though, that it seems a collection of bright and shiny objects. I’m okay with that, although I think it might be time to mix it up a little more. The danger in blogging is that I seem to be obsessed with, and harp on similar themes; so my posts might become boring for those who subscribe or visit often. But this is my space, so I get to be the medium of “me.”

Blogs are the hearts of social media to me - if I care enough to write about something at length, I’ll blog it. My readers know how I feel about pretty much everything I choose to share. For businesses, blogs can create a glimpse inside your organization and get right to the people who make it work, connecting with their obsessions, thoughts and (yes, even) emotions.

Twitter and other “micro-blogging” tools: I use Twitter to connect with what people are thinking/doing “in the moment.” It fits my “bright and shiny object” proclivity to a tee. Through it, I can check out breaking news, get to know people I work with in a much more casual, personal way, and share thoughts/jump into conversations and engage quickly and directly - right now.

Twitter is like the eyes and ears (maybe all the senses) of social media to me. Blink, turn your head, sneeze and you’ve missed something. But it adds color, depth, taste, and texture to the people, problems and knowledge of those I follow. I tell people in business that teams who are working together should follow each other on Twitter. Especially virtual or geographically diverse teams… they’ll learn more from each other, be more accessible, and get more done with each other as a result.

I ‘d love to hear what others think… as I’ve found this week, it’s most enlightening and helpful to get feedback. It helps focus my thoughts and further define my messages and how I relate them to others.

Which is the true beauty of social media and marketing to me.

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In a great post last Friday, Marshall over at ReadWrite Web set forth a great set of examples of how they (RWW) use Twitter in their journalistic efforts. Head on over and read the whole thing - but in a nutshell, he tells how they use Twitter:

• the discovery of breaking stories,
• performing interviews,
• quality assurance
• and promotion of our work.

What was fun for me personally about this post is that I finally met Marshall (in person) the afternoon he was writing it - via Twitter. I was waiting for another networking meeting, and was watching my Twitter feed via iTweet:

How many “Earthhippy” buildings in the Pearl are there? I surmised I was sitting in the exact spot (EcoTrust Building/World Cup) I’d find him. And I looked up toward the register, and le voila… an introduction eased by coincidence.

Fast forward to Monday. I went to meet Scott Kveton, also down in the Pearl. On autopilot, I had neglected to check where we were to meet, and went to World Cup again. I wondered whether I had crossed my wires, when, at 2:08, I hadn’t seen Scott walk through the door for our 2:00 yet. Knowing Scott is an avid Twitter advocate, I checked my feed only to see:

Ugh! wrong place… so I immediately DM’d Scott (sent him a direct message) letting him know I was in the wrong spot, and we quickly arranged to meet in the middle. He DM’d me back saying “meet in middle?” and the rest was captured here:

So: (and I know I’m on a rave about Twitter recently) the two events are linked in my mind forever as little examples of the beauty of “in the moment” speed, usefulness and connectedness that Twitter provides me.

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I was almost embarrassed by my own raves about my new addiction to Twitter this week. On Wednesday I spoke at Innotech to the Nonprofit Summit attendees about leveraging social media to support their causes, and actually thought I might be crazy as I stood on stage in front of 85+ people and went on and on about Twitter…

But I’ve come to rely on it to do the following for me:

• Get a glimpse into the minds (and lives) of some very interesting people
  • I know some of them, I’ve not yet met some of them
• Understand immediately what’s happening in places I can’t be
  • This works for gatherings like SXSW and for places like London or Mumbai
• Get to know business colleagues and even friends on a more personal level
  • This is the very best part - knowing what people are excited about, what they’re coping with, and how they’re reacting to their own lives…

Follow, Follow, Follow, Follow…

Following is way fun. That’s why I’ve largely given up on tools like HelloTXT that will post to Twitter without me going in. When I go into my Twitter feed, I learn something. The act of Twittering is much more about the subscribe than the publish to me…

So as I’ve been doing it more and getting personally more interested in it, I’ve run across some great Twitter Do’s and Don’ts - one from Kim Dushinsky - my mobile marketing guru in Denver; and one from Caroline Middlebrook, a software developer in the UK who gave up her 9-5 for the fun of online marketing.

One More Do, One More Don’t

I think I’ve said this before:

“Do” pick a short screen name. With only 140 characters, honor your fellow Twitterers who want to engage with you. I didn’t, and I’m sorry… but I truly didn’t know better at the time.

And this just in:

“Don’t” miss the tabs on your Twitter home page - it took me by surprise to see the Replies tab where I’ve missed timely replies to all sorts of conversations. Ugh.

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Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb on this one - but after a couple of months of using it, I’m hooked. And I can already see how it’ll be one of the top marketing tools I’m going to use moving forward:

Tool #5 - Twitter

I have known about Twitter since everyone was all atwitter (sorry, couldn’t resist) about it (way back in March or April of 2006) at one of the blogging conferences I was attending. It seems the social media geeks generally portend what the rest of us finally ‘get’ years later.

Why I’m enthusiastic about Twitter as a marketing/business tool?

1) I can get glimpses of the real lives of the people I’m following - which is important when you’re building virtual teams. And whether you’re a contractor working remotely, a geographically dispersed team working for the same company, or even a team with people on different floors, the more we stare into our little screens to get our work done, the more we need to find ways to get to know people from the little screen.

I know, for example, when someone is extremely busy - because their twitters go silent for awhile. Perhaps it’s time to check in with them?

2) I can pick up knowledge from others in a quick-hit fashion. I’ve learned a few gems in the short time I’ve been twittering, just by following other people’s tweets. And you can follow conference news from people who’re on site, twittering live - you get their impressions in the moment.  Blog posts follow, most people tweet their postings.

3) I’ve become more aware of my words. You can only use 140 characters to post in twitter… and that’s a great forcing mechanism to refine your writing.

The convention (for those of you who haven’t been there yet) is to acknowledge other’s tweets by saying something like @thiskat when I’m referring to something she has said.

So here’s a hint - don’t pick a long username like I did. @janetleejohnson is a ridiculous waste of 15! characters. Had I to do it all over again, I’d go under an assumed name like mktgmvn or smrtpdx or mrk8r… think in terms of license plate monikers, and you’re set.

Another hint - check out an URL shortner tool like twurl - which also allows you to track clicks…

Happy twittering…

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In a fascinating article in Fortune - “Welcome to Conference 2.0″ - Dan Fost reported on a SXSW interview that was completely disrupted by backchannel via Twitter. His description of the pandemonium that erupted was most excellent:

“Consider author Sarah Lacy’s disastrous interview of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival here. Lacy, a Business Week columnist and author of a forthcoming book on Zuckerberg and other Web 2.0 titans, drew the crowd’s wrath by asking Zuckerberg too many questions about his age and his company’s outrageous $15 billion valuation and not enough questions about issues more fundamental to how Facebook operates - things like trust, privacy, and accessibility to software developers. On top of that, Lacy interrupted Zuckerberg, seemed to flirt with him, and then grew hostile as the crowd turned against her.

And did it ever turn. Many in the audience started posting their thoughts on Twitter, a service that broadcasts instant messages, and the ire built. The crowd began hooting and jeering, and finally, when she opened the mike to questions, the first person asked Zuckerberg: “Other than rough interviews, what are some of the biggest challenges Facebook faces?” Lacy turned to Zuckerberg, asked, “Has this been a rough interview?” and the audience member said, “I wasn’t asking you, I was asking Mark.” The crowd went wild.”

I’ve been blogging conferences live for years. It’s a great way to share the love with folks who aren’t able to attend…. but what I’ve been doing is spreading what’s largely been a one-way conversation, barely brushing the collaborative (and yes, sometimes disruptive) potential that new social media tools can unleash.

At SEMpdx on Monday, I listened to people who said they Twittered their notes in conferences, and I actually enjoy watching what people are thinking as they’re listening to speakers (the beauty of the immediacy of Twitter) - I was fascinated by the accounts of SXSW discussions I read on Twitter myself.

But facilitating disruption in the room? It underscores for me as a speaker and panelist, that I’m going to be held even more accountable to the audience in providing solid, factual, and (yes) entertaining information EVERY time I step on stage. That’s good for me, and great for conference attendees everywhere.

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