Are Christmas Cards - Ghosts of Christmas Past ?

I read a recent head line suggesting Christmas Cards, your proper paper/card ones, are 'Greetings Cards' Ghosts of Christmas Past, and the email / landing page / PDF / animations etc are taking us all digital...

Interesting hypothesis.  Begs some other questions, do people under 30 send cards, or have they outsourced this to Facebook or compressed Christmas greetings into 140 characters and a bunch of followers?

Having a technical bias I got to thinking where's this going?  Indeed, what would the 'Greetings Card' Ghosts of Christmas future look like?

Tooled up with me Galaxy tab, Google, mince pies and a neighbours home made 'Mulled Port', off I went.

As an aside - a quick word on this 'Mulled Port'. DON'T! I know, I know - it's not big and its not clever, and I should have know better, etc etc, but its Christmas my shields were down, and he was SO sure this batch wasn't toxic... what could I say.

Anyway - off I went.  Did you know 20% of all searches on Google are unique!  You think that's impressive... quite soon ALL of mine were unique, typo's, fat thumb syndrome and Mulled Port Chuckles really nail it to Google.

By the way, is Port a hallucinogen?  Because it wasn't long before I was seeing 'Greetings Card' Ghosts of  Christmas Future everywhere.  But, remember, I am a techy, and I tell you, I have seen the future!!

Its .... '3D' / Hollogram cards, that's where its at, trust Michael.

Don't believe me?  Well - check this bad boy out I brought this classic Santa comedy routine  back from the future, if you're reading this blog on old an '2D' medium, trust me this is HILARIOUS, and remember you saw it here first !

I got quite carried away with all this - I was going all in with this one, even had a brand name all ready to go.   iHollo.way    How cool is that !  Has a certain subliminal message an inevitably successful future acquisition perhaps?

Anyway - like many a good idea, turns out I wasn't first to pick this one up.  Aha - you thought this was rambling nonsense.  iHollo and Future communications with 3D / Hologram technology, well - seems I have been beaten to it I am afraid.

Don't believe me? Well I wonder who else had the idea.... go on, Google 'iHollo.way' or Click HERE

Ho hum, back to the day job ... want help with these Twitter Christmas Greetings ?  :D


Here's wishing you a merry Christmas and I hope you have a fabulous time and if you like Port, maybe get to drink some of what I have been drinking ;)

Mick

What's LinkedIn's Connection Strategy ?

Back in July 2014 I posted a blog on how I reviewed and modified my LinkedIn Connection strategy.  There's a link to that blog HERE

Basically when I started out on LinkedIn I was looking to grow my network and I was very relaxed and not at all selective, 'promiscuous' as I put it in my blog.  And like all strategies, that strategy was regularly reviewed and once I had a large enough network I changed and currently my connection strategy is far more selective.

Well, I am not alone in reviewing my connection strategy, as LinkedIn have done the same ... Imagine my delight, where I lead, LinkedIn follows.  I know, in my dreams I should be so influential, but hey - its my blog, the sky can be any colour I like  ;)

So what have LinkedIn done?  As far as I can tell, as at the time of writing I can't find any announcements, LinkedIn have radically changed their policy on who you can send invitations to connect too.  Before, when you wanted to invite someone else on LinkedIn to connect with you a pop up box would appear and you had to give LinkedIn evidence for how you may know the target... choose from ...
     We worked together
     We studied together
     We share a group
     Were friends in the real world and here is their email address..... etc

Well, that barrier / gate keeper to sending invitation to connect has gone away.  Now you can connect with anyone... You do not need any prior association at all.  That's people that you are 2nd or 3rd degree connections with, and people entirely outside you network.

Now when you visit a profile there's a blue button "Connect" - hit that button and a default invitation has been sent.  You can customise these invitations, its not obvious how - next to the connect button there's a 'Send Mick Inmail' button and next to that a drop down menu with an option to send a customised invitation.

So - LinkedIn gets all promiscuous and is letting us all connect, at least for now :D

Does Social Media take too long? - A Guest Blog from Jon Baker

Does Social Media take too long?

Jon Baker of venture-Now (see below) has written this guest blog for 24/7.

I've always been told, but now I’ve actually discovered that I get most benefit from Social Media when I engage in discussions, in a structured manner.

Underlying this is a need to have clear objectives, linked to your strategy. This article is about my daily one hour routine - my “socmed hour” (it’s normally more like 40 minutes by the way).

What’s your routine – or when are you going to create one?

My LinkedIn morning routine

• Groups: I’m a member of many groups which I break into 5 categories. I scan one of those categories daily. It takes 10 minutes, the objective: Contribute to interesting discussions, share information etc.
• My profile: Check to see who’s visited my profile. Often I’ll drop them a quick LinkedIn mail to say Hi. It takes 2 minutes, the objective is to engage with potential contacts
• Group discussions: I review responses to any comments I’ve made in discussions. LinkedIn only emails me when somebody responds to one of my comments, I focus on those threads. Those emails go to a specific folder in my email, not my inbox. It takes 10 minutes, the objective is to engage with potential contacts and prospects.

My Twitter morning routine

• Scan through the followers I’m most interested in. Respond to interesting comments. If you think there are too many tweets and not enough time, try using lists differently. It takes 10 minutes, the objective is to engage with potential contacts.
• Produce 10 RTs: Scan through source material looking for interesting tweets and schedule RTs throughout the day (one of my favourite tools, bufferapp is great for this). It takes 10 minutes, the objective is to become known for providing useful material, attracting new followers and engage with existing followers.
• Review best responses to RTs: Look at the retweets from the previous day, look for the one that created the most interest and consider using it as a LinkedIn discussion group topic. Total time 2 minutes and the objective is to source good material for LinkedIn
• New Followers: Review the tweets from my new followers, respond to some and decide to follow them, or not. I take no more than 5 minutes, and engage with new followers

Twitter spare time.

A couple of times through the day I spend 10 minutes (and no more – use an alarm clock), look at tweets mentioning me and respond where appropriate.  Read tweets made by people I’m most interested in, respond where appropriate (A-listers). Time: 2-3 minutes. Favourite any tweets I see that I might later RT

LinkedIn spare time.

Look at my home page, like or comment on entries as appropriate, for no more than a minute.

LinkedIn weekly activities

• Group discussions: Start an interesting, useful discussion in each of the groups I’m in every 2-3 weeks. These are based on useful material I can share, seeking views on issues. Using LinkedIn groups for growing business makes lots of sense. Time: 10 minutes. Objective: Engage with potential contacts and prospects.
• Connections: Seek target connections and either connect, get alongside or develop the relationship off line. Time: 10 minutes (excl speaking offline). Objective: Increase business.

Summary

That’s about 4 hours a week (equivalent to one networking meeting) during which I get to influence and “meet” a lot more people than one face to face networking meeting.

Fundamental to this philosophy is that:

• providing useful and interesting material is important. This may be mine (blogging) or based on other peoples (sharing good content)
• Social media success requires one to engage in conversation and getting to know people – not pumping out your message and waiting for clients to arrive at your doorstep.
• Doing the right things gets the right results, being unfocussed doesn’t. The default diary and time blocks help with this.
• Some people are far more interesting than others – even if they’re not prospects! Knowing not all networking contacts are equal is important.
• There are some great tools to save time, my 6 favourite social media things in 2011 show some of those tools. But you can’t just automate social media

That's the thinking behind the way I use my time; what's yours?

Jon Baker is a 24-7 Group Director in Milton Keynes. He is a Business Coach, Sales trainer and experienced public speaker. He works with the owners of businesses that have 5 to 50 staff and helps them to create focus, clarity and more profit in their organisation.

24-7’s philosophy on Social Media Training..

24-7 Business Networking help Small Businesses and SME's... create more LEADS, and make more SALES, using SOCIAL MEDIA!  We do this through high quality training showing you how to use Social Media and how to link Social Media into your marketing strategy, you grow your business in a focused way. 

This training is delivered as ‘byte’ sized tutorials in our Fortnightly Meetings and through a growing portfolio of Training Courses.

When it comes to Social Media Training, for the Cautious or the Capable, our constantly updated tutorials and training courses take you beyond your self taught knowledge, and shield you from the existing, changing and emerging technologies. 

We keep it SIMPLE, we keep it PRAGMATIC we show you HOW, and we HELP you to make the most of Social Media, quickly taking you from Cautious to Capable.

Our training is structured around our Social Media - Success Circle…

We have a strong and growing portfolio of Tutorials and Training Courses covering each of the five elements in the Success Circle.

Our Social Media Phylosophy can be explained using our 'Success Circle' ...

24-7 Success Circle

At the heart, before anything else (inclulding developing your business goals and strategies), you need to have a complete understanding of your Brand.  If you need help with this - give Mick a call, or seek out a good business mentor / coach.  You could also try reading a highly recommend book - Simon Sinek's "Start With Why".

Once you understand your brand, then you can work on your goals and the business strategies that you are going to deploy to achieve those goals.  NOW 24-7 can start working with you and putting together a Social Media Strategy that supports your Business Stratagies in achieving your Business Goals.  There has to be a clear tangible link between what you do in your Social Media and achieving your Business Goals.

Why do it? What do I want?  We help you consider the VALUE of what you are looking to achieve in your Social Media and how that will support your wider Business Goals.  Are you goals to get:

•          Leads

•          Sales

•          Known 

•          Web traffic

•          Increased profile

And we help you determine how much time, or resources, you can devote to achieving this.

Who do I need to connect to?  Having worked What you want from your Social Media te very strategic question 'Who do I Connect with?" should be fairly easy to answer.  Visualising your ideal client, developing the persona of the people that will help you achieve your business goals should be straight forward IF you have a clear understanding of your brand.  If you are struggling with "Who do I need to connect to?"  its very likely you haven't fully defined and understood your brand.

At 24-7 we help you consider…

•          What type of people are best positioned to help with your objective?

•          Which Social Media platforms are they on?

•          How can you connect to them?

•          Work out what they are interested in?

•          Work out what can you do for them?

Where do I find them?  Now you understand 'who' you need to be reaching out to, attracting, engaging and networking with you can consider where these poeple will be - online.  Which platforms is the obvious starting point.  But within the platforms, where do they go?  Do they read news, attend to their time line or maybe hang out in groups, in whihc case ... which groups?

•          Which platforms are they likely to be on?
•          What are they interested in?

•          Search your existing connections

•          Which Groups, Pages, forums etc

What do I say to them?  As your networks grow what you say becomes increasingly important, we help you consider …

•          What your network are interested in?

•          What your personal brand should be?

•          Where you can find interesting material for your network?    (Curation)

•          How you can easily share that material with them?

•          How you can write interesting material for them?      (Content)

How do I organise them?  Now you are growing your Networks in a targeted and focused  way, we help you consider …

•          How to manage your network using LinkedIn Groups, Twitter Lists,
      Google+ Communities /Circles to manage your network.

•          Automation tools to help you engage with your networks

•          Tools to find appropriate material to share with

•          How you can manage and listen to all that NOISE

How do I know it’s working?  With your social media campaign under way – like all strategies - you need to measure to ensure how things are going, we help you consider …

•            What was the objective?

•            How can you measure your Social Media against your objectives?

•                Followers and connections

•                Interactions

•                The results of it all?

•            How do you adjust what you are doing to improve it?

And at the heart of the circle sits your Brand and Business Strategy - everything you do Social Media wise must be consistent with achieving the Business goals and objectives.

We are always looking to improve 24-7's support for Small Businesses and SME's, we have Social Media Training on hand with a growing syllabus of courses.  But what other training do you think Small Businesses and SME's could do with to improve their businesses and achieve their strategic goals and objectives?

Does Santa use Social Media?

Does Santa use Social Media?

Looking at the evidence I would say so…  Social Media helps with -

Networking – Everyone knows Santa, what he does and when he does it.  How he does it is the closely guarded secret…

Brand Awareness – Santa is one of the most successful globally recognized brands.  And he doesn’t advertise, no flyers, no call centre’s, no TV – and how his clients flock to him!  Has to be his Social Media, google ‘santa’ and you get over 2Bn results… 

In Bound Marketing - Given one of the goals and major benefits of Social Media is 'In Bound' marketing.  Where clients and prospective clients come to you.  Santa's historically been THE master of inbound marketing...   Because of Santa’s strong Brand Awareness?

Improved Communications - With millions of children, and some 39 year olds, regularly writing to him, despite sending the letters via the chimney, Santa gets every single letter.  But now Santa’s simplified it all and you can email Santa, Directly Message Santa on Twitter and even post on his Facebook wall.

So how would Santa use Social Media

• List’s.  With Social Media Santa research’s his market.  Learning people’s desires and what they have been up to.  So he can check – “Who has been Naughty and Who has been Nice”, and its digital so EASY to check twice.
• Follow trends.  Santa knows whether he’s getting  mince pies or stolen cake (cookies and milk are so last year).
• Recruitment.  Santa needs more Elves and Toy Makers, there are 176 vacancies for ‘Santa’s Helpers’ on LinkedIn…
• Following trends he knows peoples wants and needs.  So Santa’s good at logistics, from Sourcing gifts online to delivering millions of presents World Wide in one night, and we can track his route – check out the excellent Santa tracker at http://www.noradsanta.org/

Then he brings it all together on his website http://www.northpole.com/

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Mick

Finding Time to be Social

Finding Time to be Social

We’ve covered a lot ground in the last 9 articles, and the most common question I get asked is “how do you find time for all these platforms, followers, blogs, updates “ etc etc.  This month we look at 4 tools for Managing your Social Media.   LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+…  logging in to so many accounts can be daunting and time consuming.  Let me introduce Social Media aggregation and dashboards, apps to help you manage your Social Media, BufferApp and Hootsuite.

BUFFERAPP.COM – If you are relatively new to social media, bufferapp is a nice, easy to understand, easy to use introduction to managing your social media.  Buffer users a straightforward, intuitive interface to schedule tweets, and gives some simple analytical data.

SOCIALOOMPH.COM  - A cloud based twitter (and facebook / blog if you subscribe) management tool.  Social oomph will also help you schedule tweets, but it has some clever extra functions like helping you vet new followers, spot keywords people use to find you, analaytics and you can set up ‘auto responders’ to automate thank you’s / replies  when someone follows you etc.

TWEETDECK.COM – is a social media dashboard for twitter and facebook, very useful for quick overview and monitoring of multiple accounts, or running continual searches.  Easier to use than Social Oomph, but with fewer features, and FREE.

HOOTSUITE.COM  - If you are more experienced with Social Media, you should look at Hootsuite.  A social media dashboard that helps you monitor, post and explore ALL of your social media activity and only needing to login to one place.  Comprehensive connectivity with just about every social media resource you could wish for, and custom analytics that can tell you how things are going.  A basic hootsuite account is FREE.

Introduction to Pinterest

In my 8th blog in a series introducing Social Media I would like to introduce you to Pinterest.  

      

Pinterest allows you to share pictures or videos, like an on line picture board, or “pinboard”.  These may be your own pictures and videos or they may be pictures and videos you have found and wish to easily and quickly share with others, like visual bookmarking.   

Social Media is about getting your messages found by others.  So when a platform like www.pinterest.com  arrives making it easy to publish and share your visual content, positively encouraging others to share your content – and when this platform enjoys a meteoric rise in popularity – its time we had a looksee.

Lets deal with the terminology.  An image or video added to Pinterest is called a ‘Pin’.  Pins are added to a ‘PinBoard’, which is a collection of Pins with a common theme.  The act of sharing a Pin on a PinBoard is called ‘Pinning’.  If you like someone else’s pin and decide to repost it, this is a “Re-Pin”.  And finally, there’s the “Pin It Button” – this is a button placed on a website making it easy to share content onto Pinterest from the website – Pins added via the Pin It Button carry back links to the originating web site, which is good, very good. 

 

Take Social Media statistics with a pinch of salt, suffice to say all the charts and infograms are showing Pinterest has established itself in the top Social Networking sites.   Pinterest has the ability to take your message viral in hours, and Google is full of case studies - Googling “Pinterest  Success” and I received 25,400 results.

Finally - Pinterest is about to enjoy an explosion in popularity because until very recently you could only join Pinterest by invitation.   Now anyone can open a Pinterest account... so if you have visual content to share - now you have the means and ... its FREE.