Hi. I’m Rob.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking to a PR course for entrepreneurs.  Refreshingly, most of them came from outside the world of technology.  There were authors, painters, shopkeepers, and professional service providers–people doing real world work in industries that were doing just fine before Twitter and Facebook, thank you very much. They knew they wanted to get started with social media, but didn’t know where to begin.

Rather than jumping into the tactics and technologies of social media, I decided to focus my talk on attitude.

Traditional marketers often make the mistake of thinking of social media as just another marketing channel; another megaphone through which to yell at their customers.  They update their Facebook feeds with 10% discount codes, blast out company news through their Twitter feed, then wonder why nobody pays any attention to what they’re saying.  Without the right mindset, social media can be frustrating and fruitless.  It can feel like throwing a party to which no one shows up.

Don’t think of social media as a marketing channel.  Think of it as a new approach to doing business.  It’s an approach that requires us to give in order to get.  It’s an approach that takes time, but eventually pays dividends in both sales and insight.

Here then, are my 7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Media Marketers:

1) Be a Listener – Your social media campaign is not starting in a vacuum, and not all of your social media activities are going to happen on your home turf.  People are already talking about your brand.  Your customers, your potential customers, and influencers in your market are all out there, and they’re carrying on a conversation about your brand with or without your help.  The first step is to understand what they’re saying and where they say it.  Are they on Facebook, Twitter, or some specialized network dedicated to your industry vertical?  If you’re a local business, have you claimed your listing on Yelp?  If you’re a lawyer, have you seen what people are saying about you on Avvo?  Has any blog written about you lately?  You do have a Google Alert set up for your company name, right?

2) Be Part of The Conversation – So you’ve listened, and you’ve discovered someone talking about your brand or industry.  Terrific.  Don’t be afraid to jump in, but remember, this isn’t just about you.  Participating in a conversation isn’t the same thing as giving a sales pitch.  Step out of sales mode and be a part of the conversation, even if it doesn’t lead back to what you’re trying to sell.  Some examples of joining the conversation are: answering a question related to your industry, suggesting a helpful website, sharing a good idea you’ve seen elsewhere, or even saying “thank you” for a kind review your product.

3) Be Out There – After you’ve listened and participated, get out there with some social outposts of your own.  Start a blog.  Start a Facebook page.  Maybe there are others to try as well (Twitter, Flickr, Yelp, FourSquare, etc.), but don’t feel like you need to do it all at once.  The important thing is to commit to them fully and for the long haul.

4) Be Frequent and Broad – Before blogging, Facebook pages, Twitter, etc., companies felt like they needed to be judicious in the frequency with which they communicated.  For one, it was expensive to send a press release over the wires; expensive to hire a PR Agency to pitch the story; expensive to wine and dine the handful of journalists who mattered to your industry.  With social media, you don’t need to wait for some earth shattering news to put yourself out there.  Loosen up the constraints around what “meets the bar” of something you want to share with your audience.  Make a goal of posting once, twice, three times a week and delegate the task around your organization.  Being frequent also brings with it the opportunity to be broad.  What you share through social media doesn’t always have to be a straight company announcement.  It could be an interesting study on your broader industry, something related to the local market in which you do business, or occasionally just a glimpse into life at your company that humanizes your brand.  Other ideas for content: Share access to some “behind the scenes” information about your company, tips on using your product, examples of unusual uses of your product, “fan only” offers, and of course, new product announcements.

5) Be Responsive - If I wasn’t so determined to keep the “be X” structure of this post, I would have called it “don’t be a brick wall!”  Blogs, Facebook pages, and other forms of social media are all two-way conversations.  As I said earlier, social media isn’t just a new way to yell at customers.  People will make comments (both positive and negative) and ask questions.  What a wonderful opportunity to engage with actual real-live customers, and share that conversation with others.  Don’t blow that opportunity!

6) Be Share-able - Give your audience the tools they need to share your story.  Ask them to share items on Facebook, to tweet them, etc.  And, you should be a sharer yourself.  Have a new blog post?  Cross promote it on your Twitter feed and Facebook page.  Keep a running tally of your latest tweets or a feed of your Flickr photos on a sidebar of your blog.

7) Be Patient – It’s going to be a long, hard, slog.  So much of social media marketing occurs at the top of your marketing funnel: it creates awareness of your brand, which can lead to consideration, then preference.  Eventually, they may buy.  Beyond purchase, there’s the opportunity to forge deeper connections with and better understanding of your customers.  Embrace this new dimension of doing business and commit to it for the long term.  Keep at it though, and the benefits will be very real indeed.

What do you think?  Is your small business stuck in the first gear of driving a social media strategy?  Was this a helpful way to think about the task at hand?  Use the comments feature to discuss and please share with others.

I usually use the “Rob The Explainer” category of this blog to dispense technology advice to others.  This time, I’m the one that’s got a question.  It didn’t fit neatly into a 140 character tweet, so I’m posting it here, in the hopes that someone can set me straight in the comments section of this post.

I’m going to be upgrading the PCs in my house to Windows 7, My wife and I do alot of digital media work–Photoshop, Lightroom, After Effects, Premiere, etc. I’m leaning towards installing it as 64-bit for the better performance and greater headroom on RAM usage. In addition, Adobe has announced that future versions of After Effects and Premiere will only support 64-bit.

What I don’t fully understand is what are the drawbacks of going 64 bit? One I’ve heard is that there’s no Adobe Flash (yet) for 64-bit browsers, but that’s easily solved by installing the 32 bit version of browsers. Other than that, are their major drawbacks to installing 64-bit?

Also:
1) No snarky “well you should just get a Mac” comments, please.
2) I assume that you’re given the choice of 32 or 64 bit when installing Windows 7, correct?
3) Do most modern processors (Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, i5, and i7) support 64 bit?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Over the past few years, people have been predicting an explosion in the use of mobile devices--bringing about changes to society that would equal or surpass those brought about by the personal computer.  For much of that time, I’ve been skeptical.  Sure, the convenience of having a device anywhere was great, but limitations on connectivity, input, and screen resolution made me think that mobile devices would always be supplemental to the PC. 

And then I got an iPhone. 

While it’s far from a perfect device--the battery life is too short, calls drop, and typing is no picnic--it has made me see a potential in mobile devices that I hadn’t seen before.  The iPhone’s extreme portability and vast library of applications tip the scales for me.  And the technology built into every iPhone--a touch screen, accelerometer, compass, etc.--make experiences possible that are neither practical nor commercially feasible on the PC.  Other technologies, such as e-ink, flexible displays, and advances in minitiurization will further differentiate what’s possible on mobile devices from what we do on the PC.  The PC will have its own advances, but their impact will be incremental compared to the changes brought on by improvements to and ubiquity of mobile devices.

These changes will also challenge us to think about the consequences of the technology: data security, personal safety, and the proper role of government regulation.  But hey, if I can watch Curb Your Enthusiasm on the beach while ordering a pizza, I say bring it on!

I was prompted to write this post by a YouTube video I saw by a mobile communications industry group.  The video both recapped the growth of mobile to date and predicted the changes we’ll see in them over the next decade.  Its predictions are bold, but they’re also plausible and specific.  If half of them come to pass, we’re in for a wild ride.  The video starts off with a bunch of new-agey corporate mumbo jumbo, but eventually picks up steam and gets more interesting.  Watch:

Back in 2006, I wrote a post called What Is A Podcast? and planned to follow it up with with recommendations on great podcasts worth a listen.  Well, guess what, loyal readers?  Today’s the day I cross that item off my to-do list!

The podcasts to which I subscribe cover a variety of topics: Marketing, technology, photography, politics, and video editing.  Today, I’ll focus on my favorite marketing podcasts.  Look for a follow up post with further recommendations…oh, around 2012ish.

Whaddaya Need, a Refresher Course?

For those of you that don’t know what a podcast is, here’s a quick rundown:

• A podcast is is an audio file that you can download and listen to on a computer, portable audio player (like an iPod), or burn to a CD.
• They’re usually episodic–once a week or so–and free.
• Some podcasts also feature video.
• You can subscribe to receive podcasts as they’re released through software such as iTunes, or just download each episode from the podcast’s website.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Listening to podcasts takes the right frame of mind.  In our short attention span world of 140 character tweets, multiple tab browsers, and snack-sized iPhone apps, listening to an hour-long podcast seems achingly slow and uneventful.  Like a soccer game.

Some argue that they’re not as efficient as blogs–you can scan a blog post much quicker than you can take in information from a podcast.  True, but reading requires your full attention.  Podcasts can be listened to while doing something else.  I listen to them while driving, working, working out, and sometimes as I’m drifting off to sleep.  Yeah. I’m hard core like that.  It’s kind of like the way Keanu learned Kung Fu in The Matrix.

At their best, podcasts can really get at the meat of issues and go beyond bullet-point descriptions.  It’s usually more than just one person doing the talking, so there’s a healthy back and forth of dialogue and debate.

My Favorites

Many podcasts maintain archives of past episodes, and much of the content has a pretty long shelf life.  So, if you find something you like, go back in those archives and listen to some older shows.  For each podcast below, I’ll give you the website of the podcast and a link that will automatically subscribe you in iTunes if you have it installed on your computer.  When you subscribe with iTunes, the podcasts will download automatically each time a new episode is added.

Marketing Over Coffee – Christopher Penn and John Wall sit at a Dunkin Donuts at 5 in the morning once a week and talk marketing, with an emphasis on social media and SEO.  [ website | itunes ]

Six Pixels of Separation/Media Hacks – The host of this podcast, Mitch Joel, is a former journalist, and it shows.  He’s an excellent interviewer and gets at the “why’s” of internet marketing, not just the “how’s.” The “Media Hacks” episodes bring together a stellar roundtable of panelists, including Christopher Penn from the aforementioned Marketing Over Coffee.  Great brain food! [ website | itunes ]

For Immediate Release – Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson are like the Bert and Ernie of podcasting.  They’ve been at it forever, and are currently on episode #486 of their biweekly podcast.  FIR eminates from a central core of PR and corporate communications, and radiates outward into social media, advertising, and more.  Shel’s like a favorite uncle you hope to sit by at family dinners, and Neville’s an affable English chap who has been tremendously encouraging and kind to me every time I’ve communicated with him directly. [ website | itunes ]

SEM Synergy – Bruce Clay is one of the founding fathers of Search Engine Optimization and anchors this show on SEO, Paid Search Marketing, and Social Media.  A bit more technical than other podcasts on the list, but they cover the nuts and bolts of search without losing sight of core marketing principals. [ website | itunes ]

Purse Strings – A podcast focused on marketing towards women.  Great for someone like me that makes awesome baby gifts! [ website | itunes ]

Internet Marketing – this one doesn’t publish as often as I’d like it to, but when it does, it’s often full of great information on–you guessed it–Internet Marketing.  Plus, the two guys hosting the show have the most lovely British accents that make it sound like you’re being taught by the Geico Gecko. [ website | itunes ]

The Beancast – (added 8/30/2010) How have I been missing this one all this time?  I recently discovered The Beancast, and it’s got excellent roundtable discussions about marketing in the internet age with some of my favorite thinkers.  Another great one for the queue. [ website | itunes ]

Do you have some marketing podcasts to add to the list?  Use the comments section below to add your favorites!