Cat's Eye Marketing Blog

What Has Social Media Ever Done for You?: Lurkers, Listeners and Planets- Lining-Up Kind of Stuff

 Someone might be listening. I'm not being paranoid here. But, really. 

Someone might be listening.

The first rule of social media (and sometimes we forget this rule) is:

People are listening.

My friend, Sonia Simone, who is now assistant editor at Copyblogger, called them The Imaginary Friends Who Live in Your Typewriter. 

And, though they aren't always your friends, still, they are reading your words. 

Thinking. Listening. Sometimes even responding. 

My social media story

I love blogging. I love reading other people's blog posts. And yes, from time to time I even leave a comment. 

But mostly, I am a listener. 

I skim and scan and when I have something relevant to say, I'll click on the submit comment.

Last Saturday I landed on a friend's blog. Don't even remember how I got there. How's that for randomness? I met him on biznik. I've seen him only twice in person, but we have chatted online quite a bit. 

In my comment to his post, I mentioned an online reputation management tool I like a lot, called StepRep. 

Five days later he called me out of the blue. I could feel his smile over the phone line.

"I just wanted to thank you, " he said.

"For what?" I said.

"For leaving that comment about StepRep on my blog."

Okay, now I was puzzled. It was a great tool, but a phone call?

Turns out my friend went in and registered, did a search for "social media" and "media buyer." Up came a company looking for someone with those exact skills. He called, interviewed and three days later, he had a new job.

Yeah, it was random. A crazy coincidence. I mean, I didn’t even know he was looking for a job. 

But, still. He had a blog. I read a post. I offered a resource. He checked it out. And bam. He has a job.

Okay, so what's the point?

I think sometimes we forget about the power of social media. We're there. We're talking. It's fun. We don't always know if people are listening. 

Or when they will have something to say.

If it is your blog, or twitter, or Facebook, I would say, just keep putting your stuff out there. Yeah, it's work and sometimes we get discouraged. And it can seem random and pointless at times.

But things can happen in an instant.

Things that will change your life. 

E-mail Marketing Lesson from Ghandi: Be the Change You Want to See

Three more people decided to put me on their e-newsletter lists this week. These are fine people, one of them a friend of mine.

Still, they didn't ask me. They just did it.

And that puts me in the very uncomfortable position of having to "unsubscribe" (gotta love that word) to something I didn't subscribe to in the first place.

Technically, the button at the bottom of these people's e-letters should not say, "Unsubscribe." It should say, "I have put you on a list you didn't ask to be on. Click here if you want me to remove you."

Be the change you want to see in the e-marketing world

Okay, paraphrasing Ghandi here. But just stop and think, "How do I want to be treated?"

In our marketing with e-newsletter workshops we, always say:

Don't just follow the letter of the law. Be better than the law.

Building a list is hard work. But wouldn't you rather have people who want to be on it? People who eagerly await your next issue, rather than grumbling and deleting it every time it lands in their in-box?

Okay, now you are thinking, "But I have a very low unsubscribe rate."

Does that mean that those people are actually reading your content? Well, no. Not necessarily. I like to tell the story of a friend. Happens to be a printer. I was in his office one day and he was glaring at his computer screen. 

"What's wrong?" I said.

"Oh, just all these 'newsletters' I get," he said. "They are badly written, worthless and full of crap. And I didn't even sign up for them."

"Why don't you unsubscribe?" I said.

"Because they are all from customers and I'm afraid I'll hurt their feelings—or lose their business."

So this guy is frustrated and angry every time he gets another issue. But he is afraid to opt out. Not exactly what we want our subscribers to feel when they open our emails.

Respect your subscribers

Violating someone's trust can happen without ignoring the loose rules of the U.S. CAN-SPAM law.

It happens when you forget about permission-based e-marketing and best practices. 

It happens when you decide that getting high "subscriber" numbers is more important than working to develop a list of people who are truly interested in what you have to offer.

It happens when you follow only the minimum requirement instead of the spirit of the law.

There is such a huge difference between slapping someone on your e-mail list and offering resources they may need. Go ahead and send them one past issue with a note that if they find it helpful, here's a link to sign up. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's a very successful strategy.

Just do not randomly add people to your list when the mood strikes you.

Do you get put on lists you never asked to be on? Do you think it's important to get permission first? What are your core e-marketing values?

 

 

How to Be Funny: Why Humor Sells

I like to enter the New Yorker cartoon caption contests. Haven't won yet, but I'm working on it.

Have you ever thought about how making someone laugh brings them closer to you? If you know someone really well—say, your best friend—you can talk about anything, and even make fun of each other. It's a sign of your closeness. You know their quirks and faults and they only make you love them more.

What might this mean for you? For your business?

I blog from time to time about my strange past, things like the time I made my hand puppet Pépe quit a job for me. I write articles about how to humanely dispose of your fourth grade teacher so you can write freely, and with joy. I am interviewed on topics like how to draw your customers in by telling stories and using humor.

Now if you are in the funeral business, you might not want to use humor in your sales and marketing. But I can't think of many other businesses that couldn't bring their customers and clients closer by making them laugh.

Why make your customers and prospects laugh?

Because it makes them see how much we are alike. That we have the same dreams, the same fears, the same screwed up perspectives of the world. You know, the we're-all-in-this-together kind of thing?

Because they want to be entertained. Sitcoms, bad reality shows, Judge Judy, David Letterman, even the formerly dry news sites ——keep you listening by making you laugh. Just think The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. News and information with opinions that make you chuckle.

Because they'll listen more to what you have to say. John Cleese, actor from Monty Python and creator of Silly Walks, says it this way: "If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas." I'm not talking cruel, sarcastic humor here. I mean the kind that helps us forget our differences. The kind that brings us together.

How To Be Funny

1. Reveal a flaw. This is a great device for building trust and empathy. My blog post, Doing What You Think You Can't: Marketing for Scaredy Cats," reveals a flaw of mine. I can write almost anything in the world with confidence. But put me on a stage, like when I appeared on the Brent and Brandi radio show, and I get all jelly-legs. Letting people know that you are not perfect—and throwing in a funny story to illustrate it—will get your readers on your side faster than anything.

2. Make fun of yourself. This is a favorite of mine. (Maybe it's because I have such good rich material.) Rather than making your reader the subject, if you are able to laugh at yourself, your prospects or customers will not be put off and may just see a little bit of themselves in it, too.

3. Use empathy. Put yourself in someone else's shoes. If your reader can see that you know what they are feeling, you have made a friend. Try writing from your reader's viewpoint.

4. Exaggerate. Just take something simple and expand on it. Stretch it. I wrote an article recently about the explosion of "social media experts" and seven warning signs that yours might not really be one. One sign was that he was selling cars yesterday. Now this is an exaggeration (although I've seen "experts" who left a job selling insulation, so who knows?). Another sign your social media expert might be a fake: He or she wants to show you how to get 10,000 Twitter followers in 8 hours. I took an already inflated number and went over the top with it.

5. Let your readers in on secrets. My website bio tells what I love to do. It also tells readers that I know every line of dialogue from Spinal Tap, I can juggle, I've been to Timbuktu—literally—and I can say "four knives will be sufficient" in Swahili. Not your normal (dry, serious) bio stuff.

What do you think? Do you think that humor, used in the right ways, brings us together? Is there anything we have to be careful with when using it?

2009 in Review: Popular Blog Posts You Might Have Missed

2009 was a year of growth here at the Cat's Eye Marketing blog.

But because so many of our regular readers have jumped in recent months, some of them—and some of you—may have missed articles that can make you a better, more productive marketer.

This year-in-review post gives you the articles that readers found most interesting, based on reader stats and page views.

 Most popular posts of 2009

March 2009

I talked in a post about how a tweet, taken out of context, can be misunderstood:

Twitter in a Sound Bite World: How a Single Tweet Can Offend a Follower

In a guest post for Jay Ehret's Marketing Spot blog, I wrote about how linking goals with, a worthy charity can help a small business in many ways in:

Between Selfish Giving and Doing Good: 7 Tips for Authentic Cause Marketing

June 2009

Twitter again proved to be a popular topic in June, when I published this article on what we can learn from 104-year-old Ivy Bean, the world's oldest twitterer, who tweets from a nursing home in Bradford, England:

The World's Oldest Twitterer: Social Media Lessons from IvyBean104

August 2009

In another guest post on Jay Ehret's blog, readers found tips for showing up as their real selves online:

5 Steps to a Unique Social Media Profile

September 2009

I gave you some ways to tame the social media beast:

Get Off the Hamster Wheel: 5 Ways to Avoid Social Media Overload

Another popular post was my 9-11 story about Bella, an 8-year-old girl who got a shot of post-ground zero hope from a NYC firefighter named JJ.

One Girl, One Hero: A September 11 Story

October 2009

A post on the strange things that connect us on social media:

What Connects Us in Social Media: Puppets, Davenports and Other Stuff

And why emotion-based marketing works:

You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, You'll Buy Stuff: 5 Strategies for Emotion-based Marketing

November 2009

On November 3, Bob and I lost a family member, our beloved Nuz, Cat's Eye mascot and the sweetest cat there ever was. Here is his story:

The Cat From Cat's Eye: In Memory of the Nuz

 

And if you are not a subscriber to the Cat's Eye Marketing blog, I invite you to sign up in an RSS reader or receive posts by email.

Happy Holidays!

 

"Anything You Say Can and Will be Used Against You…": 3 Easy Ways to Protect Your Online Reputation

I loved those cop shows. Dragnet. Hill Street Blues. Law and Order. All the poor losers in handcuffs sneering as the detective read them their rights:

You have the right to remain silent.

Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

I know. Talking to cops and talking online are two different things. But these days, it's easy to forget that anything we say online can be used against us.

You may be in places online you never dreamed you would be

Your online talk can be used against you. But will it?

Yeah, sometimes.

The other day, I was scanning a blog post written by a social media consultant. About mid-way through, something caught my eye. It was a screenshot of three people's Twitter updates. What struck me right away was how the blog author had specifically called people out for what he thought was bad online behavior—without any context. Just one isolated tweet from three people's Twitter streams.

The author's topic was the new LinkedIn feature (not even one week old) that, unless the user changes their settings, will automatically publish their most recent tweet on their LinkedIn profile.

The blogger, in an attempt to "teach" us how to use (and not to use) the new feature, had pointed out a "good example" of how to link a tweet to LinkedIn. If he had left it at that, and talked in more general terms about which tweets shouldn't be posted on LinkedIn and why, well, that would have been one thing.

But he went on to spotlight what he called a wrong way, and a totally inappropriate and unprofessional way.

And there they were, for all the world to see, names and faces plastered on a blog post like some wanted sign on a telephone pole.

It left me with the thought that he was the unprofessional one, illustrating a point by bringing down other people. But there it was.

What was the takeaway for me?

A single tweet can appear anywhere in the e-universe. Out of context and misleading.

The problem is, you might not even know about it.

 

And what's up with Facebook?

You may have two different accounts on Facebook: one personal, for friends and family, and one business. Maybe you even have business colleagues who are in your personal Facebook network, too.

But did you know, as of December 9, that Facebook, in an attempt to compete with Twitter, has made their "Everyone Update" the new default? What that means is that the updates you thought were only going to your FB friends are suddenly accessible to everyone on the web—unless you change your privacy settings.

In the early part of 2010, Bing will be allowed access to Everyone Updates. Experts predict that Google will soon follow, paying for syndication rights, too.

And Facebook even admits:

If you delete "everyone" content that you posted on Facebook, we will remove it from your Facebook profile, but have no control over its use outside of Facebook.

So be careful out there, people. You've been warned.

Sort of.

For more details on Facebook's new privacy policy, see Jason Kincaid's excellent post on TechCrunch, The Facebook Privacy Fiasco Begins.

3 easy ways to protect your online reputation

We've all seen the totally stupid tweets:

My friend took my car keys away because I was too drunk to drive.

Working with a clueless client who doesn't get social media.

8am. Looking out office window with worst hangover I've ever had.

These were actual tweets that migrated through my Twitter stream. Whether you are tweeting, blogging, writing a Facebook update or having a conversation in an online forum, it's a good idea to stop and think before you hit that submit button.

Because what you say about yourself, your family, your clients and customers will be out there as part of your digital footprint.

At the minimum:

1.    Don't say anything that could be remotely used against you—or discourage a prospective customer from doing business with you. This gets tricky because it's not just the obvious: revealing things about yourself that are better left unsaid, saying mean or negative things about your clients (even if you don't name them, your prospects are watching and thinking about what you may say about them if they work with you), a divisive political rant. Or, it might be merely a public discussion you had with someone that somebody else pulls out of context and republishes.

 

2.    Monitor your reputation. This is getting easier to do with all the online services, many of them free, that have hit the market. I am fond of a tool called steprep, which informs you about what people are saying about you and your business and actually allows you to promote the good things so your customers find them first. You can do other things there, too, like asking friends and colleagues to recommend you as a trusted source.

 

3.    Respond if you think someone is saying something false or misleading about you. If you find something negative, like my example of the blogger above who labeled other people in an attempt to boost his own credibility, you should consider contacting them. If you feel that what they have said is false or misleading, ask them to remove it.

What about you?

Are you concerned about protecting your online reputation? Do you know what is being said about you on the web? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. 

10 for 2010: Flab-Busting Marketing Tips for Busy People

It's Black Friday 2009. The beginning of the madness, the 35-day countdown to 2010.

I know it seems early, but 35 days, come on.

Each year, bloggers come out with posts in the last week of December: Be a Stunning Success in 2010 or Make Twice as Much in 2010 in Half the Time.

I hate those blog posts with the titles that promise you the world. Because if it were that easy, we'd all be living on the French Riviera with wedges of aged Camembert and glasses of fine Merlot. 

I like the simple, practical stuff. The marketing ideas that, if you put two or three of them together—and actually work them, daily—you'll see results. Not the go--golfing-and-check-your iPhone-for-the-thousands-you're-making-each-hour kind of results. Because, let's face it, that's just a lot of hype.

And since in the real world, we don't just all go golfing (or go to sleep) and watch the money roll in like a tsunami, I offer these ten tips.

The thing is, though, they'll work a whole lot better if you make time in the next 35 days to try at least one of them, hopefully more. This is the perfect day to start. That turkey stuffiness—or as my Twitter friend Sonia Simone calls, it "pie hangover"—has loosened its grip on you. And you are probably finished with the Black Friday crazies (if you even ventured out to the mall).

Here are my 10 marketing tips for 2010, from the simple to the takes-some-work-but-definitely-worth-it:

Simple

1. Create a 'smart' e-mail signature line. You have a free marketing tool to use every day—multiple times a day. Are you making the best use of it?

2. Collect results-focused testimonials for your website. Two parts here: know the most effective questions to ask and follow the right sequence of steps.

3. Write your first guest blog post. You can triple or quadruple traffic to your own site with a unique, well-written guest post. Here's how to do it.

4. Leave comments on other blogs regularly. There are many benefits to leaving comments on other blogs. Follow this simple, 5-step process.

 

A little more work

5. Grow your e-newsletter subscriber list. Maybe you have a newsletter but you'd like to have more than 27 subscribers. Because, man, it's hard work putting that quality content out each week. Grow your list and you'll grow your business.

6. Create a marketing calendar—and follow it. Map out where you want to go and how you will get therewith a simple calendar. Start with just 30 days and build from there.

7. Write (or refresh) your website's FAQ page. Your customers might have the slightest, silliest littlequestion that, if you answered it on your website's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, you'd get a sale. Why not tackle (or rewrite) it?

 Even more work (but definitely worth it)

8. Start a blog. If you don't have one, it might be dizzying to think about, but consider starting your own blog. With WordPress, you can manage it easily.

9. Send out an e-newsletter. If you break it into pieces, it's not so hard to do. Just be sure to get permission from prospects and customers first; choose your delivery service with care; create qualitycontent; focus your formatting on readability and the needs of web scanners and skimmers; and find your unique voice.

10. Redesign your website. Take a look at your current site. Is it clean and easy-to-navigate? Doesit really reflect all the cool things you are doing now? Watch for signs that you may need a makeover. If you're thinking maybe so, here are some website design trends for 2010. 

If these tips were helpful, you can get ideas like this delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning when you sign up for Marketing Hotspots, our free weekly e-tip. 

Content Marketing: Why Are You Giving All That Good Stuff Away?

I have a marketing friend, a smart guy named Bill Doerr, who describes his target market as biz owners whose greatest assets are "between their ears and above their shoulder blades."

How's that for a definition of your pool of prospects? Immediately I get a picture of his clients. Business coaches. Sales consultants. Mortgage brokers. Accountants.

He works with professionals from many different fields, helping them find the best ways to market their services. But his clients have one thing in common.

They all sell their expertise.

And the smart ones have figured something out.

They know that it can be scary choosing a marketing firm or graphic designer or real estate agent from a Google search.

They know that a website alone won't convince most people to hire you.

They know that, before a prospect picks up the phone, they want to know that you can solve their problem. That you know what you are doing, And that their hard-earned dollars will not be sucked into a swirling vortex. 

That disconnect can be a huge problem.

Because if people don't know anything about you, how can they trust you with their taxes or home purchase or marketing copy?

The smart ones have figured it out. They have discovered content marketing.

They are feeding their prospects fresh, helpful, content-rich tips in snack-sized bites. In e-newsletters. In blogs. In Internet article directories.

And, yes, they are giving it away.

"But how can you make a living giving stuff away?"

I got a sweet email last week from a subscriber to Marketing Hotspots, our free weekly e-tip. He said:

I have been enjoying Marketing Hotspots from the very first issue. What has me stumped is I can't figure out how you can be making a living on this. I don't remember sending any money or seeing anything that says anyone who gets Hotspots has to pay for it.

I guess I am just dense.

I was struck by his honesty.  And the fact that he wondered why I wasn't charging for the content. That one made me smile.

Because free content is only remarkable when it adds value.

This subscriber I happened to know well. He leans toward the old school marketing side. You provide a service. Your customer pays. You get to buy groceries. Or pay your electric bill. Or your mortgage.

The content marketing piggy bank

I answered my friend's question in an email something like this:

You are right. We do not charge for Marketing Hotspots. It's free, useful content. But you know what? I can't count the number of times we have gotten a call on a Tuesday (the day Hotspots comes out) from someone who is having just the kind of problem that particular issue focused on.

And they say:

"You hit me at just the right time. I need help with just this thing. Can you help me?"

Other times, I'll get emails like:

"Wow. This e-tip seems to have been written just for me this week. Thanks!"

or

"This e-tip was particularly helpful. I'm going to take your advice."

So it all goes into the content marketing piggy bank. The good will. The increased trust. The credibility building. And when the time is right, you open the piggy bank. And you know what happens next. 

Used right, content marketing helps you: 

1. Build trust. As your prospects get to know you, they also come to trust you. They know you will not take advantage of them because you are always so darned helpful. Giving while asking for nothing in return builds trust. And eventually they trust you enough to ask if you can solve a problem for them. And you get a new client.

2. Show how much you know. Your blog, your newsletter, your articles, that free report are perfect for positioning yourself as the one who understands your clients' problems and can show them how to solve them—or how you can solve them. On places like biznik.com, even at the free membership level, you can write content-rich articles that are rated by others for their helpfulness, on a scale from 1 to 10. I publish articles there regularly. Because it builds my credibility as an expert.

3. Strengthen relationships. Every email you get, "Thank you for the social media profile copywriting tips. I'm going to my LinkedIn profile right now to make some changes!", every comment on your blog post or article, brings you closer to your clients and prospective customers. They get to know you better, you get to know them better. And you have a deeper understanding of their issues and problems.

It's true that people may run with your advice in a do-it-yourself kind of way. Sometimes, though, they have one of two problems: They don't have the skills or they don't have the time. In both cases, they will probably pick up the phone and call you. Or they might forward the issue to a friend who is having just this kind of problem. 

If they trust you, if they see you as an expert and if they feel that you have taken the time to develop a relationship with them.

What do you think? Does content marketing make sense for your business? Are you using it as a strategy? Are you considering it? 

Writing Mistakes That Make You Look Stupid: 5 Things Your Teacher Was Right About

Recently I read an article on writing that encouraged bloggers to forget everything about writing they learned in school.

Yeah, sometimes English teachers can overload you with reading books by dead white authors.

It's not exactly the way to get the hang of writing to inform, engage and entertain. You know, like the good bloggers and content marketers do?

I believe in breaking the rules—when it makes sense and doesn't make you look stupid.

Take my blog post title. You are never supposed to end a sentence with a preposition like "of" or "about," right? The right way to write that title would be:

5 Things About Which Your Teacher Was Right.

Now read that aloud. It's silly, clunky and downright stupid sounding. So don't write it that way. Go ahead. Break the rule.

But there are other rules you shouldn't break. Because when you do, your readers lose faith in you. Your silly mistakes make them stop reading. Or they just get so distracted about the wrong word choice that it's all they can see, in a blinking-stoplight-at-an-intersection kind of way.

 

5 things your teacher was right about

1. Use exclamation points sparingly. You've seen it before. A piece of marketing copy that screams at you:

Sign up now! Don't wait! Time is running out! Get your online marketing ebook for just $19.99! It'll give you everything you need to know to start your own online business! Offer good until December 31, 2009! Click here to order!

Okay, the exclamation point test. Read the above paragraph aloud. For every sentence that has an exclamation point at the end, read with the proper emotion. That would be with extreme excitement. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Does it sound a little silly? Of course it does. I don't use exclamation points a lot. When I do, it's to scream.

2. Use apostrophes in the right way. This one gets me going. A lot. Someone will write:

The movie had it's moments, but, mostly, it was boring.

Okay, test time. Every time you use an apostrophe, say the sentence using the two separate words instead (in this case, "it is" instead of "it's). If it still makes sense, you've used the apostrophe correctly. If it doesn't make sense, lose that apostrophe. In the above sentence, it would read:

The movie had it is moments, but, mostly, it was boring.

The writer should have used "its" instead of "it's."

3. Dump the clichés. I wrote one post on clichés and then another, so I won't go on and on here. Just know that words like "killer" and "awesome" and "rock star" make you sound like every other writer out there. Find your unique voice and use it.

4. Avoid 'throat clearing.' I love this term. I heard it first from Chris Brogan. One of the rules in the classic book on writing by Strunk and White says it a little differently: "Omit needless words." Whatever you want to call it, it means getting the scissors out and cutting anything that doesn't add meaning or value to your sentence. Take the first sentence of this memo: 

It has come to my attention that we are having a problem with some of our staff who are arriving late and leaving early. 

The writer doesn't need the first seven words. Because if it hadn't come to her attention, how could she be writing about it? So, removing those and other needless words, you have: 

Some staff are arriving late and leaving early. 

Then go on to explain how that is hurting the company and what should be done about it. 

5. Adverbs are not your friends. This one comes from the great Stephen King in his book On Writing. He goes so far as to say, "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." Use a strong verb instead. It's much more powerful. Take the sentence:

He closed the door firmly.

Is the word "firmly" really necessary? Why not say instead: 

He slammed the door.

 It's okay to use adverbs. Just be careful, so when you do use one, it makes your sentence stand out. Mostly though, you should just avoid them. 

Do you see writing mistakes that make you cringe? Care to share them?