MackCollier.com

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Give Up Control to Get Control

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“I just said we gotta do this, this is at the heart of the brand.  We’ve got a real problem in losing control of our ability to talk to friends.” – Former Maker’s Mark CEO Bill Samuels Jr. on how he pitched the idea of launching a brand ambassador program to his Board of Directors.

I am in love with this quote right now.

Often when a business considers launching a brand ambassador program or even a fan-engagement strategy on a smaller scale, one of the key worries is a loss of control.  Companies fear giving more control over to their customers and letting these customers have any significant amount of say and control over the path that the program takes.

These companies can only see that they will be losing control.  They can’t see what they will be gaining.

In my book Think Like a Rock Star, I’ve included several case studies from where rock stars gave their fans control of a message, idea, program.  What do rock stars like The Donnas, Katy Perry and Jewel understand about their customers that your company does not?  Why would they give away control so freely to their fans and actually look for the opportunity to do so?

Because rock stars understand that when you give control to your fans, you get back their trust.

When you give up control, you gain trust.  And people advocate for brands and people that they trust.

In the Maker’s Mark example, the brand had always prided itself on having a one-to-one relationship with its most passionate customers.  Maker’s Mark truly embodied the rock star mindset of embracing your fans.  But as the brand grew beyond just a small Kentucky brand into a national brand, it meant that its network of fans became national as well.  So the founders realized that the brand had lost control of its ability to connect directly with its biggest fans.

The solution?  A brand ambassador program.  With a brand ambassador program, Maker’s Mark had a vehicle that let the brand connect directly with its biggest fans (its brand advocates), and by extension, it could then connect with all the customers that the brand ambassadors came in contact with.  By creating this program and giving up some control to its members, Maker’s Mark regained control of its ability to connect direct with its fans.  It regained the ability to connect with its fans that it lost when the brand went national.

Maker’s Mark understands what most rock stars do: That if you embrace your biggest fans, you will gain their loyalty, and their trust.  And they will work for you to help build your brand.

Sometimes it’s worth it to give up something small, to get something bigger in return.

Pic via Flickr user LunchBoxStudios

PS: Every week we discuss how your brand can create more passionate fans in the Think Like a Rock Star newsletter.  Click here to signup for free.

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The Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Blogging SEO

UPDATE: Here’s tonight’s #Blogchat transcript! (Click ‘Transcript’ on the left to view).

Well this is a topic I can definitely blog about, since I am no SEO expert!  We will also be discussing this topic tonight (Sunday, July 21st 2013) at #Blogchat on Twitter.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  Effectively, what you are doing is ‘helping’ search engines understand what topics you are writing about.

A great way to do this is to use keywords and phrases that tie back to your topic, in your blog post itself.  For example, notice that the phrase ‘Blogging SEO’ appears in this post’s title, as well as throughout the post itself.  By placing this phrase in the title and in the post itself, I am helping Google and other search engines to recognize what this post is about.

So when someone searches for a term related to blogging SEO, or blogs and SEO, this post will likely do better in search results as a result of me using those specific words.  This is why you’ll see bloggers often write their blog post titles in the form of a question.  Such as ‘So what’s the best way to use Twitter?’  Because if someone does a Google search for the term ‘What’s the best way to use Twitter?’ that post will rank higher in search results for that exact term!

So if you are just getting started trying to optimize your blog posts for search, think about which keywords you are using with every post.  And then focus on using those keywords in three locations:

1 – The post title.  Notice that for this post ‘Blogging SEO’ is in the title.  So if someone searches for ‘Blogging SEO’, that will help this post rank higher in the results.

2 – The post itself.  I have repeated the term ‘Blogging SEO’ several times in this post.  That further helps to impress on Google and other search engines that this post is about blogging SEO, and should be higher in the search results.

3 – The post’s URL.  This is a tip that a lot of blogger’s miss.  Notice that the URL for this post is https://mackcollier.com/blogging-seo  The keywords ‘blogging SEO’ are literally part of the post’s URL!  That also helps Google identify that this post is about Blogging SEO.

 

So those are some beginner tips for optimizing your blog content for search, and you’ll get a ton more tips tonight during #Blogchat, starting at 8pm Central time.

Finally, I know that #Blogchat has been hammered by a few spammers lately, so I have embedded the tweets here, and most of the spam tweets should be deleted from here.  So if you want please follow along with #Blogchat here!

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Are Your Owning or Renting Your Social Media Presences?

iStock_000015529331MediumThe last few weeks I have been thinking a lot about this.  It seems a lot of the free social media tools that we are ‘renting’ have come under fire, or disappeared.

Google Reader went away, disrupting how readers subscribe to and receive our posts.

Twitter suddenly changed its API rules or some such for 3rd party sites that many of us were using to follow Twitter chats such as TweetChat and TweetDeck.

Rumors are that Feedburner will go away soon.

It’s more important now than ever before to make sure that you are creating and distributing content via tools that you own versus rent.  This is a big reason why I have always preferred a self-hosted blog over Facebook or even Twitter.  Because you have control over what happens on your blog far more than you do on other social media sites.

For example, for the past few days, the #Blogchat hashtag on Twitter has been overrun with spammers.  My only option really is to ask Twitter to please do something about it.  Which I have, and still the problem persists.  Because it’s a problem that’s happening on a site that I don’t control.  I’ve already started thinking about ways that I can bring more of the #Blogchat conversation here, where I have more control over it.

With Google Reader going away and Feedburner likely following soon, I’ve shifted my focus away from trying to get subscribers of this blog, but instead to building my newsletter list.  I can own that list and have control over it.

So when you start using social media, especially as a channel to create content, think about the tradeoffs you are potentially making between reach, and ownership of that content.  It’s always a good idea to have your ‘homebase’ for your content be a space that you control, such as a self-hosted blog.

For the rest of you, what changes have you made in light of recent changes to Twitter and Google Reader going away?  Has it made you re-think where you invest your time with blogging and social media?

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How Do You Organize the Information On Your Blog?

UPDATE: Here’s the transcript from tonight’s #blogchat!

I am currently helping a friend launch their new website.  One of the things she’s trying to figure out is what information goes on the site’s homepage, and in what order.  You should be thinking about the same things on your blog.

For starters, ask yourself what are the top three things that you want someone to do once they visit your blog.  And prioritize your answers.

If I came to your blog right now, what’s the ONE thing you want me to do?

If I don’t that one thing, what’s your 2nd choice?  3rd?

For example, I am using my blog here as a way to create valuable content for current and potential clients.  So my blog is technically a way to get a relationship started with you where I provide you with content that’s valuable to you, that will hopefully lead to us doing business at some point down the road, or hopefully you referring me to someone that needs my help.

So notice that at the very top of my blog, next to the content, is my signup place for my TLARS newsletter.  That’s the ONE thing I want a visitor to do when they come here, is signup for my newsletter.  So I put it front and center.  If a new visitor doesn’t signup for my newsletter, I want them to at least read my post and comment.  So I also highlight recent commenters, to show readers that if they comment, they will get the spotlight put on their comments.  Also, I have Popular Posts listed at the top right, because I want you to find as much valuable information as possible, so you will want to keep reading my blog and tell others about it.

Now if I was launching my first blog today, my top goal for this blog would probably be to use it as a tool to directly sell my consulting services.  But over the last 4 years, I have tried repeatedly to use the blog to directly drive consulting sales, and I’ve had very poor results.  Through simple trial and error, I’ve learned that visitors here would rather connect with me, build a relationship with me, and then do business with me.  So now the focus of my blog’s organization is geared toward us staying in contact and building that relationship.

Want to discuss this more?  You’re in luck, we are going to discuss this topic tonight at #Blogchat, starting at 8pm Central!  If you have some points or comments you’d like to make before the chat, feel free to leave a comment here, and we’ll chat up your point.

And after the chat ends, come back here to continue the discussion, and I will post the transcript here as well!

Also, here’s the #blogchat tweets for this week:

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How Can Employers Help Their Employees Become Advocates For Their Brand?

Today’s #RockStarChat topic will focus on how companies can cultivate brand advocates and fans from their own employees.  Seriously how can a company hope to excite its customers if its own employees aren’t excited about working for the company?  We’ll discuss this at 1pm Central today, and luckily a few members of Dell’s Social Media and Digital team have volunteered to stop by and talk about how Dell does just this.

Basically, I think the process for creating fans among your employees is similar to creating fans among your customers.  First, you need to focus on ways to connect directly with your employees, and they to you.  There needs to be some way for employees to voice their thoughts, ideas and concerns to the company, and understand that their voice is being heard.

Second, there needs to be an effort made to connect employees to each other.  Many companies have started creating internal social networks that allow employees to connect with each other and ask work-related questions, help each other, or just talk about their life and interests.  These channels are vital to the employees as it lets them help each other (boosting productivity) but also hits them boost morale and their connection to their fellow co-workers.  If you already have a copy of Think Like a Rock Star, I talk about doing this in Chapters 7 and 8.

Those are just a couple of quick thoughts as I’m far more interested in hearing what y’all have to say about today’s topic.  But I do think that before any company can think about launching any type of program to cultivate fans or connect with brand ambassadors, it needs to invest in creating channels that connect their own employees.  To each other, and to the company they work for.

See y’all at 1pm Central, follow the #rockstarchat tweets on Twitter.

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Mitch Joel is Co-Hosting #Blogchat tonight!

Mitch Joel

UPDATE: Here’s the transcript from our chat with Mitch!

I’m super-pumped to announce that Mitch Joel will be joining #Blogchat tonight at 8pm Central!  Mitch will chat with us about how he does blogging, as well as his new book, Ctrl-Alt-Delete!  Here’s the schedule:

1 – 8:00-8:15PM – We talk about where Mitch gets his blogging ideas from.  I always find it fascinating to see where bloggers such as Mitch that have been blogging so well for so long get their ideas from.

2 – 8:15-8:30PM – We talk about Mitch’s view of responding to commenters.  Many bloggers are told that you should respond to commenters, but Mitch typically does not, and he’ll tell us more about his thought process behind this.

3 – 8:30-8:45PM – We talk about some of the most important lessons Mitch has learned from blogging.

4 – 8:45-9:00PM – We’ll close out #Blogchat by talking about Mitch’s new book, Ctrl-Alt-Delete!

 

It should be a great and VERY fast-paced chat with Mitch, so make sure you are following him on Twitter, and reading his excellent blog, Six Pixels of Separation!  See everyone at 8pm Central tonight!

PS: Want to sponsor #Blogchat in August?  Here’s details on what you’ll get, email me to discuss pricing!

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Think Like a Rock Star Speaking Stops in the Fall

We’re now in the 2nd half of 2013, and I’m pretty excited because it means I’m about to hit the road to present Think Like a Rock Star!  I’ll be presenting TLARS at several stops mainly in the Deep South for the rest of the year.  The best part is that I am revamping the Think Like a Rock Star presentation with its first major revisions in three years!  So if you’ve seen the presentation before, this version will be new to you and will focus on new areas that I haven’t covered in the past.

Here’s the confirmed stops so far:

July:

Y’all Connect, Birmingham, AL, July 23rd.  The regular ticket price is $129, but if you use code ‘MACKSPKR’ at this link, you’ll get a $20 discount!  I will be presenting Think Like a Rock Star and doing a book signing.  Plus we will have the first LIVE #Blogchat of 2013 at Y’all Connect!  Just a huge bargain at only $109 with the code.

August:

Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism, Huntsville, AL, August 19th

September:

TBA, Huntsville, AL, September 19th

Social Media Club, Nashville, September 19th (Can’t wait to get back to Nashville!)

October:

New Orleans AMA, October 17th

November:

The Social Media Tourism Symposium, Huntsville, AL, November 6-8th.  I’ll be keynoting Think Like a Rock Star here as well.

 

At each stop I will be doing a book-signing as well.  Also, if you would like to have me speak at your event or company function, please email me and let’s talk!  Inbetween the presentation itself as well as a book signing, potentially a Live #Blogchat, etc, we’ll put together a plan that will give your event a ton of value and easily re coop any expenses involved and make you money.

Hope to see you this Fall!

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How Many Social Media Sites Should Your Business Use?

I help businesses of all sizes learn how to better incorporate social media into their marketing efforts and grow their business and cultivate fans.  Perhaps the most common question I hear (especially from small businesses) is ‘How active should we be with social media?’

The problem is this:  Too often in this space, companies are told that they need to ‘be everywhere’ when it comes to social media.  They are told they need to keep and maintain a presence on every major social media site, plus any ’emerging’ one.  Because you never know when today’s ‘shiny object’ will become tomorrow’s Facebook.

Ok so let’s say you are a small business that has 5 employees, and you can only have one of those employees devote 4 hours a week to social media.  If that one person is asked to spend those 4 hours a week maintaining 8 different social media sites as well as a blog, what type of results do you think they can expect?

The crappy kind.

The worst thing you can do as a business is to spread yourself too thin with social media.  If you are ON a social media site, your customers are expecting you to be there and be engaged there.  So my advice to businesses is to do less with social media, not more.  I would much rather see you only use 2 social media tools and use those two tools well, versus trying to use 10 different tools, and failing at all of them.

For reference, I use social media to help market and grow my marketing consulting business.  Almost all of my social media usage to that aim is reserved for just two tools:  This blog, and Twitter.  I’m not active on Instagram or Pinterest or really even Plus.  Why?  Cause I am one person and can’t be everywhere.

You can’t either.  If you want to decide if you should be using a social media tool, ask yourself two questions:

1 – Are my customers using this site?  If they aren’t, then you probably shouldn’t be either.  If they are, then ask yourself…

2 – Are my customers using this site to talk about my business and/or the products/services my business creates?  If they are, then you should probably be using that social media site/tool.  If not, then you probably shouldn’t be there.

That’s it.  And if it turns out that you can find 5 social media sites that fit this bill, then you need to prioritize the sites in order of importance for your business to use.  Then see how many of those 5 sites you can find time to maintain a valuable presence on.

But if you really want to use social media effectively, think about using fewer social media tools, not more.  Start out small, and nail that, then you can expand into using more social media tools if it makes business sense to do so.

So the next time your boss worries about using social media and thinks that they can’t afford to ‘be everywhere’, tell her I said its ok to start small.  The world will not end tomorrow if your business doesn’t launch an Instagram account today 🙂

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A Special ‘Thank You’ For Buying/Reviewing Think Like a Rock Star

Earlier this month I was the closing keynote for an all-day social media event that the AMA held.  I presented Think Like a Rock Star to close the event.  Due to some technical issues, I couldn’t appear live, and had to record the hour-long presentation.

So here’s what I want to do:  If you have bought or reviewed Think Like a Rock Star, I want to give you access to this hour-long webinar for free.  This is a small way of saying ‘Thank you’ to all the fans of this book that have been so supportive!

So if you want to access the webinar for free, there’s two ways you can do that:

1 – Forward me your receipt from Amazon (or B&N) to [email protected].

2 – Forward me a link to your review of the book on Amazon, GoodReads, B&N, or your blog.

Do one of those 2 things, then I will email you the link to the password-protected post that has the webinar.

What if you haven’t bought or reviewed the book yet?  No worries, either buy the book today and forward me your receipt today, or post a review on Amazon, GoodReads, B&N, or your blog, and forward me that link.  Or if you like, you can buy a signed copy of Think Like a Rock Star directly from me for $30 shipped (continental US only).  Email me if you want to buy a copy and I’ll send you a PayPal invoice.    And I’ll hook you up with the webinar for free.

That’s it!  Again, thank you SO much for supporting Think Like a Rock Star!

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Three Ways to Create Content That Creates Fans

KatyFireworkOver the past few years there has been a big surge in the use of the term ‘content marketing’.  And really, the idea that your content IS your marketing.  As social media usage has become mainstream, we’ve all become content creators.  The impact this has for marketers is that promotional content is far less effective than it used to be. Brands are competing now with their own customers for the attention of new customers.

The reason being?  Because customers are typically creating more compelling content than brands.  Customers are creating value for each other via the content they create and the content they share.

But this idea of ‘creating value’ gets tossed around a lot, and pretty loosely.  Along with its first-cousin, creating ‘awesome’ content/blog posts, etc.  Today I want to talk about three ways to create content that creates fans.  But I also want you to understand that these approaches create fans because they create a positive change for the reader.  They are making the reader better by giving them a new skill, a new perspective, or simply inspiring them to take action and ownership.  You create fans by moving them to take action.  That action can be to help others, or it can be to help and better themselves.  But it creates a positive change for the reader.  As Kathy says in the foreword to Think Like a Rock Star, “Rock stars aren’t just making better fans, they’re making their fans better.”  Ask yourself how your content will do exactly that when you create it.

Here’s three ways your content can create fans:

1 – By teaching.  This one is probably the easiest to wrap your mind around because the benefit to the reader is so clear.  If you teach the reader how to be better at something, then obviously your content has created value for them.  You’ve given them a new skillset, a new ‘superpower’.

Where this becomes interesting is when you apply it to a blogging business.  Many companies will say ‘well why would I want to teach my customers to do this stuff for themselves, then I am just blogging myself out of business!’  Actually, you’re growing your business.  Teaching your readers not only creates fans, it establishes you as the expert.  I am reading Jay Baer’s new book Youtility right now, and he opens with a great story of how Robert Stephens, the founder of Geek Squad, responded when questioned about how he was killing his business chances by creating videos showing his customers how to solve their own computer problems.  He made this same point, that he was giving his customers a skillset, but that many of them couldn’t solve their problems as effectively as the videos showed, so they ended up contacting Geek Squad to help them.  And even if the customers did learn how to solve their own computer problems as a result of the videos, that still creates positive word of mouth for Geek Squad.  So either way, Geek Squad wins.

2 – By raising awareness.  This one is tricky.  You want to create content that raises awareness of idea, theory or belief that your customers and fans are passionate about.  But at the same time, you want to give them ways that they can get involved to help affect a positive change, even if that simply means spreading the word to others.  Remember that taking ownership is taking power, so if you can give readers an incentive to become involved and take ownership, that gives them the incentive to help spread your message.

An example of this is what Innocent Drinks does with The Big Knit.  This is an annual event the UK company has that’s designed to give its customers a way to help the elderly in the winter months by giving them clothing and sources of heat.  Every year Innocent Drinks asks its customers to knit hoodies and caps that will fit over its bottles, which are then sold and a portion of the proceeds go to provide heat for the elderly in the winter.  The event raises awareness of a problem, and then gives customers a way to participate in helping to solve that problem.  Participants then take ownership in helping to create the solution to the problem.  And that’s empowering, which is one reason why the quirky drink company from the UK has so many fans.

3 – By inspiring others to take action.  This can go along with raising awareness, but the key is that the action you are inspiring readers to take can often be for themselves.  You are inspiring them to become involved in something, to make a different to someone, and that someone could be themselves.

A big reason why Tim Ferriss’ books are so wildly popular is because he is a master at creating a positive change for his readers.  Just a few days ago he had a guest post by one of Tim’s fans telling how she applied his teachings on how to eat, cook and exercise to lose 100 pounds.  This is incredibly powerful because this content isn’t coming from Tim, it’s coming from one of his fans.  She is telling her story (with compelling visual evidence) of how Tim’s teachings created a very positive change in her life, and in the process her story inspires others to take action.  As a bonus, note at the end of the post how Tim is creating a free support group for others that are attempting to reach similar goals as Briana.  That’s another way that Tim creates fans because actions such as this show that he has their best interests in mind.

 

So there are three ways to create content that creates fans.  But remember that the common thread running through these ideas is creating a positive change for the reader.  You are giving them a new skill, or giving them a way to take action, or the inspiration they need to get started.  You are helping them to move forward.  If you can create content that does this, then you will also create fans.