MackCollier.com

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Get Off My Lawn! Blog For Your Own Audience!

book publishing, writing a book

It’s far too easy in this social media bubble we live in to forget who we are blogging for sometimes.  It’s easy to look over and see how this blogger is blogging 5 times a week and (apparently) getting big traffic.  Or how this blogger is being more ‘controversial’ in her posts and that seems to be getting a reaction from her readers.

And here you sit with a blog that gets no comments and that averages 1 new post a week.  It’s FAR too easy to become jealous of other bloggers that you feel are more successful than you are.  That get more engagement, that seem to get more speaking gigs, etc etc etc.

But you always have to remember that you’re not writing for those bloggers, you are writing for your audience.  You don’t measure your success based on how many posts you write versus how many Jay does or if your blog gets anywhere close to as many comments as Gini’s does.

At the end of the day you need to define your blogging success by answering this question:  Am I creating content that’s valuable to my target audience, that’s helping me grow my business?  If you can answer ‘yes’ to that question, then what happens on my blog or anyone else’s blog is absolutely meaningless to your blog.

For example, look at the content that Becky and the gang at Small Biz Survival create:

More photos for your tourism promotions

Square changes the way Small does business

Shop local idea to get everyone playing

Getting your business found

Getting started with heritage tourism

Educate your customers without being taken advantage of

And those posts are just from this month.  Just from reading the titles of those posts you know exactly who Becky and the gang at Small Biz Survival are writing for.  And no, they don’t get a million comments a post.  But the comments they do get are from their exact target audience.  Plus, the content they are creating is helping to establish the blog as THE go-to source for information on how small businesses in small-town America can succeed.

Becky understands that she is writing for a very specific audience, and she creates content that’s laser-focused on what they need to succeed.

You should be doing the same thing.  It doesn’t matter what another blogger is doing on their blog, what matters is how are you serving your readers on your blog?

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Carrie Wilkerson Co-Hosts #Blogchat Tonight Plus OfferPop is April’s Sponsor!

CarrieI’m excited to make TWO big #Blogchat annoucements: The first is that the one and only Carrie Wilkerson will be co-hosting #Blogchat tonight!  Carrie is an entreprenuerial force of nature, who has created a 7-figure income for herself and her family and she mentors over 100,000 people to do the same via social media, email and live teaching.  Social media smarties like Chris Brogan and DJ Waldow trust her to help them take their businesses to the next level.  She’s also been a tremendous help to me and that’s why I wanted to bring her to #Blogchat so that she can help YOU as well!

We’ll be discussing how small businesses, solopreneurs and startups can use blogging to grow their businesses!  Or if you are working a job now and you’ve been considering starting a side-business from home, you will definitely want to attend tonight so you can learn from Carrie, she’s a genius as an idea-generator when it comes to helping people figure out what new products they can launch!

#Blogchat starts tonight at 8pm Central.  Here’s what we’ll be discussing:
8:00-8:30 – How Can a Small Biz get started blogging and what should their goals be?

8:30-9:00 – What should a small biz blog about and how does it lead to sales?

Also, as a special bonus I will be giving away TWO copies of Carrie’s book The Barefoot Executive on CD, read by Carrie.  The winners will be chosen based on participation and engagement, mostly, so feel free to get chatty 😉

OfferpopAnd the second big #Blogchat announcement is that OfferPop is the sponsor for April!  OfferPop helps you engage with your fans, and launch contests and promotions via social media channels, especially Facebook and Twitter.  The service can also help you identity your ‘super fans’, and connect them to one another!  You can also check out client case studies to learn more about the success brands have seen from utilizing OfferPop’s services.  The company itself is growing by leaps and bounds, and just closed 2012 by securing $5.7M in funding.

Additionally, you can sign up for a free 14-day trial of OfferPop without a credit card!  And the pricing is extremely affordable, even for a small business or solopreneur.  Absolutely perfect if you’ve been thinking about experimenting with an online campaign via social media to boost sales!  You can learn more about some of the services and apps that OfferPop provides here.

Finally, our #Blogchat topics for the rest of the month will be chatting about using Twitter and Facebook along with your blog (April 14th), and focusing on the Mobile experience for your content on April 21st, which is a topic we’ve never covered at #Blogchat, so it should be a great discussion.

So please follow Carrie on Twitter, as well as our April sponsor, OfferPop.  See y’all tonight at 8pm Central!

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The Two Most Important Words in Social Media Are ‘Thank You’

ThankYouYesterday on Twitter I started getting tweets from people saying that their copy of Think Like a Rock Star had shipped, or a few even posted pictures of the book as it arrived.  SUCH an amazing feeling for an author to see others excited about receiving my book!

And of course I made a point to thank anyone that tweeted that they had ordered the book.  Then something interesting started happening.  I began to notice that people were favoriting my tweets thanking them!  Really?  Are we so conditioned to being underappreciated that we feel the need to favorite a tweet where someone thanks us?  I had people thanking ME for thanking them!

This is another reason why I think that most people, brands, organizations, etc make proper social media usage way more complicated than it has to be.  When I say ‘thank you’ on Twitter to someone that has helped me, I’m not being a ‘social media expert’, I’m being a decent human being.  In much the same way that using social media doesn’t make you a ‘social’ person, if you treat others with the same kindness and respect via social media that you do offline, you’ll be respected and appreciated online as well.

Don’t make this stuff harder than it needs to be.

Want to instantly get more comments on your blog?  Get in the habit of saying ‘thank you!’ when someone comments.

Want more people to share your content on Twitter?  Get in the habit of saying ‘thank you!’ when someone RTs you.

Reward the type of behavior that you want others to engage in.  In other words, appreciate and thank the people that are helping you, and they will probably keep doing so.

PS: Thanks to everyone that has ordered Think Like a Rock Star.  Amazon actually RAN OUT of copies but I’m being told there are more on the way.  You can order your copy here, and if you are still on the fence as to whether or not you’ll enjoy the book, please check the reviews.

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Think Like a Rock Star is Officially ON SALE!

TLARTWeets

UPDATE: Amazon is currently SOLD OUT of Think Like a Rock Star.  You can still order it, but there’s currently a 6-12 day delay in shipping.  Barnes and Noble still has it in stock for the moment, and it’s the same price as Amazon, $11.00.

Eleven months ago I announced that I was writing Think Like a Rock Star, today I can announce that the book is officially ON SALE!  The book is only $11.00, and here’s 5 reasons why you should buy Think Like a Rock Star TODAY:

1 – Step By Step Instructions In Every Single Chapter: Before writing this book I checked the Amazon reviews for comparable marketing and social media books.  The most common complaint was ‘tells me why I should be doing this, but doesn’t show me how to do it‘.  So I forced myself to show you HOW to do everything, if I tell you WHY it’s important to do something, I also tell you HOW to do it.

2 – Case studies from both the music industry and business side.  Every point made is clearly illustrated by rock stars that use these methods to connect with their fans, as well as businesses that are doing the same thing.  This way you can see what success looks like and it helps you understand the lessons I am teaching.

3 – An entire chapter devoted to responding to angry customers online and converting them into passionate fans.  You not only get exact, step-by-step instructions on how to respond to angry customers, but I also show you why they are angry, so you can avoid this situation in the future.  And case studies are provided of businesses that successfully handled a potential social media firestorm with their customers, and a couple that did not.  This chapter alone is easily worth the price of the book.

4 – The entire book takes you on the journey from being disconnected from your fans, to being a fan-centric organization.  The book starts with teaching you the very basics about connecting with your fans.  Then once those initial connections are made, it teaches you about the process of working with your fans.  Then as those connections grow, I walk you through building formal programs to connect to your fans like outreach programs or brand ambassador programs.  At the end you have a book that walks you through the process to becoming a fan-centric brand, step by step.

5 – It’s a business book that is actually fun to read!  Boring business books are SUCH a pet peeve of mine.  I hate them, and it’s the main reason why I never finish most of the business books I start reading.  Think Like a Rock Star was written to be a fun read, because I am throwing a LOT of information and lessons at you, so if the reading itself isn’t fun and enjoyable, you won’t stick around to process everything you are being taught.  But so far, everyone I have heard from has really enjoyed the book.  And so far ‘The Jewel Story’ seems to be the favorite.  You’ll have to read the book to see if you agree!

BONUS:  Johnny Cash as a case study in a business book.  That alone guarantees that Think Like a Rock Star has to be awesome 🙂

 

Now since this is officially Launch Week on Amazon, you will seriously help me if you buy Think Like a Rock Star this week.  Besides, at $11.00, the book likely won’t go down in price any further, so this is probably the cheapest you’ll ever get it.  And if you have already bought the book, or if you have already read it via NetGalley or another source, would you please go this week and review the book on Amazon, on GoodReads, and on Barnes and Noble?  This will greatly help me as more reviews drive more sales.

Thank you all SO much for your support and encouragement here, on Twitter and Facebook.  It means the world to me and I am so excited to see an idea that I am so passionate about be in book form where it can help companies and brands better appreciate and connect with their biggest fans.

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How The Zac Brown Band Cultivates Fans, By Feeding Them

The power of connecting fans with each other.  It’s a key business lesson that rock stars have long understood, that many brands still don’t get.

About three years ago, The Zac Brown Band started doing something before each concert called an Eat N Greet.  The idea is to bring the band’s biggest fans together before the show, and feed them a ‘gourmet Southern meal’.  But more than that, the band has created a very low-key and comfortable way for their biggest fans to connect with them.  The band serves their fans, then as they are eating Zac Brown and other bandmates will walk around and mingle with the fans and spend time talking to them.  It’s not a time for taking pictures and signing autographs, it’s a time for the band to truly connect with its biggest fans and get to know them a little better.

Last year I blogged about how Taylor Swift does something similar for her biggest fans with the T-Parties.  With both the Zac Brown Band’s Eat N Greet and Taylor’s T-Parties, the idea is to create a special experience for the artist’s biggest fans.  But more than that, these rock stars are creating a way to get their biggest fans together and connect them to each other.  They’ve created an intimate setting where the fans are connected to each other over a love of their favorite artist.

This is important because these fans will share stories with each other about their favorite artist, and it helps validate to them why they love them.  And as the fans connect with each other, it increases the chance that they will become friends themselves, since they now have a very common interest: They are both fans of their favorite artist.

Maker’s Mark does something similar to this with its barrelmates in its brand ambassador program.  Each brand ambassador gets a chance to buy whiskey from a particular barrel.  Their name and the name of 29 other ambassadors goes on each barrel.  The barrel spends several years aging, and as it does, Maker’s Mark creates an online forum to connect these 30 people to each other, and let them get to know one another.  But the common thread here again, is a love of the brand Maker’s Mark.

Again, it’s not that rock stars have a natural advantage that brands do not when it comes to cultivating fans.  It’s that rock stars understand the value of their fans, and relentlessly focus on giving their most passionate customers ‘more than they expect’.

As you watch this video, think about this; What if your brand had a way to connect with its biggest fans, 50 or 100 at a time, all across the country? How would that impact the number of fans that your brand has? The relationship with those fans? Customer loyalty? The amount of sales driven by those fans?

Now ask yourself why you aren’t working to create an amazing experience like this for your biggest fans. And if you want to learn how to get started, I’ve written the very book that shows you how.

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Selling Your Colleagues on the Importance of Connecting With Your Brand’s Fans

community building, online communityThanks to Kelly Hungerford for suggesting today’s #RockstarChat topic: How to Get Colleagues and Employees Involved in the Process to Better Connect With Your Fans.  #RockstarChat will be on Twitter today at 1pm Central.

This is an important topic because as you are trying to build out programs to help your brand better connect with its fans, you will probably encounter some internal resistance.  You may need to convince some of your colleagues of the value of connecting with your brand’s fans.

So to get skeptical co-workers on board, let’s show them how connecting with your brand’s fans will actually help them be more productive and better at their jobs.  If we can show them how connecting with your fans will directly benefit them, your co-workers are far more likely to help you with your efforts.

In Think Like a Rock Star(In Chapter 5), I talk about the four different ways you can work with your fans:

1 – To help you promote your brand

2 – To help you drive sales for your brand

3 – To help you provide customer service

4 – To help you collect customer feedback

So when you are trying to sell a co-worker on the value of connecting with your brand’s fans, ask yourself ‘How would connecting with our fans help this person do their job more effectively?’  For example, if you are trying to sell a marketing manager on the importance of a brand ambassador program, you might point out how connecting with your fans will mean more promotion and exposure for your brand.  If you are trying to get a customer service manager on board, you might show them how your fans can help other customers with their problems, potentially saving your brand money and time dealing with customer service issues.

We’ll have a lot more advice and ideas at today’s #RockstarChat, on Twitter at 1pm Central!  Also, if you haven’t pre-ordered Think Like a Rock Star yet, Amazon has dropped the price to an even $11.00!  The book will be released sometime within the next 3 weeks, and I am proud to say it has 5-star reviews on Amazon!  If you’ve already read the book via NetGalley, please post your review on Amazon so your insights will help other people decide if the book is right for them.  Thank you!

UPDATE:  So we just finished our fabulous #RockstarChat discussion.  Here’s the transcript.

In the chat, we came up with a three step process for helping your co-workers get on board with the value of connecting with your fans:

1 – Educate your co-workers on the value of engagement.  Teach them the importance of engaging with fans and customers.  Show them what happens as a result of that engagement.  It’s also a great idea to show them past examples of where you have engaged with fans and the positive outcome (this also helps answer the ‘what’s the ROI?’ question).

2 – Educate your co-workers on HOW to engage.  After they see the value of engagement, work with them to learn HOW to properly engage.  If you have the resources, a formal training program for the company would be a good idea here, it could be similar to and compliment any social media training programs your brand may have.

3 – Educate your co-workers on the value of building relationships with your fans.  You don’t want them to just engage with your fans whenever it benefits your brand directly.  You want them to learn the value of answering fans, and helping them when it serves the fans, not the brand.  If you create relationships with fans, that simply gives them more reason to advocate on your behalf!

Thanks to everyone that joined #rockstarchat today.  Would you add anything to this list?

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Customers Don’t Trust Brands, They Trust Themselves.

ForresterStudyThe above graph comes from a Forrester report How to Build Your Brand With Branded Content (I was given a complimentary copy for this post).  The graph ranks how likely customers are to trust different forms content.  Note that the Top Four types of content are partly or wholly created by customers, not the brand.  The fifth most-trustworthy form of content is information on company websites or blogs, and then less than a third of customers trust these sources.

This won’t be breaking news to any savvy marketers, who know that customers tend to trust other customers and recognized experts, and they tend to distrust brands.  Note that the least-trusted sources are ads at the bottom.

One of the reasons why I wanted to write Think Like a Rock Star was to help brands become better connected with their most passionate customers, because this makes their communications more credible to other customers.  When brands start connecting with their customers and listening to them, the way they connect with their customers changes.  They begin to speak in a new voice:  The voice of the customer.

For example, what if you started letting your customers write guest posts on your company blog?  Your brand, and the content it creates on its blog, instantly becomes more credible and trustworthy.  What if you started interacting with your customers on Twitter and Facebook?  Then you’d start to understand them (gasp!), and the content you create in the future would be different, based on the interactions you have with your customers.

Customers gravitate to communications that are spoken in a voice they recognize: Their own.  Here’s three ideas for incorporating the voice of your customers into your brand’s online communications:

1 – Embed product reviews on your website.  Ideally, on any product pages on your site.  This is a great way to make your brand more trustworthy, plus it helps you have easy access to feedback from your customers.  Plus, in actually increases sales because it helps customers manage expectations (which also leads to fewer returns).

2 – Provide a customer service forum for your customers.  Give your customers a place to seek help and information about your products and services.  Bonus points:  Enlist customers to help monitor the forum and help other customers.

3 – Let your customers guest post for your company blog.  If you encounter a customer that leaves a thoughful review about your product, maybe you should invite them to write a blog post talking more about your product and especially how they use it.  Let them talk about who they are, and HOW they use your product, moreso than the product itself.

The overarching point here is, when you become more connected to your customers and their point of view, it changes your brand’s communications, and makes them more credible and trustworthy to other cutomers.  Give it a try.

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More Think Like a Rock Star Book Tour Stops to Announce

Hey y’all, I wanted to give you an update on a few new speaking engagements I’ve added to the Think Like a Rock Star Book Tour page.  You can always check here for the latest info on where I will be speaking.

The great thing about both these events is that they are in Alabama!  I rarely get to speak in my home state, so this is a treat!  The first event is Power to the People, it’s an all-day Social Media Marketing/Mobile Marketing workshop that I will be doing along with the amazing CK at Jacksonville State University, in Jacksonville, AL.  We’ll be covering all things Social Media Marketing and Mobile Marketing, and I will be presenting Think Like a Rock Star.  Plus, the first 25 attendees will receive a copy of Think Like a Rock Star and all attendees will receive a copy of CK’s new ebook Innovation Through Mobile.  If you are interested in attending (it’s a BARGAIN at $99 for 8 hours of workshops, plus breakfast and lunch!), then click here to register!

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The second Alabama event I’ll be presenting Think Like a Rock Star at is a new conference, Y’all Connect.  This is the South’s first conference focused on Corporate Storytelling.  It’s in July, and already has a great speaker lineup including Ike Pigott, Nichole Kelly, Peter Shankman, Andrea Weckerle and many more!  Also, the first 100 people to register for Y’all Connect will receive a free copy of Think Like a Rock Star!  Plus I will be signing copies at both events!

Finally, if you would like to have me present Think Like a Rock Star at your event or for your company, please email me.  I will make it as affordable as possible for you, and will also do a book signing for free.  All of McGraw-Hill’s internal sales forecasting as well as early reviews we’ve gotten on Think Like a Rock Star point to it being a very successful book, so please contact me now if you want to lock me in to present over the next 3-4 months.

Also, I am offering Think Like a Rock Star workshops for companies that want to learn how to better connect with their fans and most supportive customers.  The length of the workshop can be completely customized from 2 hours to 2 days.  Additionally, content will be crafted based on your company’s unique needs.  Please email me to discuss what those needs are, and to check my availability.

Oh and one last thing, #RockstarChat starts in ONE HOUR on Twitter at 1pm Central!  Today we will be talking about whether it makes more sense for companies to try to connect with influencers, or their fans.  See you there!

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What Does the Demise of Google Reader Mean For Bloggers?

 

A few days ago the news came out that Google will be pulling the plug on its beloved Google Reader service on July 1st.  Google Reader is a free service that many bloggers use to keep up with their favorite blogs.  I also use it to subscribe to numerous vanity searches as well as keyword phrases, etc.

My first thought was that man, this is going to suck, how will I find a decent alternative so I can read and stay up to date on my favorite blogs?

Then I quickly had my second thought:  What does Google Reader going away mean for me as a blogger and how will it impact my ability to reach my readers?  If FeedBurner is to be believed, about 2,000 people a day access this blog via Google Reader.  So when Reader shuts down, that suddenly means those 2,000 people won’t be reading my new posts anymore!  They’ll have to either switch to another reader, or they could come here and subscribe to the email version of this blog, or start checking the blog manually.  The bottom line is that I am going to lose some readers.  We all will.

Oh and BTW, if Google will pull the plug on Google Reader, that probably means FeedBurner is next.  What these two moves together mean is that suddenly bloggers have lost a LOT of control over how they distribute their content to their readers.

I cannot help but wonder if this is part of the reason why there seems to be a renewed interest among many top bloggers for encouraging readers to subscribe to their email newsletters.  Hell Chris Brogan’s recent site redesign all but puts the entire focus on encouraging email subscribers.

A big reason why I’ve always preferred blogs over other social media tools like Twitter and Facebook is that you have more control over the content you create.  But with tools like Google Reader and Feedburner, Google controls how people receive your content.  I think part of the reason for the move to email newsletters is that bloggers want to take back some of the control over how their content is delivered to their readers, and wants more a direct contact/feedback channel with them.  Something that RSS subscriptions have never offered.

What does Google Reader being discontinued mean for you as a blogger and a blog reader?  What other options will you investigate?  Feedly was a popular alternative offered last night at #Blogchat, have you used it?

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From Ranters to Ravers, How to Respond to Angry Customers Online

Today’s #RockstarChat will be looking at a topic that so many brands misunderstand: How to respond to angry customers online.  If companies handle interacting with an upset customer correctly, it can actually be an incredibly effective way to convert a dis-satisfied customer into a fan.

Perhaps the biggest misunderstanding about angry customers online that most brands have is why they are complaining in the first place.  Many brands seem to think that if a blogger or customer is complaining about them, that they are intentionally trying to hurt the brand, and cannot be reasoned with, so the brand shouldn’t even try.  Typcially, if a customer takes to social media to complain about a brand, it’s because they have tried other ways to contact the brand and resolve their issue, and feel like they aren’t getting the help they need.  So really, they just want someone at the brand to pay attention to them and actually help them with their problem.

This is why there’s such a big opportunity for brands to convert angry customers into fans, because these customers are angry because they have a problem that they feel the brand isn’t helping them solve.  If the brand will then step in and help them with their problem and give them excellent customer service, there’s a great chance that they can convert that angry customer into a passionate fan.

So that’s what we’ll be discussing today at #rockstarchat starting at 1pm Central:  How to respond to angry customers online, and convert them into passionate fans.  Hope to see you on Twitter!