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Think Like a Rockstar: Find the ‘Bigger Idea’

All week I’ll be previewing my Think Like a Rockstar session at #SMIATL on Saturday. If you would like to attend #SMIATL use code SMISPEAK to register for only $128!

In 2003, Sarah McLachlan was given $150,000 by her label, Arista, to create a music video for her new single, World on Fire.  However, instead of creating that music video, Sarah promptly took all of that $150,000 (save $15), and donated it to 11 charitable organizations. Through Sarah’s generous donations, the lives of over one million people around the world were bettered and improved.

However, this presented a problem in that while Sarah had just helped one million people, she had also given away all of her music video budget!  But she did still have $15 left, so she took those last few dollars and bought a video tape, then she got some friends to donate their time to create and produce a music video.  What Sarah did was create a very basic and simple music video that outlined the typical expenses for creating a music video.  For example, a Production Assistant might cost $200 a day, office phones cost $480 each, and the cost of hair and makeup would be $5,000 a day.

Sarah then detailed what that money was spent on instead of the normal expense.  The $200 that would have normally covered the cost of a Production Assistant for a day, was instead spent on providing 1 term’s worth of schooling for 100 children in Ethiopia.  The $480 that would have normally been spent on an office phone, instead equipped 10 schools in Afghanistan. That $5,000 for hair and makeup?  It was spent on providing a year’s worth of schooling for 145 girls in Afghanistan.

Sarah created an amazing video that detailed how all of us can contribute just a little bit of money, and still make a huge impact on people that are less fortunate than ourselves.  What made the video even more compelling was that Sarah not only showed us what the money was spent on, she also showed us the VERY PEOPLE that were helped.  For example, at one point in the video we are introduced to a woman in Ghana that works 16 hours a day, 7 days a week to raise the $200 that’s needed to send her son to school each year.  As part of Sarah’s $150,000 donation, this woman received a $1,000 grant that will cover her son’s schooling for the next 5 years, which also means that the mother won’t have to work as much, and can spend more time with her son.

When asked about why she structured the video the way she did, Sarah explained “I wanted a video that wasn’t about me and wasn’t preachy, but one that would help shine a light on the tragedy and turmoil in the world and also show the beauty and strength of the human spirit.”

And BTW, World on Fire also went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award.

If you are thinking about how to create compelling and engaging content via social media, you would do well to follow Sarah’s lead and focus on the ‘Bigger Idea’.  Don’t try to promote your products and services directly, think about how your customers use your products, and what they are trying to accomplish.  For example, if your company sells digital cameras, don’t create a blog devoted to your cameras, create a blog devoted to teaching your customers how to be better photographers.  If you are a Realtor, don’t simply blog about your properties, blog about the beauty of the area where your properties are located.  By focusing on the Bigger Idea behind your products, you’ll create content that’s far more valuable and engaging to your audience.

BTW here’s the amazing video for World on Fire:

Tomorrow, we’ll look at how Rockstars embrace their fans! If you want to attend my Think Like a Rockstar session at #SMIATL, it’s Saturday morning at 10:15 AM!

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Think Like a Rockstar: Rockstars Shift Control to Their Fans

All week I’ll be previewing my Think Like a Rockstar session at #SMIATL on Saturday. If you would like to attend #SMIATL use code SMISPEAK to register for only $128!

One of the clear distinctions between Rockstars and companies is how they both handle involving their fans and customers in the marketing process.  While most companies are scared to death of giving their customers any type of input into their promotional efforts, many Rockstars view their fans as marketing partners, and willingly embrace their efforts to help promote the artists that they love.

A good example of Rockstars embracing their fans is TheDonnasMedia.com.  This fan-run site collects and archives every live appearance made by the band, in whatever form is available.  Full-length concerts, television and radio appearances, even custom-made CD liners and notes.  If you are a fan of The Donnas, this is your Nirvana, with literally tens of thousands of hours of audio and video content stretching back more than a decade.

I contacted The Donnas’ management a few years ago when I first learned about this site, and asked them if they were aware of this site, and what they thought of it.  They absolutely loved it, and not only that, they fully-supported their fans’ efforts to make their music available, and even helped them in that endeavor.  Several times, the band has made mention of the site on its own website, asking fans that have recorded copies of recent concerts to contact the admins of TheDonnasMedia.com to give them access to it so they could add it to the site’s library.

The goal, as the band put it is to sell more music by giving it away. There is one big caveat with this site: You will find no content that has been commercially released by the band.  You can find a dozen or more live performances of the song ‘Fall Behind Me’, but you can’t find the version that was released commercially by the band.  Because the site self-polices itself and will only post music that the band isn’t selling.

But what I love about this is how The Donnas view the fans running TheDonnasMedia.com as PARTNERS that are helping the band reach new audiences.  They not only don’t feel threatened by the content that’s posted on the site, they actually help the site administrations get NEW material.  All because the band and its fans have a trusting relationship in place.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at how Rockstars focus on the Bigger Idea behind their music!  If you want to attend my Think Like a Rockstar session at #SMIATL, it’s Saturday morning at 10:15 AM!

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Think Like a Rockstar: Rockstars Are Fans Themselves

All week I’ll be previewing my Think Like a Rockstar session at #SMIATL on Saturday. If you would like to attend #SMIATL use code SMISPEAK to register for only $128!

I love this picture, is the audience raising their hands because Brett is, or is Brett raising her hand cause the audience is?

Rockstars are by default fans of themselves.  But this also means that they have the same mindset as their fans, and the same point of view.  As such, they are more connected to their fans, and better understand them.

Think about how a rockstar gets started: They play small local events, maybe only a dozen or 2 people show up.  Then, if they connect with their audiences, over time their fanbase will grow.  But throughout, the rockstar is connect to its fanbase and knows who they are.  They perform at clubs and bars, and then afterwards get to talk to them, share a beer with them, and learn who they are and what they like about their music.  They stay connected to their fans.

I saw an interview a few years ago with Willie Davidson, the CCO at Harley-Davidson.  CNBC asked him if HD did any type of market research to learn more about its customers and to better understand them.  Willie remarked “Oh we’re in constant contact with our customers…we ride with them all the time!’  That might sound like a smartass answer, but what Willie is saying is that he uses his products in the same way as his customers, and for the same reasons.  He knows about the ‘Harley lifestyle’ because he is living it.  As a result, he better understands Harley’s customers, because he’s talking to them every time he rides with them.

Is it any wonder that Harley-Davidson is considered a ‘rockstar’ brand?  The brand understands its customers and their point-of-view, and this is a big reason why the company has so many passionate brand advocates.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at how rockstars shift control to their fans!  If you want to attend my Think Like a Rockstar session at #SMIATL, it’s Saturday morning at 10:15 AM!

Pic via Flickr user tatu43

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Think Like a Rockstar is coming to Atlanta and #SMIATL this weekend!

I am beyond thrilled that I get to spend the weekend in Atlanta at #SMIATL!  The event will be very important for me because, besides seeing all my friends again, there will be a LIVE #Blogchat on Friday afternoon!  This will be the FIFTH Live #Blogchat so far this year, and is SOLD OUT!  I cannot wait to see everyone!

But I am even more excited about what happens on Saturday.  That’s when I get to give my favorite session of all, Think Like a Rockstar.  This session will answer two of the most important questions that online marketers have today:

1 – How do we build engagement around our Social Media efforts?

2 – How can we better connect with our customers and WHY should we?

One of the highlights for me in getting to attend South By Southwest Interactive in 2008 was getting to meet Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba.  The two literally wrote the book on Customer Evangelism, and are co-authors of the popular Church of the Customer blog.  When I met them, I told them both that what THEY were talking about, why companies should embrace and empower their most passionate customers, was the future of successful marketing.  NOT Social Media.  I believe that even more today than I did then.  Social Media are simply tools, but there is true business value in embracing and empowering your most passionate customers, and I’m going to make that case on Saturday morning at the Think Like a Rockstar session.

So all this week, I’ll be outlining some examples of how rockstars are connecting with their fans, and giving you ways to think about how you can apply these same methods to your company’s marketing efforts.  I’ll deep-dive into all of these areas on Saturday at #SMIATL, so if you’d like to attend, I have a special discount code you can use to get 20% off admission!  Just use code SMISPEAK when you register and you’ll get to attend #SMIATL for the insanely low price of $128 for the 2-day event.

BTW if you want to get a sense of what will be in this session, here’s last year’s deck, which currently has over 14,000 views on SlideShare.  I will add though that the deck I will be presenting at #SMIATL will be completely revamped and restructured with new case studies and format.  About 33% of the slides you see in this deck will make it to the one at #SMIATL, and even those will be used in a different context.

Think Like a Rockstar: How to Build Fans and Community Around Your Social Media Efforts

View more presentations from Mack Collier

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Content Marketing World Review – The Bar Has Been Raised

At least a dozen times this week in Cleveland someone remarked to me that they could not believe that this was the first Content Marketing World.  The event was exceptionally well run and executed.  Then in the final goodbyes, Joe thanked his CMI team for ELEVEN months of work on the conference.

And it definitely showed.  The event boasted THREE keynotes that most other branding/marketing/social media conferences would have loved to have on its agenda.  Add in an opening reception at the Rock N Rock Hall of Fame (with a LIVE #Blogchat) and a closing keynote by Kevin Smith (yes, @ThatKevinSmith), and you’ve got the recipe for a truly memorable conference.

Another thing that really struck me was how polished the speakers were.  As a speaker myself, I can tell when another isn’t prepared.  Every speaker was ready, in fact the conference kicked off with Sally Hogshead and literally as soon as she walked on stage, she jumped right into presentation.  The delivery from the speakers as a whole was exceptional, and coupled with the presentation, it really made you feel like you were at a $1,000 conference.  It really felt like a more prestigious experience.

Another thing that struck me was how few attendees left during the second day.  Normally for a 2 or 3 day conference, on the final day you’ll see attendees leaving throughout the day to catch flights home.  Normally by the end of the final day, up to half of the attendees are already gone at most events.  On Thursday I ‘hosted’ the social media track, so I attended 4 sessions from morning to afternoon.  There were over 200 attendees in each of the 1st three sessions, and probably 175 in the final one.  That is truly the litmus test of how valuable attendees perceive a conference to be, and the majority of the attendees stayed until the very end.  And making Kevin Smith your closing keynote is another good way to encourage people to stick around!

Finally, the event kicked off with an opening reception at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.  This was a genius move on the part of CMI.  One of the aspects of a great conference is that it has a lot of networking opportunities and chances for the attendees to connect with each other.  Now let’s be honest, networking with strangers isn’t always the most exciting way to spend a few hours.  So to make this process a lot earlier, why not hold the event at a  venue that people WANT to be at?  Like say, giving your attendees total access to the multi-floor Rock N Roll Hall of Fame?

And I would be completely remiss if I did not tell y’all about the wonderful Live #Blogchat we had as part of the opening reception at the Rock Hall (Thanks again to ON24 for sponsoring!.  We had another fabulous discussion, even though most of us were meeting for the first time at the event.  I keep telling event organizers, but it’s amazing how attendees respond when you put them in an environment where THEY are the stars of the show.  Everyone wants to be heard and to have a chance to participate, and that’s why #Blogchat Live works.  Thanks so much to everyone that came!

Thanks again to all the team at Content Marketing Institute for a truly amazing event, can’t wait for 2012!

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#Blogchat this Sunday Co-Hosted by @SheilaS & @BeckyMcCray!

We have a special treat in store for this Sunday as we’ll be joined by TWO co-hosts!  Sheila Scarborough and Becky McCray from TourismCurrents will both join us and help us discuss how bloggers can connect with companies and vice versa.

We’ll be discussing two many areas:

1 – How do bloggers that have publishing and content-creation skills find companies and organizations that are looking to hire them?  And when they do find the companies, how do bloggers pitch themselves?

2 – How do companies and organizations that want to hire content creators find them AND how do they vet their skills?  Also, how do they determine an acceptable compensation rate?

 

And as always, #Blogchat will start at 8pm Central on Sunday night, with ‘tailgating’ starting at 7pm as always!  Please follow Becky, Sheila and Tourism Currents in preparation for this Sunday, and cause they rock!

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What story does your content tell about you?

You can learn a lot about someone and how they use social media by the content they create.  Pick a blog, any blog, and look at the last 10 posts.  Is the content instructional?  Inspirational?  Self-promotional?  Educational?  All of the above?

The same thing applies to companies, and that will be the topic of the LIVE #Blogchat on Tuesday at Content Marketing World (Did I mention it’s at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame?).  We’ll be talking about companies can tell their story via the content they create on their blog.

One company that I think does a fabulous job of telling its story via the content it creates on its blog is Patagonia:

With The Cleanest Line, Patagonia does a fabulous job of creating content that isn’t focused on the company and its products, but rather the ideals and beliefs that are core to it, and its customers.  It’s a wonderful example of focusing on The Bigger Idea.

From The Cleanest Line’s About Page:

Build the best product, do no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
– Patagonia’s Mission Statement

The goal of The Cleanest Line is to further Patagonia’s mission by encouraging dialogue about the products we build, the sports we love and the environmental issues we’re concerned about. By talking openly about the products we build, Patagonia users can help us achieve ever greater standards of quality and functionality. By spreading the word about specific environmental issues, we can increase awareness and take action as quickly as possible. By sharing field reports, we can inspire one another to keep experiencing the natural wonders of our precious planet. And like any good conversation, there’s always the possibility for pranksters and poets to direct the conversation towards territories lacking any seriousness whatsoever.

Patagonia is clear to let the readers know that the content it creates will be focused on issues larger than simply its products.  In fact, most of the content is focused on environmental and wildlife stories and issues that are important to the company, and its customers.  And by taking this approach, I think it also makes the content being created far more interesting.

Look at your company blog; what story are you telling?  Which company blogs create posts that you actually ENJOY reading?

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Thank you, Trey

Social South was held in Birmingham in 2009, and it will always be a very special event to me, for many reasons.  One of which was that it was where I got to meet Trey Pennington.  I remember Trey attended my session ‘What Rockstars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass With Social Media’, and he tweeted to Collective Soul that I mentioned them in my deck as a case study.  And five minutes later, the band tweeted back to both of us!

The next time I met Trey was in Greenville last year at Brains on Fire’s F.I.R.E. Sessions.  To be completely honest, I started not to go to this event.  As an introvert, I am very uncomfortable when I’m in a room full of people that I don’t know.  There was a pre-event networking event the night before it started and sure enough, I knew no one there other than Robbin and Geno.  I honestly did NOT want to be there, but after a while Trey arrived, and we started chatting.  I think he must have noticed how uncomfortable I was because he said ‘Here, let’s introduce you to a few people’, and then he went around the room introducing me to a few of the many people he knew there.  It was a very kind gesture that helped put me at ease and made the entire event much more enjoyable from that point forward.

I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on these two meetings with Trey today, because earlier this morning I found out that Trey took his own life.  I won’t claim to have any idea of what issues Trey was facing, because I really didn’t know Trey, and he really didn’t know me.  But despite this, during both our meetings, Trey went out of his way to help me and to attempt to improve my situation.

As I was reading the outpouring of response to Trey’s death on Sunday, I learned that my experiences with Trey were completely typical.  Trey simply went out of his way to give to others, and to spread kindness to them.  He left people in a better place than where he found them.

Goodbye, Trey.  Thanks for being kind, compassionate, a fellow Crimson Tide fan, and an inspiration.  I’m sorry we didn’t get to spend more time together, but I am a better person for the time we did share.

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#Blogchat will be LIVE at Blog World Expo in Los Angeles!

Whenever I announce on Twitter a new Live #Blogchat, a few people always have the same response: “But when are you coming to the West Coast?!?”

This November.  In Los Angeles.  At Blog World Expo! 

I am beyond excited about this announcement, as this is the conference that EVERY blogger wants to attend.  It’s our Super Bowl, and I cannot wait to see #Blogchat become a part of it.  We are still fleshing out some of the details, so I will be talking more about the Live #Blogchat at Blog World Expo here in the coming weeks.

For now, please go over to the Blog World Expo site, and check out Deb’s post on it, and also, you can vote on the topic you want for #Blogchat!  We’ve given you 5 options so pick your favorite topic, and that might be what we discuss when #Blogchat comes to Blog World Expo!

Finally, Blog World Expo has given us a special discount code for registration!  Use code BLOGCHAT20 to get a 20% discount on a conference pass!  As you might expect with Blog World, the speaker lineup will be the Whos-Who of this space, with Amber Naslund, Peter Shankman, Liz Strauss, Jason Falls, C.C. Chapman and David Armano some of the people that have already been confirmed.  It’s Blog World, you know it’s going to be huge 😉

Cannot wait to see y’all in a couple of months.  If you’d like to see a full schedule of where #Blogchat Live will be around the country, click here.

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If you want to be a great blogger, you have to develop your blogging voice

Last night during #Blogchat I asked my friends what was the ONE thing they believed made a blog great.  The vast majority of the answers were associated with content.  Creating amazingly, great, valuable content.

I disagree.  In my mind if you want to be a successful blogger, here’s the secret: You have to believe that you have a voice worth sharing.

A few weeks ago I went back and read some of the very first blog posts I ever wrote, almost 6 years ago.  I literally cringed at some of the logic I used, the points I was trying to make.  A lot of it was wrong, but the thing about it is, I wrote from a place of conviction.  I believed that I was right, and that I deserved to be heard.  And as a result, people responded to what I wrote.

People want to read bloggers that are passionate about their ideas, that believe in what they are saying.  For example, one of the common worry issues for bloggers is the idea of blogging about a topic that ‘everyone else has already covered’.  Or blogging about the ‘hot topic of the moment’.

How many times have you read a blogger mention a topic that other bloggers have covered, and just link to those bloggers and add ‘check them out’.  Ummmm…..no.  We don’t want that, we want to hear what YOU have to say about this same topic.  Don’t just point us toward those amazing blog posts, if they are truly amazing, then we’ve probably already read them anyway.  Your job is to tell us what YOU think.

“But what if someone says my post stinks?”

Then you know you are REACHING people.  Not everyone is going to agree with your ideas.  In fact you WANT some people to disagree with your position.  That’s how you learn, by looking at different angles to the same topic.

You have a blogging voice that deserves to be heard.  Even if only one person reads your blog.  We all want to feel good about the content we create on our blogs, and we all want to feel like we are making a difference and connecting with others.  How can you truly connect with anyone if you don’t put yourself and your opinions out there?