Here’s my entry in the Pilot Pen #PowerToThePen campaign.  Pilot Pen is asking bloggers to actually write a post, and then post a picture of it.  The idea is to either write a post to the youth of today, or to your younger self.  I think my post works for either, I definitely wish I’d known about the power of failure a bit earlier in my life.  To get the disclosures out of the way, Pilot Pen is compensating me via cash and some cool pens to be involved in the #PowerToThePen campaign, but it isn’t tied to their sponsorship of  #Blogchat for August.

I hope you enjoy the post, it was kinda fun to actually write a post like this!  If you want to participate in #PowerToThePen, check out the Power To The Pen site.

This is a Sponsored Post for Club Med as part of its July sponsorship of #Blogchat!  @ClubMedOfficial did an amazing job as sponsor of #Blogchat this month, they were very active and engaging and I received a lot of compliments from #Blogchat participants on having them as sponsors!

Also, congrats to @WordWhacker, who won Club Med’s free trip giveaway!  Linda wins a trip to her choice of Club Med’s Turkoise or Sandpiper Bay resorts!

Here’s a bit more information about both resorts:
Sandpiper Bay:  Club Med Sandpiper Bay, located in Port St. Lucie, Florida, has been reinvented to carry on its tradition of sporting fun for all ages in grand new style. Two restaurants, a renovated bar and lounge, and four pools are some of the main features of this beautiful resort. Sports Academies are now featured and a luxurious new Club Med Spa by L’Occitane now stands upon these lush grounds as well.

Click here for the Sandpiper Bay Facebook app.

Turks: Discover the incredible beauty of Turks and Caicos during your stay at Turkoise. A breathtaking resort designed with a panoramic view of the talcum-soft sand and clear turquoise waters of one of the most gorgeous beaches on the globe. Travel to Club Med Turkoise with your friends or significant other to enjoy a carefree all-inclusive vacation in beachfront tropical scenery on the island of Providenciales, in the Caribbean Sea. As one of the best all-inclusive resorts reserved exclusively for adults, this beautiful location is a destination that allows singles and couples to enjoy their getaway like they never have before. Dive into the wonders of the ocean in one of the top 5 wall diving destinations in the Caribbean.

Click here to visit the Turkoise page on the Club Med website.

Call 1-888-932-2582 to speak to Club Med about reserving a stay at either resort!  Thanks again to Club Med for a wonderful #Blogchat sponsorship!

Dear Cathryn,

Wow, it’s been a rough couple of days for you, hasn’t it?  I think almost every person over the age of 25 working in social media has linked to your article on ‘Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25‘.  And while I think everyone over the age of 25 knew what the reaction to it would be, it seems to have caught you by surprise.

And that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.

Your core message, that ‘your generation’ is familar with social media because you’ve always used these tools, is a good one.  As are your thoughts that as such, ‘your generation’ has much to offer on how companies can and should be using these tools.  A very good and valid message.

Unfortunately, due to the tone of your article that wasn’t the message that 99% of your readers heard.  Here’s what most people thought your message was:

“Dear Old People Over the Age of 25,

You are screwing up Social Media.  Stop it.  Companies stop hiring these clowns to do social media, because they have no idea what they are doing.  Hire ‘my generation’.  We are smart, we are hip.  Besides, we have always had these tools, so we should be the ones using them, not these old farts over the age of 25.

Signed,

Recent College Graduate Under the Age of 25 That Gets It”

To be honest, the first time I saw your article I blew it off as being simply linkbait.  I assumed that there was no way you were serious, and that the inflammatory tone of your article was purposely used in an attempt to draw attention to yourself.  In fact, there’s two reasons why your article is still receiving a ton of negative feedback:

1 – The tone.  It is purposely inflammatory.  Whether you realize it or not (and you obviously didn’t when you wrote it), HOW you say something is just as important in social media as WHAT you say.  You had a good core message, but you framed it terribly, and in a way where the only possible reaction was the one you got.  And the fact that you apparently did NOT see this coming doesn’t make the case that you or ‘your generation’ knows how to handle social media.

2 – You haven’t publicly addressed the backllash that the post has caused at all.  What’s the one rule we always tell companies when facing a crisis situation?  Address the situation head-on as soon as possible, and using the same tools as the people generating the negative feedback.  Those of us that have actually worked with companies and have helped them deal with crisis situations via social media marketing, understand this lesson.  It seems you do not, which again, undermines your article’s core message that ‘your generation’ gets social media.

So I would advise you to write another article Monday morning where you address the criticism head-on.  You can start by admitting that you didn’t frame your article as neatly as you could have.  You should also acknowledge and listen to the points raised by your detractors.  You don’t have to apologize for your core message that ‘your generation’ gets social media, but you should admit that it was pretty silly to claim that anyone older than you does not.

Another thing about social media and such firestorms is that we all tend to move on quickly.  In another day or so most of us will have moved onto something else and your time in the spotlight will be over.  So you can still do a lot to determine what our opinion is of you after we move on.  A little humility and understanding goes a long way.

Signed,

Someone Over the Age of 25 That Works in Social Media and Has Said Stupid Stuff Before Too

A few weeks ago, I found a post on Snarketing 2.0 where Ron focused on a post I wrote, and disagreed with several points I raised.  What I really appreciated about Ron’s post (and comments) was that he focused on the IDEAS he disagreed with, and wasn’t disagreeing with ME. Too often in this space, it seems disagreements stem not because someone disagrees with someone else’s ideas, but rather that they disagree with the person presenting the ideas.

Ike found the post and tweeted the above.  Several people either RTed Ike, or chimed in that the back and forth between Ron and I was a great example of disagreeing in the comments of a blog.  That troubled me a bit, because how Ron and I handled our disagreement in the comments (focused on points vs people) is how EVERYONE should handle disagreements online.

And before anyone thinks I am trying to prop myself up as being the master when it comes to handling disagreements, I have plenty of experience causing and participating in trainwrecks online.

Unfortunately, it seems that too often the disagreements we encounter, at least in the ‘social media circles’ seem to be focused on the people versus the ideas.  And it seems that we have far too much agreeing.  It’s almost like we’ve forgotten how to constructively disagree with each other.  Here’s the basic rules for debate that I try to follow online:

1 – Be respectful to the other person’s opinion and understand that they have a unique perspective that shapes their opinions.

2 – Disgree with the idea, but NOT the person expressing the idea.

3 – When I disagree with someone’s ideas, I try to explain WHY I disagree.  Saying ‘Your idea is wrong’ helps no one.  Learn to say ‘Here’s why I think your idea is wrong..’

4 – Know when to walk away.  I honestly struggle with this one a lot, but when our ideas are challenged, it’s far too easy to dig in and keep charging ahead.  It’s best to know which battles are worth fighting, and when it’s best to wave the ‘agree to disagree’ flag, and move on.

 

But again, I think as a whole, this social media marketing/branding space has far too little disagreement and challenging of ideas.  And the disagreements we do see are often centered on the person versus the ideas.  Folks, we learn via disagreeing.  When someone says ‘I’m not sure I agree with that, Mack, how about this?’, it not only gives me a new perspective to consider, but it challenges me to re-examine my own ideas.  So I benefit from having my ideas challenged, and we all do.  My fear is that a lot of potential disagreements are stifled because the person that disagrees decides not to air their disagreement because its with someone that has a larger following or readership than they do.  I am afraid they believe that the person with the larger following must know what they are talking about, else why would they have more Twitter followers? 😉

Just remember, there’s nothing wrong with disagreeing, just try not to be disagreeable 😉

Amazingly, this story I’m about to tell happens about once a week, and it’s usually coming from a large brand.

A week or so ago I got an email from the director of corp comm for a decent-sized company.  She had read a post I wrote on responding to negative feedback from customers, and that’s what she needed help with.  She told me that her company had been dealing with a customer stemming from an issue in 2008.  Since that time, they claimed the customer had repeatedly complained about their service, the company claimed it had tried to work with the customer, but the customer continued to post negative comments on its Facebook page, etc.  I was even given a word doc with exchanges between the customer and the chain.

The director of corporate communications then ended her email by asking ‘What should we do now?’

I informed the director of corporate communications that I was a Social Media Strategist that gets paid by corporations such as her’s to help them with issues just like this.  I told her my blog was here to provide her with FREE help via the content I provide, and that if she wanted more extensive help, that she would have to PAY for it, and gave her my rate.

She responded by saying she might be interested in working with me in the future, and asked me if I could give her some examples of my work.  I responded with this:

“I’m confused, XXXX.  An hour ago you were willing to have me advise you on how to handle a customer-service matter that’s been an issue for your company for 4 years, for free, but now that I want to charge you for that help, you want to see examples of my work?  I would assume you had already determined that I was qualified to help you with this matter, else why would you have contacted me to begin with?”

Shockingly, our email exchange ended at this point.  Every consultant that’s worked with companies for any amount of time can probably tell stories just like this one.  If it’s a small business or mom-and-pop outfit asking for free advice, I don’t mind quite as much.  But when it’s a major brand that can afford to pay, it’s inexcusable.

Oh and BTW to the brand that contacted me about a customer service issue it’s been dealing with for the last four years, maybe you would have figured out how to fix this problem by now if you weren’t looking for a FREE solution.

I was on Twitter earlier and saw a few tweets from CK, asking some very common sense questions.  Basically, she wanted to know why LinkedIn wasn’t making its users more aware of what happened with the recent security breach that resulted in millions of passwords from LinkedIn members being stolen, and also what LinkedIn was doing to correct the problem.

She’s exactly right.  This morning, LinkedIn finally verified the security breach via a post on its blog.  But if you go to LinkedIn’s site, there’s no mention of the issue (that I can see).  So far there’s been no communication from LinkedIn to its members (LinkedIn has said it’s emailed the affected users to let them know to change their passwords).

But if LinkedIn can address the situation on its blog, why can’t it email its members to let them know what’s happening?  This is Crisis Management 101: When there’s an issue like this, you communicate as soon as possible to those affected (hint: It’s ALL your members, not those with stolen passwords only), and let them know what has happened, and what steps are being taken to address and correct the situation.

Because if you don’t, you are sending a very bad message to your members.  You are telling us that you only send us emails when it’s important, like when you want us to upgrade to a premium account, or update our profile, or connect our email address book to our account.  But when it comes to our security, well that’s not important enough to warrant a ‘personal’ email.  As a result, we are finding out about this mess via the press, instead of via LinkedIn.  See?  In a crisis situation, we WILL find out the rest of the story, you can either tell us yourself in a proactive manner, or we’ll find out from other sources.

Trust is very hard to win, and incredibly easy to lose.  Because of how LinkedIn has handled this situation, they are communicating to me that the site places its own self-interests above mine (all companies do, but don’t make it so obvious!).  And to be fair, I totally get needing to do an internal investigation and understand exactly what the situation is before you comment publicly.  My point is LinkedIn has ALREADY commented, on its blog.  Guess what…not all of its members read its blog.  If the company can email us with self-promotions, why can’t it email us to alert us to a situation that could affect our membership, and our online security.

There’s no reason why they can’t.  And the fact that they are not speaks volumes.

(NOTE – This post originally appeared in the first issue of my newsletter that’s aimed at helping companies better utilize Social Media to connect with their companies.  Each week’s issue includes original content like this that’s aimed at helping your company or organization improve its Social Media Marketing efforts.  Please click here if you would like to subscribe to the newsletter.  And thanks!)

I’ve been working with a client that has a problem I bet a lot of you can relate to.  They have several blogs, and are constantly struggling with finding enough compelling content for each blog and each channel they have.  The Social Media Manager has been trying to get help internally from Subject Matter Experts, but that’s been a frequent dead-end.  So instead of actually managing the company’s Social Media efforts, she often becomes the defacto content creator.

Let’s tackle this problem by looking at three different areas:

1 – What type of content can you create?
2 – Can you re-purpose any existing content?
3 – How can you better ‘encourage’ your Subject Matter Experts to become more involved?

What Type of Content Can You Create?

Let’s be honest, creating compelling content is an issue that all social media users face, and it can be an especially difficult challenge for companies.  I think that most companies aren’t sure how to handle this, so they default back to what they know best: Their products and services.  As I wrote about recently on my blog, Social Media doesn’t function well as a direct-selling channel.  So think about the type of content you can create that will be valuable for your customers.  I am a big fan of content that teaches vs content that promotes.

For example: Let’s say your company makes cameras.  Is it better to write blog posts that tell me why your cameras are the best on the market, or is it better to write blog posts that teach me how to take better pictures?  That’s probably what I want, I don’t want to buy the best camera, I want to take the best pictures!  If you can teach me how to do that, then I am more likely to give you my business!

Now when it comes to the actual type of content, think about mixing up your media.  Don’t focus just on posts and whitepapers.  What about videos?  Photographs?  If you can alternate between different forms of media, that makes your content more interesting.  Also think about creating content that can be used in more than one place.  A short video interview can go on your website, in a blog post, on Facebook, and on your YouTube channel.  That’s four destinations from one piece of content!

Here’s another example; Let’s say you’re going to attend an industry conference.  There’s several opportunities for creating content:

1 – You can live-blog the event!  All you need to do is recap your experience each day on your blog.  This gives your blog unique content that your competitors probably won’t be publishing.  Plus, it’s content that people in your industry will find value in.

2 – Take pictures.  These pictures can be included in your recap posts on your blog, but can also be shared on your website, Facebook, Flickr, etc.

3 – Do short video interviews with speakers and industry experts in attendance.  This is a GREAT way to create content that others will be interested in.  Chris Yates at Huddle Productions does a fascinating job with this.  Chris and his team attend Social Media events and interview speakers and industry experts, then post those interviews on the company’s blog.  Earlier this month at SXSW, Chris snagged an interview with Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore.  As luck would have it, right before Chris posted the interview, a major rumor was reported that CNN was going to buy Mashable.  So suddenly everyone was looking for any recent interview with Cashmore, and that meant more views for Chris’ video interview with him!

What About Re-Purposing Existing Content? 

The odds are you have already created a lot of content that you can re-purpose and use in a new way.  A classic example of this is whitepapers.  Many companies have whitepapers on their website.  Why not take some of your most popular ones, and break them up into multiple blog posts?  You can break them up, update any information that needs to be changed, and you’ve got a few new blog posts!

Another idea is taking customer questions or issues, and addressing them via new content.  For example, if you see that many customers are having the same question/issue/complaint, why not write a new blog post that addresses it?  This will also drive more search traffic to your blog because the odds are if some of your customers are writing about an issue, that other customers are encountering the same thing.

Finally, check your blog’s analytics and see what search terms are leading people to your blog.  If you see keyword phrases like ‘How do I…’ or ‘What’s the best way to…’, guess what, those are blog posts!  Write a blog post that answers that search query, and you’re set!

How Can You Better Encourage Your Subject Matter Experts to Become Involved?

When it comes to trying to get more involvement from Subject Matter Experts, a frequent mistake companies make is trying to ‘push’ only one method on them.  If you are trying to convince a SME to write a monthly blog post for you and they aren’t comfortable with their writing skills, the odds are they won’t want to do it.  So give them other options.  For example, ask them if they would mind if you interviewed them and had them talk about what they do for a few minutes.  Then you could take the video, give a bit of background in a blog post, and you’ve got your post!  Or maybe a SME doesn’t want to blog, but they might like the idea of dealing with customers directly on Twitter or Facebook and helping them with their product issues!

A great way to get more involvement from your SMEs is to approach them with the mindset of ‘What would YOU like to do?’ versus ‘Here’s what we’d like for you to do.’  Give them several options, and you greatly increase their chances of contributing in some way.

 

I hope you enjoyed this post and found it useful.  If so, please consider subscribing to my newsletter which every week gives you original content like this that’s aimed at helping your company improve its Social Media Marketing efforts.

The big rumor this week is that CNN is in talks to buy Mashable.  I had to chuckle when I read some of the comments:

“Nooooooooooooooo! Keep Mashable independent!”

“IMO, this would make Mashable much less awesome instantly. I would probably begin to question it’s objectivity much more; one of the things that makes it great. No thanks.”

“Cashmore, what a fitting name.”

“Mashable will be mashed. CNN is fine, but they will certainly take the excitement and independence out of Mashable and just make it another site to find info you can get a thousand other places. A waste of money for CNN, but the Mashable owners can go straight to the bank.”

The Social Media space, for whatever reason, gets extremely jealous and snippy whenever there’s ANY talk of someone making money off their efforts.

For example, I’m thinking of two ‘thought leaders’ in this space.  Their identities really don’t matter.  What’s interesting to me is that these two people have a lot of similarities:

• They are both avid content creators, covering similar topics, Social Media for business, Social Business, etc.
• They both speak multiple times a month, all over the world.
• They both work with similar clients (from what I can tell)
• They make comparable incomes (from what I can tell)

Any yet, one of these people is routinely criticized in this space, and the other almost never is.  Even though they both create the same type of content, and do the same type of work for the same type of clients while speaking on the same type of topics at the same type of events.

The difference is:  One person is an independent consultant and the other is employed by a large company.  So while the consultant is frequently selling their services and publicizing products and services they are offering for sale, the other person doesn’t do that because they get a salary from their employer.

It seems that when we publicly talk about making money, even if it’s just to offer something for sale, that people go crazy.  No one seemed to mind the millions that Mashable has likely been making all along in ad sales, sponsorships, etc, but as soon as there’s a public rumor that CNN might buy them, the haters come out of the woodwork.

Why does this happen?  I suppose it’s human nature but it still aggravates me every time I see someone complaining about the money someone is making or that they think someone is making.

A few days ago I heard a fascinating interview that Paul Finebaum did with sports writer Don Yeager.  Yeager said that years ago when he started his career, his dad realized he would be in a position to interview a lot of great athletes, so he told Don that during every interview he should ask that athlete a question that he could learn from.  Even if their answer didn’t make it into the interview.  Over the years, Don explained that he made a habit of asking the athletes he talked to what made them great.  Why did they think they were able to consistently win, when other athletes that may have had more talent, could not.

He said that the most common reason that the great athletes he interviewed gave for their high level of success was that they personalized failures.  If their team lost, they didn’t blame the refs, they didn’t blame their teammates, they saw the failure as a result of THEIR actions.  As a result, these athletes learned to hate losing more than they enjoyed winning.  Other athletes that didn’t or couldn’t do this might have one game or season where they won big, but they usually couldn’t replicate this success.  Because they didn’t expect to win, and they were happy and even content with their success.

There are many different ways to look at this mentality:

• It seems a bit depressing.  Because the athletes and coaches really can’t enjoy their success, because they are always pushing themselves to win the next game, because they feel they can’t afford to stop and celebrate the current victory (and in many ways, they are probably right).
• If you have the right mindset, this approach can be incredibly liberating and empowering.  If you knew and accepted that your success was due to your own actions, then that can be incredibly inspiring.  There’s an age-old adage that great athletes always want the ball in their hands when the game is on the line.  They want the responsibility to make the play that will win the game.
• On the other side, if you consistently fail, believing it’s completely your fault could have a detrimental effect.  Perhaps this explains why athletes get in slumps?

In a business context, how does owning failure translate into future success?  I think back to Dell Hell in 2005.  At first, Dell seemed to ignore Jeff Jarvis, and even at the time had a stated policy that they don’t respond to bloggers.  Over time, the company not only realized it made a mistake in how it handled Dell Hell, but seemed to use that episode as a catalyst to become far more progressive in using blogs and social media to connect with its customers.  The very tools that it shunned at first.  Owning their failure in the Dell Hell episode put Dell in a position to be the social media case study that they are today.

But on a personal level, do we always own our failures?  Should we?  I could see a downside to this, what if a manager puts more blame on her shoulders than she’s due?  Perhaps out of a sense or loyalty to her team?  For some, owning failure could spur them on to future success, but what if the failures became a weight that sapped their self-confidence and in a way became a self-fulfilling prophecy?

How do you handle your failures?

Pretty interesting turn of events happened earlier tonight at the Daytona 500.  With 40 laps left, the race went under caution, and as usually happens, trucks were on the track to help clear off the debris.

What happened next was totally bizarre.  Driver Juan Pablo Montoya was going down the backstretch when suddenly something ‘broke’ and he lost control of his car, sending it flying into one of the trucks on track to clean it.  A massive fire was the result, as 200 gallons of jet fuel ignited from the crash.

The mess took over an hour to clean up.  Luckily, driver Brad Keselowski had his phone with him, and avidly tweeted during the break, including the above photo, which is the first ever from a NASCAR driver from within his vehicle.  Fox said that @Keselowski picked up over 55,000 Twitter followers during the break, and Fox showed him constantly tweeting and the other drivers mentioned it as well.

But while Brad was smart enough to capitalize on the break, Tide literally had the chance of a lifetime fall into their laps, and they missed catching it.

During the process of putting out the massive fire, a ton of material was dumped on the track, creating a huge mess.  So how did NASCAR clean up that mess?  By bringing out box after box of good ole fashioned Tide detergent.  That’s right, Tide got the best product placement in a sporting event since we saw the Nike logo on Tiger Wood’s golf ball just as the ball fell into the cup at the Masters a few years ago.

Unfortunately, @Tide’s Twitter account left it’s last tweet 7 hours prior to its Daytona 500 appearance, and missed a great chance to capitalize on a ton of free exposure that fell in its lap.

Lesson for brands:  Social Media monitoring is NOT a 9-5 job.  As I said on Twitter, most non-NASCAR fans won’t have any idea what happened tonight, but Tide still missed a great chance to leverage the free exposure NASCAR and Fox gave it.

UPDATE: For bloggers, this is also a good lesson in the value of reporting breaking news.  I gained about 120 visitors in 30 mins after publishing this post.  Here’s today’s hourly traffic, note the surge at the end of this picture: