You oughta be in pictures, and blogs, and video and 140 character updates, and...

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About a year ago, I needed a new laptop bag. I trolled some of the design and cycling forums I visit looking for recommendations, as I wanted something different from what I could find at Staples. I stumbled onto Timbuk2. Went to their site and was impressed by the overall design, the energy and the apparent quality of the bags. I pulled out my credit card and ordered two messenger bags, one for me and one for my wife. The process was quick and easy. Then, I got this email in my inbox.

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What if I entered my email address in wrong?
Our deepest sympathies are being sent to you via UPS because you haven't read any of this.

I love this! What a great way to connect with your customers and emphasize your brand. However, as I’ve said in previous social media talks, it’s about what you do when something goes wrong that truly defines you as a business. After about a year of use, the handle on my bag started to come off. I went to Timbuk2’s website and filled out the form to send the bag back for repair. Easy. But, when I went to actually send it back, Fedex made things difficult. They have these crazy customs forms where you have to know where your product was made, a special code about what materials it’s made from and it was just impossible. So I emailed them and rather than put us both through hell, they simply sent me a new bag, as it was cheaper for everyone.

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So, I blogged about it. Timbuk2 pushed it out to their Twitter followers, as did I. I even got a comment from Timbuk2’s president thanking me for being a great customer. (!)

The point is, social media isn’t about using tools like Facebook, blogging or Twitter. It’s about being so great that people talk about you, and using social media tools as a platform for communicating with your users, audience or fans.

Seven Principles of Social Media

Stop selling
Get permission
Be yourself
Give it away
Everything your Grade 12 English teacher said was wrong
Promote everyone, especially your competition
Agility is your biggest asset

Stop Selling
No really
But how will everyone know what you have to offer if you don’t tell them?
Switch it up. For every 10 posts/videos/tweets where you’re helping, linking, using social media, you can share your own stuff

Stop Selling
When someone follows me on Twitter, the first thing I do is look at their profile. I check out whether or not they’ve filled out their profile, added a picture and mainly I check their recent tweet stream to see what they’re saying. To see if they’re interacting with the community, or doing more than just posting links to their own stuff or talking about what they do
http://twitter.com/HealthBeautyBod, http://twitter.com/chronicleherald, http://twitter.com/tigerdirectca
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a million ways to use Twitter, but 100% personal promotion strikes me as not getting involved.

Get Permission
Seth Godin’s number one marketing point
You need to ask for the privilege to communicate with people
Just because someone gave you a business card doesn’t give you the right to email them

Stop Selling
David’s email. Didn’t ask for it, he just sent it. Met him at a business breakfast club. The thing is, he has a wonderful story to tell, about a woman who realized that even though she had breast cancer she was covered and wouldn’t need to worry about the costs. But, because he never asked me if he could send me email, my first impression is “WTF? Where did this come from?” If He was in the habit of blogging great stories like this, I bet he would become known for humanizing insurance. But he didn’t ask permission, so instead he ends up in the SPAM bin.

Be Yourself
Remember what your Mom told you?
Even if you risk offending someone
Don’t be stupid

Be Yourself
My Pomegranate Phone blog post. Created a stir in the community, got me recognized. Not necessarily all good. My second most popular page is the blog post, but it bounces a ton of traffic.

Be Yourself
If you’re energetic and excitable like Gary Vaynerchuk, maybe writing doesn’t really showcase your true personality. Perhaps video blogs are the best fit for you.
the other thing is, no matter what you think of GaryVee, you cannot deny that he is successful largely because of his personality. If you listen to him tell it, he wasn’t always this gregarious but he definitely has grown into his role as social media’s ambassador, and someone who really understands how to promote himself, his wine business and the media empire he’s building.

Give it Away
Give freely of your knowledge
Obviously your company’s secrets are not fair game here
if you’re a web designer, like I am, tell people how you surmounted a problem with CSS. Blog about it. Sure, now your “competition” will now know your secrets, but so what? Maybe next time they have more work than they can handle, they’ll recommend you instead of someone who didn’t help them.
If you’re an artisan, you should be blogging about how you make things. For one thing, everyone wants to know how things are made and that they’re handmade. Show me how you turn a pot on the wheel.

Give it Away
Carsonified has taken the opportunity to learn something new and do it in a very public way. They gave themselves a 4 day deadline and then showed exactly how they did, from concept, to design, to development to execution

Everything your grade 12 English Teacher said was wrong
you need to write like a real person, not someone looking for a good grade on a King Lear paper. Writing in the third person as per a business document or term paper is appropriate for those items, but not the way you’d write in your blog. Also, if your personality is such that you occasionally swear or whatever, don’t be afraid to let your true side show. Just be aware that there are people who won’t appreciate that and you may alienate a potential client.

Everything your grade 12 English Teacher said was wrong
- An amazing writer, I’m not. But I found that once I started writing about things I cared about, I could be enthusiastic and excited and I think this comes across in what I write.

Promote your competition
Don’t be afraid to critique them either, just be prepared to back it up
Chances are you’ll learn about how to better do business at the same time
One of the best things about social media and search tools is that while you can track and measure everything you do, you can do the same thing about your competitors

Promote your competition
Philosophies page on bw.ca
Retweet links to their accomplishments
Blog about the great things they do
Join their Facebook fan pages
You’ll also have the side benefit of knowing who they’re working for, and what they’re doing so you can learn how to better yourself

Agility
Small businesses have the ability to move quickly
Social media gives you the opportunity to analyse what’s happening and act.

Agility
While this example isn’t technically an online case study, it’s still and example of social media because it engages people in a social way

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You oughta be in pictures, and blogs, and video and 140 character updates, and... - Presentation Transcript

je@brightwhite.ca @brightwhite on twitter You oughta be in Pictures. And Video. And Blogs. And 140 aim 2009 | 04 24 2009
Seven Principles of Social Media 1.Stop selling 2.Get permission 3.Be yourself 4.Give it away 5.Everything your Grade 12 English teacher said was wrong 6.Promote everyone, especially your competition 7.Agility is your biggest asset
stop selling photo by ﬂickr user minghan
get permission photo by ﬂickr user sp3ccylad
be yourself photo by ﬂickr user 2-Dog-Farm
give it away photo by ﬂickr user Lützau
everything your grade 12 english teacher said was w photo by ﬂickr user MShades
promote your competition photo by ﬂickr user BombDog
agility is your biggest ass photo by ﬂickr user Cynthia Blue
je@brightwhite.ca @brightwhite on twitter slideshare.net/brightwhite thanks!