15th
APR
Are You an Active Business Blogger?
Posted by cgseo under Social Media
Are You an Active Business Blogger? This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I am making 50 advance copies of my new book The Referral Engine available to active business bloggers. If you would like to receive one visit this form to apply Please know that we would like you to meet the following requirements: 1. You maintain an active blog, meaning that it’s updated at least once a week. 2. You agree to blog (and tweet, if on Twitter) an honest review of the book on May 10th, 2010 or during that week. (Blogging about the book before that is okay too, just agree to do it that week as well.) FYI – I totally stole this idea from Tony Hsieh at Zappos who is offering the same for his book due in June – Delivering Happiness . Related Posts: How Do You Resell Your Employees I Am Giving Away 250 Copies of My New Book for My 50th It Is Make a Referral Week! The Referral Multiplier Effect Come Meet Me on the Road Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others
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Are You an Active Business Blogger?
31st
MAR
I Am Giving Away 250 Copies of My New Book for My 50th
Posted by cgseo under Social Media
I Am Giving Away 250 Copies of My New Book for My 50th This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Want to help me celebrate my 50th birthday? As you may know, I have a new book coming out in May. The title of my new book is The Referral Engine – Teaching Your Business To Market Itself and it’s officially on pre-sale today. I wrote this book because the power of advertising and elaborate marketing campaigns is on the wane; word- of-mouth referrals are what drive business today. People trust the recommendation of a friend, family member, colleague, or even stranger with similar tastes over anything thrust at them by a faceless company. As a Duct Tape Marketing reader and follower I want to let you in on my special 50th birthday celebration. (I know that’s pretty lame, but I thought why not, you only turn 50 once.) Here’s the deal. The first 250 people that pre-order a copy of my new book will get a second copy, perhaps to refer to a friend, free. And, you’ll get that copy about two weeks before anyone else can buy it. So, you give me a gift by purchasing a book and I give you a gift in return. Let’s call it a party! All you have to do to join the party is: a) Visit The Referral Engine web site at http://referralenginebook.com and choose your favorite online retailer and pre-order the book. (free book can only be shipped to US addresses and does not include Kindle orders.) You can buy your book directly from one of the following retailers – Barnes & Noble , Amazon , 800-CEO-READ or Indie Bound b) Send a copy of your receipt to – ReferralEngineBook@gmail.com c) Once you do you will receive a URL to fill in the shipping details for your free book (Should arrive around April 30th or so) d) Feel free to spread the word to friends, colleagues, Facebook fans and Twitter followers The early reviews for the book are very positive (I have a free chapter on the site if you would like to review before pre-ordering) and I think this topic is timeless and very important for marketers and birthday partiers alike! “Who knew that there’s a science to referrals? Not I–but now that I know, I want you to benefit from John’s expertise. In a sense, a cover blurb is the ultimate referral, and I’m here to blurb this book because it will help you succeed in business.” Guy Kawasaki co-founder Alltop Thanks for all of your past and future support Related Posts: Duct Tape Book Review - Shipping Now Free Friday Follow Giveaway #dtmfff Random Twitter Follower to Get Book and T-shirt The Referral Multiplier Effect A Couple of Random Referral Ideas Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others
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I Am Giving Away 250 Copies of My New Book for My 50th
24th
MAR
Q&A: Culture Shock, How Social Media is Changing the Culture of Business
Posted by cgseo under Social Media
Good friend JD Lasica asked me to share answers to some fantastic questions for a blog post he published in celebration of the new book, Engage . I poured so much of myself into the responses, that I felt it was worth sharing here with you as well. #Engage Your new book Engage may turn out to be the definitive work on how social media is transforming business. Looking at the big picture, how is it changing the balance of power between customers and companies? I invested an incredible amount of passion and also vision into this book as I believe that the time is now to lead a media revolution based on insight, intelligence and experience. I think the minute you hold this book, its intentions are clear. The impact of new media is only just beginning and the road to where we’re going is, to channel the Beatles, long and winding. I believe that the destination is less important nowadays and it is this journey that we each embrace, that defines our experiences and teachings. As in many books and blogs on the subject of social media, theory plays a role of course, however, new media isn’t as “new” as we might think. There are lessons and applied learning that we must embrace in order to effectively change, not merely for the sake of change, but for the betterment of the tattered relations between businesses, customers, and the influencers and peers who connect them. The shift of balance skewed towards those who believe they held the power and in many cases, businesses invested profits into distancing the nodes that connect us to our networks of relevance in order to reduce the cost of actually “managing” customers. When we lost the universal ability to hit “0″ and connect with a live human being, regardless of medium, it was the final insult that sparked a social uprising. Social media is the democratization of information and the equalization of influence. Monologue gave way to dialogue and we the people ensured that our voices were not only heard, but felt. Now that we, as consumers, have the ability to vocalize sentiment and in doing so, cause meaningful and reverberating action, companies have no choice but to pay attention. They must respond. And, they’re not even close to doing so in a scalable nor efficient manner. Brands were blindsided because their focus was on distancing connections instead of embracing them. Social Media is our industrial revolution, and as sensational as it sounds, we have yet to fully realize its potential and promise. Tell us some of the success stories you spotlight in the book — one or two compelling examples of how companies have used social media to change the way they operate. I share examples for every viable aspect of social media within business ranging from service to marketing to product development to the complete transformation of a brand, its culture and purpose, from the outside in and the bottom up. To share a couple of examples right here, right now, would be out of context and also, I believe it would be a disservice to the overall value of what you, someone reading this right now, can bring to the game. The value of this book, if it’s one thing I want readers to take away, is that it answers your questions as well as the questions you never knew to ask. When we read case studies, we assume that their experience, their purpose, their intentions are similar to our business and the unique challenges we face. Additionally, we presume that the strategy driving the examples actively shared with us were calculated in their design and execution. More importantly, we also surmise that the KPIs, metrics, and potential ROI were premeditated, designed into the program and that all of the results that showered the company through social media did, in fact, offer true business value – at some level. Engage starts at the end and works you back towards the middle and makes no apologies for asking you to challenge yourself to understand every important aspect of social media and how it applies to your world. There are no short cuts and the best programs I’ve encountered or lived through, have been designed based on a balance between goals and intelligence – meaning, those initiatives created from scratch as inspired by our research. It’s time to answer our own questions and write our own success stories. You’re a veteran of the public relations field. How is the landscape shifting for PR, marketing, corporate communications and customer service? (It can’t shift fast enough in my opinion!) I’m a veteran of marketing, communications, and new media, but I am also forever a student, technologist and futurist. But in order to make sense of everything that’s unfolding before us, I’ve become an aspiring anthropologist, sociologist, and ethnographer as well. I believe that value-driven engagement is the new marketing and the key to effective engagement now is believability. Transparency and authenticity are table stakes, and quite honestly, they should have always served as the foundation for interaction. But that’s just it, interaction was missing. To be believable, well that’s something entirely different, and it requires a vested understanding for not only features and benefits, but also how it improves experiences. Believability is a trait that is actively sought by consumers at every step of the decision making process, including after the purchase. It requires a deeper investment from representatives to immediately barrel through suspicions and doubt to convey solutions, guidance, and in turn, inspire action. It’s how we earn credibility and ultimately trust. And, this is true for every department as in a world of direct engagement, one where people have access to the same tools to connect and influence others, we are required to match or surpass their social prowess to steer activity in a favorable direction. Everything to do so, is simply enabled through the tools and services available today, relying on the channels that reach our desired communities based on how it is that they communicate with one another and what it is they’re seeking. The culture and behavior of each online community dictates our strategies and it’s there for us to discover right now. In the end, this is all rooted in the art and science of public relations (not PR)…and everyone within the organization is now on the front lines of influence. We are measured by our actions and words and therefore, putting our words into action requires engagement that is driven more by genuine intentions and solutions and less about gimmicks, selling, messaging, or pitching. What new ground does Engage cover that hasn’t been explored by books like Groundswell or Trust Agents? I purchased copies of Groundswell and Trust Agents those I work with because I believe they move thinking and actions in a direction that begets personal and professional transformation. Change is never easy and therefore, we need inspiration and guidance to take steps that lead us away form complacence and mediocrity and march us towards the redefinition of direct to influencer and direct to consumer engagement. Engage only works because of books such as Groundswell, Trust Agents, The New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg, Social Media Marketing Handbook by Dan Zarrella, among others. Engage is a deep dive into everything you need to apply tangible, and highly effective, strategies and tactics into your day-to-day work, regardless of which division you’re in or your position within the hierarchy. This book is written to empower champions and executives, bringing them to the table more informed about what they need to accomplish and how…creating a truly collaborative environment that grows based on knowledge and not guesswork. This book is rich with proven lessons and instruction that starts with analyzing the tools at a much more meaningful level in order to grasp their potential, limitations, and ultimately how to form connections with the very people we wish to reach and inspire. Step by step, this book leads readers towards insight starting with… - How to find communities of influence - How to create worthy presences in each network according to specific goals and objectives and why - How to create content and social objects that trigger responses and encourage sharing - How to grow communities that react when activated - How to define success and in turn, measure it - How to ascertain the amount of resources required and how to get top-line support for pilots and campaigns How do you think social media will impact corporate culture and internal business processes? A lot of corporations are dabbling in social media at the edges but aren’t really internalizing it. What happens if and when they do? As mentioned earlier, social media represents the democratization of not only publishing, but also that of influence. As such, the communities we “thought” we reached via broadcast, top down branding, now only earn glances as attention rapidly becomes a precious commodity in these conversation-rich media networks. The reality is this, as consumer gain prominence within online societies, the challenge to connect with them directly or those around them elevates dramatically. Connecting with them is not an option however. Their activity in social networks builds and inevitably creates a groundswell or social tsunami that triggers a tipping point which inevitably forces businesses to pay attention. Engage is designed to help businesses shift from a reactive to proactive model, and in doing so, we can then employ trust agents and linchpins to cause change from the outside in. Moving away from the play on words, culture is something so powerful that consumers can invariably channel what we represent through their actions and words to assist in the expansion of reach and purpose. However, culture is usually something that is not as intentional as we might think. The exercise of identifying who we are and who we want to be is usually documented in a mission statement but not embodied in our daily interactions. But, as social networks are powered by people and emotions and interests are the ties that form bonds between them, our culture becomes the very thing that attracts affinity, and without it, the humanization of our brand is hindered. Because influence is surmounting, it is now a requirement to foster a culture within that becomes the essence that cultivates collaboration inside and out, serving as the catalyst for inspired activity in our communities of interest and beyond. Give consumers something meaningful to talk about. Empower employees to willfully share their pride and talent. Become something that everyone can believe in. Yes, our culture is something that is going to change as a result of social media, as it should. No brand is an island and if you think about engagement as that of a tourism bureau, it is our job to go to where people are discovering and sharing information now in order to attract them to our story, realizing that without culture, experience, community, and corresponding value, we will not earn the relationships nor advocates we seek. Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter , LinkedIn , Tumblr , Google Buzz , Facebook — Please consider reading my brand new book , Enga ge ! — Get Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and The Conversation Prism : — Image Credit: Shutterstock
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Q&A: Culture Shock, How Social Media is Changing the Culture of Business
18th
MAR
REWORK Podcast with Jason Fried
Posted by cgseo under Social Media
REWORK Podcast with Jason Fried This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Jason Fried (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes 37 Signals is a company that most online service providers would love to be like. From day one the creators of Basecamp , Backpack, Highrise and Campfire, made money, built a rabid word of mouth fan base, and perhaps more importantly, built the business they wanted to work in without taking outside funding. Along the way they became media darlings and a frequently cited use case for how to do it right. But just how did Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson do it? The often unconventional approach taken by 37Signals is on display in the Fried and Hannson’s book REWORK . REWORK is a collection of essays that I think could best be described as a combination of business, self-help and wellness, and technical mentoring advice, but the collective impact is very powerful. This is one of those books that you can pick up and read from any point and find yourself immediately engrossed . The tone of the book is such that you feel as though you are having a conversation with the authors in a style that matches the laid back, this is how we do it here, vibe that is 37Signals. I spent a few minutes discussing REWORK with Jason Fried for this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast and I can tell you that this book is going to show up on a lot of “best books of 2010″ lists. A few nuggets from REWORK Ignore the Real World – The real world is telling too many small businesses that their idea won’t work. Why Grow? - Everyone seems enamored with the idea of rapid growth. Maybe that’s not the right approach for you. Outside Money Is Plan Z – Hang on and build it organically or it won’t be your company. Image credit: Randy Stewart Related Posts: Previewing Highrise from 37Signals Podcast Interviews cranking up Kentucky "This is fattening food" Fried Marketing What would the perfect small business CRM look like? IM and Chat for Business Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others
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REWORK Podcast with Jason Fried
8th
MAR
Author of Word of Mouth Marketing Visits Referral Week
Posted by cgseo under Social Media
Author of Word of Mouth Marketing Visits Referral Week This content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week 2010 Marketing podcast with Andy Sernovitz (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes Andy Sernovitz, founder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and author of Word of Mouth Marketing chatted with me for this special episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast . We covered a wide range of topics related to Word of Mouth Marketing such as: The difference between referrals and word of mouth How word of mouth happens How to create word of mouth campaigns Simple examples of small businesses word of mouth success Related Posts: Talking Word of Mouth with Andy Sernovitz And Now a Word from the Word of Mouth Podcast Learn Word of Mouth Marketing from the Guy Who Wrote the Book Michael Port on Make a Referral Week The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others
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Author of Word of Mouth Marketing Visits Referral Week
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