Social Media Podcast and Sales Training Blog by Shane Gibson

What is different about Guerrilla Social Media Marketing?

Shane Gibson — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:06:33 +0000

I have been asked by a number of people what the difference is between most brands and a brand that employs guerrilla social media strategies. Today I thought I would share an excerpt from my upcoming book that answers that question.

An excerpt from “Guerrilla Social Media Marketing” by Shane Gibson and Jay Conrad Levinson:

What is an authentic guerrilla brand?

It makes promises and statements that can be backed up today, tomorrow and indefinitely.
It is customer-focused and sells and markets to the customer what they need and want.
It is consistent, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in any geography or language.
It doesn’t take shortcuts for short-term gain; the guerrilla brand builds customers for life.
It is, however, fallible; all brands have imperfections and weaknesses, and a guerrilla brand does not shovel these things under the rug. It takes feedback and improves the customer experience.
It is accessible. No executives are in an ivory tower; no labyrinths have been built to keep out the unhappy customer.
It is focused on a distinct area of true competency and expertise, and that is why people gravitate to the guerrilla brand.

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Social Media for B2B Marketing and Sales

Shane Gibson — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:29:31 +0000

A common question I get from business to business focused marketers and sales professionals is: “Does social media marketing and social networking really work in the B2B space?”

I posed this same question to Jeff Booth CEO of Builddirect.com and here was the answer he gave me:

“Social media is not really about B2C or B2B it’s about P2P or person-to-person communications and adding value.” – Jeff Booth CEO Builddirect.com (the worlds largest online wholesaler of building supplies.)

The reality is that the majority of decision makers or their direct influencers use the web to find information on a vendor and the individual employees they are dealing with. I have compiled a short list of resources and blogs that you may find useful in deciding is social media marketing will work for your organization.

Here are some statistics and quotes regarding social media in the commercial space:

…69% of B2B buyers use social networks “primarily for business networking and development.” (About.com)

…Stereotypes may have C-level executives delegating research to others, but the study reveals that 53% prefer to search the Web and locate information themselves. – Google and Forbes Insights Study (2009)

Social media is not a separate silo or discipline, in fact, companies in the Business-to-Business space like Builddirect.com, Oracle, SAP, Intel, Accenture, GE, and Siemens have found that is most effective when integrated with existing sales and marketing processes. They also have found it has given them a significant advantage over their less socially engaged competitors. (An entire engagement study can be found at http://engagementdb.com )

B2B Social Media Reading and Resources:

Video: “Vital Statistics for B2B Marketers”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXQdy-22TXM“
20 Support Cases for Using Social Media in B2B Marketing” http://www.savvyb2bmarketing.com/blog/entry/122161/20-support-cases-for-using-social-media-in-b2b-marketing
“A fascinating B2B Social Media Success Story” http://businessesgrow.com/2010/06/20/a-fascinating-hardcore-b2b-social-media-success
“5 B2B Social Media Success Stories” http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2010/05/b2b-social-media-success.html
“30 B2B Social Media Resources” http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6379/30-Awesome-B2B-Social-Media-Resources.aspx
“The Definitive Case for B2B Social Media Marketing” – Fast Company http://www.fastcompany.com/1665075/the-definitive-case-for-b2b-social-media-marketing
“7 Reasons Why Social Media is for Sales” – http://bettercloser.com/7-reasons-social-media-sales/

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Social Media Calendar

Shane Gibson — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:58:37 +0000

There are many aspects to success in social media. Having a solid goal, knowing your core target market and of course monitoring social media conversations and your brand. Producing great content and engaging community are also vital. All of this has to be grounded in a solid implementation plan in order to work over the long term. A goal, great content, and community engagement are not enough to succeed using social media as a marketer, sales person or entrepreneur. We also need to ensure that we are consistent in our approach, message and community involvement.

Today’s podcast is about the importance of a social media calendar for individuals and organizations. I have also provides a social media calendar template that Jay Levinson and I developed for Guerrilla Social Media Marketing.

Have a listen, download the sample social media calendar and then let me know how it works for you.

Download the sample social media calendar here in Word format and here in PDF format

Social Media Calendar

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The Customer Owns Your Brand

Shane Gibson — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:25:42 +0000

I saw this great example of how a customer owns your brand in social media. While some Realtors may blog and tweet the links, or others build Facebook page shrines in their likeness, Jack Bernard has been branded by his customers online. You obviously want both, but this creative list as to why he’s the best Realtor in the world is a great example of how a raving fan can use their social influence to promote your business.

Jack recently helped Michael Tedham find and buy a new house. Mike is a successful marketing and promotions manager for the Granville Entertainment Group. Mike also has 1957 Facebook friends. So when Jack delivered great service, Mike didn’t just tell a couple people… he told 2000.

From a note on Mike’s Facebook page here’s his tongue-in-cheek tribute to Jack Bernard:

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 6:46pm

Why Jack Bernard is the best realtor in the world.

In this note: Jack Bernard (notes), Tina Sharp

1.) He is a ginger, but somehow has a sole intact.
2.) He doesn’t drive a BMW convertible.
3.) He doesn’t use spray tan.
4.) He stops at Starbucks before he picks you up.
5.) It’s really fun to say ‘JACK ATTACK!’
6.) He is EXTREMELY knowledgable.
7.) He is an EXTREMELY good teacher.
8.) He takes about a second to understand what you are looking for, and finds it.
9.) He doesn’t care if you are hung over, and keeps the stereo down if you are.
10.) DId I mention he somehow retained his soul?

Thats 10 reasons, and I could name about a million other. Tina and my experience purchasing our first home has had several set backs, but NONE were by fault of Jack, and he helped us through every single one of them. Anybody out there looking to buy, be it your first place, or 50th, Jack is amazing, and I will never buy another place without him.

Kudos Jack…. Kudos

jack attack!

What do you think of the customers ability to brand you? Should Realtors who haven’t retained their soul be concerned about the power of the crowd?

Here’s a screen capture of the original post:

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Guerrilla Social Media Marketing – Foreword by Guy Kawasaki

Shane Gibson — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:31:50 +0000

Since late 2009 Jay Conrad Levinson and I have been working on our new book Guerrilla Social Media Marketing. It’s the latest in the Guerrilla Marketing series of books, the top selling marketing series of books of all time (20 million copies sold). I know Jay personally and when the opportunity came up to write the book I jumped at it. It wasn’t until 1/2 way through the book did I realize the magnitude of the opportunity (and the work entailed in living up to the Guerrilla Marketing brand).

Although the book isn’t available until October 3rd 2010 you can pre-order it here or join the Facebook page here.

In the meantime I thought I would share the foreword written by Guy Kawasaki of Alltop.com:

How to Become a Social Media Guerrilla

I first met Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of guerrilla marketing, when I interviewed him in early 90s. I met Shane Gibson at an Olympic Hockey Tweetup in Vancouver, Canada. When Shane told me that he and Jay were working in this latest volume of the Guerrilla Marketing series about social media, he captivated my interest because the two are a match made in heaven.

Alltop owes its success to social-media guerrilla marketing. We used Twitter and Facebook to create Alltop evangelists, galvanize our supporters and critics, and generate page views and brand awareness. We also tapped community and built multiple nano-casts of content for the nano-markets that Jay and Shane talk about in this book.

The combination of the social media and guerrilla marketing enables entrepreneurs to level the playing field in their industry. Capitalizing on social media is not just about using them as tools but taking matters beyond this and making them guerrilla-marketing weapons.

Jay and Shane have crafted a comprehensive guide for the marketer, entrepreneur, or executive that is serious about profiting from social media. The challenges that people face in social media are:

• What tools to use and how to use them profitably.
• Finding and engaging profitable target markets.
• How to build community and then raving fans.
• What and how to measure ROI.

This book answers all these issues. It’s not an easy path; it will take discipline, tenacity, and creativity. For those who are willing to pay this price, Jay and Shane have provided the ultimate roadmap needed to achieve your goal.

Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

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Worthy Cause: Local Man is Fundraising for New Spandex Outfit

Shane Gibson — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:05:24 +0000

Just kidding… but he does need skates

Ever thought of dropping everything to chase a dream?

We all would…. as long as it fit in to our busy schedules. BUT who has the time or the energy?

I was chatting with Steve Jagger, my co-author for Sociable!, and he shared the new adventure his younger brother Kevin has undertaken.

I had spoken with Kevin just a few months ago, at the time he was working for a US college media firm after putting in his dues on Bay Street as an investment banker. Turns out I was a little out of the loop.

After watching the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Kevin has decided to quit his job and attempt to compete in long track speed skating with the ultimate goal of trying to make the Canadian National Team.

Crazy right?

What makes it only slightly crazier is that Kevin has never even competed in speed skating and up until the time of writing has yet to step on Oval ice!! Talk about bold.

One thing I did not realize is speed skating is not cheap – especially when you have to commute to Calgary to compete (the ice at the Richmond Oval has been removed), hire a full time coach and get custom made skates & blades.

As a way to support himself, Kevin has started a great blog that follows his journey from the cubicle to the ice. The blog is aptly named: Long Track Long Shot (http://www.longtracklongshot.com).

If you want to support Kevin on his journey he is selling t-shirts to help raise funds to buy his first pair of custom skates. For $25 you can help Kevin and even get the t-shirts delivered by Kevin on his bike! (for those of you living in the Lower Mainland). You can order for the next 48 hours if you want to support his vision.

Here’s a video of him training:

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10 Best Practices in Social Media for Social Causes

Shane Gibson — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:46:54 +0000

There are dozens of organizations out there that are effectively using social media in the not-for-profit and charity sectors. I have truly just begun to understand and study all of the fantastic case studies and success stories from events like the annual Blogathon to some of the great stuff that organizations like the Redcross have achieved through online funding.

Today’s podcast is not about some of these global examples but a very local one I had the privilege to be part of. In a 24 hour period Anthony Caridi of KasuFunding.com and I along with a very committed social media community here in Vancouver raised over $12,000 for the Make a Wish Foundation. Almost 100% of the donations came from Twitter or FaceBook connections.

Here are 10 things we discovered that worked (some of them we implemented and others we will implement next time):

1) Organize your collateral material early for each stakeholder group

2) Make your content easy to share, cut and paste

3) Integrate the offline with the online and get influencer buy-in early

4) Have multiple platforms for RSVP’ing for events

5) Get donors with big lists and big reach to not just cut a check but use that influence and reach to promote your cause

6) Contact people individually and ask them to do something easy

7) Use a fundraising platform like KasuFunding.com that makes it easy for people to Tweet, share and forward information about the cause.

8) Work close with the Charity

9) If you are a charity leverage your stakeholder groups when social media marketing instead of using internal resources

10) Keep your message really simple.

Special Thanks to:

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Make a Wish Foundation 24 hr Online Fundraiser is Today

Shane Gibson — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:44:49 +0000

Anthony Caridi of KasuFunding.com met with me a month ago and shared with me a great vision. His goal was to run an online social media campaign to raise funding for the Make a Wish Foundation. Globally Make a Wish grants a child’s wish every 40 minutes. Most of these children are very ill, many of suffering from life threatening illnesses. The stories are both heart warming and gut wrenching for me. (See some recent wishes here) Being a parent and knowing the innocent bliss that most of our kids live in, it’s hard to see children live with such hard realities. I’d like to ask you to donate a small amount, the goal is not to have a few big companies cut big checks. The goal is for all of us just to donate $20 and invite a friend. Through the power of our online social networks, blogs and Twitter accounts we hope to prove that a whole bunch of little contributions by a large community can make a huge difference. Click through below to learn more:

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How the World’s #1 Online Building Supply Company uses Social Media

Shane Gibson — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:56:17 +0000

Today’s podcast is an interview with Rob Jones the Marketing and Social Media Coordinator for BuilDdirect.com. BuildDirect sells more building supplies online than any other company on the planet. Rob and I discuss how they have used social media to augment their online marketing efforts.

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Why Social Media in the C-Suite is Vital

Shane Gibson — Tue, 25 May 2010 01:46:10 +0000

Why executives must invest in understanding and driving social media use in their organization.

Social media is not just another tool. It can be, but it’s a lot more for those organizations that embrace it. The challenge is it’s also not just about learning a new technology, it’s about changing the way we communicate with customers, stakeholders and staff.

This is a corporate cultural change, it’s also about embracing one of the most powerful word of mouth tools ever invented. There are huge inherent risks and opportunities presented by this. For that reason social media or online engagement initiatives in general have to be driven by the C-suite, the people who can hold others accountable and sponsor change in their organization.

In today’s social media podcast I talk about the following:

Senior executives and their need for buy-in
What and who to invest in
The importance of a corporate social media policy
How soft steps lead to ROI
Why most social media marketing fails:

Lack of a goal
Poorly defined market
No listening
No real launch plan
Quitting too soon

The bottom-line is that social media is too important to compartmentalize or see as a pet project.What do you think?

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12 Social Media Tips

Shane Gibson — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:52:08 +0000

Keep giving and contributing more than the competition. Pay back will be huge.
Every tweet, blog entry, comment and status update will be saved forever and is permanently part of your brand.
Before permission to market comes permission to connect. There’s a lot of trust building in between.
Make it easy for people to find you. While you’re out looking for business there is an entire market looking for you.
“It’s not about B2B or B2C it’s about person to person marketing in social media” – @jeffbooth.
Use the back links function in Google to see who is linking to your competitors. Reach out to those connectors.
Go wide with social media then build strong deep networks by going deep with the phone, Skype, webinars or in-person.
Twitter search and tools like Twellow.com can dampen the noise down from millions on voices to the exact ones you’re targeting.
Picking a fight publicly stays on record long after the battle is done. Rarely is it worth it.
Not getting the results you want? Are you asking for help often enough? It’s about community. Reach out.
Share and give more than you think is practical… then do it again. It will build positive momentum for your brand.
When partnering with other social media influencers start by making sure your values and principles are aligned.

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.tel Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Weapon #88

Shane Gibson — Mon, 17 May 2010 04:40:55 +0000

Excerpt from Guerrilla Social Media Marketing by Shane Gibson and Jay Conrad Levinson:

.tel: This is a new domain name extension but it’s more than just another domain. Yourname.tel, Yourproduct.tel and yourcompany.tel are vital guerrilla tools. A .tel domain is driven by a proprietary software that integrates a variety of SmartPhone and web based applications. Embedded in the .tel are your contact details and key information. With a click of a button your prospects can immediately download your contact information into their address book or cellular phone. George Moen CEO of Blenz Coffee has a business card with no phone numbers, addresses or e-mail on it. It simply says GeorgeMoen.tel.

What the .tel network is building is worlds biggest phone book that dynamically integrates into websites and applications. Anytime you update your contact details in your .tel dashboard it automatically updates all of the other sites and the Smartphone applications. How many times have you been somewhere and forgot your business cards? Now you can simply tell people to visit yourname.tel, yourproduct.tel or yourcompany.tel, and most people will find that easy to remember and easy to do.

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Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Weapon #65 Alltop.com

Shane Gibson — Mon, 17 May 2010 04:28:16 +0000

Alltop.com: Is described by co-founder Guy Kawasaki as “the online version of the magazine rack in your bookstore except that it has 900 subjects and is free.” It organizes news and blog entries by subject, and gives you the five most current pieces from top websites and blogs. You also get a preview of each story.

Guerrillas need to constantly feed their community and connections with value added content. They also need to keep up to date with specific industries and niche markets to remain competitive. Alltop’s always current and up-to-date news and blog feeds are a great source of guerrilla intelligence and content.

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Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Traditional Websites versus Social Sites

Shane Gibson — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:45:27 +0000

In writing Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Jay Levinson and I developed a quick comparison between traditional websites and social sites. Guerrillas know that to build community and consent your website and homebase must be social.

Traditional Websites versus Social Sites

Traditional Sites	Social Sites
Require technical knowledge to update and add content	Require very little knowledge to update and almost anyone can add content
Full of me-focused marketing and are written like a corporate brochure	Written for the customer about things that can help the customer
Are unidirectional in their mode of communication	Allow for bidirectional communication between guerrillas and their visitors and also allow visitors to share and communicate with one another
Is a marketing island	Are community hubs and push content out to guerrilla outposts and also pull in and aggregate content from those networks
Are difficult to keep on the top of search engine rankings because of their static nature	Are easy to keep on the top of search engine rankings because of constantly added content by guerrillas and their visitors
Lock up and protect their content, such as videos	Make all of their content easy to share and repurpose
Require visitors’ contact details and consent before establishing a relationship or providing any real value-added content	Are full of value-added content, tools and information that benefit their market, and don’t require you to give consent before adding value
Require expensive custom plugins or web-based applications and a significant financial investment when upgrading the look and feel	Due to their open source nature, are inexpensive or free to upgrade. This also allows for inexpensive redesigns
Typically corporate-supported	Typically community-supported
Provides limited channels and access to limited number of people within a company	Provides multiple methods for connecting with your company and provides access to multiple people within your organization

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Follow Friday is now People Friday

Shane Gibson — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:25:40 +0000

Enough. With the advent of Twitter there’s the follow Friday or #followfriday or #ff. People post lists of people they endorse or want to thank for their impact on them via Twitter. It may be the trend du jour but I feel for us hyper wired social media and web geeks People Friday is a much greater cause. We spend so much time behind our monitors or squinting at our iPhones and Blackberry’s that we have forgotten the purpose; PEOPLE. Instead of posting on Twitter how much you like someone and why everyone else should follow them online — why not meet them in person or pick up the phone and let them know how much you appreciate their efforts. It’s great to promote and connect with a broad base of people and expand our network. Intimacy and trust however is built by deepening key relationships. When you know each other better, and deep trust is built we can than truly and endorse someone as credible.

So I have my People Friday booked up. I’m visiting with my co-author Stephen Jagger, then meeting with a long time client, and then I will be meeting with George Moen of Blenz Coffee. Most of these conversations and interactions could be handled online via a wiki / chat collaboration BUT there’s huge value to looking someone in the eye and taking the time to let them know how they have impacted you. If at all possible today… get offline in person with someone you have rapport with online and see if you can add depth to that relationship.

Have a great Friday,

Shane

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10 Hard Questions about Your Corporate Social Media Use

Shane Gibson — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:32:35 +0000

Social media is one of the most measurable and engaging online compliments of marketing tools available. With that said social media is a rabbit hole that entire teams can dive down. It hurts your brand, it hurts your real world relationships and it wastes your resources. It’s time to get real about our habits.

Social media, particularly my blogging, Twitter and YouTube activity has brought me clients from three continents that include a number of Fortune 500 clients and major government organizations. So I’m a big believer, and this stuff works. Over the years here’s some things I have done that don’t work, things that many people can relate to:

I have hit Twitter instead of writing a proposal, it was for procrastination and fun, not for business or community building.
I have engaged in conversations that are off topic, not anywhere near my target market and spent hours on such conversations.
I have written numerous blog entries with no real goal or over reaching theme.
I have ripped, thumped and chastised newbies for their ignorance or blatant spam (which is also usually due to ignorance) and hurt my own credibility.
I have started, stopped, started again and then quit on blogging and podcasting. This cost me readers momentum and business opportunities as well as trust.
I have done another dozen things wrong at least (See Twitpics gone wrong part 1 and part 2)

Why do I share this? We’re all guilty of taking a good business tool and wasting time and resources. It can be cell phones calls for personal reasons, or business lunches that are really an excuse to cocktail it up etc. Executives and decisions makers are quick to blame the tools – the reality is we should blame the people, and blame management for not teaching and driving best practices.

Here are 10 hard questions you need to ask about your social media use:

Have you started your social media marketing with a solid goal, plan, and monthly calendar that keeps you on message?
Do you abuse your social media voice and constantly bash competitors or suppliers before you try less public options?
Do you hop on Facebook or Twitter when there are more business critical and urgent revenue opportunities pressing?
Do you have a well-defined target market that you listen to and talk with – or are you mass broadcasting and hoping someone will hear?
Have you researched or been trained in social media use or does your company train staff before letting them run rough-shot with your brand?
If you have several staff, have you assigned a junior in-experienced person to manage your brand online versus a tenured strategic thinker?
Are you using multiple social media or just the ones you are comfortable with?
Are you consistent with your activity and your messaging?
Is your personal social graph putting you at risk (are there pictures, information or behavior that could hurt your brand?)
Are you involving your whole team and opening up multiple channels for client communication or is your marketing department hoarding your social media voice?

These are just a few hard questions. There are many more. If you want to succeed and get an ROI out of social media you will need to ask these questions, and constantly check in to make sure you stay on the path.

What questions do you ask? How are you auditing your social media use?

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Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, SEO – Which one is right for you?

Shane Gibson — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:03:02 +0000

The question is formed in many different ways. I get it all the time. What is the best social media or social network for me to use? Which ones will my clients respond best to? Should I use social media or invest in search engine optimization?

These are the wrong questions. Lets use a guerrilla analogy: What’s the best weapon for combat? The answer is: You need more than one weapon, you need multiple weapons, multiple approaches and a lot of redundancy and back-up.

Lets step back from “social media marketing” and talk about marketing. We know that the best marketing campaigns use a variety of media and messages. BMW doesn’t just use billboards, they use e-mail, micro-sites, online video, direct mail and also encourage user generated content on some of their more social sites. Starbucks is much the same.

The message here is this:

Stop falling in love with social media tools, start falling in love with your customer

Starbucks, BMW, Ford, Comcast and many other successful social media marketers are customer engagement focused. They surround their customers online with multiple opportunities from multiple media to learn, connect and engage. It takes time, frequency of contact and a lot value added interactions to become top of mind with your customer.

EngagementDB.com a project by Altimeter Group and WetPaint studied the web’s top brands and looked at the impact of using multiple media and channels versus being a one-weapon marketer. Without exception the brands that used multiple media and channels had greater and faster engagement levels. These brands also happened to be more profitable than the others. This is probably not due to social media use but the fact that they are progressive and strategic at all levels in their businesses.

Here’s your take-away:

Fall in love with your customer, interact with them in multiple channels and add value. Focus on them, not the tools.
Have an over reaching plan and goal that drives your content creation and interaction
Use all of your social media tools, search marketing and offline marketing in tandem and with the same focus.
Stay on message, stay consistent, and continually engage

What are your thoughts on this? Have you found that multiple media helps you engage faster and more effectively?

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Engagement pages versus landing pages

Shane Gibson — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:24:16 +0000

This is another (unedited) excerpt from Guerrilla Social Media Marketing a new book by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shane Gibson set for release in September 2010.

Engagement pages are designed to capture hearts and minds, not just e-mail addresses.

Traditional internet marketers rely heavily on controlling the behavior of their visitors. This means reducing options and choices. What is commonly referred to as a squeeze page is a good example of this. Squeeze pages usually are completely void of navigation buttons or links to other pages or websites, and give the visitor one of two choices: to read the marketing copy and then make a choice to either fill in their personal information and give consent or to leave. Although this will capture a percentage of visitors who are ready, willing or able to buy or give consent right now, it also repels visitors who could have become good clients if they had only been engaged in a credible manner.

Engagement pages have some similarities to a squeeze page, in that their purpose is also to gain consent and generate subscribers. The difference is: the engagement page offers the visitor multiple options, mediums and pathways to learn more about how the guerrilla’s business can benefit and add value to the visitor’s life or business. It also provides multiple subscription options.

As a reader what are your thoughts on this? Do you use landing pages or engagement pages? What is your impression or sentiment toward organizations that funnel you into squeeze pages?

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What Guerrilla Social Media Marketers Know…

Shane Gibson — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:07:35 +0000

This is another (unedited) excerpt from the new book Jay Conrad Levinson and I are writing:

Guerrillas know that social media and social networks are bi-directional communications tools. Most of your competitors will be stingy with their real level of interaction and conversations with the marketplace. Chat more, contribute more, and listen more than your competitors.

Traditional Marketers Say:	Guerrillas Know:
Being conversational doesn’t scale.	Positive conversations can go viral via online word of mouth and grow your brand geometrically.
You should find a way to automate your interaction and responses.	Taking the time to personally tailor our messages and communications creates rapport and trust in our brand. Trust in our brand means business.
Broadcast messages across multiple channels, it’s a numbers game.	Listening to multiple communities online can help us respond with the right message, to the right prospect at the right time. It means we don’t waste money, time or create noise.
Tease the market with free reports, meager discounts, and mass appeal offers.	Giving real value, truly customized solutions, and things that will help our market will create loyalty and a desire to reciprocate and do business with us.
If you don’t get a return on investment from a community or target market, move on quickly and find a more receptive market.	It takes many conversations and value added interactions to gain the trust, loyalty and mindshare of a community. Having ongoing dialogue and involvement with our connections is what it takes to make a guerrilla marketing attack fully pay. Investing long-term in the right market is always a good strategy.

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Guerrilla Social Media Marketing – Positioning

Shane Gibson — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:50:49 +0000

This is another (unedited) excerpt from the new book Jay Conrad Levinson and I are writing:

A guerrilla positioning story tells your specific niche the following:

1. What your corporate values are and what you represent
2. What you offer and specifically what business you are in
3. What makes you unique, and distinct
4. What you do better than anyone else
5. Who loves to do business with you (your target markets)

Guerrillas position through stories and conversations

The first step in positioning through social media is to get to know your audience intimately. Commonly referred to as social media monitoring tools, guerrilla intelligence tools allow you to sort through the millions of possible blog posts, Tweets, and videos honing in on relevant conversations by your target market. Once this target market has been identified, and their true needs, wants, communications style and culture has been determined then the conversation begins. It’s not a sales pitch, it’s a series of questions, value added content, and engaging conversations using multiple social media. Over time each of these little interactions forms and tells your positioning story. How you answer questions, share information and produce content must be consistent with your brand and the positioning story you want to tell.

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Guerrilla Social Media Marketing – Truth

Shane Gibson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:03:11 +0000

Here’s another excerpt from the book I’m working on with Jay Conrad Levinson.

Truth:

Marketing is the truth made fascinating. Guerrilla social media marketing is about using all of the tools available to tell your fascinating brand story in a way that drives trust, consent and profits. With that said, guerrillas tell the truth and they tell the whole truth. With social media networks and platforms the millions of people that inhabit them quickly detect lies or half-truths. Misinformation or false pretenses can be profitable in the short-term but over the long term not telling the truth will destroy the customer’s trust, credibility and ultimately your fragile reputation.

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13 Social Media Tips in 140 Characters or Fewer

Shane Gibson — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:41:57 +0000

Momentum can cause friction. Don’t be moving so fast that you forget your community.
To build a big network, build many interconnected communities.
If you’re going to be disruptive aggressive and edgy you also have to be able to take what you dish-out; with a smile!
A social media listening strategy has to be applied on-going and consistently if you want to maximize ROI.
Google Buzz isn’t just another feed aggregator. Use it to deepen conversations with existing relationships
Contrast keeps people interested. With your blog and twitter content vary tempo, topic and format.
Retweets are great ways of measuring engagement… but a making someone laugh is better IMHO.
Consistency is a key factor in building your brand, stay present, stay on message, keep listening
Build your own affiliate or loyalty program to reward your super fans and advocates.
Have an integrated marketing plan that includes social media. All media work better augmented
Social media tools are mostly free, but time isn’t. Allocate necessary time to make the tools work
As you invest time in social media marketing and networking attach it to a goal and be purposeful in your interactions.
While you were tweeting your competitor got our from behind their computer and met with your potential client.

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Guerrilla Social Media Marketer Attribute #6

Shane Gibson — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:55:26 +0000

This is attribute #6 of the Top Ten Attributes of a Guerrilla Social Media Marketer. (unedited excerpt from my upcoming November 2010 book published by Entrepreneur Press and co-authored with Jay Levinson):

#6) Free and Variable

It is important to use free digital give away’s that have real value and customer benefits. Then of course we need a variety of paid options to upgrade to. One size fits all doesn’t work anymore, people want very personalized options tailored to their particular taste and desires.

Lego.com effectively applies the concept of free and variable and is profiting greatly from it. Using soft steps to gradually build consent from the customer is a key guerrilla strategy. Starting with free and highly interactive games kids and adults alike quickly develop a loyalty and positive association to the Lego brand and the toys in the game. There’s not one, two or ten games; there are dozens with varying complexity and appeal.

Of course the real winner is the free Lego DesignByMe downloadable software. This digital design software allows the user to virtually build Lego models using thousands of Lego pieces that are stored in it’s database. The user can rotate a 3D model in any direction adding pieces, color and functionality and also calculate the exact cost of building and purchasing the model they have built. Once they are happy with their unique design, which fits their personal budget they then can even design a custom box cover and packaging. Lego will put all the pieces in the customer-designed box, complete with instructions to help the customer put together their model in real life and then they ship it to them directly from the factory.

The software has a social aspect as well, allowing members to add friends, and also share and vote on designs. There’s also several ways users can share their designs with friends and family who may want to purchase the custom Lego for them as a gift.

Free digital give away’s build trust and allow the customer to experience our brand without risk. With trust we can garner consent to communicate and market to them. Variable customized options make it easier for customers to purchase and re-purchase. In the case of LEGO there’s always a new, exciting model to be purchased because the options are limitless.

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Guy Kawasaki + Olympic Hockey Tweetup in Vancouver Holy Kaw!

Shane Gibson — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:08:50 +0000

It started with a tweet from Jason Baker. He had been in contact with Guy Kawasaki and Guy wanted to meet the local twitter community at a Tweetup. Guy is here in town until Sunday morning enjoying a gauntlet of Olympic Hockey. Jason contacted Stephen Jagger and I and asked if we could put something together. A Tweetup is a loosely organized meeting of people who are connected on Twitter. (Tweetup in-depth explanation here) The purpose is to take all of those virtual online connections and meet offline to cement relationships, share ideas, or in this case cheer on Team Canada. We contacted several venues and found that the Caprice on Granville would host us and our Twitterati for a Hockey celebration — but we had to bring 200 people of course. With less than a week to plan Stephen, Jason and I enlisted the help of the International Internet Marketing Association and Social Media Club Vancouver. A couple people started the idea but once the ball was rolling the community really self-organized and we easily met and exceeded the 200 person number by the first period of the Canada-Switzerland game this past Thursday.

Although we invited the world, most people were local that attended; I have never seen a Tweetup of this size in Vancouver where everyone came out to connect in person. What the Olympics has done is give us Vancouverites a reason to relax, connect more often and have more fun. What was great of course is that Canada won (sorry my Swiss friends) and Guy Kawasaki the most Tweeted about personality online showed up after the game to say hello. Over all it was a fantastic demonstration of how social media and virtual connections can create real community and real relationships. For more Tweetups in Vancouver visit “VancouverTweetup.”

Victory Goal Video (by @jlate)

O’Canada Video (by @jlate)

Photos

The Fashion Police Were Obviously Not Present

Mitch Baldwin of Social Media Club Vancouver at the Caprice

Marc McPherson @marcmcpherson from Builddirect.com

Vancouver's Social Media Community Tweeting Up for Team Canada

@jason_baker @guykawasaki @shanegibson and friends

@cybelenegris & @guykawasaki

Shane Gibson is co-author of Sociable! How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside-down and is an active member of the Vancouver Board of Trade and Social Media Club Vancouver. Learn more about Shane at http://ShaneGibson.tel or follow him on Twitter @ShaneGibson.

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Podcast Interview: What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School – Larry Chiang

Shane Gibson — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:55:49 +0000

Photo Credit Terry Chay

Today’s podcast is an interview with Larry Chang author of What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School. Larry is also a seriously Sociable! guy and can be found organizing after parties at some of the biggest social media and cultural events from South by South West to conferences at major universities across North America. In fact Larry may be the 3rd best party guy and networker I have met. (Sociable! Book Launch Party). In this interview Larry and I talk about topics you don’t learn in business school such as Man Charm, how to land a super star mentor and sales skills.

Larry’s book sold out it’s first printing on Amazon but you can register for updates at Amazon by clicking on the book below:

What They Don't Teach You at Stanford Business School

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A Big Thank-you for Helping Make the Sociable Book Launch a Huge Success!

Shane Gibson — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:04:45 +0000

A big thank you to all those that came out to the Sociable! Book launch party.
The event was a massive success with over 500 people through the door of the V Lounge in Yaletown.

Thanks You!

PHOTOS:

Sociable Book Launch Party Photos

Have you seen the pictures from the launch party?

You can see them here – http://www.facebook.com/SociableBook

We will have a video from the event shortly, watch http://www.sociablebook.com for it!

Do you have photos you took at the party? We would love to see them, just upload them to our Facebook Fan Page
http://www.facebook.com/SociableBook

BUY SOCIABLE!

Didn’t Get A Chance To Buy Your Copy of Sociable! ??

You can buy Sociable! at:

Amazon.com – http://bit.ly/9OoplU

Hager Books – 2176 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver, BC – 604-263-9412

Bulk Purchases - http://www.sociablebook.com/BuyTheBook.ubr

SPONSORS:
The Sociable! Launch Party could not of happened without our sponsors. A big thanks to:

Event Sponsor:
Amuse Consulting – http://www.amuseconsulting.ca

Media Sponsors:
TechVibes – http://www.techvibes.com (marketing support)
6SMarketing – http://www.6SMarketing.com (marketing support)
Jeremy Lim – http://www.jeremylim.ca (photographer)
FreyBurg Media – http://www.freyburgmedia.com (video)

Cruiser Tables:
HootSuite – http://www.HootSuite.com
SplitMango – http://www.SplitMango.com
Mobio – http://www.mobioid.com/
SiTek – http://www.sitek.com
Kaerus – http://www.kaerus.ca
JustTheBill – http://www.justthebill.com

SPEAKING:
To hire Stephen and/or Shane to speak at your next conference or event please contact us at http://www.sociablebook.com

Thanks again so much for your support!!

It was a really fantastic night and we could not have done it with out you all.

Sincerely,

Steve and Shane
http://www.sociablebook.com
http://twitter.com/sociablebook
http://www.twitter.com/sjagger
http://www.twitter.com/shanegibson

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12 Social Media Tips under 140 Characters

Shane Gibson — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:38:59 +0000

These are social media tips under 140 characters that I have posted on Twitter over the past week or so. For those of you who may have missed some, I have put them into an archived list here on my blog. Add your own tips and comments in the comments section if you would like. Here’s my 12 social media tips under 140 characters:

Stay curious and you will stay current.
Momentum is hard to build and easy to lose. When things start to rock… ride the wave and keep pushing.
Have a goal or theme and build a monthly calendar around your social media activities
Crowdsourcing still requires leadership to take ideas and turn them into action. Don’t just create fans, equip leaders.
Fresh valuable content beats perfect outdated content every time. Use tools that help you publish easy and fast.
Understand tools like friendfeed, tumblr, and ping.fm. They can help you syndicate your messaging for maximum reach.
search engine optimization helps people find you. Integrate an SEO plan with your social media plan.
Have a set of guidelines and a social media training program for your staff to ensure that you maximize results.
Being transparent has it’s downsides, make sure you can walk your talk. You’re always on stage.
Evaluate your strategy as if you were looking through your customers eyes. Ask “So What?” a lot
“There is no failure only feedback” – @fredshadian
Create spaces (Ning, Buddypress etc.) for communities to form. Creating positive community is great for business.

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Podcast – Helping salespeople get smarter with digital assistants and technology

Shane Gibson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:29:15 +0000

Amacus

Today’s podcast is with sales technology thought leader John Cousineau who is President of Innovative Information the creators of Amacus. John and I have had a number of coffee chats and debates around why and how to use technology and social media to improve sales performance and customer experience. The nexus of sales and social media seems to be happening in the CRM and Social CRM space. The question is it happening fast enough and making things more efficient or is it just giving sales people more buttons and buzzwords to worry about.

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159 Social Media Tips From 2009 in 140 Characters or Less by @shanegibson

Shane Gibson — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:54:36 +0000

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I like to tweet social media tips. This is a collection of social media tips under 140 characters that I tweeted out in 2009. It’s not all of them, just the ones I personally archived. They are chronologically organized from most recent to oldest. You will notice a consistent theme but also somewhat of a change in thought process as well. The reality is social media and our attitude toward it has changed a lot in 12 months. Here’s my 159 Social Media Tips in Under 140 Characters for 2009:

Improve the way you use 5 tools 10% each. Cumulatively it will have a big effect.
Easy access to tools like blogging raises the bar for those who want to lead, lots of competition.
Take massive action when you see a trend that may have large growth potential. You won’t win them all… but one will do.
The best medium is the one your customer likes, use multiple media.
There will be platforms you visit and platforms you call home. Make sure you own your home.
Be open to feedback, be open to being wrong. Defensiveness isn’t all that social.
Hone in on and focus on engaging people. Help multiply each other’s vision.
When teaching people talk in variable rules and principles not universal ones. Nothing is forever…things move fast.
Many people will quit, shun and criticize social media marketing when they realize it’s actually about leadership.
Dear Agency/Marketer/Sales Guy, if we wanted marketing and pitching we’d watch TV.
If you keep changing your message you will keep starting over. Experimenting with your strategic brand is not good.
Social media works better when it’s incorporated holistically with your entire set of marketing tools.
Before listening to someone’s social media tips or advice use social search to verify their credibility.
Leadership is influence (John Maxwell) and influence is measured based upon the change and action we create.
Use Twitter lists to let people know you’re listening.
Consistency, conviction, passion and focus are needed to see a social media plan succeed.
Best short-cut for results: focus on people, relationships, & psychology not gimmicks and clicks.
Not listening to your customer = Brandicide (Brand Homicide) do you have a social media listening strategy?
Once you find a conversation about your brand encourage it to spread by creating and hosting places for dialogue.
Social listening strategy comes before social media content strategy.
Most social media efforts are abandoned long before their results can be measured.
Integrate your tools in your marketing but also measure the effectiveness of each tool individually.
Social Media Trend: More people realizing that social media success is about leadership not technology.
Social Media Trend: Simultaneous translation in mirco-blogging and collaboration platforms.
Social Media Trend: Mobile social apps aggregating multiple social networks and media into one place.
Aggregate your client and prospect list and develop nano-casts for each nano-segment.
Social media can be used for retaining, developing and prospecting clients, all aspects of the sales cycle.
Get out of your industry vacuum when building strategy. Look for SMM concepts that can be adapted.
Want to make good connections? Make value added, thoughtful comments on their blog.
Teach your clients about social media, help them get online. It creates more dialogue opportunities.
Make it real at least twice a week. Meet offline in person with contacts.
Research and test the latest platforms but don’t go down the rabbit hole.
Teach people the principles of leadership before teaching them how to use Twitter or blogs.
Meetup.com is best used for community events. Using it just to promote your product or company will have minimal results.
Your great idea or blog post, is being written in 10 different languages by other people right now.
Any system or company bent on being exclusive versus inclusive will fail.
nstead of writing headlines write engagement lines.
As a leader, make the journey look fun & share your joy. People will want to follow the path.
“Nothing happens until someone tweets something.”
Being a thought leader is just as much about selfless contribution as it is about unique dialogue.
You don’t have to like or use every tool to be successful.
Social Media Trend: Brands now need to think global social etiquette when planning their social media strategy.
Unique, brief sound bytes produced consistently can yield great results.
Once in a while ask your FB and Twitter friends for help. See who steps up. This will tell you a lot.
Make a list of people who support you online. Develop a strategy to reciprocate.
Use your experience in social media to predict areas of growth in new regions and niches. Then pay it forward.
You may be awesome blogger but does the world know? SEO, social networks, offline promotions are needed.
Make your events that you promote about the community. Education and collaboration trump pitches.
“Think what’s in it for me?” from your target market’s perspective.
Using more than one channel / stream shortens your brand engagement curve.
Defining your target market and goals is easy, engaging them is the challenge.
The numbers are exciting but they’re just numbers until you make it real and build good relationships.
Engagement is not just about listening; it’s about empathy, rapport, and making people feel heard.
Engagement is the goal, social media are the tools.
Thank people who comment on your blog via e-mail or twitter. Let them know you’re listening.
Search engine optimization can help you rapidly grow your network and connections. Get good at it.
Develop a list of your top connections/influencers and make sure you’re connected on multiple networks.
There is a Trend: Condensed writing, short videos all getting shorter.
Blogging tip. Pick a theme or topic for the month. Plan 7-10 blog entries that build up to 1 core message, event, or action.
Have a series of steps planned and measured to track and develop relationships.
One of your final steps in the social media sales process is to connect offline, on the phone, or at least one on one virtually.
Use http://www.backtype.com/ to search blog comments about you, your blog or a topic.
Social media is too new for Gurus. We’re all amateurs! That’s what makes it fun and open.
Social Media Phases: Adoption, Population, Pollination, Aggregation, Splintering, Commercializing, and Globalizing.
Social media is here to stay and has more relevance and power everyday.
Embracing and understanding how to use social media is a core life skill, leadership skill and career building skill.
Social media is social. It’s about helping people connect to people using technology, it embodies truly what the internet was intended for.
Social media is not just about technology, it’s a new way of leading, thinking, and connecting with other people.
Social media belongs to all of us. An ordinary consumer, a front line employee, a political activist in Iran all have access and a voice.
You need different messaging for client retention than you do for attraction.
Statistics tend to be a history lesson. Growth and human behavior are rarely linear. Listen to customers and staff.
Use social listening tools: http://www.collecta.com/ http://www.twitority.com/ http://socialmention.com/ http://www.twazzup.com/
Develop a social media policy and set of guidelines to keep your team on track and on message.
You can force someone to be social, you can only give them the tools and training.
Worry less about selling and more about connecting and rapport.
Read Free the Future of a Radical Price before launching your next marketing campaign.
Read “Ignore Everybody” by Hugh Macleod if you want to tap into your social media creativity.
Spend time each day promoting and contributing to another blogger’s success.
What works for you now will only keep working until it is no longer unique. Keep innovating.
Polish your work too long and someone will move first with a less perfect work but they’ll get the credit. Publish first.
One day we will look back at “social media” as a buzz word. But the best practices will still be in use.
Seeing someone as a competitor is old economy, seeing them as a peer and a fusion partner is key.
Talk and listen to small nodes or groups of people in your larger niche network. Niche broadcasting is not enough.
Contribution, help and kindness are your social currencies which can get you access to great people and great networks.
Want to implement your social media plan fast? Think collaboration not committee
All the details, plans and tools don’t mean much unless you understand people.
A sense of curiosity and willingness to experiment can lead to some positive serendipitous discoveries.
Stop focusing on being a social media rock star, focus on building a community and a list.
Develop an understanding of the Long Tail http://longtail.com Think variable not universal when building strategy. Nano-casting and the “Long Tail” are key.”
Types of social media ROI include: improved staff engagement, quicker response to business challenges, increased frequency contact with clients.
Social Media results could also be: increased revenue, more customer data, increased store (real world) traffic, press, improved customer service.
Looking to hire a social media expert? Look for proof that they have done more than just build traffic and followers.
Words to use in a social media job posting: track record, business experience, well networked, project management experience.
There is a lot of hype. Look for truth, verify information and execute with dependable tools and strategies.
Use give away’s that have real value with a variety of paid options to upgrade to. Think customization and options.
Permission to connect has put the power in the consumers’ hands. Seek and then treat that permission like gold.
When I join your facebook page, give you my e-mail or follow you on twitter those are examples of “permission to connect”
Some people like lengthy whitepapers, others learn best through video, audio or text updates. Use variety.
Measure engagement levels, revenues, value added interactions. Big numbers in views and traffic can lie.
Bad customer feedback is a branding opportunity if you handle it right.
If you can’t be relevant, at least be entertaining!
Visit sites outside of your industry and interest areas for new ideas.
Constantly look for ways to contribute and you will never run out of marketing leverage.
Social Media should be integrated or synced with other marketing activities.
Social media is not rocket science. Forget the big words and focus on listening and connecting intimately.
It’s kind of like dating. Don’t ask someone to marry you on the first date.
Your goal is to become referable; to become credible, and to build a following through value added interactions.
It is not about getting referrals; it is about becoming referable.
There are many ways to get followers. A good question to ask is: “How do I create quality connections on Twitter?”
Ning.com is a great social networking tool. What it enables you to do is create your own private network for anything.
Pay it forward. Teach people about social media and they’ll tell other people about you.
Resist the temptation to fill your Facebook friends inboxes with daily marketing. They will tune you out.
Break long blog posts into a series of short-posts, it will increase your page views and be more engaging (except this one of course)
It’s personal reputation and brand building that makes us approachable, people want the real deal.
When you’re reaching out to thought leaders in the social space you need to tap into their motivations.
Pre-scheduled tweets and blog posts can help you reach audiences in different time zones.
Use http://www.tubemogul.com to distribute video to Youtube, Viddler, Vimeo etc. all at once.
Use http://hootsuite.com to manage multiple twitter accounts and schedule tweets into the future.
It feels great to know people are listening to us and that they care. Let your customers know you’re listening.
If done right social media will become a part of your business process not a separate addition.
Spend at least as much time listening as you do broadcasting.
It’s called “social media” for a reason. Be prepared to interact consistently.
You can’t win the game focusing on the scoreboard. Focus on the game of engagement and the traffic will come.
Losing followers is okay, measure the engagement level of who is still here to see how you are doing.
Have a goal, measure results, measurement provides feedback and improvement.
The internet has always been about helping people connect to people (@nickusborne)
Pay it forward. Help, teach. guide and be patient with people new to the scene. [Tweet This Tip]
Study people who are credible with the type of clients you want to attract. Model their strategy.
Marketers aren’t always synonymous with community builders, traffic and followers isn’t always equal to credibility.
If you’re an old school e-mail marketer or pitch artist, there’s some habits you will need to unlearn.
Before you start your campaign define your market and their pains.
Everyone and every company gets off message once in a while. Refocus and learn from it.
Leaders of large “Tribes” need to have thick skin and a tolerance for noise.
Continually tweak and update your Linkedin profile, your network will be notified.
Social media is changing so quickly that if you stop too long to smell the roses you’ll be out of touch.
Try a new platform each month, video blogging, FaceBook, tumblr etc. Curiosity can lead to great discoveries.
You can’t make a robot network for you at a party, why do you think they can do it for you on the web?
Some un-follows are strategic. People want to know if you’re really listening.
You can’t please everyone. But know who you are trying to connect with. Get in sync with your audience.
http://www.ping.fm updates FaceBook, Brightkite, Twitter, tumblr and Linkedin statuses all at once
Focus on a specific theme in your social media for extended periods of time
Your blog is your home base, all social media should feed your home base
Social media is 90 % contribution and connection 10 % marketing and sales
Social media belongs to the people, they get to make the rules not the marketer
Have a social media policy for your company. Help your people be effective and on message
Promote other people’s dreams. It builds community, loyalty and brand for you
“Marketing is a process not an event”- @jaylevinson Blog, tweet and talk about solutions to people’s pains and challenges
Social media tools like twitter are listening tools more than they are broadcasting tools.
Nano-cast to many small niches instead of broadcasting to everyone.
Learn to break up large blog entries into many smaller entries. It’s more user friendly
Take time each month to update your major social media profiles, use key words that your prospects would search for
Use social search like http://search.twitter.com and http://blogsearch.google.com to listen to your customers
Each social network has it’s own etiquette FaceBook type behavior doesn’t work on LinkedIn
Answer people’s comments on your blog, or @ replies in Twitter. Social media leadership is about bi-directional communication.
Think twice, click once.
Take it off-line, book in person meetings or hold events for your online social media contacts
Use an assortment of tools, it geometrically multiplies efforts
Always be asking where are we going? What is the next Twitter or FaceBook going to be?
Use a mixture of content on your blogs, top 10 lists, photos, video, audio, guest bloggers, and polls…

I’m excited about what this year has to hold. While the big talk and focus is on Social Media ROI the real trend in my opinion is the realization that social media is a leadership tool. I’m looking forward to seeing many leaders amplify the good things they are doing in 2010 using social media. Happy New Year!

Download a free Chapter of Shane’s new book in PDF or MP3 Format.

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10 Social Media Tips Under 140 Characters

Shane Gibson — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:01:02 +0000

Here’s a summary of social media tips I have posted on Twitter over the past week. They’re usually inspired by conversations, client questions or things I have observed that work well or don’t work at all. I like to archive them for those of you who don’t want to sift through my very noisy Twitter stream to find the gems. Here they are:

10 Social Media Tips Under 140 Characters

When teaching people talk in variable rules and principles not universal ones. Nothing is forever…things move fast.
Many people will quit, shun and criticize social media marketing when they realize it’s actually about leadership.
Dear Agency/Marketer/Sales Guy, if we wanted marketing and pitching we’d watch TV.
If you keep changing your message you will keep starting over. Experimenting with your strategic brand is not good.
Social media works better when it’s incorporated holistically with your entire set of marketing tools.
Before listening to someone’s social media tips or advice use social search to verify their credibility.
Leadership is influence (John Maxwell) and influence is measured based upon the change and action we create.
Use Twitter lists to let people know you’re listening.
Consistency, conviction, passion and focus are needed to see a social media plan succeed.
Best short-cut for results: focus on people, relationships, & psychology not gimmicks and clicks.

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Podcast: 10 Things That Will Not Change About Social Media in 2010

Shane Gibson — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:58:50 +0000

Today’s podcast is about 10 Things That Will Not Change About Social Media in 2010. There have been 1000’s of bloggers who have put fingers to keyboard and pounded out their predictions for social media in 2010. While there’s many predictions about future technology advancements, new demographics and debatable Twitter growth there are many things that are not going to change. So here is a summary of my thoughts that are on the podcast:

10 Things That Will Not Change About Social Media in 2010

It’s about the conversation
It belongs to everyone
It can’t be controlled only lead
It works best integrated
It doesn’t fit in the marketing ROI box
It’s an investment
It’s never been about the tools but those who wield them
It’s not going away, it’s not a fad
Experimenting with your clients money is a bad idea
Success belongs to the storytellers

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Why Social Media ROI is NOT as Important as ROR

Shane Gibson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:28:23 +0000

Today’s social media podcast is on social media ROI or return on investment and why it’s not nearly as important as ROR. ROR is a term introduced to me by Darcy Rezac author of Work the Pond. From a social media perspective and a general marketing perspective most people are nearsighted and have serious tunnel vision when it comes to social media ROI. ROR is about return on relationship and not just winning clicks but winning hearts, minds and loyalty. Most people talking about social media ROI have only been studying it for 24 months or less. Some don’t even use social media actively as an engagement and relationship building tool. I discuss this and many other aspects of ROR and ROI for social media in today’s podcast. Any and all feedback on this podcast would be welcome and appreciated.

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Hootsuite for the iPhone – Social CRM Just Went Mobile!

Shane Gibson — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:45:18 +0000

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I’m a big Hootsuite fan. I interviewed Ryan Holmes CEO of Invoke Media (the company that made Hootsuite) a few months ago about the Twitter app and I’ve been a loyal user ever since. It is a web based Twitter app, and actually if fully used to it’s capacity could be considered a Social CRM tool. I use Hootsuite to monitor 15 niches’ of clients, stakeholders, influencers and friends. I also use the program to do A/B testing on headlines and research what time of day people respond best to my updates and links. The fact that I can now take this Twitter/Social CRM tool with me on my iPhone truly un-teathers me from the office and allows me to interact with my Twitter accounts, clients and core niche markets. Expect more Tweets from me on the go now. The video is on the Hootsuite iPhone App:

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Dr. Denis Cauvier author of Hired 2.0 Podcast Interview with @shanegibson

Shane Gibson — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:22:50 +0000

Today’s podcast interview is with Dr. Denis Cauvier bestselling author of the ABCs of Making Money. The podcast interview is on his new book “Hired 2.0 – Recruiting Exceptional Talent at the Speed of Lig ht” and explores how social media, social networking and Generation Y has changed the way we need to approach recruiting, hiring and keeping great staff. Denis is a long time associate and friend of mine who has spoken to audiences in 45 countries on the topics of hiring and retaining great staff.

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Creating a Sales Culture in Your Organization

Shane Gibson — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:40:32 +0000

Many organizations want to create a sales culture but many also fail at doing so. Today’s podcast covers nine lessons around creating sales culture that I have learned while helping non-sales organizations create sales culture:

You need buy-in
It’s really about creating an opportunity culture
You need to reward people, that means everyone
“What gets inspected gets respected” – Trevor Greene
Move poor fits out quick, and hire the right people
Feed the monster – train and develop continually
Fix operations if they don’t support sales
Fix products and services that don’t meet needs or fulfill promises
It takes time, up to 18 months or longer before true leadership evolves

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Free Audio Download of Chapter 1 – Sociable! by @shanegibson and @sjagger

Shane Gibson — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:25:20 +0000

I have posted this file to our Sociable! FaceBook page but have yet to post it for non-members in my podcast feed for iTunes until today. This is a free audio preview of Sociable! How Social Media Is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside-down by Stephen Jagger and myself (Shane Gibson). Also below is a link to Sociable ! on Scribd if you haven’t read the PDF yet. We’re counting down the days until we receive the hard copy of the book but want to make sure we give you an advance sneak peek at what’s coming. If you’re a blogger, podcaster, or from the media and want a review copy of the book send me an e-mail at shane@closingbigger.net or tweet me @shanegibson.

Sociable! How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down

Sociable! on Facebook

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Prospecting is a Discipline

Shane Gibson — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:28:01 +0000

Today’s podcast is on developing a prospecting discipline and why you need to plan it out and make it part of your sales and marketing strategy. Bullet points on the podcast:

Four Types of Prospecting:

Face to Face
Extended Personal
Community and Network Prospecting
Media Marketing/Prospecting

Make a Plan:

Have the intent to meet people wherever you go, be aware and focus on rapport
Book time everyday for e-mail and phone calls
Book time everyday for prospecting on Linkedin and listening/monitoring the web
Attend two target rich events per month and one major conference per quarter
Budget a percentage of your projected income or revenues and spend it every month on media and press releases etc.

What’s your prospecting plan look like?

Subscribe in iTunes

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Free Goal Setting Guide for 2010 by Bill Gibson

Shane Gibson — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:49:31 +0000

Bill Gibson Chair of Knowledge Brokers International has put together a condensed goal setting guide called “Get a Fast Start for 2010.” You can download the PDF free here or you can view it via Scrib below. Enjoy!

Bill Gibson Free Goal Setting Guide

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Serendipity and Intuition are Not Random

Shane Gibson — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:23:26 +0000

Today’s podcast is on the connection between serendipity and discipline as well as the connection between training and intuition. I’m also going to talk about why very few people experience high levels of positive serendipity or tap into their intuition because they quit too soon. I’d love your feedback and thoughts on this topic. This applies to social media, sales, traditional marketing and even networking activities.

Looking for a social media speaker for your next conference?

You can contact us or take a look at Shane Gibson’s bio.

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Three Truly Sociable! Media Leaders and a Book Update

Shane Gibson — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:24:06 +0000

Our book Sociable! has been signed off. Stephen Jagger and I are now waiting on the very first hardcopy. After that’s singed off, you’ll be able to order the book from Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com this coming month.

I thought while we all wait I would give you a sneak peek into some of the personalities involved in the book.

Sociable! Media Leader #1: Kyle MacDonald (@oneredpaperclip):

Kyle wrote the foreword of the book. Here’s a great video on how Kyle traded one red paperclip for a house in one year:

Sociable Media Leader #2: Peter Aceto (@CEO_INGDirect):

Peter Aceto CEO of ING Direct Canada has brought a very transparent approach to leadership in banking. We had the opportunity to interview Mr. Aceto for the book and have since cooperated with ING in a few progressive social media marketing activities such as their standing room only #tweetup at the ING Direct Café here in Vancouver. (You can check out the event photo’s here on flickr). Below is an example how Peter has used YouTube and FairFees.ca to directly connect with the marketplace. He’s also one of the top CEO Tweeters in Canada (Follow him here).

Sociable Media Leader #3: Scott Heiferman (@heif)

Scott Heiferman is the CEO of Meetup.com. Anyone who knows Stephen Jagger and I will know that we really love Meetup. With that said our interview with Scott really opened us up to Scott’s global vision for Meetup and the very local impacts it can have on community and individuals. Below is a recent slideshare (click play to hear the audio, the 18 minutes are worth a listen) from a presentation by Scott this week at the Personal Democracy Forum in Europe.

Scott Heiferman at Personal Democracy Forum Europe

View more documents from heif.

Book Update:

Listen to Chapter 1 as an mp3 (audio file) or…

Click below to download Chapter 1

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Leading and Collaborating with Generation Y

Shane Gibson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:34:17 +0000

I’m doing a seminar on December 2nd in Victoria and December 3rd in Vancouver and thought I would share some of what I will be talking about with you in my podcast. Today’s focus is on how to engage, lead and train Generation Y / Millenials in the workplace. This demographic is much maligned and misunderstood.

More information on the seminars here:

Seminar Details

“Leading and collaborating with stakeholders and employees in a hyper connected marketplace.”

With employees, customers and stakeholders equipped with technology that allows for mass collaboration and rapid communication we as leaders need to understand how to harness this technology and the crowds we are connected to.

Today’s workplace is not a homogeneous one. As leaders we have to lead teams that are made up of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. This coupled with diverse cultures and values in the workplace make leading both exciting and challenging.

In this session Shane Gibson will cover core trends, leadership tools and opportunities that are associated with today’s digitally connected and diverse marketplace.

Key topics include:

• New rules for engagement in a digitally transparent era.
• Web 2.0 collaboration and learning tools.
• Creating an environment that is productive and engaging for the millennial / Gen Y.
• Tips and approaches for recruiting staff using tools like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.
• Using technology to break down silos and create collaboration within your organization.
• How to apply timeless leadership principles to this new work and business climate

CMA Testimonial

“I found the seminar (Partnering & Stakeholder Relationships, November 2009) very beneficial. Shane did a great job on the presentation and communicating the message. I would highly recommend his sessions to my fellow CMAs.”

Sanjeev Lal, CMA, Abbotsford

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The 10 Personality traits of a Guerrilla Social Media Marketer

Shane Gibson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:34:07 +0000

Jay Levinson and I put our heads together and came up with “The 10 Personality traits of a Guerrilla Social Media Marketer” they will be part of a program we’re developing together. I thought I would give you a sneak peek into these traits and the Guerrilla way:

Immune to hype:
There is a lot of hype around social media. The Guerrilla searches for truth, verifies information and executes with dependable tools and strategies.
Curiosity:
Penicillin was invented serendipitously. Guerrillas aren’t afraid to experiment, make mistakes or try new things to gain a competitive advantage.
The ability to sprint:
There will be small windows of opportunity and the Guerrilla is always ready to exploit them with all of their energy passion and resources.
The ability to run marathons:
Many battles are battles of attrition. Guerrillas know how to wear their competition down and build a presence through consistency.
Transparent:
A Guerrilla knows that truth, empathy and integrity are keys to social media marketing, and they build trust and loyalty through transparency.
Community focused
A Guerrilla builds, connects and helps the community. Within that community are other Guerrilla Allies that will be their assets.
Profit driven
A Guerrilla measures success by profits, not clicks, visitors, or any “cool factor.”
8. Tech hungry
Technology is the Guerrilla’s Social Media Marketers core weapon and competency. They are always learning more about technology.
Self-developer
A Guerrilla knows that technology and business moves fast. They are constantly learning more to stay ahead of the competition.
Leadership mentality
A Guerrilla observes the community and gathers intelligence but they are always thinking about what is next. They create trends, unique solutions and are thought leaders.

Copyright 2008-2009 Jay Levinson and Shane Gibson
Guerrilla Marketing Official Page

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Tips de Social Media, Pensamientos y Modas en menos de 140 caracteres.

Shane Gibson — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:11:44 +0000

Cada cierto tiempo, me dedico a hacer una colección de mis tweets mas populares de Social Media (Twitter updates via @shanegibsones) y los archivo en mi blog para que las personas que se los perdieron o para los que aun no se encuentran en Twitter. Aquí hay una colección de 25 Tips, pensamientos y modas de los 10 días pasados. Que los disfruten! (English version translation is here)

Pensamiento de SM: El no escuchar a tus clientes es un Homicidio a tu marca, ¿tu ya cuentas con una estratégia para escuchar en Social Media?
Tip de SM: Una vez que encuentres una conversación acerca de tu marca, incita a que continúe creando y facilitado espacios para el diálogo.
Tip de SM: Una estrategia social para escuchar, viene antes de una estrategia de contenidos de social.
Tip de SM: La mayoría de los esfuerzos de social media son abandonados antes de que los resultados puedan ser mesurados.
Moda de Social Media: Mas gente se esta dando cuenta que el exito en Social Media tiene que ver más con liderazgo y no con tecnología.
Moda de Social Media: Traducción simultánea en sitios de micro-blogging y colaboración en plataformas.
Moda de Social Media: Aplicaciones Sociales móviles agregando redes múltiples y AV en un mismo lugar.
Tip de SM: Agrega a tus listas de clientes y prospectos y desarrolla nano-conversaciones para cada nano-segmento.
Tip de SM: Social Media puede ser usada para retener, desarrollar y prospectar clientes en todos los aspectos de el ciclo de ventas.
Tip de SM: Sal de lo ordinario de tu industria cuando desarrolles una estrategia. Observa usus de Social Media que puedan ser adaptados.
Tip de SM: Instruye a tus clientes acerca de Social Media, ayúdalos a tener una presencia online. Esto crea mas diálogo y oportunidades.
Tip de SM: Traslada todo a la realidad al menos dos veces por semana. Conocete offline y en persona con tus contactos.
Tip de SM: Investiga y prueba las últimas plataformas, pero no caigas en situaciones complicadas o bizarras.
Tip de SM: Enseña a la gente, los principios de liderazgo antes de mostrarles como usar Twitter o Blogs.
Tip de SM: Meetup.com es mejor cuando es usado para organizar eventos comunitarios. Usarlo para promover tu comañía o producto tendrá resultados mínimos.
Tip de SM: Tu gran idea para un blog post ya esta siendo escrita en 10 idiomas diferentes ahora mismo por otras personas.
Tip de SM: Cualquier sistema o compañía inclinada a ser exclusiva mas que inclusiva, esta destinada a fallar.
Tip de SM: En lugar de escribir encabezados, escribe algo que te vincule con tus lectores.
Tip de SM: Como líder, haz que la jornada sea entretenida y comparte tu goce. Las otras personas, querrán seguir tu camino.
Se dice en Social Media: “Nada pasa hasta que alguien hace un tweet de ello”
Tip de SM: Ser un líder de pensamiento es contribución desinteresada y diálogo único.
Tip de SM: No tienes que usar o te tienen que gustar todas las herramientas para ser exitoso.

@shanegibsones traducción de @tyamdm.

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Two Leadership Seminars to Help You Compete and Prosper

Shane Gibson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:25:00 +0000

I have two seminars coming up in Vancouver in the next 60 days. If you’re a manager, executive or entrepreneur these two sessions are designed with you in mind. Today we need solid relationship development and leadership skills that are honed for today’s hyper-connected stakeholders and team member. These are not old strategies dusted off, they are up-to-date, current and very applicable leadership and communications tools. Here are the program outlines:

Partnering & Stakeholder Engagement Strategies (Nov 5) &
Leading in a Hyper Connected Marketplace (Dec 3)

Click here for registration information (PDF)

Presented by Shane Gibson
President of Knowledge Brokers International (http://www.closingbigger.net).

Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, Burnaby
November 5th & December 3rd, 2009

=======================================================

Partnering & Stakeholder Engagement Strategies: November 5th, 2009

In order to survive and prosper most major business, government or not-for-profit initiatives necessitate the support
of multiple stakeholders and stakeholder groups. It is about identifying the core needs, goals, fears, and
motivations of every key party and managing that information for strategic and tactical success.

You will learn the key strategies on partnering and stakeholder engagement including:
• The stages of relationship and partnership development
• Key steps in systemizing your relationship and stakeholder development planning (includes sample
planning charts and templates)
• Tips on handling and avoiding roadblocks
• How to map the Power Players in any business or organization
• How to persuade each Power Player

=======================================================

Leadership 2.0 – Leading in a Hyper Connected Marketplace: December 3rd, 2009

With employees, customers and stakeholders equipped with technology that allows for mass collaboration and
rapid communication we as leaders need to understand how to harness this technology and the crowds we are
connected to.

Today’s workplace is not a homogeneous one. As leaders we have to lead teams that are made up of Baby
Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. This coupled with diverse cultures and values in the workplace make
leading both exciting and challenging.

Key topics include:

Click here for registration information (PDF)

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Why You Need to Be a Nomadic Social Media Tribalist

Shane Gibson — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:30:38 +0000

Today’s podcast is more about questions than answers, this is somewhat of a roughly formed thought at this point. Tribes by Seth Godin really resonated with me when I first read it a year ago. Jay Conrad Levinson’s concept of Nano-casting to small unique groups (often only parts of a tribe) has always intrigued me. On a recent trip to Florida Jay and I spent an evening talking about Nano-casting, nomadic tribalists and social media marketing.

Here’s some of the core thoughts

We no longer can broadcast, or niche market, we need to nano-cast to small groups of people, often smaller than the entire tribe.
Nano-casting isn’t enough, we need to employ Listening 2.0 strategies and have intimate conversations.
You must be adept at being a nomadic social media tribalist, your ability to move from tribe to tribe and adapt as you market is vital.

I really would like your feedback on this concept. Make a comment below, Tweet me, or find me on Google Wave (closingbigger@googlewave.com).

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Social Media Tips, Thoughts and Trends Under 140 Characters

Shane Gibson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:03:17 +0000

Every few weeks I take a collection of my most popular social media Tweets (Twitter updates) and archive them on my blog for people who missed them or are not yet on Twitter. Here’s a collection of 25 tips, thoughts, and trends from the past 10 days. Enjoy!

Social Media Thought: Not listening to your customer = Brandicide (Brand Homicide) do you have a social media listening strategy?
Social Media Tip: Once you find a conversation about your brand encourage it to spread by creating and hosting places for dialogue.
Social Media Tip: Social listening strategy comes before social media content strategy.
Social Media Tip: Most social media efforts are abandoned long before their results can be measured.
Social Media Tip: Integrate your tools in your marketing but also measure the effectiveness of each tool individually.
Social Media Trend: More people realizing that social media success is about leadership not technology.
Social Media Trend: simultaneous translation in mirco-blogging and collaboration platforms.
Social Media Trend: Mobile social apps aggregating multiple social networks and media into one place.
Social Media Tip: Aggregate your client and prospect list and develop nano-casts for each nano-segment.
Social Media Tip: Social media can be used for retaining, developing and prospecting clients, all aspects of the sales cycle.
Social Media Tip: Get out of your industry vacuum when building strategy. Look for SMM concepts that can be adapted.
Social Media Tip: Want to make good connections? Make value added, thoughtful comments on their blog.
Social Media Tip: teach your clients about social media, help them get online. It creates more dialogue opportunities.
Social Media Tip: Make it real at least twice a week. Meet offline in person with contacts.
Social Media Tip: Research and test the latest platforms but don’t go down the rabbit hole.
Social Media Tip: Teach people the principles of leadership before teaching them how to use Twitter or blogs.
Social Media Tip: Meetup.com is best used for community events. Using it just to promote your product or company will have minimal results.
Social Media Tip: Your great idea or blog post, is being written in 10 different languages by other people right now.
Social Media Tip: Any system or company bent on being exclusive versus inclusive will fail.
Social Media Tip: Instead of writing headlines write engagement lines.
Social Media Tip: As a leader, make the journey look fun & share your joy. People will want to follow the path.
Social Media saying: “Nothing happens until someone tweets something.”
Social Media Tip: Being a thought leader is just as much about selfless contribution as it is about unique dialogue.
Social Media Tip: You don’t have to like or use every tool to be successful.
Social Media Trend: Brands now need to think global social etiquette when planning their social media strategy.

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Listening 2.0 – Social Media Listening Strategy

Shane Gibson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:53:41 +0000

Listening is a core part of all strategy, military, personal relationships, sales and social media. Observing your competitors before forming strategy and taking action, or listening to your customer for the purpose of engagement, rapport and opportunity seeking. It all starts with listening. In marketing, as in battle it is often one bold stroke that wins, knowing when, where and how we hit our adversary. Today’s podcast is about Listening 2.0 and what it means to all of us. Listening 2.0 is about making others feel listened to and understood, it’s not just about nodding our virtual heads or tabulating comments in a social media sentiment report.

Photo Credit: Dr. X’s Vintage Photo Blog

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25 Tips Sobre Medios Sociales

Shane Gibson — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:38:49 +0000

Esta es una colección de Tweets enviados a traves de la cuenta de @shanegibson y @shanegibsones. Son tips sobre medios socials con una longitud máxima de140 caracteres.

Aquí les present mis 25 Tips Sobre Medios Sociales (PDF):

25 Tips sobre Medios Social

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Social Media Statistics and Trends for South America

Shane Gibson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:25:45 +0000

I’m writing this blog entry here in my hotel in Bogota Colombia. I’m here speaking on social media marketing for an international congress on sales and marketing. I thought I would share some of the results from the research I had done on social media in South America:

South America and Mobile Social Networks:

South America ( and other regions like Africa and South East Asia )has the potential in my opinion to leap frog North America’s lead in the social media space with mobile internet applications. As more and cheaper smart phones hit the market here it will quickly ramp up the number of active users on social networks. North Americans have adopted social media primarily through the web browser on their computer, it wasn’t really until recent introductions of the iPhone, and smarter Nokia’s and Blackberry’s that we really began to network and create social media in a mobile fashion.

North Americas still working on un-tethering tehmselves from phone and cable lines. South American’s on the other hand have greater access to mobile networks than they do terrestrial internet connections. In comparison to Canada for instance mobile handsets in South America are more advanced and their data plans are more reasonable than those of companies like Canad’s Rogers Communications. When millions of people come online via mobile devices I believe that Latin Americans will be an important force and community in the social media space. Marketers, and application developers will begin to turn their focus on this massive market. (Thanks multi-cultural marketing maven Cindy King for this insight)

Social media adoption rate is growing fast:

South America has 132,385,340 Internet users as of Feb 07/09, with a 34.0 % Penetration Rate (World Internet Stats), and according to data from Comscore the use of social networking sites alone in South America has increased by 33% in the past 12 months bringing the total number of users to over 53,000,000 unique visitors to social networking sites. (There were just over 40,000,000 last year.) From an anecdotal perspective, my search on Twellow for users in Colombia, and Chile in particular in March 2009 showed very few businesses or professionals in that region using the tool. My recent search turned about hundreds of business tweeters who are now actively using the tool. (Twellow for Chile, Twellow for Colombia). One prediction I will make is that FaceBook will overtake almost all of the other social networks used in South American within the next 24 months. Even in Brazil where Orkut has a large portion of the population using it we have seen FaceBook go from almost zero market penetration to over 1,000,000 users in 13 months.

Marketing to and from South America with Social Media:

As South Americans continue to populate social networks and become adept at using social media tools they will have a very in-expensive and effective way to reach markets globally. Through Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube channels and dozens of other social media tools (that are free) Latin American brands and companies can begin to build some really social connections with previously hard to reach markets. If you want to establish connections and business in the region these tools provide the same opportunity. One of the challenges with doing business internationally is local competitors, they get to talk to your clients and foster relationships in a very personal way. With social media, it is now possible to be in contact and keep our brand and personal message top of mind anywhere in the world. From far away, you can have a very local feeling relationship.

When marketing to any international region using social media it’s not enough to just translate your blog, or twitter content. Think about regional cultures, business protocol and expected levels of formality as well. Find a local partner in the region (or with previous experience) and get their feedback on how your social content may need to be adapted; and then TAKE THEIR ADVICE.

Disclaimer: I consider myself a very enthusiastic social media amateur, I have only begun to understand social media and the opportunity it provides both for South American’s and those marketing in that region. I’m hoping that this week in Bogota, Colombia will provide me with more in-depth first hand knowledge of how Colombian (and other South American) marketers, entrepreneurs, and sales people are using social media. As I learn more I will continue to update this post with more stats and trend information. If you have data, anecdotes or information to share kindly post it in the comments section of this blog.

3 Things You Must Know About Social Media

Shane Gibson — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:34:54 +0000

I was recently asked to summarize the what marketers must know about social media marketing by Jay Levinson. I was about to answer him when he added a stipulation in, in 3 points, only 3 summarize what marketers must know about social media. I thought I would share with you what I shared with him:

It’s a conversation – As marketers in the past we have been awarded based upon our ability to craft messages and broadcast to an audience, a niche or a market segment. People no longer want to be talked at. In fact their conversations with each other on Twitter, Facebook, or even the videos they post on YouTube impact and define major brands. As social media marketers we need to get involved in those conversations if we want to effectively brand and market online.
It’s a listening tool – More than a conversation, social media marketing is about listening. We need to be listening for opportunities to engage with people that are talking about our brand. Social media gives us the opportunity to engage at the instant someone is talking about us (if we’re listening), and have relevant, personal and authentic conversations with our customers. Use tools like Twitter search, Google Alerts, and SocialMention.com to monitor those conversations.
Social media belongs to everyone, which is good and bad, it forces you to be different to win – As a marketer you no longer have control or a monopoly on a medium. Social media tools are in everyone’s hands. This is great news for anyone who wants to create a brand and generate revenues online. This is also a bad thing, because it creates a lot of noise. You must have a distinctive message, offering and leadership style if you want to get noticed online. To win you must be more engaging, add more value, and be more creative than everyone else if you want to rise above the noise.

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Social Media Engagement

Shane Gibson — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:21:15 +0000

Social Media Engagement

There’s a lot of talk about being engaged. In particular in social media we talk about engagement as one of the key benchmarks of being a successful brand, marketer, blogger or personality online. Today’s podcast is on what engagement is about. Here’s a short list of what engagement is:

Complete listening, not just to hear but to make others feel heard.
Present consistently
Connected emotionally
Aligned with values
Contributing to dreams
Seeing trust as an ends not a means
Creating networks and meeting points

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The End of Social Media

Shane Gibson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:58:59 +0000

The End of Social Media

Yes I have consumed the social media Kool-Aid. In fact I have opened my own roadside stand. Social media is an exciting disruptive technology. But the ride is almost over, the hype will die down after everyone has found everyone on Facebook and when even our dog has a blog. Marketers and the community at large will ask “Now What?”

Social media will come to an end. The ride is not over yet, we have a few good years ahead of us but the writing is one the wall. My podcast today is about the end of social media and what it means to marketers, bloggers, business owners and the community as a whole.

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Shane Gibson on Social Media for Sales Organizations

Shane Gibson — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:40:21 +0000

Over the past 16 years I have done a lot of speaking on stages in Canada, USA, Southern Africa and South America. In the past 36 months more and more of my speaking, training and writing has been focused on social media and how it integrates (or doesn’t) with sales process and strategy. I have put together a 7 minute video with some excerpts from a recent seminar I did in Santiago Chile for Seminarium (and Bogota next month) on social media for sales organizations. South America has experienced a 103% growth [source www.analytics20.org] in social media from January 2007 to January 2008, this is an exciting market and the people there are eager to learn how to use social media. Here’s the video:

Shane Gibson Speaker Video

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19 Social Media Tips Under 140 Characters

Shane Gibson — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:05:19 +0000

Here are a selection of Tweets (Twitter Updates) I recently shared on Twitter (via @shanegibson). I’ve put them all in one place as a brief social media tip digest.

Social Media Tips:

Unique, brief sound bytes produced consistently can yield great results.
Once in a while ask your FB and Twitter friends for help. See who steps up. This will tell you a lot.
Make a list of people who support you online. Develop a strategy to reciprocate.
Use your experience in social media to predict areas of growth in new regions and niches. Then pay it forward.
You may be awesome blogger but does the world know? SEO, social networks, offline promotions are needed.
Make your events that you promote about the community. Education and collaboration trump pitches.
“Think what’s in it for me?” from your target market’s perspective.
Using more than one channel / stream shortens your brand engagement curve.
Defining your target market and goals is easy, engaging them is the challenge.
The numbers are exciting but they’re just numbers until you make it real and build good relationships.
Engagement is not just about listening; it’s about empathy, rapport, and making people feel heard.
Engagement is the goal, social media are the tools.
Thank people who comment on your blog via e-mail or twitter. Let them know you’re listening.
Search engine optimization can help you rapidly grow your network and connections. Get good at it.
Develop a list of your top connections/influencers and make sure you’re connected on multiple networks.
There is a Trend: Condensed writing, short videos all getting shorter.
Blogging tip. Pick a theme or topic for the month. Plan 7-10 blog entries that build up to 1 core message, event, or action.
Have a series of steps planned and measured to track and develop relationships.
One of your final steps in the social media sales process is to connect offline, on the phone, or at least one on one virtually.

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What is a Tweetup?

Shane Gibson — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:27:46 +0000

Common Questions About a Tweetup

What is a Tweetup?

A Tweetup is:

A gathering of people who use Twitter
It can be a general geographic Tweetup like a Tweetup of people in Vancouver
It can be a Tweetup for a cause where Twitter friends organize a get together to do something for the community
It can be topical such as a Tweetup for martial artists, cyclists or people who are in the social media scene
It’s about the fact that when we get offline and meet in person it cements relationships and builds community
An Event that Usually lasts from 1 to 3 hours
It is a great stewardship and community building tool (See Jeremiah Owyang’s Post on Tweetups and coverage of the Vancouver #TweetupHeatup by GillianShaw of The Vancouver Sun)

A Tweetup is not:

An event where you pull people in from Twitter to pitch or sell them something
A seminar event
A tradeshow or multi-day event
A general community event like a sports event, lecture etc.(it’s called a Tweetup because it’s people on Twitter connecting in real life)

Who Can Organize a Tweetup?

Anyone with a Twitter account
You don’t have to be a social media guru or expert, it’s about community.
Usually one person will announce a Tweetup but many are involved in the organization and promotion, it’s a community focused event.

I have a big event happening already. Can I promote it as a Tweetup?

No. People who come to a Tweetup expect to connect with those who use Twitter as a networking and community tool. This would be misleading if a large portion of the people were not in fact on Twitter, people go to meet their online connections offline.

You can however create a special Tweetup within a larger event. For instance at a race, or something like Dragon Boat Festival you could have a “Tweetup Tent” for a 3 hour period during the main event where Twitter folk meet and mingle. If you’re doing a fundraiser at a pub or lounge, have the Tweetup for a couple hours before the main event, then let people know they can hang around later if they want to network with the rest of the community.

Who made these rules anyway?

Twitter, social media and etiquette attached to it are evolving constantly, this however is accepted practice right now. These answers are a summary of how the concept of a Tweetup is being used within the social media community. The majority of people attending or promoting Tweetups follow these loose guidelines. You can break these rules (or bend them) just realize that you may get a fair bit of negative push-back or even lose good Twitter connections.

If you’re in Vancouver join Vancouver Tweetup

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Social Media Marketing Colombia Interview

Shane Gibson — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:10:33 +0000

I’m doing a keynote seminar on Implementing and Integrating Social Media in Bogota Colombia for a marketing congress on September 28th. As a professional speaker this is one of my favorite parts of the job, getting to share my ideas and passions with people from all over the world. The seminar company’s Colombian office sent me these questions that they will be using as part of their marketing package for the event. I thought I would share them with my readers. Here it is:

Questionnaire for Colombia Newsletter

Shane Gibson Social Media Speaker

Q: How are Social Media turning traditional marketing habits around?

A: In the past we could dominate the marketplace with advertising, direct mail, and other forms of traditional media marketing. Today consumers are much more powerful marketers than companies are, with their ability to publish information to the web, they outnumber us. Their conversations about our brand, company, products and services are now “branding” us. They can blog about our company, they can share their opinion on our product on Orkut or Twitter, and they can post a Youtube video praising or condemning us.

Marketers now have to not just broadcast, they have to listen to what conversations are going on out there, and then they have to connect and interact with the marketplace in order to direct the conversations about their brand.

Today the customer owns our brand.

Update August 31 2009 (Watch a 7 minute speaker video addressing this question):

Q: Do you think these tools will replace well-known Marketing complex software such as CRM, for example? Why?

A: These tools are changing the way sales professionals and marketers interact with the marketplace. In the past we would build a database of customers in our CRM and proactively drive the sales process through constant contact. Social Listening tools that allow you to track conversations about your company or what your target market is doing are allowing marketers to pinpoint customers at the very moment they have a challenge or need for what we sell. There is also a new breed of CRM tools called Social CRM (SCRM) software that is just beginning to be available in the marketplace.

SCRM will allow you to pull in all the information about a contact, based upon permission from them (they tell you what data you will get), and your sales process will become driven by the daily activities and events in the lives of the customer. SCRM will make your database come alive with by the minute updates on what your best clients and prospects are posting on social networks and publishing in social media.

Q: What are the main benefits of including Social Media in Marketing and Sales strategies?

A: Social media success is built through a series of genuine interactions with the marketplace. The key is to create valuable content, resources, build community and connect in personalized ways with your market. Unlike traditional marketing and advertising most of the best social media tools are free. They need a time investment, and you have to train your staff to use them, but after that you can generate results with a significantly lower on-going investment financially. Also if used right, you can turn almost any staff member in your company into part of your marketing and customer service team, all they need is a Smartphone or a computer with web access. Social media expands your customer service and marketing capabilities.

Q: (Any real life examples as to how much money companies can save you can mention?)

A: My co-author Stephen Jagger (Sociable! Book Site) runs a company called Ubertor which has several thousand clients. His clients are real estate agents who use his real estate software to drive their websites. Steve was originally a client of mine. He had 10 sales people, and over a dozen other staff including computer programmers, management and support staff and a very large office. In order to service these clients he also needed a lot of telecommunications tools and phone lines.

Steve and his business partner Mike over a period of time began to replace telephone customer service with Web based Live Chat service and Twitter. He then decided to use Meetup.com to hold events with guest speakers on social media and technology use for his target market instead of sending sales people out top real-estate offices (he no longer needs salespeople). The next step was to close the office and have staff work virtually. They moved their phone system to Google Voice, which is free and use Gtalk and a tool called Yammer to communicate all day with each other. Steve’s blog and his Youtube videos are used to communicate to his clients, and post solutions to problems and information on the software updates and functionality.

The result? Significant business growth with a significant decrease in business costs. Steve is saving thousands of dollars per month in business costs, far fewer staff and has actually improved his customer experience.

Q: What are the main obstacles firms face when implementing Social Media in their Marketing and Sales strategies?

A: One of the obstacles is techno-phobia or as I call it Social Media Phobia. A lot of people don’t feel confident in experimenting or trying to use these new tools. They’re also worried about negative comments or someone using their blog or FaceBook to attack their brand. The reality is this technology is new, and we are all learning. Now is the best time to experiment and get good at social media, while your competitors are still watching on the sidelines. In addition to this, the only way we can insulate our company and brand from negative comments or competitor behavior online is to get involved in social media. Build a community of raving fans around your brand. You need to get social to win.
Related Posts:
Social Media Seminars

Developing a Social Media Policy and Guidelines

Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson on Social Media Etiquette

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Sociable! — How to Profit from Social Media

Shane Gibson — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:15:11 +0000

Tuesday August 11th 2009 1:00 PM EASTERN

How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside-down

It’s not who you know but who knows you in today’s hyper-connected marketplace. The consumer now owns your brand, and in order to profit from this new dynamic, we need a solid strategy and set of principles to engage the marketplace.

Understanding the role social media and social networking play in this new dynamic, is paramount to our future success as sales professionals, marketers, and corporations. In this fast paced webinar Shane Gibson and Stephen Jagger will share with you:

The new rules of engagement in sales and marketing
How anyone can become a global brand in their niche using social media
How to effectively and profitably implement social media in your business
The Role of Social Media in the Sales Process
The top global social media and networking tools and trends for 2009 and beyond

About Shane Gibson

Shane Gibson is a professional speaker and author of “Closing Bigger the Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals.” He is also co-author of Sociable! A new book written with Stephen Jagger on profiting from, social media to be released in Summer 2009. As a sales performance and marketing specialist he has addressed several thousand people over the past 15 years on stages in Canada, USA, South Africa and South America.

His client’s include organizations such as Builddirect.com, Ford, The Certified Management Accountants, and numerous Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade across Canada.

Shane has been cited as a subject matter expert on the topic of sales, social media and marketing in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, BC Business Magazine, and the Canadian Professional Sales Association’s “Contact Magazine.”

About Stephen Jagger

Stephen Jagger is an entrepreneur that has been starting businesses since high school. He is currently involved in 2 companies. Combustion Labs Media Inc, which operates as Ubertor.com, is a real estate software company that provides websites and online marketing tools to thousands of real estate agents across North America. His other business, Reachd.com is a training company that focuses on marketing professionals and businesses that are interested in learning more about search engine optimization, blogging, online video, Google Adwords and social media.

Stephen has been covered in many major publications including The Vancouver Sun, The Wall Street Journal, The Ottawa Citizen, The Vancouver Courier, The Calgary Herald plus many more. He has spoken at many different events including British Columbia Institute of Technology, The Vancouver Board of Trade, The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, and Inman News Connect 2007 in San Francisco where he was on a panel of 4 with a representative from Google, Yahoo and the Yellow Pages and 2009 in New York on a panel discussing blogging. He is very active in the community as a member of the Vancouver Board of Trade Communication Committee, the Vancouver College Alumni Association, a volunteer with Kids Help Phone, the founding member of the largest real estate agent meetup in North America and a mentor for the Leaders of Tomorrow program.

Your session on Social Media was relevant, practical with ready to use concepts. At the end of the day it’s about the bottom line. I appreciated your real world proven approach to social media marketing
- Dr. Denis Cauvier, Best Selling author of “The ABC’s of Making Money”

Each webinar is just $59.50 FREE to VIP members (take theVIP Tour)

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Social Media and Internet Marketing Training August 2009

Shane Gibson — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:43:46 +0000

Social Media Training Events This Month:

Reachd training founded by Stephen Jagger (co-author of Sociable!) is putting on several great courses on everything from online video, to social media, search engine marketing training. Use the discount code CLOSINGBIGGER when you register.

Training in Wichita Kansas

August 13th – “Market Like a Sniper with Adwords”
Learn to use Google Adwords to promote your business and test your marketing strategy
More details about the
Adwords Class in Wichita
August 17th – “1 Hour Web Marketing Intro”
If you are not marketing your business online but would like to start, this 1 hour fast paced session will give you a great overview of some of the resources available for online marketing
More Details about the Web Marketing Intro in Wichita
August 20th – “Build a Website Google Loves”
3 hour introduction to the in’s and out’s of search engine optimization. Most web activity originates with some sort of search, you need to ensure that your website shows when your visitors are searching
More Details about the SEO Class in Wichita
August 27th – “Broadcast Your Message with Online Video”
There is no better way to build relationships with your web visitors then through online video. In this 3 hour course each participant receives a FREE Flip Video Camera.
More Details about the Online Video Training Class

Training in Vancouver BC

August 6th – “Market Like a Sniper with Adwords”
Learn to use Google Adwords to promote your business and test your marketing strategy
More details about the Adwords Class in Vancouver
August 11th – “Explode Your Growth with a Blog”
Blogging is the cornerstone of Social Media and a great tool to use to help fill your website with relevant content
More Details about the Vancouver Blogging Course
August 18th – “Build a Website Google Loves”
3 hour introduction to the in’s and out’s of search engine optimization. Most web activity originates with some sort of search, you need to ensure that your website shows when your visitors are searching
More Details about the Vancouver SEO Course
August 25th – “Broadcast Your Message with Online Video”
There is no better way to build relationships with your web visitors then through online video. In this 3 hour course each participant receives a FREE Flip Video Camera.
More Details about the Online Video Training Class
August 27th – “Social Media Guided Tour”
Learn to use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to build your brand and grow your business
More Details about the Vancouver Social Media Training

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28 Ways to Improve Your Sales Results

Shane Gibson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:13:31 +0000

I had a number of people (close to 300) complete the 28 Days to Better Selling Program I put on in May and June. Many of you were asking when I was going to do it again? My next one will be in the fall but it will be marketing focused. With that said, you can do the 28 Days to Better Selling Program at your own pace by following the links below.

Here’s how 28 Days to Better Selling Works:

1) A daily task that you can easily implement to improve your sales and business
2) A succinct daily lesson to help you make the improvement

By the end of the 28 days you will have looked at 28 ways to fine tune and improve your sales process and business. The daily lessons will be in written, video or audio format and will take less than 10 minutes each to review.

Day1 The ABC’s of Targeting

Day 2 Targeting the Right Referral Sources

Day 3 Prospecting in Person

Day 4 Networking Strategy

Day 5 LinkedIn Prospecting

Day 6 Investigative Prospecting

Day 7 Lead Nurturing

Day 8 Don’t Be A Boring Salesperson

Day 9 Listening in Sales

Day 10 Needs Analysis in Sales Part 1

Day 11 Needs Analysis In Sales Part 2

Day 12 Twitter for Sales Part 1

Day 13 Twitter for Sales Part 2

Day 14 Keeping Commitments

Day 15 Selling Benefits and Results

Day 16 Preemptive Objection Handling

Day 17 Sell the Price Different Not The Total Cost

Day 18 Vital Signs

Day 19 Preparing For a Sales Call

Day 20 Team Selling

Day 21 Just Thinking About You

Day 22 Team Players Make Efficient Sellers

Day 23 Day of Rest, Chill Out and Reflect

Day 24 Influencing Top Level Decision Makers

Day 25 Key Skills and Strengths for Selling Intangibles

Day 26 Reducing Anxiety and Worry

Day 27 15 Ways to Close A Sale

Day 28 Operationalizing Your Sales Process

Want to Close Bigger Deals? Buy the Book:

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Social Media Strategy and Resources List

Shane Gibson — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:42:55 +0000

I’m doing a webinar for the Association of Professional Design Firms this morning and while I was compiling a resource list for them I thought I might as well blog it instead. I’ve put up a lot of video, podcasts and blog entries up in the past month on Social Media Strategy and tools so I thought I would build a topic map. Most of this content is inspired by the book “Sociable! How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down.”

Resources by Topic:

Why Blogging is An Important Part of Social Media Strategy [Video]

Integrating Social Media Into Your Sales and Marketing Process [Podcast/Blog]

Making Social Media Part of What You Do [Video]

Developing a Social Media Calendar and Implementation Plan [Podcast/Blog]

Sample Social Media Policy [Blog]

What is Social Media Etiquette [Video]

5 Ways to Build a Twitter Following Organically [Blog]

Twitter for Sales and Marketing [Video] Part 1 and Part 2

Social Media ROI [Podcast]

The Future of Sales and Marketing Social CRM [Podcast]

Slides from Today’s Presentation:

View more presentations from shanegibson.

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A Big Thank-You to Everyone Blogathon 2009 is a Wrap

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:41:21 +0000

Well I’m done. I haven’t tallied all of the pledges yet but it appears that with the help of my blog readers and twitter friends that over $1200 was raised for the Vancouver Food Bank. That for me was worth the 24 hours of no sleep.

Here’s a partial list of the great people who made donations to the Food Bank:

Trevor Wallace
Doug Morneau of Rhino Marketing Inc.
Captain Charles Trevor Greene
Aileen Javier and Kristian Gibson
Lynn Kitchen
Barbara Doduk
Fred Shadian (Who also did 3 guest blog posts)
Chris Breikss
Renbor Sales Solutions
ThinkTom.com Realty
Kye Grace
Ronald Lee
Yam De La Pena

Also here’s the updated list of everyone in Vancouver that blogged for the past 24 hours for the charity of their choice.

Blogger and Supported Charity:

Raul Pacheco The BC Cancer Foundation
Rebecca Bollwitt – Miss604 the Union Gospel Mission
Duane Storey The Union Gospel Mission
Tiny Bites (team effort) The Vancouver Food Bank
604 Foodtography The Vancouver Food Bank
Shane Gibson (That’s me and I’m Blogging for The Vancouver Food Bank as well!)
Barbara Doduk The Richmond Animal Protection Society
Mehnaz Thawer the Tumaini Children’s Project
Fraser Valley Pulse the Langley Animal Protection Society
WorldwideWaterCooler The BC SPCA
Developmental Disability Association for their own cause (I believe)
Justin Yang BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
Liberation BC for Liberation BC
Bluefur Team Diabetes
Shane’s World Theatre Terrific
Think Referrals Burn’s Bog Conservation Society
Brady V BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
Langley Politics The United Way
Beth Snow Options For Sexual Health
Karen Fung Vancouver Public Space Network
April Smith Community Education Resource Society
Ganga Narayanan Canadian Hard of Hearing Association
Matthew Naylor Canadian Mental Health Association
Aidan BC Children’s Hospital
Iris Dias MS Society of Canada
Mitch Baldwin – The Salvation Army, Camp Sunrise
Catherine Winters – Canadian Cancer Society
Neil Parker – Weekend to End Breast Cancer
Jael – Big Sisters

I’m leaving the donations page open until the 28th so if you would still like to contribute:

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Social Media Implementation Article in the BC AMA Magazine

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:22:25 +0000

Following is an excerpt of an article I wrote for the BC Chapter of the AMA (You can download the entire magazine and read the full article here)

Great conversations in the offline world are about listening, providing insight, empathy, and at times the right measure of humor. The same goes for online tools. In using a tool like Twitter here are some tips on being engaging:

• Fill out your profile completely with a current photo, link to your personal blog or site, and use the entire 140 characters provided for your bio. Hiding who you are or not providing your company information can create a barrier to trust or engagement.

• Update regularly, for most active Twitter users that’s 8 to 15 times per day. Key principle: don’t update unless it adds value, solves a problem, inspires or entertains your target market.

• Share useful links to sites other than yours. Also pass on and share (know as retweeting on Twitter) useful information from other Twitter users. This will strengthen your relationship with them and increase the chances of them sharing your messages.

• Use social search to monitor what people are saying about your company or your industry. http://search.twitter.com can give you by-the-minute opportunities to engage people who are talking about your brand. You can instantly solve a problem or correct a situation as it happens.

• Vary your message and the frequency so that you appear human and not robotic. Your updates should be a combination of personal messages, corporate updates, answering questions, commenting on other people’s great tweets, and links to valuable information.

• If you sound like everyone else you’re not a brand or a leader. Create engaging content and unique conversations. This is vital to building a brand and solidifying client relationships.

Great use of Twitter and other social mediums and networks is 90% listening and contribution and 10% marketing and messaging. While that seems like a bad marketing ratio we can go back to what John C. Maxwell said about leadership “It’s 90% connection and 10% content.”

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Video – Social Media Etiquette

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:59:00 +0000

Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson

Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson on Social Media Etiquette

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Video – Are You Chasing the Puck in Social Media?

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:32:33 +0000

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Video – Make Social Media Part of What You Do

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:21:17 +0000

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Video – Why Blogging is Critical to Your Social Media Strategy

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:59:23 +0000

Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson Video on Why Blogging is Critical:

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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The Power of Grattitude

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:12:43 +0000

The Manager’s Thought for the Day

It is not uncommon for salespeople and/or sales managers to get caught in the throes of everyday problems and miss seeing the trees because of the forest.
In most cases there is much more support and help around us than we can see. If most of us could really appreciate what we do have, and be grateful, most of the time we would never have a motivation problem.

There is power in gratitude. For example; Have you ever been forced into giving a kiss and a hug to a relative or a friend of a friend you couldn’t stand? It’s not an inspiring experience. As a matter of fact, it can be downright de-motivating. But if you have ever been asked to hug and kiss someone you secretly admired, I bet you found it to be a very pleasant experience. What’s the difference between the two?
Having to embrace someone you can’t stand, can be de-motivating; embracing someone you admire is motivating.

The same rule applies to situations. Most of us spend time living for tomorrow; living for when we will get that raise, that job, that relationship, or that home. In other words, that’s when we will be happy. We don’t like where we are now, so let us dream about tomorrow. What this means is we are not living in the now. It also means we often set our objectives or goals from a time, place, or state of mind that we do not like, which means we don’t embrace it. Therefore it is de-motivating.
What if you could appreciate the moment and embrace it? It would be inspiring, just like embracing that person you admired.

Gratitude is a powerful motivation. To embrace or appreciate the moment you are in, gives you a deep settled strength, and alleviates anxiety. With this strength you are able to tap into your intuition and be directed into paths that are more meaningful and in tune with who you are. This makes it much easier for you to become enthusiastic and move forward and feel good about the present as well as where you want to go. Having gratitude for where you are now can get you started.

Think about the situation you are in right now that frustrates or even immobilizes you. Now come up with a list of some really positive things that you have going for you right at this moment. Think of things you may be grateful for. A few examples could be good health, living in the country you are in, experience in your field, great relationship with your wife, husband or significant other, certain belongings, past experiences, just to name a few.

Once you finish the list, go back through and mentally say “thank you” to all the circumstances and people you could thank for each one of these. For example; in reference to your health, mentally thank someone who showed you how to eat properly, or who got you involved in some form of physical exercise. Maybe a previous employer believed in balanced living and not just work, work, work. Be sure to thank that person mentally. Thank your government for the facilities that are available and your creator for being so kind to you. As Plato once said; “Happiness is not being in a good state, but rather knowing you are in a good state.”

Once you have completed this exercise, you will have experienced the power of appreciation. You will feel much better about the moment. To see the positive in your present circumstances and to feel gratitude about the moment will get you started and keep you going.

Unfortunately, our egos work very hard at stopping us from experiencing gratitude. Very few of us can openly display gratitude on a daily basis to all those people and situations around us. It is much easier to fill our minds and bodies with self-importance, dissatisfaction, criticism, and victim-style thinking, than it is to put these feeling aside and say thank you. Monitor yourself and see how often you resist or justify not having gratitude. Being aware of your anti-gratitude stance alone, can start you on the road to being more grateful and more productive.

As the manager you may want to share this process with your people. Gratitude is one of the greatest internal motivators of all.

(An excerpt from our “Complete Sales Action System”)

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Picking the Wrong Profession by @FredShadian

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:05:05 +0000

You see this in the business world all of the time whether someone is selling cars, insurance, real estate, or electronic equipment. They try really hard to become successful. They read all the motivational books and they go to all the personal development seminars yet, no matter how hard they try, they just can’t seem to become successful in their chosen field.

Simply put, it’s just not their calling. You have to be 100 percent congruent with what it is you are promoting, selling and marketing. Whether you are an athlete promoting your talent or a marketer promoting your product you need to be excited enough to get up early and stay up late. Your chosen profession must be in harmony with your calling in life. Your success will be your destiny.

@FredShadian

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Some of My Favorite Vancouver Twitter and Blogging Friends

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:01:52 +0000

Being online and making connections is fun. We all love to see out Twitter, blog, and video following increase. For me though, it’s events like this Tweetup that was organized by Capones that make it all real for me. Meeting people you are connected to online seems to slow things down temporarily and really help build trust and intimacy.

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Walking the Middle Path – Guest Blog Entry by @fredshadian

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:02:57 +0000

Walking the middle path between the yin/yang is where all harmonious and balanced answers are received and expressed. This was a very powerful principle that was taught to me by Master Fook Yueng.

It is important when focusing on the holistic approach that we look at things in multiple ways. We ask questions in multiple ways, we discover answers in multiple ways. One of the best visual examples is the yin/yang symbol. It is often used in traditional medicine and Tai Chi to demonstrate balance of all things. In western culture it is referred to as yin and yang. This creates a separation between the two. In the Chinese culture they refer to it as the yin/yang and there is no separation between the two.

Within yin there is yang. Within yang there is yin.

Within energy there is structure. Within structure there is energy.

Within softness there is hardness. Within hardness there is softness.

Within leadership there is a servant. Within a servant there is leadership.

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Another Way to Support the Vancouver Food Bank for #blogathon 09

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 07:51:37 +0000

My friend Trevor Wallace decided to not do a cash donation and donate food directly at a Vancouver Food Bank collection box. If you believe in the cause and would prefer to do that fantastic. Send me a pic like Trevor did and I will put it up on the site. My son also brought some cans, macaroni and cheese, and pasta from his Mom’s house too, guess we’ll be doing a delivery tomorrow too.

Thanks Trevor!

Trevor Wallace with his food donation

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Developing a Social Media Policy and Guidelines

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 07:18:54 +0000

In our book Sociable! Stephen Jagger and I talk about the importance of having a set of guiding principles and policies for your organization as you enter the social media space. We developed one for ourselves and the other people that are involved in Sociable! with us. Following is a direct excerpt out of our book of our social media policy and guidelines we call the Sociable! Code of Engagement:

#1) Treat every action as if it will be recorded for eternity.

Almost everything we say online is recorded, logged and backed up somewhere. In every restaurant, bar or conference room there’s dozens of people with mobile video, photo, and blogging apps that capture our behavior in an instant and broadcast it to the world instantly and permanently. You really can’t delete a bad blog post, a rude response. Be careful what you say, blog, tweet and do, because the impact can be permanent.

#2) Talk about what you know.

Being Sociable! is about being a thought leader, and contributor to community and being authentic and transparent. People rely on us for advice and guidance. Stating opinion as fact can hurt our reputation and it may even harm the person taking our advice. If we’re wrong, or inaccurate we can expect to be called out on it and even embarrassed in the social media space by other bloggers or community members. Always be learning, studying and fact checking in the area which you aspire to lead in, and don’t exaggerate or fabricate your knowledge or the facts.

#3) Get Engaged.

Don’t broadcast, connect. Being Sociable! is about listening, connecting, contributing. Engagement is how we make other people feel, it’s also about the lasting impact that we have on them and their success. To be Sociable! you must monitor, listen to and actively answer and communicate with the individuals in the community in a personable customized and relevant way.

#4) Give credit where credit is due

If you hear a great quote from someone, an interesting hypothesis or learn a new business process make sure you give him or her the credit. Just because something is not protected under copyright does not mean we can re-purpose it without giving credit. A quick link back to their site, a mention of them at your seminar or in your video only takes seconds. What it does though is build the trust of everyone watching, they know you’re in this for more than just personal gain and will be Sociable! with you as well.

#5) No Spam

Never send generic messages to people who have given you permission to connect. If they have added you as a connection in a social network, realize that this is not to be taken lightly. Only send information or communicate in a way that is adding value, every time. Avoid auto messages, auto blog links, or auto anything that makes people feel like a number and not a valued contact.

#6) Know when to Zip it

Be conscious of private or confidential information that has been trusted to you. This means don’t post it anywhere on the web. It also means don’t talk about it in public, someone else could hear or record you and post it online for the world to see. Know the difference between fact, opinion and slander and always err on the side of being legally diligent. In other words don’t post anything that could result in an unwanted court appearance.

#7) This is not a video game

Some people see social media as a video game. A game where you collect names and followers like a some sort of digital trophy case. This game is getting old fast. The real measure of someone who is legitimately Sociable! is impact and action. Focus on quality or relationships with people you are connected with. Focus on people doing something when they get to your blog, not how many people visit it. Think in the term of profits made, impact created or actions caused by your Sociable! activity.

#8) Be open to all feedback

The days of corporate white washing are over, so is having a dual life, everyone now knows what your up to in this digital world that lacks privacy. People are going to go after you online on your personal blog, our corporate blog or blast you with a video or a comment on a social network. When this happens, don’t hide and don’t delete their comments or the errors you have made. Engage instead. Customer complaints are branding opportunities and sometimes our critics are actually bold allies trying to set us straight. With criticism it’s important to respond strategically not emotionally and to set the record straight with a correction, the facts, or good old fashion customer service and apologies.

#9) Digital rights

We make our living from the great ideas, content and creative works we create, market and produce. Being Sociable! means our brand is one of integrity, authenticity and transparency. We need to respect others copyright and creative works just like we would want them to do for us. Always ask permission or give attribution to other people’s creations that you use, cite, or include in your work. Every photo, video, quote or audio clip we use must be posted by us and distributed in a way that respects others’ work and it’s digital integrity.

#10) Be Sociable!

Being Sociable! also means not taking our self or our brand too seriously. In order to be a true Sociable! thought leader you must have fun, be passionate and contribute to the success of your clients, peers, family and community as a whole. Most importantly we continually strive to “get real” by taking our online connections and meet them individually or as a community through events like Meetups, Tweetups, and community functions. We do this to deepen and expand relationships. Without strong Sociable! relationships we’re just another marketer or sales person pitching something.

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Register for book tour and early release information on the the book here:

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Momentum – Guest Blog Entry by Fred Shadian

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 06:56:55 +0000

This guest blog entry is by Fred Shadian (on twitter @fredshadian) my very best friend and mentor:

Momentum is a progression of movements that are created just like an ocean wave. You can become part of the flow of momentum and be caught by the wave and ride it to create the momentum that you desire in any aspect of your life.

The key to creating momentum, in reality, is to recognize the extraordinary movement in your life or in your organization and to take small steps each and every day towards your desired outcome. Determine where you are at and where you are going and stay focused, using your time and talent, until you feel totally congruent with your desire.

My martial arts instructor, Sensei David Harris, would always share with me the importance of daily activities towards a desired goal. If, for any reason, you feel that you are at a plateau you can continue your level of progression by reading a book on the subject that you are pursuing, or you can watch a video on the related subject, maybe you can attend a seminar or you could mentally rehearse your desired outcome for your success.

It is important is to do something, regardless of how small or how large. By taking action daily you create the motion towards your desired achievement.

Stay focused on the end result, be realistic in your approach, and take a step-by-step progression that leads you to your ultimate goal.

There is a Hawaiian saying: “When the surf is high, go surfing and when the water is calm, wax your board.”

Timing is of the essence when riding the wave of momentum. If you hop on too early, you might crash. If you hop on too late, you miss the wave. By timing the wave correctly, you enjoy the ride all the way to the beach.

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Why not me? #whynotme

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 06:20:24 +0000

This podcast answers another version of the question “Why?” with the answer “Why not me?”

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter

Why? #why

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 06:01:24 +0000

This podcast is about the question: Why?

This is an important question.

It’s the most important question.

Why?

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter

Becoming and Influencing Thought Leaders

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 05:10:18 +0000

Ronald Lee of Man Meets Woman Happy Sexy You and Vancouver Social Board sponsored this post for the blogathon for the Vancouver Food Bank.

The topic Ronald chose was: What It Takes and/or How to Become a Thought Leader?

This is a great question, have a listen to this podcast to hear about becoming and influencing thought leaders.

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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How long is a long term marketing goal? Are you quitting too soon.

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:52:26 +0000

Jay Levinson says it takes up to 18 months for a the market to react and accept a new brand. Jim Janz says it takes 18 months it develop a leader. Fred Shadian says it takes 1000 training sessions to become a master. Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to become an outlier.

This podcast is about becoming a community building and marketing maven. How long have you invested in yourself and your people?

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Can a fictional character blog? Guest Blogger Tris Hussey

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:23:13 +0000

Guest blog entry by Tris Hussey, author, blogger, new media maven:

Can a fictional character blog?

This was a huge question in the early days of blogging. Blogging stalwarts felt that only “real” people should be blogging, especially for a company. There were a couple notable character blogs that were pretty controversial at the time: the Denali Flavors Moose blog and T. Alexander from the Gourmet Station blog.

For a number of months this was an all-consuming tempest in a teacup, with all sorts of name-calling and unpleasantness, however when it all blew over…
Sure, characters can blog. It became clear that whether it was fan fiction or a company mascot assuming the role of “spokesperson”, it wasn’t who the “author” was pro-ported to be, but rather what and how things were said.
Businesses find it helpful to have one “person” be the voice for the entire company, but have several folks write behind the scenes because there aren’t enough people in the company to dedicate one person to blog. The hardest part of having multiple authors blogging is keeping the “voice” of the writing the same. One easy fix is to divide the tasks up. Maybe only one person writes longer posts, but others do things like a weekly post of interesting links or another do the photo of the week. Mix up the type of posts and the people writing them and you’ll have a dynamic blog with a lot less effort!

This is an excerpt from Tris Hussey’s upcoming book on blogging “6 Easy Blogging Projects” published by Pearson. Follow Tris on twitter.

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter

Twitpics Gone Wrong Part 2

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:53:51 +0000

Well the last post went over well, and since this is for charity I thought I’d share a few more pics that I managed to capture and put on Twitter. Nothing out of the ordinary really.

#1) Raul in his happy place (He’s blogging for charity tonight too)

#2) This guy I met in Yaletown, his daughter neglected to brush the cat until it’s hair was in knots, the poodle groomer was cheaper. He should be arrested… and shaved.

#3) Doolins Irish Pub at Lunch time. You should see dinner.

#4) This was a joke gift but he chose to wear it in public.

#5) I can’t really top #4 so this post is done.

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Twitpic’s Gone Wrong Shane Gibson Exposed

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:23:27 +0000

In a Hyper-transparent World You’ll Be Found Out

In our book Sociable! Stephen Jagger and I talk about some of the do’s and don’t’s of social media. One thing we talk about is wherever you are, there’s a camera, and at 2:00 am that funny twitpic might not be so funny when your boss or your best client sees them.

Steve and I have not learned this by standing at the pulpit looking down at people making silly errors or posting things they shouldn’t have. We learned this by doing it ourselves (okay actually most of the dumb things that have been documented were done by me).

I also believe in not deleting, people will catch you and make things worse. So I leave these errors in judgment up, why you might ask? Mostly because they weren’t really errors, it was me, my real personality doing these things. Blame it on my Celtic East Coast sense of humor. So in the spirit of full transparency and for charity (please donate) here’s some pictures from the last few years that probably should not made it on the internet (better me than someone else posting these!):

#1) Kyle MacDonald (The guy who traded up “One Red Paper Clip” for a house) and I after we left a conference we were speaking at. This is is us at 3:00 am after we emptied a Keg. Kyle is really Superman because he did a fantastic radio interview 4 hours later. (Seriously itemized beer bill).

#2) Everyone who left the Mother of all Meetups at Christmas time left their tags with me (so to speak)

#3) I sorta crashed a womens’ only conference for social media after party/tweetup (invited by Colleen), this is what ended up on Twitpic. I look so sincere.

#4) This was just a bad mistake, I wanted a pic of the hat on me but the preview didn’t show the bloke in the background (nice personal branding).

#5) No man should ever walk a dog dressed like this. Yes that’s my dog.

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Uber Blogger Tris Hussey on Managing Blog Comments

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:03:13 +0000

Guest blog entry by Tris Hussey, author, blogger, new media maven:

Encouraging comments and discussion

Comments are what keep blogging going. The dialogue and feedback that helps you not only grow as a writer, but also ensures that you stay on track. Through comments you learn, interact, and gain inspiration. I’ve written entire follow-up posts based a comment from a post. I’ve also received cease-and-desist letters because of comments as well. Part of getting comments is writing to encourage comments. First step is to make sure comments are enabled (aka turned on) for all your posts. Nine times out of ten the default setting for blog engines is to have comments on, but sometimes they get turned off so just double check. Whether or not anyone can post a comment or if there is some kind of moderation in place is up to you, and I’ll get to that shortly.
With comments turned on, the next part is subtler: getting people to leave comments. There isn’t a “magic formula” for you to get lots of comments. Sometimes I pull it off, sometimes I don’t. In any case here are simple things you can do to help encourage comments:

Leave examples out on purpose. People love to feel that they are contributing by adding to your post.
Ask open-ended questions
Ask for comments directly
Take a contrary or controversial stance to the status quo

Even with these tips, including out-right asking for comments, sometimes a great post just doesn’t get any comments. Don’t worry, this happens with even the best posts. Sometimes it’s the posts that you don’t expect to receive any comments to be the one that gets the most. Sometimes you just never know.
Once you do get comments, to keep the flow going you have to respond to the comments you receive. Be open and willing to be proved wrong or challenged. Engaging in a healthy dialogue makes your blog a place where people will go for ideas and inspiration—which means that you will also gain inspiration as well. Every blog, no matter what the topic is, is made better with comments.

This is an excerpt from Tris Hussey’s upcoming book on blogging “6 Easy Blogging Projects” published by Pearson. Follow Tris on twitter.

Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter

Podcast: Marketers are Lying to You About Social Media

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:40:14 +0000

This doesn’t need much of an intro. The title says it all. Marketers are lying to you about social media. People are designing speeches, and marketing packages around a topic they have very little background in. Listen to the podcast to find out why this is happening and what to do about it.

Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter

Sales Skills are Part of a Good Social Media Strategy

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:03:30 +0000

The last podcast I did was about “Getting Real in Social Media” and this is an extension of that. I’m a big proponent of the use of social media marketing and social networking in business. With that said, often social media helps us start a relationship, it can also help us nurture a relationship, but there are core sales skills needed to turn those relationships into revenues. There are dozens of core sales competencies but for this podcast I want to focus on three that social media marketers need to master:

#1) They need to master the art of Rapport Building

#2) They need to get good at Needs Analysis Selling

#3) They need to understand how to sell what people buy, and it’s not features, price or technology

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Get Real About Social Media It’s Not a Video Game

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:31:11 +0000

This podcast is a cautionary one for those of us that dove in blind and head first into Social Media. We were right. It’s the future of marketing and it’s changing the way we work, lead, and sell. With that said, we can still go broke wasting our time with Twitter, blogging, Facebook and Linkedin if we don’t have a plan to GET REAL.

Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter

Social Media and Twitter Videos

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:01:29 +0000

I have made a few videos about Tweetups, Twitter, and social media over the past few months. Here’s some of my favorite ones. Enjoy

Twitter For Sales Part 1

Twitter For Sales Part 2

What the Heck is a Tweetup?

Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down

How Hard is it to Video Blog?

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter

Blogathon Sponsor 6s Marketing Inc.

Shane Gibson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:27:23 +0000

Thank-you to 6s Marketing for your support during the 2009 blogathon for the Vancouver Food Bank.

I first met Chris Breikss and John Blown founders of 6s Marketing when I was working as a sales manager for an online advertising company during the first dotcom boom of the late 90’s early 2000’s. They were running their business on a shoe string budget and had just launched 6s Marketing. They were innovative, entrepreneurial and they really understood internet marketing. Today they have grown into what is arguably Canada’s leading internet marketing company that even major agencies turn to for their expertise.

Here’s what their site has to say:

About 6s Marketing

6S Marketing Inc. is a leading Internet Marketing Company based in Vancouver, BC Canada that provides search engine marketing services including paid search marketing campaign management, organic optimization, analytics solutions, email marketing, social media marketing, and usability analysis.

Since 2000, 6S has successfully increased revenue for hundreds of clients of all sizes in a wide variety of industries across the United States, Canada and internationally. 6S is a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant, Authorized AdWords Company and a Yahoo Ambassador.

Chris Breikss of 6s Marketing, I took this photo of him at the Massive Tech Show in Toronto this year.

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

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Blogathon Platinum Sponsor Rhino Marketing

Shane Gibson — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:57:01 +0000

Doug Morneau and his team from Rhino Marketing really stepped up to the plate and made a sizable contribution to the charity Blogathon. When I thanked Doug and Rhino on Twitter here’s what he said: to whom much has been given, much is expected” – happy to help you and the GREATER VANCOUVER FOOD BANK!” Here’s a profile of Doug Morneau and Rhino Marketing:

DOUG MORNEAU – Chief Rhino

As founder and chief executive of Rhino Marketing Inc Doug has been providing his clients innovative solution-oriented direct marketing, database marketing, loyalty marketing and consultative services since 1985.

Doug´s extensive client list includes such well-known names as Shell Oil, Uniglobe Travel, Guthy-Renker subsidiary ProActiv Solutions, and Rotary International. His broad background in marketing, advertising, and business development provide Doug the vision and know-how required to lead a highly effective client-focused marketing organization. In recent years Doug has acquired particular expertise in the emergent practice of e-Marketing providing clients enhanced levels of success using online media, pay per click advertising, assured email deliverability, search, web analytics, and other leading edge technologies.

“Our success is based on listening to our customers, advanced competence, innovation, and leadership.”

Doug enjoys finding opportunity where others see none – for example, at the DMA last year Sir Richard Branson concluded a presentation to several thousand marketers by asking if anyone had any questions… Doug wondered if he´d like to get his picture taken.

About Rhino Marketing Inc.

Founded by Doug Morneau in 1986, and with a current employee and contractor count of 28, Rhino Marketing Inc. operates at the intersection of the rapidly evolving digital world of e-marketing and the world of traditional strategy-based marketing.

RMI understands that business fundamentals have not changed despite profound changes in the tactics and mechanisms of market communication. Marketing is still about identifying, engaging, acquiring, retaining and growing high-value customers. We always remember that when new, exciting, highly effective digital tools and techniques come along; they are still just tactics, not strategy and never lose sight of the fact that whatever technique is used, the objective remains the same: driving profitable sales.

To operate effectively in any medium, businesses need to address fundamental questions about who they want to speak to, what they want to say, and what action they expect prospective customers to take as a result. More than in any other media, customers online choose whether to listen and to whom. In the online world, understanding your audience has never been more important. Relevance is everything!

RMI has developed the expertise to understand, conduct, and manage transactions with these e-enabled customers, and assembled a suite of tools that provide us unique insight into the dynamics of how these interactions take place. It’s how we know which half of your advertising spend is being wasted, and which half works.

The significant difference between RMI and other online practitioners is the real-world business and marketing management experience we bring to each client engagement. We ensure that desired offline results and online marketing efforts are clearly aligned and then, set to work implementing tactics. It’s an accountable, end-to-end service we call The Rhino Process.

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter

Top 10 Reasons You Might Be A Twit on Twitter

Shane Gibson — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:30:10 +0000

#10) You only read @replies and don’t care about the meaningless stuff people post
#9) You retweet like it was your own idea forgetting to give credit
#8) You send everyone the same pitchy auto direct message when they follow you
#7) Your auto direct message has a link to an affiliate site or squeeze page
#6) You mass unfollow people to look more popular than you really are
#5) You’re noisy, rant a lot, curse and yet complain when other people update a lot
#4) You ask people constantly to retweet your marketing content
#3) You never answer @replies or dm’s
#2) You follow 2000 people, have 300 followers, 8 updates and your profile says you’re a social media expert
#1) You read #2 through #10 and you don’t think there’s anything wrong with them

To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!

Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank

Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter

Social Media Podcast and Sales Training Blog by Shane Gibson

What is different about Guerrilla Social Media Marketing?

An excerpt from “Guerrilla Social Media Marketing” by Shane Gibson and Jay Conrad Levinson:

Social Media for B2B Marketing and Sales

Social Media Calendar

The Customer Owns Your Brand

Why Jack Bernard is the best realtor in the world.

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing – Foreword by Guy Kawasaki

How to Become a Social Media Guerrilla

Worthy Cause: Local Man is Fundraising for New Spandex Outfit

10 Best Practices in Social Media for Social Causes

Here are 10 things we discovered that worked (some of them we implemented and others we will implement next time):

Make a Wish Foundation 24 hr Online Fundraiser is Today

How the World’s #1 Online Building Supply Company uses Social Media

Why Social Media in the C-Suite is Vital

Why executives must invest in understanding and driving social media use in their organization.

In today’s social media podcast I talk about the following:

12 Social Media Tips

.tel Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Weapon #88

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Weapon #65 Alltop.com

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing Traditional Websites versus Social Sites

Traditional Websites versus Social Sites

Follow Friday is now People Friday

10 Hard Questions about Your Corporate Social Media Use

Here are 10 hard questions you need to ask about your social media use:

Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, SEO – Which one is right for you?

Stop falling in love with social media tools, start falling in love with your customer

Here’s your take-away:

Engagement pages versus landing pages

What Guerrilla Social Media Marketers Know…

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing – Positioning

A guerrilla positioning story tells your specific niche the following:

Guerrillas position through stories and conversations

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing – Truth

Truth:

13 Social Media Tips in 140 Characters or Fewer

Guerrilla Social Media Marketer Attribute #6

Guy Kawasaki + Olympic Hockey Tweetup in Vancouver Holy Kaw!

Victory Goal Video (by @jlate)

O’Canada Video (by @jlate)

Photos

Podcast Interview: What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School – Larry Chiang

A Big Thank-you for Helping Make the Sociable Book Launch a Huge Success!

12 Social Media Tips under 140 Characters

Podcast – Helping salespeople get smarter with digital assistants and technology

159 Social Media Tips From 2009 in 140 Characters or Less by @shanegibson

10 Social Media Tips Under 140 Characters

10 Social Media Tips Under 140 Characters

Podcast: 10 Things That Will Not Change About Social Media in 2010

10 Things That Will Not Change About Social Media in 2010

Why Social Media ROI is NOT as Important as ROR

Hootsuite for the iPhone – Social CRM Just Went Mobile!

Dr. Denis Cauvier author of Hired 2.0 Podcast Interview with @shanegibson

Creating a Sales Culture in Your Organization

Free Audio Download of Chapter 1 – Sociable! by @shanegibson and @sjagger

Prospecting is a Discipline

Four Types of Prospecting:

Make a Plan:

Subscribe in iTunes

Free Goal Setting Guide for 2010 by Bill Gibson

Serendipity and Intuition are Not Random

Three Truly Sociable! Media Leaders and a Book Update

Sociable! Media Leader #1: Kyle MacDonald (@oneredpaperclip):

Sociable Media Leader #2: Peter Aceto (@CEO_INGDirect):

Sociable Media Leader #3: Scott Heiferman (@heif)

Book Update:

Leading and Collaborating with Generation Y

Seminar Details

The 10 Personality traits of a Guerrilla Social Media Marketer

Tips de Social Media, Pensamientos y Modas en menos de 140 caracteres.

Two Leadership Seminars to Help You Compete and Prosper

Partnering & Stakeholder Engagement Strategies (Nov 5) & Leading in a Hyper Connected Marketplace (Dec 3)

Partnering & Stakeholder Engagement Strategies: November 5th, 2009

Leadership 2.0 – Leading in a Hyper Connected Marketplace: December 3rd, 2009

Why You Need to Be a Nomadic Social Media Tribalist

Social Media Tips, Thoughts and Trends Under 140 Characters

Listening 2.0 – Social Media Listening Strategy

25 Tips Sobre Medios Sociales

Social Media Statistics and Trends for South America

South America and Mobile Social Networks:

Partnering & Stakeholder Engagement Strategies (Nov 5) &
Leading in a Hyper Connected Marketplace (Dec 3)