They polish their message; media train the CEO; and give their website a shiny new look and feel.

Everything’s very nice; very safe; very presentable. Ready to be the poster child for Industry X.

And then they open their mouths.

Polishing is great; training is great; shiny is great. But culture is where the real beauty lies.

How beautiful is yours?

Poster Child originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

Case Study originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

The surprise on their faces was always entertaining when they’d ask for my ideas for them, and instead of presenting a huge multi-slide PowerPoint, I’d show them this piece of paper and the four words on it.

The reason for keeping it simple was simplicity itself – if they couldn’t see the benefit of each point, they probably couldn’t see the benefit of social media.

I’ve since upgraded that piece of paper a little, but the message of the four points on it still works today.

Identify

There are so many different social media tools and applications that it can often be like trying to work your way around a maze. So many different turns to take, easy to get lost with all the options available – which is why it’s important to take the time to identify what will work for you. Decide what you want from social media and then use the appropriate tools. 

Identity

Having an easily identifiable brand is key for anyone both online and off. Although this is usually applicable to business, personal branding offers an invaluable way of building a reputation as someone to go to for a certain niche. So your identity should be the same across whatever platforms you use – from bio, to profile, to picture, to logo – keeping the same identity across social media platforms will help people remember you more easily.

Invest

There’s an old saying that says, “You get out of it what you put into it.” While this can be used for most topics, it’s particularly true of social media. It’s not something you can dip into now and again – it changes too fast for that. Instead, to really see the fruits of your labour, you need to invest time into it.

A big part of social media is all about building relationships – and just like relationships in real life, the best ones take time to foster. Use this mindset with social media, place proper investment into it, and you’ll see the benefits fall into place.

Interact

It may seem an obvious thing to say, but there are only two words in social media and one of them is social. Yet still so many people – businesses, usually, more than individuals – are missing this key fact. Instead of simply broadcasting yourself, interact with the community and actively take part in social media.

Read and comment on blogs, both inside and outside your niche; converse on Twitter instead of just spamming your latest blog post or affiliate deal; share helpful news with people instead of keeping it to yourself for your own benefit.

Social media can often be a difficult thing to navigate, with different uses for different people. One thing it is to everyone, though, is a wonderful opportunity for all parts of you or your client’s business.

How are you helping others understand their opportunities?

photo credit: Eva the Weaver

Putting the I in Social Media originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

Or, to look at it another way, how do your clients treat you?

Is it with respect and shared passion for doing the same work, or is it just having a need for each other and no more?

When dealing with a client, do you meet your deadlines or do you constantly offer excuses why their project isn’t ready? Do you work closely together, listen to/make suggestions for improving and strive for excellence on the fly, or do you simply turn in the work, take the money and walk?

I ask this simply because it seems many big businesses have forgotten the art of either being a client or providing for one. From having a maze of contact information to wade through to losing the personal touch that won them the following of the customers in the first place, larger businesses are forgetting how to communicate.

So here’s an idea.

Go back to basics. Remember when you first started your business and you had time for everyone (because everyone was important)? Find that business owner again.

Ask yourself how you’re communicating and how you can improve. Are you using the online space effectively? Look at your Internet strategy and see how your brand is viewed. There’s a billion voices waiting to answer you and offer you invaluable advice and insight into making your brand the authority in your niche.

The question is, will you be listening?

photo credit: fofurasfelinas

Big Business Needs to Think Smaller originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

They want to check out everything around them. They look at things differently from us. They see unique and new; we see “been there, done that”.

Children have that innocence that says everything has yet to be discovered. They don’t care about the safe, the boring – they want fresh and exciting. They see the world through the eyes of someone that doesn’t know the meaning of the words, “Too far” or “Some other time”.

Shouldn’t we all be like children? In life; in love; in business? Does our fear of real life stop us from overcoming everything that’s holding back our true success?

I think I’d like to be a child. How about you?

• Note: This post originally appeared on my Posterous account. I’m still experimenting there and may remain using it, or move all posts here. In the meantime, I’ll be sharing the odd one here with you.

Be a Child originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

It’s been a little quiet around here the last few days. And, for that matter, on Twitter as well (not so much Facebook, as that’s not one of my more popular haunts). Anyone that knows me will know this isn’t normal fare – I’m usually much more vocal (although the silence may be preferable to some!). The last week or so has been hectic, hence the silence.

Here’s why.

Following some conversations with both Shannon Boudjema and Maritz Canada, I’m really happy to announce that I have accepted the role of Social Media Strategist for Maritz. This is an in-house project (contracted) for the next six months, and will see me help lead Maritz Canada forward into the social space, as well as help with client strategies and campaigns.

The role was held by Shannon, but she’s moving back to the UK for family reasons. Shannon’s been key in developing how the next six months will look as well as helping to put in place in-house set-ups to make the transition as smooth as possible. I can’t thank Shannon enough for all her help here.

So, what does that mean here? Not much, to be honest. I’ll still continue to write about the topics I feel can help you gain the most benefit from the space, whether that’s tools, platforms or, most importantly, people. I may add in the occasional example from my new gig, if it’s relevant and acceptable to the companies involved.

I guess the main change is updating some bio/disclosure information and ensuring there are no conflicts of interest. But that’s a given anyway, so hopefully it won’t come up too often.

Anyways… now that I’m settling into the role and the crazy hectic days of early role changeover is becoming less manic, expect to see me back prowling an online corridor near you. I hope we can continue to learn together and here’s to some fun and interesting times ahead.

Something New, Something Old originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

It’s now time to take this one step further, and again I want you to be a big part of it.

I’m currently drafting “Community Spirit – Making the Connection in the Conversation Age”. It’s a book about why we’re no longer obstructed by barriers, whether they’re international or cultural.

It will look at using the online (and offline) tools around us to foster true, meaningful relationships – personal, professional, business and more. How listening is the first step to understanding, and how that understanding will help market your or your business brand to a wider audience.

We’re on the cusp of something amazing from a connectivity point of view, and hopefully I can help you along some of the way.

So how can you help?

By leaving your definition of community and the tools that have helped you make meaningful connections. What you’d like to see as the standard for communities worldwide and how they can be merged into one living community as a whole – looking out for each other and offering our helping hands along the way.

I’ll use the best ones as additional chapter topics. You’ll have full credit and byline in the book, and if you have a blog or website, I’ll mention that in the credits at the end.

The comments section is yours for your suggestions. Feel free to mention this post to your friends, or retweet it on Twitter, so others can come and leave their own definitions. If you prefer, you can email me your suggestions instead, with “Community Spirit” in the message header.

Let’s see if we can truly define the community spirit.

Ready to start?

Community Spirit: The Book (and How To Be a Part of It) originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

If there’s something negative being said, you need to respond and counter where necessary. If it’s positive, you can also respond and just say thanks for the kind words – it certainly won’t hurt to show someone that you appreciate their words.

One of the tools I’ve been messing around with lately is Social Mention. In the words of the application itself:

“Social Mention is a social media search engine that searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services.”

And that pretty much sums up what Social Mention offers. Yet there’s more, and it’s these features that make Social Mention pretty cool for your own use or business use.

When you search for something using Social Mention, you’ll get results sent back to you from a myriad of sources, from the better-known social networks to more obscure ones. Tabs above the results allow you to choose from blogs, microblogs, social bookmarks, comments and more.

Where it gets fun is with the ranking system. Look to the right of Social Mention and you’ll see your score out of 100. The higher the score, the more mentions about you, your business or product.

This can allow you to tailor where you’re more effective online, and either concentrate on that area, or try and become more effective elsewhere, depending on your needs. By showing tags and sources, you can also see what words are being used about you and from where. It even tells you when the last reference to you was made.

Once you have your information, you can then save it as a CSV/Excel file and use it for any stats or reports of your own.

Topping it all off, Social Mention also offers trending topics, as well as email alerts and RSS feeds that you can personalize to exactly what you want to know about.

There are a host of great free and premium monitoring services around, but for ease of use and results, I have to say I’m really liking what I’ve found so far with Social Mention.

How about you? Have you used it yet? What do you think about it? See possibilities or just another addition to a crowded market?

Do You Know What Your Social Mention Factor Is? originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

In 1983, the biggest-selling album in the US was Michael Jackson’s Thriller, still a pop classic more than 25 years later. The second biggest-selling album was from a relatively little-known (at the time) UK rock band called Def Leppard. The album was Pyromania.

Selling more than 10 million copies in the US alone, Pyromania launched Def Leppard into the melodic rock stratosphere, and introduced music fans previously against rock into their brand of catchy hooks and excellent live shows.

The point?

Prior to 1983, Def Leppard were as unfashionable as you could get. A British rock band that were stuck between a rock and a hard place – trying to bridge the gap between old-school heavy metal and more mainstream rock. Their albums previous to Pyromania showed promise but were still mired in old school thoughts.

Step up producer and songwriter extraordinaire Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who helped Def Leppard reach the potential they had always shown. Getting them to work in new ways, be open to new ideas, and experiment with new approaches to get their song messages across more effectively.

You can do the same.

Look at what you do each day and see how you can improve it by thinking differently. Look at the old you and see what’s good and not so good, and how you can turn both into great.

If you blog, ask yourself how you can stand out from others. Write about the things you want to read as opposed to what you think others want to read. Take existing ideas, put your personality into them and make them your own.

If you’re a business owner, be Mutt Lange. Make your employees your band and open up the recording studio to fresh views. You’re still the producer at the end of the day, and you’ll make the final recording, but bands also know what their fans want – give them their voice too.

Safe and steady won’t harm you – you’ll always have a comfort zone around you. But wouldn’t you rather take a risk and see how far you can really go?

Lessons From Pyromaniacs originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.