Shama Kabani of The Marketing Zen Group, Rick Burnes of HubSpot, the notorious Couch Surfing Ori, as well as other Social Media pros will be speaking at the Aloft Hotel Thursday, March 4th, to a crowd of entrepreneurs, C-level execs, and marketing and sales professionals on social media topics and techniques that businesses are using to achieve real business results in 2010.

Bring your laptop and join Shama for this intensive information-packed full day of professional speakers and workshops. This hands-on one-day conference will give you the inside scoop on emerging trends and ways savvy marketers and business owners are successfully promoting their businesses, increasing sales, generating qualified leads, and recruiting top personnel through social media. Find out why names like Pepsi decided to opt out of  Superbowl advertising after 23 years and reinvested 20 million in social media instead.

This will be the first opportunity to get your hands on The Zen of Social Media Marketing – An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue.  It won’t be available in stores until April 2010. VIP attendees will get to meet Shama personally at an exclusive lunch as well as receive an autographed copy of the book.

General admission also includes a copy of Inbound Marketing- Getting Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs , an Amazon Top Seller for 22+ weeks, presented by Rick Burnes, Inbound Marketing Director at Hubspot.

Plus there will will be a Social Boot Camp Business Panel, an esteemed panel of Dallas-based business owners, entrepreneurs, trail blazers & Fortune 500 companies teaching how they have successfully leveraged Social Networking to support their business objectives.

Shama has spoken with the organizer of the event and since she is all about giving value, you can save $30 on the boot camp by using this special: link until Valentine’s Day.

Moderator: Ori Bengal, Couch Surfing Ori, Event MC
* Katharyn DeVille, Digital Producer WFAA Ch 8
* Shaun P. Wiliams, Editor of Dallas South News
* Kevin Williams, Director of Marketing National Breast Cancer Foundation
* James Pecht, Comm Specialist/Social Media of Interstate Batteries
* Kat Farmer, SticViews
* Bill Knecht, Partner Bengal Coast

Last but not least, after a hard day of Boot Camp Workshops you can enjoy mingling in the private Aloft Hotel Party Pad with other professionals and attendees.

Sign up using this link this week before this workshop sells out.

If you’re wondering why this post was written in 3rd person, that’s because it was written by Neil.

There are plenty of opinions on where our economy is headed – not just in the US but globally. How do you save the world? Seth proposes being a linchpin (Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?). Umair Haque argues we don’t need to be great, but good. We should focus on socially responsible entrepreneurship.

I recently got an invitation to speak at the honorable St. Gellan Symposium in Switzerland. The topic? Entrepreneurs – Agents of Change.

Tomorrow, I leave for Indiana to go speak to the bright students at Culver. On what else? Entrepreneurship. What will I tell them? Yes, entrepreneurs have changed the world since the beginning of modern civilization. Perhaps even before that. (I sense a  “even a caveman can do it”  joke.) I will tell them my story about how I became one. And, I will share with them these five key points about Entrepreneurship -

1) Ideas aren’t worth much. EXECUTION IS! Ideas are a dime a dozen. Dreamers are a dime a dozen. The true power lies in execution. No matter how brilliant the idea,  if you cannot implement it – it doesn’t mean much.

2) Invest in Education. Education doesn’t have to be conventional. It does have to be constant. A solid entrepreneur never stops learning. You can bootstrap everything, but you can’t skimp on training.

3) Marketing. Marketing. Marketing. It’s not a dirty word. It isn’t ugly or scary. It is a necessity in today’s world. It can’t trump the product or the service – but it can take a good product or service to a whole new level.

4) Social Media has CHANGED the world -leverage it. You can be more, do more, say more -reach more than ever before. But, don’t mistake the medium for the message. Yes, you can broadcast your ideas to millions. But should you? And more importantly, which ones?

5) Learn to Listen and SPECIALIZE. You can’t solve every problem. Don’t even try. Just get VERY good at fixing one or a few. When I first started The Marketing Zen Group, it wasn’t called that. We didn’t specialize in online marketing. We definitely didn’t pride ourselves in being social media experts. We failed because I tried to build a general consultancy. When I started listening to my clients, that changed. I realized that they were already telling us what problem they needed help with. That’s when we decided to focus on online marketing. It was hard at first. Saying no to other things always is, but then so is becoming just another company.

Everybody always talks about why social media marketing is so important. I agree. But, I also think there are reasons against social media marketing. Here are 10 reasons NOT to partake in social media marketing.

1) You don’t have the basics right. Your business model is non-existent. (Call Joe). You don’t have a tested product. You don’t have a goal. Your website hasn’t been updated since 2002. Social media marketing comes last.

2) Your boss isn’t on board. I’ve seen this happen, and it never ends well.  No matter how much you LOVE social media and think it could turn your business around, it doesn’t matter unless your boss is on board. Even if you are able to get some traction, your boss will pull the plug if he or she wasn’t sold on the idea from the beginning.

3) Your employees aren’t on board. I sat through a wonderful lunch the other day where a boss was ready to make things happen with social media. His manager on the other hand was not. The manager was clearly too busy handling operations, and didn’t think he could handle one more of his boss’  ideas. If you think social media is for your company, make sure your employees see the value first.

4) You want a short term solution. I am sorry guys but no one is going to say “ooh look! a business consultant on twitter. I want to hire you!” Social media is NOT a short term solution. It is, more or less, a lifetime (at least business-wise) commitment.

5) You want to see a direct impact on ROI. Will it impact your ROI? Yes. Will it directly impact your ROI? No. The bigger the sale, the more touch points a business needs. This is how must people buy from us: Someone refers them to our website or they find us on (gasp!) a social media site. They sign up for our newsletter. Six months later, they hear me speak somewhere. They continue to follow me on Twitter. Another month goes by. They decide they need their website optimized or their facebook fan page customized or to entirely outsource marketing. They call. They are ready to buy. Did social media impact our ROI? Not directly. But, did it create a channel for us to keep in touch until they were ready? Absolutely.

6) You don’t want to build content. Somewhere out there, Newt and Joe are vigorously nodding their heads. Social media is a channel. It is a medium. It is two tin cups with a wire in the middle. It is NOT a substitute for the message. When you mistake the medium for the message, you get inane status updates like “just had a PB&J.” Seriously? Just because you now have a megaphone does NOT mean you no longer have to have something valid to say while using the megaphone.

7) You have a zero budget. Social media marketing is not free. The tools are free, but the tools are no good without a strategy. Just ask B.L. Ochman. If I handed you a hammer, nails, and a few boards – could you build a shelter? Yes? Okay. How long would the shelter last? If it collapses on you, it can cause more harm than good.

You don’t have time. Social media takes time. It doesn’t have to be your personal time, but it does take SOMEBODY’S time. And, it takes quality time.

9) You don’t want to work within a changing landscape. Social media yesterday was blogging. Today it is video. Tomorrow may be location based social networking. If you are truly interested, you have to keep up. Or, you have to assign someone to keep up for you.

10) You don’t believe in giving it away. True story. A couple of months ago, I am sitting in the boardroom of a leading accounting firm. I am explaining the concept of blogging, and the head partner asks me: “Why would I give away what I know?” I explained I wasn’t talking about trade secrets or anything of that sort. But, instead, I was talking about content that would build their expertise as a firm. He scrunched up his brow and said “for FREE?!”  This isn’t a social media problem. This is a mindset challenge.

Photo Credit: @Vlauria on Flickr

According to a study by The Neilsen Company, consumers spent 5.5 hours on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter in December 2009. Just three years ago, the average consumer spent 3.

Key points from the study -

- The most popular online categories, in order of popularity, are: Social networks, blogs, online games, instant messaging.

- Growth from Facebook (200%) and Twitter (368%)  trumped overall social networking growth.

- Time spent on social media sites by an average US consumer went up 143% in a year.

- US has the largest population of social media users (142.1 million), followed by Japan (46.6 million).

Ha! I love it when I am right. *Happy Dance!*

For years, I have been explaining that Twitter was never in the social networking business. It was in the human search engine business. It isn’t Twitter vs. Facebook. It was – and will be – Twitter vs. Google. Do I also smell an IPO in 2010?

Good buddy and reputation management expert, Andy Beal, picked up something very clever in Biz Stone’s OpEd piece. Biz Stone is one of the founders of Twitter, and I had the pleasure of sharing the speaking stage with him this past year.  Very down to earth guy, but, I digress.

Here is what Andy found…

“It can be these things but primarily Twitter serves as a real-time information network powered by people around the world discovering what’s happening and sharing the news…In the new year, Twitter will begin supporting a billion search queries a day. We will be delivering several billion tweets per hour to users around the world…”

A BILLION searches. Google currently handles around 400,000 million searches a day. Twitter will BEAT that.

The coming decade will redefine not just the role of media – but media ITSELF.

The King is Dead. All Hail the People.

(photo credit @respres on Flickr)

Okay – here is the thing. Everyone is complaining about how many social media experts are popping up these days. I agree. It is indeed a little freaky to me when people who came to hear me speak two months ago and asked “what is tweeter?” are now social media experts on Twitter (pronounced correctly this time). I remember playing on Twitter when it was first released. There were like 3000 of us. This is pre-Oprah and pre-Kutcher of course. But, you know what? Just because we came early to the party doesn’t mean that the party is now over. But – it does mean you have to work harder!

One of the reasons it was easy for some of us earlier players to establish our expertise and presence in the field was because well, we were IT! When 10 people are talking about social media in the world – they are all experts. When 10,000 start proclaiming overnight expertise, it gets tougher.

So, here is what I don’t want to do. I don’t want to sit here and look down on the newcomers. 80% of them MAY just be jumping on board because they think its the “next hot thing.” But, I do believe, that at LEAST 20% are genuinely interested in helping others get social media and want to be part of a growing industry. As I heard at least a dozen times when we were interviewing candidates – “I want to work for you guys because this is the future.” Fair enough.

What I DO want to do is give those who are genuinely interested in social media a few pointers in getting started.

• Be Honest. If you’ve recently started using social media, be honest about it. Hey, in all fairness, it is a new field and nobody has it all figured out. You don’t get bonus points for pretending to have been at it for a while.
• Practice what you Preach – In some fields you don’t have to walk the walk to talk the talk. This isn’t that field. Social media happens in the trenches.
• Don’t Rely on Shortcuts – A social media certification doesn’t make you an expert. It may teach you a few things, but there are no shortcuts in this industry. I love what Chris recently wrote about making hard work sexy.
• Train Yourself – If you are determined to make it in the field, you will have to train yourself. Here are the books you MUST read (this is just to begin with).: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day, The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly, The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue (I am including my book not out of a sense of vanity – but because a lot of newcomers to the social media field have shared with me that they found it valuable). Conferences to Attend: Blog World and New Media Expo and SXSW Interactive.
• Learn from Others – Let’s face it. There is always someone out there who knows more than we do. Or, people who have a different take than us. Learn from them! Follow their blogs, interact with them on social media sites, go listen to them speak if you get the chance. When you do learn something from them and decide to share it – just be sure to give them credit.
• Convey the RIGHT information – It’s important that you deliver the right information to your clients. It’s a big responsibility. If you aren’t sure about something, double check and then tell them. Tell them what social media can’t do. Tell them that social media is a long term strategy and it does come LAST. Remember, you aren’t just helping your clients, you are representing the industry as a whole.
• Find your Niche – Social media used to be a niche within online marketing. It is now big enough to have its own sub niches. You may be new to social media, but what are you an old hat at? Perhaps you come from the world of retail. Focus on how social media can best benefit retailers. Perhaps you come from a family of dentists and know their world inside out. Focus on helping dentists understand social media.

The truth is that there is ALWAYS space in any industry for newcomers – well, talented and hardworking newcomers anyway.

Photo Credit – @PhotoMishDan on Flickr.

Let’s face it. If there was ever something to be said about blogging – it has been said. Well, maybe not everything. But, most of the time we hear more about blogging than the topic being blogged about. So, why am I endorsing and recommending that you get Beyond Blogging (affiliate link) by Nathan Hangen and Mike Cliffe Jones?

Because they’ve collected the wisdom of top bloggers and distilled it into one place. Yours truly was humbled to be a part of this lineup – but seriously, this is an excellent list of bloggers -

* Chris Brogan (who doesn’t love Chris and his blog?)
* Gary Vaynerchuk (wine and personal branding GURU!)
* Penelope Trunk  (a blogger who pushes the envelope and succeeds)
* Chris Garrett (awesome blogger + humble soul)
* Darren Rowse (one of the original bloggers)
* Pete Cashmore (good looking? yes. also the force behind Mashable.)
* Jonathan Fields (good buddy and super cool blogger)
* Steve Pavlina (excellent writer and builder of communities)
* Brian Clark (fellow Dallasite and ummm CopyBlogger!)

and more….

I love the fact that it doesn’t matter if you are a new blogger or a pro – you will really walk away with some solid ideas on what it means to leverage blogging for your greater goals. And, you have to love that.

So, whip out some of your holiday money and go get Beyond Blogging.

What If?

What if you could NEVER hide anything you did?

What if everything you did had the potential of becoming public?

What if every picture, every video, every recording could be seen by everyone?

What if you couldn’t separate your personal and professional life?

What if honesty wasn’t the best policy? What if it was the ONLY policy?

What if outcaring mattered MORE than outselling?

What if that’s already here?

It is.

Here is a typical conversation I have with prospective clients ALL the time.

Mr. Prospect: We’d like to do some social media marketing.

Me: Oh, great. Exactly, what are you looking for within social media marketing?

Mr. Prospect: Well, we need a Facebook fan page and a twitter account.

Me: So, you’ve got a great business and a fabulous website with great content?  And need to get the word out more? Yes?

Mr. Prospect: hmm…see, our website isn’t quite what we need it to be. Its in all flash and we designed it ourselves five years ago. And, we also need to rebrand. Our old brand isn’t really what we do anymore.

Me: How do you plan on using social media marketing then?

Mr. Prospect: Figured that’s how you get the word out.

Me: Yes, of course you want to get the word out and build relationships with new prospects. But, what exactly do you want amplified? Because social media is the ultimate amplifier.Your basics like a great brand, a well converting website, and content, should all come first. Do you do any type of email marketing now to keep in touch with current website visitors?

Mr. Prospect: <Long Pause> So, you are saying that social media marketing comes last?

Me: Amen. (well…something of that sort). ; )

Dry cleaners, auto mechanics, accounting firms, moving companies, restaurants, doctors, law firms, and other brick (click) and mortar businesses win and lose new customers every day before the potential customer even picks up the phone. This decision is based solely on past and current customers’ opinions he or she read has online. With so many businesses to choose from, being number one on Google is nearly never the only deciding credibility or trust factor. You’re dealing with an educated customer who does his/her research and does not care what you have to say about your business. They do care what others like him or her have to say. When friends and family aren’t readily available to ask for recommendations, where else can people turn, but the local online community? Welcome to the new word-of-mouth (mouse) marketing. When faced with too many choices, others rely on the “social proof” of what others think. Online reviews are a perfect example. Where are potential customers finding these reviews? The truth is, all over the Internet. There are 1000s of local business review sites and directories, you say? Don’t worry, there are a handful that matter more than the rest combined.

Since a potential customer’s initial search still starts with keywords on a search engine using a service-oriented keyword followed or preceded by the city in which they’re searching (ex: BMW mechanic Dallas). You should first pay attention to the truly important ones already showing up in Google, Yahoo!, and MSN for your keywords. Below are six of the major review and business listing sites which hold weight and have huge online presence. Learn the six biggies.

1. Google Local Business Listings (The “10 Pack”)

You can get your business listed on Google’s map and show up directly on the search results by registering at the Google Local Business Center www.google.com/local/add Describe your business with location info, services, hours of operation and business website link. After you have a listing, your goal is get reviews. If you let Google find your business first, you’ll be rewarded with better placement on the map. Much like Google would rather find your website on its own through links rather than search engine submission, Google Maps will trust and more than likely post reviews from other review sites before submitting or modifying your listing. Often, the Google Local Listing bot will scour the Internet for other reviews sites already touting your company’s offerings and experiences, so start building profiles on some of the other sites first and you’ll already have a diversity of amazing reviews before you expand. Another backdoor is getting your business listed on the BBB’s website or InfoUSA.com to ensure your Google Local presence. Reviews are by far the #1 one factor in achieving top placement in the alphanumeric listing of the Google Local Business Listings/Map Listings. Make sure the reviews are real though. Having keywords in your business name and a complete profile also helps. Get started at the Google Local Business Center.

2. Yelp!

Almost tripling in traffic from 10 to 25 million unique visitors over the last year, this community has exploded becoming a full-on social community with add friends function, reputations, commenting, and picture profiles. Yelp! has recently opened its doors a little more allowing business owners to talk back. Yelp! shows up well in search and they have the trust factor down due to their proprietary algorithm which has been cutting out fake reviews since 2006. To gain control of your profile you should first see if your business is already listed, then you must “claim” the listing with phone call verification. It’s the same process with most of these sites.
See what others are saying about your business and talk back on Yelp.com

3. Yahoo! Local Listings

Similar to Google Local Listings above, Yahoo! now offers the “10 pack,” only it’s three instead of ten. Complete with a map and full landing page, Yahoo! local shows up above organic search and below the top three pay-per-click listings. It’s wise to promote your Yahoo! Local Listing by treating it like it’s one of the family – get reviews, flesh out the profile, add business information. Although Yahoo! only gets 20% of the search engine share, that’s a pretty big chunk of search engine goodness. Get your Yahoo! Map Listing started.

4. Citysearch

This business review site has been around for many years. I can remember at least 10 years ago, when I wanted to be a “City Expert” reviewing restaurants and the like in my area. According to Wikipedia, Citysearch started in 1995 and although much of their content is not user-generated, they do have the notoriety to command attention when they put out a top ten list. Each review, although staff provided, seems thoughtful and specific. The most important aspect of the site — they show up well in search for Google and even better in Yahoo!. Get your business listed, and it may even be worth to have an “enhanced listing” for a monthly fee. Check out CitySearch.com.

5. MerchantCircle

Somewhat new on the scene, this company started in 2005 and has been infiltrating search listings and growing ever since. In June 2008, MerchantCircle announced over 5 million monthly users, 500,000 registered merchant users, and over 5,000 paying clients, with 4.3 million visitors a month according to Quantcast in 2007. Join the circle.

6. Insider Pages

Insider Pages is an online “local search” service operated by IAC/InterActiveCorp. Before its acquisition by IAC the company was based in Redwood Shores, California, and had over 600,000 reviews of local merchants around the country. Insider Pages was founded by Stuart MacFarlane in 2004. On March 27, 2006, the company announced an $8.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital, Softbank Capital, and Idealab. The company addressed a demographic (by its description) of young and middle-aged families who own homes in urban and suburban areas. Add you business. Google Maps definitely picks it up. Be an insider.

Three Important Local Business Review Marketing Tips
1). Never fake reviews or testimonies, it’s not worth the consequences (possible banning).
2). Ask happy customers to review right after he/she has bought, and keep reminding.
3). Don’t freak out if there are some less than 100% positive reviews.
To address the last one, potential customers expect a balance with everything veering on the side of positive and not for your business to be perfect. If there are any negative reviews follow up with that person by contacting him/her and try to make their after experience a good one. Consumer studies and surveys have proven customers are more satisfied with a company in which there was a small issue and the issue was resolved, compared to if there was never one in the first place. The more reviews and complete your business profile the better.

For almost five years, Neil Lemons has worked behind-the-scenes to help create exposure, traffic, leads, and sales through major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Calling upon his diverse background in copywriting, advertising, marketing, and sales, he has been learning traditional SEO and SEM tactics since 2004.  He is the lead SEM Strategist at MarketingZen.com, a Dallas website design company. For more information on Internet Marketing, SEM & SEO contact The Marketing Zen Group for a free site evaluation.