By Larry Bailin, author of the bestselling Internet marketing book,
Mommy, Where Do Customers come From? and CEO of Single Throw Internet Marketing. @LarryBailin - Written for FeedFront Magazine

Social networking giant Facebook recently surpassed Wikipedia as the fourth largest website in the world while micro-blogging powerhouse, Twitter, reportedly handled 5000 tweets per minute when the king-of-pop passed. These announcements have businesses scrambling to social websites like they were, well, the Holy Grail of marketing success.

Here’s the thing about finding the Holy Grail: what do you do once you’ve found it? Companies large and small, although excited over the promise of social marketing, often have no idea what to do in this new and unfamiliar space.

Certainly, there is no shortage of social marketing gurus, experts and even ninjas (yes ninjas), but you can’t rely solely on these social Sherpa’s to achieve true success in your social quest.

A good or even average social media consultant can help you traverse an unforgiving social terrain by creating a sound social media strategy and implementing best practices.  However…

…”You can only be catapulted to success if you have something worth flinging into the air”.

Success is imminent when you realize that the knowledge necessary to succeed, no matter the marketing vehicle, comes from within. You have intimate knowledge of your offerings. You understand your customer’s wants and needs as they relate to your services. Most importantly, you know how to speak to a customer, and that is what will ultimately deliver success in the social space.

 Let the gurus obsess over the perfect formula of re-tweets to tweets and which shortened URL gets clicked the most.  You need to spend more time strategizing the creation of valuable dialogue.

Study your customer’s wants and needs, misconceptions and objections, then create shareable contributions that educate and subtly entice. Contributing, educating and subtly enticing - sounds a lot like selling. Despite popular opinion selling is not a bad thing.

There is nothing wrong with using social media to attract and convert customers, just learn to sell in a friendly non-disruptive way. Learn to join the conversation as opposed to interrupting it. You have to sell without selling.

You may be asking, how do you sell without selling? Let me share a little secret with you: it’s not so much a secret as an often overlooked resource.

 I’m frequently asked to recommend books on social marketing. There’s no shortage of books about the intricacies of Facebook and Twitter, but the greatest book ever written on achieving success in the social space was written 70+ years ago.

Dale Carnegies, How to Win Friends and influence People is the Holy Grail, the secret to social nirvana. This book teaches you to speak, think and write with the intent to persuade. How to Win Friends teaches you to think like a customer and provide value in order to evoke a desired outcome.

Social websites and ninjas come and go. When you master the skills to think like a customer and subtly entice, your next quest for marketing’s Holy Grail will be a short crusade.  You’ll only need to look inside yourself.

For more information about motivational business speaker and bestselling marketing author Larry Bailin, click here.

“Knowledge is power” an adage that has been instilled in us since birth. Is there such a thing as too much knowledge? 

Back when times were simpler, televisions  only had thirteen channels, local calls required a mere seven digits and only mind-readers were privy to the inner most thoughts of others, you could never have access to too much knowledge.

In the age of tweets, knowledge is an abundant commodity.  Free flowing tweets on twitter, blog posts, podcasts, social bookmarking and Facebook updates have led to a deluge of useful and useless knowledge merged together into an enormous ever evolving amorphous lump of information.

How do we separate the good, the bad and the ugly from the knowledge we so desperately crave?

First, stop contributing to the clutter. My recently college bound cousin who I love and adore dearly has gone into update overload. If her updates were litter she’d have an Indian crying outside of her dorm room (for those under the age of 35, look it up).

 “Chillin”, “clubbin”, “doin laundry” and “sleeeeepy” have crossed over from mundane minutia passing through your mind to mundane minutia that I now have to read! Where else in life would this type of veracious status updating be anything but mind-numbingly aggravating? Invite a close friend to join you at home to watch your favorite television show. Now imagine that every three to five minutes he/she gave you a status update; “Hungry”, “happy”, “comfortable”, “still hungry”, “nothing to say”, “sleeeepy”. You would blow a gasket, so why is this acceptable or of any interest whatsoever when done online?

Maybe I’m old fashioned or just plain old; I still struggle with the term “my bad” even being close to a suitable replacement for “I’m sorry”. If anyone ever catches me reciting this loser mantra please punch me square in the face.

Second, when you’ve accepted the fact that no one requires information about your every move start sharing information that your friends and followers can use. Share knowledge that can help better someone’s professional or personal life.  Tweet a bit of knowledge imparted by a brilliant professor during a lecture or a passage from a novel you may be enjoying, even a critique of today’s dinner special in the student cafeteria would be helpful to others on campus. Obviously I’m still talking about my cousin however you can apply the same logic in your professional life as well.

Third and this may be the most beneficial way to acquire a considerable amount of valuable knowledge; only follow and friend people that share and contribute relevant information to the network. My personal twitter page is a treasure trove of information fed directly to me. I follow those that care about what they share. Your feeds can provide more knowledge about your personal and professional interests than any newspaper, magazine or email newsletter could ever hope to deliver.    

The information, articles, stories, comments, videos and events delivered by my social networking feeds are the equivalent of having my own personal newspaper that only prints information relevant to my life, all of my professional and personal interests wrapped neatly in one location. Even if I did have my own personal newspaper, a new edition would have to be delivered to me every fifteen minutes to keep up with the quality and quantity of information currently available to me.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are all about giving and getting information and there are far more people giving than getting so why not take advantage of that? Not everyone is hyper connected and most are not writing unique content, articles, blogs or books however, those of us that do write for a living want you to benefit from the fruits of our labor so read, comment, share, subscribe, follow and friend as many experts as you can.

I’m sure that once you’ve honed your friend list and start following the right people you’ll be hooked on the timeliness and quality of the information available and soon you will realize just how tweet it is.

Chris Perrin, a food writer who lives near Kansas City, was trying to decide where to vacation with his family this summer.

The destination had to be kid- friendly, have decent shopping and interesting cuisine. So, he asked for recommendations on Twitter, a social networking blog.

Elizabeth Norton of Cape May offered her South Jersey town, known for its quaint Victorian architecture and easy pace of life.

“She told me she would send me a list of restaurants up and down the beach,” Perrin said.

Norton, a 27-year-old mother of two, was happy to oblige. “We have seafood, and there’s a place here that makes hot dogs a million different ways,” she said.

Consumers like Perrin and Nor ton are increasingly turning to social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to find the best deals on travel, products and services. Cyberspace neighbors are replacing the trusted friend or relative who once dispensed advice on where to go to buy a product wholesale.

“You have a built-in group of experts whose opinion is more valuable to you than a professional product reviewer,” said Allen Weiner, an analyst for Gartner, a technology research firm in Stam ford, Conn.

Savvy companies are also finding ways to join the virtual backyard discussions.

“More and more product companies are going to these sites and trying to get feedback on their products,” Weiner said.

For example, Starwood has a Facebook account that asks members where it should build new hotels. Hertz, the Park Ridge-based rental car company, has a blog on Twitter for ConnectbyHertz, a new service that lets customers rent vehicles by the hour.

“A lot of the people we are trying to reach with ConnectbyHertz are young urban professionals who are into social networking,” said Don Serup, Hertz vice president of internal audit. “It’s a really good way to get the word out about what we’re doing.”

‘CUSTOMERS ARE IN CONTROL’

But tapping into social media sites can also pose risks for compa nies. A clumsy pitch or false move can put a company at the mercy of other bloggers who can instantly criticize their brand and mobilize public opinion against them.

Successful social networking re quires relinquishing control of your company’s message, brand and even logo, which is something many marketers are loathe to do, said Larry Bailin, chief executive of Single Throw internet Marketing, a Wall Township firm that advises companies on social media.

“Most companies are afraid to fail in social networking, or if they are really big, they just throw money at everything and hope it works,” Bailin said. “Customers are in control of the medium and the message, and they know more about your product than you do.”

Wal-Mart was criticized in 2006 when it put out a blog called “Wal- Marting Across America,” that ap peared to be written by a couple who were traveling the country in a recreational vehicle and staying in Wal-Mart parking lots. The blog was actually written by two employees for Edelman Public Rela tions, which represents Wal-Mart.

Sony and its ad agency, Zipa toni, also ran afoul of the blogging community that same year when they created a fake blog about a guy who was hoping his family would buy him a Sony PSP gaming station for Christmas.

Companies have to maintain credibility when they create blogs and provide useful information rather than another marketing message, according to Bailin.

“Sony and Wal-Mart tried to trick people,” he said. “Companies have to remember that if you make somebody unhappy, they can tell thousands of people with a keystroke.”

Social networking can prod companies into taking action.

For example, Toys “R” Us was mentioned in the best-selling book, “Groundswell,” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, which chronicled how social media is changing commerce.

The authors pointed out that while shoppers on the Toys “R” Us website were active in social net working, the Wayne-based retailer was failing to tap into those discussions.

In October, the company changed its website to give more prominence to its “Mom’s Favorites,” so mothers “can rate products and share valuable information with others,” said company spokeswoman Jennifer Albano.

The retailer also created a “My Deals” section designed to give customers access to special offers and the ability to sort deals by category.

MOTHER KNOWS BEST

Mothers carry a lot of weight on the internet, according to Melissa Garcia, a self-described mommy blogger and founder of consumerqueen.com, a social networking site for women who are looking for good deals.

“Moms want to hear from other Moms,” said Garcia, who lives in Edmond, Okla. “If a Mom sees the Gap has clothes for 50 percent off, she can share that because everybody is looking for ways to save a buck.”

Twitter is important to her “be cause companies are contacting me to do product reviews,” she said.

Last month, Dirt Devil gave away a dozen free vacuum cleaners on her site as part of a contest, she said. Garcia also said she received a free laptop from Dell in return for reviewing a computer.

“There were no strings attached,” she said. “I just have to tell my readers if I like it or not and what I would change about it. I post reviews, whether they are good or bad. So, companies know my good reviews are all the more real.”

Community networks can also help consumers engage with each other, according to Jim Willis of Red Bank.

“I think most everyone who uses social networking sites has at one point used them to get recommendations on products or services,” Willis said. “I don’t know anyone who uses those sites exclusively for recommendations, but it is a typical use of Facebook or Twitter to solicit feedback.”

Willis, who has a website at http://jimwillis.org, runs a Red Bank newsletter called redban keastsideparkneighbors. It has 120 subscribers who trade information about everything from baby sitters to carpenters and tree cutters.

He turned to his newsletter friends when he wanted to waterproof his basement this month. Another neighbor had received bids from several contractors and for warded them to Willis.

A neighbor’s recommendation carries a lot of weight, he said, be cause group members must iden tify themselves.

“Because there are names and addresses attached, there is an implicit sense of credibility because it is not anonymous,” said Willis, who formerly worked as chief information officer for the state of Rhode Island. “I’m associating my reputation with any recommendation I make.”

Not every internet champion is going on-line to get the best deals. Debbie Galant, who runs the popular Baristanet.com website, an Essex County blog, said she prefers to patronize local merchants.

“I can’t think of anything I bought because someone recommended it on Facebook,” she said. “I’m not one of those people who sits at a computer and is trying to shave $5 off something.”

Joseph R. Perone can be reached at jperone@starledger.com or (973) 392-4262. [

Larry is the best selling author of the marketing book, “Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From?” and is a renowned professional keynote and conference speaker, speaking 30 times per year to organizations across the country.

I recently had the opportunity sit down with him and talk about the Internet Marketing landscape.
Here is the transcript of part two of a two part interview:
(If you missed part one click here)

Steve: One question I get from people thinking about starting an online business is “do I need an Internet marketing plan”? What is your philosophy on this type of thing?

Larry: That’s an easy one. 100% yes. A plan is crucial. You would not build a bird-house without a plan why would you not take the time to create one for your business? The Internet is now and will continue to play a critical role in every company’s ability to attract qualified customers. There are few companies out there that are not adding Internet marketing to their overall marketing strategy. You leave it out and you get left behind. We live in a clickable culture and to ignore that fact would be foolish.

Steve: As a follow up question, what are the typical types of Internet marketing services involved in an Internet marketing plan?

Larry: That would vary depending on the type of business and where potential customers can be found for your offerings. Some people would have you believe if it exists than you need to do it. I could not disagree more. I only want to be where my customers are. If my potential customers are on Facebook I’ll be there. If I cannot identify that there is opportunity for me on MySpace than I will move on.

You need to investigate everything and only take on the solutions that have the opportunity for return. Take note, I said opportunity for return not guaranteed return. If you’re looking for guarantees buy a car.

The one constant that every marketing plan should have is a focus on the website. A company’s website is the center of their marketing universe. Everything points to your website, social networking, blogs. Brochures, whitepapers, email everything. Even handing someone a business card leads to them saying, “I’ll go check out your website”.

Just having a website is not enough. You need to be 100% convinced that it will attract, connect with and convert potential customers. We have taken good websites and made them great by insuring that nothing is left up to chance. Every element, line of text, hyperlink and image exists for one reason, to persuade a potential customer.

If your marketing plan does not contain a hard focus on creating a customer centric website you are short changing every other marketing solution you put forth.

Steve: Since you are both product and service-focused clients, are they different in any way? What are some distinctions in how you focus their Internet marketing strategies?

Larry: Primarily product and service companies are different only in their sales processes and by that I mean the last part of a sale. Product sales are more transaction oriented. Services are more relationship oriented and utilize a consultative selling model.

Contrary to popular belief there is little difference between the two when it comes to Internet marketing. The reason for this is that the customer is the same. Buying behavior is very similar from product to service. I rarely change my buying habits based on what I’m buying. I still need to know I’m making the right choice which means you have to inspire confidence in your potential clients. We have to instill trust, professionalism and expertise. All three of these qualities are vital for both products and services.

Both types of sales end with a success transaction. The product sales ends much sooner as the success transaction is the purchase / ordering of said product. Service transaction success online is a different success transaction, typically a contact choice. At the point of contact the sales process for a service continues off-line.

Steve: To close our interview I would like to get a “Top 5” from you. Since we are facing some tough economic times ahead for possibly the next 12-18 months, what are the Top 5 things you would recommend to companies to leverage their Internet marketing strategy?

Larry: I recently spoke at an Affiliate Summit event in NYC. After the event I followed the chatter about my presentation online via blog’s, twitter, forums and across multiple social networks. My favorite quote was, “Larry Bailin is a brilliant non-traditional e-marketer”. That being said I’m going to apologize in advance because my top 5 are not the average picks I see others pushing such as, video, twitter, Facebook and alike.

1. Strive to put the marketing back into Internet marketing. I’ve watched e-business evolve into business and now I watch as Internet marketing evolves into marketing. Internet marketing is not a technology solution. The technology has become ubiquitous. True results will come from the connection your solutions make with potential customer. Making a connection is a core fundamental in order for any marketing to succeed.

2. When hiring any Internet marketing company you must be sure they do not build anything for you. You are not hiring them to build things to make you happy; you need them to make your customers happy. My company strives to look though our customers. Everything we build or develop is designed for our customers’ customers.

When an Internet marketing company can build solution that makes your customers happy, trust me, you’ll be happy.

3. Measure, modify, test, measure and repeat. Just because your solutions are producing does not mean they cannot be better, in fact I guarantee they can be better. There is no such thing as perfect. Even our country’s constitution alludes to a grammatical fallacy, “a more perfect union”. There is no such thing as, “more perfect” but the concept is sound, never settle for perfect.

Always measure, modify, test and measure again. Push your solutions to the limit. Now more than ever you need to insure you’re getting the most from your budget, nothing is ever perfect.

4. Step outside of your comfort zone. I did a podcast with eight (8) time Mr. Olympia winner Ronnie Coleman a couple of years ago. Ronnie is considered one of the best in the sport. He has won eight (8) consecutive Mr. Olympia titles in a row and is tied with Lee Haney for the most wins ever. No one has ever won nine (9) titles (consecutive or otherwise). When Ronnie went for his world record ninth win he lost to Jay Cutler.

When interviewed in my studio he was asked if he was going to retire. He answered, “no way! I’m going back to win number nine”. When asked if it was possible to be bigger and better than he currently was, without missing a beat he stated, “absolutely! I just can’t keep doing the same things that got me here and expect to grow. I have to add more weight to the bar”. As marketers we have to develop what I now affectionately call, “Marketing Muscle” and like Ronnie Coleman, add more weight to the bar.

5. Make time before all you have is time. More often than I care to hear I’m told by my customers that they do not have the time needed to do everything I recommend. My answer is always the same, “You need to make time before all you have is time. If your competitors find the time they will take your customers and then you will have more time”.

To read he original interview click here

On October 5th I was a marketing speaker at an Affiliate Summit on Social Media in NYC. My topic was, “Making Money with Social Media”. I had my presentation all planned out but ended up changing it at the very last minute.

While waiting to speak I was reading Feed Front magazine (the official magazine of Affiliate Summit). An article caught my attention.  The article mentioned that, “marketing” needed to be put back into, “affiliate marketing”. I thought the article was on the right track but had not taken the concept far enough. Before you can put the marketing back into affiliate marketing you have to a step back and put, “sales” back into, “marketing”.

Once I stepped onto the stage and took the podium I began to discuss the concept of sales and marketing and how they related to making money with social media. I was not sure how it was going to go over with the audience. Based on the feedback I received as well as the buzz on Twitter and across the blogosphere I’d say it went well. One attendee went as far as to post a tweet stating, “Larry Bailin is a brilliant non-traditional e-marketer”. I guess the message resonated with the crowd.

After my presentation I was approached by Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami (that’s what’s printed on his card) for Network Solutions. Shashi was a speaker at the event as well. Shashi asked if I would do an interview for the Network Solutions blog, “Solutions are Power”. The interview ended up being a two part series with Steve Fisher. Here’s part one.
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Larry Bailin is the founder, CEO and thought leader of Single Throw, Inc. Larry is involved in the day to day sales and marketing activities as well as spearheading research and development of new Internet marketing services. Larry founded Single Throw Internet Marketing in Late 2000 and opened the doors of the company’s first office in Lakewood, New Jersey in early 2001.
Under his leadership Single Throw has grown to be the top Internet marketing companies in New Jersey and one of the best Internet marketing companies in the nation. Single Throw has provided Internet marketing services to some of the top companies in the world.

Larry is the bestselling author of the marketing book, “Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From?” and is a renowned professional keynote and conference speaker, speaking 30 times per year to organizations across the country. I recently had the opportunity sit down with him and talk about the Internet Marketing landscape.

Here is the transcript of part one of a two part interview:

Steve: Your firm has been doing a lot of pioneering things in the Internet marketing space. Could you tell us your vision and mission for Single Throw?

Larry: I’ve never been a big proponent of corporate visions and missions. In my experience they are written for the corporation and not the customer. Missions seldom seem to be followed and end up being a valueless proposition that no one believes or adheres to.

If I had to pin just one philosophy to my company, I guess it would be to never take on a client we cannot help and never sell a solution where we profit more than the client.

I’m sorry for the limited answer but my company’s vision is ever-changing and always evolving so I guess my mission is to always improve my vision.

Steve: What are the Internet marketing services you provide customers?

Larry: We have quite a wide breadth of services we offer. Primarily any type of marketing that uses the Internet to help our clients connect with a customer we handle. We do everything from customer centric website development, conversion enhancement, application development, search engine optimization, social media / networking campaign development etc.
What we won’t do is anything we cannot completely support in-house. That’s not to say we don’t recommend services we don’t offer. If we feel that a client will benefit from a service we will recommend it even if we don’t offer it. We won’t do something just because we can. Sometimes we can best serve a customer by referring them elsewhere. An example would be affiliate marketing. There are so many great people out there that specialize strictly in affiliate marketing that we refer our clients to the people that can help them the most.

Steve: You have been building Single Throw for the last few years. Since this not your first startup, what are some lessons learned, good or bad, which you have applied to this venture?

Larry: One major lesson I learned early on is that failure is a pre-condition to success. We have failed more times than I care to count but each time, each failure contained lessons that lead to great successes.

Steve: Since you are a serial entrepreneur and have been through many business cycles, with the economy in a tough spot these days, do you feel it is a good time to start a business?

Larry: That is a very difficult question to answer. I was moving furniture into my first office at 9:00 am on September 11th 2001. Living and growing up so close to the twin towers at the end of the day I had many emotions flowing through my head related to the tragedy of that day, I also wondered if I would be able to sustain my fledgling business in most uncertain times I’ve ever experienced. To make matters worse I had to overcome the stigma of the dot-com bubble bursting and the fact that very few people knew what Internet marketing was or believed that they needed it.

As someone that started their business at one of the worst times in history to do so I’m a big believer that if there is a need for the services or products you offer than there are no other factors that matter.

All a bad economy is going to do is make it harder to sell your services. I know that sounds like a big thing but it’s not that it just means that you have to be a better salesperson and work harder. If you’re adverse to enhancing your sales skills or working harder then you shouldn’t be starting a business in any economy. Case in point, my business will be up over 25% this year and the third quarter is shaping up to be the best in our six year history. I have to work harder, longer and smarter but we’re thriving. As far as sales skills go I’m proud to say I’m not someone a competitor wants to go head to head with. I never stop working on my sales skills and I have yet to ever lose a deal to a competitor, good economy or bad.NEXT TIME: In part two of this two-part interview, we discuss Internet marketing plans, differences between marketing product and service-focused companies, advice for the next 12-18 months.

Original Interview Can Be Read Here>

Yes I meant “revolutions” it’s not a typo.

A revolution can be defined in many ways but it can only mean one of two things. An overthrow of an established system / procedure or, course back to a starting point.

Only one type of revolution can help you make the upcoming year one to remember, at least from a marketing perspective.

Many companies get caught in a trap when it comes to marketing. They keep doing the same things over and over again. Round and round our marketing goes when it makes money we never know. The world changes too fast for anyone to think that doing the same old thing will produce new results. When it comes to marketing, that type of, “revolution” is the one to avoid.

Our customers are changing; in fact, you might even say they are creating a revolution of their own. There is no denying that the Internet has changed the face of business and marketing forever. One of the biggest changes brought about by the Internet is in customer behavior. We live in an on-demand society, a clickable culture where everything a customer wants is only a mouse click away.

Our customers have more choices and they can have whatever they want any way they want it whenever they want it. This limitless choice has created a very competitive environment for every type of business on the planet. You either work within the clickable culture or lose business to armies of competitors who are very anxious and willing to take your best customers.

In order to grow in the competitive Internet marketing landscape you are going to have to start your own revolution this coming year. Here are my 3 Internet marketing tips that will help you create a marketing revolution for your company.

Tip # 1 - Think like a customer

Sounds simple but in actuality it is very difficult. You must separate yourself from your products, services and solutions. Throw away what you know and put yourself in your customers place. When people search for products and services on the Internet try and remember that they do not search for the solution, they search for the problem. If they knew what the solution was they would not need you.

Does the content on your website speak to the problem or jump right into the solutions with industry jargon and other language a client may not connect with? Simplify things and get to the heart of the matter. What are the client’s needs, wants and overall issues that brought them to your site in the first place?  Review all the content on your website and make sure it speaks to the customers needs. Shake things up and start to change your writing style and messages to be customer centric or bottom up as opposed to top down.

Tip # 2 – Step out of your comfort zone

In today’s competitive marketplace a website alone just won’t cut it. We have to expand our reach and use more diverse methods to connect with connected customers. We’ve all heard of Blog’s and Podcasts, YouTube videos and MySpace pages but did you know that a lot of these communication tools are great ways to connect with customers? It’s true, corporate Blogging alone is one of the fastest growing marketing vehicles on the web.

Start using some of these tools. Look into creating a Blog, see what others are doing on YouTube and Facebook. Familiarize yourself with some of the new media tools and figure out how you can use them in your marketing. If you don’t step out of your comfort zone, your competition is going to step all over you.

Tip # 3 – Seek out opportunity

The best information to help your business grow will come form outside your industry. Stop looking at your competition when deciding what type of marketing to do or what should be on your website. The dumbest thing you can do is to do something just because a competitor is doing it.

When I sit with clients to help them create Internet marketing strategies they always give me the list of things their competitors are doing as if to say, “They are doing this so we should too”.

How do you know if what your competition is doing is actually working? Will they tell you? Probably not. You will end up spending time and money to create something that was doomed before you ever got started.

What you really need to do is figure out what your competitions not doing and then do those things. If your competitor has written testimonials on their website, you create video testimonials. Is your competition Blogging? No, then start a Blog. Are they Podcasting? No, do that.

Look beyond your industry for ideas. Seek out what has been successful for other industries that service your customers. If everyone is doing something and you do it to all you do is level the playing field. If you find something no one else is doing, you’ve found an opportunity.

Those are my tips that should help you break the oppressions of old tired marketing and get started on your New Year’s Revolution! Remember, most revolutions are started with a desire for a change from the norm; it’s only when you take action that true change takes place.

Written by Larry Bailin. Bestselling author of the marketing book,
Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? ® Writen for Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

I recently was invited to be a speaker at the Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas where I gave a presentation titled, “Using social media to drive traffic to your Blog”. Personally I hated the title (not my choice) of the seminar. Being from New Jersey it’s hard to associate the term, “traffic” with anything positive. The word “traffic” sends the wrong message and is counterproductive to the thought process needed to succeed on the social scene.

I focused my presentation on changing the point of view of the 150 people in the audience. If they were to truly succeed in the competitive social media landscape they would need to remove, “driving traffic” from the top of their goals list and replace it with, “driving customers”.

In order to succeed in the social scene everyone needs to stop measuring visits and start measuring victories.

After my presentation I was approached by Michael Mattis of Yahoo and he told me that he’d like me to write a blog post for YSM (Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog) with a few points from my presentation. We agreed that my examples of, “social rules” would fit the bill.

Offline business rules have always applied in the online space so it would be a safe bet that the social rules we all grew up with, the ones our loving parents drilled into our heads, the rules that kept us safe and happy would also apply when used in online social situations.

Social Rule # 1 - Choose your friends wisely.

It seems that building a large number of friends is the goal for most online socialites. The more friends you have the more popular you are In an offline situation, a good example of this is high school.   The less popular nerdy type only had a few friends which happened to be other less popular nerdy types with similar goals and interests.

By grouping together, sharing ideas and staying hyper-focused this social solidarity seemed to always achieve levels of success later in life that most of us could only dream of (Bill Gates for example) while the more popular captain of the cheerleaders ends up marrying and divorcing the adulterous football player and having to move to Arizona and balance being a single mom with two crappy jobs. That’s the way it happens on television anyway.

Summary: Social networking works the same way. Be choosy when selecting friends. A smaller group of like-minded individuals allows you to spread your message through a more targeted audience. Large groups of broad targets and views will muddy the waters and stop you from achieving the results needed to succeed.

Social rule #2 – Treat people the way you want to be treated.

You get what you give is a rule that has stood the test of time. You cannot expect people to do for you unless you do for them. If you are to make a mark on the social scene first you have to do for others. You need to participate, comment, visit and support others if you expect them to do the same in return.

Summary: By participating you become part of the community. People start to recognize you and appreciate your efforts. These efforts will not go unrewarded. I started my marketing blog (ConnectedCustomers.net) eight months ago. I spent the first six months visiting other blogs in the marketing category and commenting on them. I added some to my blog-roll and even sent personal messages to a few that I really liked. The result was others responding in kind. Within eight months I developed a following of over 15,000 readers.

Social rule #3 – If you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all.

This one is simple. Bashing and negativity runs rampant through the social scene. I’m not talking about negative comments. If you don’t agree with something you should post your opinion. Bashing someone is something totally different. If you are nasty or tend to post inappropriate negative comments all the time it won’t be long before a community labels you a jackass and no one will take you seriously. Obviously this is counter productive to your goals.

Summary: Take the time to think through your comments and actions. Try to give constructive criticism as opposed to a negative view. Choose your words wisely and it will showcase your expertise as opposed to your dark side.

Social rule #4 – If you keep doing that you’ll go blind.

Whether it is a website, blog, or MySpace page, take the user into consideration. Lots of renegade code, widgets and advertisements can not only slow down the site but may even crash a browser or two. Take the time to think about how every element will be seen and reacted to by your potential customer (which is what a visitor is). Will it have a positive or negative impact and does it enhance or detract from your message?

Summary: The point of this rule is to take the visitor experience very seriously. This is where the rubber meets the road. Make things that you want viewed easy to access. When a site is cumbersome to use people will stop using it, they will become blind to your existence.

Wrap-up

Follow these rules to achieve higher levels of success and create your own personal set of rules to socialize by. Social media is a two way street and the oncoming traffic will either help you or kill you – the choice is yours.

This post written from Starbucks in Somerset NJ 

Is Linkedin – out?

There are rumblings across the web that business social networking site LinkedIn is slipping in popularity.  It seems that those that are Linkedin are now Linkng-out and opting to use the social media powerhouse FaceBook to conduct their online business networking and marketing.

Linkedin is becoming less effective as it grows. I’ve been a Linkedin member for years and have noticed a change. Lately I have received an above average amount of connection requests (connections are Linkedin’s version of Friends). These connection requests are from people that I have no connection with, not even if I stretch to try and find one. I’ve never met these people, they are not in my industry, they are not friends with anyone I am friends with, literally no connection.

The one thing I have noticed about those requesting connections is that they have an enormous amount of connections themselves. It seems as if people are just trying to build their connections no matter who those connections may be with. I’m all for having lots of friends (as I mentioned in an earlier post “You Say He’s Just a Friend”) but shouldn’t there be a reason for the friendship / connection other than the overall number one can compile?

Linkedin is supposed to be a business networking site. Mimicking a rolodex one might build over time by attending offline networking events. If we just build random connections what benefit does that have? Wouldn’t a more focused group of connections work much better? The answer is emphatically “yes”. From a business perspective a smaller and highly focused group of connections would yield more results that a large group of connections just for the sake of – well – connecting.

This connection building seems more the move on MySpace as opposed to Linkedin. MySpace has become a friend building frenzy for the MySpace masses. This has inevitably led to it’s ineffectiveness as a social networking site and turned it into a social party site. Like Linkedin, MySpace has also fallen from grace at the hands of Facebook. In 2006 MySpace was named one of the top 50 websites by Time Magazine. In 2007 it was named one of the 5 worst while counterpart Facebook is now sitting in the top 50 spot.

So is Linkedin becoming a business version of MySpace minus the spam? Oh I almost forgot – they have the spam too! Everyone in my company has been contacted by a headhunter / recruiter about a job opening they’d be perfect for. They all received a phone call with the greeting “I came across your information on Linkedin and I’ve got a job opening that would be perfect for you”. Perfect for me? You don’t even know me! And why the hell would you call me about a job opening at work!  Linked in is producing Spam by phone! It’s bad enough to sort through all the electronic Spam, pop ups, pop-unders and alike but this type of Spam is beyond interruptive, it is intrusive and well, just plain creepy.

Because Linkedin is a business networking site members make their contact information visible to all. We assume people would respect our information and use it properly because they are there to make business connections as well.  Social networking sites like Facebook treat your information differently. Your information is not open to the public and only available when a friendship is made. This method has just become a little more important.  

If abuses like this headhunting incident keeps running rampant through Linkedin my guess is that people will start removing their profiles in droves.

Are you Linkedin or out?

YouTube boasts 60,000 plus uploads per day with over 100 million videos already online and ready for viewing and that’s just YouTube. Start adding all the other video sharing sites like iFilm, Blip.TV, MySpaceTV etc. There seems to be no end in site for this online video explosion, but it’s not all fun and games. These videos are not all skateboarding dogs and know it all ninjas.

A new and possibly damaging trend is emerging. People are using video and other social media (blogs, forums, podcasts etc.) to forcibly get what they want. People are using social media to get satisfaction and others to get notoriety.

Armies of connected customers are using social media sites to spread buyer beware messages to the masses. Anyone who has ever been wronged by anyone or has had a less than favorable experience with just about anything has found their global sounding board. Legions of the wronged are now armed with video enabled devices and it’s given them the courage to do what they could not do in the past – be heard.

It may not have started with a video of the now infamous Vincent Ferrari who posted his efforts to try and cancel his AOL account but this sure was a rallying cry to the masses. Now everyone is a video vigilante that shoots (video) first and asks questions later all hoping to get their moment in the spotlight with Matt Lauer.

Social media has given the average consumer a way to fight back a way to take charge and throw open their windows to scream, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!” We can never be screwed again by angry waiters, inferior products or bait and switch marketing by less than ethical businesses. They could prey on us in the past but they better think twice before doing it now! This is great, right?!? Right?

Some are saying that social media has leveled the playing field and created accountability in the business world but that may not be the case at all. The playing field may actually be tipping in the direction of the consumer at the eventual cost of, well, the consumer. Businesses are now fighting a painstaking battle to manage their reputations and guess who will pay for that in the long run?

Connected customers apparently would rather have a bad experience to share on video than actually resolve the issue in question. Issues that seemingly can be easily resolved by simply asking to speak to a manager or owner are now escalated to extreme levels in an instant. To make matters worse, in some cases you only get one side of the story and the accused is not given the opportunity for rebuttal.

When you post a video on YouTube you have the option of allowing comments or not allowing comments as well as having comments instantly appear or await moderation. This is also the case in Blog’s and other community type websites. A growing trend of swaying comments in favor of the customer has businesses concerned and rightly so.

An example of this is a video on YouTube of a woman returning a vehicle to a car dealer. She was not the actual buyer nor was she present during the sale, her mother purchased the vehicle a few days earlier. The story she tells is that her mother was lied to, told one thing and sold something different (that old story) or something to that effect. The video contained snarling comments about thievery, scams and bad business practices at this local car dealer. I watched the video and noticed that the woman never gave anyone a chance to say anything. She never asked for the manager, owner or anyone in authority. She made no attempt to get the whole story. It seemed very one sided so I decided to post a comment which read, “why didn’t you try to resolve this issue with the owner? You were not there when the car was sold so maybe there was a miscommunication?” My comment never appeared and when I tried to re-post, it seemed that I had been blocked from posting altogether. Seems like a clear cut case of “If I want your opinion – I’ll approve it”.

To make matters worse, within an hour of the video being uploaded more negative comments we’re posted by other users. I thought, wow, was this woman right? Maybe this car dealer really is a thief? Upon further examination, all the people that commented in this woman’s favor had just joined YouTube within the last hour. Hmmm, all these people that happened to buy a car at this dealer all joined at the exact same time as this video was uploaded and all commented on the this particular video and never commented on any of the other 100 million videos on the site. This is a perfect example of someone engineering an opinion. There would be no way anyone from the dealership in question could defend their name.

Now that the public has a little power, some are abusing it by using it as a form of intimidation. People are storming in the doors of businesses around the country with cameras in hand demanding to get things done their way or else. Any attempt on the business owner’s part or store clerk to try and deal with the issue off camera and the customer makes a beeline to the nearest WiFi hotspot to upload the video and seething comments of their dissatisfaction coupled with the standard “Buyer Beware”. Seemingly businesses are being bullied and even held hostage with little or no recourse. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think the tools we have available to use are great and can be very powerful and helpful when used properly. Having a voice that can be heard by so many may actually help improve the sad state of customer service in this country. What I’m not a fan of is people using these tools just to gain notoriety or engineering a one sided point of view without concern of who it affects. In the long run it will affect us all.

We live in a clickable culture where one single voice, one single post or one single video can make a difference but this does not mean we can abuse the power we’ve been given. The ability to be heard must be respected before everyone stops listening.

This post written from Starbucks in Manhattan - 31st and 6th ave.

There is a lot of buzz lately about social media and web 2.0 super communities Facebook and MySpace.Both are in a heated battle for the top social networking spot on the web. 

MySpace, an obvious player in this arena is the largest online social networking portal on the web with over 61 million registered users. It’s the second largest destination on the web by page views and it demographic splits 50.2% male, 49.8% female with an average age of 16-34. The site attracts 220,000 new registrants daily and there are 50,000 groups including fashion, marketing health, wellness & fitness, sports and recreation, music, film, TV, etc. 

Comparing the numbers side by side, Facebook is not even a close second – but this seems to changing rapidly. 

After opening the site up to more than just college students last September, Facebook took an amazing leap forward in popularity. Currently there are over 25 million users, growing 3% per week, which amounts to 100,000 new users per day! Projections indicate that Facebook will reach 50 million users by end of 2007. Facebook is the 6^th most trafficked site is the US with over 60 billion page views per month. Facebook users seem to be loyal as well (which is rare in the social networking space), 50% of the registered users come back to the site every day. 

While MySpace continues to skew to a younger demographic (just ask my 16 year old cousin who practically lives on MySpace), Facebook’s fastest growing segment of users are in the 25 and older crowd which makes it very attractive to advertisers and marketers.  Many of the social networking masses and business marketers alike are making a shift from MySpace to Facebook stating that MySpace has become too juvenile and spam ridden. The site is slow and the failures are becoming more frequent. The main reason for the failures is that MySpace profiles can be heavily customized if you know how to code in HTML. Rouge HTML code and scripting is causing browser crashes and incompatibilities. Facebook by comparison is much cleaner and does not allow the level of customization that is causing problems on MySpace. Instead Facebook allows the use of approved applications that work on top of their platform. 

To make matters worse for MySpace, in 2006 it was named one of the top 50 coolest websites by Time Magazine and this year it made the list of the 5 worst! Has MySpace fallen out of favor?  Could this be the beginning of the end for MySpace? Will armies of marketers and legions of social networkers just simply move to Facebook or is MySpace “2 legit to quit?”  I use MySpace and Facebook (as well as many other social networking sites) as a vehicle for marketing my book and as a marketer I’m not convinced that the fat lady is quite ready to sing over in the MySpace camp. 

Here are some of the stats I’ve gathered from the website for my book. 

I have roughly an equal amount of friends on both MySpace and Facebook and spend an equal amount of time cultivating each. 

On average over the last 3 months MySpace accounted for more than 25% of the visits to the website for my marketing book (MommyWhereDoCustomersComeFrom.com), that’s more than the visitors from Google and this Blog combined! LinkedIn (yet another social networking site with more of a business focus) sent 8% and Facebook a mere 3%. 

As a marketer, MySpace is still a viable marketing vehicle - period. As a user I totally agree with all of the MySpace rhetoric, it’s slow, way too many failures, too much spam and yes it skews to a lower age group. As a fellow Blogger (and a MySpace friend) commented in one of my earlier posts (Twitter De – Twitter Dumb?), “I am also too old for a MySpace page and I have one of those too”. The part of that comment that jumps off the page, “I have one of those too”. 

It’s my opinion that MySpace is in fact 2 legit 2 quit. As long as they keep adapting and making smart choices that address the concerns of their connected customers, this social media behemoth will not be going anywhere anytime soon. 

The one caveat to that statement is that when I spoke at Affiliate Summit in Miami this year I did attend a session where a MySpace exec stated “we don’t really see Facebook as a competitor”. The last high profile technology company to underestimate their competition was Netscape, they didn’t see Microsoft as a competitor and Microsoft crushed them like a hammer to a grape! 

Recently Microsoft did strike a pretty big deal with Facebook. I hope MySpace wises up before I have to write another MC Hammer inspired post titled, “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em”.