Category Archive: Social Media

How social media gave me ADD

Posted by on April 18, 2010

One of the symptoms of ADD is “easily distracted”. In this age of continuous news overflow, social media added even more distractions to already high amount of information overload. Lately I’ve noticed, I have a harder time finishing one project before starting another and multitasking has become the normal. Unfortunately, I don’t think it has made me more productive. To avoid developing ADD in today’s high speed of information and communication, I suggest the following guidelines:

1.Be very selective with your social media activities. Be mindful of how much time you spend on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs, Foursquare and your favorite networks. I try to check in daily but limit my time to less than an hour.

2. When working on a project, stay focused on it until you finish it. Avoid multi-tasking. You will simply get distracted and your original project won’t get finished.

3. Be selective as to what emails you read. The web presents an ocean of information and it’s so easy to spend an entire day reading the latest news. Set up a few RSS feeds to your Google reader and check them once or twice a week. Forget the rest. Unsubscribe from all emails that are not valuable to you. You only have 24 hours in a day.

4. Use technology to your advantage. The tools exist to help you manage your time wisely. Learn how to use it and leverage it to your benefit.

5. Pay attention to what’s important not what’s urgent. You can spend an entire day putting out fires and in the meantime, your important project is still sitting there, staring at you and stressing you out.

I’m keeping this post short since if you are like me you  probably have many other blog posts to read and emails to check.

I’m declaring myself free from ADD. From now on, I’ll spend my time wisely. You can too. The choice is yours.

Your turn. Do you find wasting your time browsing through hundreds of emails and RSS feeds? What do you do to manage your time wisely? Any good tips?

Categories: Blog Social Media | No Comments »

Why social media agencies can’t help you

Posted by on April 5, 2010

Every brand needs to find a way to enter the social media space. Planning and listening is extremely important before jumping in both feet. Understanding the tools is critical although having a clear strategy comes first.

An agency can help guide you in the process and bring you up to speed on the technology. Yet, every organization needs to make a commitment to their social media presence. Unless you create your relationships, craft your relevant message and respond timely to critical questions online, people are not going to trust you. I wrote a post on the Sm@rt blog about relevance of message and the value of relationships. You can check it out the Sm@rt social media for business website. An agency can help you establish your plan, explain the tools and how to use them, set up your platform correctly and guide you through the process. An agency cannot and should not act on your behalf as the voice of your company. You will lose the trust of your customers very fast. Today, trust between customers and your brand is worth more than gold.

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink it. Dedicate the resources and commit to spending the time online in-house. Otherwise, you won’t have a dialogue with your customers but a monologue, you won’t have a social media presence but a marketing campaign.  The choice is yours.

I’m sure there are great agencies out there right now crafting super creative, viral and trustworthy campaigns. I think that’s great. But you also need to dedicate the time to build real relationships, talk to your customers and respond to their inquires. Let’s stop talking campaigns and start talking relationships. It’s the future of real honest marketing.

Your turn? Have you seen a well executed social media strategy by an agency? Which one?

Photo credit: Flickr. Damien Basile. A Creative Commons license.

Categories: Blog eMarketing Social Media Social Media Marketing Web 2.0 Web 2.0 tools | 6 Comments »

Lessons from SMG Technology and Marketing workshop

Posted by on March 18, 2010

I had the pleasure to present to the Strategic Marketing Group in South Lake Tahoe yesterday. Here’s a short recap of the sessions I attended and a copy of my presentation.

  1. I enjoyed David LaPlante’s presentation.His passion for technology, social sharing, video, content and skiing is addictive and make a big impact on everyone who’s ever seen him speak. On the forefront of technology, geek by heart and skier for life, David talked about the past, present and future of technology. A lot of change is coming to us and it’s happening fast. Stay with the trends or be left out in the cold when it comes to how you do business online.
  2. Jim Scripps gave a great overview of blogging – what it is, how to do it and best practices. It’s quick to set it up and businesses can use to engage online, deal with a PR crisis, help improve their search engine rankings, provide timely updates, use it as a hub for all of their social media efforts and engagement with bloggers.
  3. Michael Kelly from ClickMail Marketing gave an extensive overview on how to best utilize email marketing for organizations with a ton of statistics and best practices. Knowing that the average value of an email address is $120 puts a different light to the email database list of any size.
  4. Jake Fields, from Treeline Interactive spoke passionately about mobile marketing: iPhone apps, mobile advertising, text messages and various applications. Mobile holds a lot of opportunities for the future. As companies enter this new field with many unknowns it’s good to partner with someone that understands it and does it on a daily basis. Treeline Interactive seem to be completely at ease when it comes to speaking mobile advertising.
  5. Finally, here’s the presentation I gave on Facebook and Twitter for business. Someone asked about social media ROI. Here’s a good video touching on the ROI question.
Facebook and Twitter for Business

View more presentations from Milena Regos.
How about you?What did you learn at the SMG conference? What else would you have liked to see there?

Categories: Blog Business Email marketing eMarketing Facebook Interactive marketing Small Businesses Social Media Social Media Marketing Technology Twitter Web 2.0 Web 2.0 tools | 4 Comments »

Are you turning away business?

Posted by on March 7, 2010

Keva Juice A big annoyance for me is seeing signs at businesses that just scream we don’t want your business. I took this  photo at a Keva Juice shop at the Reno Mall. To me, this sign says: 1) You are not welcomed here and 2) Our organization has problems.

Look around your business for signs that may be sending the wrong message to your customers. They may be making perfect sense to you (are they really?) but you are turning away your customers by sending the wrong message out. Way too many businesses nowadays fall into the trap of announcing to to the world all of their rules, policies and regulations. If you have to have a sign, make sure you are informing your customers about something of importance to them and certainly not trying to tell them how unfriendly your place is or how many policies you have in place. Seriously, if I want to pay with $100 bill, be happy about it and use the opportunity to upsell me on something I didn’t expect I need.

A quick research revealed, Keva Juice’s website has not social networks available on it and a quick search on Facebook revealed 2 business fan pages with the official one being fanned by 1,839 people. It’s interesting to note that the “official” Keva Juice Facebook page is only geared towards 13 New Mexico locations. Now, I’m really confused as to what Keva Juice is really trying to accomplish with their brand. For comparison purposes, their main competitor, Jamba Juice has 375,887 fans. It’s possible they don’t have silly signs in their stores too. I know where I’m going next when I crave a smoothie. Your turn. Do you see signs (written or not) that leave you wondering if you are really welcomed at a particular business?

Categories: Blog Business Customer service Facebook Marketing | No Comments »

The Black Eyed Peas and the Now Generation

Posted by on February 23, 2010

Lately, I’ve become a total Black Eyed Peas fan. I love their music. I work out to it, listen to it at home, cross country ski with it, listen to it on weekends, when I work and when I fall asleep. One of their songs, “Now Generation” has interesting lyrics touching upon social networking, our desire for urgency and immediacy and how we want everything NOW.

The New Customer is defined by the following characteristics:

1. I want it now and if I can’t have it now, I’m moving along. I’m certainly not waiting. I’m not waiting in line, I have no time.

2. I’m connected all the time – at home, at work, in the car, when I’m walking, eating out, partying.

3. I can Google everything and find the answers to everything in zero time.

4. I can compare prices, read reviews,  ask my friends for advice. I’m web savvy.

5. I’m informed, educated and know where to look for information. I can see through your marketing and advertising lies.

6. I have no patience. I want immediate gratification. Superior Customer Service. I want to be treated as an individual.

7. I am the NOW GENERATION.

Ask yourself – How is your company adapting to the New NOW Generation?

Great song!

Categories: Blog Creativity Customer service eMarketing Facebook Marketing Social Media Social Media Marketing Video Web 2.0 | 4 Comments »