Trust. The word is bantered around in many relationships and it has a home in business as well as that puppy love crush you had in the 4th grade. Business can thrive when people trust each other. Not only in the relationships between businesses and their customers, but in the relationships you also have with the people you work with behind the scenes. I make it a point not to do anything that will make me mistrusted by the people that deal with me.  Generally speaking, what you see is what you get.  I try to be Genuine as the moniker on my twitter account reveals.

Customers trust that their needs will be met and that what they have paid for in your product or services is what you are providing. There have been a number of times that I have reduced my fees based on poor performance. Something that was unforeseen or a part of what was promised occurred differently and we work with the client accordingly.  They trust us to get the work done.

You also have to trust the people that are in the trenches with you on a day-to-day basis. They are working hard to make you a success and in turn you have to earn their trust by making sure they have all they need to perform their jobs and they can trust you will hold your end of the relationship as well by paying them and keeping that part of the program stress free.  Trust is an issue that we all need to keep in mind when doing business.  When you say trust me, can we?

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I have been keeping ahead of the game of new and shiny objects by trying out the latest and greatest in tools that can be used for social media programs at companies. I have always come back to the main point of view as it relates to tools that work.  I was reading a recent blog post by David Armano related to this very idea.  David states better than I can about dusting off some of the old tools before trying out new and shiny ones:

Your Blog(s): Your company is blogging. Congratulations. Is anyone listening? Blogging was the bright and shiny object of 2006-2008 and many companies found out just how hard it is to do well. Good blogging provides value. It is interesting and generates a healthy amount of comments and conversation which in turn generates a good dose of Google juice. It’s also terribly difficult to sustain. It requires cultural shifts within an organization, and has to be prioritized (read: made part of someone’s job). Frankly, I rarely see outstanding examples of a good company blog. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing (if it makes sense strategically), but doing it well is another story.

Many companies have still not taken on blogging as a tool that will work for them.  They have gone straight to Twitter or Facebook fan pages or none of the above as yet.  I am of the camp that blogs are a place to start, and a place to start a social media foundation.  I am dusting off the blog here and trying myself to get back into the swing of blogging for business.  This is the message I mention in most conversations.  Is you blog dusty?  Perhaps a little cleaning is in order and some attention given. Then you can go off to find a new and shiny tool.

Tags: Corporate Blogging, Professional Blogging, Bloggers For Hire, Social Media, Social Media Tools

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I have been preaching about blogging for a long time.  I have been an evangelist and telling companies that they had to blog more they had to have a place for people to "join the conversation" and making it possible for them to connect with their customers.  Like some of the preachers of the past, I am my own worst sinner apparently.  I was reminded by people in my company that I am the worst person in the world to tell companies that they are not blogging enough or that they are not doing it right.

I am preaching from the pulpit so to speak and I am preaching to the choir perhaps, but I need to update more often here.  I am trying to get more and more content on here and those that are slinging arrows at me the most may be asked to also contribute now and then to what we are doing at One By One Media and Bloggers For Hire.  I am also on Twitter quite a bit, and I am trying out Posterous, and I am about to start Social Mediasphere TV again.  Of course, you can always come and hear what we are doing at our new radio show at Blog World Expo Radio.

Now that BlogWorld & New Media Expo is over for 2009 I have a few minutes I can breathe, and I will be using that time to try to be more involved here rather than out on the road or on the phone trying to convert the latest in small medium or large business to jumping into the social media pool.  I guess I am like that life guard that actually never swims!

Photo via LeMonde1

Tags: One By One Media, Bloggers For Hire, Twitter, Posterous, Social Mediasphere TV, Blog World Expo Radio, Blog World Expo, Business Blogging, Evangelism

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I have been a follower of the sponsored conversations and sponsored tweets and the sponsored anything for a while now and I intend to keep on top of it because it does have somewhat of a effect on my business model although indirect. TechCrunch talks about banning sponsored status updates from their application.  This will take on quite a white hat look in many of the purists’ eyes, but in my eyes if seems to be a horse of a different color.  As a social media consultant I always talk about the metrics and ROI of using some of these tools, and the business model given today’s idea of return does not have much spark as it relates to sponsored status updates on Facebook. 

For the most part, sponsored conversations or updates or tweets or whatever the case is mostly about reach.  Part of that reach and probably what is most important to advertisers and brands is the amount of eyeballs.  Let’s face it, they are not banging my door down to put up banner ads here as I am not getting the reach they require, and that is exactly why Facebook’s idea of banning the practice of sponsored updates is sort of a moot point.

With the limits they have on "friends" there will never be the huge amount of eyeballs that brands and media buyers are looking for in a property.  My Facebook page will only ever have 5000 friends at the most.  That is not what they want.  They are looking for the biggest bang for their buck.  I do understand and argue that its not about the number of followers it is about the number of conversions, or how or who you influence, but that thinking has not reached the heads of the people that are signing the checks.  I think if I were to ask Ted Murphy the best way to sell the sponsored conversations it would be about your number of page views over the number of cool people you know. 

I think this has to do with a preemptive strike and more about what they have for plans down the road.  I do think however that with the addition of FriendFeed now in their crown jewels, it may also be a tell of what they have in store for a plan to for future looks of their new acquired service. As the FTC becomes involved and we see more and more of a crackdown these types of maneuvers will be quickly reversed or adopted but I applaud Facebook for taking a stand in this part of the controversy.

UPDATE:  I forgot to mention something I thought I should get into this post.  With the banning of sponsored conversations this also make it difficult to cross pollinate all of your networks with a sponsored post which in turn keeps the walled garden feel to Facebook which I think also helps their business plan.  Keeping third party applications from sending out a mass tweet/update/status message to all of your "friends" at once makes it also difficult.

Tags: Facebook, TechCrunch, Sponsored Status, Sponsored Conversations, Sponsored Tweets, ROI, Marketing, Social Media Advertising

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I have seen quite a shift recently in the way that companies are handling their social media needs.  I am seeing companies that before only though social media was a fad and that it was the marketing gimmick du jour, are now embracing the idea that this new type of online participation is here to stay.  This is not by any means surprising.  Many of the things that I have been preaching over the last 5 years are continuing to be something that seems to work in the online world.

The crazy times I have been experiencing are trying to keep up with the demand.  This is not a bad thing in this type of economy.  The other problem I have had is adjusting to the needs of clients. They for years never wanted anything to do with social media and now they seem to want the magic overnight. I have a difficult time explaining that social media is not a silver bullet and not something that is implemented and like the magic beans grows a stalk to the promise land overnight.

It is not too late to beginning a social media program at your own company and in fact the longer you wait the longer it will take to see the benefits.  Those that hopped on the bandwagon a few years back are  just now seeing the fruits of their labor.  Social Media takes time.  The participation in communities and earning of trust is not something that can be done on Monday and the fruits of that participation are seen on Friday.  That is not to say that those stories don’t happen but they are rare in any sense. Get started today.  Okay, maybe not today as I am still trying to catch up from yesterday! 

UPDATE:  A great post from Phil Johnson at Advertising Age should be read on this as well.

Tags: social media, consulting, advertising, marketing, public relations

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I have recently launched Social Mediasphere TV and added it to my list of blogs including this one and including Bloggers For Hire in the long list of blogs I contribute to and provide.  Social Mediasphere TV is an extension of the radio I was doing on Blog Talk Radio.  You can still go over and take a look at my archives at that location and I may still continue my on location live radio using that service as it seems to be a very simple solution to the technical issues related to live radio.

I will be doing my show continuing here forward on Tuesdays at 5:00 p.m. PST and 8:00 p.m. EST.  We will be discussing all things Social Media and as always we will have special guests, commentary and even you as listener can call in and ask questions make your own comments or just be a guest yourself.  I am still working through all of the issues with using the applications of the trade, but I have been given some good advice and help from many friends that are cheering me on to make this new project a success.  See you all on Tuesdays!

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Perhaps that is not as much of a migration as it is a business trip for me.  I am headed to Miami tomorrow to speak at Wordcamp Miami and attend BarCamp Miami and Future of Web Apps ‘09.

I will be speaking at Wordcamp Miami as I did in Las Vegas on "Blogging for A Living", it is a presentation that I have given a number of times and therefore I wont have to prepare more than my usual, but more importantly, and perhaps more fun I will be doing a live radio show from BarCamp Miami courtesy of my client i-Lighter. 

You can follow along and be a part of things as well.  My show Social Mediasphere via Blog Talk Radio will have the live coverage of the event.  This is my first try at doing a live radio show, although I have been on Blog Talk Radio live while I was at Blog World Expo last year.

I’ll be interviewing attendees, speakers and whoever might happen by the table.  I have been sent some podcasting equipment and I will be hopefully not embarrassing myself with my non-technical skills.  You can join in on the fun.  I want to have as many people participate as possible.

After the fun on Sunday at Barcamp Miami, I’ll be attending the fun at FOWA ‘09 or the Future of Web Apps.  This event has some real dynamite personalities that are speaking at the event and hopefully I will get a few of them to stop by and be a part of the live radio show as well.  This show will be done on Blog World Expo Radio via the Blog Talk application as well so I would really enjoy it if you participated.  I will be live blogging the event as I can via the Blog World Expo Blog so stay tuned.

Tags: Barcamp Miami, Wordcamp Miami, FOWA ‘09, Future of Web Apps, i-Lighter, Blog Talk Radio, Blog World Expo, Blogging, Social Mediasphere, Blog World Expo Radio

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There are many people out there getting into shape this week. Those 2009 New Year’s resolutions are getting into full swing. This is a time for the local gym to be jam packed with new people. That new guy that has a large gut (yes I am raising my hand), and an unused sweat suit will be showing up full of vigor and ready to be the next calendar boy or Men’s Health magazine cover. He’ll go a few days and then the pain will set in and the monotony will start and suddenly the honeymoon is over. They have small result on the scale and they think “wow this is easy” or they think “boy, I have this exercise thing licked.” Then reality hits and they suddenly wonder why they are having to actually work at it. The scale quit moving, or they get busy doing other “more important” things.

This is very similar to the idea of social media and starting that as a business. Many business people have all said to themselves, “I need to start a social media program here.” They perhaps even make it a resolution for the new year.  

They do a little research and get all jazzed about how it is going to change the way they market, advertise and interact in their community of customers. It is going to save them in this dark and scary economy. The propaganda they have read, and yes I consider it nearly as bad as propaganda, tells them that their troubles are over. Start a blog and you can sit back and watch the needle move to the black, get on Twitter and Facebook and watch you bank account soar. Sure they get a little bit of a result in the beginning as anything that is new. They watched as their weight on the scale drops a bit, like the guy that cuts Christmas fudge out of his diet and gets on the treadmill (raises his hand again). Then as with the guy that started his exercise routine, it starts to get hard, and the results are not easily seen, and the monotony starts to get the better of them and they finally abandon the program going back to the old ways. Gone is the difficulty, and that lactic acid burn they means it might be hard again tomorrow.

I’m like that trainer in the gym that everyone seeks out in January only to cuss out in March as it gets more painful to continue. I’m everyone’s go to guy when they want to get started then suddenly I’m the enemy and that evil guy that keeps pushing them to keep posting on their blog or to make those comments in Twitter. Many of them don’t have the discipline for it. Like the person that sets out to be the latest cover of a magazine they end up abandoning the program. Those that start and quit are not uncommon. The one that sees it through are the ones that will be the cover of a magazine soon. Which are you going to be this year. Can we push through the hard part?

[photo via DryRot]

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Reading Marketing Profs Paul Dunay’s post regarding the company budget for social media I found it interesting specifically about the idea behind content creation. Paul states:

Ok but the real cost (again unlike the traditional media stuff) is in Content Creation to fill up those social media / new media channels – here is where the cost can get large. I happen to think I am very fortunate since I work at a consulting firm where many people are thought leaders – so we have no shortage of opinions

He does not get into the costs specifically as he does with pricing the actual tools of social media. The tools he itemizes are:

A Blog;

A Podcast;

A Video;

A Wiki; and

A Community.

I refer to these things as tools as I also believe that applications can be used in a social media planned budget as well. The applications are mostly free to very inexpensive. I did notice he did not budget for the activities surrounding the likes of Twitter or other which enhance the above tools. Basically, they are free. He is correct however when he states:

So unlike traditional media – Print, TV and Radio – which can cost big money. Social media’s upfront costs very little…

You have to read through his original post regarding the overall budgets to get an idea of the numbers, but I wanted to wrap my mind around the budget ideas first and foremost. The low cost of social media is right now making it a hot and much sought after way of accomplishing a company’s advertising, marketing and public relations strategy.

The real cost is the people that can manage this strategy, someone that can understand the uses of each tool and application and how to make it work for its intended use. This is where the budget has to be difficult to nail down. The person that is responsible for this doesn’t even have a job title or description these days. Is it the marketing person, the advertising person or the public relations person that handles this? What department do we charge for the implementation of this new way of handling our media? These are some difficult questions to answer. I am personally seeing many more job openings on job boards, and seeing recruiters provide the answers to the question of who to place in the position. The real question I have for Paul is the budget for the wage for this person. How much does your company expert in the leadership of social media get paid? Do you have a budget line item for a social media manager?

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I was just reading a recent research article on the idea that nearly 80% of adults have purchased something online [pdf of report] in the last 6 months.  I at first questioned the idea that I was in the group of people they refer to, no not because I am not adult, although that has been questioned on occasion, but because I actually rarely purchase anything that is not right at my fingertips at the local grocery or superstore.  Yes, I am that Walmart, Costco or other stores’ dream.  Then I thought of a recent purchase I made online for a product that I actually went out did some research and finally found.  I too am in that 80% of online consumers.

How did I go about researching and buying the product?  I went to the same place every consumer goes, I went to Google.  Like I have been saying from the beginning and telling all of our clients, “We live in a Google World.”  We don’t research a purchase, find our way across town, or order Chinese food without first consulting Google.

Where are you in the Google world?  If I wanted to find you, are your services or products findable?  If not your business is doomed.  Your company will be on the side of that milk carton and the world will not know where you are.  You will be one of a million other businesses online but nowhere to be found.

Social Media and the use of those tools can make you findable.  It can allow the search engines like Google to seek you out and make you available to their customers, the people typing their queries into that little box hoping to find the perfect widget your company sells or wanting to research and find the company that can provide them with the service that can solve their problem.  My bloggers understand the importance of this concept and if you own a business you should be on top of the notion that unless you are findable, your business is dead.

The product I searched for and purchased?  An on-the-counter stainless steel compost container, with charcoal filters. A $40 purchase.

[Photo via Striatic]

[Research Paper via Nielsen-Online]

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Abby Johnson of WebProNews got a chance to catch up with me while we finished up our presentation about hiring professional bloggers while out at the Blog World and New Media Expo in the Executive and Entrepreneur Track. I moderated the panel of Darren Rowse of Problogger fame, Will Chen and Greg Go. It was a fun session and even I was able to learn a few things. Here is the video that Abby did following that session.

Jim Turner Video

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It’s not exactly “Live From Las Vegas”, okay it is actually recorded from Las Vegas, but you can get a listen in on an interview that was done of me while I was out at Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas last weekend. I intend to post some other thoughts on the experience, but wanted to give props to the folks at Blog Talk Radio and especially Mr. Daily who did the interview.

Listen to the show.

Feel free to get over to Blog Talk Radio and listen to some of the pre-show interviews I have done with Rick Calvert as well. We will be doing post show interviews of some of the sponsors, speakers and exhibitors as well so stay tuned and we will be providing a lineup of people we intend to talk to and interview about their experience in Las Vegas.

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I had to jinx myself as a result of my bragging about touching everything and having it turn to gold.  The pendulum has swung as it relates to my quote:

Then after the 4 years we have been going here, I have a week like this one where everything clicks.  Everything I touch turns to gold and nothing could possibly go wrong.

I totally messed up my karmic balance.   You had to know that with a bold statement like that I had a slap of reality coming.

I decided it was time to upgrade my version of Wordpress here at One By One Media and at its sister site Bloggers For Hire.  As he upgrades completed, the templates I was using for the design were not compatible with the newest version of Wordpress.  My sites had to use a default template.  Not the best of signs for a blogging consultant try to impress prospective clients.  That would only serve to be the first of the payback.

For two days or longer, I have not been able to figure out, my email has been totally borked.  Yes, that is a really good term for it.  I can’t seem to receive email.  I can send it out but I cannot for some strange reason receive it in my Google application of Gmail.  The emails are making it to my server under the domain but then they are not pushed on through to my Gmail application.  I can read them using my Cpanel version, but I can’t make them go to Gmail.  I have no idea why and have as much technical skills in my body to have told you so far what I have found, but have no clue how to fix it.  So here I sit.  My Wordpress install is an old version and probably open to being hacked and my email running on less than all cylinders.

I’m hoping with the posting of this blog the pendulum will swing again.  I don’t mind being in middle but the extremes of this spectrum are driving me to drink!

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Believe me when I say it has been a social media storm this week.  I am not referring to the craziness we have seen about Microsoft offering a bazillion dollars for the purchase of Yahoo, but the fact that my business is social media consulting and business is good.

There are times in a budding new business when you have that moment to cut your losses and run with what you have, and I must admit I had that moments once a day when I first started as a consultant in this industry.  Some days I would have paid someone else to take it all and never let me see it again.

Then after the 4 years we have been going here, I have a week like this one where everything clicks.  Everything I touch turns to gold and nothing could possibly go wrong.  Well, that didn’t exactly happen, there was the fiasco with my hosting company and the Bloggers For Hire site disappearing and going AWOL, but for the most part the things under my control actually worked.  These are the days where I would not sell my company for all the money in the…  Let’s not lose out heads, Microsoft feel free to call my number is on the contact page.

There was a social media storm this week and it was a good storm.  One that washed out all the bad stuff and provided rain for the stuff that grows.  Not all storms are bad and this week proved it.  Heck I even posted twice in one week!  Now can someone please tell me how to replicate that?

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It may be a little late, but I wanted to personally wish all of you a Happy Holiday season and especially a Happy New Year!  2008 will see some changes here at One By One Media, and I will be following up on that more.  One of the changes will be the look and feel here and also at Bloggers Fore Hire.  This is right now a classic example of a Cobbler’s son having no shoes.  We have become very busy with a longer list of clients, and the holidays have been crazy as well as the travel I have been doing around the country speaking to groups and attending functions.  Stay tuned for a new rollout of new features to the site, and about other news we have coming up that should be exciting.  In the meantime, I need to get back to the grind.

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