New realities require new strategies

14 01 2009

CSM106371

A new year.  New beginnings of sorts.  I got the inspiration (and title) for this post from Suze Orman’s new book “2009 Action Plan“, which she is offering for free until tomorrow through Oprah’s website.  No doubt about it, the past couple of months have been a terrifying time for many people.  iRM was affected by the economic downturn in that we needed to maintain financial stability which meant (for me) going back into the workforce fulltime.  I don’t regret my decision, as it is important to stay afloat during times of uncertainity, however, I needed to find a way to still dedicate time to iRM while stretching that 9-5.

Carlos has been working effortlessly, speaking to professionals about the importance of social media and how it will enhance their brands.  Month after month iRM speaking engagments have increased as Carlos has honed his craft for articulating how social media can revolutionize the way you think about your company, your goals, and even your life.  Be sure to check out our speaking engagements page as it is updated with events in the SF Bay area.

So the new reality is that the landscape has changed for social media in lieu of recent economic events.  What does this mean for iRM; well first a new strategy.  Aggressively getting our clients and followers information that will shape their professional environments even in a time of uncertainity.  What to expect:  the next couple of posts will focus on how/if Social Media will survive the rather bleak forecast set of our economy, and how to properly position your brand.

What are your new strategies for the upcoming year?


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Blogging 101: Don’t think

16 10 2008

 

 

When explaining the concept of blogging to older professionals a number of questions sound off:

How do I know what to write about?

How long should it be?

What If I have nothing to say?

It seems that before a single letter is typed a wave of panic has swept over the aspiring writer.  After working with a number of clients my advice has been reduced to two simple words “Don’t think.”  The reasoning behind this is that everyone has a story, an idea, or just something to say.  I encourage professionals to not think about the end result, but to simply write without barriers.  

Recently, iRM’s Chief Social Media Consultant, Carlos Hernandez  spoke to a group of professionals on the advantages of using blogging in job searches.  An explanation of his approach to blogging can be found at BB Creative Blog.


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It isn’t about you

30 09 2008

 

 

Taking a step back and looking at the whole picture has kept iRM occupied for the past couple of weeks.  What are we attempting to accomplish?  How do we want to help people? Why do we want help people?  These were just a few questions that we wrestled with week after week.  Over the weekend after consulting with colleagues it became clear:

 

It’s not about iRM.

 

Once we took the emphasis off of ourselves things began to make a little more sense.  I firmly believe this realization is highly important when starting a new company.  As much as you would like your company to be successful it is helpful to remember that at the core should be the desire to help others by providing relevant services.

The tricky concept with providing Social Media Consulting is that you are constantly engaging in communities where it is the user who is projecting how things are impacting them. So the from the user standpoint social media is very “me” oriented, but this cannot be the case for the consultant. 

Although there is no quick fix the past month has been a great learning experience for iRM, and we look forward to fully helping others achieve their dreams.


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JetSetZero: Where Social Media meets Adventure

3 09 2008
The Field Team of JS0

The Field Team of JS0

Since January of this year I have had the amazing opportunity to work with the Jet Set Zero (or JS0 as we call it) team in creating, brainstorming, and mapping out the innovative concept of using social media and HD footage to document traveling around the world as cost efficient as possible.  Departure time for the field team has finally arrived, and in less than 12 hours they will leave Seattle for Vietnam, their home for the next three months.  As they embark on the traveling aspect of the project the “Engagment Team” of which I am a part of plan to heavily promote the project using social media to get the word out that following Jet Set Zero is worthwhile.  Ever wanted to travel, but haven’t had the time or the means to do so? Follow JetSetZero to find out how they make the adventure happen.

JetSetZero: The Story

JetSetZero on Flickr


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Social Media Overload: Muting the Conversation

12 08 2008

It’s a typical Friday: long day at the office, ready for the clock to strike 5 or 6, and mentally planning your weekend.  In addition to your normal workload you have spent time updating your Facebook status, Twitter status, Loopt location, Flickr Stream, Livejournal, etc.  It has been a great week, but you wish to go offline for the weekend.  However, this nagging thought hits you, “What if I miss something cool or informative on my twitter feed or <insert your favorite social media community>?”  I find myself in this dilemma constantly.  With new social media communities launching literally every day how do you find the time to go offline?  Arguably, some people love being constantly connected;  their iPhones are always sounding an alert for an email, twitter update, etc.  While I respect those folks, there are some times that I simply need to mute the conversation.

I realized that if you’re not careful you will find yourself consumed by the almighty update or latest post.  It’s a hunger that seems to grow rapidly if not kept within boundries. That being said, it is important to engage in these various social media spaces fairly frequent, but at your own pace.  I get a rush from being a part of a thriving conversation; different ideas swirling around, and the amount of information flowing is amazing.  There are days when I’m knee deep in the Conversation Prism, while others I’m offline enjoying my other passions that don’t involve a keyboard. At the end of the day I think that in order to fully utilize the conversations that occur in social media communites you have to sometimes take a step back and let the conversation happen without you.


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Engagement vs. Marketing

29 07 2008

Being the new kid on the block, I have found that when discussing iRM’s objectives with people I tend to oscillate between the words “engagement” and “marketing.”  Initially, when cultivating this passion of helping other use Social Media to expose their brands, I used the word “marketing” almost exclusively.  I mean, after all, that was iRM’s mission: to help people market their brand using Social Media.  However, as I continue to meet others who share my passion as well as understanding my clients a little better, I’m beginning to think that “engagement” better fits the bill.

In “The Art and Science of Social Media and Community Relations” by Brian Solis, he opens a dialogue around marketing using Social Media.  Unlike traditional marketing where you are targeting a demographic and talking “at” people, using Social Media as means to reach a wider audience means actively participating in the communities.  You are not simply throwing out content and expecting the masses to lap it up.  Instead, you are a part of a ecosystem that thrives on sharing information in order to move closer to a collective resolution.

By moving into this space, small businesses as well as larger companies have a chance to have a conversation with the very people who interact with their brand.  The looming concern is the time that needs to be spent in these Social Media Communities.  For example, when I was introduced to Twitter, I assumed it was just a glorified Facebook status update tool.  I signed up for an account and rarely checked it.  It wasn’t until I started following and observing people, whose blogs I read, that I began to see the power of this tool.  Now, it has become a staple in my own Digital Ecosystem as I deem it highly useful for sharing quick bursts of information.  Also, I found that I wasn’t simply marketing to people about my passion (iRM), but I was engaging with them on helpful tips, advice, and sharing stories about being new entreprenuers.  Soon, people began to follow me, and a sense of community began to take shape.


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Social Media Communities: More than a page

23 07 2008

When most people attempt to use Social Media they assume that simply building a profile or page is sufficient. While the creation of your Twitter account or Facebook page is important it will remain useless until your began to engage in the community of which you have subscribed to.  For personal profiles interacting seems to come without a problem.  Friend requests flood your inbox along with annoying application invites. Around every corner is a link to join a new sub group or take part in a discussion thread.  However, placing your brand in a Social Media community warrants an entirely different approach to community interaction.

Recently reading Web Strategy by Jeremiah about questions that players in the AR and PR industries have in regarding Social Media interaction there was a point that stood out to me: Computer-to-Human vs. Human-To Human interaction.  Most companies have relied on computer-to-human online marketing to suffice as their Internet presence.  A sleek website that is easy on the eyes, content rich, and exhibits seemless navigation has often been the standard for a successful company website.  However, with the emergence of Social Media as a rising force contributing to online marketing, companies are scrambling to get into this space.  Facebook has become a platform that a number of companies have been flocking to because of their Pages feature.  For no cost at all companies have a chance to interact within the Social Media space hoping to market to the masses virally.  For some, the results are less than desireable; little to no “fans” on their page and not much interaction overall.  While there could be many factors contributing to this one question that needs to be addressed is does the page foster computer-to-human interaction or does it cater to community?

Social Media Communities are different because they thrive on the real-time interaction of the people who share the same common interests.  Users viewing a constant static page will eventually become disengaged thus rendering your page crippled.  The goal here is to provided content that encourages your “fans” or “followers” to keep coming back and interacting with their peers regarding the different facets of your brand.  Also, this content also needs to be updated on a regular basis in order to substain traction.

Once you begin to gather a following of dedicated users then your community will start to grow virally as your creditability will spread “word of keyboard,” and more people become interested.  A final tip I would offer would be to keep providing content, even if it traffic seems slow, as it may take time for your community to ramp up.  If you are passionate about wanting to create a social media community surrounding your brand, then the followers will start to trickle in.


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Social Media Tools: Which will enhance your brand?

17 07 2008

“If you don’t engage, your competition will.”

-Brian Solis, PR 2.0, “The Essential Guide to Social Media”

Choosing not to use Social Media to market is ultimately up to you, but it could result in less than desired results when growing your brand.  While working with a stealth startup group in Seattle I came across a growing concern: with all the social media/networking platforms out there which are the best to use for company/brand exposure?

My main job while there was to help the team wade through different platforms, weighing the pros and cons.  What happened instead was a collective information dump that left us mentally hyped.  Here are a couple of questions I proposed to get the ball rolling:

  1. How robust are the platforms you want to use? (i.e. how many active users, site traffic, etc)
  2. What are the main features that attract users?
  3. What are the main demographics?
  4. How are other businesses using these platforms to scale brand exposure
  5. What type of presence would your brand have on the platform (i.e. layout design)?
  6. Does your brand lend itself to Social Media Marketing, is it worth the time and effort?

Once the team answered these questions I introduced the Digital Ecosystem concept I was tinkering with.  First, the team and I mapped out what we considered to be the 15 most important social media platforms.  From here we were able to further critique their relevance to the project, and what it would take to maintain a presence within each community.  The end result was a comprehensive map and execution plan regarding how to market the company using the most relevant social media tools available.

Planning your social media marketing strategy may seem daunting as there are an endless number of tools and communities out there.  The key is to remain small at first and focus on those platforms that will accurately portray your vision. By doing so gives you a successful fighting chance against the competition.


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From idea to iRM

14 07 2008

Anyone who is an entrepreneur knows that the way to grow your brand is exposure, exposure, and more exposure. Working and living in a Social Media atmosphere I was surprised at the lack of exposure that many companies and small businesses displayed in this space.  My circle of friends rarely watched TV or listened to the radio, but were logged in to Facebook, Twitter, WoW, etc, many hours of the day.  I started to wonder, what if companies could some how use these social communities to advertise and scale their brand without retracting from the digital environment that users had become accustomed to.  Recently, networking super-site Facebook unveiled an advertising platform that could virally market brands to millions, but this was only a small piece of the puzzle.

Putting this idea to work I realized that helping entrepreneurs tap into this unfamiliar territory was the highest priority.   I pitched this idea to a fellow colleague a couple of weeks later, and iRM was created.

What we do at iRM is not overwhelm an entrepreneur or company with countless social communities and blogspheres that they should “link to,” but rather design a Digital Ecosystem that is best suited for their brand and their vision.  The iRM Digital Ecosystem is a tailored blueprint of various social media resources that a client can utilize for brand exposure.

In coming entries we will explore in depth the pros and cons to using Social Media as a means of advertising and various resources that are available for entrepreneurs.


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Social Media Exposure

9 07 2008

iRM is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and companies harness powerful Web 2.0 tools in order to grow their venture.  We challenge our clients to redefine success in terms of creating a brand that is rich in vision as well as content within a social media atmosphere.


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