soulati.com

Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

Archives for May 2011

Momaraderie Is My Mom

By

My mom Wilma grew up in a small Wisconsin community merely a blip on the map, and she met my dad at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. They married and after a year the kids (me first) began to arrive — four in total.

When my sister was six-months-old, and I was 9-years-old, we moved to Shiraz, Iran, a city of roses, poets, and Persepolis. My mom had never been out of North America, and back then, Iran was entirely third world with no Westernization whatsoever.

She ensured we had many comforts, and if she couldn’t find it, she just winged it. She is one of the most creative people I know – knitting, crocheting, tatting, felting, making dolls, weaving on a loom, creating anything for anyone.

Our life in Iran was rich with friendships, gatherings, and celebrations. (We had no television or telephone.) At Thanksgiving, my mom and dad hosted some 40 people consisting of a mix of cultures and ethnicities stationed and living in Iran who couldn’t fly home for the holiday. Mom found ways to make the foods we all enjoyed (she used persimmon to make pumpkin pie), and we definitely had mashed potatoes!.

She made us home-made peanut butter, and we loved our pizza from scratch. She rolled pizza crust, and I have no idea what else went on it, but I know we liked it. We even had spaghetti from the international grocer.

All of we kids learned Farsi, and mom tried to, as well. It’s a rather challenging language to learn as an adult, especially with the sounds that require back-of-the-throat gurgles and throttles.

As a family, we hiked mountains, we went on picnics, and we did crafts. I still have the Christmas ornaments we made in Iran from craft kits Mom bought in the States for us. The flat wooden shapes we painted, the angels and Santa Claus sequined pieces, and especially the garland made from tin foil and straws.

My mom was totally out of her element in a foreign country where women wore chador and have always been inferior to men (she being blonde and pale-skinned). Yet, she really ensured we had Halloween costumes and celebrations and family.

Earlier, when I was really little, mom and I had beauty day. She’d do my nails, and fought with my curls to straighten them a bit. She’d put big rollers in my hair with that shower cap with the hose on it and hooked me up to her dryer. When I got home from school, I watched Dark Shadows, starring Barnabas Collins, until I started to have nightmares and had to stop watching! (No wonder I like to read vampire books; thanks, Mom!)

Mom, Dad, my younger brother and me visited with Santa Claus each year; it was a big deal with lunch and pictures and everything. We didn’t have much money growing up; but, we never felt poor. Mom always made the best home-made birthday cakes for our birthdays (I especially remember the cake with a Barbie doll inside.) And, she decorated the best cupcakes for us to take to school on our birthdays, too.

There’s a lot to be said for women who devote their every waking moment to raising four children in foreign countries and elsewhere. She held together better than most, and it’s taken me to be a mom myself to appreciate just what she endured to keep our family on rock solid ground with strong family values. I, for one, benefitted. Even now, she’s still here, anchoring our lives with her love for us and our children — my daughter most of all.

I’m forever grateful for the unconditional love, support and anchoring both my parents have provided me through thick and thin. I realize how fortunate my daughter and I are to have a solid parental framework that has been the foundation of my life.

It’s Mother’s Day today, Mom, and knowing that we still get to have you in our lives is one of the best gifts ever. Thanks for being here to celebrate our family. Love.

 

How Does Your Blog Feel?

By

Or, better yet, how do you feel about your blog?

This blog post has been under re-write in my head for two days now.  I’ve gone back and forth with how to present this as I didn’t want it to feel like I was complaining, depressed, or other. However, there’s something about blogging that’s hard to ignore – it’s your personal psyche that can get in the way.

Think on it…if you’re having a rough go, the tonality of your blog shows that. If you’re ever depressed, your words feel that way, too. It’s a good thing I didn’t publish yesterday (because my good friend Jenn Whinnem saved me with a coolio expletived blog post and title) because my exhaustion with two months of construction and a make-shift desk on a concrete slab with drywall dust for lipstick would’ve hindered the presentation of this content.

I’m not sure I still have this right…but, let me try anyway and see if this makes sense:

I wrote a post awhile back “Social Media, We’re All Talking to Ourselves,” and it got some positive and negative commentary; in fact, I got a slap to the hand. It was written when I was in a downtick of sorts, and that post mirrored the character of the day.

When I look around and dissect my social media experience, I see a peer group of highly astute people adopting and adapting to the next big thing in social. Everyone is jumping on board the Klout, the Quora, the Empire Avenue, the Evernote, the TED, and the everything because it’s what we do – we strive for that excitement and knowledge and thirst. But, where are our clients and those we serve? They’re way behind, still pecking away at “What is Twitter?”

Recently, Aaron Sachs wrote a similar post on his blog at SymplySocial, “Social Media Consultants: Are We All Just Preaching to the Choir?“, and he suggests that social media may not be as accessible to those not on the leader board. I was eager to read his take on how we all dance to the daily evolution of social.

About Blogs

There are industrial-strength blogs that feature every single bell and whistle with the most amazing design and wow factor. There are blogs done on free WordPress templates, and there are blogs still being published on Blogger, and WordPress.com sites. Although content is still king, it’s really challenging not to look at the A-list bloggers and then take a look at your own blog; this action can produce somewhat of a deflation in spirit.

What we bloggers need to remember is that there are those who thrive and strive to present the latest and greatest app, tool, game, concept, and more. I suspect they have oodles of time (Gini Dietrich wrote she spends 40 hours a week on Spin Sucks, and she just moved into the Top 40 of the Ad Age power 150), many peeps working to find angles and produce content, and a crack IT team to manage the back end. (I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing…not assuming…guessing.)

I’m now going to speak to myself in a public forum:

Jayme, you are one person with a full client load and client service comes first. Learning the technology of social media has always been my obstacle, yet the yearn to learn is my curse and blessing. It’s OK to have a blog that speaks to people and strives for warmth with welcome reception for all types of people. It’s wonderful to publish a blog where people who are shy, who don’t often comment feel comfortable stopping in. It’s OK not to be amongst the leaders every day, for what you deliver in content comes from a passionate place and striving for that sense of community is a goal that should never be forgotten. Remember not to be mechanical, because when that happens, it’s time to stop.

As said, I’m not sure I’m making total sense…it’s so easy to look around and want to be like Gini, like Mark, like Danny, like Griddy, like Jon, and like Sarah. But, you know what? It’s OK to be like Jayme, too ( Jayme).

(Image: ValueBookShop)

Do You F*!@-n Jam?

By

Please pardon the borderline-naughty language today! (Hey, notice the byline — it’s NOT Jayme Soulati.)

One of my exes was a drummer who took the idea of his drumming pretty seriously. He was forever getting the “let’s hang out sometime and jam” from not-as-serious musicians. Privately, these requests outraged him. “I’m a PROFESSIONAL. I don’t f*!@n jam,” he seethed at me after yet another one of these requests.

Recently my best friend Steph and I decided to borrow this phrase and apply it to requests for free labor.  You know, “Can I pick your brain?” or even “want to be a part of my project (where I’ll end up sticking you with all the work)?”

“Sorry, I don’t f*!@n jam.”

Possibly this is an internal response. But slackers and cheapskates be warned: we don’t f*!@n jam.

Do You Jam?

Michelle Quillin of New England Multimedia asked recently on FB “How do you handle requests for “free” or “super-reduced price” services with a promise of “future work” and “referrals”?”

My polite response was: “’thanks but no thanks’ in most cases, “yes” in very special cases.” Of course, what I meant was the above (sing it with me!), “I don’t f*!@n jam.”

Small businesses need to be careful about jamming. You want to say yes, because saying yes feels good…right until you finish saying it, when it starts to feel terrible. Projects drag on and on. Your ideas are stolen and profited from. The “future work” and “referral” payoff never come.

Davina Brewer posted how she handles the “jam” request –she lays out some good responses you can actually say aloud. I particularly like step #1 – “tell ‘em it costs money.”

Gini Dietrich wrote about the true cost of brain-picking here. Her argument is, “…[in]  industries where people sell their brains for a living…Time is how we make our money. We don’t make widgets. We don’t sell products. We don’t manufacture anything. We don’t process anything. Our brains are our products and…every time someone asks us for free help, they’re taking us away from clients or opportunities to make us money.”

Who’s In Your Band?

On the other hand, you’ll play music with your band, won’t you? So who’s in your band? For me, I’ll always help out a friend, because my friends rock and give it back to me in spades. If they don’t pay me, they’ll return the favor for sure.

If I don’t already have a relationship (business or personal) with someone, they aren’t in my band. No jamming.

So…do you jam?

Have you jammed? What was the result? How do you handle jamming requests?

(Image: Flickr Creative Commons by Jonas Bengtsson)

Standardize (Don’t Automate) Personal Success Measurement

By

Rebecca A. Denison is a “klutzy, bubbly youngin’ taking on social media and PR measurement.” (Hey, those are NOT my words to describe her!). Today’s post is by an up-and-comer in the public relations profession; a woman I’ve been fully impressed by since I first met her on Twitter. Rebecca blogs over at One True Sentence (link above), and you can see her measurement topics appearing just about everywhere in PR blogs and circles. She’s got some fabulous posts on her blog about measurement, and how perfect is it that she segues from the series on Influence last week. Thanks, Rebecca, for sharing your expertise here; I’m so jazzed!

REBECCA A. DENISON SAYS:

Recently, Jayme wrote a great post which included some thought-provoking questions to start measuring your personal social media success (be sure to read the comments, too – tons of wisdom there). She also mentioned Klout as one tool she has used recently to measure her influence online.

I will be one of the first to jump at the chance to tell you why you should never rely on just one tool (especially an automated one) to measure influence. Influence is too contextual and situational. But that is certainly not my point today.

Personal success, much like influence, is entirely contextual and situational. This is never truer as when people, brands and companies search for the best ways to use social media. And so like influence, you just can’t automate the measure of personal success. Not with a single metric.

I joined Twitter in July 2009 when I was still a recent college graduate and searching for my place in this thing they call the workforce. Being a complete nerd, I literally wrote out the goals I had and how I would measure them. At the end of the day, my goal was to find a job, a company, a role that I fit into perfectly. But I was also looking to make a name for myself and share my passion with other nerds like me. I measured things like job offers and interviews, but also how many people referenced me as a thought-leader.

Everyone will have different goals for their own success in social media, but there will always be direct and indirect methods to show how far you’ve come. And it all starts with your goals. So let’s start there.

Standardize measurement of your personal success

1. Write your goals with pen. Goals don’t have to be nitty gritty. Think big picture. At the end of the day, if you were completely happy with your success, what would that mean? Would you have thousands of followers on Twitter? Would you be running a business through social media? Dream!

2. Define your terms. So let’s say you said you want to be a thought-leader. What does that mean exactly? Does that mean you’re well known? Does it mean your blog posts get read a lot? Maybe you are retweeted a bunch? This is where you get nitty gritty to really understand all the pieces that make up your goals. Think about setting time limits here, too. Do you want to be a thought-leader next week or next year? Give yourself time or even set smaller goals through the next year.

3. Find direct measures. Go through all of the pieces you defined above, and write down all the direct measures you know of. If you want to be retweeted more by next month, that’s an easy way to track, right? Using a tool like TweetDeck, HootSuite or CoTweet, you can easily find out how many times others share your thoughts. If you think there is a direct measure but don’t know what it is, do a bit of digging or ask around (even ask me). Don’t focus on finding an answer for everything, though!

4. Brainstorm indirect measures. For those terms that you just can’t find an easy way to measure, this is where you have to get creative. Something important to me was to be a source of expertise in measurement. I used the number of times someone recommended me as a person who might know the answer to track this. Not direct, but it’s close! If you’re a small business owner and want to increase foot traffic but can’t track your customers every hour of every day, try tracking foot traffic during lunch on Thursdays. If you see an increase, you can guess that overall traffic is increasing, and you can probably think up other ways to measure it more accurately, too.

5. Set yourself up to succeed. Once you have an idea of how you will be measuring, set yourself up to measure properly. If you want something to increase or decrease, make sure you measure a benchmark for comparison later. If you will need to use a tool to help you, sign up now and start tracking even if you won’t need the data yet. Trust me when I say measuring retroactively is much trickier.

How do you measure your own personal success? Even if you don’t take it too seriously, how do you measure progress?