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Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

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Are Google+ Communities A Thing Of The Past?

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English: Google+ wordmark

English: Google+ wordmark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today is the day I pull the plug on Bloggers Unite, the Google+ community I so eagerly and quickly established to build a place for we bloggers to qvetch, klatch, and ‘raderie.

It worked. For a bit.

In the beginning, as with most things new on the Interwebz, the sharing and energy around Google+ was #RockHot. Everyone wanted in on the action, and my community became a friendly place for peeps to read new material and cascade a few plusses around the sphere.

After that, the invasion of the non-English bloggers happened overnight. One day, we all knew one another, and the next folks from Latin America, Europe, and South America joined and posted blogs in their native tongues.

As owner of this community, it became challenging to support and share blogs I couldn’t read. Yes, someone did inform me to use Google Translation; however, my time is limited.

Segue.

It’s All About Time

What did Google+ communities offer beyond a Facebook group or LinkedIn group? The chatter wasn’t different (in my community, at least). We who jumped in together were already connected on other social channels.

Although I did try to jump start the conversation, it seemed bloggers posted something and took off to greater confines where the engagement was more robust. I get it, so did I!

Amber-Lee Dibble, kindly accepted the role as co-manager of the community, and then she got swamped on a wild horse adventure (no kidding, she lives in the Alaska interior).

Are Other Google+ Communities Thriving?

Like you, I joined some really robust communities back in the day. When I was publishing my first book a year ago, Writing With Verve on the Blogging Journey, (if anyone wants a free copy in exchange for jumping onto my list, let me know!), I joined APE The Book managed by Peggy Fitzpatrick for Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch. With 3,400 members, it’s easy to get lost and lurk.

After I gleaned all I could (it was crazy with information), I had to turn off notifications as it became too much sensory overload.

Viveka von Rosen owns a community of 600 members about LinkedIn, her specialty, and I still see those notices rolling in my in box.

Maybe that’s the ticket to success for a G+ community? Specialty topics everyone wants to learn about?

Could be! And, what do you think? Are you still involved in any #RockHot Google+ communities?

Please list them here and tell us why as I’m now seeking a new home to visit!

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Digital Marketing Kicks My Ass

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soulati-kick.jpgNo one said life was easy, and if it were we’d be at the beach partying all day. But, you’re not, nor am I, and that’s why you haven’t seen me here in awhile.

I’ve been in a rut as digital marketing has been kicking my ass, and it’s doing it so royally I had to put that A-S-S word in the headline. BTW, is A-S-S even a cuss word any more? I know no five-year-olds are reading this blog, so maybe I’m safe.

Meanwhile…

How do you feel when completely out of your element? Here are a few emotions I can share from first-hand experience – humility, humbleness, embarrassment, frustration, annoyance, anger, fear, and tears. Then comes the resignation that all these emotions are purely obstacles to success.

Indeed.

We (that means I) are our own worst enemies. If anyone is somewhat of a perfectionist (gulp, I’ve never admitted that even partially to anyone and I know it’s not true) who likes to be in control because that’s a true comfort zone, then things we don’t know are addressed with obstacles.

And, so, I found out right quick I don’t do digital marketing and to overcome my fear of it, I would just toss bricks in my way. I did, I am, I was.

I recently hired an expert to help me elevate my business to a new level. I had hit a brick wall on my own trying to grow my business online.

In the past I’ve worked with some really good people, but everyone reaches a point in their knowledge where there’s a deficiency; I had hit mine.

Digital Marketing Struggles

Digital marketing is a tough nut. Who are the people doing it well and making money at it?

It requires huge analytic thinking oriented to testing, sorting, list building (gah, my least favorite thing of all) and development of landing pages with calls to action and the software platforms to make it all work.

How copy is written is so different than a blog post and it requires short and punchy quip that entices but doesn’t sell.

Digital marketing is not for the feint of heart. You need to be trained as an expert to master it and you have to live it every day to know what the heck.

Here’s what happened:

  • My fear of failure put me in a deep, dark hole. I was unable to write like I was supposed to. I did not want to be judged. I did not like to be edited. The style of writing was foreign to me.
  • I wrote and it stunk.
  • I was edited brutally and hated it.
  • I wrote again and it stunk more.
  • More brutality and people totally rewriting my work.
  • I ignored everyone.
  • I tossed bricks in my way and cried about it. I whined some more.
  • Then I took a deep breath and finally wrote again.
  • It flowed and was acceptable to my utter shock and amazeballs.
  • The brutal editors and experts said they loved it, high five. (I secretly didn’t believe them.)

I wanted to quit, fire everyone and walk away from the challenge; exactly like I feel in Taekwondo every Tuesday and Thursday.

It’s a slow boat to China, and no one reaches it in a day. Yeah, Jayme, so get on a plane.

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A Domain Extension About Brand And People

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.ME-screen-shot.jpgIf you have an opportunity to blog as long as I have, you also get a chance to be a brand ambassador.

What that means is you’ll see an occasional post here as promotion or sponsored invited by a company. This is that post, and yet what’s interesting about having to say that is this:

No one tells me how to write my story; they give me a one-sentence theme of what they would like to see, and it’s up to me to interpret and craft content to match campaign requirements. The other thing? No one is editing me either because there is a level of trust to those selected. I respect them; they respect me, and we all play nice in the mud.

Can we get to the matter at hand, then?

A Domain Extension (.ME) Topped With Smart

When I joined the .ME campaign, it was to launch news of its loyalty program at SXSW with a grand prize awarded to some lucky jamoke. You can read that post right here.

For this second piece, I was encouraged to dive deeper into what .ME offers in addition to its new loyalty program, and here’s what impresses me the most, and I’ll say it again and again:

Who knew a human worked at a domain extension? Who knew .ME could be an actual brand with smart marketing to boot? (That’s not part of the campaign; that’s all me.)

When you hit its website domain.ME, there are so many places to be inspired by smart marketing. I like the success stories of startups using this extension to launch #RockHot websites.

I am particularly impressed with the branding of these domains because we all know that anything .com is gone; creativity becomes the critical mass for success of an online business.

Successful .Me Domains

Here are a few that impress:

  • Diagnose.Me – a place to get a second opinion by radiologists
  • Meow.Me – for cat lovers also interested in becoming pen pals with any of 1 million users the world over!
  • Allove.Me – shares e-greetings for special occasions from the heart
  • JustDelete.ME – guess what? I spotted this domain in my latest issue of Fast Company, my fave zine for blog fodder. It’s featured in “Spring Cleaning—With Tech! as a way to unsubscribe.

No other domain extension makes any effort to market its services, but here is .ME all about establishing relationships with its users, featuring domains/sites on its blog, and sparking even more creativity. When bloggers and .ME owners share the brand love, they earn points and free domain names. You can see more here on the website.

Brand Flavor of .ME

It’s pretty interesting what my research into .ME has prompted…the next time I want to set up a new url or reserve one for kicks, I know hands down I’m going to be reserving a .ME.

Why?

When I look at the website, it’s fun, simple to navigate, newsworthy, has a blog, is backed and staffed by humans with images that match a name, it shares stories about partners and users and new programs at the next big conference.

Because of this website and the smart marketers behind the company, I know I can trust that support is there and opportunities for future engagement are too.

I can see why .ME is working with Triberr on a brand ambassador campaign. It is setting the bar high for smart marketing for all the new TLDs set to flood the market any day now.

I’m impressed, and that’s my unpaid opinion.

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The Business Of Happy Birthday

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Happy Birthday, February! Just how many people are born in February, anyway? It seems like there are 3-5 people daily with birthdays I know within my little network. How about yours?

Since the snail mail snafus with postage increases galore (who knows the price of a postage stamp right now?), the volume of personal mail has subsided to a dull meow. When it’s your birthday, the tried-and-true BFFs from college send a greeting alongside mom, but everyone now sends global greetings the easy way — prompted by Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype and Google+.

Jayme-Soulati-Martini.jpg

Credit: Jayme Soulati

BTW, thank you EVERYONE for my birthday greetings! I remember about three years ago when I sat in front of my social channels until noon thanking every single person for my birthday wishes; it was a grand feeling for the whole day. About three years ago, it was a huge novelty to say happy birthday to everyone online. Now, you can even send gifts, and my goodness, I got one to NOT Dumb Starbucks (watch Steamfeed for the post I just uploaded on that topic!!).

Several weeks ago, I began to get birthday cards and I knew from the tell-tale envelope it was a personal greeting. Alas, not until I more closely looked at the marketing promo did I see that my birthday cards were from Kohl’s, J.C. Penney, Sunglass Hut, and my financial adviser (who always sends the best home-made cards, BTW.

Inside the retail cards were discounts on goods and services in honor of my special day. I could come on in and spend some money while getting $10 off that $75.

The business of happy birthday has gotten wayyyyy out of hand, but is it smart marketing? Do you rush to the retailer to cash in on the little discount they’re sending, or do you file the coupon? I did manage to use a Chico’s coupon for $10 off only because I was shopping for a business trip — see, still business!

Do you use birthday databases in your business? Tell me if you’ve had success with that and whether you recommend it as a good marketing strategy. I’ve never been a good birthday-rememberer, so I know already it wouldn’t be a strategy I implement, but I sure do enjoy saying happies to everyone else online!

(Please do note the very interesting compilation of blog posts from folks I don’t know writing about anyone’s birthday.)

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When Startups Flounder, Is PR To Blame?

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Dandylion-Startup-Soulati.jpgThe factors contributing to success of a startup are myriad and must cohesively meld in the sandbox. While fundraising drives ultimate success, think of these and then ask which is to blame if the rocks start to skitter:

  • Team Strength. Like forming a hive with all the competency variations, a startup team has to be smart, committed, representative of the needs to take the company forward, and come with the skills required for the long term.
  • The Big Idea. Let’s say the big idea truly rocks and then it doesn’t. What happens to the startup if the business strategy and model continue to morph after launch? The very foundation of the business begins to waver, and uncertainty is the daily emotion.
  • Marketing & PR. Every single startup needs and gets marketing; yet, they often relegate public relations to the back burner. PR is brought on board to do the media relations, get the earned stories just after launch, and to create the excitement for continued fundraising and growth.
  • Fundraising. Crowdsourcing, friends and family, angels, venture capitalists, credit cards, loans, personal retirement are all methods of funding growth of a startup. Without the funds, the people hired to help the core team with the big idea can’t bootstrap into perpetuity.

The PR Component

When a startup launches into a crowded vertical with many big players who have owned the space for decades, it’s a challenge to earn attention by media without time for the little fish stories. There has to be news created and launched on a regular basis, and if that funnel of newsworthy content dries up, so too does any positive attention earned during launch.

When the business model waffles, public relations must play catch up to understand new objectives and develop revised strategy to keep external audiences interested.

Public relations success is critically dependent on all of the above factors weaving in and around one another to create buzz.

When you regard how public relations works with established business, it’s really no different, it just may be easier to identify the news and pitch it to an audience who recognizes an established brand.

So, to the question in the headline, is PR to blame if a startup flounders?

No, not at all.

Each of the components in the list above must be in synch in order to continue the growth curve with a hundred roadblocks.

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