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New Loyalty Program For .ME Domain With Big Prize

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Post Update: The contest with .ME loyalty program is now closed; however, I encourage you to head over to https://domain.me and consider a new domain for your purposes. While you’re there, check out that loyalty program with #RockHot bennies.

Domain extensions are getting ultra competitive with a plethora of new ones set to hit the marketspace. If you’re not in the know, last year the list of some 700 new generic TLDs or gTLDs or generic domain extensions were published.

You’ll see .book, .cars, .city, and too many others; yet, there’s one tried and true you ought to pay more attention to. It’s the .ME domain, and if you’ve not registered your personal brand with .ME, you need to run quick and grab it.

About .ME

Here’s the coolest factoid I could find on the extensive .ME website right here https://domain.me, this TLD is the domain extension of The Republic of Montenegro! Who knew?

It’s a very human endeavor, too; they’re running .ME much like a company and a brand, which brings me to the next topic.

The Legalities Of This Post

Right up front, I’m telling you, this is a sponsored post. This is your disclaimer. This is a sponsored post, and I don’t want any guff about not telling you, legal peeps.

Secondly, I’m going to write about one of the most well-attended tradeshows in one of the largest states in the union (Texas) in a city that begins with “A.” I’ve been informed, we are not allowed to use the four-letter acronym (that begins with S followed by a multiplication sign) in blog posts to share company promotions being done in its association.

OK, everyone in sync with me?

The New .ME Loyalty Program

This highly personal branding domain has launched a new loyalty program complete with points, rewards, hosting, gift cards, and more.

On a professional note (this is NOT sponsored), I haven’t ever heard of a domain extension engaging with its users ever, so this is pretty freaking clever marketing. And, in light of the bottoms up in the domain world, it’s also smart to get a jump start.

To honor the folks who use .ME and its new loyalty program, the domain (which has been around five years with 750,000 domain names under management), is awarding a grand prize of some pretty #RockHot swag. Let me list it out for you:

https://dot.me/AAvuR4i75o0

  • Accommodations during the interactive period
  • A $500 AMEX gift card for travel and entertainment

Deadline for Grand Prize for .ME Loyalty Program Launch

There’s a deadline, so you need to act really fast, OK? Read this post and hit this link right away because there is a grand-prize drawing on Feb. 15, 2014! Gasp, that’s only three days away, but we all know everything moves at warp on the interwebz, right?

Did I neglect to tell you this is a sponsored post? Nope, I did not; it’s right up there in the “Legalities” section.

Thanks, .ME. This is indeed a cool program; something I’ve never seen a domain extension do; in fact, who even knew there was someone who worked at a domain extension?

Blog Friday: @BryanKramer Of PureMatter With Substance

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Credit: PureMatter — Bryan Kramer With Robert Scoble

This is the inaugural post in a new Friday series called “Blog Friday.” Here, I explore bloggers who impress the crowd with high-quality content that pushes the envelope. I want to be impressed, and I want my readers to feel the same way. In addition to walking away with a “wow,” I’d like some learning to take place, too.

Bryan Kramer is CEO/President of Pure Matter in Silicon Valley. He writes a blog for brand marketers and anyone else who wants the pulse of the digital space. It’s via Bryan’s interview with Jeremiah Owyang recently that pushed my thinking into new heights about the crowd and the future of companies.

In his post that prompted this first-in-the-series, Bryan interviews Charlene Li, CEO of Altimeter Group where Jeremiah used to work. There’s no question you will absolutely learn many, many things about business, companies, vision for the future, and how you push yourself to lead.

PureMatter Blog

Here’s how PureMatter describes its blog on its site:

These days, marketing is constantly evolving, and our blog is intended to give you a fresh perspective on what’s important in its crazy landscape – social media trends, new and emerging media, mobile, digital, integrated marketing, creativity – to help brand marketers make sense of it all.

Do visit PureMatter’s blog and make it a point to watch Bryan’s videos with leading marketers and other influencers in the digital sector. There’s no doubt you’ll learn huge, and you can start with this interview here. https://www.purematter.com/blog/defining-social-business-with-jonathan-becher-cmo-at-sap/ After poking around the PureMatter site, this Substance interview with Bryan and Robert Scoble popped up. (If you don’t recognize the latter, please get out from under the rock!). This is the brilliance you can expect from PureMatter blogs; subscribe.

Bryan, thanks for leading; your content and Substance are appreciated!

The Solopreneur And The Hive

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Bee-Hive-Soulati.jpgI’ve been saying for years there’s no more going it alone as a solo entrepreneur; times up for individual practices of one.

Why?

From first-hand experience, I offer you this:

There is too much kerfuddle about what’s new online that requires competency and back-end smarts to make the online business go. What about that social media stuff? Who’s interpreting the big data, and who, for goodness sake, is installing all the plug-ins, widgets, badges and pages plus security on your site and landing pages, not to mention the calls to action and ohmygosh that list?

Beyond competency in all things online, brand and digital marketing plus the writing and strategy of it all, there’s also accounting, legal (more oriented to contracts) or other skill sets needed for teams’ success.

Get the picture?

If you’re still not tracking and nodding the head along with me, here’s solid proof my theory is justified. In the Feb. 3, 2014 Wall Street Journal Small Business Report, “Freelancing Alone—But Together,” the executive dean of St. Joseph’s College in New York writes a solid piece about consultants who find payload working together in a hive.

What Is A Hive

We’re not talking bees here, but do consider the queen and the workers building a colony. There’s a systematic method to that buzzing madness, right? And, now consider this hive mentality with a grouping of freelancers coming together with conjoined forces, competencies, experience, and services to represent clients.

According to Elance in the story in the Wall Street Journal, in 2013, there were 1.21 million jobs posted on its freelance site with 1.15 million freelancers available; do the math – a bit of a deficiency for professionals, eh?

Which suggests to me that the freelancer solopreneur has a bit of opportunity to make it rich; but hold on…as companies shed their full-timers, they’re not shedding the need for skills. This means that a hive has the opportunity to roll in and become the outsourced team, acting as if they are full-time. Do you have a hive success story of your own?

Hive Success

Imagine if you’re part of a hive with all the moving parts to make it buzz. Throughout my 30 years in public relations, I have put together virtual teams and bid together on RFPs. Back in the day, however, companies weren’t ready for that type of structure; perhaps they thought there wasn’t structure.

What I can share as the most critical point of working in a hive or virtual team is this – someone needs to lead. Sadly, organizational dynamics requires a leader; flat teams may work well in theory, but clients need a leading point person they turn to for issues, discussions and strategy.

Here are several factors that contribute to hive success:
1. Leadership – appoint your primary point person to represent the hive to clients.
2. Skill Set – get a variety of competencies on the team that are not competitive with one another.
3. Money – address the discomfort of money and pay up front; everyone carries the load and contributes to expenses while getting a fee commensurate with the budgets attracted and hours recorded
4. Unified Front – this becomes more esoteric; however, if a client is calling another hive member for help with an issue, that person has to inform the rest of the hive. The team must function as a unit and not as individual members especially when clients regard the hive as one company.

Hire Soulati Media

There’s beauty being a solo practice. I can morph into arrangements faster than a chameleon changes colors. I can slot into a marketing team and be an assistant product marketer or join a public relations team and put my media relations skills to work, or work with another solo marketer trying to get a blog up and running or take a larger role as a business strategist for a startup.

Why this is easier for me is due to my career as a generalist in agency public relations. I took on a plethora of roles and adopted skill sets to empower competency as the Internet era unfolded.

Soulati Media is seeking clients right now. Let’s begin with a message map and follow that up with some strategic marketing programs and execution. The team is here and standing by; better yet, Jayme Soulati is the leader with decades of competency to offer.

Be Part of My Hive

Honestly, my hive has been alive and well for a number of years. I draw upon the skill sets that are deficient in my purview and gladly so. It’s been a tough road for me because I am a DIY’er. I love to do it myself but when I do it poorly, it’s time to step aside and let the experts in.
There’s safety in numbers to an extent. What I have found is that people are happy to join a hive as long as they don’t have to lead, and that’s what I do best.

Care to join my hive?

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10 Steps Using Social Media For Business Development

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Institute of Technology and Business Development

Institute of Technology and Business Development (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We all need new business, right? Doesn’t matter if you’re a solo professional, small business of five or larger, everyone has to keep the pipeline full and the leads rolling in.

Digital marketing is absolutely the tier-one method, and I recently met an incredible expert who does it every day exceptionally well. And, the process is highly strategic requiring expertise learned over time and years of testing the methods.

Social media provides another business development methodology that everyone can do and probably does do without knowing it.

The other day, I tweeted, “If you ignore Twitter, it ignores you.” Indeed. When you fall off the ladder into the rabbit hole, it’s hard to jump out. There are a variety of reasons making that hole feel comfortable and safe and most of it has to do with being challenged and trying what’s new and different. While it’s easy to tweet and reshare everyone’s posts all day, what’s the gain besides burn out?

Let’s be more strategic and help fuel your lead generation. And, I’m not talking about inbound marketing right now; I’m talking about good old-fashioned networking.

10 Steps to Fuel Business Development

Step 1: Set Goals

There are four simple goals for using social media for business development:
1. Identify your target list
2. Elevate your personal brand
3. Ask for a meeting
4. Earn the business

Step 2: Track With a Spreadsheet or CRM System

If you’re on a budget and can’t afford a CRM system, then use your QuickBooks or Excel to track lead generation and prospecting. If you’re really on a budget, then perhaps index cards?

Step 3: Develop a Tier-One Target List

Everyone has a wish list of a company with which they’d like to work. Put your list of five or so together. Maybe you select a few out of each category that are different sizes.

For sales teams, this works, too. Select the company with which you most want to do business and get that target list active on a CRM system (but then I don’t need to inform sales how to prospect, right?).

Step 4: Who is the buyer of your services or product?

During the time I was in HubSpot school (I made a major investment in this platform to learn inbound marketing from the big guns), the words “buyer persona” appeared on my radar.

I had to think about the audience most likely to purchase my services and describe them – age, gender, expertise, values they appreciate, and more.

From the list in step one, select the title/role of the person most likely to buy your services or products. Get that title/role into your tracking system.

Step 5: Audit The Company

Here’s where social media comes to play. Using your tiered target list, begin exploring social media activity by the company. Record on your tracking system/CRM each of the channels and which is more powerful for shares and content.

LinkedIn (example). Does the company have a company page? How about a group? Who are the folks who work there? Can you find the title of the person most likely to buy from you? Better yet, take a look at your network; who in your network knows someone at that company to send an introduction on your behalf?

Step 6: Social Sharing

  • Google+. Similar to LinkedIn, check out the business page for your target company on Google+. Perhaps you’ll also find the folks who work there and you can do a search. (Not to mention, you can also do a name search on Google itself, of course!) Begin to +1 posts on Google+ by the company and also reshare it if you think it’s worthy.
  • Twitter. Companies tweet, obviously. Star the company into your Faves List and begin retweeting posts you like from that company. Pay attention to who’s tweeting; it may be an agency and there may also be initials on the posts indicating someone on a team.
  • Blog. Here’s where you can really influence and elevate your identity and brand. Visit the company blog frequently; in fact, subscribe and never miss a post. Read for a week or two (depending on the frequency of blog posts) and get a feel for the topics the company is writing on. All the while, you’re preparing to comment on the blog while resharing it on social media channels.While the blogger for the company may not be on your target list, you can still use the fact that you commented and shared that company’s blog post in your eventual pitch.
  • Your Blog. If you really want to make an impact and impression, invite the person you’re targeting to do a Q&A with you, write a guest post or to link. You can also follow them on the Interwebz; but, do not be a stalker! Use discretion and caution, please!

Step 7: Engage and Build Relationship

We who have been on social media longer than five years know how to build relationships with total strangers. It’s what the channels were built on. Today, that ‘raderie is next to nil; yet, people appreciate genuine authenticity with real professionals and people.

Use that concept to build upon the relationship you started. Of course, your goal is to get a meeting and perhaps earn some new business; however, there should be a common interest you can draw upon to build a true and solid foundation.

Step 8: Ask for a Meeting

If you’ve done a great job making small talk, sharing content and following your target list, then it’s time to ask for a meeting. Make it casual under the guise of networking because that’s what it is. No one wants a hard sell, and the recipient of your attention is smart enough to know a sales shakedown when it happens!

Essentially, be you and be real.

Step 9. Stay in Touch

If the meeting doesn’t product the result you wanted, do not fret. Sales pipelines sometimes take months to fill and business also takes time to close. If you drop off the radar, what happens when your prospect wants to find your name and number and can’t because you fell back into the comfy rabbit hole?

Step 10. Smile and Show Me Some Personality

I needed a step 10 to round this out, and maybe it’s the most important step in the bunch. Think about when you get a cold pitch; how’s your demeanor on the phone? Abrupt and impatient, right? Now think about paving the way to a prospect with smiles, laughs, personality, kudos and more. How do you think that person will feel about you with all that in front of the ask? Selling with heart couldn’t be more important, and think of it this way – if you get a “no thank you,” then move on to the next one and pretty soon it’s like riding a bike.

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Authenticity On The Path To Professional Blogging

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By Jayme Soulati–“The Bean”

Authenticity is at risk. There is too much pressure as a professional blogger to monetize, engage, develop a brand, be a leader with unique content, and utilize digital marketing for lead generation and search marketing. When you’re making the climb from newbie blogger to professional, there are many bloggers ahead of you to follow and heed their examples.

It’s not hard to see that all the tools of the trade to create the largest professional brand are right there for the plucking; but, at what expense?

Are you risking your own identity as a professional by changing it up too fast or too much? How do you feel as a blogger when you sit down to write?
These are questions that need asking on your path because there’s one thing about blogging I want to instill with you:

  • Genuine and authentic persona as a blogger are traits that will always be critical to success; always.
  • If or when you become mechanical about the journey, it’s time to take a break.
  • If or when you put more strength on analytics to tell you what to write and determine your success, it’s time to re-visit your original goals.
  • If or when you lose focus of your personality and are writing without verve, think about your core.

I have always written content from my circles of inspiration; rarely if ever have I written content based on analytics or key words. Perhaps that’s short-sighted; perhaps not.

I realize there are solid reasons to write more content based on how people come to visit; however, I also realize that’s not the goal of my writing, either. Even if I was to put up a ton of posts oriented to message mapping, for example, people would probably get tired of seeing the same thing, and I would get pretty bored with it, too.

When you write, be sure to keep your personality in the story. It doesn’t have to be written in the first person to do that; it has to have your spirited delivery.

The thing about analytics I’ve always pondered is whether it would pirate authenticity. We know Google continues to adjust its algorithm to wreak havoc on everyone’s crazy-ometer. If you depend on analytics every day to determine what to write, then you’re risking authenticity. That’s my view, any takers?