soulati.com

Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

Brand Your Blog Or Name?

By

Read this headline from a recent Ad Age — The Big Winners at Cannes: Emerging Markets and Not Just for Bagging Lions.

Two words in that headline, Cannes and Lions, conjured two brands for me, John Falchetto and Marcus Sheridan. John writes Expat Life Coach and lives in France ( thus the Cannes assimilation), and Marcus writes The Sales Lion. Obviously, you can understand how I thought  of Marcus.

Neither of them know me well, but each of us appears in one another’s houses on occasion to contribute to comments. The fact is I lurk on their blogs more than I comment; their brands are significant in my opinion, and I glean from content other perspectives than mine.

Which leads me to my point. Are you a brand or is your blog?

In the case of the two gents I referenced above, both have branded the name of their blogs well. When Reading Cannes in the Ad Age headline, I thought of John first who lives in France and then segued to the name of his blog and his recent video interview with a PR professional in Costa Rica. All of this happened within seconds of course, but the thought patterns were definitely real and in sequence.

As for The Sales Lion, this blog shares content about family, a small business, customer stories, social media, and marketing. Powerful stuff with a community to boot. Marcus does a fab job with it. The fact that a word, lions, prompted my recollection of the name of Marcus’s blog is exactly what he wants that word to connote. As for Marcus’s business, he’s in the swimming pool business. I don’t get the correlation between lions and swimming pools, but it obviously works for him and his customers.

Here’s a great example to build on what I’m talking about…John tweets using his name and Marcus tweets using TheSalesLion (both Twitter links are above). My brand recall for John and Marcus is John’s name (not his blog title) and the title of Marcus’s blog rather than his name.

How have you branded your blog? Is it your name or a key-word rich title that draws people in to learn more?

 

 

 

 

Triberr Means Business

By

If you’ve not heard or seen anything about Triberr, you’ve been asleep, or just not circling in my circles. The Triberr founders are doing a bang up, and I mean bang up, job marketing their start up. In a recent Skype conversation with Dino Dogan, he told me they’re working hard and getting tired, but the fun is just beginning.

If you’ve been asleep, let me help you with some archived conversations on a variety of blogs. Some love Triberr, some don’t; others flip-flop and go back and still others are on the fence. This post really has nothing to do with that.

What I want to do here is recognize and deliver kudos to Dan Cristo and Dino Dogan for their business acumen.

*They launched a start up that was ill defined in the beginning and confusing for some.

*They took precious time to hear their critics and make changes to their app.

*Everyone who blogs gets a comment from one or both of them; everyone.

*Everyone who tweets with #Triberr or @Triberr in the 140 gets a response from one or both of them.

*When you least expect it, Dino is engaging tweeps and making hilarious sheep video with @DannyBrown and beating the +K Klout game.

Dino and Dan are everywhere; they live and breathe their brand; they are personifying their brand, and they’re recruiting new tweeps to come on board and try their product. And, you know what? It’s working.

These two guys today deserve entrepreneur of the year awards for their business acumen; for the diligence in marketing and branding they’re showing; for their dedication to their business and interest in making it perfect; for their openness to listening and improving their product; for their endless nights to make the green lights glitter.

I have no idea how well Triberr will fare in the future, but it really doesn’t matter. With these two go-getters at the helm, there’s no doubt in my book it’s already a success. Congrats, Guys, for being the visionaries you are and having fun while doing it. (Hey, Dino? Put the sword away.)

Q&A With Daddy Blogger JackB

By

Here’s a Q&A with a newish member in my community, TheJackB. And, dang if I could find Jack’s last name to properly introduce his content below. I looked high and low on his blog and elsewhere on his pages; to no avail. So, you can call him The Jack (because apparently there was another Jack B, and this Jack B wanted to be THE, as in HRH Jack B. Uh-huh, you get my drift.

This piece below from THE Jack B stemmed from his comment on my post this week about Mommy Bloggers versus Mompreneurs. Jack wrote about his work as a Daddy Blogger and the work he’s gotten from some major brands. So, I spouted off a few questions, and here’s what Jack has to say. Neat experience; impressive. Thanks for playing, Jack!

Soulati: How did you get involved in parent blogging?

I would almost call it serendipity. I began my blogging career in 2004 on a whim. In the midst of my foray into posts that were generally foolish and insignificant my father had a major heart attack and ended up on life support.

It was a very scary time for me. I had a young son and a pregnant wife and was suddenly responsible for taking care of three grandparents. I felt like I had to be strong for everyone so the blog became my confidant. It was where I let my guard down and shared my fear.

In the midst of this I thought that it might be interesting to chronicle some of the things that my son did and the discussions we had.  I don’t think that I began to call myself a dad blogger until several years later. I was just a blogger who wrote his kids and parenting.

The ads on blogs have been around for as long as I can remember but the reviews/giveaways probably didn’t start until around 2006. Or at least that is about the time that I first remember hearing/seeing them.

Soulati: How’s the barrier to entry for dads?

There is a very low barrier to entry for bloggers in general. All you need is a computer and an internet connection and you can start blogging. It is part of the reason why the blogosphere is saturated with blogs, most of which die within 90 days.

Soulati: Do you have someone represent you to find opportunities?

No. I don’t have anyone whose job it is to do so. All of the work that I have done is either through referrals or because the brand/agency contacted me. For a long time I intentionally avoided getting involved in all of this.

Eventually I decided that since I love to write it might be worth trying to figure out how to monetize my blog so I opened myself up to the possibilities.

Soulati: Tell me about your experiences with PR people working on blogger outreach.

It is mixed. I have received a lot of pitches addressed to Dear Webmaster or Dear Mommy Blogger that I sort of roll my eyes at as it usually indicates that I got copied on a mass email.

I don’t automatically discard those emails the way that some bloggers do because if you don’t read the pitch you don’t know what sort of opportunity is being pitched. What bothers me is when I receive something that isn’t appropriate for my readers and doesn’t offer appropriate compensation for the work they are asking me to do.

Overall I would say that my experience is positive. Most people are pleasant to deal with and responsive to my questions. It is like anything else, sometimes you run into jerks.

Soulati: You’ve mentioned you’ve seen some pretty negative situations. What is the solution, Jack? What must happen for a cohesive working relationship from PR to blogger? From corporate marketing to blogger? From blogger to corporate marketing?

I suspect that many of the negative situations stem from misunderstandings between the two sides. Let’s start with the bloggers.

Many bloggers have unrealistic view of what their blog is worth and consequently are irritated when they aren’t offered appropriate compensation.

They would be well served to learn more about PR and advertising. If they had a better understanding about what the agency/brands are trying to accomplish it would help them. It is not hard to create a basic media kit, an ‘about me’ page, disclosure policy etc.

Another issue that has been created is the saturation of the blogosphere and the number of bloggers who negotiate and I use that term loosely ‘bad deals.’ Why would you work for 15 hours for the chance to give away a $10 gift card to company XYZ.

I suppose that you argue that the agency isn’t culpable and bears no responsibility for this happening but I think that is short sighted. Even though it is an inexpensive way to try and promote your client you are not building a good relationship with the blogger. It is just cheap labor that you are going to burn out.

Savvier blogger and agency reps will work together to build programs that add value for both parties. If you create more of a partnership between the two sides I think you will see better results.

Maybe I am the oddball here, I don’t know. But I spent a lot of years selling space, most of it for online publications so I always want to know details about the campaigns. I want to know if they are building awareness or engaging in lead generation.

That experience also taught me how much money the brands have to spend on their marketing/PR efforts. But even if it hadn’t all you have to do is look around and see what the brands are doing and it is hard not to want to try and grab a bigger piece of that.

I am not the only blogger who is cognizant of this which is why so many are pushing for compensation in dollars instead of just products/services.

On the brand/agency side they need to understand that it is not an unreasonable request. There are times when it is makes sense to pay bloggers in the aforementioned goods and services but it shouldn’t be the only way.

One of my pet peeves is being told that they’ll also provide a link back to my blog. Let me qualify that, if that link has real value and I believe that it will provide good exposure than there is merit in using it.

But if I ask you for demographics about the link I think that I am entitled to them. It really boils down to treating establishing a professional relationship between the two parties.

 

Mommy Bloggers Vs. Mompreneurs

By

In the most recent AdAge, there is a story about a new talent agency for mommy bloggers who have had a category of their own for years. I wrote about their influence during the Pampers Dry Max debacle which shows moms’ influence at large and not just a niche blogger set.

Danielle Wiley, a former Edelman digital exec, launched Sway Group and expects to earn $1 million her first year. She invited 30 mommy bloggers to join her outfit and in one week had affirmative responses from them all. Sway Group will “broker” deals between PR firms and their clients who want the influence of that mommy niche. There are some heavy hitters, no doubt in the list if you read the story.

I’m wondering, though, why mompreneurs don’t get no respect?

I spent the last eight years trying to keep the fact I was a mompreneur secret. I have a successful business to run and what image do diapers and bottles conjure to a client who wants it yesterday? On the flip side, mompreneurs are one hot commodity. We have solid expertise in vertical industries; we run professional businesses; we have blogs with influential readers; and, we are parents experiencing the same crises other parents are.

Think about what corporate marketers are missing without professional mompreneur bloggers to tout product?  Some mompreneurs do this:

$ We are most interested in efficient products– those that work and do not break.

$ We need economical products yet we are willing to spend the extra dollar on a premium product.

$ We will outfit our kids in Gymboree from birth to size 12 (which I did) and an occasional Hannah Andersson outfit.

$ We will buy the organic fruits and raspberries out of season because the health of our kids comes first.

$ We are able to travel to family destinations on an annual basis (Disney, Disney) and we require high connectivity and technology while away from the office.

Granted, my blogs I write on and for small business, PR, social media, and marketing don’t have the subscribers of an established mommy blogger; however, when you tally the Klout scores of my community and network, that’s a heckuva lot of influence that’s being ignored.

Maybe I’m in left field and just missing the action…set me straight!

Defining Influence: Two Camps?

By

In our first post in the series on What is Influence, I presented three views from three influential people. Comments suggested each are saying the same thing, and yet, the pathway to defining influence is rocky (just like that journey to define public relations, if you recall). This week, I’m running a series of ponderences (I coin words) from a variety of Tweeps, and I thank each of you who has lent thought, time and writing to contribute.

Rachel Minihan is owner of Purple Phone PR, and I love how she writes her thought process in plain speak for us all to nod and ponder and agree (or not):

Well, I guess the thing is that the definition already exists, right?  According to Websters, it means “the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command.”  Let’s skip right on through the last part of that definition, because that’s essentially what social media IS – you throw your idea out there and see what comes of it.  You don’t FORCE people to hear or experience it, right?

That leaves the phrase “producing an effect.”  Yesterday, I was certain that this meant an action had to result. Now, I wonder…does an effect have to be an action? Can it just implant an idea or a feeling?  Is one (action, thought, feeling) of greater importance than another?

This made me decide that I really didn’t know what the word “effect” meant (despite having used it a billion times in my life!).  Looked that up.  It actually means that it CHANGES the person or thing in some way. Ahh…so to influence something you have to actually change it!

Back to social media–How do we figure out if someone was influenced? How could we measure if they had been changed in some way?

The first thing that comes to mind is sentiment. “They” already measure positive, neutral, negative sentiment. Honing that a bit more could help; for instance, if I RT something without comment, that would be one thing: it simply shows that I found it useful enough for others to have it, but not something that really resulted in me being changed. But, if I added “this made my day” or “gosh, I needed a kick in the pants!” or “Wow, I never thought of that,”– it would indicate the tweet had changed my perspective.

What’s tricky are the “who you know” metrics, right?  Because on one hand, if you know more people, the POTENTIAL for offering greater influence exists.  But it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are influential.

****************

Following Rachel’s personal-brainstorm banter is Brian Ellis. He provides a nice counterpoint to Rachel – she of the esoteric-ness of influence, and he of the analytical measurement (remember when I said there are two camps?).

Brian Ellis is with Anocial Social Media:

Social media influence is the ability to inspire people to take action. We see this in simple forms with people like @GuyKawasaki and @mayhemstudios. They have a certain amount of influence shown in the sheer number of RTs they receive; that pertains to Twitter alone.

With Klout, I think that they are taking too much into consideration. They are trying to average out a score based on the “big two,” Facebook and Twitter. I feel like those are two separate entities. Tracking measurement for either is very much the same, but they are very different platforms with very different demographics. I think each platform should be measured separately and then can be put side by side to give you an overall feel.

That’s what all this really is anyway; it’s all about the feel. No matter what the numbers tell you, and as long as you are progressing, it really is about how it “feels” to you and to those you are putting your message out to.

I think that effectively measuring your influence must start with a decision as to where on the web you want to hold influence. Listen to which people are talking about you, and what they are saying; basic ROI will give you plenty of insight into your level of influence. Look at the simple things, like how many people have subscribed to your RSS, and it will show you in simple terms how influential you have become.