Marketing used to be about telling your market what you offer.

Now, marketing is being so brilliant that your customers tell your market about your offer.

Your customers now do your marketing for you.

• It’s honest.
• It’s authentic.
• It’s cheap.

All your business has to do is be amazing.

“Purchases have become a conversation.

42 percent of 18-34 year old’s connect or share their purchases via social media.”

Some more interesting info from the write-up on the recent Search Marketing Expo Advanced, in Seattle.

Wow.  Woweeee.

I’ve just done a radio interview that’s to be aired nationally later today on social media and the dangers of pouring your heart, soul and, quite often, bigotry online.

As a quick overview, my main points were:

• Social media gives everyone a voice and an audience – but sometime people should just shut the hell up.
• Social media gives you a look at the real person – sometimes that person ain’t very attractive.
• You can educate morons as much as you like about social media, but they’ll still be morons.

Remember, just because you have an audience doesn’t mean you should say something.

Sure, if you have something:

• interesting,
• informative,
• useful or
• entertaining to say, then say it.

But we don’t want to listen to your shit.

Best Advice For Social Media Comes From My 76 yo Mum

The best advice I can give you about social media use is what my mum told me years ago:

• Think before you speak
• Be careful of what you say and how you say it

(But then again, my mum also said I should wait an hour after eating before I go swimming, so what would that crazy old lady know??!)

Cheers

Brendon

I took a call yesterday from a conference organiser – let’s call him Dave.

Seems his speaker on Social Media at the conference pulled out at the next-to-last minute and they needed a speaker.

Fast.

A 1 hour 45 minute presentation on Social Media on Wednesday.

So it was going to be a bit of a rush to put together a decent presentation in just over a day.

Anyway, we chatted about a price and he mentioned they were speaking with 1 other potential speaker about filling the spot.

Dave’s boss would be making the final decision on the speaker.

20 minutes or so later  and Dave called me back.

His boss wanted some info on the sort of social media consulting I’d done, with an idea of the sort of clients we work with and some examples.

No problem – I sent through a detailed email and moved on.

What The Boss Really Wanted

The biggest barrier when buying anything – a pair of shoes, a speech, a banana – is the perceived sense of risk.

What the boss was really asking for was, essentially, to be reassured that I wouldn’t get up and be complete crap and make them look stupid.

So my email detailed information to increase my perception as a credible expert, with associated minimal risk in buying my speech.

My email included:

• Big name clients
• Contact details of the CEOs of these big name client
• Links to examples of our social media work
• Links to articles I’ve had published on the subject
• Along with a quick note regarding professional services social media marketing:

“Especially with professional services marketing you need to:

• demonstrate your expertise
• articulate a point of difference
• connect with your market
• provide value (high perceived value with low cost)

and social media does all this and more.”

All to demonstrate my expertise and establish my credibility.

That’s what making a sale is about – establishing trust, building your credibility and reducing the perceived sense of risk in buying from you.

Cheers

Brendon

P.S:  And in a bloody poor response to show that what I do worked, Dave called back and said they were going with the other guy!

I just gave some advice to a client who was asking how he should respond to some negative survey responses he has received.

What advice I gave isn’t the usual advice you might get, in fact it’s probably the opposite – but it makes sense to me.

Thought it might be of interest:

Screw the Haters – Here’s Where You Need to Focus Your Energy

“Many people reckon you should focus on responding to the bad reviewers.

My thinking is the exact opposite.

Whilst you might be able to placate them and swing them back to being a bit happier, your business will much more likely grow with word of mouth referrals of delighted customers.

So I reckon:

Screw the whingers and don’t waste your time moving them from grumpy to reasonably happy.

Spend your time keeping the delighted ones delighted and building a relationship with them.
They’re way more likely to refer you business and they’re the sort of clients you want.

(Having said that, I’d respond to the bad reviews but don’t waste too much time and mental energy on them.

Sometimes shit happens and you don’t do a perfect job/their expectations are unreasonable/etc – BUT ensure that their criticisms are dealt with and that you learn what you can from them as they may have a point or 2.)”

=============

What do you think?

Good advice or rubbish?

Love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers

Brendon

I gave someone a bit of advice today and he said “That’s gold!”

Of course it bloody is – everything that comes out of my mouth is gold!

The advice was this:

Don’t let your personal biases and opinions stop you accepting good advice or implementing good ideas.

Obnoxious Ego Maniac Whose Mum Thinks He’s Funny

I think I’m a good example of this.

A bird, a plane...no, it's Super Idiot!

1. Oodles of people don’t like my writing style.
2. Others think I’m an obnoxious dickhead.
3. Some think I’m an ego maniac.
4. A few (thank you mum and dad!) think I’m funny.
5. One or 2 think I know what I’m talking about when it comes to marketing.

Don’t let your personal bias toward me stop you from taking on board and implementing some good advice you might find here.

After all, with:

• 7 + years of almost daily blogging,
• tons of articles,
• newsletters dating back 6 years,
• videos, and
• case studies

you’ll probably find at least 1 bit of decent advice.

Cheers

Brendon

Not saying Woot have stolen my idea of being silly to be different and to get noticed, but you would have to be a monkey not to notice the same philosophy. ;o)

Prize Draw For Our Client

The “Woot Sold To Amazon” Video

Brilliant stuff by Woot.

Brendon

Okay, right off the top I better tell you this article is loaded with profanity and offensive comment.

If you’re not comfortable with that, then don’t read on.

Let’s get straight to the point.

Facebook Is Going To Screw You

Facebook is, I have little doubt, going to screw the future of thousands upon thousands of its users.

And it’s going to do it in such a way that the poor victims won’t even know it happened.

The worst thing about it is the people getting screwed over are doing it to themselves.

You’re amongst friends on Facebook, so you can be yourself.  Right?

Wrong.

So very wrong.

You’re Not Amongst Friends

You are most definitely not amongst friends.

The enemy lurks within.

And his/her name is usually yours.

A Facebook friend isn’t really a friend.

More than that, let’s be clear – Facebook isn’t your friend.

The guys at Facebook simply can’t believe the mountain of personal information users are giving it each and every day.

As Facebook founder Mark Zuckenburg said of users providing tons of personal information to Facebook: “Dumb fucks.”

To understand how it’s happening, all you need to do is take a different perspective with what people post on Facebook.

Meet Peter – He’s Screwing His Future

Take a look at the Facebook ‘Info’ page of a 16 year old local boy I’ll call Peter.

Because Peter and I have a mutual friend, I can see pretty much everything he has on his Facebook account.

As you can see, he happily shares his views on God.

A Different Perspective

Let’s take the perspective that Peter hasn’t – let’s understand that what he writes is online forever.  Because it is.

Now Peter is a exceptionally talented soccer/football player here in Queensland – it’s quite likely he could be considered to play representative soccer.

Where that could lead to is anyone’s guess.

But I’m not guessing when I say that if a potential coach, selector or soccer administrator sees his Facebook account his chances of making that rep side are practically nil.

There’s is so much damage that sharing that religious view can do, it is simply idiotic to do it.

Let’s guess how others with varying perspective might view this information:

• Let’s say that soccer coach is a religious man – Peter is no chance of making the team.
• Let’s say that soccer administrator understands the damage to the brand of the team and the sport this could potentially do – Peter ain’t getting selected.

Peter doesn’t have any awareness of just how offensive his Facebook page is.  That’s obvious by what he has posted on it.

Even Barack Obama’s advice to kids wanting to become the President of the USA was “Be careful of what you put on Facebook.”

Same goes for Peter if he wants to get a job, become a teacher, become a lawyer, be a Scout leader, run for public office or any other number of opportunities that life might present.

If people judging him for any of these sort of roles finds this, his goose is cooked.

What Are Young Kids Doing On Facebook?

Now, you may think that’s highly offensive. And you’d be right.

You may even question why I wouldn’t edit out the ‘c’ word.

Well, here’s why.

It’s because that very same word is in plenty of the profiles I’ve looked at.

Which brings me to my next point.

Throwing A 10 Year Old To The Wolves

What the hell are young kids doing on Facebook?

A friend’s 10 year old daughter is on Facebook and has various older friends (cousins, uncles, etc).

That beautiful little 10 year girl can see every bit of the profanity, sexual content and offensive stuff that you’ve seen here already and will see below.

What are her parents thinking?

Who in their right mind would allow their 10 year old access to the ramblings, photos and videos of complete strangers?

(One of the videos this 10 yo would have recently been exposed to via one of her ‘friends’ is of a chimpanzee in a zoo forcing oral sex from a frog – sounds weird and disturbing just writing about it!)

With the posting and messaging capabilities of Facebook, it’s like dumping her in a room full of strangers.

Insane.  And dangerous.

The Local High School Kid

This next person is the captain of a local high school.  The majority of his Facebook friends (all 342 of them) would be, I’d guess, fellow students.

The way this guy communicated to many people on his Facebook page is via the charming phrase “Oi Cunts”.

He’s so fond of that expression that he was a proud member of the group called something like “Oi Cunt is a perfectly fine way to address people”.

What an appalling example to his fellow students.

Here’s some more from him:

Sure, they all think it’s funny……for now.   They might think he’s quite the rebel, a bit cool.

Won’t be so cool when he misses out on that $50,000 University scholarship when the University checks his Facebook profile and sees what a buffoon he is.

Dumbass.

Next up Is Angry Codey

Then there’s angry 16 yo Codey (again, a friend of one of my Facebook friends – so I see his stuff).

His profile picture shows him dressed in the uniform of the local surf lifesaving movement here on the Gold Coast.

Let’s say Codey here is going for that job he really needs.

If the employer, like 45% of employers do now, checks him out on Facebook, the chances of him getting that job are pretty much nil.

Let’s see what we could make of Codey:

• Aggressive
• Poor conflict resolution
• Anger management issues
• Poor decision making
• Wants to solve conflict with violence
• Offensive
• Immature

This is this person as a brand in many people’s eyes.

Put simply, anyone who reads this kid’s Facebook page will think a whole lot less of him.

Want To Be Robbed?  Facebook Can Help!

A mate recently won $11,000 on a horse race.

He was pretty excited about it and announced it to the world on Facebook.

I saw his post and gave him a call.

“Mate, congrats but I’d take that down if I were you.  You do realise your friend’s friends can see your update?

If you have 300 friends and each of those people have 30 friends, that’s almost 9,000 people you don’t know who you’ve told you have $11,000 cash sitting in your house.

Someone could figure out your address in 5 minutes from the information you have online and this guy on the right could be at your front door wielding a knife in 6.”

My Sister-In-Law Told Every Local Thief Her House Would Be Empty

My brother and his wife recently visited my state for a holiday.

On her Facebook account my sister-in-law gave a countdown of days and hours before her and her entire family left to travel 3,000 kms away.

As I said to her at dinner half joking, “There’s probably a guy going through your things right now – he knows when you left, he knows you haven’t got a dog and he knows you’re not coming back for a couple of days.”

Don’t Want Your 60 Inch Plasma Anymore – Get Rid Of It With Facebook’s Help!

Then there was another mate’s son who announced on Facebook his dad had just purchased a new, huge TV.

That’ll be gone by Tuesday!

Please Rob Me was a site set up to warn about oversharing with social media – it tracked social media data to let thieves know when you’ll be out!

Why would you want to share sensitive information with tons of people you don’t know?

Don’t Think Changing Your Privacy Settings Will Save You

And don’t think for one minute if you change your privacy settings that others/non-friends won’t see what you write.

You see, Facebook haven’t got such a great record at protecting your privacy.

And people aren’t always who they say they are online.

1. That hot bikini model who just ‘friended’ you may be someone trying to deceive you …or worse.
2. Add in that researchers at VeriSign’s iDefense group discovered a hacker was selling Facebook user names and passwords in an underground hacker forum.  He had about 1.5 million accounts – and was selling them for between $25 and $45!

Are you 100% sure you know all your Facebook ‘friends’?

Are you the only one with access to your account?  Are you absolutely sure?

Miss Out On Uni, Lose Your Job, & Have Debt Collectors Chasing You

• According to a 2008 Kaplan study, one in 10 college admissions officers routinely check out college applicants’ Facebook and MySpace pages.   38% of them found posts and pictures that reflected poorly on those prospective students.

• We often hear of people losing their jobs because of what they’ve said on Facebook.

“Miss Swann was called into Stephen Ivell’s office and fired on the spot before being marched from the premises in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.

Yesterday, she said she was shocked at her treatment as her comments had been on a personal site and not intended to be seen by outsiders  -  least of all her employer.”

Ha!  Good one Miss Swann!

“But the fact it was a private conversation between me and another girl from work … it wasn’t even intended for the person I was writing about to read it,” said Coles checkout chick Ms Marshall.

It ain’t private Ms Marshall.  That’s the thing that you just don’t get.

• 45% of employers screen social media profiles – just imagine what they would find in potential employees (I have a client who refused to interview an applicant for a $60,000 pa position based on their offensive email address.  She saw it as reflecting very poor judgment. ).

• Maybe it’s your bank gathering information?

You’re Not Just Sharing With Friends

What it all means is that you’re not just sharing your stuff with ‘friends’.

You’re sharing it with everyone forever.

Forever.

I’m Not Saying Don’t Use Facebook

Look, I’m not saying don’t use Facebook.

What I am saying is don’t tell everything to your Facebook friends.

• Assume your mum reads your Facebook account (because she probably will).
• Assume your potential/future employer will read everything you write (because they probably will).
• Assume your future son/daughter will read everything you write (because they probably will).

Be discreet.  Be measured.  Be sensible.

And remember this.

Facebook Doesn’t Care About You

At all.

Facebook just wants as much of your private information as possible so it can make as much money from advertisers eager to get a hold of that data.

They’ll happily encourage you to be indiscreet and screw up your entire life just so they can make a few extra $$$.

That’s not right.

Use Facebook.  Don’t let it use you.

Cheers

Brendon