Social Media Motivation: Let it Be Excellence, Not Merely Checking-the-Box Expectations

Like anything in life, social media should be more than something you do out of obedience or fear. It should be something you engage in to do better, to be better.

If the overriding motivation is because your rivals are doing it, or because others say you should do it, or because you’re afraid of what your clients or peers will think if you don’t do it, then you’ve got it wrong – and that will come across.

On the other (preferred) hand, if you post those Tweets and create that content on Facebook because you want to inform, entertain and engage those you care about – and who care about you – then the caring will only expand.

So don’t chase expectations. Choose excellence.

Find Inside Edge PR on Facebook and on Twitter.

Social Media Backlash is Natural: Steps You Can Take Without Having it Take Over Your Life

Anyone else notice an increased level of backlash against social media in general and Facebook specifically?

Yesterday, it was Garry Meier of WGN Radio, who wasn't so much as trashing it as he was questioning how and why it fits into our media-saturated lives.

This is all a natural (and recurring) response to anything that takes an increasingly prominent place (some might say "invades") in our lives. And it's especially prone to happen when we didn't really see it coming--it just sort of happened incrementally.

We've all heard (or are) the stories of people who scoffed at Facebook, checked it out once to see what the fuss was all about...and got hooked within minutes.

Whether you are born again in social media or a social media sourpuss, the below slideshow, which I first created in March 2009, may be a helpful reminder of the simple step-by-step process that you can take in this realm--without having it take over your life.

(Note: this presentation was geared toward an Oak Park, Ill. audience, so the "Pope" you see with the red ticket is David Pope, our village president. A little inside joke there.)

One last thing: it's still lawful to become a fan of Inside Edge PR.

How To Capitalize on Facebook Opening the Door on Personalizing Fan Page Suggestions

Until recently, Facebook had a glaring oversight when it came to Fan Pages: if you wanted to suggest a Fan Page to someone, you were unable to include a personalized note.

But about two weeks ago, there came a welcome change. Now you can jot a note with that suggestion. So the question you may have is should I include a note?

Absolutely--and it ought to go beyond the obvious "Hey, I think you'd like to be a Fan of XYZ Cause or ABC Organization or LMN Business."

Communicate in terms of what's in it for the individual to whom you are making the suggestion. Tell him or her why they should become a Fan.

Here are excerpts from a notes that I sent to friends last week:

"...I am helping with the Facebook Fan Page for BHG/Gloor and giving away $10 gift cards weekly when folks submit song names with real estate related titles (such as "Our House" or "Homeward Bound" etc.). Come play!"

"...I am helping promote Five Seasons Burr Ridge's Facebook Fan Page. Our Fans win prizes, get helpful fitness tips and keep posted on other related news. Come join us!"

"...I am helping with the Facebook Fan Page for McAdam Landscaping. To our Fans, we award gift cards, provide helpful gardening/landscaping tips and generally add value to their FB experience. Want to come join us?"

If you are tempted to get long-winded, you'll soon find Facebook limits the number of words you can write. So you'll have to keep your message succinct, which is as it should be, anyhow.

Growing A Facebook Family With Tom & Eddie's

One of Inside Edge PR's favorite clients, Tom & Eddie's, is ramping up quickly toward its Grand Opening at the Yorktown Mall in Lombard, Ill. on Friday.

The past few weeks, in a complementary role to the outstanding lead work provided by Ginny Richardson Public Relations, one of my primary responsibilities has been posting content and providing updates to the restaurant's Facebook Fan Page.

An especially fun subplot the past few days has been spurring on comments via contests offering tickets to the Sneak Peek & Eats "soft opening" that began Monday and ends on Wednesday.

For example, in tonight's contest, we ask Fans to share another Tom & Eddie combination (other than Tom Dentice & Ed Rensi, the restaurant's co-founders, pictured below with business columnist and media personality Terry Savage).

Over the last three hours, from "Tom Brokaw and Eddie Van Halen" to "Tommy Tutone and Eddie Albert," there have been more than 15 responses. Meanwhile, the Facebook Fan base grows daily by more than a dozen individuals.

By the way, Sneak Peek & Eats is much more than fostering good will by providing free meals.

Akin to Major League pitchers and catchers being the first to report for Spring Training, it's a time for the entire restaurant team to begin working out some kinks and get ready for the public opening.

In much the same way, generating a lively, ongoing conversation on Facebook is not some frivolous exercise. Rather, it's an effective way to build community even as you are responsive to the views of those who choose to join that community.

When individuals feel that their voices are being heard, respected--and rewarded, on occasion--then they are much more likely to suggest their friends join in as well, and to talk favorably about a given brand or business in their day-to-day travels and interactions.

One last note: did you know you could win a weekly free burger meal for life when you come to Tom & Eddie's during its Grand Opening on Friday? And this prize isn't too shabby, either: a free weekly burger meal for a year--80 individuals will get that reward.

Check out this GR-PR news release for those and many other details.

In Social Media, Basic Blunders Still Hurt

Being in the Social Media realm is no excuse for a slipshod presentation. If anything, given the SM universe's viral and omnipresent nature, it's all the more important to dot your i's and cross your t's.

In rendering judgment about your professionalism, people still look upon old-fashioned notions like proper grammar, correct spelling and otherwise efficient communication.

This came to mind today as I saw a Chicago-area company, over the last 2 1/2 days, had added one whopping fan on their Facebook Fan Page. Oh, and they are in the midst of a paid advertising push on Facebook.

In their information box, on the left side of the Fan Page, the company had this dubious trifecta: a misspelled street name in their address, a web site link that didn't hyperlink, and a sloppily noted phone number that lacked any hyphens, periods or anything that made it easy on the eye.

There's no telling what, if any, effect this slovenly style is having on their attempt to grow their fan base. But in full view of their existing fans, the miscues are a perpetual undermining of corporate credibility.

When's the last time you had a fresh, qualified set of eyes take a sharp look at the messages you are transmitting to the universe?

Face(book) It: Go Where the Puck Will Be

Whenever I advise people to jump into the social media fray--often in relation to promoting their business or cause--there's always that look I get in return.

It's not a deer-in-headlights look, mind you.

No, it's much more dire than that: this is the patented deer-that's-already-been-run-over-by-a-Mack Truck-look.

It's the look of someone who is on the brink of declaring haplessly, "How on Earth do you think I'm ever going to find the time to fit this into my already-overcrowded schedule."

My response: anyone who is successful, or in the earnest pursuit of success, is full of to-do's on their list. Cry me a river. I didn't create Facebook, so don't blame me for this historic development. Oh, and the train has left the station--do you want to get onboard or not?

The question I then pose is this: do you want to go where the puck increasingly is going to be in the weeks, months and years to come? (That's an allusion to Wayne Gretzky's oft-quoted tip on his unparalleled success as a hockey player--he didn't focus on where the puck was, but on where it was going to be.)

If your target audience, present or future, is spending significant time on Facebook, then it only makes sense to meet them there. Unless, of course, you want to surrender all of that ground to your competitors. That is entirely within your rights, though it's hardly good for business.

Another tip I share to these Mack-trucked deer: if you're so leery of losing the best years and decades of your life to Facebook, then set a time limit on your forays.

You can get a ton done in five or 10 minutes, if you stay focused and don't get sucked into the whirlpool of links and trivia that lie in wait.

(Psst, a little secret between me and you: I'm one of those nefarious types that trains people to provide links and trivia designed to suck in others.)

More social-media pointers in a later post, but for now, here's a look back at an Inside Edge PR post about the "Five Stages of Facebook Grief."

Did you know you could become a Facebook fan of Inside Edge PR? Go to Facebook and type "Inside Edge PR" into the search box.

If you allocate five minutes to Facebook today, becoming a fan will leave you with 4 minutes, 56 seconds to spare.

Some Recent `Tips of the Inside Edge'

Since early February, I have been posting a daily "Tip of the Inside Edge" at the Inside Edge PR Fan Page on Facebook.

(To visit the page, type "Inside Edge PR" in the Facebook search box.)

Here is the collection of tips from the past week:

Pick up the darn phone once in awhile. E-mail is a great complementary avenue, but there's nothing like actually speaking with another human being to build stronger connection and understanding.

Show, Don't Just Tell. In any endeavor, when meeting with prospective clients, find ways to show your value--and not merely talk about it.

The quality and quantity of follow-up questions help set apart outstanding connectors from ineffective or even average connectors.

When you hear "show up early, stay late" is the key to success, it might seem like a ton of extraordinary effort. Often, though, it just means five minutes on either side.

Write a sincere hand-written thank you note some time before you die. It'll shock the recipient. And leave a positive impression.

For other suggestions, visit my Recommended Links page at InsideEdgePR.com.

Candidly Drawing the Social Networking Line

I recently asked someone to be my "friend" on Facebook.

He declined. My immediate, gut response: pleased and impressed.

On the surface, my reaction may seem odd. But let's consider some background:

I’ve spoken with this particular individual, a newspaper reporter, about five times over the past few years, as he worked on stories with which I had some public-relations connection. We’ve never met, and we’ve never built any kind of tie beyond our respective jobs.

He works alongside some others that have made Facebook Friend requests of me, which I've approved. Their outreach to me is really what prompted me to reach out to him.

With that as a backdrop, here was his written response, which he sent via e-mail:

"Thanks for the friend request, but I just wanted to let you know that I keep my Facebook account to friends and family only. I like to keep business contacts separate. No offense intended of course, I just prefer to keep my job and my personal life in separate worlds, so to speak."

I respect his stance. And I respect even more that he articulated it.

In the four years that I've been social-networking on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, he is the first to take the time to broach the potentially awkward situation and explain, in his thoughtful way, why he was declining my request.

In this burgeoning social-media realm, it is so much easier to simply ignore requests that place us in an uncomfortable spot. And there certainly remain scenarios in which I am stumped about how to navigate someone's interest in getting into my cyber-world. In the future, I fully expect to continue ignoring some requests--and to be ignored.

But whenever we have an opportunity to convey our (often-evolving) criteria as to whom to let in to our SM world, we simultaneously have an opportunity to improve at least our little corner of this growing sphere's universe.

Indeed, inspired by my own fond memory of being diplomatically stiff-armed, I recently crafted a long-overdue reply. I created it for those seeking to connect with me on LinkedIn but with whom I have had little, if any, contact:

"Hello,

Thank you for inviting me to Link-In with you!

Whenever possible, I like to have more than a cursory personal connection with / knowledge of someone before Linking In. Since we are both so local, would you be interested in meeting in person sometime and establishing that face-to-face connection?

In these few words, I hope that I've reasonably and effectively explained my rationale and that you don't take offense to this proposed intermediate step. I genuinely hope we can create a stronger connection that can benefit us both in the future.

Best regards,
Matt"

So far, I have sent that message to two individuals. I am sure it will come in handy often in the future. Already, my newfound mission to improve the quality of my connections--and not merely strive for quantity--has borne fruit: one recipient responded by essentially stating "whoops...I intended to Link-In with someone else whose last name is Baron."

So there's one MisLinked-In Misadventure averted.

What do you think? Do you have another way of handling this potentially delicate and awkward topic? I welcome your ideas. And who knows--even if we don't know each other yet, we may just build enough rapport for us both to want to join one another's social network.

Just don't take offense if I suggest we meet in person first.

You might also be interested in reading some previous Inside Edge PR commentaries about LinkedIn.

Marching Out On a Social Media Note

It's been a social-media kind of day here at Inside Edge PR international headquarters.

Walked a block down the street to Marion Street Cheese Market, where I shared some pointers on how to navigate on Facebook, LinkedIn and the like, at "Social Networking Sites--Are You Connected?"

Shared photos and some text with Triblocal.com,as well as with Helen Karakoudas at the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest.

Later in the day, I learned from my social-media mentor, Sherri Lasko, that creating a Facebook Fan page is a piece of cake.

So now, as of 11 p.m., the Inside Edge PR fan base tally is on the verge of breaking into double-digits. For those scoring at home, that means seven people other than me and my wife have taken the plunge.

By the way, if you're curious, or even interested, in becoming a fan, the best suggestion I can give for finding the Inside Edge PR fan page is to log into Facebook and type "Inside Edge PR" into the search box.

I am confident that within a few days, I'll have learned another, much more efficient route. And that brings to mind one of the inelegant messages I shared with those who jammed inside MSCM this morning: this social-media world is a continual journey of learning something, trying it out, seeing if it works, then moving on to the next thing.

Stay tuned for what tomorrow brings.