This Social Media Thing Must Make Good Business Sense

This is one of my favorite social media ROI presentations:

Overcoming Obstacles to Social Media Integration

View more presentations from Olivier Blanchard.

Many times we can spend a majority our time with clients and prospects detailing:

a.) Why social media is not free

b.) The variables that highlight the resources (equaling 100% of the budget):

1. It takes people – it takes a team (a virtual “pit crew” each with a specific job to do – “the sum of all parts equals a whole” – “there is no ‘i’ in team”)

2. It takes technology – this is constantly changing

3. It takes time – “time is money”

Business leaders understand that “this Social Media thing” must make good business sense and it is our job to not just demystify it but…. help them measure ROI (e.g. the financial impact) that business leaders expect.

I like to deliver more traffic, such as logging into Google Analytics and seeing all of those green arrows including: but there is so much more to deliver. It’s not just measuring media, impressions and eyeballs.

Prospects and clients hire us not just because we sound smart – they hire us because they trust us to help improve their bottom line. Business leaders trust that we are the experts (that we say we are) and that our strategies are created to help them profit from continual growth. We can use many tactics, depending on the business objectives and needs:

• Online and offline consultation
• SEO
• Social media strategies
• Clearly communicated user experience
• Content marketing
• Digital advertising (e.g. display, sponsored search)

However, I find that they want real metrics that they “can sink their teeth into.” That is the what I thrive on and there is nothing better than hearing from my clients – “Social media is going to stick around a while longer after all!”

Biznet Internet Solutions Experiencing Growth in Challenging Times

Original Post found: http://blog.biznetis.net/2009/12/28/biznet-internet-solutions-experiencing-growth-in-challenging-times/

Biznet Internet Solutions, a Wixom, Mich. based full-service Web solutions company, focusing on business and mobile Web sites, advertising agency support and Internet marketing, announces four new full-time hires including Marketing Director, Doug Menzer; Director of Account Management, Patti Swanson; and two Marketing Coordinators, Jennifer Weesies and Dave Lemieux.

“It is exciting to be in a position of growth right now, especially while many others are scaling back. The recent additions to the team reflect Biznet’s commitment to continued growth,” said Kevin Krason, CEO and founder of Biznet. “We are a strong company that has survived 2009 and has big plans to flourish in 2010.”

Doug Menzer is a ten-year veteran of marketing communications with two degrees from Michigan State University in Communications and Psychology. Just prior to his new position at Biznet, Doug worked as a Marketing Manager/Director of Social Media for a Birmingham, Michigan based digital marketing agency.  In his role as Marketing Director at Biznet, he is responsible for research, strategy, planning, project management and oversight of brand awareness and digital public relations for a variety of clients.

Prior to joining Biznet , Patti Swanson, with nearly 20 years marketing and management experience, held numerous positions for the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit including most recently Executive Director at North Oakland Family YMCA, and prior to that Vice President of Marketing and Membership. She has a Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Marketing and Management from Northwood University and a Master’s of Science Administration in Business and Marketing from Central Michigan University. In her role as Director of Account Management at Biznet, Patti is responsible for account supervision and project management ensuring the highest level of quality and flawless execution while forging new relationships and opportunities.

Jennifer Weesies, a recent graduate of Ferris State University with her Bachelor’s of Business in Public Relations, joined the Biznet team in Oct. of 2009. Prior to accepting a Marketing Coordinator position at Biznet, she worked as an intern at Lambert, Edwards and Associates, a public relations firm in Grand Rapids, Mich. As a member of the marketing team at Biznet, Jennifer develops and carries out digital marketing and social media strategies including content distribution campaigns, SEO/SEM, social media training and digital public relations while monitoring and building client relationships.

David Lemieux began his career at Biznet Internet Solutions in Feb. of 2009 as an intern and was hired on staff full-time in Oct. of 2009. He is currently wrapping up his Bachelor’s degree at Oakland University. In his position as a Marketing Coordinator at Biznet, Dave is responsible for website copy writing and tweaking, search engine optimization, article and video distribution, analyzing metrics, client reporting, social media monitoring as well as forging and maintaining client relationships.

About Biznet Internet Solutions
Based in Wixom, Mich., Biznet Internet Solutions is a full-service Web solutions company, focusing on business and mobile Web sites, advertising agency support and Internet marketing, including search and social media marketing. For more information, please visit http://www.biznetis.net

Written by: Jenn Weesies

Elf Yourself and Tule Tool… Interactive Holiday Fun

OfficeMax Goes Live with Elf Yourself for its Forth Straight Year

Last week, my wife spent about a half-hour one evening on OfficeMax’s Elf Yourself adding viral content to her personal Facebook page. It was an instant hit with all of her FB friends and family, as usual – traveling through her familiar circle.

Elf Yourself has gone live in its fourth straight year this 2009 holiday season. OfficeMax has enhanced the fun application this year with new features and capabilities allowing consumers to customize their videos of dancing elves with their own pictures. The Facebook Connect tie-in allows users to upload pictures from the social network and to post their Elf Yourself videos directly to their profiles, as my wife did. That social element goes beyond the application itself drawing laughs from many of our friends and family members.

Hastings Entertainment Provides Free Social Interactive Yule Tool

Then we came across another fancy free social interactive that enables a user to personalize a full-motion e-card video starring themselves and their loved ones or even celebrities in either a “Naughty or Nice” greeting, which is available at http://www.yuletool.goHastings.com.

The user can attach their own personal sentiment and send it to anyone they’d like via email. The Yule Tool was created and developed by Capitola Media of San Francisco, California. The free Yule Tool e-card is designed to be a fun interactive way to celebrate the holidays. This brings up the question… Why haven’t audiences grown tired of interactive tools such as these? Maybe it is not so much the tool as what users can apply to it that keeps it fresh and relevant.
For example, after showing my colleague Dave Lemeiux this Yule Tool, he sent me a pretty funny version of his personalized Yule Tool greeting that he made using Kwame Kilpatrick his wife and girls, seen here: http://yuletool.gohastings.com/card.php?id=1431177947.

This silly personalized message, states: “I’m with both my girls!!!” For those that live in Southeast Michigan, this is probably more of a sad display of our rough history rather than a funny joke. However, that is a nice feature of this Yule Tool… the ability to add a personalized text message in the greeting, which is one advantage over the Office Max Elf Yourself rendition to spread Holiday Cheer to your friends and family.

Twitter users can also follow YuleTool on Twitter.com/YuleTool
@YuleTool’s last Tweet: 13 Days, 12 Hours, 39 Minutes until Christmas of ‘2009 – ‘Is It Okay to Give Used?’ http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/11/prweb3255854.htm“.

New Jobs in Michigan? Yes Please!

Biznet Internet Solutions has hired several great people including Jenn Weesies, Patti Swanson and Dave Lemieux due to our young entrepreneurial drive and diverse acumen in business matters.

Recently , Jenn and I were profiled on Metromode Media, an online weekly publication that highlights the positive happenings in the Metro Detroit region (go to www.metromodemedia.com) to learn more.

Metromode has recently launched a new Talent Retention Program to highlight available opportunities and profiles of professionals who have landed or created jobs in the area. I love how Metromode is disputing the myth that you have to leave Michigan in order to find a job! This is an ongoing initiative and they are always looking for new people to profile. So give them a shout if you are creating jobs or have landed a job here in Michigan recently!

Click here to read the profile of Doug Menzer on Metromode.

Click here to read the profile of Jenn Weesies on Metromode

Marketing Evolution – Talk with Customers, not at Customers

I love this video…

The Marketing Capability: The Future is Digital

“Customers have dreams… and they have things that they want to do in their lives. One of the things that technology does; it can make those dreams come true.” – Barry Judge (CMO, Best Buy)

Keep Building Trust…

Biznet Blog » Making the Digital Commitment by Jenn Weesies

It’s the fourth quarter in 2009 and a Michigan based company just reported a $1 Billion profit in the third quarter.  Pinch me – I must be dreaming, right?  Nope, Ford Motor Company – a company founded by an entrepreneur and built by the hard working people that thrived on his ingenuity and the passion that it bred, just reported this news last week.

Read more in Jenn Weesies’ recent post, she is the newest addition to our team at Biznet. Let us know what you think….

Biznet Blog » Making the Digital Commitment. by Jenn Weesies

Moving ahead is tough, especially in the absence of certainty but today there are many young intelligent people stepping up, going against the odds and making a difference.  Making the digital commitment is not simply about spending 25% of your budget on “new media”… it is about new ways of thinking.  Bringing sexy ingenuity back…  “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

I admire how Ford Motor Company is thinking “more intelligently” – once again.

Jenn recently posted on Twitter (in response to the article in the picture) – @weesiesj Dear Business Week, u are the most depressing magazine & do nothing for the American spirit. I found a job in MICH! http://twitpic.com/lfbcn

Jenn demonstrates the American Spirit that I admire! The lost generation?  Sure, there are many that are lost (most likely) and I am sure that is not new to this young generation…  But those people that are lost (in my opinion) aren’t willing to roll up their sleeves, fail a few times before they succeed and move ahead gracefully…

“90% of social media is simply showing up” – Scott Monty

Young leaders are not simply just looking for work, they are creating it and/or finding positions within great companies where they are carving out their own success. Showing up, getting “baptized by fire” and having the will to take on whatever challenges lie ahead is how our country became great. Let’s keep it going!

Website Technical Optimization – Basic Stuff, High Rewards

Original post – on Atomic Ideas

When I sit with clients, prospects and colleagues, I try to spend the time both teaching and learning. In particular, when I coach many of the smart people that I am thankful to work with, on a variety of digital marketing and social media business strategies, I have a tendency to often lose them. This is most likely because of the speed that I explain things.

I have a bad habit of assuming that people know what I am talking about because I get very passionate about sharing my experiences and knowledge. Ask my wife and she will not only agree but laugh that I am stating this fact.

The critical focal point in the first sentence above, however, is learning. I have found that as I am teaching others, I can actually learn more than I am teaching in many cases. For example, (take a social assessment and strategy development for a B2B company) – I’ve consulted with some very intelligent and savvy business people in the B2B arena on social assessment projects – but I’ve learned to become a better listener. Which, ( …BTW) – allows me to be a better learner and ultimately a better teacher.

Outside of an extremely detailed assessment ( among other deliverables) – including “listening” to the social landscape of:

* Brand mentions

* Competitors

* Customers, across several industries

* Service offerings/products

Prior to developing a strategy – the recommendation to begin improving their web sites is sometimes needed first and foremost. As my colleague Shauna Nicholson states, “It’s like dressing up before you go out to a business event.” However, what if your client really likes their current site? (Even if it has not been updated since 2001) Feeling that there is nothing needed for improvement. In fact, they feel that:

* The creative is great. (In reality: It looks like 1998 is calling!)

* It has functionality and conversions are great. (In reality: They don’t know the potential that they are missing.)

* It must be optimized correctly, right? Just leave it and let’s move forward with Twitter and Facebook, right?

How do we explain this most basic step? Putting your clothes on before you go out… a small (but very important) part of the overall strategy, without irritating or losing a client? Here are some slivers of the website technical optimization pie that can hit a cord with a President of a large B2B organization.

Let’s say that Google, Yahoo and Bing are the hosts of a major trade show in your industry. Anybody that you ever dreamed of getting in front of is your audience – and they are at this trade show, which gives you many opportunities to tell them all who you are and what you do. You go outside of your booth passing out some really great items to draw them to your booth (as well as having the opportunity for your hosts to draw traffic to your booth…) But, what happens when they get there?

Let’s look at what you are telling your hosts first:

Page Title - Does your page title (or tradeshow banner) effectively tell Google (or your trade show host) who they should recommend visiting your booth?
(Is it relevant and descriptive to the industry you serve?

Meta Description – Does your meta description effectively tell Yahoo what you do?
(Does it match the visible text?)

Meta Keywords – Are your keyword effective and relevant?
(Are they consistent with the content page by page? (Each page individually optimized?))

Then… there is your audience (what if they come):
They’re Heeere! Once your users show up, is your website clear, consistent and easy to navigate? Or is it cold, gloomy and/or hard to understand? I’ve personally spent more time at trade show booths that have occupied my attention (without overwhelming me) and offered great information. The same goes for websites. So, you have a 24-7 (365 days a year) trade show going on and your okay with a dingy booth with incomplete messages and no one hanging around, eh?

Driving traffic to a site can be the easy part – in some cases, outside of the fact that we want to get relevant traffic – we want to look the part. Do we have a nice outfit on, have our hair combed, teeth brushed and flossed with a smile on ready to do some business?

Leadership, Authority, Power and Pride

Those who continually provide helpful tips to their followers – who teach and seek to help people grow… in order to become better individuals, are leaders.  Of course, there are many types of leaders but what type of leader do you want to be (if at all)?

“The minute we start living condescending toward our congregations we lose all authority.” Eugene Peterson

I've got two daugthers! Chity chitty bang bang!

Authority is often confused with “power”, yet their meanings do differ.  Authority can refer to a claim of legitimacy, justification and a right to exercise power. For example, I just ordered a new gun (a 9mm Glock – Model # 26) and with it could have the power to punish a criminal, but believing in the rule of law (as a United States citizen), I know that only a court of law carries the authority to carry out capital punishment.

What Leadership Is Not…

In my opinion, leadership isn’t power.  Define power, hmmm, no thanks (but feel free to look it up at Wikipedia) and let’s just say there is a hint of control involved. Does a good leader control? Again – my opinion – I believe that a great leader would want great results and share in the success.  A controlling leader exerts their power because of (empty) pride among other selfish reasons. Yesterday, I was at a conference held in Mid-Michigan called Michigan Men of Faith and realized that I have to continually reflect on the question (above in the first paragraph.) Of the many great topics, I attended a break out session on leadership and authority – imagine that.

I’m not gender biased but my wife has a saying for men who are weak; she called them weenie boys (or W.B.’s for short.)  Of course the definition of a W.B. can come in different varieties (including not living up to what they say (lie and deceit) and/or use of negative sentiment to get what they want or make a point) but (most commonly) they share the following similar trait:

• Afraid to make decisions and/or afraid to make the wrong decisions

The worst thing that I could possibly hear from my wife when we are communicating in a disagreement is her calling me a W.B. (and she knows it….but of course, she wouldn’t do that, right?) Although, what if she had a valid point – what if I am afraid of… not having power…. or having my pride hurt… or being a bad leader….

If I am afraid of being a bad (leader) husband, father, boss, or church/community member, then I have to understand – I am what I choose. If I choose the right things, should I be afraid? If so, then what am I afraid of and why?  For example, “I’M leaving because [SOMEONE ELSE] screwed up.” OR “You made me….” This can also be used in an example of a father who claims that his ex-spouse is the excuse for his shortcomings on being a bad father, rather than facing his fear of why he is actually a bad father (if in fact he really is.)

Some Men Think They Are Born Great – Others Find They Have To Work Hard For It

A real leader should work on removing fear and pride and accept their authority and understands that it is not easy. Did General Washington kneel and pray to God at Valley Forge? Ahh, another great debate, but I believe the answer is yes, he did accept not only his authority in leading his troops into battle but he had faith in and accepted a higher authority. Did he fear the battle? Was it easy? Absolutely not, but his faith made him strong.

• Leaders should be as objective as possible, such as in my last post titled Social Revolution – Objectivity vs. Subjectivity– if we listen to what Dr. Pearsall said, a leader who trusts “there are several ways of “knowing”” then a leader can find “evidence that there is much more to us than skin and bones and days and years.” There is a higher authority, I believe and I am open to learning more and seeking truth. It’s a lifelong process.
• Think noble thoughts and strive to: Do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time and for the right reason.
• Watch your sentiment – I too am guilty of not always being positive in my reinforcement (as a leader.)  For example, “saying whoever did this is stupid….” In front of my four year old or my employee, is simply wrong – it’s not doing “right thing.”  What if they did it?  What message am I really delivering?  Am I helping them to grow or helping them try again to get a better result?  What if they did – what I deem is stupid?  A WB overlays personal feelings  (a.k.a PRIDE) but a real leader (first) holds themselves accountable and delivers a clearly defined (positive) message for improvement to a negative situation.

I made a list of things that I want to work on to become a better leader (Husband, Father, Church Member and Boss) myself:

Love, Listen, Help, Support, Respect, Communicate, Be Consistent, Seek Truth, Provide Stewardship, Be Healthy, Forgive, and Preserver.

I’m sure that I missed some things but feel free to post your thoughts. What do you think? As I strive to continue to – do the right thing – I challenge myself to continue to grow and help others grow around me.

Have faith!  Take good care…


Belle Tire Cares!

Visit Belle Tire Cares Blog

Belle tire is genuinely reaching out to customers bringing down the barriers to communication inside and outside the organization.

Is this a reason why Belle Tire has been nominated as one of Detroit’s best businesses in the 2009?

For more information, please visit: http://www.belletire.com

Belle Tire Grand Opening – Out the door pricing. Discount tires…

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Think INSIDE The Box – Invest in Your Employees, Sell More Stuff.

Think INSIDE The Box – Invest in Your Employees, Sell More Stuff.

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I recently posted a comment on this blog post by Russ Tate. Cheers to those employers who empower employees with mutual respect and satisfaction.