Goofing off June 26, 2009

Yesterday, my son graduated from Kindergarten. Beside the excitement of having a son who is going into grade one, I’m also super jazzed that it’s summer vacation. I have often complained that his teachers spend more of his waking hours with him than I do, but summer vacation is going to change all that.

I work pretty hard. I have natural tendencies towards workaholism, plus I take the responsibility of running my own business pretty seriously. If I screw up and one of my clients is not happy, it could have deep and long-lasting effects on my future, as I rely heavily on word-of-mouth referrals and repeat business. So, I drive myself pretty hard when I have active contracts.

Because I’m a single parent with a young child (now out of school), it’s been necessary to plan ahead, and am pretty much taking the summer off. Oh, I still have a few things I have to take care of, but the plan is to spend as much time as possible with Michael, camping, hanging out at the pool, the park, and the beach. Oh–I also have a two-week trip to Greece planned (it’s in celebration of my 40th birthday!).

Here’s the thing: something’s gotta give. A couple of months ago, I found myself feeling pretty burnt out. The hours were taking their toll. I strive all the time for that elusive balance between my work and my life.

How about you? You’re looking a little stressed. Need permission to goof off and take the dog to the park? You got it. Cut out of work early and take a picnic to the beach? Go for it.

Oh–and one last thing: posts may become more sporratic over the next couple of months. I hope you’ll forgive me if the last thing on my mind is writing a blog post while I’m lying on a beach in Naxos (and yes, I did say that because I wanted to make you just a little bit jealous!).

For some more advice on goofing off, check out this recent post by Trilby Jeeves.

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Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan June 17, 2009

Would you like some purple Kool-Aid?

Sometimes I think people I interact with think I am some kind of zealot. And, to be honest, they wouldn’t be far off. I’m very passionate about social media, and a great deal of the reason for that is because I see its incredible potential. Through social media, you have the ability to reach thousands, possibly millions of new clients. And all it is going to cost you is your time.

I still hear resistance to this all the time. “We’re underfunded. I need to write grant applications so we can produce our shows, I don’t have time to Twitter.” “I’m overwhelmed by the amount of email I get every day, there’s no way I can add another thing to it.”

On the other hand, you’ve been hearing all about social media applications. Perhaps your colleagues are getting onto Facebook and Twitter. You’re intrigued, but you are still really concerned about having enough time.  I get it. It’s overwhelming: how do you run an arts organization, or your art practice, and still have time to participate in social media?

What you need, my friend, is a plan.

A plan that takes into account your level of comfort with social media and the amount of time you have to devote to it. And that is exactly what my e-book, Getting Started in Social Media for Artists and Arts Organizations is all about.

So, today, another excerpt from the book.

Creating a social networking marketing plan

• Set goals: What do you want to get out of social networking? Increased traffic to your website? A higher profile for your cause? Sales? Public relations? Try to be specific with your goals, ie: “To increase website traffic by 30%.”

• Keyword searches: If you already are using Google Analytics or some kind of keyword tracking service, you have some idea about how people are finding you online. Put your keywords aside, we will revisit them later while making the marketing plan. If you are not currently tracking how people are finding you online, you need to start.

• What kind of readers do you want to attract? People who are already buying your product/service, or a new audience? Conquering your current sector might be enough to start off with.

• Choose someone to be the ‘voice’ of your company. If it’s just you, then it’s just you. But many small-to-medium sized companies use their marketing manager to be their social networking voice online.

• Time, and the best use of it. How much time does the person who is going to be doing the social networking have to devote to it? What platforms will you participate in?

Included in the e-book are handy-dandy fill-in-the-blank social media plans that you can create for yourself or your organization. Cool, huh?

Now, can I pour you a glass of Kool-Aid?

Click to buy my e-book: Getting Started with Social Networking for Artists and Arts Organizations.

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Why you should NOT join Twitter May 27, 2009

I was out the other night with my sweetie’s co-workers, helping to celebrate one of their birthdays. It came up that one of the co-workers had just attended a workshop that day on Twitter. I,  of course, Twitter enthusiast that I am, was all over it.

“So, are you going to join??” I asked, thinking, “I have to get her handle so I can follow her.”

“No,” she said. “What’s the point? It’s a lot of noise. I don’t want to know the minutae of people’s lives.”

Hmm… good point. Hard to argue with that.

There is a lot of noise on Twitter. Clearly, having tools like Tweet Deck or HootSuite to deal with thousands of Tweets daily makes a big difference. But there’s a bigger problem, here.

Here are two good reasons NOT to join Twitter:

1. If you don’t have a purpose for Twittering, and you don’t have a plan. I wrote a while back about Oprah joining Twitter, and how anything she touches turns to gold (by which I mean, becomes immensely popular). If you are thinking, “hey, this Twitter thing sounds cool, everyone I know is doing it, I should check it out,” that’s fine, but stop first, and do some research and planning.

What do you want to use Twitter for? It’s most useful application is to drive traffic. So, if you have ablog, vlog, podcast, or Flickr steam, Twitter can be really useful for increasing your stats. It can help to drive traffic to your website. If you have a business, it can help you to promote special deals and sales. But it’s good to have a plan going in–how are you going to use it? When will you tweet? Map this stuff out before you begin.

2. You have the time and energy to put into it. You can’t join Twitter, follow 1,000 in 10 minutes, and expect that you’ve done your job. Social Media is all about making connections. You can Twitter on five minutes a week, but for me, the minimum would be 5-10 minutes, three times a day. Because Twitter is real time, things happen fast, so it’s good to check in more than once every 24-hours. You need to respond to interesting tweets, Re-Tweet stuff you like, and respond to people. If you are doing nothing but putting your own stuff out there, people will quickly loose interest. They want connectivity as well.

There was a big hoo-haa about this Neilson Blog post about Twitter’s recidivism rate. Turns out, only about 40% of the people that will sign up for Twitter this month will continue to post. The other 60% will abandon their accounts (it’s coined a new term: Twitter Quitter). I get it. Twitter’s hard. Not to learn the interface, or to get started, but to learn the nuances of the culture,  takes time. (shameless plug: or you could hire Simon and I to do a workshop for you).

I’m okay with people not jumping on the Twitter bandwagon. I am excited about people who are excited to join for the right reasons, and who are committed enough to keep at it and follow through and to create Tweets with value. Maybe there will be less people twittering about their ham sandwich they had for lunch, and that is never going to be a bad thing.

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