As a social media controller, manager, person…whatever you want to call me, I have passwords and logins for all of my clients’ accounts, and this includes their Twitter accounts. Once a month, I take the time to go through and unfollow inactive accounts, people who are not following, people who aren’t a good fit for my clients, etc. In essence…I “clean house.”

What blows my mind as I am doing this are the number of accounts that just….drift off. There are tweets, tweets, than suddenly… no tweets.  3 months, 9 months, 11 months go by and businesses have given up.  It’s all just silly, in my opinion.

Every single person I’ve interacted with in real life that is on Twitter and using it to create relationships along with getting business stuff out there, has indeed GOTTEN business.  Even MUSICIANS.

Case and point: Cathy Hurt (@cathhurt) just joins twitter. She really doesn’t know why… she just does it.  Ashley Plummer (@ashleyplummer), guitarist for Neon Love Life and Butler University video and web producer extraordinaire, is tweeting that we’re looking for a female sax player. You see…we recently had the opportunity to play Indy’s Tonic Ball and one of the artists that was covered, was David Bowie. Since we have an all-female band, we wanted a female saxophone player for our version of Modern Love.

Ash tweets of our need. Someone responds with Cathy’s name and twitter handle. Cathy then gets to experience the Neon Love Life madness in 6 rehearsals and a killer performance that was tons of fun. ALL BECAUSE OF TWITTER. Let me also mention that Cathy has always wanted to play Tonic Ball and finally got to. ALL BECAUSE OF TWITTER. (Her experience was of course, the biggest factor. I mean, she was prepared and came into the first rehearsal nailing it. She was a joy to work with and was utmost professional.)

This may be a small example to you, but not to us, and not to Cathy because it was a perfect fit.

Sometimes it may take some time to find your individual perfect “fits.” But I urge you, DO NOT GIVE UP ON TWEETING because Twitter IS as Tweeters DO. Take the time to ‘do.’

Questions? Please ask.

Experience? Please share.

So to my readers, I apologize for my sporaticism…(yet another made up word). Here’s what’s on my mind today. I’ve been running across a million posts lately about how social media marketing is pretty much recession-proof. At least, that’s my all-in-one sentence summary.

This is good but at the same time, kinda scary. Because that means my mom, who recently joined Facebook (we’re talking less than two weeks ago), could hop on the social bandwagon and think she can be business development in the next 6 months. Wrong. She can’t. (Not that she would even consider that…she just gets to be my lucky example.) It’s a scary thought, and now, more than ever, it’s high time companies, large and small, understand who they’re dealing with when it comes to the voice of their company, if they’re hiring outside help.

Stretching Too Thin

Prime example: I began my company, Linzstar Inc nearly three years ago. I am extremely fortunate and blessed to still be here and growing…to the point that I get to pick and choose who I get to work with. I have a client I dedicate most of my time too, because for many SM marketers, it’s easy to let their plate get too full with different industries. In other words, people like us are already of the social sort, so when we’re out there, it’s easy to chase rabbits down holes. So easy in fact, that sometimes, clients can get buried in the dust freelancers are kicking behind as they try to grow. Been there, done that. For greedy people, this may not be a problem. For me, I hate the thought of others not thinking I’ve done my part for the money they’ve spent. My job is ultimately to create such a positive social and user experience, that a company grows…period. It’s been an interesting learning curve over the past three years, but one I wouldn’t change.

I’ve also learned that to be successful in this environment, it’s quality clients, over quantity. It’s like one of the five top rules of the social media mantra, right?

So, while this industry is on the rise, which means I perhaps have some job stability in my field, it’s still insanely important to learn what you can about whom you may consider for your company. Find a marketer that places you as a priority and work out budgets around that. I know one great thing for me and my clients, because I’m such a small company, I get to work with people that may not want to spend 40-50K a year in their online marketing.

So, as we round the curve in social media marketing, you know, that one that had people arguing over whether or not the job of an online marketer was sustainable a few years back, it’s still very important to pick the right fit for your industry.

This company happens to be an IT company trying to do social media marketing. This kills me. It pains my heart. I was ranting on Twitter the other day…yes, it happens when a) it’s close to shark week, b) I’ve been in front of my computer too long, or c) I see more idiot people who can’t run their own businesses successfully, decide they’re going to “get into” the “social media marketing” business because someone told them it’s a way they can make money.

BULLOCKS.

Back to the meeting: This individual shares that he’s having a hard time “selling” social media. (Honestly…at this point, I wanted to slap him.) ps…if you’re reading this, I’m sorry. I’m being honest.

Why did I want to slap him? Because IT companies SHOULD NOT BE doing the job of MARKETING COMPANIES!!! EVER!!! YO, do you know why you have a hard time “selling?” Are you on Twitter or Facebook? Are you making movements and gaining ground? Are you so passionate about something that people get you? I wouldn’t believe that this guy could do anything for my company. Of course there is a hard time selling.

As a matter of fact, half the new “social media” shits out there really can’t do what it takes, and I’m pretty fed up with the people who fail doing their own thing, suddenly decide to become marketers. It gives marketing a bad name. Say it with me: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS ONLY ONE ASPECT OF MARKETING. An IMPERATIVE one, but NOT the ‘be all, end all.’

This isn’t an easy job. It’s taken years to gain the experience and knowledge I have. My response to his question, “Do I have a hard time “selling” social media?” No, I don’t sell it. When people call me, they’re ready to do business…write a check and get it done, because they know they have to incorporate change in today’s business world, and they know I love it and I’m passionate about it. Period.

What are your thoughts about the emerging social media businesses?

Everyone is talking about changes. Yeah, so it’s a new year. I purposefully didn’t make any resolutions this year.  I have some things I’d like to be more disciplined with, but the biggest thing for me is getting comfortable in my own skin. That may sound crazy but sometimes I’m sitting and working and wondering if I really make a difference. What does it all mean? But then it kinda hit me…the thing I’m super passionate about in a business sense, is seeing other people grow from what I do.

I’m a huge Seth Godin fan. One point he’s made over and over is that marketers are marketers whether they’re being paid for it or not.  Which equates to me that marketers are marketers because they’re pretty much born passionate.  So, then a sense of relief comes.  I’m who I am because I get all excited about the biggest and smallest things. Transfer that over to my business, I can never fail.  I’ve never set out to be a huge influencer. I’m better suited as a lover of things, people…experiences. And when we get all excited and talk about those things, people…experiences, there’s a natural cause and effect.

I just started working with Cami Back. She is the founder/owner of this amazing idea/website called Get Out Mom. When she called me…we sat down over lunch so I could hear about what she has going on, and the passion in her eyes over helping moms get out more, and work on their own terms got me just as excited as she was.

The premise: Moms post what they love to do. Women and other moms post what they don’t love to do. They can hire back and forth. So working moms and stay-at-home moms and even women who aren’t moms, can support one another.  Her website launches next month, and I’ve seen it. It’s brilliant.  Seriously. Brilliant.

It’s not only about doing what you love to do, it has huge relationship building potential!

So, yeah, she’s a client, and I want to see her blow up. I want to see this reach as many moms as possible. Because in the spring, I want a garden…I want a garden with tomatoes and flowers. I can barely keep a plant alive. No green thumb at all. Guess where I’ll be going to hire the person who will be planting this thing for me? You got it. She picks the hours…even if it’s two hours a week or six hours a week. It gets her out of the house, doing what she loves to do. Get it?? Check it out!

The whole point of me letting you know about Get Out Mom, was because I was hired by Cami (I’m pretty sure) because I got just as passionate and excited about her idea as she was.  And that’s where I fit in. I fit in with people who want to lift up other people, and that’s what she does.  In the midst of me making changes this year, hopefully, I can help change lives…and so can you. Love. Life.

So let’s talk about “klout.” I’ve had a lot of friends ask me about this recently and been asked to write about it…what exactly IS it?…how do you get your klout score up?…is it important?…should we be competing for klout? Stuff like that. I’m not exactly a “klout” expert, but here are some great tips from Erik along with killer resources to help you get your klout in check, which btw, Erik’s klout score is way higher than mine. If any of you wanna team up with me to kick his butt, let me know!

Take it away, Erik!

Five Secrets I Used to Trick Klout. Sort Of.

It’s really been grinding Douglas Karr’s gears that my Klout score is higher than his, even if it’s only by a couple points or so.

He mentioned his anguish during a recent talk at a Northwest Indiana tweetup, and then again on his Marketing Tech radio show, so I know it’s getting to him. Still, Doug has set the bar plenty high, so to even come close to him on something is a pretty big deal, let alone beat him. (And since it’s the only thing I’m going to beat him in — ever — I want to hold on to this for as long as I can.)

It’s possible to game the Klout system, but it takes a long-term strategy. Sure, you can try to work it in short bursts, but the system will weed out people who don’t stay dedicated, mostly because they use cheap techniques that take too much energy and effort for an extended period of time. So I came up with my own system that will work, by tricking Klout into thinking I’m actually a model Twitter citizen. Here’s how I did it.

1) Be choosy about who I follow.

One of the things Klout pays attention to is the follower/following ratio, how influential my audience is, and whether they take action on my tweets. Having a big network doesn’t do me any good if I’m following junk accounts, abandoned accounts, or spammers.

I use Manage Flitter to unfollow people who don’t follow me and haven’t tweeted in the last three months. This way, I clean out all the deadwood on my network. Why run up my following count on people who won’t use the system more than once every 90 days? They don’t provide value, so they’re out.

I also carefully consider whether to follow someone. I’ll follow people if they provide good value, if they are real people and not brands, and if they don’t tweet crap, constant news headlines, or motivational quotes. I avoid the spam accounts, bot accounts, and the accounts that follow 2,000 people but have never written a single tweet. By following people who know how to use Twitter properly, my network is made up of people I’m happy to read and retweet.

2) Be choosy about who follows me.

I am actually a little choosy about people who follow me. I will “block & report for spam” any porn accounts, anyone who uses Twitter to promote their MLM or money-making system, or is going to do nothing but sell crap. By eliminating these people, my network is more engaged and more likely to read my tweets and react to them. I don’t need to artificially boost my follower account by letting in these spammers and fakers, and I would certainly never join one of those “find followers fast” networks that promise to boost my numbers.

3) Tweet good stuff.

If you want people to pay attention to your stuff and retweet it, make sure you say something useful. I will never tweet out motivational quotes, daily “good morning tweeps” messages, or news headlines after news headline. Instead, I send out things that will be useful, interesting or funny to my Twitter network. Since my network is made up primarily of social media folks, writers, and people with a sense of humor, I make sure at least half of my tweets will be appealing to one or more of those groups. The other half are real conversations and responses to other Twitterers.

Read the last two tips here: Five Secrets I Used to Trick Klout. Sort Of. | Professional Blog Service

Now, is your klout score going to make or break you? Nope…I don’t think so. When you’re real on twitter, it doesn’t really matter that much. Make it count. Or don’t. I think this klout stuff is fun for us competitive social media types…and to be honest, I don’t pay that much attention to it. But for those of you who are interested, I hope Erik’s post is helpful.

The comment section is open for your thoughts! Cheers!

Really? Who cares?

You know, despite some of the creepers who have recently asked to befriend me on Foursquare (my weapon of choice), I participate in this game for multiple reasons.

1. I love my community, and by checking into my favorite places, you a) get to see who and what I love and b) get a sense of who I am…in a weird way.

2. It’s fun. I love the badges. I love the little mini wars I have with my friends, and the friendly smack talk that goes along with it on Twitter and Foursquare shout outs.

Last year, I even wrote a blog post about how cool location-based applications are for touring bands and artists. Check it out. But anyway…back to the skeptics.

There are people out there who would argue that it’s a little weird to broadcast where they are. Sure, I get why it’d be “questiony” for certain places. I don’t check into my bank or my daughter’s school. I don’t typically check into my client’s spots either…for confidentiality purposes. (Oh, and if I ever check into Walmart, just smack me.) But those are my preferences.

Social Media Today just wrote a post about location-based social, and the writer, Mark Evens wasn’t too keen on it. And according to his article, he kinda argues that it’s not so hip. “Pew Internet and American Life Project survey discovered only 4% of Americans use location services like Foursquare and Gowalla, compared with 5% last May. Even among smartphone-toting 18 to 29-year-olds, only 8% use location-based services.”

So, not everyone’s into it. Does it have to be super popular in order for it to be legit? Yeah, I don’t think so. I love some of the local restaurants in Indy that are involved. I love getting little discounts for going to certain places. But that’s Miss super social me. It’s definitely not for everyone.

Will organizations make tons of revenue from it? I have no idea. Personally, I think it’s good for organizations to have people check in. It’s totally getting your name out…top of mind. I’ve seen check-ins from friends and been like, “I’m totally going there today,” and maybe had not even considered it prior to a random pop up on my phone. What’s annoying is that when it comes to social and location-based social, its one big ROI argument after another…if you like it, do it. If you don’t, then don’t. Is it a fad? Who knows? I love it though, and I think I’m pretty cool. So, game still on for Manfredi. You just can’t put a price on visibility.

The Horse: I’ll call this blogging. I don’t know about you, but your blog is the meat, or the horse of your business…at least when it comes to online content. You can have the best website in the world, but when it comes down to putting up content and getting Google to recognize you’ve got new stuff, you’ve got to be doing SOMETHING.

Blogging is such an integral part of web stuff. I started writing this blog the other day, and it just so happens that last night, Chantelle Flannery, one of the authors of Corporate Blogging for Dummies, and my buddy, Jason Falls, were talking a bit on the topic at the newly formed Social Media Club Indy. Blogging equates to search results. Period. Your blogs are a little slice of YOU, YOUR BUSINESS, YOUR EVERYTHING. Blogging is important. And if you can’t blog, or don’t have time to, or suck at it, you hire me. (Shameless plug, I know…) But do you get the point?

So let’s talk about the cart. The cart typically comes after…when you actually have something to carry. Social media is your cart. It’s the platform in which you place your blogs and stuff on. The cart is Twitter, Facebook, Stumble Upon, Reddit, LinkedIN, and all those other places you can link to…and what does linking do? It causes search results.

And carts sometimes break down. Something Chantelle pointed out last night…Twitter and all these other social media platforms that we have become semi-dependent on, may not be around in a few years. Yes, it’s a scary thought but it’s truth…yeah, remember Myspace? Exactly. If the cart breaks down, at least you still have a horse you can ride.

It’s so easy for businesses to get caught up in social media, but what exactly are you carrying if you don’t have good content and information for the people who need it? And trust me, if you don’t do it, someone else will. (Also, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT THE BE ALL END ALL. It’s only ONE part of the marketing spectrum…)

However, when it comes to this part of that spectrum, the cart and the horse go hand in hand. If you’re a new business, or just getting started with the whole web stuff, I’d be more concerned with a healthy horse. Then, when the time is right and you’ve got that content…you can carry it out to the world.

Giddy up.

I don’t consider myself a workaholic because I absolutely love what I do. But I’m on social networks constantly. With the new study out which was completed by Virtue and reported by Mashable, social networking for businesses (if you’re really wanting interaction) will most likely happen in the evening when more people can access it…after school and after work. Facebook peaks at 3pm, btw. Probably one of the prime times to be on…then nail it early evening.

Another thing to consider is the constant evolution therefore, constant education on the subject. Like, read. Read tons. Read tons of blogs, keep up with Mashable and Techcrunch, keep up with Brogan, Godin, Baer, and Brass Tack. There are millions more, but these are my favorites. I constantly learn from them.

The whole point of this little post is for you to understand that while social media marketing is a great thing, it’s also a lot of monitoring and work. It’s not some “I love social media so I should do this for a living, kind of thing.” Granted, that’s why I got into it, but once the novelty wears off…will it just be another job? Just something to think about…

I’m a small business. You know, like…my business is me. I prospect, I sell, and then I do all the work. I know tons of people who do this. Some are one-man (or girl) shows like me, and some have a small team working for them. But it seems we all run into the same type of problem. We ebb and flow through the abundant times…where we get all this business, dive into it, then once the project is complete, we’re like, “Oh crap, where’s my pipeline and is there anyone in it?” We get so involved with client work that we forget that it WILL eventually come to an end…because we’re contractual. Some are a year. Some longer…some shorter. But again, project-based.

I love how I’m the queen of marketing but don’t always follow the same rules I tell my clients to follow. Marketing for me, quite frankly sucks. I have this thing with self-promotion. I mean, it’s easy for me to promote my band…because that’s a team…a unit. It’s easy for me to promote my non-profit, Girls Rock Indy, because that’s a cause that’s way bigger than me. What I’m finding out…yet again…after having my own business for a year and a half…is that I constantly have to network, talk to, and work with other people. We ALL do. It’s a business fundamental. We can’t just shack up in our little social media corner. (Don’t front, you know how easy it is to do that!)

Not to mention, my business coach says to me yesterday, “I had someone come up to me the other day and ask, ‘So, is Lindsay still doing Linzstar or is she just doing Neon Love Life?’” That, to me, means I’m not doing a very good job marketing Linzstar. So…lessoned learned.

YES, of course, I’m still doing ghost blogging, social media and all kinds of other written stuff. I love it. It’s my thing. So what now? It’s time to get really intentional on making sure I’ve got a pipe. All small businesses must.

What are some of the ways YOU do this? Have you struggled with the same type of thing?

Girl in a Coma (credit: adam stockstill)

So, I’m not a big one-upper. You all know the types I’m talking about…those people out there that make it more about themselves and being better and getting more than the others around them. The ones who rarely do what they do because they love it. The ones that talk about other people and put others down. The ones who think they’re pretty much better than most. Yeah, you know that person. When I’m around those types, I can literally feel my energy drain…as if a blood-sucking vampire has come to reel me in. I have to regroup. Refocus. Come to understand that it’s okay…I’m different from some people. Not all people, just some.

So, I was hanging out with my band’s attorney the other day and he asked me about using social media to gain insight on what other companies are doing and if I’ve ever written anything about it. Well, in a competitive world, this makes sense, right? But how can it be done in a way that isn’t causing you to become that dreaded vampire? How can you still keep tact while looking into your competition? (This post jumps a bit…bare with me.)

So, I love how the universe all works together in this way because Brass Tack Thinking JUST wrote this amazing post on offering or selling, yesterday:

Are you offering what you sell, or selling what you offer?
One is about relationships, the other transactions.
One is about pull, the other push.
One is about permission, the other interruption.
One is about engagement, the other broadcast.
One is about conviction, the other convincing.
One is about giving, the other taking….

Read the rest of it here, because it’s amazing.

So, here’s a bit of comparison in my music world…because my life is more than my business. I look at this in the same way I look at musicianship. When I hear a band, I don’t wonder how I can get better than them. I think more about ‘how can I make myself better in order to play WITH them?’

So, of course, let’s take for example, Girl In A Coma. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this band…or if you’ve been following my ridiculous fan-ness of them, but I think they’re one of the best bands I’ve heard in a LONG time. And even cooler is that my band, Neon Love Life, gets to share a stage with them (along with the amazing Sick of Sarah and Hacienda) in a couple of months (September 11 to be exact…if you want tickets, hop over to the Neon Love Life site.) It’s almost surreal. But as I was thinking about this yesterday, and after the amazing week we had at Girls Rock Indy, it made me think of how we taught our campers about camaraderie…not competition. Working together to create the best possible outcome…or in that case, music.

What if we all applied that to business? Business is tricky. Sure, there are accounts you may be hoping to get that could really “get you ahead,” if that’s how you view life. I just feel that business is abundant when it’s viewed that way…when there’s belief in oneself…when rocking someone’s world is a given because that’s the nature of what it’s about. Social media is a place to learn about all kinds of things…people, ideas, and new stuff. I imagine it’s only natural for some people to want to see what’s working for their competitors. Social is a great way to see this. I mean, could you imagine Chevy calling up Ford and saying, “Hey, GREAT job on your social media campaign. We learned tons from you and have been able to implement some of your strategy as ours. Keep up the good work!” or vice versa. Sure, that may be kind of extreme, but you get my drift.

I guess the whole point is that in the end…what really pays is to uplift. Not one-up. That’s when you’re able to offer, as Brass Tack Thinking describes. It opens you up to a whole new playground with whole new opportunities. I don’t know about you, but I like the sandbox…a lot. And I like to get dirty…I’d just rather get dirty with a group of people…not by myself. Thoughts?

Photo: Girl in a Coma (credit: adam stockstill)