Beyond Blogging is a popular book, written by Nathan Hangen and Mike Cliffe-Jones, that featured the stories of 15 incredibly successful bloggers.
The book, which later went on to be published on Barnes and Noble and Amazon, was originally an ebook and was outgrowing its home. Roark Media was recruited to develop a website that put the book on a pedestal and made it easier for buyers to pull the trigger.
This site was built on WordPress using a premium WooThemes template and Wishlist Member plugin.
We designed this website for a client that needed to present a portfolio of classes, courses, and guides.
Mutual Dynamics is a company that trains organizations (and individuals) how to understand their personality types (Myers-Briggs) so that they can better work together and become more effective leaders.
Mutual Dynamics was built on WordPress, using a combination of premium theme, plugins, and custom modifications.
This is a site that we designed for Roark Media partner, Nathan Hangen. Nathan was looking for a new way of presenting his writing, as well as a way to showcase his online projects.
It was important that we kept the page simple, using the logo as the centerpiece, but still allowed for plenty of freedom and flexibility for future upgrades and modifications.
This site was built on Squarespace, click here to take a look.
You’ve heard of “engaging,” being “authentic,” and “listening,” and yeah, that’s all well and good, but there’s one thing about Twitter that I think a lot of people are missing out on.
Testing, Testing, Testing
Think about it…with bit.ly you can track link metrics.
With TweetDeck’s latest version, you can schedule Tweets across time zones.
With 140 characters, you can test headlines, content, and media.
Are you starting to see where I’m going?
The Greatest Sandbox in the World
Right now I have nearly 8k followers on Twitter. Every Tweet I send is an opportunity to see what people in my audience are interested in.
Do they like bold headlines? Risqué headlines? Fancy headlines? Nice, evil, naughty, angry, etc.
Do they like video, blog posts, podcasts, or entertainment?
Do they like my blog?
Do they like it when I RT a certain person?
The options are limitless.
So, instead of seeing Twitter as just an engagement platform, don’t forget that it’s the greatest headline testbed ever.
Products, services, ideas, brands, charities, organizations, even yourself are all things that as entrepreneurs we focus on selling.
In fact the very essence of being an entrepreneur is selling. If you want to take something and turn it into a business then at some point you will need to sell.
Sales is as old as time and while there are certainly timeless truths and techniques to being successful at making a sale, one thing that has changed over the centuries are the methods and tools.
1995 Seems Like Another Lifetime
When I started my business career full time over 15 years ago the tools we had at our disposal for making sales were, TV, the phone, fax machine, direct mail, print media and trade shows. There really wasn’t any Internet to speak of. Sure it existed but it hadn’t made its way into the average household.
Fast forward to 2010 and the sea of Internet tools available to small businesses is deep and wide.
This is a really simple method using a bit of copy/paste that lets you install the new Facebook Like button on your blog or website. Works on any page that allows iframes, and is super easy to install. Copy the code below and paste in your WordPress theme (index.php and/or single.php)
Here’s the code:
(Editor’s note: the code wasn’t showing up correctly in the post, so I’ve removed it and substituted a PDF that you can download here.)
If you’d like pictures to show up, simply increase or remove the height limitations and you’ll find that pictures show up below.
OK, so it’s only been 24 hours since Ning officially announced that they were going to end support of free networks and instead move towards a fee based service and people are already bitching and moaning about how Ning got it wrong, how they’re screwing over their community, and how they aren’t very smart.
That’s bullshit.
The principal argument against Ning’s change is that they’re taking advantage of the people that spent months (and years) building strong communities on the Ning platform. They’re claiming that Ning used this model in order to “trick” people into being stuck.
Here’s what really happened…
Ning was relying on advertising, within the walls of these free networks, in order to pay the bills. But there’s one problem…the advertising wasn’t paying the bills.
So essentially Ning has 2 options at this point:
1: Continue to work a failing business model until it drives them out of business.
2: Find another way to pay the bills.
Their newly hired CEO, who I think is ballsy and brilliant, chose option 2…the better of the 2 choices.
Would you have done any differently when your business, and the people that work for you, had its/their future on the line?
I know I wouldn’t have.
Quit whining
If you’re complaining about having to either pony up some cash to keep your network alive, or giving it up all together, then my question is this…if your precious community is so important to you, then why shouldn’t you pay Ning for giving you a platform with which you could do that?
Second, it’s your fault for not building your own CMS and/or “failsafe” while you built your Ning network. Facebook works just fine for this, and so do a variety of more expensive options. You can’t expect Ning to do all the work while you reap the benefits of a free platform can you?
Lastly, should Ning continue to do what they were doing, which is to offer their network for free, and then go out of business…where would you be then? Up a shit creek right? At least now you have the option to keep it alive.
Free isn’t a business model
You should know that already, and I suspect that many of you do.
Those complaining are probably either joining the bandwagon (because it’s fun to do, and it just feels right, right?) or don’t pay for anything anyway.
Could Ning have planned it better? Sure, but sometimes things don’t end up with roses and butterflies painted all over them. Did we really expect Ning, in its current form, to last forever?
What I like about this experiment is that she campaigned rather well, both identifying her need and how it could benefit Herman Miller.
What I like more is that they were listening, and responded almost immediately in order to begin “negotiations.”
Win-Win
If you ask me, this is a win-win for both parties. I have no doubt that listening to Maren brag about her new chair would pique the interest of other bloggers that might not have heard of Herman Miller. Furthermore, I believe that the cost of the chair could easily be recouped by working with Maren to craft something snazzy on her blog or home page.
In effect…I think they’d sell some chairs.
Crafty strategy by Maren, and more importantly, proof that Herman Miller knows how to navigate the social media waters.
The Opposite Side of the Coin
Alternatively, we have one of my favorite company’s…the Blue Moon Brewing Company, who isn’t paying very much attention at all.
In my circle, we talk about Blue Moon a lot. I blog about it, I create videos about it, and I tweet about it.
Have they even sent a simple message saying thanks? Nope…nada.
What this tells me is not that they don’t appreciate me as a customer, but that they’re missing out on a HUGE opportunity. There are hundreds of thousands of people like me that love Blue Moon. In fact, there are thousands of them in my network alone.
By simply engaging people that could become brand advocates, they could increase their reach exponentially. But then again, they’re probably not using Silo.
The moral of the story is not that companies should give away free stuff, but that they should shift focus from the interruption marketing agencies to the people with the real influence…people like Maren.
Those that get it, such as Herman Miller, are going to have a hay day picking off customers from the competition.
What are your marketing plans for the next 24 months? Where will you be focusing a bulk of your budget and your time? Let me say if it’s not online then it’s in the wrong place.
While nearly every aspect of business is evolving and changing faster than ever before perhaps none will change more than in the area of marketing. The tools that are available today are equally accessible by both individuals, small business and Fortune 500 companies. In fact many of the tools available today are more easily implemented into the marketing mix of a small business than a large company.
Take for instance the attempt by corporations to use the latest social media tools to appear more personable and transparent. Often these attempts to humanize the company can come across fake and half hearted. The advantage that you have as a small business or entrepreneur is that you have the opportunity to allow your personality to shine through.
Blogging, videos, social media and all of the available tools give you the platform to directly communicate with your customers and provide them with both the information they need and the relationship they buy.
The digital Tsunami has been let loose and while I hate to use such a destructive example I can think of nothing that paints a more graphic analogy of what will happen. If you are not utilizing the digital marketing tools that are available today to help further your brand and your business you will be swept away without notice. It is that critical.
