I think as a whole we are ready for a rethinking on how we use social media for business.  The Facebook privacy controversy is only the latest in a string of events that leads me to believe that nobody knows how social media is going to play out much less how effective it will become in driving sales for business.  Especially for small businesses with limited budgets.

The day that Google figured out a way to monetize search led us down the path of looking for the best way to advertise against content.  The next innovation was to create online communities where people could create and share content for free. This inspired Utopian visions of democratizing information to empower consumers with choice and hold business providers accountable. While I feel both business providers and consumers have benefited enormously from these technologies, there remains an enormous amount of chatter to filter through and the jury is still out on the profit potential with running social media campaigns.

Don't get me wrong, social media is an incredible toolset to pull us all together, let us share, inspire transparency and provide for accountability, but you have to admit, to the small business owner, participating in the social media revolution has to be an overwhelming thought.  When they think of marketing, they think of where is the return and how soon will it arrive.  

Clearly social media marketing is not so cut and dry. More of it has to do with experimentation and trial and error than hard fast rules on return.  So with the incredible amount of "chatter" generated from social media and the amount of time investment required for your content to be found and acted upon what is a business owner to do? Either break out your checkbook to do it right, invest the time it takes to create volumes of quality content, or redefine your expected return.

Let me explain.

If you are looking for an ROI (Return on Investment) by participating in social media, be prepared to spend both time and money and be patient. But if you are looking for an ROI (Return on Interaction), with the right tools you might be pleasantly surprised. 

Do you find value in communicating effectively with your prospects, your clients, or your staff? Then sharing quality information through a blog is a good idea. (It can be far more effective than sending out individual emails if your objective is inspire feedback.)  Do you like the idea of keeping your community updated on your latest business developments or activities? Then Facebook, Twitter or YouTube is a great way to share and add to your community.  Are you the business owner who likes to hear feedback on how your company is performing and listen to ideas to improve your products or services from clients and employees?  Then the feedback loop offered through social media can be incredibly effective for any size business.

Does any one of these activities add immediately to your bottom line?  If your bottom line is only solely based on revenue, then probably not. If your bottom line factors in the importance of reputation, effective communication, and awareness, then quality time spent on quality content might prove to be profitable for you.  Don't misunderstand, there still will be an investment in learning how to use social media properly as well as the time it takes to create the content.  But if your motivation lies in wishing to communicate more effectively, then this is a long term investment to improve your company culture as opposed to a short term marketing investment.  

I personally have found the process of creating content to be revelatory in off itself.  Every time I write a blog about what we are working on, conduct a video interview with a peer or share my thoughts on a podcast, I am forced to think about my overarching message. "What do I want to communicate with my audience to help them relate more effectively to what we offer" is something I think about every day. Whether you like it or not social media is forcing us to work more on how we relate than how we persuade.  I can't count how many small business owners I have spoken to who fight this tooth and nail. I don't blame them though. The hype machine makes it sound like Social Media is the magic pill for their business. It is not. It is merely a tool which if used properly can be an incredible catalyst for communication as well as a great audience builder.

What are you looking to get from Social Media. A Return on Interaction or a Return on Investment?

I would be interested in hearing your take.

The case study project was started as an experiment in collaboration. As I have navigated the waters of social media since 2008, I had become frustrated in my many respects on how this new medium had failed to live up to my expectations. It was only after I had dug into learning strategies and techniques did I realize the power behind social media.

This is when I decided to become a participant as opposed to a recipient. One of my first efforts with this new realization was to become actively involved in LinkedIn discussion groups. The first group I joined was the Social Media Today group hosted by Robin Fray Carey.

I knew that if I was going to do this right, I had to put the effort into the topic. Just as with anything else in life, the more work you put toward something the better the payoff. One of the first questions I came up with for the group was to ask for quality case studies of businesses using social media effectively.

Immediately after the post, I began to see comments with links to great examples of social media case studies from people from all over the world. What impressed me even more was the type of people who were taking their time to contribute examples to this group. From top executives to marketing managers for businesses both large and small, they all represented a network of enterprising individuals who were willing to share and engage.

After receiving over 200 comments and links, I decided it would be a good idea to put the case studies into an organized list. This is what you will find in the Ebook and on Quired.com/casestudies. As we move forward, I plan on keeping the spirit of the original LinkedIn group and grow this list to represent the most relevant studies for business owners to use and share.

If you have relevant studies you would like to submit to this list please forward to paul@quired.com or join the discussion in the Social Media Today group on LinkedIn. (The title of the discussion is "Looking for Case Studies) We are also maintaining a Google Bookmark list to compile relevant case studies for this ever expanding resource. Please feel free to add to this list. Just email a request to me asking for editing privileges.

We would also like to hear from you if you have ideas to make the list better and more relevant for your needs. Feel free to mash up this information any way you wish or link to our page. This is not our list it is yours.

(a) streamline the process of building websites 

(b) provide better tools for our clients to communicate 

(c) provide a platform to grow Quired over the next 5 years

What has resulted from this work is a robust proprietary content management system which allows us to completely customize a web experience for any business whether a small mom and pop or an enterprise level firm.

And customization does not stop with design. Our team will constantly look for new technologies to integrate into our platform to help our customers better control their web experience to include managing social networks, events, tasks and data. If it exists and has an API we can bring it in. If not - we can build it.

Now that much of the development work is behind us, we will begin to focus our efforts on finding those clients who would most benefit from our solution.  Our perfect client is someone who is looking to create a high quality web presence to help more effectively relate to their customers and/or streamline the process of communicating via the web. Our website solutions can be as simple or as complex as our clients need it to be. You tell us what you need and we will create it. 

We are very excited to move out of the development mode and into helping business owners become more effective and productive on the web. We would love to hear your feedback on our new look and solutions and encourage constructive critiques to help grow our platform to be the best it can be.

Here is a link to the article discussing the challenge.
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/importance-of-story/

Of all the things for Chris Brogan to ask, this probably is one that speaks to me the most.

First of all, I have a company I co-founded 4 years ago named Quired.com. Quired is a web communication platform to help people and businesses more effectively share their experiences, so clearly to me, there is nothing more important. Story is the narrative of life which holds everything together or tears everything apart.  It is what we probably miss or discount more than we want to admit when we are listening or observing and fail to convey when we want to make a connection.

When you walk past a homeless vagrant on the sidewalk, you have no idea if they were a Vietnam war hero, a failed CEO or an old neighbor.  If you knew their story would you react differently when you passed them by? Or the rude person behind the cash register at the local convenience store. Are they always like this or did someone in their family just pass away? If you knew their story would you be more sympathetic to how they handled the situation? But what if this is their M.O, how would this make you feel about their employer?

Or your boss, who you feel is making all of the money while sitting behind a plush desk and just raking it in. If you knew his or her story and what it took to get there and most importantly what it is taking to stay there would you not look at your boss a little differently. And conversely the brand who on the surface seems to be on top of the world with ultra cool products who as you dig deeper find have a terrible track record with customer service. Or the politician whose alliances with special interests may be swaying his or her voting pattern. We just happen to live in the age where the rules of "Story" are being re-written through the advent of communication technologies.

In the past providers benefited from being able to control their story while the consumer waited to be pitched. This was true for business providers, politicians and people in general. (After all aren't we all providers and consumers to some degree or another?) Now that we are entering into the "communication age", story becomes the driving force for discovery and engagement. Not only because we want to tell our stories but because we have to.  If we don't, someone else will.

Now some may feel this is an unhealthy reality. I don't. I think it is revolutionary and evolutionary.

I don't want to know about the shoe you are selling. I want to know what motivated you to create the shoe and how this relates to my needs. And I don't want to hear this from the shoe manufacturer, I want to hear this from a friend who likes the shoe who is able to pass on the story to me. I want to know that the boss is working their butt off to grow the business and what they are passionate about so I can share this with other employees and prospects and most importantly stay motivated about my employer.

Of course we can't know everybody's story.  (Are you really going to ask the convenience store clerk her story.) But as story becomes more important in our society and the tools evolve to help us tell and relate to stories more effectively, I feel we will become more accountable on how our story lines up with our actions and re-think how we relate to others.Yelp and Sunlight Labs are a perfect example of the former point.  We would like Quired to be an example for the latter.

Yes the pursuit of happiness is a valuable instrument in the fabric of our society but equally important if no not more so is the pursuit of understanding.  The power of the story has never been more relevant.

I can only muster up one word to describe my interview with jazz guitarist and my friend Mike Howard. "Resolve".

Anytime I find myself overwhelmed about my own business or my own personal stress, I think of Mike. I think of what it takes for someone who just only recently recovered from Myeloma cancer and a double leg amputation to maintain such a positive outlook on life.

I was there in the hospital after he went in to diagnose the problem and was there right after they took his legs. I never saw fear in his eyes - only resolve. I had a sense that the one thing getting him through this ordeal was to get back on stage to perform again. Mike told me time after time how excited he was to get back to work and his plans to record again.

This is the guy who had played with Donny Hathaway on the heralded live album. Who played with Marvin Gaye and Peggy Lee. Who would have plenty of opportunities to dwell on the past but is choosing to focus on the future.

As Mike pulled up to the studio for our interview, I immediately noticed something different as he got out of the van. How could I have not noticed? He was now walking on his new prosthetic legs. (He even did a little dance as he entered the studio.)

It was during the end of the interview while Mike played a few licks that I noticed what was happening. Mike was clearly releasing what has probably been bottled up for some time. His release came from his soul through his guitar and amplified not only by his amp but a potential audience who could share in this experience with him. 

I always like to find a message in all of my interviews. What I was able to pull out of this experience was a lesson for all of us. First, you can meet adversity head on or cower from it. If there was anyone who deserved a reason to be negative it would be Mike Howard, but as he told me. He chose life instead.

Secondly, communicating our own experiences can be a wildly powerful force in our lives. I know deep down Mike wanted this interview for more than vanity reasons. Mike knew it was time to share his experience to help himself and quite possibly many others.

I am proud to call Mike Howard my friend and I know many others who have stood by his side through these difficult times share in his excitement as he begins the next step of his journey. (Legendary Jazz guitarist, George Benson dropped by Mike's house recently to visit which Mike thoroughly enjoyed.)

I recently sat in on a jam session and have to tell you that Mike has never sounded better. He is working with a group of top notch players and in the process of working on original material which I am certain will lead to a recording studio in the near future.

If you are interested in learning more about Mike or would like to offer a donation to help with his medical bills, please consider visiting ww.MikeHowardJazz.com.

When a friend of mine asked me to volunteer to help with handicap parking for the Heard Museum Indian Fair in central Phoenix, I thought this would be a great way to help a friend and help my community.  I didn't realize it was going to be an opportunity to run a social experiment but I am never one to pass on the opportunity to analyze the minutiae of daily life.

The week before I was scheduled to volunteer, my friend had given me a run down on what to expect for the day. He had warned me I would spend a good portion of the day convincing people who are not handicapped to not park in the handicap only parking spaces.  I asked him why he was experiencing problems. Were signs not posted? He assured me they were but they did not stop people from trying to park in the spaces anyhow. 

Although I was looking forward to helping, I was not looking forward to arguing with people all day long. So I decided to bring two hand held signs I had crafted with the words “Handicap Parking Only”.  I felt certain this would reduce the amount of problems since I had envisioned people not reading the signs on the ground. As it turns out I was right (love when that happens – it is a rarity). My friend was very surprised to see an immediate decrease in the problems he had been experiencing.  It really stood out when he would forget to hold the sign. People would try to pull in immediately.

So what can we all take from this?

A. Some people are far less concerned for the convenience of others than they are for themselves.

B. People are intrinsically attracted to other humans for visual clues rather than objects.

C.Efficiencies and effectiveness can be gained from the smallest of changes.

On point A, some are more closely tied to their animal instincts than others. I could see people visibly angry by the fact they were not allowed in the lot. Yet most were incredibly gracious about it.

On point B, I had a feeling that physically holding a sign would not only create more of a visual clue than the sign on the ground but the person behind the sign would garner more attention because humans are by nature attracted to each other. You can’t have a relationship with a sign (well most of us can’t;-) but you can with another human. How we relate to each other is the cornerstone of communication. Tapping into this will yield plenty.

On point C, opportunities surround us everyday where we can improve our business, our lives and the welfare of others. When we fight change, we fight the opportunity to grow. 

How many “Handicap Parking Only” situations do you have in your life where there might be a better way just lurking around the corner?  Do you ever feel entrenched in a method or a view.  I know I do. More than I would like to admit. But if there is one thing I do well, it is to look at the world at a different angle. Sometimes it works for me and sometimes it doesn’t but I am willing to take the risk.

Are you?

When I had first heard of Cheni through a Facebook post by social media legend Gary Vanyerchuk, I was intrigued by Sunshine Suites approach to business. As I dug deeper into Sunshine's website and social media footprint, I began to realize this is not your average office landlord but an office community serving as an incubator for entrepreneurs. I knew an interview with Cheni would yield many lessons for our audience and a great opportunity to engage.

Throughout the interview, I was struck by the Cheni’s passion for life and a clear vision of how his business helps foster innovation and entrepreneurship. 

       Cheni Yerushalmi

What else would motivate a business owner to break convention by offering dedicated office space month to month for as low as $275/month in New York City? 

But the interview yielded much more than Cheni vamping about his own company, it offered insight into the rapidly changing culture of the entrepreneur. The maverick looking to break open the traditional silos confining the spirit of innovation who would rather share ideas than hold them close to the vest.  Where the customer drives  the ship and is considered a collaborative partner not just a paycheck.

Listen Cheni's interview and much more on Quired iTunes channel

Speaking of tenants, one of Sunshine Suites more notable clients is the venerable Gary Vanyerchuk, who is one of the most successful social media enthusiasts on the scene today.  With 1,000 entrepreneurs spread out over two locations, Sunshine Suites not only offers the comforts of an office space, but a constant stream of networking events and gatherings where top minds meet to share, discover and grow.

After the interview, one of my last few words to Cheni were, “when are you expanding to Phoenix? “  I could think of no better environment for my own company, Quired. Without a doubt!

Although there are no immediate plans for the Valley of the Sun, I can assure you, Sunshine Suites model of collaboration, innovation and community for the business owner is on the move.

I have included the Powerpoint presentation as well as video of the powerpoint on this page.

http://www.quired.com/indoforum

Whether you attended the live event or are viewing the presentation, I would appreciate your feedback and ideas on what I have shared.

Should you wish to learn more about Quired's social media strategies and how this could help your business navigate the ever changing waters of new marketing, please contact me at paul@quired.com

Social Media and Search is Moving Your Cheese

Think about it for a minute, in the not so distant past songs were bundled into albums. Was this for the benefit of the provider or the consumer. Face it, people are easier to control when you are able to limit the amount of information they have access to and the amount of choices they can make. With the advent of search engines and social networking, the consumer is gradually gaining more control. Now you download the songs you want -- right! With this new found empowerment it might be said, the consumer is rewarded which is certainly true but the provider can be rewarded as well.

It turns out in this new model, the ones who communicate the best are the ones who are rewarded. The provider is rewarded if they do a better job of communicating to the public how their offering meets the consumer's needs. The consumer is rewarded if they put more effort into researching the offering before making a purchase or participating which helps reduce buyers' remorse. In addition, if the provider is properly using a feedback loop they will be able to listen to the consumer and correct problems thereby improve the offering and rewarding both parties.

But here is the problem, many providers are not accustomed to operating this way. They have worked just fine in their silos for years shouting to the consumer and not listening. The behavior of their customers has changed but many of them have not. Now throw onto this the "Great Recession" and a complete re-calibration of how businesses market themselves and you now have a problem. Especially in the fact that social media does not offer the clear cut ROI traditional forms of marketing have offered in the past.

So what are providers to do now that their cheese has been moved? The only thing they can do is learn, adapt, experiment and most importantly share. They need to get out of their silos and open their eyes. They need to quit rolling their eyes at Twitter and see it for a research tool as much as a branding tool. They need to setup a Facebook fan page , start a discussion in a LinkedIn group , take a class on how to write a blog and basically move themselves into the realm of reality. They don't get to put this genie back in the bottle. The longer the provider waits, the larger the gap between their brand, their competitors and the consumer becomes.

They can argue all they want that it is all a waste of time but time is what they are are running out of. They need to realize the model is changing to reward those who cultivate relationships ahead of building a brand. The gig is up - consumers are asking to be understood not be taken for granted.

As we move from the information age into the communication age, business owner's cheese has not only been moved but has been broken into a million little pieces and sprinkled all over their territory. I'd say it's a good time to take the blinders off and start looking!

What do you think?