Christmas video - Digital Nativity Story

"The Digital Story of the Nativity"

Social network Christmas video

"A Social Network Christmas"

Tis the Season! 25 Days to Save

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"The Social Network" Movie

Have you gotten the chance to see "The Social Network" movie? I must say that I really enjoyed it. It was a well put together film with a great story. There is controversay about the facts portrayed in the movie. Realistically, only the developers of Facebook will know the truth behind it.

I have been very excited to see this film and feel it was well worth the money and the time to dive into it. I personally feel Mark Zuckerberg is brilliant. As a person who learned code in college, I can't begin to think about the skills that he & his team has. Well done.

Here is the link to the movie website: http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/

What did you think about the movie?

Facebook on Southpark vs Social Media for Business

Being from Colorado - a hand full of us have found Southpark funny - but the language is a bit much. I will warn you - on this video - there is language I don't condone. With that - I felt the need to share this video clip only as a comparison to how some of our clients are feeling about us through social media. You have been warned.

My challenge for you -

(1) Do you feel overwhelmed by social media?
(2) Are the reasons described in this video why you feel overwhelmed?
(3) How can these barriers be broken & how can your target client be found in a mess of confusion?

There are 5 questions I ask you . . .

(1) Are your customers searching for information about you - and cannot find you in these places?
(2) Are you present in these places but are having difficulty on how to realistically connect on a more personal level with you clients?
(3) Do you feel that presence on these sites wile loose or gain credibility?
(4) Do you feel you just have nothing to share & having a presence is more important than not sharing at all?
(5) Do you not have time to maintain or even communicate with those who would want to connect with you?

Think about the character in this video. The overwhelming obstacle he faces with others wanting to be a part of his connection & him not ever having dove into it. Do you feel that your customers could say the same about you?

For me - as an individual - I use Google too search for any information I could learn about a company or individual. I want to know - before I work with them - what their life is about. Even more important - if they have a similar interest. Do we have a common ground, common interest, or is this a person who hasn't shared anything about them & just created a page with minimal content to sell their product?

Think about what this looks like for you. Are you Stan?

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Xeesm Social Media CRM enhances business practices

Xeesm is a great “relationship” tool that lets you compile a public list of all of your social media profiles. It also allows you to follow others and build your network. The tool ultimately can be used for CRM; allowing contact communications, discussions and networking in a single platform. That functionality requires a monthly fee or you can utilize the (currently) free version available as your social media profiles database.





The tool gives you the capability to track when people view your contact card, how many visits you get a week, see how many people you have “favorite” or how many have “favorite” you. In the manage section it shows the top 10 people you visit most and which links off of your contact card people are clicking to follow you further.

The developers are constantly adding new applications, providing training, testing and open forums to enhance the usage and visibility of the program.

XeeURL is a function that lets you select your own Xeesm URL you can distribute to your connections.

Engage! Is an application within the tool which allows you to join multiple Xeesm groups, post your own lists featuring your blog or website to share with your customers and contacts.

Flights are groups of people engaged on projects, events, engagements or plans with contacts where you can generate leads, assign tasks, arrange appointments and add “onboarding” contacts.

Onboarding is when you add contacts in Xeesm, to an application or opportunity. You select from your full list of Xeesm contacts.

Partner Collaboration is a partner management system.

Vendor Relations is a vendor management system.


The newest launch is the Edge!; the social CRM tool. The tool is designed for cutting edge networkers to establish and track sales engagement opportunities, forecasting, and easy messaging to all contacts, reporting and unlimited contact groups. You can then invite others to participate in the opportunity, add products and then connect with your contacts. The system allows you to make personal notes about the client or contact. It has buttons that let you check off where your relationship is with this contact i.e.: connect, explore, open, support, advocate. You can select the progress of the opportunity, view history and once the opportunity is “won” it moves the deal to your customer list. The concept is a “people based CRM” which focuses on contact “relationship strength instead of account based CRM”.

Check out the functionality & let me know your thoughts.

Be aware of who is presenting information about your company online

Buyer beware translates into owners beware in social media. Hiring someone to fill the shoes of your social media manager can make since in regard to time, but unless the individual is personally invested in your company goals, priorities and vision, you will need to invest in a lot of clean up later on.

Management consists of the following items:

• maintain branding
• management of profiles
• response and management of direct messages
• management and increase of followers
• management of product release campaigns
• active viewer response & interaction
• effectively enhancing SEO, SMO (keyword optimization)
• correctly creating profiles to maximize visibility on social media sites
• reporting traffic, communication and hits effectively

If you aren't getting these things from your social media support team, then you aren't correctly using your profiles or getting ROI on your time or investment.

These service can be outsourced or handled internally, but you need to have a clearly defined scope of work and milestone meetings to constantly revise or add to your marketing plan. Your social media solution should ebb & flow with times and market changes.

Contact us today to see how we can help you achieve these goals.

Car Magnet Advertisement or Facebook Page?

This is kind of a strange comparison, but depending on your business advertising initiatives, you may consider either option. Here is the disadvantages to Social Media sites including Facebook vs putting a magnet, window decal or painting your car with a mobile advertisement.

Ads on automobiles - things to consider:

(1) Effective visual appearance and targeted branding for your market area (where you drive - you will have visibility)

(2) Your presence is as effective as your driving - people will not only judge you by your car ad, but the quality of your driving

(3) Does your target customer have the ability to write down your phone number or website address while driving?


(4) If you have a fish on your bumper or any other bumper sticker - will this distract or attract your ideal customer?

(5) Are you targeting customers that don't fit your model or services? Anyone & everyone can have the capacity to see your ad - but is your service offering tailored for any person or a specific market sector?




Ads through Social Media - such as Facebook:

(1) The page you develop is easily marketable and can reach to those within and outside of your market area

(2) You can tailor postings, visibility and networks to those you choose to market to

(3) You can invest in pay per click ads by specific topic or keyword searches


(4) The "Like" button is easy to select & your followers can have visibility to your promotions and contact information real time

(5) Your page can be "Suggested" to others without passing out your personal business card or flyer




Both initiatives may be appealing to your business, if you happen to select both, be sure to list your website for quick visibility to your social media sites.

What is your strategy with Social Media?

There are a lot of ways to promote awareness of topic you are interested in.

Have you heard of the Rabbi who delivered the passover message via twitter? Great way to spread the word about your message. Tweets are timeless & posts never get removed from the database. I think this was a brilliant campaign. http://tinyurl.com/3323cch

Have you heard about @OldSpice promoting through youtube & twitter?
"The Old Spice Guy Now Making Custom Videos for Fans via Social Media"

View the article here: http://mashable.com/2010/07/13/old-spice-gu/?utm_source=TweetMeme&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=retweetbutton
Well done @OldSpice !

How will you spread your message to the masses?

Discover what social media sites your customers have presence

So let's take time to build our profiles on all of the popular Social Media sites & then find our customers? Hmmmm, this actually isn't the way it should be.

Let me ask you the following questions & you let me know if you agree with the answers?

• Should your customer have to build a profile on a site where they have no common interest? No.

• Should you take time to build your profile on a site that your customers don't exist - just because it is popular? No.

• Should you find your customers first, then develop your profile on those particular sites? Yes.

This post is straight forward. The purpose of networking online is to connect with others of like business, like interest & like industry.

Don't waste your time doing something that isn't worth doing because you will be harder to find & connect to.

Importance of "Find Us on Facebook"

Why are businesses updating their website, blog, commercials and printed material with "Find Us on Facebook"? Is it possible they know something you don't know? Facebook has created a visibility section to their website which allows businesses to gain a following, promote special events, coupons, launch new products and share information about their company in a centralized place where their "Fans" can "Like" their page and get up to date information about their company real time. Sure - it is great in theory, but what can you do to make this work for you?

It makes since to take some time to setup a profile, post a few pictures and a few catchy sales pitches on occasion, but how do these businesses get their followers? What are they doing that can spread the word? Or have you seen businesses have created a page, with a follower base, but you never see anything from them?

It is worse to create a page & never manage it - than it is to not have a page at all. I would suggest if you have a website, create a space on a medium where you know your customers can reach you. It doesn't stop there. It takes time & thought into accurately promoting your company, your services and gaining a follower base. I have seen too many times the aggressive vs. passive way of marketing online & neither is beneficial. Here are a few ideas that may help you.

(1) Schedule your posts - determine if once a day or once a week makes the most since for your company. These time frames are drastically different, but if you are posting an add, coupon or new service, you don't want to offer those posts more than once a week. The daily posts should focus on something of like interest & not force a sale on your customers.
***Example for a park or zoo:
* It is a beautiful day to be at the park - don't forget your sunscreen!
* The squirrels are finding ways to fill their bellies at the park, try to clean up before you leave.

* Today we are offering 50% off admission to the first 30 people upon opening! - Here is your pitch
* What is your favorite thing about playing outdoors?
* Today we found columbines growing in the garden by the oak tree, they are beautiful this time of year.

***Example for a technology person:
* Read today that Google is launching their own Internet
* RT: @aaaaaaa Great article about computer optimization click: (shortened URL)
* Off to a lunch meeting with a BNI consultant, let me know if you would like to connect.
* Check out our new service offering: 30% off of computer clean up and virus scans (shortened URL to website) - Here is your pitch
* Excited to have climbed my first 14er this past weekend in Buena Vista (shortened URL to a picture or website)

You see how your customers can become familiar with your interests, getting to know the personality of the one posting & yet you are inviting them to follow what your posts may be.

(2) If you aren't connecting, sharing and showing others that you also take interest in them, then you aren't reaching anyone.
* If you visit a website or blog, post a comment letting them know you were there.
* If you see someone has re-tweeted or commented on your posting, be sure to respond with acknowledgement.
* Give your viewers something of interest to keep bringing them back to your page.
* Contests are great ways to draw in new visitors.

(3) If you post an announcement to multiple contacts, don't post it in a message format where those receiving can reply to all. These replies will cause a lot of unnecessary emails to your followers & they will lose interest in you quickly.

To summarize - if you aren't out there, no one will find you. If you are out there & aren't posting regularly, then no one will have interest in what you have to offer. Be careful with how you post & be aware of what you post as to spark interest, rather than lose interest.

"Never bash a competitor, vendor, partner or individual"

When it comes to competition - some may think that spreading a negative message about a competitor may boost their edge, but in fact it encourages a more negative insight on the one "bashing". As more companies are figuring out how to prospect and sell to their markets online, you want to main the highest level of respect from your clients. By mentioning a competitors name in a post or ad, you are giving visibility to their brand and in turn inviting your customers to ask the question, "Why are they so focused on that company instead of their own?" Think about this as you watch commercials on TV. A simple commercial about a burger combo from a fast food restaurant vs a ridiculously small burger combo from a competitive restaurant may seem innocent as they don't post the name of the competitor or the logo, but if you have ever eaten at their competitors restaurant, then you know exactly who they are marketing about. They are saying that their food is better. It may be - but now they are making the buyer consider why they ate at the other place - still keeping that other place fresh in their mind.

If you are promoting your own product or service, don't cross compare. State the facts such as: Here is our menu, here are the calories for each item, here is how we prepare our food, here is our great rate, here is why you would enjoy eating with us. Don't state: we are better then Joe Bob because our burgers are bigger than theirs, our prices are lower than theirs, our servers smile more . . . you get the picture.

This goes hand in hand with "bashing" an individual, personal or through business. Never say to a prospect, "you would like me better because I don't wear blue like Sally Sue" or "I like to drive on the left side of the street which makes my driving safer than Jackie Joe". These are ridiculous statements, but again you understand that presenting yourself in a different way, instead of comparing & competing in a way that promotes a negative outlook on you or another, let your offering do the talking. You are good at what you do because that is what you know best. Stand firm in that. People will choose you because of your integrity & your quality offering; not because you picked out why you are better than someone else.

Food for thought.

Welcome to the new blog!

After providing my Social Media Support Services through my company, Clere Communications, I had wanted to launch a separate division just for me to equip and enable business people in social media. It is something I have enjoyed very much over the last few years for Clerecomm and now I want to share it with you independent of the support of my other company.

So with that said, Welcome! Please feel free to provide feed back to my posts, tweets, etc.