Today I’d like to take advantage of my social circle for purely personal reasons.  Our oldest son Rian is a senior this coming year.  He’s getting his ducks in a row for the after school life, but for now we”ve got lots to focus on, including things like class ring, senior trip and photos.

That last one is what I’d like my social circle to help me with.  You see, a local St. Louis Photographer named Holly McCaig is conducting a sort of similar social media experiment of her own.  She’s giving away a $2700+ photo package to a senior this year.  That senior has to submit a non-professional photo and then the fans vote on the winner.  It’s called the Hottie Contest.  And I’d like your help to get my son to win.

How You Can Help Rian Win in Just Two Clicks

Here are the steps to help – there are just two.

1. First you must Like the Holly McCaig Photography page on Facebook.  Don’t worry, once the contest is over you can always unlike it – but please don’t unlike it until after the contest is over!
2. Second you need to Like Rian’s photo in her contest album.  His pic is the last one, he’s sitting on our back deck and has a black shirt with stuff on it.  Scroll to the bottom of the page with his pic and click the Like button.

That’s it – I really appreciate your help and hope that the social world pulls through for a winner!

…and to you it seems like the most important post of your career.  This is the one.  You’ve got some great info and you’re ready to bust on the scene with a groundbreaking update.

It may be good info, it may bring you a ton of traffic, and get lots of inbound links, but it’s not your most important post.

In my opinion, your most important post is the last one you did.  The post you did last night before you went to bed was your status for a good 8 hours or so, assuming you got back online the next morning.  That’s one third of one day just for one status post.

Since many businesses only post updates during office hours, there is a potential of that Friday afternoon post being your ‘status’ for up to 60 hours.  That’s a long time in the online world.

Why does it matter?

Your last status update is your resume. Think about it.  When someone (say, a recruiter, boss, or business partner or customer) decides to check out the referral they got about you from a colleague, what will they see?  What will they learn about you in just 5 minutes online?  Will it be good, bad, or ugly?

Ouch.

And what if you’re a business owner or the main account for a business but sometimes you use your twitter feed to post personal things as well? How long would you want this to stay up as the first post someone sees when they visit your page?

With social media taking up more and more room in the media, your profiles are going to be much more visible.  Google already shows tweets in some organic results, and now Yahoo has announced a similar function.  Soon (if not already) it’ll be pretty easy to find out anything and everything about you or your company with just a few searches.

And this shouldn’t scare you away from inviting the social media craze into your business.  Embrace it, but understand that everything you say is being seen, plain and simple.  From a business standpoint, you gotta be careful.  That last post, in my opinion, is your most important one yet.

1. What first spurred you to get involved with social media for your business?

Well, the office supplies business is one that is rooted in old school methodology…from top to bottom, and as a result, I thought the sales process was a bit primitive…cold calling or canvassing door to door, trying to get your giant catalog in the hands of buyers, it works if you put enough numbers into the funnel, but it is also very hard to differentiate yourself from your competition…so I thought social media might present an opportunity to better leverage my sales efforts, since I am a small company, and get my message to more people than I could otherwise, in a way that the competition maybe had not caught on to yet.

2. Tell us about your online strategy. What online tools are you using now to grow your customer base?

I blog about office supplies at execdeals.com, I use email marketing, and I have an e-commerce site for my local office supplies business. And I use social media like Twitter, of course. I spend a good deal of time trying to tie all of it together and get them working for each other, so to speak. I am starting to try out some other things, like a Facebook fan page, some video…but the whole strategy is in constant flux..I am always trying new things, backing off others that don’t seem to be working.

Also, fairly recently we developed this idea of creating ‘niche’ e-commerce sites. By niche I mean sites focusing on one product line within the office products world. With the 100,000 item universe of office products, it’s a way we feel we can get the most SEO bang for our buck, as well as do really well with our customers in terms of price and service. We just launched the first one…it specializes in paper shredders.

3. What’s the ‘one thing’ that social media has taught you about your business?

That I can’t use it to directly sell office supplies, actually…they are a commodity item people can and will buy from anywhere as long as it is cheap, and they don’t really spend a lot of time worrying about them…which is very different from selling something handmade or unique. At the end of the day, you can get the same Sharpies at the same price anywhere you go. I can compete with the chains on price, but I also realized I can not afford to ‘out-discount’ or out-market them to get my new customers, and people don’t want to hear about the price of my sharpies anyway. What I can do is to use social media to develop relationships, let people get to know me, get to know them, further my network, be informative, etc.

Social media has taught me that my best customers buy from me because they like dealing with me, or they like my delivery driver, or they like that I know their order history and they can call and ask for ‘those yellow things’ they got two orders ago and I will know what they mean…they see that as a value. They know my copy paper will be at least close to Sam’s price…but they also know my driver will bring it into their office and put it where they want it…so, maybe if it’s a dollar more a case, that is actually cheaper. People that want to call 10 places and check the prices of everything they need, or scan a bunch of websites…I probably don’t present as much value to them.  Problem is, there is probably more of the latter, so like I said, we are trying to find a balance, and it is all very much a work in progress.

4. What was your biggest marketing tactic success in 2009?  Your worst?

The tactic I was most successful with was putting my focus on SEO. learning about SEO and getting found online is where I am going to see the biggest return on my investment, so just starting to embrace that idea was my biggest success. Your seminar, Will, was a big part of realizing that.

Worst? lots of little things did not go over as well as I hoped, but I think I avoided any big disasters for the most part.

5. What was your biggest marketing blunder? How did it affect your business?

I think my biggest blunder was being ‘spammy’. I don’t really know that it affected my business, other than maybe some lost opportunities, but it finally hit me that it is better to engage and be informative, even educational, but not pushy. The odds that somebody cares about, much less needs, the office supply I was touting at any given moment is slim…but being helpful, engaging, informative and maybe even developing a relationship, …well, hopefully that gets you remembered when the need does arise.

6. How do you compete against the bigger names in your industry?

Exec partners with a distributor that is a huge publicly traded company. They deal only with other independents like me, all over the country, and use their enormous buying power to keep me on an even playing field price-wise. They use state of the art fulfillment and shipping equipment and they also help out with the marketing..,they provide lots of materials to send out. They also maintain the electronic catalog of over 100,000 items.

7. Are there any new tools that you’re playing with that haven’t caught on to the mainstream, but are working well for you?

I wish I was…but I don’t think I am. However, within my industry, as best I can tell, there are not many other companies like mine blogging and using Facebook and things like that to educate and inform their customers, so in that sense, even though mine versions are still new and fledgling a bit, I feel like those things are slowly starting to gain traction for me.

8. What is your favorite part of what you do? Your least favorite?

My favorite part is working with my customers, especially when we can save the day for them by getting them something for a deadline or that they otherwise did not think was possible. If they succeed and look good, then so does Exec…my least favorite part is probably the same as everyone’s: all the administrative stuff…the paperwork, it is a necessary evil, but I feel like it takes me away from the stuff I really enjoy

9. Greg, I know you are also the main force behind the St. Louis Social Media & Tech Report.  Keeping up with the latest SM events, news and happenings must take a lot of time.  Where do you get your information for the site?

Yep, that is me too…back when I started trying to incorporate social media into my company I thought I could document that process in a blog and help others with doing the same thing, but trying to do a ‘how-to’ blog just was not for me…I am not that technical of a writer. However, I enjoy blogging and there was (and still is) a lot of interest in social networking events around town, and people in St. Louis coming together and interacting with each other…so after a few early attempts at the how-to aspect, I had the idea for the St. Louis Social Media Report, and it has just kind of gone from there. It remains a work in progress, and just a hobby, but honestly, it has also been a good networking tool for me as well, I have met some good people through that blog and the events it talks about.

As for getting the information, at this point, I still go out and find almost all the news and events myself, which does take a lot of time…although I have set up lots of twitter searches and google alerts that get passed into my RSS reader that tip me off to most of them. I am trying to develop a network of ‘tipsters’ to send me stuff, that and asking for a little more input from others is a goal for 2010, but so far, it is almost all me.

It does take a lot of time, but I enjoy it and the response has been real nice. I have a few interesting ideas for it too, so I am excited to see where it leads next year.

10. Do you recommend any books or blogs that have influenced you or helped your business grow?

Actually, it just occurred to me the other day that there are a ton of great books out there that I want to read, but I have not been reading actual books enough lately, mostly because I read a ton of blogs and other stuff online.

So I guess let me point out a few blogs I like:
Duct Tape Marketing this one helps a lot with ideas for marketing my business
Lifehacker – always cool information on there
ReadWriteWeb – a solid web 2.0 blog
Ribeezie.com – a little more obscure maybe than those others, but a good take on social networking.

As many of you know, I’m the moving force behind Market Saint Louis, a twice-a-year business conference that focuses on teaching local St Louis businesses the ways of online optimization, advertising and more.  Speakers from around the country fly in to share their expertise on various subjects, from SEO to Pay per Click and Analytics.  2010 is going to be even bigger, with the conferences featuring two separate tracks – one for beginners and one for businesses that are already in the game to some level.

The event isn’t cheap (although the pre-agenda tickets aren’t very expensive) and some small businesses may have a hard time shelling out several hundred dollars in this economy just to learn how to spend more time and money on the Internet.  But it’s crucial for every business to be online now.

To help quell the fears of those business owners, I’ve partnered up with the Jefferson County Library to teach a series of free classes (yes, I said free) on Online Marketing, Social Media and more.  This series of classes will run January through March, and will be very limited both in amount as well as seating.

If you’re wondering just how your competition gets their website to the top of Google searches for items you sell, you’ll learn. If you know your business needs to be on Twitter or Facebook, but you don’t know how to use these tools, you’ll learn.  And if you want to grow your online sales, you’ll learn.

Scheduled Dates

Twitter Basics and Tips

Jan 14 – 9:30AM to Noon or March 4 – 6:00PM to 8:30PM
Learn how to set up a Twitter account and how to ‘tweet’.  You’ll learn about some great tools that will help you get more followers, find great information about your interests, and how to utilize some ‘behind the scenes’ tricks to get the most out of your new account.

Marketing Your Business Website

Feb 4 – 9:30 AM to Noon  or Mar 25 – 6:00PM to 8:30PM
Do you wonder why your website isn’t listed on Yahoo! or other search engines? Are you clueless about search marketing techniques that can draw customers to your site? We will cover topics such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), online advertising tips and avenues, along with ways to increase your website traffic along with other offline marketing ideas.

Social Media for Business – Leverage Community to Build Your Brand

Feb 11 – 6:00PM to 8:30PM
Learn how to leverage blogging, video and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to grow your business.

Download the flyer / schedule

Sign Up Now

All classes have very limited seating and will be at the Arnold branch of the Jefferson County Library.  To sign up, call 636-296-5171.

These will be the only classes offered this Spring.  For more information on the upcoming Market Saint Louis conference (and to get the cheap ticket price) visit MarketSTL.com

In short, the book goes over how businesses (or individuals that want to brand themselves) can use social media in ways that work to their advantage.  Things such as gaining trust with your followers, providing them with value, etc.  It’s an awesome read and one of the very few books I’m passionate about recommending to others.

There’s an etiquette (and strategy) in promoting your business on sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc. You don’t want to come across as a spammer, pushing out sale after self-serving sale and think that your followers will hang around.  Everyone loves to buy, but no one likes to be sold to.

Today’s perfect example of this is a conversation I had with Ferraro’s Pizza, a Saint Louis joint that uses Twitter to promote themselves.  Before this week, their Twitter account was abandoned, unused and dormant since mid-October.  Then today, the account suddenly pipes back into action – promoting their great lunch sales over and over again.  In a matter of 9 minutes, Feraro’s sent out 5 tweets about their specials. That’s. Excessive.

Not only that, but previous tweets were also self serving.  There’s no value.  There’s no recipes or coupons or interesting pizza facts. Just me me me.

Anyway, after the fourth self-serving tweet in 7 minutes, I had to say something. It was getting annoying. So I thought I’d go the “are you paying attention to your followers” route.  Sure, it was vague, but I wasn’t actually expecting them to pay attention anyway.

Two minutes and one more promotional tweet later, I took the more direct approach.

A plea to stop the spamming.

Soon I get a direct message from Feraro (I’m assuming it’s the owner) asking me if I’d like him to stop tweeting.

(from TweetDeck – I couldn’t get twitter to display this DM, not sure why. Maybe he deleted it or something, I dunno.)

The link I sent him goes to Brogan’s book mentioned above.  At this point I’m still trying to be helpful in a somewhat non-asshole kind of way. Well, as best as I can.

So here’s where it gets really interesting.  A minute later, this is posted to Feraro’s main feed:

If I were a female of African American descent, I probably would have just exclaimed “Oh no he di’nt”.  Seriously, Mr. Feraro, you just missed out on a tremendous opportunity to grow your business.

A potential customer asks you to stop spamming, and you go the insult route? Is that how you think you’ll grow your following?

But it gets better.  A minute later, another pizza company in Saint Louis, Caitos, replys with an absolutely beautiful response:

Now there’s a company that understands social media. No pushy sale sale sale, just a polite word at the right time. Awesome.

It reminds me of Southwest Airlines, a very active online brand that monitors their competitors brands on Twitter and such.  If someone complains of their Delta flight being delayed, Southwest will reply with a simple “Next time try us, we’ll give you $xx off”. Smart. Non-intrusive. And the offer will probably be taken up.  They win.

Finally, to finish off this terrific example of how not to promote yourself online, Mr. Feraro adds one last thing to the conversation:

Remember when your sibling used to say “He started it!”?

Good (or should I say bad) job, Feraro’s Pizza. Perhaps you should go get Trust Agents now. And you might want to throw in an extra topping of Trackur too. You’re gonna need it.

UPDATE: Caito’s was nice enough to send me a “Twitter TECHLH Special”. I like to call it the Smackdown Special. Print out your coupon and so getcha some damn good pizza!

I can’t go on living with you this way.  We used to hang out all the time. You’d make my day better and show me new things that I didn’t realize existed.  Anytime I came to see you, you’d give me some great times. You and I would spend so much time together, walking on the beach or even just riding the bus. But things aren’t like they used to be.

Plus, you’d never come see me.  You wouldn’t introduce me to your friends. Honestly, our one-way relationship is strained.

Ok I’m just going to come out and say it – I’ve met someone new.  Someone that gives me just what I need.  She lets me choose the way I feel good, who and what I want to hear and even lets me easily reply quickly.  She introduces me to her friends with similar interests, and gives me more ‘feel good’ connections. She even lets me directly respond with her friends that create interesting items for me to consume. She teases me with quick blog titles and links that expose me to new industry writers and information.

Sure, you do some of that, too.  But the fact is I don’t really see a huge need for you any more.

And yes, I’ve heard the stories about her dating others. But that’s ok, too, because she isn’t afraid to share.  If another one of her friends see something that they like, she’s not afraid to share it with me too.  Yeah, I know that’s a little orgy-ish, but in the end I feel happy knowing that I got to experience something that I may have never done had it not been for her being in the middle.

Even weirder, she encourages me to share her goods with others.  And this sharing actually helps me with other relationships.

Her name is Twitter, and she has replaced your place in my heart.  I’m sorry.

Will