Aspire to Inspire
As many of you have witnessed from my social media updates, I am a huge football fan. I became a fan of football, of the San Diego Chargers, when I was ten years old. I remember my dad watching a game and whichever team was on offense kept running the ball. This to me looked like men lining up, the QB shouting and then all the men piling on the guy with the ball. I had to ask my dad, “What is the point of this game?” Through several Sunday lessons, I found a sport and a team which I loved to watch and cheer for.
The following season, my family started attending the Chargers pre-season training camps. They were held at the UCSD campus, a casual atmosphere. Once the practice was over, the players made themselves available for autographs and pictures, and friendly chats with young fans like me. While I loved shaking hands with Dan Fouts and taking pictures with cutie pie Rolf Benirschke, it was Kellen Winslow who stole my heart. Kellen would not stand in the line of players edging toward the exit, but would sit on the grass and wait for us kids to come and join him. From there, he would talk to us, shake our hands, ask us our names and talk to us about football, about school, about life. He was the coolest of the cool. To this day, I still rave how much I love him and revere him as my all-time favorite player. His talent on the field is unquestionable. But it was those moments on the grass which deepened my admiration for him as a man and teacher, and cemented my love for the game of football.
My friend and client, Mimi Donaldson is a professional keynote speaker and also a football fanatic. She recently wrote the book, Necessary Roughness: New Rules for the Contact Sport of Life. She is brilliant at relating the game of football to business strategies and life lessons. Amidst a busy schedule of speaking, Mimi met Chrissy Carew who is also an author of a football-themed book called The Insightful Player: Football Pros Lead a Bold Movement of Hope. Mimi’s book has 32 chapters to honor each team. Chrissy’s book profiles 32 players (current, retired or HOF). An immediate friendship and business collaboration was formed. Chrissy’s book recently landed in my mailbox. And apart from being excited to read the profiles of greats like Roger Staubach and current dynamo Antonio Garay of the San Diego Chargers, I noticed that the foreword was written by the CBS Sportscaster, and long-time host of CBS’s “The NFL Today” James Brown. I jumped right in.
In my many years as a host of CBS’s “The NFL Today” and other sports shows, I’ve met thousands of professional athletes, a substantial number whom have been football players. Many NFL players have inspired me with their insights, humility, sense of spirituality, and their altruism. Others were more focused on superficial pursuits.
I often ask the question – what’s the difference between these two kinds of players? Why do some men in the NFL recognize their potential for not just playing a great game, or even winning a Super Bowl ring, but using their global platform to inspire their many fans, especially the youngest, on to personal greatness? Showing kids that hard work and constant practice can turn you into a fine linebacker is a good thing. Demonstrating that a strong set of ethics and values, along with character and a healthy dose of humility, will pave the way to a meaningful life is undeniably even more important.
JB’s insightful comments, which do not end with these two paragraphs, speak to the heart of my work and the vision of Beaming Bohemian. I am working with university athletic departments to educate, enable and empower student athletes to build their personal brand so they may move forward in life with high aspirations, a reason to share knowledge, and a deep desire to inspire others (also graduate as loyal alumni). Athletic departments build a stronger brand by supporting and promoting their athletes, encouraging social network use, and benefit by expanding donor base via student networks.
I have also communicated similar concepts to the San Diego Chargers, because I believe there are a host of wonderful players on the team, like Antonio Garay, who would do well by sharing their stories with our community and connecting with fans online. All teams in the NFL could take advantage of this strategy, for that matter. Beaming Bohemian motivates individual players and the team to recognize their full potential for social good. I’d like players and their team to develop the attitude of the great Kellen Winslow. Imagine the amount of memorable moments just waiting to be realized and how many young hearts could capture that positive attitude and winning spirit. Modern media allows us instant connections, public conversations and direct access to all fans. Through these mediums, opportunities online and in real life are abundant for creating those golden moments reminiscent of a great hero of the game sitting on the grass to spend time with the youngest and most impressionable fans.
The image I’ve included in this post is borrowed from bleacherreport.net. Anyone who knows football knows that this photo was taken at the end of the San Diego vs. Miami game in January 1982, otherwise known as “The Epic in Miami” where San Diego won 41 to 38 in overtime. The Epic in Miami is often referred to as one of the greatest games ever played. Winslow caught a playoff record 13 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown, while also blocking a field goal with seconds remaining to send the game to overtime in one of the greatest single player efforts in NFL history. What made Winslow’s performance all the more memorable was the fact that during the game he was treated for a pinched nerve in his shoulder, dehydration, severe cramps, and received three stitches in his lower lip. After the game, a picture of Winslow being helped off the field by his teammates became an enduring image in NFL Lore. The following week was also legendary as the Chargers were defeated by the Cincinnati Bengals in what has come to be known as the Freezer Bowl. (Some text from Wikipedia)
“No plan” is a solid idea
If you haven’t yet read the book REWORK by 37Signals founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson, I recommend you pick up a copy. As a first time business owner, I found their advice and viewpoint refreshing and motivating.
One lesson has been ringing very true in the past couple of weeks. Under “Takedowns” in the first section of their book, they discuss that planning is more a form of fortune telling. They proclaim is that long-term business plans are a lot like guessing. One sentence I underlined on the page was, “Plans let the past drive the future.”
This would most certainly be the case from my last post as Group Director, Sales & Marketing for Apple Tree Hospitality in SE Asia. My arrival in December of 2008 could not have been at a worse time in the status of the global economy. Between August and December that year, the travel industry flipped upside down and sideways. It was NOT a pretty sight. The past could not have dictated that overseas travel agents and tour operators would not be able to fill large groups as they had in 2007 and therefore cancel numerous dates booked on the calendar. The past could not have predicted that agents would want to stop booking one year out, but 90 days prior and therefore change the terms of contracts for groups. Trade show attendance turned more into lessons about what was happening in overseas markets and changing travel trends than it was gaining new clients. The global events were not predicted or labeled anywhere in the 2009 business plans.
The changes in the travel industry pushed us to drive business online and build entirely new websites for our boutique group of properties. We had to be more open to last minute bookings locally, push this even, and “go with the flow,” bending to the changes in traveller habits and new business methods of tour operators.
So when I returned to the US and launched my website and business in May, I did not write a specific business plan. I initially planned to offer services in naming, branding, copywriting and marketing consultation. I wanted to play to my strengths and my joys.
What’s happened over the last few months is that I have had numerous conversations about my business, about what’s happening in San Diego industries, trends in the US, and certainly what’s happening online, and I’m finding that my focus is being shifted. My contacts are leading me down a path which was unimaginable to me at the beginning of this year, but now is so wonderfully possible. I’m seeing my business, my clients, and my future in a whole new light. It is extremely exciting.
I spoke in my last post about being accepting of change. And while this piece hints at that, I’d like to suggest “not planning” is more an encouragement to be more open. Be open and be flexible. Listen to what your friends, contacts, clients, …what the world is telling you. Take a moment to realize when new opportunities are staring you in the face. Be willing to change directions. Fly by the seat of your pants on occasion. I’m enormously amazed at how wonderfully things are falling into place and what big cheers I am hearing from all the right people. I’m glad I am ready to shift into a new gear.
Working in the industries I have in the past, I have always subscribed to having a “solid” business and marketing plan. While it is hard to let go of that completely, I am finding, with the advice of REWORK and the nature of all these fabulous circumstances, that a rough outline and a red notebook filled with scribbles of ideas are working just as well. I do have goals, a vision of what I want my business to become and what clients I want to serve, but I’m also OK with writing them down in pencil.
Q: Would you feel comfortable without a business plan, or do you find that structure helps you succeed? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and comments.
Who Moved My News Feed?
Do we all remember the revolutionary and #1 Best Seller Who Moved My Cheese?
Who Moved My Cheese? is the story of four characters living in a “Maze” who face unexpected change when they discover their “Cheese” has disappeared. Sniff and Scurry, who are mice, and Hem and Haw, little people the size of mice, each adapt to change in their “Maze” differently. In fact, one doesn’t adapt at all…
Soon after the book was released, I was working as the Member Relations Director at the City Club on Bunker Hill in Los Angeles, a ClubCorp private club. We all got a copy of this book. And we all read with enthusiasm how to adapt, monitor and even anticipate change. Or should I say, “Enjoy change!” Yes, it was a little, um, cheesy, but it worked for the corporate environment I lived in.
In 1998, we barely had regular e-mail communication with members, much less an interactive website or social platform to cultivate our membership community. We were constantly looking for creative ways to retain members, maintain ongoing communication (remember committee meetings?) and increase involvement through events at the City Club. We craved change.
Now we are all navigating unchartered digital waters, much of which is exciting, revolutionary and completely life changing. When one company improves its product and implements new features which changes the look of the profile page we are used to seeing, we scream and whine and moan and complain that we don’t like it. Blog posts have been written left and sideways picking apart what is great, what may be scary and what we are just bound to dislike.
May I ask a favor? Can we grab on the spirit of 1998 and remember how to embrace change? Can we appreciate the ever-evolving landscape happening online and celebrate a launch, an update, a design change, a new way of doing things? For if there were none, we would be blogging our brains out about how nothing is new or exciting or fresh. We would demand upgrades and increased user-friendliness and cooler graphics and quicker loading times.
Change is the only constant when it comes to the digital world. The cheese will always be on the move. And we must remain expectant.
Make that list!
Just as I was preparing this blog post about list functions available on social networks, Facebook announced that it is improving Friend Lists. Great timing! I was actually a bit surprised to read that, according to Mashable, less than 5% of users take advantage of Facebook Lists. I’m a huge advocate of organizing your contacts, and hope that these upgrades will encourage Facebook fanatics to better manage their friends.
Here’s a few methods for creating effective lists so you may better target your messages.
Who are your friends on Facebook? How do you know them? Are they all your high school buds, or do you have some colleagues mixed in there? Any random people that you accepted and don’t have the heart to unfriend?
The promised improvements aim to make a sweeping division between “Close Friends” and “Acquaintances,” which you will have to update manually. This will affect what information appears in your News Feed, with your “Close Friends” more prominently appearing. There is also the reference to “Smart Lists” which will automatically create lists for you according to work, school, family or city. It’s a good start in helping you manage these connections.
Lists are super effective in Facebook, especially because you can maximize your privacy settings and make sure that the information you post is seen only by the people you want to see it.
In my Facebook account, I have people separated by how I know them. So my high school friends are separate from my UCSB pals, people I’ve met on my world travels all fall under their own group as do former colleagues, friends in LA and now San Diego. I even have a “random” list, for people who I felt obligated to add, but who I really don’t want to see all my information and posts.
Taking the time to manage your privacy settings makes it easier to manage who sees your posts. If you have your lists in order, it’s easy to customize your settings, versus adding people one by one for restricted items. Once the improvements are in place, you will be able to easily select who will view your post before you post your status.
The new list features are set to roll out this week. Whether it’s a play to compete with Google+ (which inherently groups together your contacts in Circles) or just a great new set of services, it’s a tool you should take advantage of for more efficient posting.
While I cannot select certain lists to tweet to (wouldn’t that be awesome), I am still diligent about creating lists in Twitter. In my account, these are more likely divided by category or topic. For example: Global News, Marketing, Sports, Travel, etc. What I love about the list function in Twitter is that I can add any feed to a list, but I don’t have to follow them. So most of the Twitter handles on my Global News list… I’m not actually following, I just make a point to check the list feed once or twice a day to see if there is any news worth sharing, or if anything catches my interest. It’s the same with celebrities. I know I won’t get a follow-back, so I just add them to my celebrity list for quick access to the Tweeps I like and care to share news about. Example:
It’s also a good idea to check lists of those you do enjoy following. You can subscribe to their lists if you don’t want to follow every person on it or work to put together entire list of your own. I’ve attached a screenshot of @DiscoverSD (a great resources to find out anything and everything about San Diego!). You can see the drop down menu of lists Michelle has created. For example, “San Diego Events.”
When I click on this list, I can either view the recent tweets of folks on this list, or see all of the accounts followed. You can see the “Follow this List” button, which you can click and add to your own lists in your account.
I also find that I peruse my lists often looking for new people to follow. I tend to find more relative Tweeps and people who have similar interests or offer great information. This manner is often more on point than the people Twitter suggests.
One more function in the Twitter lists – You can make your list public or keep it private. If you’ve collected leads or hot contacts all in one list, that might be something you don’t want to share with everyone else. But perhaps your favorite charities, news sources or celebrities…that’s something fun to share and can possibly increase your influence online.
HootSuite
The opportunity to create lists on Hootsuite, if this is your chosen dashboard, also exists. You can either create lists from scratch or import from Twitter. Importing from Facebook is not available at this time. Importing your Twitter lists could not be easier. Here’s a link direct from Hootsuite: http://help.hootsuite.com/entries/115076-how-to-import-twitter-lists-to-hootsuite. I love that I can see these feeds right in my dashboard and do not have to leave the application to check out the updates. Super convenient when traveling. I’m sure TweetDeck and other management tools have similar functions.
I hope you use this this quick overview to help kick start the organization of your contacts. Lists can prove to be a powerful tool in managing your social networks. It may take a little effort up front, but once you have it sorted out, it’s easy to maintain and should prove to be helpful as the various platforms release new versions and more methods to engage with your audience.
Science of Social Media
Once of the best aspects of participating in social networks is that you meet some very interesting people and can learn a little something every day. Yesterday, I even participated in a Guinness World Record.
A few hours before the event, I received a reminder e-mail for a webinar on the Science of Social Media, sponsored by HubSpot. I follow HubSpot online and enjoy reading the e-mails which frequently land in my inbox. I’ve found them to be a good resource for news, tips and information about all sorts of online marketing and social network usage.
What made this one little webinar extraordinary was the level of participation. Over 30,000 people were online as students of this seminar. That’s the biggest webinar in the world to-date. Dan Zarrella, Social Scientist was the lecturer for the day. And on top of gaining bragging rights that I was a part of a historical event, I did end the hour with a few key takeaways.
Myths Debunked
1. MYTH – Ideas spread because they’re good.
The reality is that information spreads in an information void. Some bad ideas are spread across the web because there is simply nothing else out there of value or interest. Timing and luck have a bit to do with how wildly popular your message becomes.
2. MYTH – “Engaging in the Conversation” is the most important thing on social media.
“Publishing interesting content works,” says Zarrella. Simply conversing online doesn’t increase your value. Sharing pertinent information with critical timing (information void) does. This was followed by lots of data correlating tweets with links versus tweets without. Essentially, people who tweet lots of links have more followers, and therefore are perceived as more valuable.
While I can understand this argument, I do believe I believe that interesting content can be presented in a conversational tone and will land well with followers. Who wants to follow a news-only feed? I believe that building your personal brand online requires a personality. Engaging in conversation may not lend me more followers or be valuable to those who are already my friends, but it does show that I’m human and I play well with others.
3. MYTH – Don’t call yourself a guru.
The premise for this is that no one really wants to hear you exclaim that you are so wonderful and knowledgeable and fabulous. Where’s the humility? But research has shown that by including the words – official, founder, speaker, expert, guru, author – warrant above average followings. While that does not mean that I am going to list myself as a marketing maven in my bio anytime soon, it does encourage me to speak with authority. I do know what I’m doing, gosh darn it.
Understanding What Works and Why
A good chunk of the seminar discussed Zarrella’s upside down pyramid with the top-to-bottom listed words EXPOSURE, ATTENTION, MOTIVATION.
EXPOSURE refers to the amount of reach you have, your followers, likes , etc. Higher exposure is of course related to the likelihood that people will be exposed to your ideas and information. Increasing your exposure can be done by posting more interesting content. It can also be achieved by talking less about yourself. Data showed that the more you talk about yourself and the heavier the @ sign appeared in Tweets, the less followers one has. Again, content is king. And you, my dear, are not considered good content.
Gaining the ATTENTION of your followers is one of the more tricky aspects of social media. We have so much information coming at us on a daily basis, and have to quickly decipher what’s valuable and not. Research shows that those who update too frequently are tuned out by their audiences. Timing is everything, essentially. It would appear that people who update on a regular and consistent basis, like once per hour, are taken more seriously than those who tweet more than even five times in an hour, for example.
If you want to see what works best for your audience, then you have to play around a bit and document your best CTRs, most retweets, etc. Maybe your followers better receive information at 9:00pm when the kids have gone to bed. Perhaps frequent weekend updates will serve you better. You have to put in some effort to find what is best for your followers…that is who you want to reach, right?
Your performance and reputation have an effect on the MOTIVATION of your followers to share your content. How well you’ve grabbed their attention, the timing of your update, and how many others have already shared your information all play into how motivated your fan might be to share knowledge. While we cannot control who is the first to tweet that article or who clicks the first LIKE button, being the first is a motivation for some users to retweet and share links.
Increasing motivation is relative to HOW you speak to your followers. The KISS formula applies here. Keep it simple. Less adjective and adverbs and a healthy dose of nouns and verbs in your updates are better received, perceived as more valuable and help you look like an authority on the topic. Kindness counts too. Overly critical or mean-spirited comments will not fair well for you. We even discussed that the comment “Please Retweet” gains better results than “Please RT.” A polite call to action does work.
Takeaways
In addition to my notes above, it was clear to me that social media and the vast amount of online platforms are constantly evolving. It’s significant to check into these types of programs every so often so that we take time to listen to people who make a living by monitoring trends online. These notes will help me better plan my content, and has provided some great insight as to behavior and reaction online. I also managed to gain a few new Twitter followers in the process. I was thanking a few people for retweeting content I expressed during the seminar, which led to following each other. One reason I’m not willing to give up the conversational aspect of my stream.
You can follow Dan Zarrella on Twitter @DanZarrella
You can even watch the seminar and download the slides HERE if you’d like. Or you can go directly to the source, HUBSPOT.
If you do watch the seminar, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and learn what takeaways you have from the program.
Twitter Trends
Mashable does a fantastic job up posting infographics, which makes it super simple to keep up with online trends and information. These infographics are also great to use in social media presentations. Here’s the latest on Twtter and what’s trending:
Chargers FanFest 2011
“It’s kind of like when a dad takes his kid to the candy shop,” he explained. “You’re outside the candy shop, you’re looking at the candy, but you’re not allowed to go in and get the candy. And then your dad just turns around and takes you home. That’s exactly what being a Chargers fan is like.”
That’s how Oak Park/San Diego Coutny’s Lee Norman explains the psychology of being a Charger fan and Super Bowl dreams. (ARTICLE) As a life-long Charger fan myself, I think that’s pretty sad.
I was a disappointed to see the promotions for FanFest 2011. Only kids ages 6 -1 4 were allowed on the field, and only the first 2000 with wrist bands. The Chargers sited safety as a reason they have strict rules in place. Each kid was allowed only one personal item to sign. So if you had a Philip Rivers jersey, you either got his signature only or sacrificed your jersey to get autographs from more than one player. Since it was kids-only on the field, there were no doting parents taking pictures with the family. The Chargers tweeted that there were other open practices to attend, if adults wanted to get autographs.
It was pictures like this one from the event, which made me scratch my head. Players sitting at a table…a barrier between them and their fans.
I treasure the days when players hung out after a pre-season open practice and talked to us kids (and parents), told stories, took pictures and signed autographs. We didn’t have scheduled FanFest’s in the early 80’s, but we didn’t need them…the players were available and able to interact freely with fans, no rules, no wristbands, no limits on personal items brought to sign. I have the memory of shaking Dan Fouts’ hand, kissing Rolf Benirschke on the cheek and taking pictures with the likes of Kellen Winslow – more valuable to me than anything I have that was signed.
Running a business focused on marketing and branding makes me look at events and programs differently. Things have changed a lot since I was a pre-teen and along with the events, marketing efforts and PR methods have changed dramatically. I wanted to see more updates by players individually, a flurry of posts and tweets during the event and connecting digitally with the fans. Contests, games and prizes are an easy way to incentivize fans and help make those who couldn’t attend the event feel like they were there.
I can appreciate that Charger’s FanFest 2011 may have come together quickly due to NFL lock-outs, but believe my Chargers can be ground breakers and standard setters, even with short notice. Fans just want a moment to linger in the candy store and a leave with good taste to savor. FanFest is the perfect opportunity for a sugar rush.
Did you go to FanFest 2011? What are your thoughts? What would have given the day a more personal touch?
You can catch a few photos and videos of FanFest on the Charger website: http://www.chargers.com/
Or here’s a couple articles wrapping up the day: SignOnSanDiego NBC Photo Gallery
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