Slideshare winning mindset for social media

Here is my latest SlideShare Presentation. I welcome your thoughts!

Slideshare winning mindset for social media

View more presentations from Jennifer Salisbury.

Make engaging with your customers first. Amidst the floods, your brand will not only stay afloat but can be the Force coming to the rescue.

Inspired by historic flooding in RI this week: A theme for considering what so many people who have worked so hard to build up their brand recognition are now doing to survive in rushing and/or unfamiliar waters...

Recent articles about social media discuss how the ease of creating content, flooding numbers of participants, pressures of the down economy and resulting increased competition for brand recognition can lead to brand mistrust.

Photo from The Providence Journal/John Freidah/www.projo.com

In one such article, technology blogger Brent Leary wrote that “…an overemphasis on branding and self promotion can really turn off prospective clients, which may in turn send them to others when in need of advice and information.” Given that social media is intertwined with the critical paradigm change in how customers educate themselves and make decisions, taking the wrong approach can and will translate into the decline of perceived authority, loss of respect, and if you will, the literal drowning in one’s ecosystem.

Twitter has been cited in this offense, because among the various social media Twitter lends more to constant and valueless information being pumped into this channel. Twitter and the use of it presents a variety of flaws, as pointed out by Jay Baer who called Twitter "the most widely adopted flawed techology since silicone boobs." Problems with use seem to be a tactic of some in the quest for their brand to be noticed who are perhaps not playing by the official rules and more importantly not understanding that social media is about relationships and how we nurture and are thoughtful of them.

A familiar sentiment voiced within the context of social media and brand mistrust is the treatment of it as a one-way opportunity (old marketing), the volume of information tweeted particularly in light of RTs (re-tweets), and the trivial minutia filling the channel which creates a turnoff/tolerance effect. One executive framed his perspective in light of his mistrust and distaste towards Twitter and indirectly – or directly - its users. For this reason, because of the imperfections and the responses illicited from our clients, it is critical that social media experts ensure the setting and maintaining of high communication standards, not the exploiting of medial tools/flaws.

Overemphasis on the marketing aspect of building the brand - without building the relationship - can result in mistrust, regardless of the tool or the medium. Assessing our customer landscape and going to the places and spaces where our customers are active is critical regardless of whether those particular media appeal to or serve us. Social media is about community as well as like-mindedness and engagement. By interacting directly with the customer to learn what it is that is on the top of their minds we will be able to build that relationship in order to improve their experience, trust, and hence, buy-in.

Some may find that in fact, Twitter is where many of their clients have those key conversations. If it is determined as a space necessary for us to be in (because our customers are), there are some values to be found. For example:

Spending time to select the important influencers among our customers, we can keep a finger on the pulse of key conversations and topics.




We can purge those who are providing only junk content especially if they are not a key individual.



The tweet length of 140 characters or less provides ease of skimming for key words and topics



Acting on a tweet right away can mean crisis management, repairing a relationship or gaining a leg up on our product.

Those who "get" Twitter have harnessed it as a powerful tool for conversation (even casual chat can serve a purpose) with targeted individuals as well as with a global audience and understand its value as a means of cultivation.

Twitter tweets and retweets when done well provide a positive exposure beyond what we were ever able to gain using traditional marketing and now it is the responsibility of the brand to take that further to get to know and engage our clients.

Photo: The Providence Journal/Kathy Borchers

I actually favor LinkedIn and Facebook. But if overemphasis on branding means “inconsiderate marketing” – just pumping out the info and not ever asking questions or engaging - those social media may not be any more effective in building trust. We can show our clients that we care about them by giving them opportunities to talk, to provide feedback and by responding in a timely and positive fashion. This will help us to keep our ground as a trusted source to whom they will turn. Want to be really client focused? Toss your competitor a floatation device. Doing these things will result in a Win-Win-Win. :)

Now you go: I would love to hear your thoughts!

A Personal Makeover: How NCP in Social Media can have Unexpected Benefits

In the second session, the Social Media Leadership Class Spring 2010 addressed the points of what social media tools are out there; how to deal with them/what do they mean to business, and how people using them can change brand association overnight.


As discussed, the winning methodological approach to using social media to provide the best possible customer experience involves 3 Key Elements: 1) Network, 2) Contribution, and 3) Participation – NCP.


Rather than this being yet another review however, looking at this assignment forced me to ask:


What can I bring to the table here that is unique? What is my special contribution rather than just regurgitating the same information?


I decided to share a more personal application. What I have arrived at is to let you know where I was coming from when I began this process of building a social media presence. It made me realize some walls that I had around myself and around my life. I think it’s a great starting point to make the changes in myself so that I can then help others to relax their own fears and really to embrace the power of social media.


Here are a couple of examples. I did not have many social media presences when I first began, and those I did have were so tight even a mouse could not squeeze in. My personal Facebook site was created with stringent privacy settings. You could not write on my wall. I even had two different people comment that they were unable to, one to which I explained (thankfully they are still dear friends) that I had purposefully set it that way, very genuinely believing that this was perfectly acceptable. (Maybe, but it sends a definite message!)






Another example concerns how it is important to be OPEN to participating and to what others have to offer. Once or twice years ago one friend of mine gave me feedback regarding the length of my voice message. To look at it honestly, I did not enjoy that feedback although being diplomatic in nature and of course appreciating the person, I took it to consideration and thanked her on the outside with a happy face. A related and final example is my recent conversation with a previous co-worker who offered some valuable perceptions about me that relate to the topic of opening up my life, the topic of transparency.

In my favor, I will share that I am a gregarious and good person, who is traditionally well liked and according to my family, they love me too. :) However I have always kept private life at home and public life at work, so to speak. Is there anyone else out there like this? And so this process is forcing me in such a healthy way to examine that and to evolve for the BETTER. There is an old saying, “you will keep getting what you are getting if you keep doing what you are doing”. I have celebrated some wonderful achievements in my life, but I am not satisfied that this is as good as it gets. I know it can be better, and I believe this is how.

I need and want to get very active to change old feelings, practices that are not serving me well and to embrace the power of social media to change my brand overnight.


Some Immediate Strategies:


Network – Continue to think on who I most want to connect with that can help me to market myself. Look through my address books, phone, other peoples’ connections and think through areas of my life where I interact to give myself ideas of who get LinkedIn with. Spend a little bit of time daily to reach out to others.


Contribute – Begin posting more to the SMACAD blog , serve as a guest blogger on other blogs such as perhaps “SocialBusinessOne” and create my own blog (which hey! Here I am, I have done it!) On LinkedIn, participate in groups and discussions, raise questions, make comments. On Facebook, reach out more. Comment on others’ posts, make positive affirmation of their lives, posts, achievements, questions, which will build TRUST. Also, try to post things about my own activities and business or life. Further develop my bio on Twitter and have an address for a blog if that works for my goals. It is very important to find my unique area of contribution and to hone in on that.


Participate – Notice whether others are responding and if so, what kind of responses they are providing. Make more effort to creating engaging posts and opportunities for people to interact with me and to be part of the conversation. Am I evoking any responses, and if so, what kinds? If not, how can I improve? I need to know if my investment is paying back.



Ultimate Goal: Becoming Part of the Recommendation Chain! :) :) :)

When we apply NCP we will become part of the recommendation chain and herein lies our success, because customers of today rely on other customers through the recommendation chain to make purchasing and hiring among other choices.

Already a very interesting thing is happening as I have begun to apply aspects of this model: The energy is starting to move! Instead of “The Sky is falling!”, I can report that “The Chi is moving!”

In only the past couple of days I have heard from a handful of people suddenly with whom I had lost touch, strong business contacts. Once again, key driving influences should be to extend our reach, to intensify the depth of our network, to broaden our knowledge and I am experiencing the next step which is to revitalize our influence.

Next I will set up my personal timetable for social networking as social media can be tremendously time consuming/wasting if we don’t have a structured plan. I know this is like stepping back in time for most of you, however from where you are now, what do you feel about how applying NCP has started to change your own success? I look forward to hearing from you!

By the way, my social sites are listed using a great tool called Xeesm which can be found here: http:xeesm.com/JenniferSalisbury/. I hope you will visit me, leave a message and even write on my wall! Tell me it stinks if you don't like it! Thanks for participating, I promise, I do appreciate it.


All the best ...
Jennifer