We try to be generous at True Voice Media.

We blog on Social Media Philanthropy, giving away valuable content for free.  Sometimes we even give away our secret sauce…just because.

We have our free resources and our learning center, where we share tons of information for free.

The requests

We often get requests from people that want to “pick our brains.”

For us to set aside the time to have our brains picked, we need to set aside the time we work in our business and the time we spend working on our business. 

Announcing Brain Picking by the Hour / Minute

Thanks to a nifty little site called Clarity.fm, we’ve added the capability for you to purchase some consulting, over-the-phone, by the hour and by the minute–actually by the 15 minute block.

If you ever have a few questions that you need answered, we can now offer our consulting a la carte.

Click on the widget below and book some time with us.

Here are True Voice Media, we help our clients understand how all components fit together in the pursuit of social business.  Today we’d like to tell you about ZAKTi, a boutique fitness studio specializing in Strength and Endurance Training, Flexibility and Sustainable movement, Pain Management, and a Body Assessment test called Body IQ.

The ZAKTi challenge

When ZAKTi came to us, they had an extraordinary program, a small but loyal customer base, a passionate and motivated staff, and a list of questions.  They couldn’t figure out how to get past simply talking online and get to the part where people were coming through the door.

This is a problem that is all too common for today’s small business.

Social Media can be an incredible tool for today’s small business, because it’s inexpensive and can really help spread awareness.  The problem is that there isn’t a playbook, what works for one company may not work for another.  And we’ve heard it time and time again “Don’t sell on social media!”

But is it really true?

Small Changes

So here’s what we did…we came in and took a look at everything and determined a few things.

1. The email newsletter needed to change.
2. Headlines needed to be more catchy
3. Content needed to move from “what can you buy from us” to “here’s something interesting and valuable for you”
4. All content needed clear and prominent, yet non-intrusive, calls to action.
5. Focused every goal on getting people coming through the door.

Those were the changes we made and while we are still weeks away from getting to the results of these changes, but in the meantime we have some interesting updates to share.

What a difference small changes can make

Picture for a moment that you are a person that likes to workout, maybe does some Yoga from time-to-time, and occasionally needs to work out some small nagging pain.  You meet a gentlemen named Pete Mattis one day and after some brief conversation, you decide that you’re going to check out his website for ZAKTi.  Once you get there, you decide that while you aren’t ready to commit to coming in for a class that you are willing to subscribe to the newsletter.

If this story happened 2 months ago, you might receive a newsletter like this:

Headline: “Down to the Wire”

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but if this was your first newsletter, you might get the impression that the only purpose of the newsletter was to sell you upcoming classes.  If you didn’t know what ZAKTi was, you might not even be sure what the classes are all about.  You might think, “what problem does this solve for me?”

By contrast, look at the first newsletter to go out since we’ve made the change:

Headline: It’s easier than you think to get rid of that nagging pain.

So now we’re looking at how to solve a problem and we’ve written it in an intriguing way.  If you have any nagging pain, this headline might get you to click through to the article, I mean IT’S EASIER THAN YOU THINK.

In addition to the improved headline, the entire article is about solving a problem in an easy, straight-forward way.  

We also made sure to include the proper call to action…inviting new subscribers and non-clients to come in for their first class FREE.  We’re asking for social shares and asking for people to connect with us on Social Media sites.

We only made small changes but now…

• Instead of writing a newsletter AND a blog post, ZAKTi writes once and gets the benefit of search traffic and email subscribers.
• The email list is segmented, and customers get different emails than prospects.
• The calls to action are prominent yet come into the frame only after valuable information has been delivered.

Even More…

We’ve also made some small changes to the ZAKTi website, created a lead capture strategy that involves each member of the ZAKTi team, and created a full content strategy that will last for the next 3-6 months.  Be sure to take a look at ZAKTi.  They do great work, and thankfully, now people will know about it.

We’ll post a new updates as we find out about the results of these small changes.

Jeff Gibbard will be speaking about inbound marketing on February 6th at 10:00am.  Our session is titled: The Real Reasons Why You Should Care About Inbound Marketing.

You can learn more about the event and sign up to attend here: http://socialmediastrategiessummit.com/las-vegas-2013.html

True Voice Media is proud to announce the introduction of simplified pricing.

We’ve looked back at our previous work, analyzed the data, and determined that the majority of clients have followed the same process.  Rather than put together a custom package each and every time, we’ve simplified the process and made the pricing easy.

The following pricing will fit 99% of the organizations we work with.  Without further ado, our new simplified pricing.

We just can’t give away our “secret sauce” of what each month actually entails.  However, if you visit the pricing page on our website and fill out the form, we’ll send you the recipe for the “secret sauce.”  You’ll be able to see what we do in each month of each of these plans.

Description:

Maybe you’ve got a Facebook Page or a Twitter account, but week-after-week you struggle to find ways to keep your audience engaged.

Some posts hit the mark, others fall flat.  Join the Center City Proprietors Association (CCPA) and stop the guess work and learn how to make the Social Media secret sauce: High Quality, Valuable & Engaging Content

Details:

Thursday, December 6, 2012, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

Caesar, Rivise, Bernstein, Cohen & Pokotilow, Ltd.
1635 Market Street, 7 Penn Center, 11th Floor

$10 for members / $30 for non-members.

Register here

We want to extend a warm welcome to Crozer Keystone Health System, the newest addition to the True Voice Media client roster.  While we’re not at liberty to discuss the details of our engagement with Crozer Keystone, we’ll just say that we are excited to be working with incredible people committed to doing great things.

With more than 1,100 physicians and 6,800 total employees, Crozer-Keystone is the largest employer and health care provider in Delaware County.

We’re helping Crozer Keystone, learn more about how we can help you.

We’re proud to announce the release of our new Promotional video, created by our incredible video partner Branded Productions. You can also see the video on our “What we do” page.

I met Ed Seiders, Founder of Branded Productions at a Social Media Day live event about 3 years ago.  Since then we have worked on a few projects together and each client has been delighted.  Ed and I keep in touch primarily through Facebook Messages and we’re always looking for opportunities to work together.  Take a look at this video that Ed and his team over at Branded Productions put together for us.  We’re super impressed and so glad to have the opportunity to work with such talented videographers.  If you have any video needs, we strongly suggest you give Branded Productions a call: 215.694.1889

As a summer camp, JKCP (Julian Krinsky Camps & Programs) relies very heavily on the experience of their students (often referred to as “campers”).  While many of the students have a blast throughout the summer, it is difficult to harness that excitement and turn it into something tangible for other prospective students to experience virtually.

So with the help of one of our partners, Branded Productions, JKCP coordinated a massive experiment to translate the energy and fun into something for others around the world to experience.  The video has been posted to YouTube, the Facebook page, Twitter, Google+ and some private groups.

We plan on Promoting this post on Facebook and giving the friends of JKCP students the ability to see what they are missing out on…but there’s always next year.

One strategy of running an agency is to specialize in a singular vertical.  Some advertisers, marketers and designers will cater to the pharmaceutical industry, lawyers or financial professionals.  Some PR firms work exclusively with manufacturers or politicians.  Within these verticals there are any number of related businesses.  These agencies will work with Insurance providers, Hospitals and Doctors; or Lawyers, Politicians and Lobbyists.  In this model, the agency can become a hub for clients and make valuable connections, on their behalf, with related businesses.  It is a strategy that for many agencies is very successful.

Another option is to offer a similar product across different types of businesses and take things learned from one and apply it to the other.  Working with a restaurant may not have much to do with retail, but both are in the business of customer loyalty.  Lawyers and Financial Professionals may not have all that much in common, but both struggle with rigid compliance guidelines and marketing restrictions.  Exposure to the problems a business faces in one vertical may provide a new way of looking at the problems a business faces in another vertical.

When we set out to create True Voice Media, we made a firm commitment to avoid specializing in any one vertical.  Our reasoning was that spending all of the time in one area of business creates a scenario in which the work begins to look and feel very similar.  Ultimately the specialization erects walls around the agency and the excitement of working on something brand new is lost.

While we have worked—and will continue to work—with businesses contained in a singular vertical, we rake great pride in the things we’ve learned from our breadth of experience.

The common thread

The companies we target have something in common, and it is not a specific industry vertical:

• We seek to work with companies led by extraordinary people.
• We look for change agents and visionaries.
• We work with individuals in all levels of a company hierarchy.
• We seek companies that see past the status quo, see past the problems of today and see just beyond the horizon to where they’re are going.
• We work with companies that want to foster a culture of collaboration and participation.
• We find companies interested in the opinions of their customers.
• We look for organizations willing to adapt to external feedback.
• We look for companies who embrace technology, rather than fear it.

These traits are not something that exist in a particular vertical but in a type of person or company culture.

How to describe that?

We enjoy networking.  We enjoy partnerships.
Often we are asked “Well how can we help YOU, what type of companies are you targeting?”
That question is difficult to answer because it’s any company, of any size.  We can help any kind of company, so long as they are open to change, willing to listen and ready to adapt to the changing world around them.  All we do is seek to understand what is happening and look for signs of what is coming next.  We do this not by analyzing technology, but by understanding people and what drives them to action, loyalty and engagement using the framework of changing technology to inform our recommendations.

What do you call that?

The Changing of the Guard

The old ways of describing businesses are difficult to apply in a world where everything has shifted to a more complete picture.
We can see the many faces of a brand throughout the paid, earned and owned web.
Companies are becoming more difficult to label.
We are now able to realize the complexity that makes up a person.

I don’t know what you would call our target customer, but we can identify them, and our goal is to help them dominate industries through honesty, openness, authenticity and unapologetic realness.

What can we call it when the target customer is bound, not by industry or need, but by the mindset?

My best friend, Greg, is a health nut. After a rough experience pursuing his PhD, he returned to the solace of the gym and hasn’t looked back. Aside from being a great buddy, he’s been an invaluable resource for me in my own quest of a healthy lifestyle. The other night, however, he informed me of a bit of motivational crisis.

Customer Acquisition

While having been on his most recent workout regime for the past 3 years, Greg has been researching, trying, and buying vitamins and supplements online since he was 16. The site that seems to be his favorite (aka he spends a lot of money with them) is BodyBuilding.com. It’s not rare for him to get giant boxes delivered to his door twice a month.

“I could buy from a lot of different places’, Greg said, ‘but I have always felt that the quality of the products BodyBuilding.com stocks has been far superior than any other site I’ve purchased from”. Knowing this, it surprised me when Greg told me that he recently found himself questioning his dedication to his workouts. He wondered openly about how much energy he could place into something he was no longer sold on.

Where to go from here?

Going Above and Beyond

Seeing as it’s not a rare occurrence for Greg to find delivery boxes in his doorway, he found it odd he couldn’t remember ordering anything from BodyBuilding.com. Still, here there was; a large box addressed to him. When he opened it, he found something he was not expecting by any means: a thank you letter. The note went on to say how thankful and appreciative BodyBuilding.com was for his continued business. It struck a chord with him. But that wasn’t all.

Under the letter was a large duffle bag, fully embroidered and personalized with his name on the side. On the top, in big bold type, it read, ‘LOYAL CUSTOMER’. Greg was looking for motivation and got more than a sign- he had been rewarded for the dedication he had begun to question.

An Instagrammed photo of the Loyal Customer duffle bag. Cool, right?

The Lifetime Value of a Customer

I think it’s safe to say, with his motivation returned and his favorite resource fully supporting him, Greg will continue to tear it up in the gym. Last I saw him, he seemed to be re-energized and excited to start another workout. “I feel like I’m not alone now. I have support”.

Sometimes being social doesn’t involve a technology platform. Businesses that are strictly virtual can still find ways to be relevant in the real world and connect personally to their customer. Extending a gift of gratitude is something that is just as social as thanking someone on Facebook, if not more so. When we talk social business, these are the types of stories to which we’re referring. Stories make an impact in the real world when can customers become social customers- because social businesses make customers loyal customers.

Have you ever received a thank you gift from a company as gratitude for your continued business?

It’s been a little while since we’ve updated this blog and a company update may be just the way to explain why that is the case.

2012 has been a very good year so far.

• Our revenue has eclipsed the total revenue figures from all of last year, and we’ve still got July-December to go!
• We have taken on some extraordinary new clients.
• We have partnered with amazing companies to deliver a more robust service offering.
• We are on the verge of becoming a Joint Venture partner in the Empire Builders Group (paperwork being finalized)
• We brought on our first team members (Jon Steiert, Susan Tabor Kleiman and Joe Altshuler)
• We have successfully launched our new website design (95% complete)
• We have launched our Monthly Social Business Newsletter and consistently beat our industry average for opens and clickthroughs.  Subscribe here.
• We are on pace to shatter our goals for public speaking appearances this year.

Our Clients

Recently, we’ve had the good fortune of being able to take on some new extraordinary people and brands as clients.  From Michael Angelina, a Philadelphia real estate agent with tremendous knowledge of Philadelphia neighborhoods and a fresh take on how to sell Real Estate, to a soon-to-be released web-based Survey tool that could potentially beat the pants off of the competition, to a NYC author on the verge of releasing a book that will change people’s lives, we are helping people and brands make BIG things happen.

Aside from the ongoing work, we’ve taken some smaller projects here-and-there.  The projects may be smaller by comparison, but the impact is equally as large.  Take Fare Restaurant for example.  Fare is an exceptional restaurant in Fairmount delivering healthy, well-crafted cuisine in a contemporary atmosphere.  They were in need of a new website and a direction for their social media activity. So, we rebuilt their site on the WordPress platform, created a content strategy for their blog and ensured consistent branding across all social media sites.

We have been working with Julian Krinsky Camps & Programs (JKCP) for one year now and their Social Media is rockin’.  From Facebook Groups of key stakeholders, to a robust set of Social Media sites, JKCP has built a strong and engaged social following that will surely pay dividends for years to come.

Making Business Social

What do all of these clients have in common?  They all wanted to listen to their customers, have more effective mechanisms to market their businesses and reach their stakeholders with laser precision.

We want to thank each and every one of our advocates for everything you’ve done to help this company grow.  We’re taking this journey one step at a time but our goal is to be the agency in Philadelphia that changes the culture of business for the better.  When business becomes social everybody wins: brands get valuable feedback and reduce marketing expenses by activating their passionate brand advocates, customers win because companies listen to them, respect them and make changes on the fly to meet their needs.

The new era of business is undoubtedly more open, honest and transparent.  We are proud to be an essential part of that movement.

There’s a lot of discussion over whether or not Facebook ads work after GM pulled their ads.  Here’s our two cents:

It all comes down to what you define as an ad “working.”

Facebook ads tend to be very good at gathering more “likes” for a page; the ads are terrible at directly converting a Facebook user into a buyer.  This goes back to the mindset of people on Facebook.  They are not browsing the newsfeed with their credit cards in-hand.

How to make it “work”

In our eyes, Facebook ads serve one purpose…to drive people to a page in order to engage them.  On that page it then becomes the brand’s responsibility of building a loyalty community or at least one that pays attention.

Remember that the overwhelming majority of activity takes place on the newsfeed.  So, the first thing you want to do is get people to see you in their newsfeed.  By purchasing ads, you increase the likelihood that Facebook will place you in your fan’s newsfeed…it’s their moderately shady pay-to-place incentive to buy ads.   So if you want to drive sales with Facebook ads, you need to go out one additional level.

It looks like this:

You buy an ad, drive people to your page, give them reason to “Like” your page and then you have two options.

1)  get them to sign up for email newsletters on Facebook

2)  Engage them through the newsfeed, give them a call to action that drives them to the website, have them sign up for emails or contact you directly.

The point here is this, you don’t close the sale on Facebook and you don’t capture people in a buying decision through Facebook ads…the best you can hope for is that people opt-in to your Facebook page to hear more from you.

To be sure it’s working, you’ll need a CRM that can track likes that came from the ad campaign.  If you don’t know what people came via the ads and eventually made a purchase, you’l never know about the effectiveness of Facebook ads.

If your Facebook ad strategy doesn’t follow this format or something like it, you probably aren’t seeing results.

That’s what it used to say on my business card a few years back.  It’s the crux of what networking is all about; helping one another.

Yet somehow the conversation about social networks has been highjacked.  It’s no longer about creating connections…it’s about how to push marketing messages through these channels.

But networking is a marketing opportunity.  Let’s dig deeper to find out what’s going on…

Marketing

Marketing is the process of identifying what your story is, and who wants to hear it; it’s targeted.

Marketing encompasses a wide variety of different activities, from advertisements to networking, public relations campaigns, public speaking and networking, brochures and branding, word of mouth and social networking, and even customer service.  Marketing is a great big umbrella term for the activities that create a market for products and services through a mode of communication or interaction.

Unfortunately, Marketing has become quite the dirty word in recent years.  It’s become more widely understood as advertising.  The reason behind this is that more and more marketers are taking the easy way out, buying ads, and calling it “marketing.”

Marketing vs Advertising

Good advertising is targeted but advertising is more often associated with the term “blast,” and works on the principle that more impressions equals more sales.   This mindset has infected marketing, which is why marketing is so often widely understood as advertising.

Marketing is bigger than that, when done correctly.

Full Circle: Advertising vs Networking

So when the “marketers” got a hold of social media, it became “nothing more than a channel” (read: Broadcast channel).  Unfortunately what got lost is the connection.

Throw out everything you know about content marketing for just a second and think about all of your best experiences in retail, services and dining.  Wasn’t there a person that contributed to that experience?  There was a feeling associated with that experience, not just a product.

Think about yourself for a moment, which shouldn’t be difficult, right?  It’s not difficult because thinking about ourselves is a fairly natural human state.  How do you feel when someone seems genuinely concerned with helping you and solving your problem?  Contrast that to the experience of interacting with someone that only wants to talk about themselves.  We are all at the center of our own universes, even if we step outside of that temporarily.  We crave acknowledgement and feed off of the emotional cues of others; misery loves company, anger begets anger and a smile is contagious.

When designing your “social media strategy” make sure to look directly into the eye of the plan.

The real question

Is everything focused on your company and what YOU get out of it?  Or is it focused on the customer and how they feel, or what THEY get out of it?

If it’s not focused on the customer, if your plan is about what you’ll say, and not what you’ll listen for…you might just be a “marketer,” and this new format is lost on you.

Shift and Rewire

It all starts with how you approach this.  There is nothing wrong with content marketing, or advertising.  Just don’t miss the opportunities by failing to read the terrain.  Social Networking is an extension of real life networking.  It gives people the opportunity to interact with one another, as they might at a live networking event or coffee shop.  Carry yourself on these channels as you would in real life.  Focus on listening to the other person, respond appropriately, and by all means avoid pushing your “marketing” in their face.  Plenty of good marketing happens when you shift your focus to delighting people, enchanting people, being generous and trying to help someone.

]]> http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/35568217/0/truevoicemedia-news~How-can-we-help-each-other/feed/ 2 http://www.truevoicemedia.com/conversation-shift-from-social-media-to-customers/ http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/35568218/0/truevoicemedia-news~Conversation-Shift-Social-Media-ampgt-Customers/ http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/35568218/0/truevoicemedia-news~Conversation-Shift-Social-Media-ampgt-Customers/#comments Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:55:58 +0000 Jeff Gibbard http://www.truevoicemedia.com/?p=902

In 2011, we called ourselves a “Social Media agency.”

In 2012, we pivoted to call ourselves a “Social Business Agency.”

Why did we do it?

Conversation Shift

We did it because “Social Media agency” limited the conversations we were having.  It always fell back into a talk about the newest Facebook feature or how to get more followers on Twitter.  These conversations do virtually nothing to move the needle.  We saw that and changed our branding to allow for a richer conversation about customer behavior and how social tools can be used to accomplish business objectives.

It’s EVERYWHERE

Today, we see an incessant flow of noise in our newsfeeds, on our televisions, in our print ads and on our radios.  Everyone is screaming about Social Media, everyone is obsessed with the newest shiny thing.  This month it’s Pinterest, in a month it’ll be something different.  Rather than playing whack-a-mole trying to keep up with the “latest and greatest,” why don’t more of these conversations talk about what’s important to us, as customers?

A Challenge: Shift your conversation

If you are a business, stop talking about Social Media.  Start asking different questions.

Instead of asking your consultant or marketing department:

What’s our Facebook strategy?

Ask:

What is upsetting our customers?   Can we do anything to fix it?

What have we done lately to delight our best customers?

Who are the customers that we haven’t heard from in a while?  Are we in danger of losing them?

What are people saying about us?  What can we do to improve?

Are we missing out on opportunities for partnerships with other businesses?

Are we missing out on doing something amazing for our customers simply because there is no direct revenue opportunity for us?

Different questions = Different Answers

Asking different questions will undoubtedly lead to different answers, and in some cases will give you better answers to the questions you probably wanted to ask.  You want to know your Facebook strategy?  First find out what your customers want or need.  You might be surprised that when you put your customers first in your thinking that you’ll be much more effective in using a tool like Facebook to activate them.

2012 is the year of Social Business

No more nonsense.

Take this year to be bigger than the obvious conversations.

Take this year to go deeper than the buzzwords, bypass the talk about hot, new channels and focus on what’s always been important…your customers.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of Social Media sites out there.  You may be rushing around trying to participate in each one.

Relax, take a deep breath.

I know it seems like “the next big thing” is waiting to pass you by, but calm down for a moment and consider this: with each site you add you are reducing the amount of time and quality of thought that you can devote to every other site.

Let’s do some simple math.  You have 24 hours in a day; for the sake of this argument, let’s say you use 8, which is 1/3 of your day.  Now, let’s say you have 4 sites to pay attention to.  It you were to spend EVERY working minute on those 4 sites, you would have 2 hours to devote to each.  That’s a fair amount.  But you probably aren’t devoting a full day to your social properties.  So let’s say you realistically can afford to spend 2 hours of your work day on these 4 sites.  Now we’re looking at 30 minutes per site..not too bad.

Let’s add another site to pay attention to.

Now you’ve got 5 sites.  Now you are down to 24 minutes per site.  Add another, now you are down to 20 minutes per site.  You get the point.

Do the math and you’ll see that each site takes away from the time you are able to commit to sharing, commenting, engaging and meeting new people.

What is your goal?

This is why we ALWAYS start with strategy because trying to keep up with things as they happen is like “Whack-a-Mole.”  Social Media sites are going to pop up and gain popularity faster than you can keep up with.  You don’t need to join every one of them.

If you start by determining what you want to accomplish you can avoid wasting time on sites that lead you in the wrong direction.

But what about…?

Pintrest?  Well…

Is you audience primarily female?  Do you have a series of topics that would be well presented visually?  Do you have expectations of what all that curation will get you?  Is this curation worth taking time away from fill in the blank?

Quora?  Well…

Do you have a wealth of knowledge about a particular topic?  Do you have a plan for how to convert the person who asked the question into a customer?  How long are you prepared to answer questions without generating a dollar? Is this worth taking time away from fill in the blank?

These are the types of questions that you need to ask before getting involved in any new network.

Don’t just jump on the bandwagon without first thinking about where it’s going.

Peace in the Valley: Consolidation

What’s nice about consolidation is the same thing that’s nice about focus, it creates a certain intangible calmness.  The prospect of simply changing a profile avatar across 35 sites is mind-boggling, let alone answering questions and engaging in conversations.

What if you only had 3 sites but you worked them to the bone?  How much easier would it be to create a progress report if all you had to worry about was Twitter, Google+ and your blog?

The funny thing is that many companies and individuals that jump for “the next big thing” haven’t even figured out the last “big thing.”  If 2012 is the year you plan to move the needle with your internet marketing, think about what you do and don’t need.  Our suggestion, lock down your branded name everywhere, point it back to a single page and measure where your traffic to that page is coming from…that’ll tell you if you need to pay attention to that “next big thing.”

It’s obligatory that we put out a year-end wrap-up post.

Year One!

“We have no shoes”

True Voice Media began in March of 2011 and within the first 90 days of “opening our doors” we had 3 clients.  This immediate traction led to a serious case of “the cobblers children having no shoes.”

From the very start we have been running full speed, taking on clients, writing strategies, drafting proposals and taking on Philadelphia in an effort to become the largest, most well respected Social Media Agency in Philadelphia.  In doing so, we missed a number of steps that any good start-up should take.  The beginning of 2012 is all about planning our own business, while still delivering on our clients goals.

Communication

We help our clients tell their story but, ironically, we have not told our own story very well.  This has led to some massive opportunities slipping through our fingers as some prospects simply did not “get” what our offer is or how we could help.

The truth is, we’re not the right type of agency for every client.  We’re not the right agency to run your Facebook page and we’re not the right agency to simply get your more followers and WE have not been precise enough in describing what we do.  We’re convinced that telling our story better in 2012 will lead to a significant increase in revenue.  Strategically, we know that “Social Media Agency” is far too limiting.

We are going to reassess how we talk about ourselves on our website.

We are going to put out a monthly newsletter covering some heavy topics in Social Business.  You can sign up here if you’d like to get on our newsletter list.

We will double down our efforts on this blog and be more consistant about posting relevant insights about the state of Social Business.

Communication is what we help clients with, perhaps it’s time to treat ourselves like a client.

Learning from Failure

I am proud to say that we had nearly as much failure as we did success in 2011.  The best method to learn not to touch the hot pan is to burn yourself, and in 2011 we burned ourselves.  These trials and tribulations have set us up to make massive improvements in 2012.  We are focusing the beginning of this year on planning and getting our own “ducks in a row.”

As it stands now, we have a fantastic list of clients from year one including Wiley Group, Julian Krinsky Camps and Programs, Independence Helicopter, the Latest Dish and several others that we aren’t at liberty to mention by name.

Thank You

We are extremely grateful for our clients.  We are extremely grateful for our amazing partners.  And we sincerely appreciate the enormous influx of referrals in 2011 and will do everything we can to earn that same level of trust  in 2012.

Please follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ to stay up to date on everything happening at True Voice Media.

Happy New Year everyone.

Very few things have impacted our society as much as the internet.

The first iteration of the web featured a quasi-one way flow of information.  You could publish, but it wasn’t easy unless you knew HTML.  With the first version of the web we saw the flashes of disruption but it wasn’t until the web 2.0 movement that we began to see the true power of this technology.  Once the flow of information transformed from monologue to dialogue, the world changed along with it.

Consider how much has changed as a result of the web and self publishing:

• Wikipedia has all but eliminated the need for a paid encyclopedia series; and it takes up far less room in your home.
• Twitter and RSS give us the news WE want, instantly, and without the need to continue on page B9 while the newspaper is incomplete, delayed and cumbersome to operate.
• Bloggers are giving traditional journalists a run for their money by taking on the big story without worrying about the corporate interests of their advertisers.
• Podcasters can offer audio or video programming for free, sell their own advertising and bypass traditional Television and Radio outlets.
• Highly targeted self service advertising platforms on Google and Facebook are giving companies precision in reaching the right audience at a fraction of the cost of traditional outlets and returning volumes more relevant data.
• BitTorrent technology and other P2P file sharing programs have disrupted the television, movie and music industries, that have been slow to adapt to an increasingly digital customer base.
• Musicians can now sell directly to customers and promote themselves, bypassing the studio entirely and reaping a larger share of the profits.
• Artists can showcase their work online and sell directly to interested buyers.  Why even bother with a gallery show?
• Creative actors, actresses, and musicians can showcase their talent with nothing but an internet connection and a Flip camera.  There’s no more need to audition, simply publish and promote.
• Revolutions are beginning in countries around the world, organized using freely available tools like Twitter and Facebook.

Last week, I spoke with a group of Temple University alumni, all of whom were Entrepreneurship majors.  They asked how long it took to start this business, how much did it cost to start this business and how did we acquire customers?   All of these questions are valid.  Unfortunately, it felt weird to give them our answers.

We are very fortunate over here at True Voice Media.  We secured our first client several hours before officially even deciding to start a company, which is hardly typical!  Starting the business was relatively inexpensive, our overhead is low and all I really need is a computer and an internet connection.  And since we began in March of this year, we have been fortunate enough to have 100% of our new business prospects come by way of referral.  We have not had to ”pound the pavement” even once.

None of these answers are standard, but then again what IS “standard?”

So how did we do it?  What gives?

Being “Top of Mind”

Part of what makes us successful is that we have a large network of individuals that will refer us business.  Off the top of my head I can think of 15 people that will drop our name at the mention of the term “social media.”

Why do these people choose to refer us business?

Why are we top of mind for the keywords and phrases that describe our service offerings?

Maybe it’s just because people like me.

…but I think there’s more to it than that.

Generosity

I’ve been blogging since Mid-2008 on my blog Social Media Philanthropy.  I use the blog to talk about ideas I have and things I see developing in the social media and new media marketing industry.  I share resources, tips and tricks to make your business life a little easier.  I’ve tried to promote causes, fundraising efforts and highlight people doing inspirational work.  I’ve written posts for people that I’ve met, that either can’t afford to hire me yet, or just need a little bit of help.  I’ve answered questions that people have asked me via email, text, and Twitter.  I have spent my time trying to help people with my blog.

I’ve been on Twitter since 2008.

In that time I have tried to be helpful to people.  People ask me questions and I answer their question or direct them to resources that will help.  I actively seek out people that need help or are in trouble with their social media activites and I elect to try and solve their problem.

Keep in mind that everything I’ve mentioned above was done for free. I did it because I wanted to help and hopefully, in the process, get my name out there.

Inbound Marketing

People often reduce “Inbound Marketing” to mean SEO, SEM or other methods of bringing people to you through technology.  Those are inbound marketing techniques.  However, I have found success in a slightly different approach to inbound marketing;  I draw leads and opportunities by being helpful and generous with my time and expertise*.  I actively seek out those in need.  I look to those I know personally, or get the opportunity to interact with, and consider how I can help them.

Sometimes that means not getting paid, it means giving them a gift of knowledge or resources.  Sometimes that gift causes me to lose out on a revenue opportunity, but it also opens the door for a referral.  The act of authentically helping someone builds trust.  They see that your motives are more than just making the sale.  The reason I started this company is more than just revenue.  Revenue is a “given” in business, it’s how we survive, without it, there is no business.  The “WHY” behind this company, is the desire to help.  It’s the desire to take good people, who run good businesses and help them adapt to a rapidly changing world.

Our inbound marketing does utilize technology but more so, it utilizes generosity.

Today’s Entrepreneur

Today’s entrepreneur may not even recognize how lucky they are.  Let me clarify: YOU ARE VERY LUCKY.

Prior to getting my MBA, I failed starting a few businesses.  Were they bad ideas?  No, not at all.  The businesses failed due to lack of knowledge of how to run a business and quite frankly it was a different time.  Technology has now enabled us to legitimately run a business without an office, without a team and without many resources that we needed just 5 years ago.

• I don’t need a server room and an IT department, I’ve got Google Apps.
• I don’t need a marketing department.  I am the marketing department, and I’ve got Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, blogs and the rest of the web at my disposal.  Additionally, I can access these things from the palm of my hand. (Thanks iPhone.)
• I don’t need expensive photo or video equipment, my iPhone takes HD video and 5 megapixel photos.
• I don’t need an assistant right now, I’ve got web-based time tracking software, web-based task management software and web-based calendars.

Would all of those things be nice to have?  Sure, but as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to be ready to bootstrap, save costs and grow the company.  Today, we’ve got better tools than ever.

Do it Yourself

If you want to follow our formula, here it is.

• Form an LLC.
• Get a computer.
• Use web-based software, forget having an office…for now.
• Be Generous with your time.  Be Helpful.
• Do outstanding work.

*No, I’m not calling myself an “expert” but relative to most that need my help I have an expertise in the subject matter.

Many things could be said about Steve Jobs.  Rather than list off and repeat the myriad of ways in which Steve Jobs changed the world of technology, we’ll just say this:

True Voice Media is an All-Apple shop.  We use all Apple products, we believe in Apple’s design and marketing philosophies and practices, and we aspire to make big, bold, great things happen for our clients.

Today True Voice Media collectively mourns the death of a visionary CEO.  Whether you personally use Apple products or think they are simply toys for kids and trendhunters, please take a moment to appreciate the enormous impact that this iconic CEO had on the world.  He took a failing company, that he founded and was kicked out of, and transformed it into the 2nd most valuable company in the world.

We don’t have any black turtleneck sweaters, but if we did we’d be wearing them.  iPods on full blast!  Rest in Peace Mr. Jobs, you will be sorely missed.

So by now you must’ve heard, Facebook is making some changes.  I know, I know, Facebook making changes? What else is new?

Rather than repeat what’s already out there, you can see the details of Facebook’s latest changes here on Mashable.  More changes are actually coming today shortly after we publish this post.

Some history

Historically speaking, almost NONE of Facebook’s changes have gone over well.  Not even the newsfeed.  People hated it at the start, and many still hate it.

Places was a dud.  Deals was a dud.  We complain about Farmville posts.  We complain about the ridiculous privacy settings.  We complain about our data being sold to any advertiser with a crisp dollar bill.  Every UI change has made a large portion of the user base unhappy.

I had a fascinating talk with my wife this morning about Facebook changes, human behavior and the entrance of Google+ as a competitor.  Here’s what we settled on:

People don’t like change

Some individuals may like change, but people as a whole, do not embrace change.  It’s uncomfortable.  Here’s what is interesting though.

Prior to Google+, we, the users of Facebook, have consistently changed and adapted to Facebook’s UI, feature and functionality “improvements.”  We complain and threaten to leave, but rarely do people actually leave.  We get over it and accept that these new changes are  what they are.  Privacy concerns have a short lifespan, interface woes even shorter.  We clenched our jaw, cried out in frustration and moved on.

So now Facebook is launching a host of new “improvements” many of which user’s are already speaking out against. Facebook is not about to stop making unilateral changes to it’s platform.  They haven’t before and they likely won’t in the future. It’s a free platform, so whine and complain all you want, Facebook doesn’t owe you anything.  It’s THEIR platform and you are the product, NOT the customer.

Why do we put up with this?

Because…

Facebook IS ESSENTIAL and was without competition

It’s unfortunate but true.  No Facebook is not essential to life, it’s not a survival necessity, but it IS the way people communicate.  Yes, there are people without Facebook accounts and yes, there are even people without computers.  Personally, I don’t know what they are trying to prove.  Do they also light their stoves by banging two rocks together?  Do they still write hand written letters to family in geographically isolated locations?  The unfortunate truth is that this is a platform that we NEEDED to stay in touch.  There was nothing available as a substitute.

What. is. Facebook?

New Competition

So now there is Google+.  It’s got a clean design, simple sharing and data liberation settings.  Games are segmented out from the start.  Why isn’t everyone migrating?  Simple answer:

PEOPLE DON’T LIKE CHANGE

It’s a marginal change for people to adapt to Facebook’s newest whatever than it is to pick up and move to an entirely new platform.  And before you go there, stop with the MySpace argument.  I like Google+ too, but that doesn’t mean Google+ is synonymous to Facebook and Facebook is synonymous to MySpace.  It’s not 2005 anymore and Facebook is a whole hell of a lot more integrated into our lives than MySpace could even dream of.  If that is going to be one of your retorts to this post, please save it.

The truth is, people don’t like change and that is what is preventing all of the Google+ evangelists from getting their social graph to migrate with them.  So we’re going to have to keep changing along with Facebook.  It’s the dirty, nasty truth.  Your opinions and assessments of the platforms don’t matter, got that?  It took me a bit to swallow that pill.

The Bad News

If history is any indication, people aren’t going to like these changes.  If history is any indication, Facebook couldn’t care less whether you like them or not.  Suck it up because this is the unfortunate truth, Facebook is on a mission.  They want to own the word social on the web, and your little complaints aren’t stopping that train.  So unless you want to give up your precious Facebook, today’s most prominent and popular social network and communication platform, you better just deal with it.

The Good News

Well there really isn’t much good news for the average user apart from the fact that Google+ will keep Facebook on it’s toes and “innovating” (read as “copying”).  Maybe these new changes being released today will blow our minds, maybe users will LOVE it, but given how people dislike change, I highly doubt it.

You could migrate to Google+ but that has it’s own set of complications.

For us, at True Voice Media, we LOVE that Facebook keeps making changes and pulling the rug out from under your feet.  It keeps us in business, it’s what we do.  We keep up with what’s happening in the world of social media.  We look at these changes and try to understand how it will help our clients in their businesses.  Does it make our job more difficult?  At times yes, but it’s what we thrive on, and it’s why our clients continue to work with us.

Shouldn’t you?

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