SamanthaOgborn.com | Leveraging Technology as a Means of Communication

A Twitter introduction: Does it matter? Why is it important?

A few days ago, after tweeting some content, I was floored to find this tweet in my mentions. It sounds trivial, but this tweet caught my attention faster than any other tweet I’ve seen. Ever since I’ve received it, I’ve been on a mission to write a blog post to show people the power of “The Perfect Twitter Introduction”.

I had never spoken to Peter (krisis) before, but I noticed he started following me. In conjunction with following me, he also sent me this tweet. I’ve seen so many people frustrated because they aren’t being followed back by someone, when really, a simple Twitter introduction like this could make all the difference – and propel someone to want to start a conversation with you.

What are the 3 components of Peter’s tweet that make it perfect?

1. He told me how he found me (through Patrick) - Patrick is a friend of mine,  and it’s fun to see that because Patrick was sharing something I tweeted, Peter found me through that. Since today is a Friday, it’d be useful to tweet someone that you’ve started following because of someone’s #Follow Friday – and then tell them. Also, I enjoyed the reiteration of the power of social media with this tweet – based on an indirect referral like someone from Patrick, I’m able to interact with new people.

2. He told me he was checking out my tweets and blog - Maybe it sounds narcissistic, but this shows me that Peter isn’t just following me to get a follow back, he’s scoping me out to see what I’m all about. He’s taking that initiative to find a common thread.

3. He told me where he is - Random? Maybe. But I used to live in Philadelphia, so this was great fodder for even more conversation. You can pepper anything in here, but I like location the best.

The most intriguing part about his tweet is that I don’t think Peter took time to think about how he was going to make his introduction. It was just a perfectly natural way for him to say hi. Now when I follow someone, I’m going to make sure I introduce myself.

(To top it off, you should follow Peter or check out his blog.)

What suggestions would you make? Have you received any introductory tweets that have caught your attention before?

{ 1 comment }

Photo Credit: Kate Whitmore Photography

Courtney Dial is the founder and editor of blog Pizzazzerie.com, a site dedicated to entertaining. Courtney was most recently featured on MarthaStewart.com as the “Doer of the Week”. It feels like yesterday since Courtney and I first started following each other on Twitter, and I’ve had the opportunity to watch her blog skyrocket. This interview is to help aspiring bloggers achieve the level of notoriety that Courtney has accomplished in such a short amount of time.

Don’t forget to follow Courtney on Twitter.

Samantha (S): Which idea came first – blogging or Pizzazzerie? Or both?

Courtney (C): The idea of blogging came first, but I always knew I wanted it to be about parties. I didn’t know quite what it would look like and after 3 or 4 months of brainstorming, I decided to just jump in! One piece of advice I definitely have for someone interested in blogging is do your research, review blogs that are successful and ones you think could improve. At some point, however, you have to jump in and start creating! I read a lot of articles on blogging tips and advice for new bloggers before I got started. These were all great to help me build up my vision for Pizzazzerie. Head to a coffee shop and spend a couple of hours browsing around at some of the fabulous advice from successful bloggers, but don’t be afraid to jump in when you feel ready!

S: What surprises you the most about blogging?

C: What surprises me most about blogging is how much time it can take! This is definitely something that you can control. If you are posting every day from Monday though Saturday like I am with Pizzazzerie, you are going to have more reader emails, more content to create, etc. You can make it what you want, but I was surprised to find that it can “take off” faster than you realize. I was not prepared for how much time the “extra” stuff took such as answering reader emails and learning the latest blog tools and SEO tips.

S: What online platforms do you use, and which ones do you believe have directly contributed to your success?

C: I use Twitter and Facebook as my main sources for social media outreach. We are going to be using YouTube soon with some new videos. Twitter and Facebook have been instrumental in building my blog following and helping me connect with other bloggers. It takes some time to build a following on both Twitter and Facebook but it is worth the effort. Twitter has connected me with amazing wedding planners, graphic designers, and party stylists. We all learn from each other and owe it all to the value of social media.

S: What are unconventional ways to increase exposure for your blog?

C: There are a few unconventional ways that I have increased exposure for my blog – one of the main ways being TV spots on Nashville’s NBC Affiliate, WSMV. The station has a syndicated show called Better Nashville that is part of Better TV. I do pretty regular spots on this show and plug Pizzazzerie.com.  They also link it off their site. This has been very helpful in building local followers. There are also online communities for my audience – for example, Martha Stewart has an online community portion of her website called Dreamers into Doers. I was recently featured on this site and that has helped my traffic in a big way! Getting out there to find a niche online community or contacting your local magazine (Nashville Lifestyles did a small feature on Pizzazzerie) are great ways to market your blog in a new way!

S: If you had to give a single piece of advice to bloggers who want to reach your level of success, what would you recommend?

C: Go strong! Jump in there knowing you want to build a successful blog and keep pushing towards that goal. Talk to experts in your field, connect with fans on Twitter, and write daily posts. Make it a priority if you want to be successful. I give up a lot of “free time” in order to keep Pizzazzerie going, but for me, it’s worth it. Write about something you love and you will never run out of great content.

{ 0 comments }

Everyone my age seems anxious to leverage their mutual friends. In fact most often, instead of leveraging, it’s considered “stalking”. You see someone on Facebook or LinkedIn through a mutual friend, curiously search through their profile, and then declare yourself an official stalker. Other thoughts you might find yourself saying out loud include, but aren’t limited to,”Wow, I’m such a creeper”, “I need to stop”, so on and so forth.

While there are extreme cases of social media stalking, I’m here to challenge this idea by telling you that by naturally leveraging your mutual friends, you can make paramount contacts. In some cases, reaching out to connect could even land you your next big job or opportunity.

I have a personal example that might help illustrate my point more appropriately.

While I was in the midst of my job search this past winter, I was roaming on LinkedIn when I stumbled across a mutual contact (a “2nd contact”). I had applied for a job at this company a week before and saw that a graduate from my alma mater, the University of Missouri, worked for this company in the midwest. We also had a mutual contact that I had worked with in a leadership position at school. Since this company is such a big company, I decided to take my very first plunge into leveraging a mutual friend to spark conversation.

I sent this Mizzou alum and employee a message on LinkedIn, explaining who I was, how I knew Karen (our mutual friend) and my work with her, and eventually politely asking what employment opportunities were like at her company. I didn’t bombard her with my resume (even though she asked for it), I didn’t force her to help me (even though she passed on my resume internally), and I didn’t ask to get a job at her company (even though she gave me the inside scoop).

It was so easy. Instead of throwing myself at their HR department, I made a friend and also received some honest advice that their HR would’ve never taken the time to detail. Also, by briefly mentioning my leadership experience with Karen, I gave a solid first impression.

So here are a few things to keep in mind the next time you want to naturally leverage a mutual friend:

1. Strive to build a relationship with your potential contact. This seems more applicable in the job realm. Don’t just “use” a mutual friend. The point of this post is to show that you want to naturally leverage a mutual friend. This means introducing your relationship with your mutual friend, but then also going out of your way to get to know your potential contact.

2. Make it personal to them. So often my friends are worried about what someone will think of them if they contact them out of nowhere. You can soften the initial randomness by utilizing a personal message. Explain why you’re getting in contact with this person, but remain genuine.

3. Keep in touch. Don’t think of this contact solely in short-term. Remember that it’s important to get to know people – not only could they end up being close friends, but if you’re looking for new opportunities, you’ll be the first person they think of when a new position opens up.

Last but not least, don’t be afraid to introduce other friends through social media. This might seem severely formal on Facebook, but through Twitter and LinkedIn there are infinite opportunities to make new connections. Don’t be afraid to step in and make someone else’s six degrees smaller by introducing a friend.

What would you recommend when it comes to leveraging a connection?

Backstory: This post is inspired by a scenario that happened last week. Long story short, I had a question, I tweeted my question, and then I was forwarded on to someone incredibly knowledgeable by a teacher of mine, @cubanalaf. From there, I planned a quick meeting with email marketing guru @djwaldow, who so kindly took a chunk out of his day to talk with me. If it hadn’t been for this mutual friend connect, I would’ve never met DJ.

{ 2 comments }

Consumer authority: what does it mean in today’s digital age?

We know that consumers have always helped determine a brand’s market position by purchasing their products. That’s nothing new. Brands succeed when we buy their stuff. And what motivates us as consumers to buy a brand’s stuff is mostly due in part to a company’s marketing efforts (there are other components, however this is the primary contributor.)

But brands have recently begun to replace their creative houses and advertising agencies with digital tools, which cuts the middle man and is extremely cost-effective for brands (even when they’re not on a shoestring budget).

Brands are crowdsourcing. This isn’t new, either. They’re looking toward a wide array of consumers who may be creatively inclined and out of the loop just enough. Have you ever worked on a project so long, you suddenly lack that creative inspiration? Since consumers aren’t technically the creative minds behind the brand campaigns, they can use their ideas to give brands a zesty and fresh restart when agencies burn out.

(If I’m still not making sense, click here for more information on crowdsourcing.)

Two websites I’ve learned about recently truly represent what I’m talking about and are the focus of this post. Poptent and Kickstarter have a crowdsourcing-like foundation that makes them, and the brands that use them, wildly successful.

Poptent's homepage

1. Poptent

I first learned about Poptent a week ago. Brands like Amazon, Bud Light, and Quizno’s all use Poptent for creative campaign ideas in the digital realm.

An example of a current assignment

This is how it works: A brand will give a prompt for users to follow (this nearly mimics a creative brief). Then, within a certain time period (often 30 days) people submit their own video creations that are basically commercials following the brand guidelines. The video that the brand selects at the end of the 30 days is then most often used in a digital campaign, or in Bud Light’s case, primetime television. The person who created the video also gets rewarded: they walk away with a guaranteed prize, which ranges from $5,000 to around $20,000. Not bad. And while some creative boutiques disapprove that their clients are flocking to websites like Poptent, many are actually participating in the fun. The users who create these ads can be freelancers, boutique agencies, and sometimes even well-respected filmmakers.

And while brands using Poptent assume they’ll walk away with just 1 video, when the deadline passes they may find themselves choosing up to 9 or 10 videos. Submissions range from about 75-200.

2. Kickstarter

Kickstarter's homepage

While Kickstarter doesn’t feature Forbes 500 brands like Poptent, it’s still a little nook online that brings the consumers to the brands. I became intrigued last week when I was seemingly late in hearing about Kickstarter. Kickstarter allows people to raise money online for their cause. This could be a dance studio looking to raise money for a trip to NYC, or a family-owned bakery looking to open their very own first shop. None of these causes can be made possible without the support of the community.

Sounds like a typical fundraising service, yet it’s not. Because instead of just giving causes your money, Kickstarter includes incentives for you to support them. If you pledge a certain amount of money, your “cause” will give you something back in return. Pledge $10, and you might get a handwritten thank you note from the brand. Pledge $1,000 and you might get a band playing a live show in your living room. Each project varies, but all of them include pledge rewards.

Incentives for one project

It’s especially interesting to see what projects end up “succeeding”. If a project succeeds, that means it met its goal within a certain amount of days, and they get all of the money they made. If a project does not make its goal, it receives none of the money. 0. A project could reach 99% progress on it’s last day and not receive funding. Kickstarter says this process helps people spread the word about projects that seem genuinely worthy.

I found myself completely immersed in their site last week. The concept makes sense, but also shows the power consumers have to make or break you.

These two sites are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to rallying group ideation. Mountain Dew recently came out and asked consumers where they should be advertising online, and then went to advertise on those sites with the help of their media agency. Consumer opinions are more valuable – they know what they want, and when brands ask, brands will find themselves in a much more viable position than just shooting in the dark.

What are some other scenarios you know of where the consumer’s voice led a brand’s future?

{ 2 comments }