Great post – consistently delivering a unique, valuable experience is key to long-term success.
The challenge is balancing the organic qualities you have outlined with the desire of the organization to control, direct or influence for personal gain. It’s great to capture an individual’s soul but when you are chasing quarterly performance goals, there is that strong desire for the organization to try to push for quantity of conversions rather than focus on the high quality conversions.
In other words, evangelists are expected to preach to the public, spread the word and attract throngs of fervent followers…and organizations want to see that level of traction ASAP.
Have you seen any examples of organizations mobilizing the evangelists in an effective manner so that [a] volume is generated quickly, and [b] the quality of the brand is sustained? If so, I would love to hear more and learn!
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. It’s funny that it seems as though quantity and quality are at odds with each other when it comes to conversion. But I know that it usually looks that way. I would ask the question – would I rather have 10 evangelists who consistently purchase and promote over time or 100 instant drive by consumers? Of course the dilemma points straight to a company’s strategy. I realize the “holy cow, gimme now” economy isn’t helping companies look long term. But, evangelists are created over time. The only instant relationships I know of that have “traction” ASAP are familial, as a mother of a newborn baby would attest.
The best and most current example of brand evangelist mobilization was Obama’s Campaign. Obama proved that when people are empowered and trusted, they will create and disseminate their own content and their own message. The overlapping nature of MyBarackObama.com, YouTube, Facebook and other social media outlets created a single broad, all encompassing network that spread across the United States. He asked his supporters to use the social media outlets. These tools enabled everyday people to become Community Organizers in their own neighborhoods. Ordinary Americans didn’t need professional campaign organizers—they could do it for themselves. Obama did not create a community; he enabled volunteers to create their own. This distinction gave his supporters the drive and resources to grow the community for him.
The campaign was not successful simply because it got a lot of people out to vote. It was successful because it supporters mobilized around his brand of change to influence other to get out and vote people out. The ripples of brand influence have continued. See other post (see other post)
Leili, I think there are two forms of location when it comes to twitter…
First, is the explicit “i am here” broadcast which you are talking about. Twitter has become a personal publishing / broadcast platform and broadcasting your location to facilitate serendipitous meetups is a valuable piece of the platform. Check out BrightKite and how they push their updates to Twitter.
Secondly, and maybe more important, is the ability to add context to each message. If there was a separate field for each message that says this message was broadcast from this location it then allows other apps to filter down all the public tweets by a location. This allows you to understand what the buzz is directly around you and adds a whole new, interesting dimension to how people use Twitter. Currently people are hacking it together to make it work, but if it was core to the platform it would really be transformative.
Whether this kind of application would be adopted depends on demographics and strategy. As you know not everything is for everybody.
I think people in small rural towns who know all 30 people in their local grocery store when they walk in really don’t need to look at their phone to figure out who they are connected to.
I think that young techies think everyone else is looking at their phone constantly…I have yet to see anyone in the frozen food section checking to see if anyone else is in the store for a “surreptitious meet up.”
I think that constantly broadcasting your location speaks to your narcissism. Why should I care if you are at Starbucks for the 7th time today? Even if I “follow” you? Because I should report you to the caffeine police?
And I think that some people over exaggerate their own importance. What makes you think that human behavior will change so much that virtual strangers will suddenly become real friends because they twitter follow each other? If you have mutual 3000 followers, you will not know them all. Social norms still apply. If you walk up to someone (because now we find we are located in the same shop for instance) and they do not know you, your probably going to get a cool reception. Even if you say “we follow each other”.
Last, I think that many of these kinds of applications will have a narrow audience. Most people complain now about the time it takes to manage their social networking. These kinds of things just add to the information overload. But if you can make a business work around it (which you are trying to do) then hopefully it will be of use.
I write a blog about Twitter that features news, trends and interesting Twitter-related services. If you’re into Twitter, it may be worth checking out.
Awesome insights Leili. Would you like to be a speaker at our Keller Williams office. Are you consulting for Blog writing? I am charged with this task for the new REO arm of Keller Williams Realty Maui. This may be a good win/win if you are able to be hired by some of our Realtors for brand building and blog building. Let me know. Mahalo.
Completely agree with this post. It took my awhile to grasp the concept of Twitter (coming over from being a total Facebook addict in college). I realize that there’s a sense of responsibility to my company that I am representing on Twitter and my own personal reputation. I have to think carefully before I just spit out those 140 characters. I’ve come to have a better sense of what people will respond to and what people will retweet, but I am still learning! Thanks for the advice!
I would love to get your free eBook, “65 Ways to Use Social Media To Sell Your Book.” Not sure where to sign up, but hopefully this reply will suffice. Thanks!
Please navigate to the homepage, where you will find a sign up box in the sidebar on the right hand side. Since this sign up requires that you opt in via an email sent to you, I cannot do this process for you. Please note that you will need to look for a verification email that you need to reply to in order to be sent the book. Thanks!
Great Post Leili! I really like the form of-
whats that
How does it help me
Me and my brother are using Twitter right now with better and better results. It was a struggle in the beginning and we almost gave up until we started to use some of the great tools available at no cost. I agree with you that to use Twitter in the right way is important.
Social media is somewhat different from traditional forms of communication. It is faster, reaches out to a lot more people at one time and remians there for a long time. But at the end of the day, it communicates. And to that extent it is a potent mean of interaction. What you see as hate messages are simply a reflection of the day and age we are in.
In a way, posting these messages on Facebook and other social networking sites allows the authors some means of expression that may even prove cathartic. It is the ones who bottle it up that actually go out and shoot classmates or stalk single women and kill them and so on.
One way of countering it is to post moderate messages back to them. May work in some of the cases and you may be able to purge the hate.
Twitter is an important web tool for online brand management, where reputation is everything. The short term and long term benefits should not be over looked, especially in a tough economy. There are many useful twitter blogs and twitter apps that…
JZ – As I said this list is not comprehensive, but based on recommendations from industry leaders and a few other criteria. Also, this list is for on-the-ground courses. I have another earlier post here that looks at courses offered online.
I’m a facebook friend of Author Brian Moreland and came to this interview through Brian’s facebook page.
I’ve just studied Creative Writing with the Open University as the penultimate year of my honours degree, and for my final year will be attempting Advanced Creative Writing. I’ve been writing for some time now, but haven’t yet approached a literary agent. From what Brian says in the interview it seems that getting the professionals onboard early is part of what helps establish a person as an author as opposed to someone who simply enjoys writing.
Enlightening to hear that authors are expected to self-publicise even when attached to a publisher, but if you think about it, we (people in general) tend to live our lives through social media and be much more media savvy than ever before. Facebook is full of sound-bites or vox pops of our daily lives.
Oddly enough, video is part of my life, as it is with Brian, but as far as writing goes, the irony is – I hate editing my work.
In fact, I would not recommend ANY of these. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book or http://www.seobook.com offers much more useful and spot on advice, much of it for free including tools – if you do a bit of searching, you can see that he’s ranking in top positions for many SEO related keywords. I would also recommend Foliovision’s services (www.foliovision.com).
For SEO Professionals living in South Carolina, I highly recommend Tracy Fredrychowski of the Search Engine Academy of SC. http://www.searchengineacademysc.com
(Search Engine Academy SC)
Tracy and her associates are top notch instructors. She gives hands on training, offers various course levels with certification, and the prices are comparable to those already listed.
Nice list, and no offense, but ask all of them if Eric Ward, aka LinkMoses should be included front and center. I’ve been at it longer than most folks have been online period
John – I did recommend SEO Book in the post prior to this one where I focused on online courses. Yes I think SEO book has a lot to offer. But this post focused on the brick and mortar on the ground courses you could physically attend if you like that format.
[...] Wordpress Plugins: 11 recommendations for blog start ups … Posted by Mark Fethney on 27 August, 2009 No comments yet This item was filled under [ Wordpress, plugins ] tweetmeme_url = 'http://wp.lemonandlimedesigns.co.uk/?p=3386';tweetmeme_source = 'SaveForWeb'; A short list of Plugins that are useful for any blog. [...]
Leili, it was very helpful to begin understanding how to drive people from the social media formus to our website. This information continues to expand my understanding of how all these pieces work together.
Thank you, LIsa
Leili, great post for your readers and thanks for the kind words about my online SEO and web site promotion courses! I really appreciate it, and look forward to sharing some new SEO happenings with them.
Leili:
I am making the effort to go through all of the information needed to take the company to the next level.
It has been one huge challenge due to my daytime work and family schedule. I am really going to take more action this week in getting some of these items done. I am not the most savvy when it comes to the computer however I am going to make this happen.
I did make the effort to view the Paul Chaney interview but for some reason it continues to freeze on me. So far all other items are playing just fine.
I just have to say this was probably one of the best blurbs I have read on the subject so far. I do not have any idea where you get all your data but keep it coming! I am going to send a few people to this site to read this. Awesome, just plain fantastic. I’m just getting into spitting out articles myself, nothing remotely close to your writing potential (lol) but I would love for you to look over my work in progress someday!
Simply want to say your article is impressive. The lucidity in your post is simply striking and i can assume you are an expert on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grab your rss feed to keep up to date with future post. Thanks a million and please keep up the admirable work
I had never thought the plainly simple ways the big G works. The thing is that Search Engines looks at your page countless times, it still takes a tonne of effort on your part to get a website to become intriguing to the spiders. This just adds to my understanding of SEO!
I am interested for summer training(especially in Chandigarh). I am thinking to go for SEO training. So if you could just resolve my query:
To which companies I could apply and the procedure for applying?
I would be grateful if you help me at the earliest..
Fantastic post! This could certainly aid plenty of people learn about this matter. Would you like to add video clips besides these? It would undoubtedly help out. Your explanation was spot on and owing to you; I perhaps will not detail every little thing to my pals. I could just lead them here.
Leili McKinley Matthew - thanks for letting me know. I will check into it and once resolved I will e...
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jhnsmith978 I am interested for summer training(especially in Chandigarh). I am thinking to go fo...
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Leili,
Great post – consistently delivering a unique, valuable experience is key to long-term success.
The challenge is balancing the organic qualities you have outlined with the desire of the organization to control, direct or influence for personal gain. It’s great to capture an individual’s soul but when you are chasing quarterly performance goals, there is that strong desire for the organization to try to push for quantity of conversions rather than focus on the high quality conversions.
In other words, evangelists are expected to preach to the public, spread the word and attract throngs of fervent followers…and organizations want to see that level of traction ASAP.
Have you seen any examples of organizations mobilizing the evangelists in an effective manner so that [a] volume is generated quickly, and [b] the quality of the brand is sustained? If so, I would love to hear more and learn!
Pat,
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. It’s funny that it seems as though quantity and quality are at odds with each other when it comes to conversion. But I know that it usually looks that way. I would ask the question – would I rather have 10 evangelists who consistently purchase and promote over time or 100 instant drive by consumers? Of course the dilemma points straight to a company’s strategy. I realize the “holy cow, gimme now” economy isn’t helping companies look long term. But, evangelists are created over time. The only instant relationships I know of that have “traction” ASAP are familial, as a mother of a newborn baby would attest.
The best and most current example of brand evangelist mobilization was Obama’s Campaign. Obama proved that when people are empowered and trusted, they will create and disseminate their own content and their own message. The overlapping nature of MyBarackObama.com, YouTube, Facebook and other social media outlets created a single broad, all encompassing network that spread across the United States. He asked his supporters to use the social media outlets. These tools enabled everyday people to become Community Organizers in their own neighborhoods. Ordinary Americans didn’t need professional campaign organizers—they could do it for themselves. Obama did not create a community; he enabled volunteers to create their own. This distinction gave his supporters the drive and resources to grow the community for him.
The campaign was not successful simply because it got a lot of people out to vote. It was successful because it supporters mobilized around his brand of change to influence other to get out and vote people out. The ripples of brand influence have continued. See other post (see other post)
Leili, I think there are two forms of location when it comes to twitter…
First, is the explicit “i am here” broadcast which you are talking about. Twitter has become a personal publishing / broadcast platform and broadcasting your location to facilitate serendipitous meetups is a valuable piece of the platform. Check out BrightKite and how they push their updates to Twitter.
Secondly, and maybe more important, is the ability to add context to each message. If there was a separate field for each message that says this message was broadcast from this location it then allows other apps to filter down all the public tweets by a location. This allows you to understand what the buzz is directly around you and adds a whole new, interesting dimension to how people use Twitter. Currently people are hacking it together to make it work, but if it was core to the platform it would really be transformative.
What do you think?
Ryan,
Whether this kind of application would be adopted depends on demographics and strategy. As you know not everything is for everybody.
I think people in small rural towns who know all 30 people in their local grocery store when they walk in really don’t need to look at their phone to figure out who they are connected to.
I think that young techies think everyone else is looking at their phone constantly…I have yet to see anyone in the frozen food section checking to see if anyone else is in the store for a “surreptitious meet up.”
I think that constantly broadcasting your location speaks to your narcissism. Why should I care if you are at Starbucks for the 7th time today? Even if I “follow” you? Because I should report you to the caffeine police?
And I think that some people over exaggerate their own importance. What makes you think that human behavior will change so much that virtual strangers will suddenly become real friends because they twitter follow each other? If you have mutual 3000 followers, you will not know them all. Social norms still apply. If you walk up to someone (because now we find we are located in the same shop for instance) and they do not know you, your probably going to get a cool reception. Even if you say “we follow each other”.
Last, I think that many of these kinds of applications will have a narrow audience. Most people complain now about the time it takes to manage their social networking. These kinds of things just add to the information overload. But if you can make a business work around it (which you are trying to do) then hopefully it will be of use.
[...] Influencer marketing: Where the chain of influence breaks, Leili McKinley [...]
[...] Read more here: 7 Best Twitter Blogs and Apps: How To Use Them to Boost Your Online Branding [...]
I write a blog about Twitter that features news, trends and interesting Twitter-related services. If you’re into Twitter, it may be worth checking out.
Awesome insights Leili. Would you like to be a speaker at our Keller Williams office. Are you consulting for Blog writing? I am charged with this task for the new REO arm of Keller Williams Realty Maui. This may be a good win/win if you are able to be hired by some of our Realtors for brand building and blog building. Let me know. Mahalo.
Aloha, Gina
Mark – Thanks for the heads up. I will drop in…
[...] 47 Top Twitter sites, services, software and tips [...]
Completely agree with this post. It took my awhile to grasp the concept of Twitter (coming over from being a total Facebook addict in college). I realize that there’s a sense of responsibility to my company that I am representing on Twitter and my own personal reputation. I have to think carefully before I just spit out those 140 characters. I’ve come to have a better sense of what people will respond to and what people will retweet, but I am still learning! Thanks for the advice!
I would love to get your free eBook, “65 Ways to Use Social Media To Sell Your Book.” Not sure where to sign up, but hopefully this reply will suffice. Thanks!
Hi Cathy,
Please navigate to the homepage, where you will find a sign up box in the sidebar on the right hand side. Since this sign up requires that you opt in via an email sent to you, I cannot do this process for you. Please note that you will need to look for a verification email that you need to reply to in order to be sent the book. Thanks!
If you still have a problem, please let me know.
Leili
Great Post Leili! I really like the form of-
whats that
How does it help me
Me and my brother are using Twitter right now with better and better results. It was a struggle in the beginning and we almost gave up until we started to use some of the great tools available at no cost. I agree with you that to use Twitter in the right way is important.
Hi Leila,
Same – I’m not sure where you want us to sign up but would love the eBook…
Thanks for this offering!
Best,
Kelley
Kelley, the sign up box is on the righthand side of the page about halfway down – it is titled SELL MORE BOOKS. Thanks for checking in!
[...] tip to Leili McKinley. Tags: influence, Influencer identification, James Fowler, Measurement, Nicholas A. Christakis, [...]
Social media is somewhat different from traditional forms of communication. It is faster, reaches out to a lot more people at one time and remians there for a long time. But at the end of the day, it communicates. And to that extent it is a potent mean of interaction. What you see as hate messages are simply a reflection of the day and age we are in.
In a way, posting these messages on Facebook and other social networking sites allows the authors some means of expression that may even prove cathartic. It is the ones who bottle it up that actually go out and shoot classmates or stalk single women and kill them and so on.
One way of countering it is to post moderate messages back to them. May work in some of the cases and you may be able to purge the hate.
7 Best Twitter Blogs and Applications…
Twitter is an important web tool for online brand management, where reputation is everything. The short term and long term benefits should not be over looked, especially in a tough economy. There are many useful twitter blogs and twitter apps that…
Curious why SEMPO’s online certificate program wasn’t mentioned?
*I’m not affiliated with them in any way but have heard it’s a good program.
Thanks for the info. I have been learning SEO and some good course would be nice.
JZ – As I said this list is not comprehensive, but based on recommendations from industry leaders and a few other criteria. Also, this list is for on-the-ground courses. I have another earlier post here that looks at courses offered online.
I’m a facebook friend of Author Brian Moreland and came to this interview through Brian’s facebook page.
I’ve just studied Creative Writing with the Open University as the penultimate year of my honours degree, and for my final year will be attempting Advanced Creative Writing. I’ve been writing for some time now, but haven’t yet approached a literary agent. From what Brian says in the interview it seems that getting the professionals onboard early is part of what helps establish a person as an author as opposed to someone who simply enjoys writing.
Enlightening to hear that authors are expected to self-publicise even when attached to a publisher, but if you think about it, we (people in general) tend to live our lives through social media and be much more media savvy than ever before. Facebook is full of sound-bites or vox pops of our daily lives.
Oddly enough, video is part of my life, as it is with Brian, but as far as writing goes, the irony is – I hate editing my work.
Listened to the whole interview, great stuff!
There’s also another great resource at the Online Marketing Council, lots of which are FREE.
http://institute.onlinemarketingconnect.com/rc/?tag=search-engine-marketing
JC – thanks for the info!
In fact, I would not recommend ANY of these. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book or http://www.seobook.com offers much more useful and spot on advice, much of it for free including tools – if you do a bit of searching, you can see that he’s ranking in top positions for many SEO related keywords. I would also recommend Foliovision’s services (www.foliovision.com).
For SEO Professionals living in South Carolina, I highly recommend Tracy Fredrychowski of the Search Engine Academy of SC. http://www.searchengineacademysc.com
(Search Engine Academy SC)
Tracy and her associates are top notch instructors. She gives hands on training, offers various course levels with certification, and the prices are comparable to those already listed.
Nice list, and no offense, but ask all of them if Eric Ward, aka LinkMoses
should be included front and center. I’ve been at it longer than most folks have been online period 
John – I did recommend SEO Book in the post prior to this one where I focused on online courses. Yes I think SEO book has a lot to offer. But this post focused on the brick and mortar on the ground courses you could physically attend if you like that format.
Thanks for your input.
[...] This post was Twitted by LeiliMcKinley [...]
thank you.
[...] Wordpress Plugins: 11 recommendations for blog start ups … Posted by Mark Fethney on 27 August, 2009 No comments yet This item was filled under [ Wordpress, plugins ] tweetmeme_url = 'http://wp.lemonandlimedesigns.co.uk/?p=3386';tweetmeme_source = 'SaveForWeb'; A short list of Plugins that are useful for any blog. [...]
Thanks for the information. Good Thought – I have bookmarked your blog.
Leili, this was extremely helpful. Thank you for this invaluable information. Lisa
Leili, it was very helpful to begin understanding how to drive people from the social media formus to our website. This information continues to expand my understanding of how all these pieces work together.
Thank you, LIsa
chebre, los felicitos
Leili, great post for your readers and thanks for the kind words about my online SEO and web site promotion courses! I really appreciate it, and look forward to sharing some new SEO happenings with them.
Cindy,
Please keep me in the loop if you have new and exciting information about SEO, your courses, or the industry. Thanks for stopping by.
Leili
Leili:
I am making the effort to go through all of the information needed to take the company to the next level.
It has been one huge challenge due to my daytime work and family schedule. I am really going to take more action this week in getting some of these items done. I am not the most savvy when it comes to the computer however I am going to make this happen.
I did make the effort to view the Paul Chaney interview but for some reason it continues to freeze on me. So far all other items are playing just fine.
I look forward to speaking with you.
STAY STRONG
&
HOLD TIGHT
I just have to say this was probably one of the best blurbs I have read on the subject so far. I do not have any idea where you get all your data but keep it coming! I am going to send a few people to this site to read this. Awesome, just plain fantastic. I’m just getting into spitting out articles myself, nothing remotely close to your writing potential (lol) but I would love for you to look over my work in progress someday!
Very helpful Leili, thanks!
Love hearing about these types of Wiki’s that I have never seen. They sound really useful.
Thanks for your information and help!
Simply want to say your article is impressive. The lucidity in your post is simply striking and i can assume you are an expert on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grab your rss feed to keep up to date with future post. Thanks a million and please keep up the admirable work
I had never thought the plainly simple ways the big G works. The thing is that Search Engines looks at your page countless times, it still takes a tonne of effort on your part to get a website to become intriguing to the spiders. This just adds to my understanding of SEO!
I am interested for summer training(especially in Chandigarh). I am thinking to go for SEO training. So if you could just resolve my query:
To which companies I could apply and the procedure for applying?
I would be grateful if you help me at the earliest..
http://www.seopaathshala.com
Hey, first I want to say great blog. I don’t always agree with your posts but it’s always a great read.
Keep up the great blogging.
Super seo information,I have bookmarked this site for future and will keep a eye on your other posts. Thank you
Fantastic post! This could certainly aid plenty of people learn about this matter. Would you like to add video clips besides these? It would undoubtedly help out. Your explanation was spot on and owing to you; I perhaps will not detail every little thing to my pals. I could just lead them here.
Blogs RSS feed doesn’t work in my browser (google chrome) how can I mend it?
Matthew – thanks for letting me know. I will check into it and once resolved I will email you. Leili