JimRaffel.com » Twitter

Loves vs. Hates with Amplicate

JimRaffel — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:30:20 +0000

I ran across a fun website called Amplicate the other day. Amplicate tracks the opinions you express on Twitter. Today they are reporting those as Loves or Hates. A few days ago when I found the site they used the words Rocks and Sucks. It’s an interesting way to get a feel for the overall positive or negative nature of your dialog on Twitter.

Humble and Happy. I have always thought my wife Cheryl’s presence on Twitter would be best described at humble and happy. Amplicate seems to support this opinion as I see the word Loves a whole lot more times than the word Hates in her Opinions list.

She tweets humble and happy thoughts. Take a peak at her stream. Positive, upbeat, inspirational, and fun would all be ways to describe her tweets. She offers to help others and is always quick to offer an encouraging word. Cheryl has 500+ followers because of her, not any of the trappings of her work.

Do they follow “you” or “who you are”. I’m not saying it’s easy to become a starter in the NFL but if you are, reaching 500 followers would be a piece of cake. As a matter of fact it might take less than a day. Would that same person reach 500 followers in even a year without the trappings of being an NFL football player?

How do you tweet? Can you think of two or three words that describe your style? Our friend @Bananza shares her tweeting style via her Twitter profile “Candid. Random.” Totally works for her. Oh, and Amplicate backs this up with almost all Loves and just a few well justified and funny Hates.

What do you think about tools like Amplicate? Do they help you better understand your Twitter style? Please take a few moments to add your comments. You can find me on Twitter as @raffel .

Small Business 101: Twitter is Priceless

JimRaffel — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:47:05 +0000

Seth Godin took the picture accompanying this post. These are some of the folks I attended the Linchpin Meetup(link to Seth’s post where the picture came from) with.

Meet-Meme Linchpin Card Set photo by Seth Godin

I knew one of them before Twitter. Now, in this picture of the Meet-MeMe autographed card set Cindi sent to Seth I am surrounded by people I can’t imagine not knowing. The relationships (business and personal because I draw no distinctions anymore) I have developed because of meetings and connections on Twitter are truly priceless.

But Jim I don’t understand Twitter. It’s OK, really. You don’t have to believe me. You don’t even have to try Twitter or try it again. The purpose of this post is to let you know that as business tools go, it has changed me and the way I do business with people more than any other single tool. If another tool was to come close, it would be my first cell phone (that actually was called a bag phone) which allowed me to more easily do business while away from the office. Remember when you thought you would never want or need a cell phone?

A business case. Take a look at #TwitterWorks – The Book. My friends Joe Sorge, Phil Gerbyshak and Scott Baitinger wrote this book together. It’s the story of how Twitter has driven the success of two restaurant businesses in Milwaukee where I live. Buy yourself a copy and save six or so months of learning. I did most of what Joe did at the same time he did it, so I’m here to tell you it works.

It works in the B2B space? Damn Straight it does. I have a voice I didn’t have twelve months ago. I have connections to people who have connections to people I’d have never reached (this is the power of the retweet). I am reaching people at the highest levels in my industry. (I interviewed the Chief Marketing Officer of Kodak for my company blog). This is all so new but I’m here to tell you as a successful small business person that to not be engaging on Twitter right here, right now is a huge mistake.

So, believers here is where I need your help. Please leave a comment with your personal Twitter success story. Also, if you aren’t already following me @raffel please do!

Small Business B2B Social Media Platform

JimRaffel — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:40:27 +0000

How should a small business leverage social media to sell to other businesses that are almost always much larger concerns? Stop selling to the business. Instead start introducing yourself and engaging with the people who make up that business.

Social media allows you to connect to more people in a more meaningful way. It’s time to start talking about and sharing the steps that helped me build a solid and successful social media B2B(Business to Business) platform.

1. Start a blog. Your blog (personal, business, or better yet both) becomes your social proof. In my case, this blog existed for three or four years before I even thought about Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Your blog does many things:

Provides a home base you own and control (assuming you self-host the site). The community that grows on your blog will be yours, not one of the social networks who can (and do) change the rules at a moments notice.

Search engine traffic - Posts written properly will draw traffic in via Google assuming you have optimized the posts for search engines. The easy way to do this is to use ScribeSEO (affiliate link) which I have written about before. Scribe let’s you worry about writing for humans while it worries about writing for Google.

Shows your willingness to give - In the new giving economy successful people willingly give away most of their knowledge and expertise for free. By doing so you show interested parties who you are, what you are made of, and what your area of expertise is.

Blogging Tip: Just start writing. You can refine your focus and purpose as you go. Try shipping one post a day. It’s not as hard as you think once you get started and you’ll be glad you turned off the TV re-runs for the Summer.

2. LinkedIn. Before you go and set yourself up on Twitter please slow down and swing over to LinkedIn. Take your time and build a darn good profile. Look at those of peers and competitors. Peek at the profiles of people you respect and admire. Model the best of what you find. My guess is building a solid profile on LinkedIn should take you a week or more. Not 100% of your time but a little here and a little there. Here’s some more thoughts on LinkedIn.

Wait to add connections. When you first create your account the process asks to connect to all the people you know by culling your email account – don’t do this. Your profile probably doesn’t even have a picture yet. Just add a few friends and associates you trust who you can ask for feedback about your profile as you build it.

Add a picture pronto. I pretty much won’t connect with anyone who does not have a picture on their profile. Call it a crazy bias but I’m not the only one who has it. Just take the time and figure out how to get a good business appropriate picture of yourself on your profile.

LinkedIn is your resume. I sincerely think the days of the resume are almost over. I’m pretty sure I would not hire or do business with someone who does not have a solid LinkedIn profile. It’s that important so spend the same time and effort as you would on a resume.

LinkedIn Tip: Write five recommendations for others before you start asking for them. Funny thing is you might have three by that time.

3. YouTube. Sign-up, create a profile. Shoot some video. Go look at my account for some idea. Video is coming on strong and the increased power of smartphone / mobile devices will see this medium grow. You really don’t want to miss out on the reach video gives you. Besides if your competitor aren’t doing it yet how cool would it be to be first?

Video Tip: Shoot for fun. Don’t try and be professional, you don’t have the time money or equipment. Be candid and spontaneous. Have fun, I know I already said it but it’s that important as I look back at my video work.

4. Twitter. You probably wondered when I’d mention this little gem. Now is the time. If you did Twitter first, what interesting content would you be pointing the people you meet and engage with at? That of competitors and others? Well, yes actually and more often then your own. You will, however, point them to your content when it’s appropriate and not self-serving. That’s why your content written for #1 above has to answer questions.

Twitter users are like economists. If you ask 10 of us for advice how to use Twitter you will get 12 answers. No, really you will. The best advice I have ever gotten is from Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) It’s talking people, just talking! Do you get that? Twitter is like your phone, you listen, you talk, you listen, you talk. Um Jim….that sounds like a conversation and I thought maybe I’d just throw 100 links a day to my blog posts in the Twitter stream? Sure try that. No, on second thought, don’t.

What Twitter is for me. Twitter is very personal for me and it’s also very business for me. I search twitter for conversations about topics that matter to me. I listen to what others are talking about. I add to the conversation when I can. Sometimes, I even just relax and have fun….and meet the coolest people who have helped me grow as a person and a businessman.

Twitter Tip: It’s your Twitter account. It’s your voice. Be yourself and don’t let others try to shape you. Shape yourself. Ask yourself if you’d say it in front of your Mom, your spouse, your best friend. If you answer no, don’t send that tweet. You won’t always like what I say on Twitter and I won’t always like what you say. Let’s keep that to ourselves.

5. Build a community. A virtual semi-private place where people can come and interact and share about the topics they are passionate about. I’m working on this now over at ColorMetrix as we build a password required color community. The objective is not to keep anyone out but instead to let our customers interact knowing they are talking to others who understand the verified color game well. There is still a time and a place for closed door meetings.

So, in a thousand or so words there is what I have been up to professionally for the last year or so. Sure it’s not all there but I mentioned in the second paragraph that it’s time to start talking about and sharing the story. If you or someone you know needs a speaker on these topics, please send them my way.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midwestmike

Stop Asking for Permission

JimRaffel — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:57:38 +0000

For the past few weeks I’ve watched entrepreneurs I consider more successful to see what they are doing differently than me. The answer that hit me, they seldom ask for permission.

They get more things done quicker. One of the ways you get things done is to following the old saying “it’s easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.” Think about it, asking for permission takes time. First, you have to figure out who you need to ask. Then, you have to ask and finally the other person has to think about it. The reality is you often create the need to ask for permission in your own head and no one really cares if you do “it” or not.

Let’s keep it legal. I’m not talking about breaking the law here. I am, however, not talking about accomplishing small things. There will be rule breaking or bending involved. Things don’t happen by standing still and waiting for the approval of others.

Go big or go home. It’s not that I don’t already move forward without asking permission. The point for me is I am going to start doing it more frequently. I asked the question on Twitter last night “Are you better at asking for permission or begging for forgiveness?” I wasn’t surprised by those who answered because I view them as successful. Also, all who answered made it clear asking for the approval of others is not the path to getting things done and being successful.

Begging for forgiveness implies the decision was wrong in the first place. Sure entrepreneurs make mistakes. Most of us, however, are good decision makers. So, you won’t catch me begging for forgiveness but instead briefly explaining my “mistake,” accepting whatever consequences come along with that and quickly moving on to the next challenge. Sometimes this behavior will have others labeling me brash or a bull in a china shop. So be it.

Permission or forgiveness, what do you think?

I’m a Blackberry Addict turned Android Fanatic

JimRaffel — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:43:30 +0000

Sprint’s new htc EVO Android mobile device is now my favorite personal accessory. My Blackberry Curve 8330 sits deactivated, lonely and dejected on the back of my desk.

click to see htc EVO full res capability

My smartphone love affair began many years ago with a Treo600. I graduated to a Treo 755p and then the Blackberry Curve 8330. Along the way I also made extensive use of an iPod Touch so I know and understand the iPhone functionality to some extent. The htc EVO Android is far and away the best smartphone I have ever used. Here’s why.

Intuitive. Within an hour of breaking the shrink wrap on the phone I had my email working and all my Google contacts synced up with the phone. Before that I had Seesmic installed and was tweeting happily away. Yes, I made sure Twitter was working on the device before email and for that mater before I even made or received a call. One has to keep ones priorities straight. If you have any smartphone experience figuring out an Android device and specifically the EVO should not be much of a challenge. The move from Treo to Blackberry last year was much more painful and time consuming.

Powerful. Over the last year I got used the to Blackberry hourglass being a frequent part of my day. It just didn’t have enough processing power to do what I wanted a mobile device to do day in and day out. After less than a week I don’t see that being an issue with the EVO. The device quickly and seamlessly switches between multiple tasks (apps) all running at the same time. In addition, the screen on the EVO is just plain gigantic for a mobile device. Yet, the device fits comfortably in my pants pocket. Speaking of power this baby does chew up a battery. With normal use I need to re-charge at some point during the day. So far not a problem but I would welcome a high capacity battery. If that does not happen the battery is removable so I can always carry a spare when I am on the road.

Just geeky enough. I seriously considered adding an iPad to my digital arsenal but decided to wait and see how I felt about the EVO before doing so. I can tell you my iPod Touch won’t be getting much use anymore. As for picking up an iPad I don’t see that happening anytime soon either. The EVO is one powerful device that gives me a lot more flexibility to set it up the way I want it to be. Other than my MacBook most of the Apple products have seemed a bit limiting for my taste. I’ve been told the Android phones are fairly hackable to accomplish some things Sprint doesn’t want one to be able to do. I’ll take my “friend’s” word on that as I would never do something against the rules.

Pictures & Music. A quick word about the 8 megapixel 720p video that’s a feature of the device. If you click on the picture in this post you will see a full res example of what this baby can do. Once I had the Blackberry I decided it’s camera was “good enough” and stopped carrying a digital camera when I travel. I no longer think there’s much of a trade off. I will be testing the 720p video and may stop carrying my Kodak Zi8 as well – fewer devices when one travels is good. I’m a little annoyed that syncing up music does not appear to be seamless and easy. To be fair I’ve spent a whole 10 minutes with the manual and Google trying to figure it out. I’ll get back to you on that topic.

Have an Android or more specifically an EVO? Jump in the comments are always open on JimRaffel.com.

The Twitter Vacation

JimRaffel — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:52:34 +0000

It’s the opposite of what you think, we are going to tweet….a lot. Tight budgets, saving money, kids in college, etc. have combined to create our Twitter vacation.

Roots of the idea. We (@hawtwife and I) decided to be fiscally responsible (unlike our village who is replacing roads unnecessarily but that’s another story) and cancel our week long odyssey to Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains. It was a tough call because our family loves that place.

What’s a Twitter Vacation? Well, basically we are going to do as many things Twitter as we can in one week and tweet about it. It’s a pretty fair guess my blog posts will be very Twitter vacation centric for the next week as well.

There’s not much of a plan. I know Monday night we will attend a Linchpin meet-up. Tuesday we are going to hang with the cool gang at @Translatorxd lab hours. That’s not much of a vacation for me, because I go anyway, but never with my lovely wife. Wednesday and Thursday will probably find us in the Madison, WI area for some hiking at a few of our great state parks (picture is from Governor Dodge State Park). Who knows we might even get to see our friend @StacySnook.

I’m going to Cheat the Clock. Seth Godin presented a challenge of working less for a week. I’m going to use my Twitter vacation to work no more than five hours in any day until a week from Monday. If you know me this will be a near impossibility. Well, really it’s what I often do on vacation. Set aside some time each day to get work done. That time is finite and doesn’t run from “open eyes” to “close eyes” time as my normal work week does.

So, if you want to vacation vicariously through me next week keep an eye on my Twitter vacation stream @raffel.

Social Media & Business Lessons From a Jewel Concert

JimRaffel — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:06:19 +0000

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Jewel concert with my wife. Here’s the three things I learned from Jewel last night after she made sure we knew her Twitter handle @jeweljk.

1. The power of your story. Last night it was just Jewel and her Guitar. Between songs she told the stories behind the songs. Her story. Your story is no more or less amazing than Jewel’s. The difference is she has found a fun and profitable way to tell it. She even commented about laughing all the way to the bank about her “Kermit voice.” Find a way to do what you love by telling your story.

2. Watch what your “Hands” are doing. She wrote the song “Hands” when she was at her lowest point and supplemented her diet by shoplifting. She told the story of how when her shoplifting almost moved from food to clothing that she realized she had to watch what her hands are doing. What her hands are doing will lead to what she is doing and becoming. She stopped shoplifting and starting writing music…all the time. My hands are typing…a lot. What are your hands doing?

3. Put your audience first to sell more. Somewhere in the middle of the show she sang “Beer built this city, Milwaukee.” I know, even if you are a Jewel fan you have not heard of this song. She wrote it thirty minutes before coming on stage. The audience came alive with the time and research she had put into the song. She admitted to “Googling” Milwaukee. As the song was playing a picture of her with our famous bronze “The Fonz” was displayed behind her. By caring enough to learn about us, she owned us.

Know when to go for the close. At the end of the song she reminded us that the evening’s show was being recorded and we could buy a copy after the show. We didn’t but my understanding was, you pony up the cash, give them your email address and they send you a link for the download. Catch that? You pay them to give them your email address. She also made sure to let us know that many of the songs she played last night were not recorded anywhere.

Your “Little Blond Juke Box” That’s how Jewel referred to herself early on in the show. The only thing I’d add is damn smart business woman to that description. Take your existing content, mix in a little new stuff and one unique piece and then sell it to a captive audience you have dazzled.

The show was great, Jewel was great, and I walked away with something I can model that is worth many times the price of our front row tickets. See anything in there you can model?

Planning the Social Media Way

JimRaffel — Sat, 22 May 2010 23:48:33 +0000

Planning sales “events” with social media while similar to the traditional sales model is not the same. During the #unGeeked conference last week I got a glimpse of the HubSpot social media sales funnel.

Sales will always be about the funnel. What changes is how the funnel gets filled and in my case how the sales are closed. Writing this post is a struggle because I share so much with you guys. The photo of my Moleskine notebook that accompanies this post give you 95% of the plan to bring back the ColorMetrix User’s Group Meeting in 2010. (We’ll get back to that last 5% in a moment).

A wide funnel at the top is the key to social media and community sales success. In order to fill our meeting with 50 people (my goal) I’ll need to reach about 5,000. I don’t plan to pick the phone up one time. I’ll use blog posts, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, and some direct mail tools to get the word out that we are planning a 2010 meeting.

A LinkedIn Group will be the home base of planning and ideation for the meeting. In the past the meeting was planned and conducted by us for the users. This time around I am going to pull volunteers out of the LinkedIn Group to help us plan. I’d tell you more about the meeting but until the LinkedIn group reaches a critical mass I don’t know exactly what the meeting will look like or even where we will hold it.

I have a plan. You can see that by looking at the photograph of my Moleskine notebook. The LinkedIn group has been created and invites sent to key contacts on LinkedIn. This blog post is being written. CMUG 2.0 2010 (#cmug2010) will happen. I just have to do the work at the top of the funnel and attract enough interested people to the process.

Back to that last 5%. If some of my posts like this one seem like I’m leaving a little bit out, I apologize but I am. I give you 95% of what I do for free. Not many people write a blog post almost every day about what they are doing and how they are doing it. The last 5% is my secret sauce. The competitive advantage I have within my own industry and marketplace.

I’m working on providing limited access to the last 5% of my knowledge. Until I figure out what that is going to look like I am available on a very limited basis to do consulting with companies outside my marketplace. Not sure what that means? If you even think we compete in any way shape or form, we probably do and I’ll say no. If you want to know more contact me here.

That’s a glimpse into how I plan for sales success with social media and community tools. Does your strategy looks similar?

Amazing Content Means Taking a Stand

JimRaffel — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:11:01 +0000

During the #unGeeked conference last week I was able to capture Scott Stratten (@unmarketing on Twitter) thoughts on the craziness of book endorsements.

Scott takes a stand. Here we have a man about to have his first book published and he takes on the publishing establishment by having a whole chapter in his book about the foolishness of book endorsements. When I watched the video I thought to myself that’s amazing content because he took a stand.

Rush Limbaugh does not have the most listened to radio show for his middle of the road views. Like him or not Rush has amazing content because he takes a stand. We don’t want wishy washy. I don’t know about you but I do wishy washy well enough myself, often enough, that I don’t want to read about it.

True Passion comes from taking a stand. Watching Scott present at unGeeked I got to see this first hand. What are we doing on Twitter Scott asked? Then, in a very impassioned voice with equally animated body language he said something like – Talking! Do you get that people? We are just talking! He’s successful for a reason, he believes it and he lives it.

Amazing content does not just happen. It takes practice. It takes learning that you must take a stand. You must offend some (not intentionally or in a nasty name calling way) to reach those who care about your message. You don’t come here each day and read, for me to tell you the sky was blue today. You come for my passion about self-improvement and business success. (I know this because those are the posts you comment on most).

My theme is trending towards helping others first. There’s a reason for this. I didn’t do it for ten years. I was a king size self-centered jerk. Not all the time but often enough that I can see now, that was holding me back from getting where I wanted to go. I took a stand with myself and just stopped doing it.

I’m taking a stand to produce only amazing content that is original and authentic me. I’ll be focused on self-improvement and business success. This is who I am, this is what I do.

Business advice from a Deziner

JimRaffel — Wed, 19 May 2010 23:36:22 +0000

Yesterday I went to share business advice with my friend Cindi Thomas (@deziner) and one of her partners in Translator Mark Fairbanks (@MarkFairbanks). First, how can you not love that Cindi picked a Twitter name one can’t forget – Right? If you watch the video you’ll see I managed to forget her last name but I never forget her Twitter handle. Think about that moving forward in the on-line space.

The video hopefully speaks for itself. My interest in this project is two fold.

1. I want to see these guys succeed. I’ve met a lot of cool intelligent people in the last year or so and these two stand out like only a few have. Yes, they are smart but let’s be honest a lot of people are smart. It’s that fact that they are unpretentious and willing to help and share with others.

2. This project is all about combining the on-line / off-line experience. One of their chosen off-line tools is print. Even better on demand digital print. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time you know I love print and will do anything to encourage people to see it’s ongoing higher value moving forward. Remember, print gives you access to two more senses touch and smell. (Mark, I saw you smell that example of print I brought along – what a cool reminder of that edge we have).

Lessons learned yesterday. Go with an idea to share. In other words, plan ahead. Give to get and all that fun stuff. Does that sound contrived and manipulative? Well, Cindi and Mark didn’t seem put off that in less than five minutes, after a quick hello and handing me a cup of scary good strong java, I jumped right in with my free advice. Free advice, so in the end it may prove worth exactly what they paid for it.

When someone’s pouring coffee behind you and you think they aren’t listening….they probably are. I’ve been told I do this same thing where I seem totally disengaged and then dish out the good stuff. Thanks for the good stuff Cindi. We figured out a unique innovative way to possibly outsource some very important work I have and help others learn in the process. It doesn’t get any better.

Get outside your circle. Share what you are doing with others and learn what they are doing. It’s quite possible you can model each others success in your own space. I’m not talking group think here. I’d prefer to called it shared think.

What do you think? Ready to go find some big brains who make great coffee and hang out in an awesome space for thinking creativity? Go for it!