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Social Conscience is GOOD for Business Bottom Line: Newest Research

By Shel Horowitz—Green/Ethical Business Expert Posted on January 20, 2018 Posted in Branding, Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Demographics/Psychographics, Psychology, Socially Responsible Investing Tagged with profitable social change, social entrepreneurship, social issues, social media

For decades, I’ve told anyone who’d listen that doing the right thing for the planet and its inhabitants can be the core of a highly successful business strategy. In my latest book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, I cite dozens of studies that show this.

Now, AdWeek reports on a powerful new study that reinforces this key truth. 65 percent of respondents—2 out of every 3 consumers—rate the need for brands to “take a stand on social issues” either very or somewhat important, and especially so when discussing brands’ social media presence. Of the self-identified “liberals,” the number went up to 78 percent, or nearly four out of five.

Concern for the planet—and the living things that ride "Spaceship Earth"—is good for business (picture of Earth and sun) — Concern for the planet—and the living things that ride “Spaceship Earth”—is good for business

China and Dissent

By Shel Horowitz—Green/Ethical Business Expert Posted on April 8, 2016 Posted in censorship, Democracy, Diversity, Ethics in Government, language, Politics, privacy, propaganda, Protests and Crackdowns, Psychology, Transparency vs. Secrecy, travel Tagged with censorship, china, dissent, freedom of expression, Gang of Four, Mao Zedong, propaganda, security, social media

All my life, I’ve heard about the authoritarian Chinese government micromanaging every aspect of everyone’s lives, the government’s total control over career options, and of course, the “reeducation” of intellectuals and destruction of cultural resources during the Cultural Revolution. Getting a visa was a major and expensive hassle that had to be set up weeks ahead, and there was no way to get a business visa without an invitation from someone.

The other obvious difference was the way China blocks many key Internet sites, including all Google sites, Facebook, and Twitter. LinkedIn, Yahoo, and Bing do work, however.

And yet, during our brief visit, the society felt very open. While there are plenty of cops and security guards (including community volunteers who have almost identical uniforms to the police but with the addition of bright red armbands), most whom we saw were not obviously armed and seemed for the most part to be a force for peace, not repression. We’d often see cops joking around with passers-by or chatting amicably with each other. And mobility was almost totally unrestricted, other than at paid attractions. As visitors, we felt no police presence singling us out, had no “minders,” and we were unrestricted even when we went to meet a young couple that a friend of ours had met through Couchsurfing.

Even when our entire group of 26 struck up a conversation with a red-robed Tibetan monk (in the government’s eyes, a potential dissident) who happened to walk through Tiananmen Square with a stylish female companion, there was no feeling of being watched. Since I briefly had a Tibetan housemate and know how to say hello in Tibetan, I even greeted him in his own language. His face lit up—but he got frustrated and disappointed when he tried to answer back and realized that was the only Tibetan I knew. (China claims Tibet and has often considered organized Tibetan Buddhism a hostile force; the Tibetans see themselves as an occupied nation, and govern the religious aspects from exile in India.) He spoke fluent Chinese, so our tour director interpreted for us. He posed for selfies with all those in our group who wanted one and was with us for about ten minutes. Plenty of cops were on the plaza, and none took the least interest in this interchange.

I’ve seen photos of China in the 60s and 70s with Chairman Mao’s picture everywhere, providing a Big Brother is Watching motif. We saw exactly two pictures of Mao, other than on the 1 yuan bill: a giant portrait on Tiananmen Gate into Forbidden City,

A guard stands near the Gate of Heavenly Peace and its giant picture of Mao. Photo by D. Dina Friedman.

and a modest poster in a random store window. We did not knowingly see a single picture of current Chairman Xi. Our tour director told us that the Cultural Revolution is definitely considered a mistake, and that the current government rates Mao “70 percent good and 30 percent bad.” He confirmed my suspicion that the prosecution of the “Gang of Four” (Mao’s widow and three comrades) a few years after Mao’s death was as much about repudiating Mao as anything else.

I noted only these very minor incidents:

An officer on Tiananmen spun rapidly in an about-face when a tourist tried to take his picture; the cop Dina managed to catch in the picture shown here suspected he’d been photographed and glared at her, but made no attempt to engage.
An annoying beggar outside the Shanghai Museum was told firmly to go elsewhere and leave our group alone.
I was told to put my camera away after taking a photo of an ad inside a subway station—but I was not asked to delete the photo.

Street crime seemed to be nonexistent. The only threats I felt to my safety had to do with driving patterns, and particularly the very challenging lane-by-lane crawl across a completely uncontrolled eight-lane rotary to get between our hotel in Xian and the subway entrance one block away. Wasn’t too thrilled about silent electric mopeds sneaking up on both sides of what I’d thought was a one-way bike lane either.

Quite frankly, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2002 (long after the collapse of the Soviet Union) as well as New York and Washington post-9/11 have felt far more invasive. It is, however, the first country I’ve ever visited that routinely x-rays all bags belonging to subway passengers before allowing them to board.

Our tour director, who had been at the Tiananmen demonstrations in 1989, even told us that when someone steps out of line on social media, all that happens is eventually the dissident’s account is closed. However, in the aftermath of 1989, friends of his were jailed.

Still, every resident of China we discussed it (a limited number) with felt oppressed by the government. One family we met with is actually arranging to relocate to Canada. So obviously, there’s more repression than meets the eye.

Shel Horowitz’s latest book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, shows how to turn hunger and poverty into sufficiency, war into peace, and catastrophic climate change into planetary balance—using the power of the profit motive.

Shel’s “I HATE to Write Handwritten Thank-Yous” Networking Guide

By Shel Horowitz—Green/Ethical Business Expert Posted on October 8, 2015 Posted in Branding, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Networking, Shel's Personal Life Tagged with discussion lists, facebook, handwritten notes, happy birthday, Networking, social media

Shel made friends with these three Australians while traveling in Turkey

Pretty much every networking guru agrees: sending handwritten notes, especially thank-you notes, is one of the best ways to grow your importance in the minds of the people who receive them.

And I know that the hand-written thank-you notes I’ve received stay in my own mind for years, even decades.

But maybe, like me, you have terrible handwriting. And maybe you also get very bad writers cramp. So I hereby give you permission to build your network through other tools. Here are a few of the ways I do that:

If I don’t recognize the caller ID: “Good morning/afternoon/evening, this is Shel. How may I make your day special? This starts a lot of great conversations.
On the discussion lists I participate in, I do my best to answer people’s questions with friendly, helpful, useful advice—and to answer a lot more questions than I ask. For about ten years, this was the biggest source of new clients in my business, and all it cost was my time.
Of course, I add value when possible. On social media, this is so easy: retweet, Like, and share good posts, sometimes engaging in dialog or bringing others directly into the conversation (tagging them). But outside of social media, you can add lots more value without a whole lot of work. Make e-mail introductions to people who could benefit from knowing each other, even if you have nothing to gain from their connection. Send an article or video link you think will interest your contact. Be of service as a volunteer. Interview movers and shakers for your blog, your telesummit, or the book you’re writing.
Each year, I select a cool oddball birthday greeting (this year, it’s space aliens singing Happy Birthday). Whenever a Facebook connection’s birthday comes up, my assistant sends them the greeting. When they thank me, I often ask how they’re doing,w hat they’re up to, and when they respond to that, I fill them in on my own very exciting work turning hunger and poverty into sufficiency, war into peace, and catastrophic climate change into planetary balance. NOTE: since many of my FB friends know each other, I typically do these as private messages rather than wall posts.
I’m always ready to start or join conversations with strangers—such as the three young Australian women in the picture, whom I met while hiking in Turkey. I’ve actually formed lasting relationships on public transit, at conferences, and yes, even at business networking events.
Thank people publicly. When you make people look good in front of others, they remember.

The Art of Book Marketing in the Modern Era

By Shel Horowitz—Green/Ethical Business Expert Posted on June 16, 2015 Posted in Marketing Techniques and Philosophies Tagged with advance reading copies, ARCs, book marketing, book trailers, social media

Guest post by Michelle Drucker, manager of marketing, BookPal (www.book-pal.com)

When was the last time you bought a book because you saw it in the window of a bookstore? Now, when was the last time you purchased a book because you read about it online? I’m guessing it was more recent than the last time you even stepped foot in a bookstore!

As stated by marketer David Meerman Scott, “The old rules of marketing and PR are ineffective in an online world” (The New Rules of Marketing & PR, p. 15). The Internet has transformed the world of book marketing just as it has for many other industries. Traditional book-marketing strategies, such as bookstore window placement and book signings, are dead. Sure, these strategies will result in a few small sales, but they are not nearly as cost-effective and efficient as online marketing.

Here are a few simple tricks to get your book noticed and boost sales without breaking the bank:

Create visuals and produce dynamic content.

Forget about the cover! Now people are judging a book by its trailer. The only type of media that outperforms images online is video. Visualize the reading experience by creating a compelling video. Book trailers don’t need to have high production value, but make sure they are professional and straightforward. Post them to YouTube and Vimeo — these sites allow others to share your video content all over the web.

In order to stay top-of-mind, dynamic content is key. Hundreds of thousands of books are published every year. What makes your book stand out? What information does your book contain that people need to know? This is content you should be sharing online.

A blog is a great place to share tidbits of content and direct consumers to buy the book. On a blog, you can share unique information that will help you connect with potential readers on a personal level. Consistent, focused blogging also helps improve keyword rankings if you optimize your blog for search engines.

Establish a strong social media presence.

Does your book have a Facebook page? Does it have a Twitter handle? Its own hashtag? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, then you have your work cut out for you. The best way to spread awareness for a new book is through word-of-mouth. In today’s modern era, social media is the perfect medium for spreading the word.

Now that you’ve created all this amazing content for your blog, use social media as a sharing tool. Link your posts back to your blog in order to boost traffic. With the right targeting and use of keywords, millions of people can potentially see your content.

Leverage industry influencers.

If you are a new author, you probably don’t have a gigantic following on social media or thousands of people viewing your blog every day. The good news is that there are plenty of people that do.

Before you start sending an advance reading copy (ARC) of your book to every blogger on the planet, identify influencers with followers who you can convert into readers. For example, if you are writing a book on leadership, you should send an ARC to business leaders with a significant online presence. Once you’ve found the right influencers, encourage them to review your book and provide their honest feedback. If they like your book, the word will spread like wildfire.

About Michelle Drucker: Michelle manages the Marketing department at BookPal, an e-commerce company that sells books to corporations, school districts, nonprofits and government agencies. Michelle brings strategic focus to the firm’s email, social media and lead generation campaigns. She also oversees paid advertising and website development initiatives.

Notes from Podcamp Western Massachusetts 5

By Shel Horowitz—Green/Ethical Business Expert Posted on March 30, 2013 Posted in Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with activism, podcamp, social media

These are my rough notes from Podcamp Western Mass 5, held March 30, 2013 at Holyoke Community College. It uses abbreviations: SM = social media; the others are pretty obvious. If I spelled your name wrong, I apologize.

According to organizer Morriss Partee, @mmpartee, since the Boston folks did a big regional thing several hundred miles south, this is now the longest continuously running Podcamp in New England.

I took notes on every session I attended except my own session, “Making Green Sexy.” I would be happy to send the slides from my talk; simply e-mail shel at greenandprofitable.com or Tweet @ShelHorowitz with the message “Podcamp PPT” (if tweeting, be sure to include your e-mail).

BUILDING OFFLINE RELATIONSHIPS FROM ONLINE CONNECTIONS

Thomas J. Fox, former addict, financial literacy/econ devel, lots of speaking:

I started in SM as the Pajama Poet on MySpace! Became the top poet there.

Social media eliminates the gatekeeper. I get an invitation to sit in on a financial literacy conference at the White House, b/c Twitter. Ask questions of important people, start conversations, build on conversations get known by them—get immersive. But it can’t be about you you you—be genuine. You build the relationship organically.

And then you take the relationship OFFline. I had a coffee with a guy I met on Twitter and I connected him to 10 people in the community. When you meet, you already know what you have in common. It goes right to how to help each other. You’re catching up with an old friend.
Listen 100% to what someone is saying.

Not interacting on SM is like having a drawer full of business cards.

Work/exercise your networking muscle, and remember you’re a brand.

Vine: new platform, 6-second videos!

Foursquare can build your brand. If you login from PV Planning Commission, Develop Springfield, etc., networking events, it shows you’re serious. And every time I’m speaking, publish an article, I post on SM. People see I’m serious and I’m genuine. At networking events, I focus on the coordinators, and they know everyone else.

And if I’m traveling to speak, I make time to meet SM contacts in Denver or wherever. And it can be huge for business.

Promote others.

For three years, I’ve been trying to meet Harold Grinspoon. I met a janitor who works for him, and he introduced me. Just because you don’t think someone can help you… I’ll have coffee with anyone. You never know.

Audience: people who built their personal networks BEFORE they needed them were much more effective. This predates the web, but online makes it faster and easier.

I’m doIng everything I do right now b/c one person invested time in me. Otherwise, I’d be dead in a ditch somewhere. I work w/ Junior Achievement to create economic opp for young kids. It takes a village to sustain an economy. Get involved in SOMETHING: friends of the homeless, whatever.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ACTIVISM (open panel)

Cool apps:

ittt: If then then that: tweets take actions depending on your tweet

software to give nonprofits access to your tweet stream (David Pakman knows what it’s called, shared it last year)

Triberr, spread messages throughout tribe

BufferApp.com (allows prescheduling and bit.ly shortening and some analytics): time a ppt preso as tweets, coordinate with tweetchat and hashtag

Aldon Hynes: sharing my coloring books in kindergarten, 1965, was social media. The oldest post I can still find online is from 1982. Wrote some of Howard Dean’s Deanspace, in Drupal.

Trends: Geocaching, gamification

Leslie Rule: I train how to do three-minute videos, data wrapped around a narrative, very teachable.

Aldon. I have a FB interest group and a Twitter list to monitor state reps in CT.

Tip O’Neil was right that all politics is local, but also, all politics is personal. I can reach my Senators directly, they will read my message because of the work I’ve done in social media.

Me: you have to merge online and offline. Congress all seem to tweet. But when the developer saw Save the Mountain at the farmers market, it got to them.

Leslie. You in MA are too polite. In CA, if you don’t like your rep’s actions, you go picket their house. And with coalitions, build allies, it’s not just yourself. It’s other people with 10,000 members. You won’t get allies saying schools need a hard reboot, but you CAN find allies to oppose Common Core.

Consensus: all of these causes and constituencies overlap; we have to get out of our silos and collaborate.

PERSONAL BRANDING

Lesley Lambert, Realtor. I remember when there was a book, and you’d fall in love with a house and it would have been sold two weeks ago. Now I spend no money on offline advertising. I’ve niched myself as the high-tech realtor with old-fashioned service.

80% of buyers start online, I suspect it’s even higher. I use social media/Internet to market my clients as well as myself. I have a hand in most SM but especially Twitter. I’m also very community-based and spend a lot of time talking about where we live.

Alfonso Santanello, Creative Strategy Agency (and Strictly BusiNews, business TV show)

I’ve been getting more personal, sharing about me and not just about my business. People wan to do biz with people they like. So I show people who I am. Who I am in person is exactly who I am online, and that’s very important when you brand yourself.

Kelly Gellanis, Red-Headed Diva, social media education for educators. “Professional socializer.” I help them reflect an online persona that reflects who they are offline.

Myke Connolly, stinkycakes.com, “the diaper cake boss” Twitter: diapercakeboss and mrstinkycakes People are paying attention. You have to watch what you say, keep in mind others’ feelings (and personal safety). I’ll post about a trip AFTER we come back. I posted something that someone else interpreted as degrading. That was not my intent. The goal of SM is to get people to fall in love with you. Then they support your projects.

Lesley: My name is the one brand that will be with me forever, sop if you put my name in any social network, you find me. If I’d named myself MissParkSqaure and Park Square was no longer, all that branding is wasted. But there are advantages of company name, etc.

Alfonso: Even if I don’t intend to participate, I grab my name on every social platform. I don’t want someone else impersonating me. Whatever you do, stick to it across all platforms.

Kelly. I use redheadeddivak on all sites, b/c redheadeddiva was taken on Twitter when I started (adult toys).

Myke: I listened to what my audience called me.

But if your name is taken, and a lot of celebs can’t get their own name, you can be creative. Or fi celeb enough, you can get it back. Go ahead and call yourself Stinky Cakes; you will be writing me a check.

All: you also want to get a business page if your biz has a different name. SEO benefits (Lesley).

Alfonso: with FB’s new Graph Search, biz shows up before personal, and they’re ranked by activity and engagement.

Kelly: But even on a biz page, sprinkle some personal stuff in.

HappyGrasshopper.com: email marketing service that does the writing for you (realtors. Others?), and guarantees replies. It’s a 3-sentence e-mail that has nothing to do with real estate, just little viral-video text messages. I approve the messages, and they get more response than anything else. It reminds me that consumers aren’t always looking for dry toast; they want fruit or at least some butter.

Myke: And those messages, we can forward them around, and oh yeah, Lesley does real estate. It’s more memorable than something dry about real estate that you get 50 different people sending you.

Being known before needed: Myke: I love Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends And Influence People.

Kelly: I treat my name like Target does. What I do as RHD may shift, but I will always have that as my name.

Alfonso: I got business because I did the TV show, and I didn’t talk about marketing, I talk about business and the local WMass scene, and without ever talking about the agency, it brings business. I used that platform to get known before people knew what I did.

Lesley: Blogging has been huge, and that’s why I write a lot about non-real estate. I blend community and R.E. and my life. I do a lot of video blogging. I’m an open book. If it happened to me, I probably blogged about it, and that includes the ups and the downs. And hopefully you’ll feel a little empathy coming through, and they’ll know me when they’re ready.

Myke: One of my mentors says “there’s a butt for every seat.” Your audience will follow you. I spent a year getting the same qs over and over when I was training kids at Westover Job Corps. So I did a book, and I go back to the same people and say hey, I put it all in a book. And the big brands are losing because you can’t know the people behind the brands.

Lesley: the best response I ever got was asking “do you care if your realtor wears a suit?” (and the answers were overwhelmingly no).

Myke: Different fish need different bait. Not all posts will work for everyone. Most will not. So figure one answer represents 250 people. Listen to your audience, see what they engage about and start to add to that convo. Then they will engage when you don’t expect.

Alfonso: 99% of your videos won’t be viral, and most that do are mistakes or embarrassing moments. You have to have patience.

Myke: you move viral much faster if an influential person picks it up. You can buy a lot of followers, but they’re not engaged.

PSYCHOLOGY OF SM: Jennifer Williams, @verilliance

Every platform has a psychological profile. It’s all about interaction.

FB: Who am I

Tw: who am I/what’s in the world RIGHT NOW

Pinterest: who do I want to be

Instagram: How an I express myself and my world?

G+: What do I think?

LI: How am I important? What do I have to offer? What’s on my resume?

Audience (Jeff): LI will show up first on Google, and most are high-income. I did a search for a certain HR credential, and it brought up thousands of people. Those are people I can network easily with.

Psych profile influenced by timing of entry, intent, parameters, demographics

FB entered when MySpace was “kind of a hot mess.” MySp was unfriendly to age 25+. I didn’t like the anonymity, and usability was atrocious. FB had no intention of uprooting MySp but it was a very clean, simple interface. You had to use your real name, lot of white space, and people were ready by the time that hit. They realized they wanted to connect wit the people they know. It ix the closest representation to who we are. They only want to associate with you if you attract on a deep personal level. It’s deeply intimate. 67% of all Internet users, but skewed toward under 30s.

Twitter: after FB, tried to capture snippets. Who am I with, what am I doing/reading/watching right now. Half-life of a tweet is 8-15 minutes, vs. 80 minutes in FB post. Archive is difficult to search, everything is pushed down very quickly. As a business, don’t say what you’re doing, but give others something to relate to right now: news, opinion, quotes.

Pinterest: aspirational. ~66% women—do women want to gather more? They are still the primary homemakers. It’s very concrete, what color things are, what your furniture or food looks like. Some college education, more rural. Is there not enough opportunity in real world so they’re doing it online? Yes, images, but they have to be aspirational. Quotes do really well in an image. “I want to be that good.”

Instagram: self-actualization. Everybody loves pictures. Smartphones were becoming ubiquitous, but the pictures looked terrible. Instagram provided simple filters to make them look nice. Lower income, urban, younger (under 30). If using in business, use in conjunction with other tools, or be REALLY visually interesting. It integrates very well with FB.

G+ looked a lot like FB, people looked at it as FB competition, but Google was looking at something different. The people who flocked in were tech people, early adapters, thought leaders. Huge population of scientists I don’t see anywhere else. Also great space for artists. You get much bigger images, text area, and videos, and real-time commenting. A doodler was able to build a whole product line from his hobby. There’s still a dialog happening about the images, what inspired them to create it, how technically did you get that photo? Audience (Karo Kilfeather, @aspiringkaro): you get the best of Twitter—discovery—and FB—big canvas.

Jennifer: The ability to select who sees which messages. Like Twitter, you don’t have to follow them back. You can put them in the “I don’t know these people” circle or just ignore.

I don’t focus on upping the numbers on any of the channels I’m on, and I have wide variance in numbers. Much more important is how you’re sharing.

Personally, I don’t want to be connected all the time. I disconnect. But when I connect, I want to know right where to go and jump in, post the right things in the right platforms.

SM should be your outpost; your base should be your own website.

Blog posts on Twitter: you have to pique their interest.

Val Nelson: But I want the complete thought. I don’t want to go clicking over to the blog.

Jennifer: that’s what I like about G+, you have room to see a whole blog post.

Audience: I miss the full conversations on Twitter. Now, everything’s a link.

Paul Bogush: Twitter has shifted from stationary computing to phones, and it changes what people tweet about. Fewer in-depth convos. And people want to be seen as smart, so they tweet links to good content.

Jennifer: but young people, Latinos, blacks are using Tw for convos. White upper class have more access to other tools.

verilliance.com/hispi: co-op for high-end group marketing/conversion consulting.

Superbowl Power Blackout: How Brands Seized the Opportunity

By Shel Horowitz—Green/Ethical Business Expert Posted on February 4, 2013 Posted in Advertising, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Marketing Trends/News, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with blackoutball, david meerman scott, instant tweets, social media, superbowl blackout, twitter hashtags

Several big, big brands were able to think and act like nimble small businesses and seize the moment when the Superbowl went dark yesterday:

Oreo, with a picture of an Oreo on a dark background and a teaser that said:

@Oreo

Power out? No problem. pic.twitter.com/dnQ7pOgC

Lowe’s and Walgreen’s both went directly to their own product lines:

@Lowe’s

Hey dome operators at the ‘Big Game’, there are a few Lowe’s nearby if you need some generators.

@Walgreens

We do carry candles. #SuperBowl

@tide

We can’t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out. #SuperBowl #TidePower pic.twitter.com/JpQBRvjf

Several nonprofits and PBS also jumped in. Here’s one I particularly like, for its higher-message consciousness raising—and for the smart way it draws traffic to its own website:

@ONECampaign

half a billion people in Africa NEVER have power. Learn more at https://www.one.org/us/2012/11/13/what-makes-you-angry/ …#superbowl

Social media marketing maven David Meerman Scott commented on the instant chatter using the hashtag #blackoutbowl. Scott liked the Oreo ad a lot, but noted that Lowe’s lost an opportunity for vastly higher readership by not using a hashtag. Umm, neither did Oreo, actually, yet that got retweeted thousands of times. I wonder if it got so much play because Oreo had actually run a Superbowl commercial earlier in the game? This is something worth investigating: whether traditional advertising can build social media participation, and thus engage the prospect at a much deeper and longer lasting level. It would be fascinating to know how many new followers Oreo got between the time of its original ad and the time it tweeted about the blackout—especially considering the exorbitant price of Superbowl advertising.

What I find most interesting about the whole thing is that the people who run these big corporate Twitter accounts had the freedom to respond instantly. Nobody convened a meeting (good luck with THAT on a Sunday and during the Superbowl). Boom, the Tweets went out. I don’t normally associate that sort of amazingly nimble behavior with the likes of Audi, Procter & Gamble, and Nabisco, especially since there have been many instances of companies taking big flak for Tweets that did not help their brand (Johnson & Johnson’s Motrin baby-wearers fiasco comes to mind).

I’ve been advocating pegging pitches and messages to current events for about 35 years—but social media gives us an instancy that we didn’t have in the 1970s, or even the 1990s. We can expect to see this sort of “newsjacking” (Meerman-Scott’s term) more and more often.

The Best Way to Get New Clients

By Shel Horowitz—Green/Ethical Business Expert Posted on December 15, 2010 Posted in Abundance and Prosperity, Customer Service as Marketing, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with internet community, internet discussion gorups, marketing, referrals, social media

Why have I been mostly absent from my own blog lately? Because I’ve been working long hours on behalf of a client who had some pressing and time-consuming needs—including hands-on media training, helping him hire a PR assistant, and getting out a rush press release with a very short window of opportunity.

How did I get that client? A referral from a client whose book I produced a couple of years ago. That original single project has now turned into work for four different clients, putting a significant amount of money into my bank account.

It’s hard to beat a direct referral from a delighted client, unless perhaps with a direct referral from a well-respected industry guru (and I get plenty of those, too, including one earlier this week). In both cases, they come to you pre-sold, and if you don’t mess things up, they want to work with you.

Plus, since they came through referral, they often are happy to refer others. Your marketing cost: zero.

Of my seven most recent major clients, three were referrals, one I met at a networking event, one found one of my websites, and one remembered me because I wrote an article about her years ago. I’m not sure how the sixth found me, will have to check.

To get referrals: do the best job you can, and encourage your thrilled clients to tell others about you. If you’re in an Internet social media community together, and the client expresses delight privately, ask that client to share this feeling with the community (that’s when you start getting referrals from industry leaders).

Social Media: A Tool for Social Change

By Shel Horowitz—Green/Ethical Business Expert Posted on April 20, 2010 Posted in Democracy, Networking, Politics, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with barack obama, david axelrod, Politics, social media, two-way comunication

The convergence of social media and progressive causes is very exciting to me; I see enormous potential to leverage social media for social change. Even as far back as 2000, I used social media as an essential building block of a successful local activist campaign (in fact, I discuss this in my latest book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet,co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson).

I think one of the huge mistakes Obama made was to let go of the massive organizing via social media during the campaign—a piece of the campaign that may well have given him the edge both in the primaries and in the general election, and certainly a big part of mobilizing the youth vote. Actively using those tools in two-way communication would have helped energize his base, counterweighted the Tea Baggers, and provided momentum to implement the deep change he was elected to provide. In the months between the election and inauguration, Obama put out a groundbreaking initiative to get input from us. But that fizzled quickly, and I for one never got a sense that anyone was actually reading the feedback.

Yet it’s so clear that social media can be a force for social change! We’ve seen it in so many parts of the public discourse!

The metamorphosis of MoveOn from a narrow group created out of President Clinton’s impeachment to a major organization channeling progressive votes and dollars

Howard Dean’s early power in the 2004 primaries

wide condemnation of Iran’s repression last summer

Creating sustainability for economic change agents such as Kiva.org

Although they are brilliant organizers, Obama, Axelrod, and the rest of his team missed this opportunity. They saw social media as a very effective way to reach new audiences, but not a way to build organizations focused on real change…and not as a method of communication from the people to the honchos.

Not too late to change this! If they build out their own networks, really listen to feedback, and piggyback on people with large viral followings (such as Rachel Maddow), this could still be a major influencing factor in maintaining Democratic control in the 2010 elections.

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Tag: social media