Box Scores: June 22-28 “Trust, dominoes and pick-up basketball”
We’re back in action on this fine Monday morning and we’ve got quite the edition of Box Scores coming your way this week. We’ve loaded Box Scores with more posts than usual, but that’s just because the blogosphere had so much great content to choose from and we wanted to pass it along. Hopefully you get as much out of these posts as we did, so let us know what you think by leaving a comment below or tweeting us at @deepbench (or, join our Facebook fan page while the gettin’s good by clicking here).
Kicking things off, we’ve got a great (and very informative) post from Valeria Maltoni. Enjoy…
-“Blogging at Work if You Don’t Have a Blog”
While her blog at Conversation Agent is typically full of good stuff, Valeria outdoes herself with this insightful look at “blogging without a blog.” There are great tips for all kinds of people (whether you do or don’t have a blog) and it’s worth reading all the way through. As she puts it, “Participation is content because it is what will activate your content in the context of the conversation.” Are you participating by sharing content? If not, you might want to think about it.
It’s Seth Godin, so you know it’s going to be good. His thoughts on going out and getting business are worth the read (especially if you’re a smaller business like we are here at Deep Bench). As Seth explains, “…if you line up all the dominos one by one, in the right order, you may just have enough energy to push over the first one.” What’s your strategy? Are you shooting for the big domino right out of the gate or building that momentum with smaller dominos that will help you take down the big one when you get to it?
-“PR Popping Out with Mask Characterization”
Certainly a more unique post by Narciso over at the Method + Moxie blog, the post discusses the connection between an interesting (and boundary-pushing) college theatre class and Narciso’s current work in the PR and social media realm. The connection he creates is one that makes perfect sense, and since it’s connected to a very unique story, we figured it would be worthwhile to recommend it to you guys. Sometimes it helps to gain some insight from concepts that don’t fit into the “typical” social media blog post. Enjoy.
-“How to Make Social Media FAIL for You”
Jeremy Griffin brings a funny and realistic viewpoint of how to “do” a social media campaign (the wrong way). Or more specifically, what your agency (who just might be “doing” social media the wrong way) is telling you to do. For example, in his viral video section, Jeremy writes, “It doesn’t matter if your video does anything for your brand, just so long as it is FUNNY! Can’t think of anything good? NO PROBLEM! Just take something already popular from the Internet and replicate it with your own product!” The post had us laughing, so read up and see if you’re making social media “FAIL” for you.
-“How to Write an Email that Stands Out”
Still MORE from Valeria Maltoni (not a surprise, seeing as she’s usually brilliant and on point), this is a pretty straightforward post explaining why putting in more time and effort than most people think is necessary is one way to stand out (for all the right reasons). Even for something as simple as an email, that extra touch can go a long way.
-“Don’t learn social media at the expense of your client”
Although it’s the talk of the town (or Twitterverse), not everyone is utilizing social media. So when your clients ask you if you “do” social media, you can either answer yes or no. For some people, the more appropriate answer is “no.” But sometimes those same people say “yes.” As Marc Meyer at Direct Marketing Observation puts it, “You have earned their trust. Trust is gold.” The choice to break that trust can backfire. So make sure you’re doing the right thing before you hastily tell your clients that you can “do” social media. They’ll probably thank you for it.
-“What Would Make You Buy My Product One More Time Per Year?”
According to Adam Singer at The Future Buzz, that question is the WRONG question to be asking your customers or clients. The better question to consider is how to build long-term relationships with them rather than looking for a short fix. In his words, “Ask yourself, how does what I am doing to market my clients/business/products/website/blog truly build something special and lasting.” Lots of posts on trust this week in Box Scores…probably something to keep in mind the next time you consider going for a quick fix or short-term gain.
-“Brands: You can’t hide and then expect to participate in social media”
We’re back with a second Marc Meyer post. This one’s on pick-up basketball games. Well, it’s actually about brands that suddenly want to engage in social media (and why simply engaging at some point along the way will make the full-scale transition much more quick and painless), but he uses an excellent analogy based on games of pick-up basketball. And, seeing as we like sports here at Deep Bench, we thought it fit quite nicely to round out this week’s Box Scores. Let us know if you agree (or disagree).
And once again Box Scores come to a close for the week. Hopefully you got some insight from this mix of fantastic bloggers and marketing talents. If there are any great posts from the week we should’ve included, let us know in the comments section below or drop us a link to the post on Twitter at @deepbench and we’ll check it out. Or, you’re more than welcome to just let us know that we’re doing a great job with Box Scores. Either way, we’d love to hear from you. We’ll see you back next week, same time, same place.