Becky Robinson's Blog, page 83

Featured on Friday: Deb Mills-Scofield

Curious about the Featured on Friday posts? Learn more.

We are so grateful for all of our clients and their decision to entrust their book launch or social media promotion to us. It’s an honor to be able to stand behind these amazing people and support their efforts through social media channels. However, over time, no matter how much you might enjoy certain aspects of your work, a job is still a job, and there are still going to be days when you would rather do something else… like grab a box of Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins and curl up with a good book – without worrying that the content is too long for a tweet. But then you meet a client who quickly moves to the next level and becomes a friend, and you remember why you love this job, and you feel blessed to play a supporting role in their work. And that’s exactly how I feel about today’s Featured on Friday guest…

MEET DEB MILLS-SCOFIELD

Deb is one of the kindest, sweetest women who you will ever have the privilege to meet. She’s also one of the smartest. After she helped create a brand new concentration called Cognitive Science, Deb graduated from Brown University in just three years. She went on to work at Bell Labs where she designed and patented an integrated multimedia-messaging platform (don’t ask me what that means – I was an English major!). She’s now one of the top 40 bloggers on innovation, a mentor to young entrepreneurs, a college instructor, inspiring speaker, writer at Harvard Business Review, wife, mom, and a fan of the Maine coast. To read more, you should visit the About page on her website. You’ll be amazed at what this woman has already accomplished, as well as all that she continues to do.

WHERE TO FIND DEB:

CXO Talk - This is taking place on Google+ TODAY (Friday, Nov 8) at 3:00 pm (ET)!

Harvard Business Review – Control is for Beginners

Business Innovation Factory – Love and the network in an I-Thou world

Switch & Shift – Posts by Deb

Lead Change Group – Linked Posts

CONNECT WITH DEB:

Visit Deb’s website, follow her on Twitter and connect on LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+.

WATCH DEB IN ACTION:

Watch Deb in action at #BIF9! If you can find 15 minutes in your day, I highly recommend listening to what she has to say, and not because she’s a client or a friend, but because I actually learned from it and I think you will too!

Share Your Thoughts: When and where did you first come across Deb? If you could ask her any question, what would you ask?

6 Ways to Improve Blog Post Visibility

If you have a blog, you want people to read it. You probably aren’t writing just for yourself, otherwise you’d keep it offline. And you probably want more than just your mom and few good friends to read it. You want people to comment and share it with others. And you would love to have it show up in Google searches – say, somewhere in the first two pages, rather than the 200th page.

So how do you make that happen? It involves one part SEO, one part categorization, and one part engagement. In simpler terms…

Choose a good title. Search engines look for keywords, and humans look for uniqueness. So combine the two. Choose a title that will catch people’s attention – but also something that includes a key term from your post. Think about what people search for. If you’re writing about a better way to peel potatoes, the title “Losing Appeal” might catch people’s eyes, but probably won’t show up when someone types “how to peel potatoes” into Google. Find a creative way to combine the two, and you’ll have a stellar title.

Add a relevant, high quality photo. When you skim through your news feeds, what catches your eye? Photos, right? We are turning into a more visually-stimulated society, and bloggers must be aware of that, whether they like it or not. Find a photo that relates to your topic somewhere like photopin.com (make sure you properly attribute everything!), or create a simple graphic yourself with a site like picmonkey.com. Think especially of what your readers will be likely to share: a single ugly, brown potato? or a beautiful layout of multi-colored spuds? or maybe even a graphic with a picture and the post title?

Add text to your photo. Unlike humans, search engines prefer words instead of pictures. So click on your image, and change the title to something other than the default “IMG 25843.” Describe the picture in a few words. Also, fill out the alternate text. It’s a good idea to use the main key word or phrase that your post is about – or at the very least, your post title.

Add a call to action. At the end of your post, tell your readers what you want them to do with that information. Do they need to go buy their own potato peeler? Then share a “buy here” link. Do you want them to share their favorite potato recipe? Ask them to leave a comment. Do you simply want them to share the article across their own networks? Give them a tweetable phrase, and ask (nicely) if they could share it with others. If you don’t ask, they probably won’t do it.

Add some meta data. Most blogs have a basic meta-data setting underneath the section where you write your post. This is gold to search engines, so make sure you fill it out! It doesn’t have to be complicated. This is where your chosen key word comes in handy – make sure the title and description box both include your keyword. Those two things are what will show up in Google searches. So make them readable. Keep your title concise (it’s okay if it’s different than your actual blog post title) and limit your description to under 150 words.

If there’s a place to add meta keywords, make sure you fill that out too. Think about what questions people might ask that would lead them to your post. For instance: “better potato peelers, how to peel potatoes, things to do with potatoes, red bliss, food preparation.” You can also include your post’s category and tags here, too.

Share across your social networks. But don’t share the same exact thing at the same exact time across all your accounts. Vary the wording a little, or ask an open-ended question that will draw people to read your post – for instance, “How do you peel your potatoes? Find some great tips here!” And spread it out. Not everyone is around at the same time each day. A good rule of thumb is to share it once in the morning and once in the evening on places like Facebook and Google+, and several times throughout the day on Twitter. 

 

Tell me something! How else could you improve your blog post visibility?

 

Elizabeth Johnson is an author and blogger, disciple of Christ, wife of a soldier, and fighter of Wegener’s Granulomatosis. She loves reading theology, savoring dark coffee, playing with words, and hiding away on mountain trails. Find her at DogFurandDandelions.com, where she shares encouragement for Christian living, and connect with her on Twitter or Facebook.

 

 

Image credit: scyther5 / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Featured on Friday: Mike Myatt

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If you haven’t picked up on it by now, allow me to let you in on a little secret: we get to know some amazing leadership experts in our work at Weaving Influence. We have the unique opportunity to read through their books and blogs and soak up their wisdom and experience while we offer advice on social media and book launches. It often feels like the more I read, the more I understand how little I know, but it’s a journey, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to learn from these amazing men and women. Today it’s my honor to introduce you to one of these leaders, currently preparing to enter a busy book launch season…

MEET MIKE MYATT

Mike is a leadership advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs and their Boards of Directors. He’s also the author of Leadership Matters…The CEO Survival Manual and Hacking Leadership (launching December 16, 2013), a Forbes leadership columnist, and serves as Chief Executive Officer at N2growth. When he’s not writing books and columns, running a business, or advising top-level executives, you can find Mike giving lectures and keynotes on topics of leadership and innovation. As you can imagine, he stays busy!

As I mentioned before, his new book, Hacking Leadership, is launching this December (with a couple of pre-order weeks between now and then). I’ve read a lot of leadership books over the last few years, and I have nothing but good to say about this book.  I would highly encourage you to download a free sample of Hacking Leadership today (no email address required)!

WHERE TO FIND MIKE:

N2Growth – Learn more about how they serve world class leaders

Forbes.com – The #1 Problem Every Leader Has But Isn’t Aware Of

Hacking Leadership Webinar – Register for the November 5th webinar (it’s FREE)

YouTube – Videos from N2Growth on Leadership

CONNECT WITH MIKE:

Visit Mikes’s website, pre-order Hacking Leadership on Amazon or check out the Bulk Buy offers, follow him on Twitter and connect on Facebook and Google+.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR MIKE?

Coming up next week, on Tuesday, November 5th at 12 pm (ET), Mike will be joining Becky for an hour-long Q & A. Sign up today, then join us on Tuesday and come prepared with your toughest leadership questions – Mike is up for the challenge! Remember, Mike regularly works with top CEOs and writes for Forbes, so this is a tremendous (FREE) opportunity to learn from a much sought after leader. In fact, why not bring a friend? Send a tweet now!

COMING IN DECEMBER:

If you enjoyed the sample chapter, go ahead and pre-order a copy or two this weekend! It’s available in hardcover or Kindle, and is full of great information to help you create your leadership roadmap. Want to tell your friends about it? We have a page of free resources to help you spread the word!

Share Your Thoughts: Will you be joining us on Tuesday for the webinar with Mike and Becky? What question would you like to have Mike answer?

Facebook: How to Leverage the EdgeRank System

Or, why having a large Facebook following is not enough…

You’ve spent months building up your social following on Facebook. You’ve run fan-gating promotions, optimized the images on your profile and even included social icons on all your marketing materials. Finally, you’ve reached your goal of 1,000 Facebook Fans! So what’s the problem? A little something we like to call EdgeRank.

Because there are over a billion users on Facebook, and the average user has over 100 friends, there is no way every post that is submitted can be displayed in one’s News Feed. Therefore, Facebook developed EdgeRank, a complex algorithm used to determine what content is displayed on News Feeds, in what order and to whom.

Basically (and I realize this may come as a shock to some of you), not all of your Facebook fans see your posts. In fact, only about 15% of them do. All that hard work for 1,000 fans and you can only reach to 150 of them?! It just doesn’t seem fair. You’re probably wondering what you can do about this. Unfortunately, there is no slaying the evil EdgeRank beast, but there are a few ways to boost your chances of being seen in News Feeds.

Be relevant and engaging. Although your Facebook fans enjoy your brand, they don’t want to hear about it all day, every day. It’s important that you create occasional posts just for fun. The goal here is to create something interesting and relevant to your audience which will spark engagement. Fill-in-the-blank statuses are great at doing this. For example, if you are a company reaching out to college students you could say something like: “My favorite thing about campus in the Fall is _______ .” You would be amazed at how many people feel the need to fill in a sentence like that! The more that people engage with your posts, the more valuable Facebook will deem it, and therefore the higher its EdgeRank will be.

Variety is the spice of life, and social media. Let’s face it, we live in a fast-paced visual world where people get distracted very easily. The goal of your Facebook page may be to gain readers for your blog, but if you are constantly posting text-heavy links to your content you will get overlooked. It’s important that you share a variety of content: videos, pictures, articles, quotes, etc. Show your audience that you’re a dynamic brand that has a lot to offer.

Beat them at their own game. If you plan on putting up a marketing message (and you want it to be seen by a large audience), then you’re going to have to play Facebook’s way. As consumers we are constantly being hit with marketing messages and we have become really good at blocking them out. If your audience thinks your post is telling them to open their wallets, they probably won’t hit the “like” button. So what happens to your post? It earns a low EdgeRank, gets swallowed up by Facebook and never sees the light of the News Feeds again. What’s my suggestion? Post something “cute and cuddly” in order to get your page’s affinity up, and then hit them with the hard sell. Essentially, you are tricking Facebook into thinking people really enjoy your content and want to see more of it.

Sure, it’s important that we continue to grow our audience size, but having a million fans is useless if our content never reaches them. Social Media is an ever-changing landscape whose future we can’t predict, but together we can achieve social success.

For more information on leveraging social media, visit this article by Daniel Kushner.

 

About the Author: Rachel Testa is a Kentucky native and a recent addition to the Weaving Influence team. She has a background in social media management and is passionate about the promotional process. When she’s not chasing the latest digital marketing trend, she enjoys reading, painting and spending time in nature.

 

photo credit: infocux Technologies

That Look

We’re trail running, in step, crunching yellow leaves with every foot fall. The trail looks so different from the last time we set out, so it’s almost like a new run.

I enjoy these talks, these runs, but we have silent moments, too — I need to conserve my energy and my breath so I can persevere through this longer distance.

Lately, all I seem to have to talk about is work.

I’m sure my running partner, Laura, has had her fill of my whining and stressing. Yes, I’ve been whining and stressing.

About the whining and stressing, it’s all growing pains, how to manage the increasing demand for my company’s services while still enjoying my children and family.

So as we run, I share 6 ideas about how I can fix my business. To be honest, of the six ideas, I really only like one or two of them, but I share them all as we run.

When I share number three, Laura turns to me and gives me that look.

That look says “Are you crazy?” That looks says “No way.”

And with her look, and the encouraging words that follow, I know she’s right. Of all the ideas I brainstormed to fix my business, number 3 is the one I couldn’t possibly pursue. Aside from the truth that no one would likely want to acquire my business, I am not building this business to sell out. I am building this business to make a difference.

“This business is yours,” she reminds you. “This is your baby. What else would you do?”

“Work for whomever buys me out,” I try.

“No, that’s NOT you.”

And in our ensuing conversation, I suddenly realize what a treasured friend Laura is. She really knows me — she knows and sees my drive, my ambition, my focus. She sees it; she identifies; she values it; she accepts it; she honors it.

I see it in her, too, and it’s why she’s the perfect friend/running partner — in drive, ambition, and focus, we are well-matched. As a result, on those days that I want to skip the run, she won’t let me. When she wants to stay home  because it’s cold and rainy, I don’t let her.

And when I want to give up, give in, quit, or sell out, she reminds me of who I really am, and why the most important thing I can do is keep going.

Featured on Friday: The Heart of Leadership Links

It’s been a tremendous launch week for Mark Miller, author of The Heart of Leadership. Here at Weaving Influence, we never get tired of seeing the buzz that is built by our outstanding community of supporters.  By late Thursday afternoon, there were over 70 Amazon reviews, 66 of which were 5-stars! You can also find The Heart of Leadership on Goodreads, so if you’ve read the book, or are planning to read it, remember to leave a review this weekend.

As people have shared their thoughts about Mark’s new book, our team has stayed busy collecting links to share with you, and today we’re highlighting a few of them. We are humbled by the number of people who request copies of the books we are launching, and then actually spend time reading them and writing thoughtful reviews on blogs and online book sites. We cannot say it too often: we couldn’t do this without you - THANKS!

Check Out These Links…

“I really enjoyed this easy, effective, and memorable book. The steps are clear, the pace is quick, and the message of leading with one’s heart through servant leadership is spot-on.“ Tom Schulte’s review on his Linked2Leadership blog
“The Heart of Leadership is a manageably brief book to read, and it’s packed with great ideas.” Paula Kiger (@biggreenpen)
From Karin Hurt of Let’s Grow Leaders: “The Heart of Leadership is an easy-to-read story of a growing leader, supported by mentors and insights along the way.”
Dan Forbes shares a guest post from Mark this week on Lead With Giants.
“When I found out I had the opportunity to be on the launch team for his new book The Heart of Leadership I couldn’t wait to write this review.” And we’re so glad you did! Find Berry Smith‘s full review at Building What Matters.
I think you can see a theme emerging when you read Sean Glaze’s review on Great Results Team Building: “Mark Miller has hit another home run, and anyone seeking to increase their impact and effectiveness as a leader will benefit from this tremendous parable on character based leadership.”
But Andy Uskavitch might have summed it up best with the start of his  review : “Mark Miller has done it again.”

Did You Know?

Mark Miller donates 100% of the proceeds from the sale of his books to charity. If you needed another reason to buy The Heart of Leadership (or any of his previous leadership books), we think that’s a pretty good one! You can find out more about the charities by visiting the book page at Great Leaders Serve.

You Tell Us! Have you read The Heart of Leadership? What was the lesson that stood out to you the most?

How to Handle Haters & How They Can Help You on Social Media

Social media is a great way to brand and market a new product, reach your target audience, and most importantly connect with your customers.  No kidding.

Opinions are inevitable, they can bring about positive change and are all the more direct via social media. You just have to get past the negative opinions. Yes, I’m talking about the haters of the world. The Negative Nancys, the trolls, the disgruntled ex-employees, the know-it-alls.

With 10 years of experience in marketing, I have dealt with negative customers in person and I’ve also dealt with negative customers on social media.

I have learned not only how to deal with haters, but also how haters can help me on social media. For the sake of this article let’s call them the ‘H’s’…

Respond Immediately

Ignoring an H post is not an option – you must do something and you must do it immediately.

Option One: The H post only has a negative tone. Respond with something factual, something positive or a compliment. You’ll be surprised how quickly an H will disarm.

Option Two: The H post has a negative tone and has merit. Respond by asking the H to private/direct message you. Taking the time to directly reach out to an H who has a true complaint, and doing so away from a social media platform, will eliminate any ongoing online negativity.

Do NOT Delete (exception: threatening/ foul language)

Any publicity is good publicity, to a point. When you delete the H post, you only further aggravate the situation.

The only time you should delete the H post is when threatening or foul language is used.  Posting a stern ‘keep your comments free of threatening or foul language’ update should address it.

Let Others Defend You and Don’t Recruit Your Friends

Defending your product against multiple H’s becomes an online badgering. The good news is, where H’s congregate so will supporters. When a supporter defends you, it removes you from the conversation and the ‘blame’ game. Also, don’t bother recruiting your boyfriend, mum, dad, grandma, co-worker’s wife, etc., to defend you. It screams phony, and H’s are already on the lookout for something to add to their argument. Don’t give them that.

Encourage Your Happy Haters

A rare gem is found every now and again. One of your H’s will become a ‘happy hater.’ It’s the best you can hope for and yes, they will still point out things they don’t like, but ultimately they have your back and want your product to succeed.  When you notice a ‘happy hater,’ thank them for their support and share/retweet their posts.

Sense of Humor … Use With Caution

Try to approach the H’s post with something lighthearted that also moves the conversation into less serious territory. Word of warning: don’t embarrass the H, and be prepared for your post to be seen as sarcastic, rude or unprofessional–in which case, apologize and explain that your post was taken the wrong way.

The social media marketing game can be tough. But if you can learn how to handle a hater, they might even be able to help you!

I have screwed up a few times and all I could do was dive into damage control. Take a deep breath, count to 10 and repeat to yourself: ‘haters gonna hate.’ 

 

Cami Marlowe is a Kiwi (from New Zealand) who found herself in the USA about 8 years ago. Her background is in marketing, event management, radio, promotions, sales, non-profit, social media and TV and currently she is the Executive Director for the North Carolina Wine Festival and the Carolina Oktoberfest, while also marketing both News Talk and ESPN radio stations in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina. She loves planning events, her naughty cat, hot coffee and her wonderful boyfriend (not in that order!).

Connect with Cami on Twitter, Facebook, or send her an email at camimarlowe@gmail.com.

Image credit: blakeemrys

Your Leadership Character Matters Most

When I started my journey in the leadership blogging space nearly 5 years ago, I focused a large amount of mental attention on the skills I thought I should have.

At one point, I remember driving past our local Wendy’s restaurant and wondering if I should apply for a management position, just so that I could acquire the skills of a leader. I made myself crazy thinking that  learning skills while gaining experience with a title attached would make me a leader.

It turns out, skills ARE important. As a leader, I am constantly looking to upgrade my skills. Communication skills and delegating skills are two I find particularly helpful, and ones I’d like to continually improve— yesterday, if possible.

Mark Miller’s new book, The Heart of Leadership, reveals that while skills are important, leadership character is even more critical. Without character, he writes, no one cares about your skills.

Miller outlines 5 areas of leadership character, each challenging in its own way: hunger for wisdom, expect the best, accept responsibility, respond with courage, and think others first.

Today, the one that is resonating with me most is this one: accept responsibility.

Accepting responsibility means owning both tasks and results. It means that when things go wrong, the only finger pointing is the one that points back at me. I must ultimately take responsibility when things go wrong.

When the website crashes and we don’t have a proper backup, I own that, and I do what’s needed to make it right.

When a credit card error means a client’s email subscriptions didn’t send for a week, I own that.

When both of those combine to mean that a week’s worth of blog posts are lost and must be recreated, I own that.

Being a leader means no excuses. Being a leader means accepting responsibility.

Tell me something! Which of these 5 challenges you most today? What skills are you seeking to develop as a leader? What leadership character traits do you most hope to develop?

I’d be thrilled if you chose to buy the book today! Mark donates all profits to charity. Also, if you’d like to share the book, you can find great graphics and tweets to share, here.

Featured on Friday: Mark Miller Guest Post

Next week, we’re celebrating the launch of Mark Miller’s new book, The Heart of Leadership. To get the celebration started, we are honored to host a guest post from Mark for Featured on Friday. If you want to help spread the news about his book launch, use these free resources to tell your friends.

This was originally posted on greatleadersserve.org on October 2, 2013

CHOOSE GREATNESS

Did you take Latin in high school or college? Unfortunately, I did not – nor did I take Spanish, French or German. My counselors thought it best I focus on English. Decades later, I’m still working on it!

The truth is, I only know one Latin word. If you, like me, missed the cultural and academic advantage of studying this ancient language, you should at least know this one word…

Quantuvis

It’s a fantastic word, a very powerful word for leaders. It literally means, “as great as you choose.” Therefore, the implication is, greatness is a choice.

Is greatness really a choice or does it have everything to do with DNA or an Ivy League education? Certainly talent and education can help, but talented people and well-educated people often miss greatness by a mile. Why? They fail to make the right choices.

Jim Collins, the notable leadership and management expert did decades of work studying truly great organizations. He discovered many principles that have transformed organizations across the globe. One of his summary conclusions:

Greatness is not a function of circumstance.

Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.

So how does this translate for you and me as leaders? The choices we make matter!

Who should we hire?
Who should we fire?
What goals should we pursue?
How should we allocate resources?
How should we invest our time?
How much preparation is really required?
What personal disciplines do we embrace?
How will we measure our success?

These and countless other choices chart our course on a daily basis. Are we making the often challenging, decisions that lead to greatness? A good test to apply is to literally ask yourself the following question as you contemplate your next decision – Will this choice put me, or us, on the path to greatness?

Over the course of a lifetime we’ll make an almost infinite number of decisions. Each one moves us closer or further from greatness. Many of these choices we’ll immediately recognize as significant. Others are critical but may not get the attention they deserve.

Let’s close by considering what may be the ultimate choice to determine our “greatness.” It’s falls in the category of the easily overlooked or undervalued.

Dr. Martin Luther King said it like this:

Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.

Will you choose to serve? Great leaders do – Quantuvis!

To hear Mark share more about Quantuvis, and the ideas found in The Heart of Leadership, watch the FREE webinar, hosted by Weaving Influence. And don’t forget, if you’ve read his new book, we’d love for you to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads!

Mark Miller, well known business leader, best-selling author, and communicator, is excited about sharing The Heart of Leadership: Becoming a Leader People Want to Follow with those who are ready to take the next step. You can find it on Amazon and in bookstores everywhere.

Embrace Your Inner Spur

The San Antonio Spurs are what many sports fans would refer to as a dynasty. One of a few professional basketball teams in the state of Texas, the Spurs are consistent every season. With a perfect mix of leadership, youth and experienced veterans, it’s a safe bet that each postseason, the Spurs will be in a position to compete for an NBA championship.

Would the Spurs be able to accomplish this with a team full of rookies? How about a team full of crafty veteran players? The answer to both is a resounding no.

It is a mix of skills on the Spurs personnel that make them so consistent – and makes everyone else take notice.

As a 26 year old professional (and avid basketball fan), I find I’m in both a business full of employees and a world full of people older than myself – and I see the value placed on experience.

Somewhere along the way, a job’s requirement of 3-5 years of experience has become valued over a potential employee’s enthusiasm and willingness to learn every aspect of a job.

Social media, however, forces us to challenge our blanket acceptance of that particular way of thinking. Many social media experts have become that way because they have grown up using social media for recreational/personal uses. They may not have the organizational experience many employers covet, though, and miss out on jobs they could excel at that focus on social media.

Business and marketing author Seth Godin offers up a new mindset that social media competency is driven by.

Many people involved in the hiring process talk about engaging in what Seth calls “a war for talent.” But to be truthful, many companies are in the business of hiring people who are “good enough” at an acceptable rate of pay for any certain job. In essence – filling chairs in the office.

Godin suggests we temper our search for talent with a renewed emphasis on … attitude.

When it comes to making your companies social media presence a successful one, it doesn’t always mean people laugh out loud at your posts. What it does mean, however, is that they leave engaged. And engagement begins with understanding the attitude of your consumers.

Understanding this concept begins from the top down in any company.

It’s been said that after 5 to 7 years, an organization takes on the personality of its leadership.  That speaks to the incredible power of influence, but it also is a challenge, isn’t it? Social media is no longer an option for relevancy in 2013. It’s a must. So while the Law of Influence could be considered a bit terrifying, I’d suggest it’s actually quite exciting.

Social media is driven by the younger generation but the age gap in its effectiveness is narrowing. Embrace the value of mixing rookies with veterans on your team.

Embrace your inner Spur.

 

Dave Traube works in public relations in the West Virginia school system and is dedicated to opening lines of communication in as many places as possible. Connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Image credit: RMTip21