Betty Benton Mann, the “Betty” Behind the Betty Factor, Died Friday Morning

Betty Mann (of "The Betty Factor" fame)

Betty Benton Mann, my 83-year-old mother-in-law and the inspiration behind The Betty Factor, died in her sleep early Friday morning, December 4, 2009 of health matters incident to old age and having her gall bladder removed earlier in the week.

Here is a copy of her obituary.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

After 83 wonderful years on earth, Betty Benton Mann returned home to her Father-in-Heaven, the Savior, Jesus Christ, many loving family members and friends, and her beloved husband, Ray, on December 4, 2009, nearly two years to the day after Ray’s passing.

Born July 3, 1926 in Boise, Idaho to Mamie Thompson and Otto G. Benton, Betty was the fifth of nine children. She was raised in Boise, Twin Falls, Idaho and Redondo Beach, California.

From the day she first walked herself to services as a young child, Betty was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). As a teenager, she was president of her ward Golden Gleaner organization and helped plan and run the first ever LDS Youth Conference in southern California.

After graduating from Redondo Union High School, she moved to North Salt Lake to help her oldest sister, Wanda, care for her children, and it was there that she met her future husband, Ray Elwood Mann.

Betty and Ray were married in the Salt Lake Temple of the LDS church on May 4, 1948. They settled in Bountiful, Utah where they raised three daughters and two sons, while she also worked as a dental assistant for many years. Betty was active in the PTA in Bountiful where she ran the Halloween Carnival for three years and served as PTA president for two year.

After their youngest children graduated from high school in 1975, Betty and Ray spent an adventurous year in 1976 in West Germany for Ray’s employer, Chicago Bridge & Iron. The next year, Ray was transferred to world headquarters in Chicago where they lived until 1984. During their time in Naperville, Illinois, Betty filled an eight-year volunteer assignment with LDS Social Services working with out-of-wedlock mothers, including service as a counselor to birth mothers and transporting newborns to adoptive parents. She also served for a time as a member of the Relief Society presidency in the Glenbard Ward in Illinois.

Betty and Ray moved to Sandy, Utah in 1984 where they made their home for the rest of their lives. In Sandy, Betty served for 18 years in the LDS church’s Data Entry Program in the Canyon View Stake. She and Ray also served a one-year LDS Service Mission in 1994 near Bakersfield, California for the Home Management Department.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents, five siblings, her husband, and one son, Clyde. She is survived by four children, Linda, Pam (Harold) Egginton, Todd, and Allisha (David) Politis; 18 grandchildren (evenly divided between boys and girls); and 14 great-grandchildren.

A viewing will be held at Mountain View Mortuary at 3115 East 7800 South in Cottonwood Heights, Utah from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tues., Dec. 8, 2009. The funeral will be held at the same location at 11 a.m. on Wed., Dec. 9, preceded by an additional viewing from 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Interment, on site, will follow immediately after the funeral.

The family extends its heartfelt thanks and admiration for all of the fantastic doctors and medical providers who worked with Betty in addressing her health concerns during the past few years. In addition, Betty (and Ray) loved living at South Towne Ranch in Sandy, Utah where they made many wonderful friends.

Betty had a sharp mind and wit her entire life, and she loved studying the gospel of Jesus Christ and learning about LDS church history. She was a devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, and although she will be missed, we are happy she has “graduated” from this life to be reunited with her husband and best friend, Ray.

Goodbye for now, Betty.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Although we had some initial son-in-law / mother-in-law challenges early in the 28 years of our relationship, we both grew to love and respect each other over time, and I’m grateful Allisha and I were able to have both Betty and Ray live so close by as we raised our five children.

She was a good person and taught me much, not the least of which was to always remember to work and work and work to make sure what I wrote could be easily understood by anyone, even my mother-in law.

To that end, I will always use the phrase “The Betty Factor” as a shorthand reminder of that lesson. I will also keep this blog alive in her honor and as a way of continuing to teach about the importance of keeping all marketing messages simple and on-point.

Thank you, Betty, and for now, goodbye. 

Becoming Socially Ambidextrous

Why Using Two or More Social Networks is Becoming the Norm

Today’s blog post by Brian Solis (”The Competition for Your Social Graph“) got me thinking:

• Do I use more than one social network?
• And if so, why?
• And if you don’t, “Why don’t you?”

When I was growing up in San Carlos, California, my best friend was Alan Daines. Not only were we best buds, but Alan was unique among my friends in that he could bat and throw with both hands. By definition that means that Alan was ambidextrous (or could use both hands equally well).

Alan was a lefty by birth, so he ended up playing first base for the San Carlos High School Dons. But he also taught himself to first bat righthanded, and then to throw righthanded as well. Man, that was cool!

After a lot of work I learned how to bat lefthanded; but throwing? Nah, that was another matter.

I’m Not Socially Ambidextrous - I’m Actually Socially Multidextrous

When it comes to my use of social networks and social media, however, it turns out that I’m socially multidextrous. By this I mean that I’m not dedicated to using one social network, tool, service or media to the exclusion of others. No, I actually use multiple social networks/media/services/tools, and sometimes I use more than one at the same time.

My first exposure to social networking was MySpace. I signed up years ago because we were trying to get my daughter, Melea, into the entertainment industry as a singer. (Tough, tough world, by the way.)

Today I visit/use MySpace rarely as I find its focus on music and entertainment to be overrun with skanks, ho’s and people typically interested in their next hookup. (No thank you.)

Facebook, however, is another thing. I now visit nearly every day and use it for both professional and personal networking and staying connected.

Twitter is the same for me. I use it almost every day, especially through HootSuite (which has some great tools for managing URL shortening and providing stats on people who click through URLs you embed into tweets).

I also use two business-focused social networks: LinkedIn and Plaxo. Of the two I like and use LinkedIn the most, although I really like the ability within Plaxo to send e-Birthday cards to my friends.

I also use a number of other social media/network tools/services, depending upon what it is I’m trying to do that day, especially services and tools tied to Twitter. Of these, I probably use

• HootSuite,
• TweetChat, and
• Hashtags

the most.

Why I Use Multiple Social Networks, Media, Services and/or Tools

What works for me is using different social networks, media, services and tools for different purposes.

For example, I use Facebook (in part) because it’s so dang big — more than 300 million members at last count. That’s a massive potential marketplace, and we advise ALL of our clients to use and be on Facebook.

I also use FB because it allows people to create and post multiple types of content onto their “Walls,” profiles and other users’ Walls, especially longer posts/content. This can be a good thing (if not used to excess).

Additionally, I have the ability to filter who is actively following (or Friending) me on Facebook. That can be important from a “noise” standpoint.

The microblogging service Twitter, on the other hand, is great for instantaneous, short messages, which makes sense since you are limited to a total of 140 characters max on Twitter.

(NOTE: If you want others to retweet, or re-post/re-tweet, what you’ve written, however, I’ve found it’s best to keep your Twitter posts/tweets to around 120 characters instead of using all 140. People are less likely to shorten your tweets this way.)

I also like the fact that I can “legally” have more than one Twitter account (as per Twitter’s Terms of Service). {You’re not supposed to do that on Facebook, with the exception of having a FB profile and a FB Fan Page.}

Ergo, I currently have one main Twitter account that I use most of the time (@dpolitis), but I also have several other Twitter accounts that come into play depending upon my particular area of interest or need.

LinkedIn, however, is all about business and networking for business purposes, and I use it as such. (And to be honest, I use LinkedIn a LOT more than I use Plaxo for two reasons:

1. LinkedIn has more than twice as many users as Plaxo (50MM+ vs. 20MM+), and
2. I get fewer random (read spammy) connection requests on LinkedIn vs. Plaxo.

And then as I wrote above, I use other social services and tools based upon what they allow me to do, especially with other social networks and media.

So . . . how about you?

• Do you use social networks/services/media/tools for your marketing and sales efforts?
• And if not, why not?
• And if so, which one(s) do you use the most (and why)?
• Or are you socially ambidextrous? (Do you have two favorite social networks you use all the time?)
• Or . . . are you really socially multidextrous, using multiple social networks/media/tools/services to engage with your customers, partners, investors, etc., all in the name of selling more products and services?

Tell me what you’re doing with social networks (and why) by posing your comment below. Thanks.

Marketers: It’s Time to Come out of the New Media Cave

I have been on Twitter for a year or more now. I like the tool, it allows me to interact with and get to know the media and some of my key audiences, mentors and peers. That said, is it the end all solution for PR and marketing campaigns? Well, that depends on who the audience is.

This morning, I saw some interesting stats on Twitter and other services like Facebook and MySpace. Make no mistake, these new online services are growing like wildfire, but is that enough of an indicator to make these the silver bullet that saves PR or becomes the new default means of communication with audiences?

Personally, I don’t think so.

I think being in the tech industry causes me to forget there is a world of non-techies out there, services like Twitter and so forth become a sort of echo chamber, or, as Plato might put it, the “cave.” (My dad is one of these non-techies, for years he had an Instamatic camera that he never used, and recently I suggested he use an RSS reader to get news from his favorite car blogs, his response, “not right now, maybe later.”) So it should come as no surprise when research indicates that while Twitter is growing like wildfire, it is still not being adopted on a massive consumer scale.

Which leads me to my point, I think, when planning a campaign, what should we focus on? Do we want to wow our client with the newest, latest and greatest technologies, or do we want to use the tried and true methods tools that have gotten the job done for years. I think there are advantages both ways. As PR peeps, should we be agents of change, forcing the market to adapt to us by adopting Twitter and other new fandangled online tools, or should we go to where the audiences are? How do we measure our audiences? Is it quantity or quality?

These are all good questions, that good PR people should be asking themselves as they play their next PR campaigns.

I think these tools are great and have helped me land coverage in some good publications for my clients. I have also learned a lot, been informed of world events and what some of my fellow twitterers are doing at all hours of the day. But, and this is a big but, let’s keep this in perspective. Twitter is a tactic, heck!, most of these new tools on the Internet are tactics, and part of a bigger online strategy, and as with most everything in our lives, as part of our campaigns, these tools should be balanced (moderation ring a bell to anyone?).

So, be wise, be prudent, be realistic, and for our clients’ sake, let’s come out of the cave and look around, I think we’ll be surprised.

Four Marketing Lessons from the TweetSum Video

TweetSum is a brand new tool for Twitter users that launched just a few weeks ago.

As Twitter tools go, TweetSum is interesting in that it allows those in the Twitter-universe (”Twitterverse”) to quickly review their Followers and people they are following, ranks each by a TweetSum ranking, and allows you to Ignore, Follow or Un-Follow people very easily. But that’s NOT why I’m writing about TweetSum here.

Actually, I recommend you check out TweetSum’s explanatory video on its home page. Here’s why.

1.   The video communicates the TweetSum brand perfectly.(At least I think it does.) According to the About section on the site, TweetSum was banged together over a weekend by a bunch of friends/colleagues in Seattle. And given

• the titles the TweetSum-ers have given themselves,
• the style of writing on the site,
• some of the terms/language they use (FYI - the rating system noted above is called the Douche Bag Index or DBI for short),

I’d say TweetSum is a tongue-in-cheek, we-don’t-really-care-if-you-like-us-or-not just-use-our-service kind of a company.

If I’m correct with my read on the TweetSum brand, the brand message comes across clearly in the video in the opening lines when a voice intones “TweetSum : So filled with awesome your head will explode.” Yeah, it made me smile too.

2.    The TweetSum video quickly explains the problem (and the answer) faced by most Twitter users — deciding who to Follow (or stop Following).

3.     The video simply shows how TweetSum works.

4.     And the TweetSum video is only two minutes & 19 seconds long.

So why am I writing about TweetSum and its online video? Two reasons.

A.   TweetSum shows how easy it is to both introduce and reinforce your brand from the very beginning by using an inexpensive, yet very informative, video on a company Website.

B.   Online video is becoming more and more important to the search engine algorithms as they spider across the Web. Those sites with video and other forms of multimedia content receive a stronger rating by the search companies. And the more relevant such content is to the site where the video is found, the better off the content is judged.

When you use video on your site(s), consider reinforcing such content with written content as well. This can either be a word-for-word copy of the video or supporting language.

As I understand it, the Web-spiders and the algorithms are not quite to the point yet where they can “read” the videos and what they contain — just that they’re on your site, what metatags and headlines they have, and what “closed captions” (if any) they contain.

Since most videos on the Web do NOT contain closed captioning, adding on the word-for-word and/or supporting copy is a good idea (at least for now).

Congrats to the TweetSum team for a good use of online video. You get a “Happy Betty Award” for your efforts.

P.S.  The “Twitter in Plain English” video is another great example of an online, how-to video. It’s found on the Twitter homepage as well as on YouTube.com. Here it is:

Want Better Results? Write Better Headlines!

Regardless of the specific industry you work in, everyone is always looking for ways to be more successful and generate better results. For those of us with marketing and/or communications responsibilities, that means getting more people to read, listen to and/or watch our stuff.

Why? Because the more people we can engage with our marketing/communications stuff the more successful we will be and that invariably means MONEY!

So if you really want better results, that means writing better headlines . . . at least that’s what MarketingSherpa says.

MarketingSherpa is one of the leading publishers of information and data on what really works in all areas of marketing and marketing communications. They have hundreds of thousands of subscribers to their free online newsletters, and do a substantial business in selling reports and studies and producing conferences around the U.S.

Last week, MarketingSherpa.com ran a great story in their online newsletter titled “4 Takeaways from MarketingSherpa’s Newsletter Subject-Line Analysis.” (Not necessarily the snappiest headline, but it does follow one of the four rules. See below.)

In summary, MarketingSherpa had their own people go back and analyze every headline for every article they had published in the last year to see if they could identify which articles were the most successful. Naturally, each article topic stands on its own and one topic may be inherently more interesting and/or relevant to more people than the rest.

But by the time they were all done - particularly analyzing click-to-opens (the number of people who clicked on a link to see an entire article) and reviewing clickthroughs (the number of times people clicked on a link within, or connected to, an article) - they came up with Four Takeaways, namely

1. The first two words in any headline are the most critical (such as How To, Top 12, Simple Email, and HTML vs, among others),
2. Use “trigger words” in your headlines (you’ll need to read this one because there isn’t a simple rule to follow, but they did suggest you “dedicate at least a few hours to the subject line“),
3. Avoid hard-sell headlines or headlines that ask for reader action (NOTE: The worst performing 10 headlines for MarketingSherpa last year ALL USED HARD-SELL LANGUAGE OR REQUESTED READER ACTION), and
4. Use “hot brands” in headlines wherever possible and practical (headlines that included company names like Facebook, Google and Wikipedia pulled the best for MarketingSherpa articles).

They also came up with a BONUS TAKEAWAY, which is

• Shorter headlines are ALMOST ALWAYS better (but there are exceptions, and MarketingSherpa provides a few examples).

This article has really inspired me to work smarter, harder and longer (when necessary) when it comes to writing any headline.

I believe that anyone who is focused on following the principles of The Betty Factor will do the same.

The Role of Social Media in Branding Efforts

My friend Jason Kintzler (@PitchEngine) - founder of Pitch Engine and overall social media junkie - started a personal blog the other day called New Media Cowboy and launched it with a post entitled “Social Media is Branding.”

Kintzler’s post reminded me that many internal branding efforts are misdirected at best because they’re caught up in the old world way of marketing-think: Specifically, “I (the big, important marketing executive) will tell you (the lucky consumer) what to think about and how to act toward my brand (be it product, service or organization).

This approach is so bass-ackwards it’s laughable, and yet it’s still the way many companies attempt to brand themselves, their products and/or services.

In reality, the definition of a brand has always been directed by those on the receiving ends of any and all communication and marketing efforts and NOT by those on the sending end.

It’s like my very first communications professor at BYU said: “You cannot not communicate.”

In other words, everything we do or say is a form of communication (or marketing, if you will). But since an effective form of mind control has not yet been invented (thank goodness), we cannot control how others will perceive such communication efforts.

Hence, communication has NEVER been a one-way street; rather (at a minimum) communication is a two-way thoroughfare (marketing too). And it is the perception of those receiving any marketing message that determines the brand of an organization, a product, a service or person and NOT the other way around.

“The perception of those receiving any marketing message determines (one’s) brand . . . NOT the other way around.”

That’s what intrigued me about Jason’s post.

He suggests that social media and the tools/services that make up social networking efforts are in fact branding efforts at their very core because they’re all about two-way communication and engaging individuals with one’s organization, product, service or person.

The reason why this observation is so critical is that the best customers are not just repeat customers - they’re evangelizers. They tell others about their great experiences with your brand and as a result they expand your sales, marketing and communications efforts many, many fold.

Why? Because they’re not on your payroll; they’re independent from your organization. As a result, what they write, say and/or do has a HUGE CREDIBILITY - often times generating more impact than virtually any other thing that you might attempt.

Kintzler’s right - social media is ALL ABOUT BRANDING. 

This is a very important concept to grasp and it should flavor any social networking effort undertaken by every marketing, PR, new media and/or communications pro from this point forward.

Billboard Advertising 101

Having an education is great and reading lots of books and articles is great too. However, sometimes just being sensible is enough to get the job done.

My thoughts for this post come after the thousands of miles I’ve driven on freeways going past billboards that are, at best half thought out. Billboards should be the epitome of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

Ever driven by a billboard at 65 mph (or here in Utah, 85 mph) and seen a billboard that was intriguing but didn’t leave you knowing what it was for? How about a billboard that insisted that graphic content was key and consequently used what appears to be a bold 72 point font for the contact info? How about a billboard that was so full of text you couldn’t make sense of it? If you’ve answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you’ve seen a poor example of a billboard.

So with that in mind, here are my top 6 keys to good, successful billboard design:

• Remember that your audience is traveling at 65 mph or faster — their attention span is limited.
• Get to the point, think sound byte-sized copy.
• Billboards can be works of art, however, that’s not their end purpose, use design to enhance readability and ensure the message is delivered successfully.
• Never forget contact info. Your billboard does you no good if I don’t know whose it is, or how I take action. Using an appropriate or custom Web URL or phone number can be very effective. (This also provides a way to track the effectiveness of the billboard.)
• Don’t play “Where’s Waldo” with your billboard. I shouldn’t have to search for the gist or message of your billboard (remember rule #1).
• Don’t be afraid to hire a professional. It may cost you $$ to do so, but imagine what it will cost to design an ineffective billboard (it’ll be like flushing money down the toilet).

Of the billboards I drive by on I-15 here are a few that are good examples:

• AT&T (or is it Cingular?)
• University of Utah medical services
• Blue Boutique
• Cream O Weber

I would list the billboards that don’t do it right but they just don’t stick in my mind nearly as well, imagine that!

Seen any good or bad billboards lately? Share pictures or sponsors in the comments.

Perserverance, Laser-sharp Focus and a Good Idea = A Winning Combination for Jason Alba, Creator of JibberJobber.com

I love a good story, and to me a good story can become great when it

*  Involves a real person,

*  Who overcomes adversity and/or long odds, and

*  Achieves success.

Jason Alba fits into the great story category.

Without going into all the details, Jason’s a tech guy with an MBA under his belt who found himself out of work in January 2006. After several months of unsuccessfully looking for ajob to meet his skill-sets and needs, he decided to branch out onto his own by launching JibberJobber.com — a Web-based solution to help others out of work manage their job-seeking efforts.

Picking up on repeated questions he heard about the benefits (if any) of LinkedIn, the social networking site, Jason wrote a book entitled simply enough, I’m on LinkedIn. Now What? Recently he published a second book: I’m On Facebook. Now What?

By themselves, these are positive steps in what sounds like a decent personal turnaround story. But Jason’s taken his entrepreneurial efforts beyond the basic “woe is me” story to the “I’m doing pretty okay now” with his fairly tireless self-promotional efforts.

His most recent hit? A very nice 3-25-08 write-up in U.S. News & World Report entitled: “Boosting Your Sales with Social Networking.”

As proven by the USNWR story (as well as by inclusion in stories from The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and others), Jason has now transformed himself into a sought-after expert — in essence, a brand unto himself.

Congrats, Jason. That’s good news for you, and for those seeking your advice/assistance as well.

ZDNet’s Krigsman is Correct: I.T. DOES Lose Credibility by Speaking in Technical Jargon

Michael Krigsman, driving force behind ZDNet’s IT Project Failures blog, nailed it yesterday when he wrote, “Is IT becoming extinct?”

In one of seven points he makes as to why he believes that the average Information Technology department is headed for death’s door, he writes,

“IT loses credibility by speaking in technical jargon . . .”

Michael Krigsman, “Is IT becoming extinct?” ZDNet, 3-23-08

(more…)

Blogging Can Work for Any Company, Not Just Small Firms

In Monday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal (3-17-08), Shelly Banjo wrote a powerful piece on the benefits of blogging for small businesses entitled “Attention, Bloggers.”

It’s a good read, one that I recommend to anyone connected (even remotely) to any aspect of marketing. I particularly liked this paragraph from her story:

“Businesses of all types and sizes are focusing on the power of bloggers as opinion shapers. But harnessing that power is particularly important for small-business owners who don’t have the money to create name recognition with big marketing campaigns. By connecting with the right blogs, small businesses can generate buzz around their products and services and increase sales dramatically.”

“Attention, Bloggers,” Shelly Banjo, WSJ, March 17, 2008

My one point of contention with Banjo’s article, if any, is that readers might leave her piece and incorrectly believe that blogs are only designed for small businesses.

This is NOT the case, and for the record, I don’t believe this is what she was communicating in the first place.

Rather, I believe it’s becoming quite clear that the ongoing explosive growth of the Internet and the tools/services tied to the World Wide Web have empowered consumers, corporations and organizations in ways never before imagined. One of the most crucial ways that this rising tide of advancing technology has changed our lives forever is the ability it gives individuals to connect directly with corporations and organizations in one-to-one digital dialogues.If such dialogues are conducted in the transparent light of the blogosphere, they can (and in fact, often do) invite expansion into Web-based conversations that can experience exponential viral growth, either the benefit or detriment of the original participants.