Keep Your Profiles Updated

I had a significant change in my life on December 31, 2009, as that was the day my family and I sold off our ownership positions in SOAR Communications to my former business partner.

Interestingly, it didn’t hit me until two days ago that I needed to make changes to all of my various public Internet-based profiles (and biographies) to accurately reflect my new reality. Which leads to the point of this blog post:

When was the last time you reviewed and/or updated your public profiles (and/or bios)?

For me, it had been WAY TOO LONG.

In taking a personal accounting, I realized I’ve got profiles on

• Facebook,
• LinkedIn,
• Plaxo,
• Google,
• Flickr,
• Twitter, and (of course)

on two blogs/Websites:

• Politis Communications, and
• The Betty Factor.

So I’ve now started that process (as shown in the photo above), and I plan to spend this morning reviewing and updating ALL of my public profiles/biographies.

And if you haven’t done so lately, I recommend you do the same:

Review and update each of your public profiles and biographies today.

I’m going to add this as a once-a-quarter task to my calendar to make sure I stay on top of this task in the future. I hope you do so too.

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.

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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.

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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.

Facebook Flashmob Restores Scholarship Funding

Back-pedalling Utah lawmakers bowed to growing social networking pressure this week and agreed to fund the promised New Century Scholarships for the 2009-2010 school year at the promised 75 percent level.

In a nutshell, the New Century Scholarship is available to any high school student in Utah. The requirements: Concurrently enroll in college while attending high school and amass enough college credits while still in high school to obtain an associate’s degree before leaving high school and officially entering college.

In return, the state agreed to pay 75 percent of the cost of college tuition at any state-owned college/university in Utah to complete one’s bachelor’s degree. (The scholarship would also cover up to 75 percent of the cost to attend either of the two largest private institutions in Utah: Westminster College or Brigham Young University.)

DISCLOSURE: Our two youngest kids are both on the Concurrent Enrollment track, with Jon days away from (hopefully) completing the requirements for his associate’s degree and qualifying for the New Century Scholarship.

This summer, in response to slipping tax revenue and growing participation in the New Century Scholarship program, the Utah Board of Regents cut the funding amount for the 2009-2010 year to 40 percent and 25 percent for the 2010-2011 school year (with no guarantee of funding after 2010-2011).

Enter Facebook into the fray.  

On August 6, 2009, Seth Burdette (a recent Olympus High School graduate started a Fan page on Facebook titled “We’re NOT okay with New Century and Regent Scholarship Cuts!!!’s.” Seth’s first Wall posting read:

Now . . . less than two weeks, 129 Wall postings and 1,300+ Fans later, enough pressure has been exerted on elected officials and appointed bureaucrats in Utah that the $1.5 million necessary to fund the promised 75 percent funding for the 2009-2010 school year for students already in the New Century Scholarship program. For the record, no such promise has been given for years beyond the coming educational calendar year.

[For additional background, please read "Lawmakers restore New Century scholarships."]

My Takeaways on the New Century Scholarship Funding Debacle

I’m not going to get all overly dramatic here; I’m simply gonna share a few opinions.

1. You must track social networking/media chatter. Companies, organizations and individuals that do NOT keep track about what’s being written/said about themselves on social networks do so at their own peril.
2. You have to be an active participant in social networks and a user of social media tools and/or services be a “part of the conversation.” (There is no way to share your thoughts, comments, opinions, etc. if you’re not even using said networks, tools or services to begin with.)
3. Remember, one high school graduate squeezed $1.5 million out of Utah’s coffers. All it took was a Facebook account, spare time and less than two weeks. All done by a kid who’s barely out of high school! In fact, it doesn’t even look like he shaves yet! 

PREDICTION: Social networking/media campaigns envisioned, created, launched and managed by average citizens will become the norm more and more each day. Brands and professional communicators must be aware of this coming social networking/media tsunami lest they be swept away in the coming floods.

Good for you, Seth! Wanna job?

P.S. One of the smart things Seth did was enclose the email addresses for each state legislator on the Fan Page, along with an invitation to “. . . flood their inbox with our complaints!” OUCH - Looks like it worked!

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.

Hispanics and Marketing

Hispanics make 15.1% of the U.S. population, and it’s projected that by 2050 the Hispanic population in the U.S. will grow to 24%. With such numbers, I believe Hispanic marketing and PR could become an even more profitable way of doing business in the near future.

I’m originally from Chile (South American country), thus my opinion might sound a little biased, but during my six years in the U.S. I have come to realize the important role that Hispanics play in the marketplace, as well as the social and political U.S. arena.

Though Hispanics are considered the largest ethnic minority in the U.S., I think there are two main problems when attempting to interact with them: lack of marketing exclusively towards Hispanics, and a lack of marketing from Hispanics.

While living in the U.S. I have noticed that a number of large companies could be doing a better job with Hispanics. Some companies try so hard going after “the one,” they forget about some of other potential publics.

Though the problem mentioned above is a fact, I think the greatest problem lays in marketing and PR being generated from Hispanics.

While walking around town I have seen so many Hispanic restaurants and stores go out of business after two or three months in business, that I wanted to find out more behind this tragedy.

Not too long ago I decided to go to a new Mexican (owned by a Mexican) restaurant in Provo. As some of you may know, Provo is a college town (home of Brigham Young University) thus the whole town is full of college students. While eating and having a good time there, I noticed the owner was close by so I decided to talk to him.

After introducing myself and talking for a while, I asked him how the business was doing so far. After looking at me for a second he went on to confess they were doing fine, but they weren’t getting many new customers. I then went on and asked him if he was trying to target college students or younger publics besides Hispanic families. The owner told me he had tried to but wasn’t willing to spend much money on it. I asked if he had tried social media, I added that it was free, reached a lot of the younger generation, and that his message could be heard by a lot of people in short period of time.

After discussing a couple of good strategies to start with, and some other ideas to generate more customers through Twitter and Facebook, the owner was sitting in our table, exchanging phone numbers, and thanking me for that simple advice. I’m sure that restaurant is not going to generate millions of dollars in revenues because of my advice, but I think the owner has learned a great lesson on how to interact with his publics in a better way.

I sure hope that restaurant does better in the near future, in the meantime I will keep my eyes open for more opportunities and if I’m lucky I might get a free taco out of the whole experience!

Don’t Apply to Utah State: Do sarcasm and reverse-psychology actually work in marketing?

On October 1, 2008, a viral video hit the Internet urging Americans not to vote. The satirical “5 Friends” video displayed big name influencers and celebrities spewing off facts and reasons why citizens should not vote in the then-upcoming 2008 presidential election. The original video, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, garnered nearly 3.4 million views (combined views of “5 Friends” and “5 Friends uncensored”), while many viewers re-uploaded the video to their own Youtube accounts or created parodies. DiCaprio & Co. were obviously onto something good.

Four weeks later, on  October 29, Appian Way released a second viral video, “5 More Friends” (censored and uncensored). To date, the powerful, comedic and compelling viral videos urging Americans to vote using reverse psychology and sarcasm have received more than 5 million views.

Telling your audience to do the exact opposite of what you really want them to do? Well, apparently it works. The historic 2008 presidential election brought out more than 130 million voters.

Taking a page from Appian Way, the admissions office at Utah State University (admittedly, my Alma mater) put its own spin on that “don’t vote” message in hopes of having a similar effect on perspective students. As part of the university’s 2009 recruitment campaign, students rallied together to film a video explaining to each interested high school senior, college transfer or adult seeking higher education, all the reasons he or she should not apply to Utah State.

So check out the “Don’t Apply to Utah State” viral video below! To say I’m proud of my school for fully understanding and utilizing the power of viral video and trends in marketing is an understatement. It also probably doesn’t hurt that I know a few of the students/alumni in the video

Korean Taco Tweetup

Would you try Mexican food fused with Korean BBQ? What if a taco only cost you $2? What if the taco truck selling the cuisine had 10,000 followers on Twitter?

At the time the NPR story Tweeting Food Truck Draws L.A.’s Hungry Crowds aired, Kogi, the Korean taco truck that cruises around the streets of L.A., had over 8,000 followers on Twitter. Tweeters follow kogibbq to track the Kogi truck’s location and its specials and promotions. One Tweet reads: “Trojans… we’LL be in yer neighborhood Wednesday. Free taco for the 1st 100 peopLe!”

Twitter updates drive neighborhoods, commuters and college students from L.A. and surrounding SoCal counties to the mobile street vendor of Korean short rib tacos. Just as Kobi has used food to merge two ethnic cultures, Twitter has used social networking to create and unify the virtual and face-to-face Kobi communities.

175 Million Reasons Why You (and Your Company) Should be on Facebook

The latest comScore numbers are out, and there are now 175 million users on Facebook.

In other words, in less than a year, Facebook has now caught and surpassed MySpace as the most relevant and compelling social networking platform in the world. (Hmmmmm, maybe those guys at Microsoft are pretty smart after all.)

Recognize that roughly 70 percent of all FB members are from outside of the United States (or approximately 122 million users), which may or may not be a good thing for you and/or your company.

But for those of you just focused on the U.S., that still means that more than 50 million Americans are on Facebook, which is pretty mind-boggling when you stop and think about it. In other words, since its founding in February 2004, Facebook has now captured more than 1/6th the entire U.S. population as users/members.

Assuming you’re reading this because you work in some aspect of marketing, communications, public relations, shareholder relations, sales, management or a combination of these areas, 50 million of anything is a BIG DEAL! And if 50MM is a BIG DEAL, then certainly 175 million is an even bigger deal!

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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: