The Power Behind Social Media
12/12/2008
This post is dedicated to the awesome women entrepreneurs at the Women's Employment Opportunity Project (WEOP). Yesterday I was invited to spend some time with a special group of women who are creating blogs to support their new ventures. If you think that the U.S. has lost its edge on innovation think again. Some of the business ideas that are in development at WEOP ranged from financial services targeted to moms to an online resource center for divorced women to a community for women in non traditional jobs like construction.
We talked about the logistics of blogs (any WordPress experts willing to donate a few hours?), marketing (WEOP is using DivaTalks podcasts to supplement their learnings .. wOw!) and the power of social media marketing .. building relationships.
Speaking of relationships .. today I was surprised with an early social holiday gift from a BBF (best blog friend) Denise Wakefield who included Diva Marketing in blogs.com best of .. Ten Best New Media Marketing Blogs. What an honor to be among people like Chris Brogan, Chris Garret, Paul Chaney, Jeff Herring, Michael Martine, David Meerman Scott and Patsi Krakoff
So the fabulous entrepreneurs from WEOP asked, "How do you build those relationships?" "Great question," said I. "There are comments, links, emails .. being part of the community and give bits of yourself in your posts .. as it is comfortable for you to do that of course.
When we first meet people in their offices we have "walls" that often give us cues to the first steps in finding common interests that go beyond business. We may find a college diploma that leads to a conversation about the school we both attended or perhaps it was a city that we both lived in. Or we may discover a photo of the family vacationing on the beach and find we have a love of the ocean. Or we may see a sports team pennant on the wall and realize we are both fans of the same team.
In the social media business world we have to give bits of ourselves to create those initial synergies that go beyond a mutual interest in marketing, advertising, PR, research, etc. One way to do that is through the meme games. Sometimes called "tag" it's a way of giving your friends a better sense of you. Some memes ask for your favorite books, some for places you traveled .. you get the drift.
The divine diva Ms. BL Ochman tagged me and asked me to give up 7 things that you didn't know about me. So here goes ..
1. It took me a week to decide to keep little Max the rock star YouTube puppy.
2. I love Xmas music. I especially like the songs from the '40's like White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Silver Bells .. I play Xmas DVDs when I bake for the holidays .. shh don't tell any .. and dance around the kitchen with Max (see #1).
3. I make a mean cheese cake. One year I spent all summer experimenting my friends loved me! Note see #2
4. Family rumor is my grandfather, Popsie, was a boxer in Boston.
5. My Uncle Hy White
is a jazz guitarist who played with the Big Bands. Maybe he knew BL's grandfather. He tried to teach me to play but the strings hurt too much ..ouch!
6. I want to have a home on the ocean and one in a real city.
7. I want to conduct social media workshops on a cruise ship .. combine a holiday what with I love.How cool would that be?
Now the next part of the meme is to tag 7 people who will continue the game by telling who tagged them and then tagging 7 more people who will .. well you get it.
I'll tag a few people who have recently commented on Diva Marketing -
1. Debba, girlfriendology
2. Lewis Green, BizSolutionsPlus
3. Luckie Daniels, and speaking of pink
4. Bryan Person, LiveWorld
5. Mei Li, No Fear, Just Diva
6. Yvonne DiVita, Lip-Sticking
7. Marney Lewis, Va4growth
