Conversational Media Marketing

Chris Brogan has a practice he's used since 2006, that of distilling his goals for the new year into three or four words. Seems like a good one to follow, so I'm giving it a try this year. 

I confess. I love (LOVE) New York City. I was 50 years old before I ever visited and never imagined that I'd fall in love with it like I have. Since then, I've had the opportunity to visit another half dozen times, though none quite so pleasant as the most recent, for it was with my wife, Amie, for some R&R last week.

This was a first time visit for Amie and I must say she embraced it as much as I. Everything from dinner at Pietrasanta to honey vodka at Firebird, from an afternoon walk in Central Park to a dusk ride on the Staten Island Ferry, from surreal vistas high atop the Empire State to front row seats at Phantom of the Opera (on Amie's birthday no less)... we breathed deeply each and every experience.

There is really nothing like taking a few days away to reinvigorate mind, body and spirit, especially when it includes a trip to the Big Apple. Amie and I would move there in a minute.

Let me invite to share it with us. Here are a from the trip.

I was recently introduced by my good friend to real estate and business coach, author and speaker Terri Murphy. This lady has literally taken me under her wing and I could not be more grateful or appreciative.

To cite a brief litany of her generosity, Terri has introduced me to a number of influential people, included me (via video) on a panel she moderated at the National Association of Realtors convention, featured me as a guest in her weekly radio show, made me a member of the Advisory Board at Women's Wisdom Network, introduced me to an editor at AMACOM and is helping me get into coaching. On top of that, she has asked for little, if anything, in return! 

Honestly, I don't know what to make of it except that God (yes, I believe in God) puts people in your life at the right time and at the right place when you least expect it, don't deserve it, and have not a clue as to why. But, I'm a believer in providence, so I know there is a reason and sooner or later I'll learn what it is. In the meantime, I learning to say "thank you" an awful lot.

Not that Terri is getting off that easily mind you. I'm helping her get acclimated to social media, going to help develop a strategy to drive membership to the Women's Wisdom Network, and serve as a social media resource as needed. (One of the things I'm helping her with is gaining an understanding of what Twitter is all about. If you don't mind, I'd greatly appreciate you there.)

Whatever resources or assistance I might provide pale in comparison to what she has already done for me. The only way I know how to thank her appropriately is by doing so here on my blog.  So, let me introduce you to a truly generous person, Terri Murphy. May you be half as fortunate as I to find such a friend and mentor as she.
 

I'd like to announce that I've been invited to become a member of the advisory board of the Womens Wisdom Network, an organization started by real estate consultant and coach, Terri Murphy.

The Womens Wisdom Network is an "online learning and resource network offering information, mentorship, guidance, and entrepreneurial expertise to women in business." It's designed to help women "find, develop, reignite, and refocus their power to achieve personal and professional growth."

I'm happy to do my part to help women in business achieve their goals and would like to encourage any businesswoman to become part of the organization.

Actually, that title is a little melodramatic. While there are a number of things I'd like to do before my time is up, most of which have nothing to do with work or business, here's a short list of things that are:

Write another book, or two, or three - I'm working on a proposal right now in fact.

Find ways to monetize around the book - Seminars, speaking engagements, teleclasses, online courses; I want to take a lesson from people like Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff who understand how to do this and do it well.

Provide marketing services to the home stagers - This is an burgeoning cottage industry that is underserved so far as marketing services are concerned. I think in the next three to five years we'll see an outbreak of growth. It doesn't hurt that my wife is a home stager.

Start a online marketing agency which emphasizes social media - I keep pitching my CEO at Bizzuka that we should branch out and start a new division to provide such services. Like the constant drip of Chinese water torture, I'm determined to wear him down.

Bring my company Bizzuka to a place of national prominence and use social media marketing to do it - Right now, we're a small, regionally-focused business, but one with a large vision. That is to become an industry-recognized Web content management provider used by small business and creative professionals alike. If I can use social media as the catalyst, that's all the better.

Become known as the "social media handyman" - I let that domain get bought out from under me, but think it's still a useful moniker and fits well with my tactical approach to social media marketing. The high-level strategy stuff I can leave to others. I'll teach you how to do it and help you along the way.

Lay a strong foundation for IBNMA and see it reach maturity - I'm deeply committed to seeing IBNMA reach its potential and unwilling to entertain any thoughts or notions to the contrary.

That's it. At least that's all I'm willing to commit to for the moment. It's enough to fill most every waking hour for the next few years, don't you think?

I don’t need to remind you what today is. Remembering that day brought John Donne’s poem to mind.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

It brought something else to mind, just how grateful I am to call you friends.

Paul

Where were you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvj6zdWLUuk

CNN chronology of the attack: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/index.html

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you can reteach them lessons they've already learned. I'm relearning a life lesson and it's this...

You can waste your life lamenting missed opportunities, or you can look to the future and seize opportunities that present themselves and even make opportunities for things about which you have great passion and desire.

Like most anyone who has taken up more than a few years of space on the planet, I've let opportunities slip through my fingers. Lately, I've allowed myself the misery of looking back on those with regret. But not today!

I've never been very good at self-promotion. That being said, thanks to some encouragement from a few friends I've taken the leap and am offering business blog and social media consulting and speaking services.

If you visit those two pages, you'll note that I refer to myself in the third person, which does seem a bit weird. Let me know if you think so as well and I'll change that. Also, if you feel so inclined, please pass along my name/contact info to anyone you think might have an interest. Thanks!

PS: A video is being produced from a recent live event, so you'll get to see me in action. (I'm sure it will be need to be highly-edited. :->)

Like many of you I learned of the death of former White House press secretary and Fox News analyst Tony Snow today and was saddened by the news. Tony died from colon cancer, a disease he'd been fighting for three years, at age 53.

Listening to one commentator after another talk about the kind of man he was, the thing that caught my attention was not what they said about him professionally, but how they regarded him personally. Each viewed Snow as a genuine, caring individual who placed great value on family and faith.

Professionally, Snow lived a full life. He was active in nearly every form of media from print to television to radio. From what those I listened to had to say, he lived an equally full life on a personal level as well.

I realize we tend to talk about the best qualities of a person after they've passed, but I have to admit, politics aside, I always sensed Snow was a man whose life was characterized by the very ones of which they spoke.

Considering that I'm only one year younger than he, this news caused me to think about an old adage: "It's not the years in your life that counts. It's the life in your years."

For years I've regarded MarketingProfs as one of the two best marketing resource sites on the web, the other being Marketing Sherpa. As such, I attribute immediate credibility to content published there as well as to the contributors who write the articles.

Recently, I received what we in Acadiana refer to as lagniappe. Ann Handley, MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer requested that I contribute an article on the topic of content marketing. She read a blog post I'd written and asked me to expand on it.

Well, I did, then waited to see what Ann might do with it, if anything. How pleasantly surprised I was to find it listed as this week's marketing how-to...and included as premium content as well!

Needless to say I'm extremely grateful to have something I penned included in a resource site that I hold in such high esteem. I'm honored...and humbled.

BTW, the article is entitled How to Acquire and Retain Customers via Content Marketing.