Drew McLellan, Author at McLellan Marketing Group

Social media fans and followers are like new neighbors

May 21, 2010

Imagine glancing out your front window just as the moving van pulls in at the house across the street. Oh goodie…a new neighbor!

As soon as the moving van unloads everything and pulls away, you brush your teeth, run your fingers through your hair and head over. After all… you've got to check them out, right?

Their garage door is still open and it's packed with stuff. You start rummaging through the boxes and are pumped when you see the power tools. You have a lot of uses for those! You hear the door leading into the house open up and a startled man looks at you in surprise.

With skipping a beat, you look up and say, "Hey neighbor! Nice to meet you. Mind if I take these tools for a couple days? I'm finishing my basement and…"

I know…it sounds crazy doesn't it? Everyone knows that you don't treat a new neighbor that way. The proper way to get to know a new neighbor is to take over a little gift or some freshly baked cookies. You ask if there's anything you can do to help them settle in. Maybe you watch the kids while they unpack or you offer to bring dinner over so they don't have to worry about getting to the grocery store.

In other words — you give without expecting to get something in return.

The same is true in social media. When you get a new neighbor in the form of a Facebook fan, Twitter follower or blog subscriber — you don't dig through their proverbial garage, looking for what you can get from them. You don't immediately try to sell them something or make them jump through a bunch of hoops.

And yet that's exactly what most businesses do. Automated DM tweets pushing their product, Facebook updates that are all about them and blog posts that are just self-promotional press releases.

No wonder most companies abandon their social media efforts and declare it all a waste of time. Because they're lousy neighbors.

Related posts:

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Give them your heart… and then your head

May 19, 2010

Clients have high expectations of us and rightly so. And I think that most companies (and employees) bust a hump to meet and exceed those expectations. But sooner or later, we're going to mess up.

It's inevitable. We're human beings and we screw up.

Whether we catch our own mistake or the client points it out — how we respond in those first few minutes will make or break the experience. I have always said — it's not the screw up, it's how we handle the screw up that matters.

Because we work our tails off to please and serve our clients — when we mess up, we're embarrassed and we are highly motivated to correcting the problem. So we go into "Fix It Mode."

Oops…we just made it worse. Yup… worse.

The client doesn't want you to fix it. Not yet. First, they want you to feel their pain. They want to know that you are sorry (you cannot substitute words here…the words are: "I am very sorry…") and that you are upset that you have let them down. In other words, it's time to eat some humble pie.

It's not that the client wants you to grovel or beat yourself up. But they're feeling pretty lousy at this point. And they want to know you're in it with them. They want you to feel as badly about it as they do. This is less about blame and much more about reassurance that when things go wrong — you give a damn.

Then and only then, can you go into "Fix It Mode." If you go immediately to fixing the problem and you're all logical and left brained — to them it feels like you don't care. You're just trying to get out of the jam you find yourself in. When you go right into "Fix It Mode" — it feels to the client like it's about you, not them.

And they really need it to be about them. (As it should be.)

But once you've demonstrated that you're sitting right there beside them and are feeling as badly as they are — then you can roll right into your creative problem solving and fix whatever is broken.

Ultimately, they do want you to solve it. But not before you've felt it. So remember…heart and then head.

Media training tips – tip #1

May 14, 2010

So…you're going to be interviewed on your local TV noon news segment. Or you have reporters calling because your company is in the middle of a controversial issue. Or it might be that a blogger wants to do a digital interview using web cams.

No matter how friendly, how laid back or how intense a media interview might be — there are some basic rules you should remember to take full advantage of the opportunity (or to mitigate the damage if that's the scenario.)

I'm going to share a series of tips that will help you make the most of your 15 minutes of fame! Today, let's talk preparation.

Prep: Your interview is actually won or sunk in the prep or lack thereof. You want to be very mindful of the message you want to convey. Yes…THE message. A single message.

Ask yourself this question: What's the one thing I want people to know and remember at the conclusion of this interview. Whatever it is…. you insert that answer into the first real question you get asked. (after the niceties about having you on the show etc.)

Let me give you an example. Our Adopt a Charity, Amanda the Panda really wants people to understand the work that they do and who they serve. So…if they were doing a noon show interview about their upcoming ThrowBack Golf event (dress like an old time golfer, etc.) here's how that first question might play out.

Reporter: Thanks for coming on the show. Tell us a little about your upcoming golf tournament.

Executive Director: Thanks for having us on, Brian. As you know, Amanda the Panda works with kids from six to seventeen who are hurting because someone they love has died. We offer all of those services for free. Which is why we're holding this fantastic golfing event where everyone is going to dress like turn of the century golfers and help us raise money.

Did she answer the reporter's question? You bet. But first…she delivered her main point. Rarely is a reporter going to say: anything else you want our viewers to know? So don't wait for the perfect opportunity. Make the perfect opportunity — with the first question.

In getting ready for your interview….use these questions to get clear on the key points you want to drive home:

What is the one thing you want the audience to remember? (This is the point I was talking about above)
What are the three key facts you’d like to mention?
What is the phrase you want to repeat at least twice?
When people hear the name of your organization, we want them to think (phrase) in their head:

I know it sounds incredibly simplistic, but trust me, even this much prep will put you far ahead of most people who step in front of a reporter's microphone. Stay tuned for tip #2.

Age of Conversation III — hot off the press!

May 13, 2010

Three years ago, Gavin Heaton and I launched a little experiment that has evolved into a worldwide project of epic proportions!

We wanted to try crowdsourcing a book about social media, written by the marketing professionals that were establishing themselves online with blogs, Facebook, Twitter and all the other social media tools. On a lark, without a great deal of forethought — we put out a call for authors. Within a week, over 100 marketing pros responded and we were off to the races.

Now….as we launch our third book, appropriately called Age of Conversation III, I am struck by the scope of the undertaking.’

The first two books had 107 and 237 authors respectively and raised over $20,000 for children’s charities. 11 countries were represented and the media coverage was literally worldwide.

Both of the first two books were very much reflections of the time. Most people were just beginning to dip their toes in so there were some fantastic chapters on the philosophy and spirit of social media. Many were making the case for social media’s relevance in various sectors and circumstances.

That’s where this third book is really a departure. The subtitle of this edition is “it’s time to get busy” and we really challenged the authors to step away from the theoretical and dig into the practical. And boy, did they! There are excellent case studies, some very candid “this bombed” examples and a much more pragmatic, from the trenches view of social media.

I think you’re going to be blown away by the content and all of the ideas, lessons and takeaways you get from the book. The authors were honest, generous and insightful.

And of course….100% of the proceeds of this book will also be donated to charity, so you are helping yourself while helping the world’s children.

By clicking on one of the links below, you can buy it in a hardback, paperback or Kindle edition. The ebook (for the iPad) version will be done shortly.

Hardback ($24 or so on Amazon)

Paperback ($18 or so on Amazon)

Kindle ($10 or so on Amazon)

A project of this nature is expansive in scope. I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) do it without my cohort and friend Gavin Heaton. I love his generous heart and inquisitive mind. He’s one in a million.

This year, a publisher stepped up (We’d self published on lulu.com for the first two) and proved to be invaluable in about a million ways. Many thanks to Channel V Publishing and Gretel and Kate!

And of course…. the authors. Without them, it would be a thin and vapid book indeed. We’re very grateful that they’re willing to be a part of this project and to share their bumps, bruises, learning and wit.

Here’s a handy dandy chart of the authors. Each link will take you to their blog or website.

Adam Joseph	Priyanka Sachar	Mark Earls
Cory Coley-Christakos	Stefan Erschwendner	Paul Hebert
Jeff De Cagna	Thomas Clifford	Phil Gerbyshak
Jon Burg	Toby Bloomberg	Shambhu Neil Vineberg
Joseph Jaffe	Uwe Hook	Steve Roesler
Michael E. Rubin	anibal casso	Steve Woodruff
Steve Sponder	Becky Carroll	Tim Tyler
Chris Wilson	Beth Harte	Tinu Abayomi-Paul
Dan Schawbel	Carol Bodensteiner	Trey Pennington
David Weinfeld	Dan Sitter	Vanessa DiMauro
Ed Brenegar	David Zinger	Brett T. T. Macfarlane
Efrain Mendicuti	Deb Brown	Brian Reich
Gaurav Mishra	Dennis Deery	C.B. Whittemore
Gordon Whitehead	Heather Rast	Cam Beck
Hajj E. Flemings	Joan Endicott	Cathryn Hrudicka
Jeroen Verkroost	Karen D. Swim	Christopher Morris
Joe Pulizzi	Leah Otto	Corentin Monot
Karalee Evans	Leigh Durst	David Berkowitz
Kevin Jessop	Lesley Lambert	Duane Brown
Peter Korchnak	Mark Price	Dustin Jacobsen
Piet Wulleman	Mike Maddaloni	Ernie Mosteller
Scott Townsend	Nick Burcher	Frank Stiefler
Steve Olenski	Rich Nadworny	John Rosen
Tim Jackson< /p>	Suzanne Hull	Len Kendall
Amber Naslund	Wayne Buckhanan	Mark McGuinness
Caroline Melberg	Andy Drish	Oleksandr Skorokhod
Claire Grinton	Angela Maiers	Paul Williams
Gary Cohen	Armando Alves	Sam Ismail
Gautam Ramdurai	B.J. Smith	Tamera Kremer
Eaon Pritchard	Brendan Tripp	Adelino de Almeida
Jacob Morgan	Casey Hibbard	Andy Hunter
Julian Cole	Debra Helwig	Anjali Ramachandran
Jye Smith	Drew McLellan	Craig Wilson
Karin Hermans	Emily Reed	David Petherick
Katie Harris	Gavin Heaton	Dennis Price
Mark Levy	George Jenkins	Doug Mitchell
Mark W. Schaefer	Helge Tenno	Douglas Hanna
Marshall Sponder	James Stevens	Ian Lurie
Ryan Hanser	Jenny Meade	Jeff Larche
Sacha Tueni and Katherine Maher	David Svet	Jessica Hagy
Simon Payn	Joanne Austin-Olsen	Mark Avnet
Stanley Johnson	Marilyn Pratt	Mark Hancock
Steve Kellogg	Michelle Beckham-Corbin	Michelle Chmielewski
Amy Mengel	Veronique Rabuteau	Peter Komendowski
Andrea Vascellari	Timothy L Johnson	Phil Osborne
Beth Wampler	Amy Jussel	Rick Liebling
Eric Brody	Arun Rajagopal	Dr Letitia Wright
Hugh de Winton	David Koopmans	Aki Spicer
Jeff Wallace	Don Frederiksen	Charles Sipe
Katie McIntyre	James G Lindberg & Sandra Renshaw	David Reich
Lynae Johnson	Jasmin Tragas	Deborah Chaddock Brown
Mike O’Toole	Jeanne Dininni	Iqbal Mohammed
Morriss M. Partee	Katie Chatfield	Jeff Cutler
Pete Jones	Riku Vassinen	Jeff Garrison
Kevin Dugan	Tiphereth Gloria	Mike Sansone
Lori Magno	Valerie Simon	Nettie Hartsock
Mark Goren		Peter Salvitti

There are no divided plates in social media

May 9, 2010

Social media is an all or nothing proposition. No… I am not suggesting that you air all your dirty laundry, that you passive aggressively comment on a specific person's behavior on your Facebook updates or that we should all know how your marriage is going based on your tweets.

That's a discussion of discretion and propriety, which we'll hold for another day.

I was talking about how some people are clinging to the idea that they can embark into the world of social media and somehow maintain very distinct and separate personal and professional lives. You know…"I use Facebook just for my friends and LinkedIn for business contacts."

Life isn't that clear cut. And let's take it out of the social media realm for a minute. Do you know if your favorite client has children? Do they know if you like coffee? Ever share vacation photos or a book you love with a business associate?

Of course you have. We are human beings. And if you're doing business exceedingly well — odds are your customers are also your friends.

So what in the world makes us think we can or should keep those two interwoven worlds separate in social media? Does the fact that I posted photos of my daughter's play negate my ability to help clients with their marketing? If I tweet on occasion with an old college buddy, does that erase the tweets with insightful social media links and commentary?

That's not to say you shouldn't have a strategy for how you want to handle your social media exposure. You have a reason — often a business reason — for being there. And you shouldn't lose sight of that. But just don't create artificial barriers to the point of the extreme.

As Amber Naslund said at the recent SOBCon conference — "sooner or later the mash potatoes are going to touch the peas."

There are no divided plates in social media. So you might as well figure out how to blend your worlds. I hate to break it to you… but they're already blended.

What do you think?

Marketing 101 — the interview

May 3, 2010

I was absolutely delighted with Aggie Villanueva (the Grandma Moses of the Southwest) invited me to participate on her radio talk show.

Aggie is an artist (photography) who also runs a place called Visual Arts Junction where she connects with artists of all kinds and talks about the business of being an artist.

So when she said she wanted to talk marketing — as you can imagine, I was all for it! We talked for an hour and barely scratched the surface! It was great fun and I hope, insightful to her vast audience.

You can listen to the entire interview by clicking here.

Check out Visual Junction by clicking here and enjoy Aggie's beautiful photographs (like the one to the right) by clicking here.

Sharpening the saw on your leadership and personal branding efforts

April 30, 2010

Two good friends and smart cookies have just released some great content available to you for free!

Terry Starbucker has been blogging about leadership and life for many years now over at Ramblings from a Glass Half Full. He's captured some of his best thinking and insights in a free e-book called Leadership from a Glass Half Full: What you Need to Learn Before You Jump into the Pool.

You can download it by clicking here.

Dan Schwabel, personal branding expert and blogger has been teaching people how to stand out in the crowd over at Personal Branding Blog for quite some time. Dan produces a fascinating magazine, chock full of interviews and helpful tips to build a powerful personal brand.

Dan's generously offering a free sample issue to you. All you have to do is click here.

Now that you've identified your weekend reading…. what's next on your To Do list?

Image courtesy of ShutterStock

What I’m reading (4/26/10)

April 27, 2010

I've always loved to read…so many books, so little free time. Every few weeks, I'm going to give you the skinny on the books that have caught my fancy. Most will be new ones (I am trying to whittle down the pile) but every once in awhile it will include a classic too.

Here's what I've been reading this week or so and my take on each.

Recession Proof Business by Victor Cheng (click on title to buy)

Victor Cheng, a former McKinsey consultant and marketing expert for the Fox Business Television Network, led a major research project to find the answer to discover why some companies survive a recession.

After analyzing 12 US recessions spanning 136 years, this research uncovered how, in the midst of a major recession, Federal Express, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, UPS, Coors, and others opened their doors as one- and two-person businesses-and grew to become Fortune 500 giants.

Why did these businesses prosper, while thousands of others failed? Unintentionally, they all followed the same winning formula – four simple rules that allowed them to survive and thrive, while others died. Discover these timeless rules in The Recession-Proof Business and follow in the footsteps of the greatest recession success stories of all time.

This was a pretty quick and interesting read. Cheng takes the data and makes it relevant. Worth your time.

And….if you are part of a business with 100 or fewer employees, Cheng is offering a PDF of his book for free. Just visit: http://www.victorcheng.com/bailout

I Hate People by Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon (click on title to buy)

Designed for navigating pitfalls and stop signs in the workplace, I HATE PEOPLE! helps you identify the top drains on your time and resources and teaches office jujitsu tactics to help wrest back your time.

The book identifies and classifies each of The Ten Least Wanted who pose the greatest threat to getting your work done in the office:

Stop Sign (like the Kodak executive who predicted digital cameras had no future)
Flimflam (proficient at identifying people to do their bidding)
Bulldozer (a bad decision is better than indecision)
Smiley Face (sneaky – constantly smiling with something up his sleeve)
Liar Liar (obvious)
Switchblade (two faced…don't turn your back)
Minute Man (Do you have a minute, I just have one thing…)
Know-It-None (full of facts, most of which are useless or wrong)
Spreadsheet (Micro manager)
Sheeple (can't make a decision, blind follower)

And then naturally — it then tells you how to deal with these time suckers and get back your day.

This was a fun book to read but I'm not sure I'm better off. Maybe that's because I work in a small office. Or because I'm the boss. If you're stuck in an office where you can't be successful, this book might help. So would quitting.

Why Loyalty Matters by Timothy Keiningham & Lerzan Aksoy (click on title to buy)

In Why Loyalty Matters, loyalty experts Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy draw from the most comprehensive study of loyalty ever conducted, the landmark Ipsos Loyalty Study, to show why loyalty is critical to our happiness as individuals and our success as a society.

Readers learn:

How to leverage 10 relationship building blocks to shape your interactions at home and work
How organizations can gauge and strengthen employees' loyalty–and why they should
How to boost your company's profits by finding and developing loyal customers
How to achieve career fulfillment through loyalty to your job and coworkers
How to develop more loyalty in your friendships, family, and community

This book reaches beyond business and talks about loyalty in a much broader sense. The authors deal with both the intangible and tangible values (emotions, behaviors and dollars) that come with earning someone's loyalty.

I found this book really intriguing. The use of the Ipsos Loyalty Study data really fleshed out their suppositions and examples. It was just the right amount of left brained facts mixed with some good stories and analogies.

There you have it — some new reads if you're iPad or Kindle is running dry!

Do your customers think you’re a “10”?

April 26, 2010

In the drive up windows of one of the country's largest banks — there is a sign. "Please honk if we've delivered a "10" customer service experience."

I've never heard anyone honk or honked myself. Now…I want to honk. I feel bad about not honking. I can see that the tellers are being very friendly. They use my first name. They enclose a pen in the little tube so I don't have to ask to borrow one. But here's the thing. That's not being a 10. That's just being good. Being a 10 isn't about being good — it's about being spectacular.

For those of you over 40, you will remember the movie 10 with Bo Derek. The premise of the entire movie is that Bo Derek is so extraordinary that Dudley Moore makes a complete and utter fool of himself.

Check out the trailer (e-mail subscribers, click here) and then we'll talk about how Bo relates to marketing and our customers.

According to the movie, Bo wasn't just pretty. She wasn't satisfactory. She was stunning. She was so remarkable — she made everyone stop and notice.

That's what I want the bank tellers to be. Not friendly. Not doing their job. But remarkable. Do something that I can't help but tell others about. (Who is going to say…"boy, the bank teller called me Drew today.") Dare to be remarkable.

What does that look like? It looks like a small gesture that says you know who I am and appreciate me and my business enough to do something that most would never even think of doing.

Include a dog treat with my receipt because my dog is with me? Nice but not remarkable. Include a dog treat because you remember that I have a black lab, even when she isn't with me… remarkable.

Send me your newsletter, chock full of helpful hints? Nice but not remarkable. Drop off a book you think I will enjoy because you know that I grew up owning horses… remarkable.

Include a free sample when you ship my order to me? Nice but not remarkable. Include a packet of flower seeds that will grow perfectly in my climate with a note saying you can imagine how happy we are to see Spring after a miserable winter… remarkable.

Then, I will honk my heart out. I will tell everyone about your business. And, I will love you enough to never leave…no matter how much your competitors woo me.

That's a 10. And that's why we rarely (figuratively or literally) honk our horns for the companies that serve us.

6 steps to take if your company is criticized in a blog post

April 23, 2010

My last blog post recounted a less than desirable experience a colleague and I had at a New York Dunkin' Donuts store. The manager was an amazing example of what not to do.

When I write about specific brands or experiences I've had, I try very hard to be respectful of the brand and to only call someone out when there's a lesson to be learned. I never do it out of spite or to cause anyone any trouble.

If the specific name of the company isn't relevant — I might not even mention it. But when a donut shop that tops the 2010 Customer Loyalty Index delivers abismal service, I'm going to talk about it.

Within 24 hours of my blog post going live, I had a voice mail message from the Director of Customer Relations, Kathy Murphy. Naturally, I called her back. We had a very pleasant conversation and I was suitably impressed.

Let's look at all the things Kathy did right…on behalf of her brand.

She was monitoring: There's no way she could have found out about my blog post without some sort of monitoring tool, like Google Alerts.

She talked to me like a human being, not a corporate drone: There was no jargon or convoluted language. She wasn't reading from a script. She was just very human.

She apologized. Several times: She wasn't at the store, so it wasn't her fault. And I wasn't mad. To me it was a marketing lesson. But to her it was a customer who had been exposed to lousy service. And she genuinely felt badly about that. If I had been mad, it would have been completely disarming.

She told me what she was going to do with the information: She made it clear that she was going to share the story with the franchise owner, so he could explore additional training for his manager.

She never chastised me for writing about Dunkin' Donuts or asked me to alter or remove the blog post: Let's be honest here — no one wants their company to appear in a blog post that calls them out for bad service. And my blog post really called them out. So I'm sure it was tempting to ask me to take down the post…or amend it in some way. But she never even hinted at it.

She dealt with the issue completely, before offering the goodwill gesture: Kathy made sure we'd covered it all and that I was content that she'd followed up before she offered to send me some free coffee to apologize. (There are no Dunkin' Donuts in Iowa, so she couldn't send a gift card). I didn't need the coffee to feel better about the experience. Kathy had already accomplished that. But I am sure that the MMG crew will enjoy the gesture!

The only additional step I would have added is — I would have suggested to Kathy that she jump into the comments on the original post. She could have started the conversation with me there so the other commenters would have seen it as well. After all, if I hadn't written this post — you wouldn't have known she had reached out.

But overall, there you have it…an almost picture perfect example of how to respond if your company gets sideways with a blogger, reporter, customer or critic. Kathy handled the situation with sincerity, a desire to learn from the experience and incredible grace. Bookmark this post — so you can follow her model if you find yourself in the same boat!

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