What stories can you tell while on the go?

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New York Times writer Kit Eaton talks exclusively about the first part of Mobile blogging options for storytelling on the go.  But the part about storytelling on the go is an awesome idea.  Blogger is my main platform, and I've written articles on my iPhone Notes app, while on a Metra ride to Chicago, then simply copied and pasted onto my blog.  While blogs and social media have frank distinctions, they are increasingly more alike with another.  Storytelling is what defines blogging, and certainly social media can be one set of platforms for it.  

But what is storytelling?  It's speaking more personally about something, and weaving it into a narrative, even a short one, which has a bit of drama, intrigue or emotion.  How does storytelling help your company or brand?  That personal touch may just be what appeals to your target customers or audience.  Stories have to be genuine, and stories have to be relevant.  When you're on the go, you encounter a vast pool of sights, and sounds, and smells, that can be the seeds to a story you write, literally while you're on the go.  

100 best websites for women entrepreneurs

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As Forbes staff Meghan Casserly writes in The 100 Best Websites for Women Entrepreneurs, women going into business don't have to go at it alone.  Supports and networks are at their disposal.  I understand that women are more predominant than men, when it comes to buying online, so it makes sense for business owners in general to keep them firmly in mind.  Moreover, Casserly challenges the notion that women are just about fashion, beauty and fitness.  They are so much more, clearly, so have a look-see.

Social media strategy is inviolably social

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From the Working Knowledge e-newsletter, by Harvard Business School, comes this recent offering -  Secrets to a Successful Social Media Strategy.  It's a well-written piece, and describes the research and book by Professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski clearly and persuasively.  In brief, companies that succeed best, and apparently gain a profit, are those that navigate the tricky balance between broadcasting commercial messages and engaging loyal and would-be customers.  Piskorski calls it quid pro quo - this, for that - which is neither a new or a secret concept.  Still it's very tricky indeed to carry out and make happen.

Quid pro quo is about give-and-take.  It doesn't have to be in the sequence.  But if I give, then I have credit for taking, such as messaging them with a request or promotion.  If I take, then I must give back in some form or another, such as a congratulatory comment or thoughtful contribution.  But it's hardly ever that cut-and-dried.  Someone noted that social media was becoming less social, and I agreed.  In fact I have agreed since I got active on Facebook five years ago: specifically, people were more likely to post and see, than truly participate, engage and converse.  

So keep social media social.  Pikorski distinguishes between "digital strategy on social platforms" (business-oriented, outbound messages) and "social strategy on social platforms" (people-centered, two-way street)  This is too pedantic and elementary, really, as far as concept goes.  Social media strategy is, and must be acknowledged fully as, inviolably social.  When I am on social media, I do my best to view people as people whom I would meet with, hang out with, and talk to.  The same sort of considerateness, reciprocity, genuineness and respect come into play.  

How I use LinkedIn to promote a program

Ron Villejo, PhD

I am affiliated with the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western University (US), and I am working with them to encourage managers and executives to attend a very unique program - Leadership Deep Dive - to be held in Dubai. I really enjoy attending conferences and networking with fellow business people and professionals.  But when time and budget are tight, I focus more on social media, especially LinkedIn.  With 300+ million now on the site, it is simply hard to beat.

Here are three key things I've done to promote LDD, and their benefits for me:

1. I took stock of my 1071 connections, and privately messaged those who might very well be interested in this program.  It gave me reason to check in and get caught up a bit with a number of them who responded back.  
2. LinkedIn allows me to target colleagues, even those who aren't connections.  I am a member of a group by a key client prospect in the Middle East, so I can see colleagues' headline profiles in a list and message those who fit my target directly.  I do not send mass or generic messages; in fact I message each one personally, that is, by name, and reference their position and company name.  
3. Both connections and would-be connections have been checking out my profile more.  Since I started promoting LDD, I have had a noticeable uptick in views (below).  That isn't the only thing I'm doing - I post and comment regularly on my Timeline, plus I am active in select groups.  

I am proud to say that in 2012, my profile was in the top 5% most viewed among about 200 million members.  To be in the top 19% among my connections in particular is quite good, actually.  Last year I updated my profile once or twice a week, which LinkedIn algorithms would announce to my connections.  But because I hadn't updated it in a while, these profile views prompted me to do so.

Avoid overly repetitive commercial ads

That Muppets commercial is beyond annoying now after seeing it 1,000 times tonight
— CJ Imondi (@CJImondi) June 9, 2014

@sportsPond53 lmfao
— CJ Imondi (@CJImondi) June 9, 2014

My friend and I, and scores of others, were watching the NBA Final between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat last night (Game 2) - and tweeting in the process.  I knew exactly what commercial he alluded to, and I agreed with him 100%.

I've been feasting on playoff hockey since mid-April, and through the Stanley Cup Final thus far, NBC Sports Network has shown pretty much the same set of commercials.  I haven't followed playoff basketball as much, but now that we're in the NBA Final, I've tuned in.  ABC Sports also seems locked on the same set of commercials, including this one for the Toyota Highlander.  

The repetitive airing has become quite mind-numbing and off-putting.  I don't know how well I represent these advertisers' target, and I don't know if my friend's reaction and mine are similar to others.  But they have to closely review their strategy, delivery and effectiveness.  Besides Toyota and the Muppets, it's Geico, Enterprise and BMO Harris that are tedious, unimaginative brands.  

Keep these points in mind, when you're designing and developing your promotional videos and ad campaigns.

Netflix fosters appeal and gains a following

You got to get it, to get it.

I've been feasting on NHL hockey playoffs on NBC Sports Network, focusing on the Blackhawks of course.  Over the last seven weeks now, pretty much the same run of commercials have dominated my "TV timeouts" and pre- and post-game shows.  I'm tired of a lot of them, especially the one with Blues TJ Oshie for Enterprise and Rangers Henrik Lundqvist for Advil.  But for some reason, I really like this hockey pep talk by Netflix and don't seem close to tiring of it.  It's that line "You got to get it, to get it," that, as a wordsmith myself, I just love.

Are you crying?

Usually by the time, my wife and I watch a film (DVD) I've watched it a couple of times already.  It doesn't seem to bother her at all, when I anticipate or explain scenes for her, so there isn't an issue between us.  Still I find this couple's situation very funny, especially at the end when she asks "Are you crying?"

I hadn't seen this commercial before, but I like it, too.  Two years ago, Kate Upton rebuffed a high school student's invitation for her to be his date for prom.  No worries, though, just as super-hot (but not over-exposed) Nina Agdal went out with him.  Whether or not this particular high student originated the idea to "invite" Netflix, these commercials offer us two very different lessons in promotional videos:

• Draw on straight out wit, irony and creativity
• Draw on social phenomena as Twitter and YouTube

I don't know to what extent I'm representative of a TV or online viewing audience, but judging from my reactions alone, Netflix is doing a lot of right things to foster appeal and gain a following.  These two lessons are not mutually exclusive, of course, as Netflix knows very well how to balance its avenues and integrate its talents.

Weighing eating disorders and social media

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Mark Cuban referred to it as "headline porn," such as the ones that have steadily streamed into my Facebook Timeline:

• These 40 Brilliant Ads Are Shocking, But They'll Make You Think About Important Issues
• {Shocking Video} Black female forced to Strip and then Killed by Public
• Here's how to end your frustration and finally take your business to 7 figures

So when I saw the headline Social media helps fuel some eating disorders on Google News, I bristled.  But I read the article, and it's actually reasonable:

Barbara Smolek, administrative manager at the Columbia and Weill Cornell Center for Eating Disorders, said the center has seen an increase in positive dialogue being shared on social media. 

"Messages of hope and recovery, which are so important to share, are increasingly easy to find," Smolek said. 

Clinicians caution, though, that social media users need to be careful about the online recovery communities from which they seek advice and to be selective about which they follow. 

"You have to be a smart consumer," said [head of Rockland Jewish Family Services, Christine Miraglia] Knorr. "It's very tough out there to find stuff that is not triggering, that's supportive and not harmful."

I worked closely and actively in the eating disorders program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, well before and throughout graduate school.  All the major research and review I did were on this subject, and admittedly I felt a certain affinity with these young women afflicted with milder to very severe forms of anorexia, bulimia, and bulimarexia, in both outpatient and inpatient settings.

Anyway this is a topic for another article, but suffice it to say that what Marcela Rojas writes in the article makes very good sense.  There is exquisite comparisons and vicious competition among such afflicted women, that the very visual and social nature of Facebook and Instagram are truly a perfect (i.e., destructive) platform for eating disorders.

The lesson here for business, brand or organizational owners vis-a-vis a social media is indeed to be careful.  But the tacit, no less important lesson, too, is to avoid resorting to hyperboles (i.e., headline porn) and jumping to conclusions about the good or the bad that social media does.  So when I see the key words "helps fuel" and "some eating disorders," Rojas is being responsible in her journalism.