Blue Helm

I read a lot of blogs. I pay attention to a lot of websites. I watch how other companies do things and I like to see what is and isn’t working for them. It’s my business to know what’s going on in the social media world. As I look at other people’s work I find it important and sometimes difficult to stay clear of the conventional thinking trap when coming up with social media ideas.

Here are a few statements that can lead to being captured by the conventional thinking trap:

• “I’ve been doing this for years and it works just fine.”
• “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
• “But that’s not how other companies do it.”
• “That potential employee is innovative and intelligent, but they just don’t have the experience/résumé.”
• “It seems a little risky.”

What’s wrong with these statements? If it isn’t broken why would you want to fix it? Experience is a good thing. Other companies do it that way because it works. There are a lot of costs associated with risky endeavors. This is all true, but consistently falling into conventional thought can stifle innovation, growth and improvement. The conventional thinking trap stops you from being the first to do something awesome, it stops you from creating something viral, it stops you from being a leader and slowly steers you into mediocrity.

How do you avoid the conventional trap? Here are a few ideas:

1. Try it – If you have an idea for your website, your Facebook page or Twitter, just try it. One of my favorite quotes by Wayne Gretzky explains this principle: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Stop wondering “what if” and do it.
2. Establish an innovative culture – Make it a practice to come up with fresh ideas. Take half an hour each week to brainstorm on how to improve your marketing. If you manage a bigger organization then get ideas from your employees. You could even create a contest and give a small bonus every week to the person that has the best idea. If you encourage innovation your company will thrive.
3. Be different – This is a simple but powerful principle. If you conform to what everyone else is doing then someone will most likely do it better than you. If you can differentiate yourself from the norm, you become the standard. How can you be the leader if all you do is follow?

These are just a few ideas I had that help me to avoid the conventional trap. What are some of the thing you do?

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I’ve always loved Thanksgiving, a holiday that combines the four essential F groups: family, friends, food and football.

So what’s the best way to use social media this upcoming Thanksgiving week? Here are a few ideas:

1. Tell your family and friends (employees and clients if you’re a business) why you’re thankful for them. Write on their Facebook wall or tweet something nice about them. Expressing your gratitude for them will not only brighten this person’s day, it will make you feel great too.
2. Share your favorite recipes. We all love the delicious foods that accompany Thanksgiving dinner. Stop hoarding your favorite dish and share it with the world! Maybe someone else will love your stuffing, cranberry sauce or homemade apple pie. When you’ve posted the recipe, ask for other people’s favorite recipes and try one of them this year. If you’re a business, start a conversation about great recipes on your Facebook page, blog or on Twitter.
3. Make a list of things you’re thankful for and share it with everyone. It could be a list of the weirdest things you’re thankful for or even the top YouTube videos you’re thankful for. Just be thankful. That’s the idea of this holiday, right?
4. Share the best Black Friday deals! Not only is Thanksgiving Day awesome, but the day after is awesome too. Let people know where the best deals are. If you’re a business, let your followers know you’re having a killer deal. But don’t just share your own deals. Share deals for products from other businesses that will complement the items you sell. Karma pays dividends.

These are just a few of my ideas. How are you using social media to brighten your Thanksgiving?

“I love getting Latino pop sensation RickyMartin’s tweets! Oh wait…or is it Ricky_Martin?  This Twitter thing is just so confusing!” Okay, here’s a quick Twitter IQ test. Look at both of these Twitter pages and try to guess which one is the real Ricky Martin:

Here’s username RickyMartin

Here’s username Ricky_Martin

If you guessed that RickyMartin is the real superstar, you should go hang your head in Twitter shame.

It just so happens that I am friends with the owner of the RickyMartin username. And no, my friend is not actually Ricky Martin. My good friend Michelle Burnett, who is quite the jokester, signed up for Twitter about nine months ago and made her user name RickyMartin. Why? Because she’s hilarious. When the real Ricky Martin decided to get on Twitter he tried to get the name from her, but ended up using Ricky_Martin instead. Michelle has never tried to pretend that she is the real Ricky Martin, her name says she is Michelle Burnett, her profile picture is of herself, and her tweets are definitely her own. Here are a few samples:

“Loved your work on Hannah Montana @donnyosmond!”

“Got my hair did. I feel totally fab.”

“short hair is sad hair.”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve had a nose job.”

“After sitting in the library for about 30 minutes, I noticed that someone in the area smelled a lot like breath. And not the good kind.”

If you took even a moment to look at her profile, it is very obvious she is not Ricky Martin. Yet somehow, hundreds of Ricky Martin fans are following her, and actually believe she is Ricky Martin. In the past week alone, over 28 people have mentioned @rickymartin in their tweets, most of which are re-tweets from the real Ricky Martin. Multiple people have sent messages to Michelle in Spanish hoping to connect with the real Ricky Martin. Someone even nominated Michelle for “Mr. Twitter Puerto Rico” and she subsequently received hundreds of supporting votes.

So what does all of this mean? It means there are still a lot of people out there who are confused about how Twitter works. Or they just don’t care enough to look carefully at the people they follow or re-tweet. I can’t count how many people I’ve talked to who have signed up for Twitter and just give up because they can’t figure it out or see no value in tweeting. The average person isn’t going to search Mashable or other blogs for ‘How-To Twitter’ instructions, not to mention researching why Twitter is valuable.

I’ve always thought Twitter could do a much better job at introducing people to their product. When a new user signs up for Twitter, there should be helpful videos and instructions available on how-to use it. They should have links to articles that explain how to use Twitter for a business, individual, professional, music lover, etc. Don’t make the customer search for this stuff. Give it to them when they sign up.

What do you think? Why are there so many people who don’t know how to use Twitter? Why are there so many people who sign up for Twitter, but stop using it? And why do Ricky Martin fans have a hard time distinguishing a male pop icon in Puerto Rico from a female college student in Utah?

Okay, this is a pretty generalized topic to be blogging about. But Blue Helm is in the middle of its first annual Social Media Library Series, and I know an all-purpose post like this will be helpful to some of our class members. So let’s jump right into this—the following are a few basic, general tips on how to grow your business using social media:

1. Educate yourself: Before jumping onto the social media bandwagon, search around online and find out how other professional leaders in your industries have used social media to enhance their business opportunities. You’ll find stories of shopkeepers using Twitter to advertise specials and driving customers to their stores, financial advisors using LinkedIn to network with prospective clients and construction firms sharing home improvement tips on blogs and Facebook pages. Take the time to learn more about social media and how it works, even if it’s just a few minutes each day. Like we tell our class participants, you don’t have to use all the social networks at once. Learn about the tools, start small, develop a simple marketing plan and go from there.

2. Use Twitter: Go here to learn more about the basics of how to set up and understand your first Twitter account. I think what I want to stress most to our readers is that Twitter can be a powerful listening tool for your business. You can easily search for what tweeters are saying about your business, product or industry in the site’s search box. Then you can respond and engage. For example, let’s pretend you manufacture juice makers. You get to work each morning and type “juice maker” into Twitter’s search box to see what people are saying that day. You happen to see a lot of complaints about complicated or expensive juice makers. You can respond personally to these people on Twitter, explaining to them that your company’s juice makers are neither complicated nor expensive, and that you’d love to send them a generous e-coupon for your product if they’d like. Maybe one or two will respond and purchase your product that day. And the whole ordeal took ten minutes.

3. Blog: Read that as a verb—BLOG! Your business must have a specialty or area of expertise and it doesn’t matter if it’s plumbing, accounting, rock climbing, electrical engineering or chimpanzee grooming. You should blog about it. You should share valuable, genuine, consistent content with readers about your area of expertise. You should communicate and enhance relationships with your readers and other bloggers. This will generate buzz and excitement about your product and augment your status as an opinion leader in your field. Find out how to start blogging here.

This should get you started. Remember: educate yourself, try Twitter and blogging, and don’t give up! Social media can be overwhelming at first but the more you use it, the more you’ll come to understand it and discover your special niche.