Blue Helm

It’s amazing the kind of power a celebrity holds. Conan O’Brien joined Twitter at the end of February and he already has over 630,000 followers. Okay, that’s no big deal. Conan is a celebrity. The real story is in what Conan has done to 19 year old Sarah Killen.

Here’s the short version of the story: On March 5th Conan decided to randomly follow one person on Twitter. He chose Sarah Killen, a.k.a. @lovelybutton. She immediately went from a few followers to almost 25,000 in six days…crazy. Click here to read more.

So what? Good for Sarah, no big deal right? Wrong. If Sarah is smart she will do something with this unexpected fame. If you watch this ABC report, you’ll see that she got a few things for her wedding. She is even encouraging people to donate to a cancer fund. That’s wonderful, but she needs to do something more. This is an amazing opportunity!

So Sarah, here are a few ideas on what you could do with your new-found fame:

1. Start a blog: You already have thousands of people who are listening to what you’re saying on Twitter. As a result, you would get thousands of hits on your blog. You already have people sending you free stuff for your wedding, just think of how many people would pay you to have an ad in the sidebar of your blog. You could generate a pretty good income just from advertisements. Make sure your blog has focus and isn’t just a diary of your life. Make it about something of worth and it will grow instead of fading out when all of the hype dies down. If you’re not a good writer then take a writing class ASAP!
2. Start a business: What do you like to do? What are you good at? Start a business and use your audience to help it grow.
3. Become an unofficial spokesperson for a good cause: Pick a topic or cause that you’re passionate about. Maybe it’s helping to cure cancer. I’m sure the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation would love your help and support, and may even pay you to be an official spokesperson for them.
4. Connect with other celebrities: You could try to connect with other comedians or celebrities. They may be interested in getting in on the joke. As they connect with you more people will follow you, which would increase your ability to influence.

Please be smart, Sarah! Do something more than just tweeting random stuff. You could do so much. Of course if you want more advice let me know!

I want to apologize for not posting more of these awesome videos. I’ll try to be more diligent in the future. If these videos aren’t enough for you today then check out the last time I did a YouTube gem tribute. What are some of your favorites?

Sometimes it’s easy to fall behind and ignore your blog. Do any of the following statements sound familiar?

My week is too busy… My clients come first… I need a break… I don’t have time… Tweeting is so much faster… I don’t know what to write about… Isn’t LOST on right now?

Blogging on a consistent basis isn’t easy. There are many good excuses and even more bad excuses to avoid updating your blog. Regardless, the excuses do not out-way the importance of keeping a blog for your business. If you need convincing of why you need a blog for your business, click here, or go pick up David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

I have a confession. The last few months have been super busy with clients and I have slacked off in posting to my company’s blog. In fact I’ve only posted once since a week before Christmas. I know…I’m a horrible person. I need to repent.

Repentance is not an easy process. I have fallen into bad habits and need to break them. So what do I need to do? Here is the blogger’s repentance process according to Chad:

1. Admit there’s a problem: If you refuse to admit there’s a problem, then you won’t repent. Stop ignoring that nagging feeling in the back of your head and admit you need to post to your blog! Stop making excuses and get to work.
2. Re-commit yourself: Why did you first start blogging? What got you excited in the first place? Was it a book you read? Did you see another company have success with their blog? Did you have a young employee who got you all excited about starting a blog for your business? Whatever it was, revisit what got you excited.
3. Set a goal: If you don’t set a goal, then nothing is going to happen. If you set a goal then you have something to work towards.
4. Tell someone: Tell someone at your company your blogging goal and ask them to keep you accountable. Sometimes we humans need a little extra motivation. If we know someone else is going to keep us accountable for our actions then we tend to perform a little better.
5. Set apart blogging time: Blogging takes time. Sometimes writing a blog post seems like an insurmountable task because it’s going to take you a few hours to research, write, edit, and post an entry. You may not have a large block of time to blog, but you probably have 30 minutes a day to do something. You can get a lot done in 30 minutes if you put your mind to it. Set apart that time at some point in your day and develop a habit.
6. Don’t sin again: The most important part of repenting is not falling into your bad habits again. Your readers and customers need consistency, they need to know what to expect. When you are inconsistent, your reader or customer will be inconstant.

So I will repent of my heinous blogging sin and commit to posting at least once a week! Keep me accountable!

In honor of Presidents Day I have to give props to President Obama for doing so well in the social media realm. Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or somewhere in between, you can’t deny that the man has done wonders in reaching out to The People via social media. As I’m writing this he has over 7.5 million fans on his Facebook page and close to 3.3 million followers on Twitter. No one else in the political arena has anywhere near as much online support. Sarah Palin, who seems to be the next most popular political figure on Facebook and Twitter, has just over 1.36 million fans on Facebook and barely 80,000 followers on Twitter. The number of her supporters pales in comparison to President Obama’s.

In addition to having large numbers of supporters on the major social networks, Obama has done a great job galvanizing his fan base. Outside of his official pages, there are thousands of groups, profiles, YouTube videos, websites, forums and blogs supporting his cause.

Obama has proven himself a worthy campaigner. Edelman, one of the top independent PR firms in the world, wrote a great report on how Obama used social media to win the 2008 Presidential Election. Click here to read the report.

A warning to all politicians

President Obama isn’t the only one who has used social media effectively to influence elections. A more recent example can be seen in Scott Brown’s surprise victory in Massachusetts. As of Jan. 1, Brown had over 70,000 fans while Martha Coakley had just over 13,000. Click here to read this Wall Street Journal report for more telling statistics about the Massachusetts election.

If you want an idea of who may or may not win their elections this upcoming November, just compare how the candidates are doing in the social media race.

Politicians beware; do not ignore social media!

We’re very excited about Christmas here a Blue Helm. One of my favorite parts of Christmas are all of the classic movies associated with it. Here are a few great clips from a few Christmas movies I love:

I love The Christmas Story. Such good writing:

The latest Christmas great:

I can’t believe this movie ever happened, but it still hilarious:

I’m always grateful when Heman explains things like Christmas to me:

This is a Classic:

What are some of your favorite Christmas movie clips?