Think about it.

• Your widget - is it a conversation?  Or a tool?
• Your blog - is it a two way conversation? or a publication?
• Your "viral video" - is it part of something greater? Or a tactic?
• Are your listening, monitoring or measuring the conversation? Or none of the above?
• Your influencer relationships - are they relationships, or paid friendships?
• Your "blogger outreach" - are you forming a relationship, inviting their participation as a two way street? Or are you sending a form letter pleading for free distribution of your campaign?
• Are your campaigns executional? Or are they part of a broader relationship-building effort?

The key differentiators:

• Are you making a statement or participating in a conversation? 
• Are you:
  
  • a conversational brand,
  • a social object,
  • a broadcast message or
  • a social enabler?
    • Do your efforts reflect this reality?

The truest test of a brand's commitment to a relationship:
Does your customer support online, on the phone or via mail/email offer to same level of support as your social/twitter team, marketing agency, social agency or pr agency?

Key Takeaway: It's easy to care about a relationship in a silo.  It's much harder to commit to that relationship across the board.

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Like this post? Share it on twitter! http://bit.ly/3wcL4f

Inspired by Joe Jaffe's post and the follow up discussion with Craig Daitch in the comments.

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Everything else is extra, but if you don't start there, you will not succeed.

Once upon a time, on a small undiscovered island in the mid pacific ocean, one caveman grunted at another caveman.  Soon a few cavemen joined together and started grunting at each other, but every time that the first caveman grunted, everyone else paid attention.

To this small group of cavemen, the first grunter was the most influential caveman in the world.  He yielded lots of social influence.  But while everyone respected him, they served the man with the biggest knife.  Thus was life in their fishbowl.

Little did they know, just a few hundred miles away, deep undersea tubes were carrying fiber optic cables around the world, enabling the spread of information at blinding speed.  And to many of the homes and offices connected to this network, Seth Godin was the most influential man in the world.  But while Seth was the man they looked up to, they generally followed the directions given by their bosses and clients.  Because bosses and clients pay the bills.  Such is often life in the digital fishbowl.

And while all of those connected homes and offices were admiring their influence and this little world they had created, the world continued to spin all around them.  Millions more watched American Idol, oblivious to both the cavemen and Seth Godin.  Still millions more suffered the fear, genocide and oppression of life in a third world country, nearly all of them oblivious to the cavemen, Seth Godin, American Idol and even Twitter!  Is all of life a fishbowl?

Was the first caveman a successful communicator?  Is Seth any less so?  Is Ryan Seacrest?

Communications success is not one size fits all.  Success is about your results based on your goals.  Life is not about your followers, your "twinfluence" or your reach.  Life is about the journey, those we encounter along the way and the meaning of those encounters.  But in today's multi-platform world, we cannot measure influence by a single platform alone.

So the next time you hear someone speak about the latest twitter influence grader, blog metric or ratings numbers, ask yourself: is this the measure of my success, or a rough representation of someone else's?  Does the temperature of the water in my fishbowl determine the traffic intensity on the local highway?  Is my influence real? 

Isn't influence relative?

Call it ePR, blogger outreach/relationship management, networking, social media activation or social marketing...  at it's heart, this is the practice of speaking with the community;  enlisting bloggers and the community at large, to speak about your efforts and on behalf of your brand.

• If you have a relationship with a blogger, you can leverage this relationship to drive your brand/client.
• If you do not yet have a relationship, you have to start building one. 
• If you need something done today, and don't have a relationship, you need to resort to the daunting cold pitch: pitching your product or service without any prior interaction.
  

Chris Abraham, a noted blogger and popular twitterer, recently sent out a private email message to many of the bloggers on the Ad Age Power 150 list, asking them to register their contact information. 

His note was personal, personable and extremely well written.  It felt like he was really speaking to me.  No, he didn't mention any of my previous posts.  And yes, there is a strong likelihood that this letter was a form letter.  Nevertheless, this letter feels somewhat warm, an incredible accomplishment for a cold pitch.

Note: After reading this letter, I'm still unsure of what will be done with my contact information.  Is this being gathered as a closed list/community for AdAge?  Is this a contact list for his firm?  Will my contact information be shared with anyone outside of this community?

It is my pleasure to announce that beginning this Thursday, I will be guest blogging over at Dan Schawbel's Personal Branding Blog.

Please join me in welcoming my fellow contributors to table.  Our publishing setup will be as follows:

• Dan (Monday): If you don't know Dan, it's time to start subscribing to his blog.  This is one smart guy.
  
• Beverly Macy (Tuesday): Teaches social media marketing at UCLA and is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Y&M Partners.
• Paul Dunay (Wednesday): The Global Director of Integrated Marketing at BearingPoint, Inc.
• Jonathan Burg (Thursday): That's me!
• Jacob Share (Friday): The founder and SVP of Share Select Media.
• Adam Salamon (Saturday): The Partnerships Director at Bazaarvoice, Inc.
• Katie Konrath (Sunday): She is a creativity specialist who helps companies come up with fresh new product and service ideas.
• Maria Elena Duron (Editor): She is the president of Buzz To Bucks.

It's going be an exciting year!  If you have any thoughts on personal branding, please feel free to leave a note below.

Facts inform.

Inspiration comes from an emotional place.  Sure, it needs some grounding in reality in order to feel authentic, but inspiration often needs little more than basic substantiation.

This is where the 24 hour news networks run into trouble.  Facts do no inspire, do not drive ongoing viewership.  Emotional perspectives are far more effective.  And so they often become instruments of perspective rather than reports of the news.

This is where Israel runs into trouble.  There looks to be little room to argue the facts or present historical context when a soundbite or image pulls at your heartstrings.

This where brands need to rethink their value proposition in the months ahead.  Pragmatists may see short-term wins as "value brand" in a down economy, but where will they be once we can afford to spend emotionally?  Once we aspire for more?  For greater? Once we resume spending emotionally?

To that point, how will Obama keep his sunny outlook and inspirational cheer for change and hope while dealing with the pragmatic reality of the presidency?

When real messages find themselves face to face with emotional nonsensical drivers like the Pepsi rebranding video below, what chance does stark reality have without an emotional driver supporting the message?

Kudos to Joanna Pena-Bickley for sharing the Pepsi message and inspiring me to pull this post out of the hopper.
 

All too often, there are a few basic mistakes marketing  communications overlooked by startups.  These little oversights just drive me batty.  Below please find my list of pet peeves/easy mistakes often made by startups.

1. Put an "About Page" on your website. Tell me about yourself. Who are you? Where are you in life/funding? Is your offering live?  Is there a link to as assets page, so I can grab pictures, screengrabs etc and share with clients or teams? Help me to help you!
2. Link the logos on your "Clients" page to either your products live in market with these clients or case studies outlining your contribution.  Tell me your story!
3. Never claim to be "the only", "the best", "best in class" or "industry leading".  These words mean nothing to anyone with any experience, and are often far from true.
4. Make your contact information clearly accessible.  Put a phone number, AIM ID and a contact name and email address on your site. DO NOT make me go to Google Maps to back-trace your listed address or domain registration address to a phone number.
5. Return requests from information from prospects quickly.  Returning a message 6 months later will get you nowhere (and this happens ALL THE TIME!). 
6. If you've got a lead, even if you aren't quite ready for their business, keep the conversation alive. Invite them into focus groups.  Get them enthused.  Keep them excited.  Never turn away a lead.  Embrace the people who will be writing your paychecks once you're past VC funding.
7. Sell your business benefits, not just your tech features (courtesy of Chris Kieff and Mike Spataro)
8. Know your place in the market. This requires having a clue what your competitors are up to.  Make sure the faces of your company, your sales staff, is equally well educated.
9. If you're getting a lot of questions, put up a FAQ page.  
10. Bring in a full time marketing communications specialist, hire an agency, or at the very least use a consultant (hat tip to AY Fuld).  Mar Comm is an art, not a technology play.  Technology enables conversations, people make them happen.  You may have the coolest tech in the world, but without the ability to tell your story in the right way, to the right people, you're only hope is to befriend Arrington or Pete Cashmore.  And THAT is not a sustainable mar comm strategy.

At Age 10: Being someone's friend meant that they were someone you enjoyed being around.

At Age 20: Friendship meant having a good time with someone.

In Life: A friendship is as strong as the degree to which each member of this relationship is invested in this friendship.  What would you do for your friend?  What would your friend do for you?

In Digital: A friendship is a human relationship with another party.

We may be connected on twitter and friends on Facebook, but does that mean that we would expect one another to fly to Vegas to bail the other out of trouble? Doubtful.

Does that mean that digital friendship is shallow? Less valuable that a real world friendship?

Consider:

Key Takeaway: Just because we're digitally connected doesn't make us friends.  But that doesn't mean that digital friendships can't go a long way.

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