Here is a great infographic from SEO.com that goes over Small Business and Marketing.

If you are a small business owner, how do you spend your time and money in online advertising?

Enjoy the infographic!

Doc

Social Timing Insights

This is a pretty cool infographic from ArgyleSocial about social timing so you can determine the best time to post on social networks to get the most impact.

The information here is interesting, and I like how Twitter and Facebook is broken down, especially how it segments B2B and B2C. I would like to know where this data came from however, but I am guessing their platform.

Should Seesmic Desktop 2 become your new Social Desktop Application?

Seesmic Desktop 2 has come a long way since it previous release. While I really do like the new interface, speed, and layout it is missing a few things that will make me not want to leave Tweetdeck, permanently, any time soon.

So let’s get to my review shall we?

What I like:

• Streamlined design: Once you boot Seesmic Desktop 2 up you will appreciate the elegance and layout.
• Columns: The columns are easy to add, as well are additional accounts. You can add Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz, and Ping.fm.
• Plugins: Also interesting are the plugins that Seesmic Desktop 2 has to offer from 3rd party developers.
• Speed Baby: What is also great is the speed. This may be due to using the Silverlight platform, rather than Adobe Air that has been used by many other developers, including Tweetdeck.
• Photos: Having photos people share via twitpic, yfrog etc being displayed direct in the timeline is very cool as well.
• Quick profile preview button: There is a little Seesmic Icon under each tweet opens up a mini profile that shows bio, follow counts etc.
• Tabs: One other thing I like are the 3 different tabs on the left side of the screen. They are All, Accounts, and Userlists. Here you can have additional columns open. This is kind of cool, and it reminds me of Hootsuite BUT you are not able to add additional tabs like you can in Hootsuite.
• Real Time Rules: Possibly the coolest feature is the real-time feed. No more waiting for columns to load based on the old twitter API, at least for the home column. I have been having some issues with lists I have open not refreshing real-time.

What’s Missing or Different:

If you are an avid/power Tweetdeck user, there will be some glaring features missing.

• Spell Check: This is a must in my opinion, especially because I occasionally mis-spell a word here and there.
• Scheduling: You can not schedule tweets for a later date. If you can, I have yet to find it. But I rarely schedule anyway, and if I do I use CoTweet.
• Reply with #Hashtag: If you are a fan of the Hashtag, prepare to copy paste, or re-type it all the time as Seesmic does not include it in the reply.
• Account Sync: Use your 3rd party app on multiple PC’s? Tweetdeck has the account sync feature. But with the speed of Seesmic, setting up columns on a different PC will not take that long.
• Preview Link: Do you want to see where you are going before you click that bit.ly link? I know I do!
• ReTweets: By default, the ReTweet is the Twitter style version only. Unlike Tweedeck, you can not option to the old style RT to be default. You can however still do the old style RT by selecting the options icon, and selecting “Quote (Old RT)”. This I am not a fan of as I prefer the old RT, and I do not like the extra clicks to make it happen.
• Reply All: In Seesmic it is called “Mention All” and I guess that is OK. The annoying “feature” is it adds your own name to the reply. Like Tweetdeck, it should strip your own name in the “Reply All” tweet. (Let’s save character space)
• Filters: If you ever want to filter out content in twitter streams, no way to do it here in Seesmic.
• Search: There is no way to start a search column, at least not that I have found. You can however click on a #Hashtag in Seesmic Desktop 2 and it will open a search column for that hashtag. So from what I see, you can not do a keyword search in Seesmic Desktop 2. Correction: Search is at top right, and will open a new column.

In the end, I guess it really comes down to how you use your application of choice. For me, there is just too much I am used to in Tweetdeck to abandon it completely. Tweetdeck now has a real-time version that I am just starting to use, and so far so good there as well. However, I think real-time is still having some hiccups on both platforms, and that could be due to Twitter, and not the apps.

Overall I am really impressed with Seesmic Desktop 2, as well with the service I have been getting from them on Twitter (@askseesmic). I have been experiencing some challenges, and they have been great at replying on twitter!

Currently I am using Seesmic Desktop 2 only on my Windows PC, and I think I will try it out on my Mac eventually. (I am just a boob about installing Silverlight on my Mac)

Real-time side note: When you follow thousands of people, this stream can just go non-stop. Be sure to make twitter lists to sort out the constant stream of information hitting your screen.

So what do you think about Seesmic Desktop 2? I’d love your comments below!

Until next time…

Doc

I was asked by Klout if I wanted to be a part of a group of people to receive the series pilot of the new Fox show Lone Star. I received a party pack with beer glasses, wine glasses, popcorn, poster, bottle opener and a corkscrew (Photo 1, Photo 2). The idea was to throw a party, watch the show, tweet, facebook and maybe write a blog post… if I wanted to. No, I was not asked to write a review in exchange for this. I explain more about that in my previous post, and here is the official disclaimer.

So on to the review.

Lone Star is one series, thanks to the great advertising by Fox, that I was excited to see this season, so I was thrilled to be able to preview the show.

Lone Star’s leading man James Wolk plays the dual identity con man Robert/Bob Allen who was brought up at an early age to con people and companies by his father John Allen played by David Keith. Through the episode we learn that the son has surpassed the father in his abilities to con people, but the son has now grown attached to two women, the first being his wife Cat played by Adrianne Palicki and his girlfriend Lindsay played by Eloise Mumford, both of whom are marks for what is supposed to be one of the father and sons biggest con jobs. But now the son wants out of the family business… or does he? All we know for sure is that he wants both women, and both lives to stay in tact.

The show was decent for a pilot episode, but after seeing all of the trailers I was expected to be blown away. I feel like they tried to put too many story lines into one episode, and I think it would have been a little better had they made this a 2 hour premiere, or let the show evolve and introduce more cast as time went on. The episode was like a 5 courses of appetizers, and never getting the main dish.

It did leave me wanting more however, so I am sure I will tune in to see where the show goes from here.

Some are calling this the Dallas meets our generation, others comparing it a little to Big Love (what?). This show wants you to like the bad guy as he is seemingly wanting to turn his life around and be normal. Maybe they should compare this more to Dexter (swap serial killer for con man).

I am not going to give away any details of the show here on this post as I do not want to give away any spoilers… so you will have to watch the show and decide for yourself.

Lone Star also stars

• Mark Deklin as Trammell Thatcher (Cat’s Brother)
• Bryce Johnson as Drew Thatcher (Cat’s Brother)
• Jon Voight as Clint Thatcher (Cat’s Father, Oil Tycoon)

Jon Voight is cool in this role, but his texan accent seems a bit fake and he is the only one on the show with one so far. But since he is the oldest, the father, and the one who dug his own oil well many years ago, he must have a texas accent right? Accent aside, I do like the credibility he brings to the show of otherwise lesser known actors.

It will be interesting to see where this show goes… and if will earn a permanent spot on my already too full DVR!

Lone Start Final verdict is a solid B / 2.5 out of 4 stars… BUT I want this show to hook me and bump the grade to an A or 4 Star

I am interested to know what you think of the show, so quit reading and get to leaving a comment below will ya?

Until next time,

Doc

PS: You can keep up with Lone Star on Twitter and Facebook

• http://www.facebook.com/LoneStaronFOX
• http://twitter.com/lonestaronfox

Last week the website Klout.com sent me an email to ask me if I wanted to participate in an exclusive early screening of the new Fox television show Lone Star.

I signed up for the program, and I am supposed to receive my party pack any day.

According to the email I received from Klout:

FOX wants you to be one of the first people to watch the premiere episode. You’ll get a DVD of the pilot and a party pack which includes beer and wine glasses, popcorn, and lots of awesome goodies to help you host your own Lone Star preview party.

First of all, I am not obligated to have the party, or watch the show either, nor am I obligated to post anything about the episode online. But here I go talking about it already… and the fact is, I am stoked to see this show! I think Lone Star looks like one of the best new shows of the year.

What is cool however is the fact that Fox is partnering with Klout to help promote the show via Social Media.

Could this be the end of traditional stuffy critic reviews of new shows? Could movies be next? If so, sign me up for that!

Personally I think this is a brilliant idea, and I can not wait to get my package in the mail, watch the show, and do a write up. I hope the package arrives soon however as Lone Star premiers on Fox September 20th!

Kudos to Fox television and to Klout.com!

Watch for the follow up post after I watch Lone Star, eat my popcorn, and enjoy a ice cold beer in my new beer glass!

Did anyone else reading this get this offer from Klout? Know of anyone else who did?

Below is a preview of the show.

Until next time,

Doc

PS: Oddly enough my Klout score has changed somewhat as I have gone from an influencer to a socializer… and I can not decide if that is a good or a bad thing. Hehehe

(Disclaimer http://cmp.ly/2/va)

Recently I have been reading blog posts and articles about companies calling Social Media a major “Time Suck”… I think they are wrong!

I really think the term “time suck” needs to be retired when it comes to Social Media. Time suck has a major negative tone, and to apply it to such awesome platforms where you actually have the opportunity to engage with your clients, or future clients should be considered a TIME MUST!

Let me ask you this: Is Social Media any more of a time suck than a “traditional” job within a typical business organization? If you are a business owner reading this, do you consider your best sales person a time suck position? How about your receptionist (the in house first face/voice of your organization)?  Sure, it may not be YOU doing some or all of those efforts and positions, but you value their time and efforts right? Also, you invested time in training these individuals to be their best… was that a “Time Suck” as well?

Doesn’t monitoring your brand or business make sense? How about engaging your customers beyond your physical location as well? No not just in traditional advertising methods… besides, who wants to be interrupted by advertising!

Maybe you have tried your hand at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn on your own and you did not see any immediate results and you decided to quit! Maybe you outsourced your Social Media efforts to what I refer to as a Social Media Huckster and you wasted your time and money and did not see the results you were promised. If that is the case, brush yourself off, put in the time and continue working on it!

YES, Social Media takes time, but so does building relationships at your local chamber meetings, or client calls. Social Media can be one of the best networking/word of mouth tools in your marketing tool belt! So why are you ignoring it or treating it like the marketing version of an “ugly step-child”?

Twitter and Facebook: A new front door to your business?

Your Physical Front Door: Let’s say you have a retail store… and someone walks in that door. What do you do… you greet them right? You ask them how you can help them, offer them (hopfully) great service and close the sale. BUT what if the customer walked in and you ignored them? Possibly this customer may tell friends they know about the bad service… yup, negative word of mouth is not what any business wants! (We all know that!)

On the other hand, you may get praised for great service in the same manner… but we all know bad word of mouth spreads more than positive… sad but true, so do not count on it!

So get out there and make the positive happen… Care, Listen, and Engage!

Your Online Front Door: You may refer to this as your website, but you are assuming people are coming to your site. So why not listen online and be proactive? Just do not be “that guy”! (We will cover “that guy” in another post)

Let’s say someone on Twitter or Facebook mentions your business or product. Maybe they are looking for (in general) where to find a product or service, or maybe they mention you by name. Maybe the person is happy with your product or service, or possibly they are upset with the lack of service received, and in either case they tweet about it or post something on their blog, Facebook, Yelp, UrbanSpoon etc. THE PROBLEM: This is your virtual front door and everyone can see it, NOT JUST YOU! Everyone can see the interaction (or possibly lack there-of). EVERYONE has access to customer comments, good or bad… and you need to be on top of it!

If you do not get your Social Media house in order and take advantage of the opportunity you have to engage you can and may:

• Leave business on the table and lose sales
• Lose the opportunity to become the leader in your business in social media
• Lose the opportunity to turn a negative into a positive
• Lose a customer to a competitor that cares and is proactive in the Social Media space

So, why is hiring someone (outsource or in-house) to handle your social media properly not a priority? You may have a professional CPA do your accounting, an attorney to review your contracts, maybe you outsource your H/R and payroll as well? But you have yet to take Social Media seriously! Why is that? Do you not care? Are you scared to see and have to react to a negative comment? Are you not IN LOVE with your customers and want to thank them for their business? Do you not like building relationships and in turn possibly getting return business and or referrals from existing clients?

When thinking about your Social Media strategy, do you:

• Care about your company, products, services, and most important your customers?
• Listen and Monitor  Twitter for real time comments regarding your business or product? How about Facebook, other websites and blogs talking about your company?
• Engage your fans, or react properly to good and bad comments? Do you create an online community around your business?
• Do you do this all over and over again with a passion?

Obviously these are just some ideas to get you thinking, and there is so much more to cover. We will leave that to future posts!

Now the million dollar question: Do you outsource your social media efforts, or do you do it in house? Well, I say you do whatever works best for you… as long as you plan your strategy, execute, and stay on top of your efforts… but most important, DO NOT QUIT!

And, if you are looking to outsource… I am available. (shameless plug).

Anything to add? Leave a comment below.

Until next time,

Doc

On July 31st the first Cupcake Conference (#CupcakeConf) was held in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Grand America Hotel.

As the event was being planned, the organizers asked Scott Duehlmeier (@paco_belle on twitter) and myself Darin aka “Doc” (@iGoByDoc on Twitter) to present the first ever Keynote address.

We were happy to oblige, but did not really know what to present… so we decided to present “Scott and Doc go to Cupcake Conference… The #Cakeover”

Take a look at the day long expedition both Scott and myself went on as we journey’d out to find the best cupcake in Salt Lake City!

We hope you enjoy our presentation as we had a blast on our journey and at the Cupcake Conference as well!

Also, once we arrived at the conference both Scott and myself, along with the head chef at Grand America, judged the cupcake decorating contest.

Be sure to go and learn more about the Cupcake Conference on their website http://www.cupcakeconference.com/ and on Twitter @CupcakeConf and you can check the Twitter Search stream for #CupcakeConf as well.

Love to have your comments below!

Until next time…

Doc

Was reading a great blog called Blog for Profit, and in a recent post this video was shown.

I liked it so much I decided I would share with you as well.

What are your thoughts on the video?

I welcome your comments below.

Until next time…

Doc

Huckster by definition:

n. One who uses aggressive, showy, and sometimes devious methods to promote or sell a product.

v. To promote or attempt to sell (a commercial product, for example) in an overaggressive or showy manner.

Now that we have that definition out of the way, let’s get to the meat of this post!

A few days ago, I was on a webinar talking about “social media tactics” on how to use platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. The webinar was put on by someone I have come to respect and admire, but I was so flustered by the end of the webinar, I just needed to write something about it.

I was enjoying the content, and even picked up a golden nugget or two, but about 45 minutes in the information it went from good social media practices, to “we’ll teach you how to game the system, get hundreds, if not thousands of followers every day, and well show you how to do it while you sleep!” In other words… automation!

Ugg, anything automated in social media (except for maybe a couple of exceptions) is complete and utter BS! Add on top of that, people were asked to spend (at the end of this particular webinar) a lot of money paying these “trainers/gurus” on how to learn to game the system, automate their social existence, and in my opinion fail in this world we call social media!

At the end of this presentation, I got the typical Huckster promo… “but wait, there’s more. If you buy now, we’ll not only train you to be a guru, but we will also throw in our 3 ebooks, and give you 1 hour of personal coaching… all for the low low price of $x.xx” you get my drift right?

I do not have a problem with these type of webinars, nor do I have a problem with training people on how to use social media, but if you are going to offer a course of any kind don’t do it with hype, smoke and mirrors. Don’t just sell your prospects on how they can have 50,000 followers in 3 months, and it will all be done while they sleep, teach your students how to do social media the right way!

Social media is indeed that… social. You can’t win by gaming your number of followers. People already on twitter can smell these techniques like a fart in the car, and they either #1 do not follow you back #2 are on an auto follow system and do not pay attention to you anyway, or #3 report you as spam.

It is funny to see how so many social media “guru’s” are applying the old traditional media tactics on twitter etc. They figure the more eye balls, or impressions you get, the more sales will eventually follow. And maybe that is true to an extent, but is that the route you want to take? Do you want to be “that guy” or “that company”? Social media is not a newspaper, TV or radio commercial, or even a billboard for that matter. Just because people may follow back your mega automated account does not mean they are listening or paying attention to you, your brand or your message.

Years ago, in our family business where I handled all our advertising, I would have reps come in from every media telling me how many subscribers they have, how many drive by impressions a billboard will get, how many listeners the radio station has, how many readers their particular publication has, what their demographics of all of the above is… well woop dee freaking doo man! In social media if people are not looking, listening or paying attention your message goes unheard… PERIOD!

So, to the hucksters selling this BS bill of goods, you are just taking money from the uneducated, teaching them bad black hat tactics, and just ruining the reputation for what is, arguably one of the best ways to market yourself and your business… social media! So STOP IT already!

To the audience or consumers of these hucksters… don’t buy into the hype, the automation or how easy it is. Building your brand in social media is hard work, and takes time. You get back from it what you put into it. Put in the time, and you will get the great results you desire.

So, you want to do social media the right way? Here you go! And I won’t charge you $999! (assuming you have a killer product, service or content.)

1. Care
2. Listen
3. Care
4. Engage
5. Repeat

Find the tools and networks that will work best for you while applying the 5 steps above! And if I can be of assistance in helping your decide where to get started, you know where to find me!

Now… go get to work!

Feel free to leave a comment below… would love your feedback!

Until next time…

Doc

Photo from @ladygaga twitpic account

I thought of this question last night just before the awards started live in California. I was hanging out on Twitter and I saw all the chatter start to happen about the Grammy Awards.

So I started to kind of tune out the chatter about the show knowing I would end up hearing the results via Twitter from many of the people I follow before the awards actually started here in Utah (where the awards started an hour later).

So, I have the @cnnbrk account on Twitter set to send me an SMS for “Breaking News”… because, well, that is what that account should be used for… right?  Well, just after the live show starts, I get a @cnnbrk SMS message saying “Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” wins the Grammy for song of the year”.  And of course CNN kept on broadcasting results all night… because as you know, the results are “Breaking News”.

Well, not that I really care in the end who wins what what award and for what song as I have no stake in the game, nor can I really blame @cnnbrk for announcing the winners, but it kind of made me think of how social media can ruin results for live events for people who watch them on a delayed feed. And to take it a step further, how does social media affect the advertisers who spend a lot of money for commercials during the show especially if people accidentally hear the results and decide not to tune in as a because they heard the winner already.

Recently, the Golden Globes (at least I think it was that show) decided to broadcast live in all time zones… and I thought that to be a smart idea. People had the option, if they so chose, to see it live OR record the program on their DVR and take the chance they may hear something before they got around to watching it. In the end, it was the viewers choice right?

Can you imagine if the NBA, PGA, or hell even the Super Bowl decided to air games based on the same principles the Grammys do… or many other shows for that matter? What if you heard the score to the end of your favorite teams game one or 2 hours before your delayed version ended even ended?

We live in a time, with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where you have access to up to the second updates. With people at the event or watching the live feed you can not, unless you live in a cave, escape the information.

In the end, social media did not “ruin” the Grammy Awards for me last night as I mainly tuned in for the performances anyway (Props to Gaga and the Michael Jackson tribute). Also, I did record it on my DVR and ended up fast forwarding through as many commercials as I could, so maybe my concern for the advertisers is mute… or at least as as it relates to me.

What is your opinion? Should television networks change their thinking when it comes to broadcasting live events like the Grammy Awards? Or am I just off my rocker?

Would love to have your comments below!

Until next time…

Doc

(PS: @cnnbrk you annoy me. please only use that account for “Breaking News”. If you must, use an entertainment account on twitter for these types of updates. You are losing trust as far as I am concerned with that account… break it up a bit. @CNNSports @CNNEnt or in this case @CNNSpoilers. I have invited you into my mobile phone for SMS updates… do not abuse it! Besides, every time I get an SMS from you, all I can think about is Wolf Blitzer saying “Please Stand By”… too bad I can not associate a ring tone of him saying that to the tweet SMS messages I get from you. Hehehe)

(PS2: Networks… get with the times as they are a changing! How about The Grammys LIVE actually LIVE everywhere next year?)

Okay, now I am really done… Doc