Using Influence Responsibly
By Cheval John
I do not have an “official” blog post for this week.
However, I will mention it is important to know everyone are influencers in their respective space.
Just because you are not recognized by a major publication does not mean you do not have influence.
People always do great work in making their friend’s life better by sending an encouraging note or message with social media.
Especially with 19 million plus blogs in the world, you have a voice.
The only thing I would tell you is use your voice responsibly because you have an impact on everyone.
And to sum up this post, I want to recognize Dr. Karen Freberg and Dr. Ai Zhang on their research on teaching social media education in universities, which was recognized as a top paper at a major conference in Chicago.
Both of them are walking the talk about being social on social media and are influencing their university students to use social correctly.
Building Online Presence One Step At A Time
By Cheval John
The old days of having a career at one company is over.
This holds true for journalists too.
The sequence for every journalist back in the day were:
Spend a couple of years in a smaller media market in order to gain work experience before moving on to a top ten media market like New York City, Houston and Chicago.
Move on from the major media market and work for national media like ESPN, NBC, CBS or ABC.
In this environment where technology is changing the way how we consume content, major media and news stations are cutting back on staff to save money.
Sometimes though, people who work in journalism, decides to leave the profession because the work is demanding.
They might end up leaving for positions in media relations for a large company, a professional sports franchise or even the athletic department at a university.
They believe the transition to a media relations role is easy.
They get a rude awakening of how challenging being in media relations is.
Erica Holloway depicted the transition from journalism to public relations with her article here.
Though journalists stayed at one place their entire careers in the past, some still made a change in careers because they were led to.
Sabrina Cadini spent a couple of years as a television announcer in her native Italy before moving to the United States
She transitioned to event planning and is now the owner of La Dolce Idea Wedding and Soiree, a wedding planning company.
She explained to me how she made the transition to wedding planning
One thing to note.
Sabrina knew how important live streaming is for her business and is using Periscope on a weekly basis to share tips with her audience about social media.
Smart people like Sabrina understand the dynamic of live streaming, podcasting and blogging because it saves them a whole lot of money on their marketing budget.
People who are looking to make transitions in their careers should be building their online presence one step at a time because they never know when their department will shut down.
Are you building your online presence now through social media? Leave your comment below
August 1st Newsletter
This is an opportunity to make history and finish out the year strong.
Here are articles in this month’s newsletter
It’s Time To Jump Off The Influencer Marketing Bandwagon-Jenn Herman of Jenn’s Trends
Why A Great Business Should Focus On Serving, Not Selling-Kate Ellis of Now Marketing Group
The Impact of Social Media-Arielle Tannenbaum of Buffer
20 WAYS TO STAY ENCOURAGED!-Dr.Joyce Knudsen of The Image Maker
WHAT DOES RICH REALLY LOOK LIKE?-Tiffani Trenck
10 Steps to Living a Full Life-Diane Gottsman of The Protocol School of Texas
It’s Not About The Coffee-Angela Copeland of Copeland Coaching (podcast)
Empowerment and the Importance of Giving Back-David Meltzer in Entrepreneur
The Traits of Top Performers That Allow Them to Do More and Be Less Stressed-Nina Zipkin of Entrepreneur
Journalist Are Human Too
By Cheval John
Here in Houston, a top ten media market, a journalist have to know how to do live shots, write their own scripts and put together an article for the respective news station’s website at the same time.
They will have to start their journalism careers in a smaller television market to earn work experience before they can apply for larger television stations in the major media markets.
To add on to the workload, they now have to be on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to keep track of breaking stories happening in their respective cities and the world.
Since a lot of journalists are being laid off across the nation at their respective media outlets, it puts a heavy workload on the rest of the staff who managed to keep their jobs.
So these same journalist are looking for news stories everyday.
What does this have to do with an entrepreneur of a small business or a larger company?
Plenty.
If you are looking for media coverage for your business, you will have to provide a story which will generate enough interest for the journalist to cover.
That means having a blog which chat about certain business or social media trends happening in the industry and having stats to back up your story.
If you can provide value to your audience on a weekly basis with your blog, podcast, live video, etc., I honestly believe you will get the media attention you are searching for.
Now I mentioned “if” because most businesses still believe they can use social media to sell their products or services to a potential customers.
They are still sending media outlets press releases of how their business is so revolutionary that it deserves the coverage.
They believe if they can hire a public relations firm to help them get national attention, it will change their business forever.
The ship of press releases has sailed because of social media.
Remember what I said about journalist being on social media looking for news stories?
Social media is where businesses need to be because it is the new “media outlet.”
If you want to earn media coverage from organizations for your business, here are three steps to follow:
1. BE A GIVER
Do not go out and spam journalists with your products or services the minute they connect with you. Look for ways to provide value to them.
2. SHARE THEIR ARTICLES WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
When you share a journalist’s story with your audience, they will know they are doing something right in their reporting.
3. CHAT WITH THEM
You can actually have a conversation with a journalist on a daily basis via social media especially Twitter.
Most are consistently interacting with their fans to let them know they are paying attention
One journalist here in Houston is constantly sharing live video about stories she is working on for the local affiliate station of a major media company.
She also shares her love for the Houston Astros which I respect though I told her at one point I am a Chicago Cubs fan.
Hopefully, this article will inspire you to take action, build credibility on social media and in the long run become a reliable source for journalist around the world.
If you have any other advice to building trust with journalist, you can leave your comments below
Growing Your Community Through E-Mail
By Cheval John
Today’s blog post is the beginning of a series on how you can grow a community for your business.
Having a community is highly important because you bring together like-minded people who will support each other.
Social media has amplified the opportunity for anyone to build a community.
At the end of the day, social media platforms is just rented land.
You could lose the audience you built over time due to the algorithm changes or the disappearance of the social platforms.
One of the ways to maintain the community you have built over time is with the old fashion e-mail list.
Your e-mail list is your very own real estate.
It allows you to build an audience over time.
Even if you end up losing followers due to the disappearance of the platforms, your e-mail list will help you maintain your audience due to consistency in providing value to them.
Here’s what not to do when building your e-mail list from social media.
1. DO NOT SEND AN AUTOMATED DIRECT MESSAGE
Just because someone followed you on social media does not give you the right to send automated direct messages to like their facebook page or subscribe to your website.
This gives off the impression you are only looking to sell to them and people hate being sold to.
2. COPY THEIR E-MAIL ADDRESS FROM GROUPS PAGES
This is very unprofessional because they did not give you permission to add them to your blog.
3. HAVE POP-UPS ON YOUR WEBSITE
This is annoying because a person will be reading your blog post and all of a sudden, they get out of rhythm due to the pop-up e-mails.
You might believe it is a quick way to capture the visitors to your site before they leave.
However, this tactic will damage your business because people know they will be spammed with pop-ups every time they visit your site.
You must focus on providing value to your audience which is solving their pain points consistently.
When you do this, your visitors will decide on their own you are worth listening too and eventually sign up for your e-mail list.
Do you have anything to add? You can leave your comments below
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