Take Permission

The Right Tools & Mindset For Success

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Why Businesses Stink at Social Media – Permission

They don’t ask for permission.

Last week Old Spice showed the world how to use social media. They took one character who had been featured in less than five television commercials and produced over 100 commercials/videos in one day. It worked because they used tools and sites that require permission and options.  Here are their YouTube results as of 7/19/2010

Old Spice used Twitter (which requires you get someone’s permission before you can talk to them) to start their campaign. The videos they created were in response to Twitter messages and were posted on YouTube. That means that people had the choice to watch non-Old Spice videos when they arrived at their destination.  Old Spice resisted the temptation to change the surfing habits of users.  People like sites they’re familiar with. Businesses spend thousands of dollars to build a web site that very few of their customers go to. Old Spice understands that I’m already going to YouTube today so they showed up there.

Social media begins with permission. I see television, print and radio advertising happening like this..
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Your business could miss the whole conversation

According to a New York Times article it seems that Neilsen figured out that we spend 22% of our internet time on social networking activities.  I think that number is going to grow substantially.

In just one year the amount of social time has almost doubled from 3.5 hours to almost six hours a month.  

The momentum of social sites is unparalleled.  How can businesses take advantage of this growth?
How can your business position itself to be part of the future of the web (which has everything to do with “social” sites)?  Here are four fundamentals to move your business forward so they can be a part of the future of the web.

1. Stake your name or someone else will

BP learned this when they didn’t take the name of BPGlobalPR on Twitter.  This is what you find now when you search for “BP Twitter” in Google. The top four links are about the fake BP Twitter account.

Stake your claim to domains too. Get the .com, .net, .org and any other identity that could help or hurt your brand.  Get the YouTube channel name, the Facebook fan page name…you get the idea.  To see if they’re available use this tool [Read more…]

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You're not that different (Story #2) – Hotels

image by: Caleb Pinkerton -2007 - http://twitter.com/cabedababe
William Shatner sortof bugs me so I’ve never used Priceline to book a hotel before.  My usual pattern for finding a room is to search on Orbitz.com or Kayak.com.  Last year I stayed at a La Quinta Inn in Nashville and gave them my email address so I could get some coupons in my inbox every once in awhile.  Sure enough I started getting some deals this summer.  When I called the La Quinta in Davenport, Iowa to ask them about getting a room for a future trip I spoke with a less than enthusiastic clerk who seemed not so interested in earning my business.

Here are some facts. There are two La Quinta Inns within 10 minutes of where we planned to stop.  One is near the airport in Moline and the other is more centrally located in Davenport.  The price difference was about $25 (airport was cheaper).  I asked the clerk at the Davenport location if he could match the airport price and he gave me an answer every customer hates to hear, “We’re a corporate store and they’re not so they can move their prices around in a way we can’t.  I can’t match that price.”  Translation for customer…”I’m not invested in the success of this business.  I’m not on commission. I don’t care that you could become a lifetime customer.  I’m not going to try to earn your business.”

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How to add a "retweet" button to your WordPress site

Twitter’s exploding because it makes it easy to share you articles, thoughts and insights.  Here’s how you can add the “Retweet” button on your WordPress.org based web site through a plug-in from TweetMeMe. Here’s a video tutorial for ya! You can follow me @andytraub

Did it work?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  Add a link to your site too…it’ll help you traffic;)

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How to add Facebook "Like" button to WordPress

You’ll notice a new Facebook “Like” button directly below this post. In case you haven’t heard, Facebook is taking over the world so just embrace it. I choose to embrace it by adding the “Like” button to my WordPress site. I’m lazy so I did it via a plug in. I tried to do a few different plug ins but many of them were confusing (which is ironic because a Facbook plug-in by definition is supposed to be simple, that’s why it’s a plug-in).

Below is a short video on how to add a Facebook “Like” button to your posts and pages. Did it work for you? Leave the link to your page and I’ll go “Like” something, I promise.

* – This plugin will NOT work on WordPress.com based sites. If you’d like to move your .com site to a self-hosted WordPress.org site then contact me and I’ll tell you how.