This is the third and final (for now) personal case study on how the social web delivers unexpected business benefits. This story features LinkedIn, a powerhouse generator of business connections.  

Making connections

I’ve made some of my best business contacts through LinkedIn Group Q&A forums. One example is my relationship with Dr. Ben Hanna, now VP of Dex Interactive. In a casual response to one of my answers in a forum, he mentioned that he was documenting his company’s progress on social media marketing month by month. I thought this was fascinating and asked if I could feature him on {grow}.  This led to a number of articles which remain some of the most popular posts I’ve done.  Ben and I have continued to support each other on various web-related projects.

Human Resources 2.0

Second example of a business benefit: One of my customers was looking to hire a new technician with highly specialized skills. I suggested doing an advanced search on LinkedIn using the zip code (to narrow the location) and keywords indicating the skill set. He followed my advice, identified three viable candidates and he just hired one of them.  I helped my customer with an important personnel issue in one 60-second phone call!

New customers

Another example led to a direct business opportunity.  An account executive from GIS Planning read some of my answers on a LinkedIn Group Forum and became curious enough to click my icon, which took her to my website … which took her to my Twitter account … and my blog.  Of course I had not connected to her directly at this point but that was about to change.

After a couple of months, she called me up out of the blue: “Mr. Schaefer, I’ve been reading your comments on LinkedIn, Twitter and your blog and I’m convinced you are the voice of marketing we need for or company. Can you take on a new account?”

Well, THAT was a nice surprise!

This led to subsequent phone calls with her executive leadership and it resulted in a business partnership with GIS Planning, an amazing company that produces software for economic development institutions.  It pulled me into a whole new industry and allowed me to learn from some wonderful marketing pros.  And, it has helped my bottom line, which is what this is all about, right?

So let’s see how this real-world experience relates to my formula for creating business benefits on the social web: 

Connections + Meaningful content + Authentic helpfulness = Business benefits

• By being active on LinkedIn forums, I was building important new business connections. In the GIS case, I didn’t even realize it.
• The content Ben Hanna provided spurred dialogue and cooperation between us.  Meaningful content in the form of LinkedIn Group answers provided enough value for GIS to take action to learn more about me. Meaningful content comes in many forms!
• When I was participating in the forums, I was genuinely offering help with no intent that I would get anything out of it. Similarly, I enjoy supporting Ben’s projects becuase I always learn something and I truly believe in his vision.

I believe this formula represents the core value of the social web — providing an opportunity to use your life’s blessings to connect to others in a meaningful way. We are living in a historic moment. We are the first generation to have access to free, instantaneous, global communication.  If you use this gift well, the benefits can be astounding.

Don’t you agree?

This is the third installment of the unexpected benefits of the social web. You might enjoy these other articles:

Part 1: How to become a CMO in 10 tweets or less

Part 2: On Twitter, even casual connections can lead to business benefits

This is a blog post for anybody who has trouble finding the time to blog. In other words, everybody.  I humbly submit a few practical ideas to help you become a time-efficient blogger.  

1)  Leap.I mentioned this in a recent post, but it bears repeating. The number one challenge most bloggers face isn’t time, it’s CONFIDENCE. Can we agree that you will take the leap? You will?  Good, I knew it!  You may proceed to item 2.

2)  Don’t be Chris.  Kids practicing basketball pretend they’re Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. They won’t be, but they can still have fun playing basketball.  When I first started blogging, I tried to be Chris Brogan, who writes at least one post every day. I nearly killed myself. The bionic blogger and has set the bar unbelievably high.  You can’t be Chris, but you can be YOU quite successfully.  That’s good enough.

3) Take a little bite. Take the pressure off yourself by setting a goal of writing just one 400-word essay a week.  Doesn’t that sound MUCH easier?  Bonus points: Long posts lose readers any way.

4) Set sacred blog time. How long will it take you to write that one short essay? Probably an hour?  Give yourself the gift of one quiet, undisturbed, productive hour each week to write.

5) Write lots of headlines.  It takes time to come up with ideas so write them down right when they come to you. Inspirations for blog topics are everywhere. When I see an interesting tweet or news article that could be a post subject, I go into WordPress and quickly write the headline for the essay. That way, when it comes time for my quiet hour, I have a whole list of  essay topics to choose from.   

6) Stop second-guessing.  Go back to your essay a day or so before you intend to publish it.  Proof it. Tighten it up.  And after 15 minutes, stop!  You can waste far too much time re-writing and second-guessing yourself.

7) You don’t have to be profound.  Here’s a recent post from my friend Danny Brown.  He saw something interesting — a video demo of the electronic magazine of the future. He simply pasted the YouTube link into his blog, wrote a brief comment, and voila — c’est le post.   This was a fun, interesting article.   He did good work. How long did it take him to write it?  Probably 10 minutes. 

8) Listen to yourself.  A lot of people tell me that my blog posts reflect questions and concerns they have but have never articulated. Why not?  When you have a thought, idea or rant — write it out at that very moment when it is fresh and you are full of passion. This is the most efficient way to write and it almost always results in a great post.

9) Leave the technical stuff to a technical person. Don’t spend your precious time trying to figure out why your blog widgets are haywire.  Pay an expert to figure it out, even if you like that technical stuff … especially if you like that stuff!

10) Try a video blog. I haven’t worked this area myself yet, but if you’re naturally eloquent, it might be a lot quicker for you than writing out a post. Best practice: Jason Falls.

11) Turn your comment into a post.  You probably contribute comments to other blogs. Why not re-use the time it took to write that comment? Copy your comment and use it as the seed for an original post.  Look at the comment section today. How many of these ideas could become a stand-alone article? 

12) If you run out of ideas, see number 6. Repeat as needed. Seriously though, Google “ideas for blogs.” There are lots of lists of thought-joggers out there.  If you are having trouble blogging, write about it.  Seems like that would be the best cure.

I hope that gives you a practical framework to have some blogging success, even when time is tight. What other time-saving tricks can you recommend?

Other posts that might help:

Ten ideas for the beginning blogger

Can you out-source authenticity? (Great comment section!)

Successful business blogging in just one step

Blogging is the ultimate team sport

How to be a ghost blogger

One of my pet peeves is this whole “snarky” thing. 

I often see people excuse away their unprofessional on-line behavior by saying “Well, I was just being snarky.”

Since when is it acceptable to be rude, sarcastic and dismissive to other well-meaning, professional people?   We probably wouldn’t act that way in a face-to-face interaction but somehow in the bizarro world of the social web, it’s OK as long as you call it snarky.  Inexplicably, it’s usually the more experienced bloggers who hide behind this position, and seem to be proud of it.  They wallow in their snark. 

Gratefully, {grow} has usually been a snark-free zone.  The folks in this community take accountability for their thoughts and words and don’t hide behind euphemisms.  Thank you. 

As for those who mask cynicism and cruelty behind snark, grow up.  Be accountable.  Be a leader.  Set an example.

Whew. That felt good. : )

Addendum: The day after I wrote this post, I saw this quote from American entertainer Conan O’Brien, commenting on his emotional exit from the Tonight Show: ”I hate cynicism.  It’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

If you look around the web, there is so much advice about blogging it’s not funny. Still, I’ve learned a few lessons that might help if you’re a beginner blogger and I thought I would give you the inside scoop.   

1) The biggest obstacle to blogging is … not what you think. It’s not writing skill or time or ideas. It’s confidence. People are generally shy about sharing their voice.  If you can tell your kids a story, give nurturing advice to a friend or tell a joke, you can blog.  Just Do It.

2) It takes time to find your voice.  Be patient. The more you write, the more comfortable you will feel. Feedback from the blogosphere will trickle in and help massage your style, tone and topics.  Stay with it and you will improve.  Have faith.

3) “I don’t have time” is not an acceptable excuse any more.   The only people who complain that blogging takes too much time never made it a priority.  Chances are you and your business will benefit from blogging or you wouldn’t be reading this post, right?  If you need to blog for your business, it has to be part of your job now, so approach it that way.  Shoot for one decent post a week. That’s doable, right?

4) In the long run, blogging can SAVE you time!  My posts have become a personal reference library.  I’ll bet not one day passes by when I don’t send somebody a link to an old post as a response to a question or to help them in some way.  This has been an unexpected benefit of blogging.

5) Be brief.  Respect your readers. Respect their time. Spend the extra time it takes to write with brevity.  Cut words ruthlessly. Best practice: Seth Godin.

6) Don’t write an academic thesis.  It’s much more interesting to read blogs that are written in a conversational tone.  Talk with your friends.

7) Write about what interests you.  Your audience will find you.

8) Read more than you write. Much more.  If you’re not an active reader of blogs, get on the stick. To be a successful writer, you have to be a great listener and learner.

9) If you want people to support your blog, support them, too.   I just think it is an act of respect to support blogs written by your readers by commenting, tweeting and highlighting their great work.   If you’re part of my community and you have a blog I will do whatever I can to help you. We’re all in this together. 

10) If you run out of ideas, go to a LinkedIn forum for your industry.  Find an interesting question.  Answer it.  That’s your blog post. Works every time. If you’re really stuck, go to Guy Kawaski’s blog.  Put it on your record turntable. Play it backwards.  That’s where the secret messages are hidden.

Let’s hear your comments, now.  What advice would you pass on?  Who is setting the standard out there for best blogging practices, and why?

Pop quiz: Over the next three years, what is the number one skill that will be needed by marketing professionals?

Answer:  An ability to entertain.

I realize that is not normally something you would put on a resume.  Let me explain.

I often wonder, “Who really has the time to read all these blogs?”  Don’t you feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information coming at you every day?  Of course. Who doesn’t? 

Well, guess what … you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!   2010 will The Year of Content as the fight for your attention gets much, much more competitive.  

Who do you think will win that fight?  The organizations with the most riveting content. 

What will make that content riveting? It will entertain, it will amaze, it will amuse.

And who is going to make the big money on the social web?  Those who can make that entertainment happen.

Yes folks, the ability to entertain will be a white-hot commodity.

Of course creativity and an entertainment factor has always been in demand in advertising circles but I think we are looking at a future where you are going to have to employ Madison-Avenue-quality entertainment value just to get eyeballs to your company blog.  Let alone understanding of the message.  Let alone engagement.  Let alone something that turns into a sales lead.  Consumer expectations to be entertained, as well as informed, are rising exponentially. How will you deliver?

I’m not saying there isn’t going to be room for serious commentary and discussion.  Of course there will. But let’s put it this way, if you have a choice to read a blog that’s interesting or a blog that is interesting AND consistently entertaining, where will you spend those precious moments of your time? Case closed.

What are you going to do to cut through this rising tsnamai of content with YOUR message?  Do you really think a company blog or Facebook page is going to cut it?

As for me, I’m dusting off my dancing shoes.  It’s Hammer Time.  Can’t touch this.

Community alert: Jon Buscall, a frequent contributor to {grow} has written an excellent post on this same topic.  Jon writes well but he cannot dance worth a shit.

I don’t look back too often but I thought this would be a good time to reflect on a few 2009{grow} posts that seemed to make a difference.

1)   The Social Media Country Club

Esteemed blogger Danny Brown called this article “The best blog post of the year.  Period.”   This post touched on a taboo subject of the closed society of A-List bloggers and the “economy of favors” that gets in the way of dissension and innovation.  The comment section is well … “lively!”   I think this post made a difference because it started a conversation that has continued long after this post first appeared in August, 2009.

2)   Can you out-source authenticity?

This post was a breakthrough in some ways. I think this was kind of a watershed in the community’s evolution. We had grown from being a blog to a group of friends creating some powerful content together.  This article inspired related posts by Jason Falls, Danny Brown and Bill Sledzik. The work of the community in this post set the framework for an article on best practices for ghost-blogging.

3)   Five social media myths that MUST STOP NOW!

“Myths” was my most tweeted and talked-about blog post of the year.   Calling out the sacred cows hit a nerve.

4)   Social Media Measurement: It’s like being a Great Bartender

In 2009 I wrote extensively about social media and measurement but this guest post from Jamie Lee Wallace summed it up so beautifully and capped an ambitious series.  She described the process like bartending — yes, you have to measure how the job rings the cash register, but there are a lot of intangibles, too.  A blogger or two have made careers writing about ROI, but this post, and the companion piece, Your Social Media ROI Shock Treatment, are really all you need to know on the subject. It’s not rocket science.

5)   The Monetization of Chris Brogan

This post was significant for a couple of reasons.  First, it used uber-bloggerBrogan as an example growing pains in the social media field.  But it also demonstrated that the Country Club was still alive and well. The comment section got a bit out of control.  Here’s a best practice folks: Read posts before commenting on them. : )  This is another post that spurred conversation far beyond the boundaries of {grow).

6)   Social media expert: Women need not apply?

There are just some weird things going on between the social web and gender. I still don’t quite understand it, but the community dove into a touchy subject bravely, as always.  This subject was continued on the post, Is blogging a man’s job?  … and unfortunately will probably be debated for the foreseeable future.

7)   Twitter for Business: Four break-through insights

This post kicked-off {grow}’s very productive relationship with Dr. Ben Hanna.  The VP of Business.com and his research has been featured in seven different articles this year and I’m grateful he has been so generous with the community.

8)   Managing Generation Zombie

Not a very popular post but I think one of the most important ones.  It addresses one of the most over-looked aspects of the inexorable connection between technology and people.  The impact of the social web and the workforce of the future is vitally important.  The thinking behind this post led to This is the future of social media, one of the most popular posts of 2009 and was cited in many end-of the-year round-ups.

9)   A Formula for Social Media Success

This set out to codify some observations about what it takes to really create business benefits on the social web. It seemed to resonate with people and had an illustration I thought was quite funny! 

10)   The REAL math behind your followers Mr Twitter Bigshot!

I tried to bring a little humor on to the scene now and then, even when making a serious point.  This was also a hugely popular post.  It was also a lot of work!

It was difficult picking a “top 10″ but there you go!   Thanks so much for being part of this great community. It was such a fun year and I’m looking forward to great things from the {grow} community in 2010.

I have never used this community to comment on another person’s blog but today I’m just so happy, so enthralled, so downright giddy that I could kiss my keyboard.  One of the social media purists has finally discovered the bright, clear light of capitalism.

And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy — Jason Falls.  Jason is one of my favorite bloggers but has historically been one of the stalwart “keepers of the conversation.”  You know the type — the social media country clubbers who set the industry’s tone with a relentless mantra of “it’s all about connection” and “conversation” and “relationships.”  In fact, a few months ago, Jason went so far as to write that any company expecting to make money off of social media will fail.

But a new day is dawning.  Yesterday, in a post entitled “Why Social Media Purists  Won’t Last,” he wrote:

Each time I discuss the business goals or reasons why a client wants to use social media, the answers come down to one thing: selling more stuff. It’s a harsh business reality. If you don’t make money, the business goes under. If you don’t make more money, people lose their jobs.”

The social media purists have laid down the law and, so, to participate in social media as a business, you must do things like, “participate in the conversation,” “engage your customers,” and “talk with us not to us.”

I’ve got news for you. In the world of business, all that talk will get you exactly nowhere. Conversations do not ring the cash register. Engagement does not sell more product. Talking with people just means you have to take time to listen which prevents you from spending valuable time selling more product.

Halleluia.  Maybe I’ll finally have some company out here in the social media netherworld of business rationality.

And if this isn’t enough reason to celebrate, read what the Ultimate Blogging Machine Chris Brogan wrote just a month ago:

Think Like a Business – if you’re in this for business, always ask yourself how this work ties to more sales (and if you’re not trying to make money, think of “sale” as whatever you hope to convert. Hint: it’s not “more audience.”). If you’re just writing to write, shooting video to get it up there, tweeting because people said you should, rethink all that. Decide what’s going to ring your register and work on that.

What???  Ring the register?  Not seeking “more audience?”  Could this be an era of enlightenment for the guy who recently yelled at his audience:  “This is NOT about you and your STUPID COMPANY” ?

What’s happening around here?  My guess is that both have recently had a big dose of the real world.  Falls went out on his own and had to come out from behind the P&L  protectionism of agency life.  Brogan’s sudden emergence on a bigger stage probably got him in front of experienced business people instead of the sycophants who dutifully re-tweet his every blog, bluster and burp.

So this begs a new question.  Are my days as a contrarian coming to an end?  I mean if Brogan’s in, the burp tweeters will fall right in line. If the social media elite are finally figuring it out, what do I write about now?  Hmmm.  How about, “It’s all about the conversation?”  : )

I’m constantly looking for great new marketing ideas and I’ve found a couple of up-and-coming writers who have become some of my favorite sources.  I wanted to share with you a few blogs that I’ve been reading for at least a few months, are off the beaten path, and deserve a look to see if they fit for you. 

CK’s Blog – Christina Kerley is simply one of the best marketing bloggers out there and she specializes in B2B to boot. CK is a consistent source of fresh ideas and original perspectives.  Her blogs are “how-to” manuals!

Digital Marketing Today — Nitin Gupta is just so freaking smart.  He doesn’t blog often, but when he does, he provides thought-provoking, thorough commentary.  Nitin recently converted his blog from observations on the financial services industry to digital marketing in general.  Even when it was just about banking I liked it … now I love it.

Dumb Little Man — The world’s most useful blog.  A team of writers contribute short, punchy articles on how to make life easier.  Recent topics include “How to manage your time on social media,”  “How to motivate your team” and “Six Tips to Re-Engerize in the Afternoon.”  It’s not strictly about marketing, but it’s just so darn helpful.

Neicole Crepeau – Neicole is a tech-savvy writer and a great thinker.  Her posts on Twitter and social media are consistently interesting and a couple of times each month she really smacks one out of the park with a post that is completely original and provocative.  She is finding her blogging “voice” and is getting better and better each month.

One True Sentence — I don’t know how she does it, but Rebecca Denison puts out a summary of the best social media marketing, measurement and PR blog posts of the day … well most days at least!  And she doesn’t just cover the same blogs all the time so it’s a great way to see a diverse digest of quality social media topics. 

Phoenix Rising — Rebel Brown has been consulting on business transformations and start-ups in California for more than 20 years. Why wouldn’t you listen to her business advice?  I like her posts because she draws on real-world experience, doesn’t pull any punches, and examines the human side of business. It’s a fun and ballsy blog.

So there are a few new idea-generators for you to consider.  For good measure, of the “mainstream” blogs, here are the three I read most consistently:

Tough Sledding — Bill Sledzik teaches PR at Kent State University.  His posts are like going to school. I love the way he explores current topics and inserts his own observations and experiences … just like an effective teacher.  He hates to be called a marketing guy but I do it to piss him off.  Bill, it’s ALL marketing.

Jeff Bullas — I don’t believe there is anybody who provides so much depth to the social media marketing conversation so consistently.  I look forward to every post from Down Under.  The man is very talented and insightful! 

Social Media Explorer — For my money, Jason Falls is the best social media blogger in the business.  He covers it all — technology, business applications, trends and opinion.  He’s freaky smart, a superb writer and a fellow WVU grad. What’s not to like?

OK, I’ve shared with you … now it’s your turn. That’s how it works around here!  So, what are you reading these days?  How about sharing your favorite blogs with the rest of the community in the comment section!

Illustration: www.gapingvoid.com

I appreciate you so very much for visiting and contributing to {grow}. Some of you are even becoming close friends and business colleagues. Thanks for making this blog so rewarding and fun! What are your ideas about taking this to the next level? How do we grow {grow} together?