May 12, 2010
I don’t have time for social media.
It’s the easiest excuse in the book. It’s also the most popular excuse. It all has to do with attitude and the way you look at social media. If you look at it as just another thing to do and think about everything else you have to do in your already busy life, then you probably don’t have time. But if you look at it as way to manage your online reputation while generating more leads and more business for your company, then it’s a little easier to find time. Break down your daily schedule instead of being overwhelmed by thinking about everything at once – then you will find that you really do have time.
As I am talking with other people that are considering a social media strategy, it helps to have some local examples in the Indianapolis, Indiana area of business owners using social media effectively. One of my favorite case studies of a very busy business owner that still finds time for social media is Scott Wise at Scotty’s Brewhouse. He is all over social media and is connecting with his customers in a very special way. The bottom line is that his hard work is paying off. Every Scotty’s location in the Indianapolis area that I have been to over the past year (and believe me I frequent all locations regularly) is always PACKED. It doesn’t matter if it’s lunch or dinner…day or evening. And I know that a large portion of this success is due to Scotty’s use of social media. I know this because I have heard him say it and seen him write it…and he wouldn’t continue to invest the time in it if it didn’t work.
Next time someone tells you they don’t have time for social media have them check out Scotty’s online efforts. Then have them read the below quote that Scotty shared as part of the description for his upcoming Blog Indiana session on “10 Twitter Tips and Tricks.”
“I don’t have time.” “There is no value for my company.” “It is just a stream of garble and garbage.” I have 600 employees, 7 restaurants, twin 1 years olds and a 3 year old. No excuses. If I can make it work, you can too. I will show you how… with value to you and/or your company.
I also encourage everyone to check out Blog Indiana coming up in August and be sure to stop by Scotty’s presentation. I know it’s going to be great!
6 Comments | 
case studies, social media | Tagged: social media marketing, social media indianapolis, scottys brewhouse, scott wise, scott wise social media, social media strategy | 
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Posted by derekmcclain
December 6, 2009
My theme for using social media for referrals: If you ask, you shall receive!
I am continually amazed at the ease of passing referrals using social media. Recently a co-worker of mine was looking for a realtor in the Washington Township area in Indianapolis. She is looking into purchasing a new home and needed a starting point. I offered to post this request on Facebook to see if my network of friends could help. It took just seconds to post my request online for all of my friends to see in my status update. Within 30-40 minutes I had a list over 10 realtors to give to my friend! But these weren’t just any realtors. These were all realtors that came highly recommended. And they were not just highly recommended by anyone, they were highly recommended by my friends and people I know. I was able to confidently pass along these names knowing that my friend will have a solid list of realtors from which to pick.
These requests are taking place every single day on social media networks. Keep your eyes open and take advantage of the opportunities!
Leave a Comment » | facebook, social media | Tagged: social media, social media referrals | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
October 25, 2009
Today I would like to share a few links that I found to be particularly interesting this past week. Check em out and let me know what you think!
Facebook Home Page has a New Look
So there is now a News Feed and a Live Feed on the home page? Just like with most Facebook updates, the responses to the change have been mixed. What does it all mean? Why did Facebook make the change? Click the link above to find out. Just like with the last changes Facebook made – in the long run it is going to make Facebook even better and more organized!
2009 Masters of Business Online Summary from Douglas Karr
If you are involved in the Indianapolis, Indiana social media scene, you were likely exposed to all of the buzz that came along with the Masters of Business Online. Landing pages, online video, search engine optimization, pay per click advertising and social media – these were just some of the topics covered at this great event. Get an inside look at what took place during the event from Douglas Karr by clicking on the link above.
Thank Goodness It’s Monday
One of my favorite people to follow online is Scott Stratten, President of Un-Marketing.com. On Friday I was checking out his new initiative, Thank Goodness It’s Monday and I just had to share. It’s a great concept: stop letting the day of the week determine your attitude. Embrace each day and make the most of it. Scott is forming a group of people he calls the” 1%” that refuse to fall into the “TGIF” mentality. Click the link above to check out his video on why he’s doing this. If you like what he has to say, enter your email address to get signed up. He will follow-up immediately, as always, with an email welcoming you to the “1%.”
2 Comments | branding, facebook, internet marketing, social media | Tagged: douglas karr, facebook new layout, masters of business online, scott stratten, unmarketing | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
September 23, 2009
If you are a business and/or a brand, word of mouth marketing is important to you. You want people to say good things about you and recommend you to their family, friends, and co-workers. With the rise of Internet usage and social media come more outlets for people to be discussing your brand. How do you monitor what people are saying on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, YouTube, etc? Sure there are tools like Google Alerts and Radian6 which can help you keep an eye on things. But how do you respond to all of your brand buzz? What if all of this observing and responding occured in one central place?
Well now it can. On Seth’s Blog today he officially announced the launch of Brands In Public. This is part of Squidoo, a company he founded. Brands in Public already has some large brands like Home Depot, Guinness, Allstate and Hello Kitty up and running.
The basic idea is that each of these brands have a page where all tweets, blog posts, news stories, images and videos about that brand show up. Everything in one central place. Good or bad. It’s one thing for people to be ”talking” about you, but it’s another thing for you to participate in this discussion. And the goal of Brands in Public is to make that participation easy. Because that is when the real value comes in. The question is – are you willing to pay $400 a month to do so?
What do you think? I am curious.
Leave a Comment » | Seth Godin, internet marketing, social media | Tagged: Seth Godin, google alerts, squidoo, brand management, brands in public, online brand management | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
September 9, 2009
Following up with my blog post topic from yesterday about online reviews and the impact these have on consumer purchasing decisions, today I would like to share a case study on how to promote and sell your book online. Kyle Lacy, CEO of Brandswag, recently finished his book, Twitter Marketing for Dummies. With a tight timeline this was not a task he could complete alone so he called in fellow social media practitioner Erik Deckers, who has been published in nine weekly newspapers through Indiana.
After a lot of hard work, last week Kyle announced that the book was available for order on Amazon.com. This is a huge accomplishment for Kyle and Erik. I know many people involved in the Indianapolis social media scene are very happy to see this success. Both Kyle and Erik are always looking to reach out to help others and this book is right up there with sites like SmallerIndiana.com as far as efforts that are really putting Indiana and more specifically Indianapolis on the map when it comes to big ideas/social media marketing. Ironically enough, social media marketing tools like Twitter have played and will play a big role in the success of this book. Kyle has done a great job of promoting this book and today I would like to take a closer look on how he is doing it:
- First off, the lead with Wiley Publishing to be considered as an author of the book came from a participant in a social media class about using tools like Facebook and Twitter. A class which was promoted using social media among other things.
- Kyle frequently posted Twitter, Blog and Facebook updates about his progress asking for feedback and suggestions in some cases.
- He even posted a blog entitled Help with Twitter Marketing for Dummies Book where he gave everyone that read his post and tweets an opportunity to get published in the book by submitting Twitter marketing thoughts in 140 characters or less. Simply put, this was a chance to have your Twitter thought and username go out to everyone that will be reading this book.
- Now that the book is available for purchase he is doing something that I think is huge – offering 100 free copies of the new book in exchange for a commitment to publish a review. The 100 copies will be split between people with a good network, or large following on social media, the Internet or their community and reviewers in magazines/newspapers. This is the perfect way to potentially have 100 different people (assuming everyone follows through) telling all of their friends, followers, business partners, etc. about your book. This has viral marketing written all over it.
Kyle has consistently reached out to help me in getting me personal blog started. He has also contributed in helping to promote Fusework Studios on Twitter and other social media tools. His reputation and eagerness to help make me sure that this book will be a success. I know I am looking forward to receiving my copy! Please join me in congratulating Kyle and Erik on this great accomplishment!
Leave a Comment » | Viral marketing, internet marketing, social media, twitter | Tagged: Kyle Lacy, Smaller Indiana, social media to promote and sell book online, twitter marketing for dummies, wiley publishing | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
September 7, 2009
When was the last time you read a review of a product or business online? Did this review influence your final purchasing decision in any way?
Coming up ranked #1 in a local business Google search is great. It can mean more phone calls and more online leads resulting in more business. Or it can work against you.
Still being relatively new to the Fishers area I was searching online for a local medical doctor to visit. I will not mention any names or the particular type of doctor I was seeking. The first place I went, as always, was to Google. I did a Google search for this type of doctor – local search results and the continued #1 organic listing underneath both turned the same doctor’s office. I checked out the Web site, determined this would be a good place to start…but wait…I went back to the results page and noticed there were also 6 reviews of this particular doctor/medical practice. I went on to read all 6 reviews. They were horrible. 6 different people provided “one star” reviews and stated they would NEVER visit that particular doctor again. In their reviews, they cited everything from waiting hours to get in to see the actual doctor, to the doctor making them feel so bad that they left in tears.
Now it’s hard to say if all of these negative reviews were 100% authentic, but the fact that there were 6 of them with descriptive encounters was enough to influence my decision to continue looking for someone else. The sad thing is that this same turn of events is happening for a lot of businesses that are spending money and working so hard to rank high in Google search. What is even more sad is that most have them have no idea, or if they do, they are doing nothing about it.
Kevin Hood wrote a great blog post about the impact of a review he saw online while searching for a place to purchase a tailored suit in The Internet Reflects Your Business. While he stated that the likelihood of someone leaving a negative review is probably higher than someone leaving a positive review…the bottom line is the negative reviews still influenced his purchasing decision.
Think if this particular doctor’s offered a free service or 25% discount to 50 of its best patients just for doing an online review. By targeting your best patients, most of the reviews would be positive. 50 positive reviews vs. only 6 negative reviews certainly makes coming up #1 in Google even more powerful.
What do you think of this idea? How much do you weigh online reviews into your purchasing decisions?
Leave a Comment » | branding, google, social media | Tagged: google search, online purchasing decisions, online reviews, rank #1 google, reading reviews online | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
September 1, 2009
Today I was turned on to a great blog post over at Copyblogger entitled “Are Vampire Words Sucking the Life Out of Your Writing?” that I just had to share. This post gives a key point of advice that will help you write better.
Here is the basic gist:
As writers we can often play it safe by using words like: quite, fairly, often, sometimes and may. These words are boring, show a lack of confidence and thus turn readers away. This is where the vampire analogy comes into play- these words act like vampires and suck the life right out of your sentence. So the next time you are thinking of writing a headline like “You May Gain More Customers and You Might Make More Money” you need to stop and stake the vampire words to keep your readers coming back for more.
Douglas Karr did a great job of this today over on the Marketing Technology Blog with his post entitled “Why I Don’t Like Facebook.” This instantly caught my eye and I had to read it. Now if his blog title had been “Why I Kinda Sometimes Don’t Like Facebook” I would not have been as inclined to read it. Heck he even went so far as to put “facebook-sucks” right there in the URL. It’s not every day a social media superstar proclaims that!
So the next time you are writing a blog post title, take a moment to review and find those vampires there as well. Today’s theme: Be confident. Be Bold.
3 Comments | Blogging, facebook, social media | Tagged: Blogging, copyblogger, douglas karr, facebook, vampire words, write better blogs | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
August 19, 2009
I ran across some quality links about social media tools such as Facebook that I just have to share with you. One is about managing your Facebook account. The other is about how social media is changing the way we communicate. If you have any links you would like to share, just leave them for me in the comments area.
How I Manage Facebook – Chris Brogan
Four Minutes of Video Awesomeness: Is Social Media A Fad? – Marketing Pilgrim
So what do you think? How do you manage Facebook? Is social media just a fad?
Leave a Comment » | facebook, social media | Tagged: Chris Brogan, facebook management, manage facebook, marketing pilgrim, social media | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 7, 2009
Today is Day 2 of ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. Still being a little unsure what to expect each day of the challenge, I was relieved when the homework assignment to write a list in a blog post appeared in my inbox today. Not that I don’t like a good challenge, but this one happened to come with perfect timing.
A few of us at Fusework Studios were recently invited to be guests on one of our favorite weekly blog shows – Brandswag TV. The topic for this week’s webisode was The beauty of video blogging. Ironically enough, our conversations within this video turned into a list on why video is important in social media and on the web. Check out a few of our points below!
1. Video is very well received on the web – just look at the popularity of YouTube and Vimeo.
2. Video delivers content in a way that adds interactivity – hearing, seeing, connecting. Very powerful.
3. Video encourages sharing – people are very likely to share a great video online…this can make your video go viral fast.
4. Video in social media the perfect way to show personality. Don’t just be a profile or screen name. Be a real person. Use video from time to time.
5. Video is an entertaining way to deliver a message. It is very easy to include graphics, sound effects, etc. that make the message effective and engaging at the same time.
6. Video is quick and to the point. A ton of content can be overwhelming. Especially when you can convey the same point in a 1 minute video.
7. Video is fun. It’s always nice to take a break from writing blog post after blog post t0 record a video. A great way to combat writer’s block.
Check Episode 10 of Brandswag TV for more information on “The beauty of video blogging.”
Special thanks to Colin Clark and Kyle Lacy for having us on the show.
1 Comment | Blogging, Viral marketing, social media | Tagged: brandswag tv, list blog post, popularity of video on the web, problogger, problogger challenge, video in social media, vimeo, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
April 5, 2009
Seth Godin has been reminding us frequently in his recent blog posts about the importance of tapping into our current client base as our greatest resource for increasing sales. This concept is not something new, as we all are probably familiar the classic 80/20 rule. Yet it is a concept that is very easily forgotten. We often get focused on finding new clients instead of finding new ways to approach our current clients to open the doors to additional opportunities.
This is often true in social media as well. It is very easy to get caught up in trying to increase our awareness online, form new relationships and drive new business using social media. But what about our current clients? How are we using social media to strengthen relationships with them?
If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to take a moment to check your social media profiles to see how many of our current clients are out there. Send them a message. Share something cool you found online with them that you think they might be interested in learning more about. I think you will find them to be very receptive to this initiative. 
Your current clients should not be just another connection or friend. If you work together they should be your greatest social media ally.
Leave a Comment » | Seth Godin, social media | Tagged: 80/20 rule, Seth Godin, social media clients, social media current clients, social media relationships | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
March 11, 2009
Here are some common questions I am asked on a daily basis:
Does Social Media really work?
Can Social Media actually improve my business?
Do you have any examples?
How do you prove it?
While the below article may be a little bit of shameless self promotion, my hope is that you will learn from it, share it, and be able to utilize this example as another selling tool to help grow your business as well. Oh yea, and don’t forget to sign up for IndyLink if you are a Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce Member.
Begin article from the Fusework Studios Web site:
Fusework Studios announces the launch of indylink.com, the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce’s (GICC) new professional network. Members of the GICC can register at www.indylink.com. 
As the GICC’s Internet Marketing partner, Fusework Studios is continually generating new ways for the Chamber to stay connected to their members. As social networking sites have grown in popularity in recent years, Fusework Studios began developing a way for Chamber members to capitalize on the networking opportunities available to members of the Chamber of Commerce. The result was IndyLink – a forum for Chamber members to post jobs, have access to exclusive RFPs, learn about volunteer opportunities and connect with one another on a level never before offered to members of a chamber of commerce. “We wanted to create an online community for the Indianapolis Chamber that wasn’t just about generating “friends,” but one that would actually provide a tangible benefit to Chamber members,” said Bruce McClain, President of Fusework Studios. “Indylink.com has opened the door for these opportunities.”
As the only chamber in the state with an online professional network, the GICC continues to lead the pack as one of the most forward thinking innovators among chambers of commerce nationwide. Julie Grice, VP of Communications and Marketing for the Chamber stated, “In terms of ROI, within the first 36 hours of indylink.com going live we saw more measurable leads from indylink.com than had been generated in all of 2008.”
The Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce is a not-for-profit, member-based organization founded in 1890 by Colonel Eli Lilly and a group of Indianapolis business leaders. Today the Chamber has more than 4,200 members who gain access to Indianapolis’ premier networking events and advertising audience, are able to build brand awareness through event sponsorships and benefit from local economic and demographic data and resource materials. The members’ 300,000 plus employees save with member discounts from health care to office supplies to car purchases. The Chamber also works to ensure that local laws and regulations encourage business growth and investment in central Indiana. The Chamber is the voice of progress and improvement for the central Indiana business community
Fusework Studios is a premier creative house specializing in Web development & Internet marketing, film & video production and managed IT support services to private, public and nonprofit organizations. Fusework Studios, with offices in Indianapolis and Muncie, has been the recipient of numerous Telly, Addy and Emmy Awards for their innovative work. Fusework Studios is a division of Rutter Communications Network, a 21-year-old privately held, multi-media company.
Leave a Comment » | case studies, fusework studios, networking, social media | Tagged: fusework studios, GICC, greater indianapolis chamber, indylink, indylink.com, Julie Grice, non profit organizations social media, rutter communications, sign up indy link | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
