GOSO

By: Chris Garrett Co-Author of Best Seller of ProBlogger, our celebrity blogger, Chris has helped thousands of individuals, non-profits, small businesses and blue chips make the most of the web.

It was interesting reading Chris Brogan’s post about talking about yourself. It came at a time when I have been criticized for “teaching too much”. Apparently some people think giving advice is somehow patronizing and condescending (or maybe both, I am not quite sure).

These thoughts combined to make me seriously consider how we decide what to talk about, how to tune that over time, and how to guage the success of that.

One of the diagrams I often use in my talks is this one featured below:

It is the simplest approach and the one that works best in most situations.

Now there will always be exceptions to this rule. I am sure the vast majority of successful bloggers and social media folks do not conciously seek out the opinions and preferences of their audience before writing. We do however soon learn what our community reacts to and it is a rare writer who goes against what works on purpose.

This does not mean that we should pander. Even though I have been blasted for doing “too much how-to” there is no way I am going to stop. Why should I? Yes, I have received some strident feedback, but the feedback I received was one person’s diatribe and not the opinion shared by most of my readers across the many blogs that I write for.

We tend to listen to the loudest voices but a vocal minority can scupper what we set out to acheive. One complaint does not a trend make!

Here is my basic strategy:

• Work out through conversation and research what your community most wants and needs, what their common challenges are, what they most want to achieve.
• Help people towards those goals and encourage feedback.
• Listen to the feedback you get and judge it based on repetition, sincerity and sanity.
• Observe and record your metrics.
• Look out for trigger events (eg. subscriptions going up or down, traffic spikes, comment ratios, etc).
• Tweak and tune.

As Chris says in the linked article, there are a lot of sites out there that are useless and boring because they are self referential. On the other hand, many of us flock to self-referential celebrities because their autobiographical stories give us a taste of an aspirational lifestyle. And yet, I wouldn’t really want to read a book review written by Paris Hilton. What works for one or the other will not necessarily work for you, but it does not make it wrong just a bad fit.

Bottom line: Your peers, gurus or outspoken critics are not the people who should be telling you what to write about, and you should not try to cater to them over your community as a whole. You will never please everyone, focus on your target audience and reaching your goals. Do not be distracted from your priorities.

By: Ryan Riley Marketing Strategy Manager for GOSO. Ryan provides analytical data and departmental support for GOSO. Ryan is an experienced writer and blogs for GOSO, BOALT and other sites.

Craigslist is a very popular platform for posting automotive classifieds. The simple reason is that it works. Many dealerships have found relative success on their local Craigslist pages.

The problem is Craigslist wants to make sure that their classifieds are not overrun with marketers and spam. Craigslist readers are also looking for that. So the free-for-all posting glory days of the past are being slowed.

How is Craigslist fighting back?

They have been pretty clear from the onset that Posting Agents are a no, no. So be cautious of any third party company that is in the business of posting on Craigslist. Ask them how they get around the Terms of Use.

Craigslist is pretty clear in their TOU that posting agents are not allowed.

Craigslist defines a posting agent as…

…a third-party agent, service, or intermediary that offers to post Content to the Service on behalf of others. To moderate demands on craigslist’s resources, you may not use a Posting Agent to post Content to the Service without express permission or license from craigslist.  Correspondingly, Posting Agents are not permitted to post Content on behalf of others, to cause Content to be so posted, or otherwise access the Service to facilitate posting Content on behalf of others, except with express permission or license from craigslist.
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By: Chris Garrett Co-Author of Best Seller of ProBlogger, our celebrity blogger, Chris has helped thousands of individuals, non-profits, small businesses and blue chips make the most of the web.

When a brand is appearing in conversations, what should you do?

1. Listen, observe?
2. Get involved?
3. Do nothing?

What about when you are associated with the brand, but do not own or manage it?

I imagine there are a lot of Toyota dealerships mulling over this question right now. From what I have seen using Twitter search, most are selecting choices #1 and #3.

You might ask why I care. Well, my wife’s car is a Toyota. She has only owned it a couple of months. We haven’t had any communication, online or off, since we bought it other than to fill in a satisfaction survey.

We are not concerned. This isn’t a case of buyers remorse or even a complaint.

It does, however, show the real benefit of keeping in contact with your customers and prospective customers.

If we are not getting the news and information that we want and need then we are going to listen to people who have nothing of value to share but who are going to share it anyway. Twitter, Facebook etc are full of conversation about Toyotas, just not much that is helpful.

Toyota has been getting the word out using a variety of tactics including search and display ads, inviting Digg users to a Q&A with executives and Facebook, Twitter and YouTube text and video updates. If I was a dealer I would be sharing all this good stuff, plus making sure every one of my customers and prospects was

• Aware of the facts
• Aware of the myths and false info
• Aware there are people listening and ready to answer questions

You could just turn a tricky situation into one where you are seen as a real, caring customer advocate …

By: Chris Garrett Co-Author of Best Seller of ProBlogger, our celebrity blogger, Chris has helped thousands of individuals, non-profits, small businesses and blue chips make the most of the web.

You know the phrase “What you measure you get more of”?

What if what you are measuring … is wrong?

Do you want more “wrong” in your business?

I was talking to someone on the phone just now and he asked me what I was working on. One of the things I mentioned was this blog. He thought it was cool that auto dealers were getting into social media and he immediately asked me who I knew with tons of followers.

Let me make it clear, he didn’t ask who the thought leaders were, or who the superstars were (if there are such things in this market), but went straight to the numbers.

The wrong numbers.

Fact is, it doesn’t matter if an auto dealer has a gajillionteen followers. You don’t want to be an Ashton Kutcher, Oprah, or the like. By measuring, focusing and chasing a follower count you would actually at best distract yourself from your real business, or at worst actually damage it.

Even in my consulting it is not big numbers that matter, even though there is a “social proof” benefit (“90 billion twitter friends can’t be wrong people!”) – it’s all about having the right people in your orbit.

If I want to sell more cars, I would rather have ten followers who are in the market for an Aston Martin, than a million who ride bikes, right?

So before you measure, make sure you are measuring the right things …