Nathan Hangen

The Consulting Conundrum

As I mentioned in my Saturday Project Update, I do some consulting for a variety of artists and other bloggers. However, since the needs of my clients are rarely the same, I most often find myself custom tailoring a consulting package for every new client. This means that I don’t really have any standard packages and that my prices are all over the map.

What I like about this is that in any single day I can work all of my given strengths and spend time doing many of the things that I enjoy. I’m not stuck on a particular model or activity long enough to get bored, and I’ve got the freedom to plan my days how I want.

However, as much as I love consulting and as great of an income builder it can be, there are some potential pitfalls that have had me questioning my desire to continue.

Why You Need a Blog

As a business owner, the odds are high that you have some sort of sales page for your product, otherwise you wouldn’t be selling much of it. However, although you probably spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars and hours crafting the perfect sales page, I’m wondering if you did the same for your blog? Wait…you don’t have a business blog? Why would you need one, you ask?

Well, for starters if you sell something, be it a product or service, and you don’t have a blog on your site, then you are letting your customers walk out the door. In fact, many of them won’t even walk in unless they see one. The reason for this is because these days, when there are so many other places to buy, having a blog allows you to introduce yourself to your customer as they walk in. Think of a blog as a salesman at a car lot. Although some of them are quite annoying, overall they are there to help you make a decision and guide you towards the car you want at a price you can afford. They educate you and act as a buffer between you and the company.

Why I’m Removing Twitter Updates from Facebook

The Time Crunch

Let’s face it. As bloggers and business owners, we don’t have a lot of time to spare on social networks. Personally, I like to spend time on Twitter, but I don’t have a lot of extra time for Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Sure, I make time when I can, but it just isn’t that easy to find time in an already jam packed day. This is why I tried to cut corners and use Twitter to automatically update my status in Facebook. I used this feature for several months and thought it was working well, but it looks like I was wrong and now I’ve decided to pull the plug.
What Went Wrong

I use Facebook different than many people. I don’t keep a fan page (I have one I just don’t use it) because I like to stay connected and I think that having a fan page can at times look pompous. I don’t have 5,000 friends on Facebook because I just don’t have time to get there. As a result, I’ve got a mix of old friends, new friends, family, and associates that see my status updates. Although most of my business associates, blog readers, and fellow networkers understand the use of Twitter with Facebook, I would constantly receive comments from people about how many status updates I had on Facebook. Many of them simply didn’t get it and worse…many didn’t want to.

My family and friends don’t need to see what I’m doing on Twitter. It simply doesn’t interest them. My old high school pals thought I was crazy and wondered who I was talking to. They want to talk about their kids, their jobs, and their pictures…not blogs, RT’s, and social media.

I thought maybe I could educate them…pique their interest. I was wrong. They simply don’t care.
Why It Doesn’t Matter

No one told me to remove my updates, but I knew that someone might eventually. I didn’t want to be removed from news feeds and I didn’t want to scare away any friends or family members. I realized that posting the same message everywhere can be rather redundant and I’m thankful for the lesson in humility and in understanding an audience. The fact is, if people want to learn about what I do on Twitter, they can follow me there. Nothing wrong with posting occassional links on Facebook that point to a Twitter page, but it is important to remember to treat Facebook like the medium it is.

I don’t believe there is anything wrong with using this feature on Facebook, but there is a time and a place. It might work better on a fan page where you can target a specific demographic or audience. I’d recommend keeping it there.

I know how to use Facebook, but I’ve been too lazy to do it. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a gentle reminder to get back to the basics and to make time for interaction on Facebook. I’ve got a group there I’ve been slow to promote, and I’ve got some other promotions I need to manage. Being lazy just won’t cut it.

Where are you trying to cut corners in your marketing efforts? Where could you improve personal interaction? These are questions we should be asking ourselves every day regardless of how much time we have to spare.

Then again, I could be crazy…what do you think?

Abusing a Social Media Voice – My Take

So a few days ago I was reading a post by @dannybrown regarding @dougmeacham’s interaction with Best Buy’s Chief Marketing Officer (@BestBuyCMO). You can read the original post that started it all here, or Danny’s reaction here. Now, the thing that struck me about both of these guy’s opinions, is that both of them took a very hard stance on either side of the line.

Doug saw a price discrepancy between a Best Buy item online and the same item in the store. The item in the store was 50 bucks more, which doesn’t surprise me because Best Buy seems to have issues with being congruent on the two fronts, but that isn’t the issue here (although it should have been). What ended up happening was that Doug got pissed and was able to get the Best Buy associate in the store to match the online price. Great right? Well…here’s where it gets hairy.

Getting the right price wasn’t enough for Doug, who then proceeded to go to Twitter and openly blast Best Buy’s CMO. Apparently, he was out for blood because if you read the interaction, it was more of a one way “show” where Doug tried to educate a freaking CMO about how to handle customers. Now, I give Doug the benefit of the doubt for having a gripe. I might have done the same thing, but once he actually got a reply, he started acting like an ass. This is a big no no and is why Danny decided to blast him for it.

The problem I have here is that there are too many “social media experts” trying to pose as God’s gift to new media. They think it is their duty to educate people that do this for a living. I’m sure Best Buy’s CMO didn’t get there yesterday, he knows a thing or two about marketing. Sure, he might not be the best social media expert, but he is on Twitter and he does pay attention to his feed. I’d say he’s at least slightly clued in.

Now what you have is a guy like Doug trying to put himself on a pedestal, talking and not listening, which in the end makes every one else in his niche look like a tool too. If I were to try and sell myself as a social media consultant to Best Buy’s CMO, he’s going to put me in the same category as Doug, and I’m going to have to dig myself out of a hole in order to do business.

This happens ALL THE TIME in the social media landscape, especially now that Twitter allows any regular joe to pretend to be anything he wants to be. Suddenly everyone is a Twitter or social media expert. Really? Weren’t you living in your parent’s basement yesterday? Weren’t you living in cubicle nation taking spoon fed orders from a boss? Now all the sudden you have Twitter at your side and you can show everyone how it is done?

Look, I’m not one to talk. Yes, I do social media consulting, but I don’t call myself as the King or Queen. I let my clients do the talking for me. The same should be true of people like Doug.

He had a great point in his blog post, but he blew it when he acted like a child on Twitter. Danny had it close, but I think he missed the point that things are changing and not everything goes through the same channels it once did.

Use your connections to make things happen (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), but don’t act like a child. I’ve said my peace…what do you think?

Are You a Social Media Bore?

As much as I admire the power of Social Media and Social Networking for business and marketing efforts, personal branding in particular, I’m getting a bit disappointed with the redundancy of it all in the current climate of news hysteria. With the recent passing of Michael Jackson, the big news was not that he passed, [...]