Blog Consulting, LLC.

Ice Appears to be Thawing From our Recent Recession?

I just read this in my e-mail update from the McKinsey Global Survey:

"As a tumultuous year draws to a close, executives are moderately hopeful about their nations’ economies and their companies’ prospects, according to a survey in the field during the second week of December.Just over half of executives continue to say economic conditions are now better than they were in September 2008, and for the first time this year a majority expect customer demand for their companies’ products or services to rise in the near term. In addition, notably more are seeking—and getting—external funding than have done so in more than a year. And after reporting a striking shift in favor of short-term planning early in 2009, executives say their companies are once again able to plan for the medium and long term—but also that they remain wary, assessing more options and checking progress more frequently than they did before the crisis."

I hope this is the beginning of the end of our current recession.  This has been a tough one.

It is a good thing to begin to think about the future rather than merely striving to simply exist!

We enjoyed our holidays, and have been working on our new vision as well.  I just met yesterday with my design partner, and we are beginning to put flesh on the the new direction of this enterprise. 

If that weren't enough, we are preparing to launch our new travel/adventure website in the coming weeks as well.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, blogging here will slow a bit until I have the new site launched.

Stay tuned!

The Future of Magazines and Newspapers?

Mag+ (video prototype footage only) from Bonnier on Vimeo.

A Sample of our First Social Media Web Design

It has been a while since our last post.  But, we have not been asleep at the wheel.  We have been very busy at work on the various social media properties that will exist in our Porter Media Companies, LLC.

The Roaming Boomers is a new property that we will be launching very soon.  This site will accomplish two significant things for our growing enterprise:

1. Showcase our ability to produce beautiful websites that are engineered with the latest social media tools.
2. Begin a whole new personal journey in the Internet travel/adventure space.

As I mentioned a month ago, Blog Consulting, LLC is going to transition to Social Web Design, LLC, and we will soon be able to deliver beautiful sites like this one to our clients.

Stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving

2009 Social Media Trends Amid Inc 500 Companies

Blog Consulting, LLC. - social media is having a significant impact on the way businesses communicate their message to consumers.

The University of Massachusetts recently released a study showing continued growth in Inc. 500 companies.

A few findings worth highlighting:

"Social networking continues to lead the way. The technology that continues to be the most familiar to the Inc. 500 is social networking with 75% of respondents in 2009 claiming to be “very familiar with it” (compared to 57% in 2008). Another noteworthy statistic around familiarity is Twitter’s amazing “share of mind” with sixty-two percent of executives reported being familiar with the new microblogging and social networking platform.

The adoption curves for different social media technologies are not all the same.Interestingly, while social networking and blogging have enjoyed growth in actual adoption, the use of message boards, online video, wikis and podcasting has leveled off or declined. The addition of Twitter (considered by respondents to be both a microblogging site and a social networking site) in the latest study shows that an amazing 52% of the Inc. 500 companies are already using this tool for their business.

Regardless of the particular technology, social media matters and is here to stay.
Forty-three percent of the 2009 Inc. 500 reported social media was “very important” to their business/marketing strategy. And an incredible 91% of the Inc. 500 is using at least one social media tool in 2009 (up from 77% in 2008). In addition, as they ramp up their usage, the Inc. 500 companies are also seeking to protect themselves legally, with 36% having implemented a formal policy concerning blogging by their employees."

Here is a copy of their recent findings:  Download Socialmedia2009

Small Businesses to Open Checkbooks for Social Media in 2010

Blog Consulting, LLC - in a recent survey by Vertical Response, 68% of small businesses intend to increase their use of social media in 2010.

According to the survey, e-mail marketing and building relationships with social media are forefront in the thinking of small business owners.

We see this huge wave coming as we talk to businesses, nonprofits, and individuals as they consider how to communicate their services.

The huge advantage of these mediums are that they are very inexpensive, as compared to traditional advertising mediums.

In the same survey, over 70% of the respondents said that they are not planning to spend any money in television, or radio advertising.  Furthermore, as I have been shouting from the rooftops, the print media seems to be sounding the death rattle.

We would love to help you in your foray into these mediums.  In just a few short weeks, we hope to have our entire product offering re-tooled to help you do just that. 

[HT to Small Business Trends]

Social Media and the Lifetime Value of a Client

When we owned our financial services firm in Michigan, our focus was on three things:

• finding new clients, primarily through word of mouth.
• bringing extraordinary advice to our clients through a predictable, and awe-inspiring experience.
• building life-long relationships.

Social media is a natural way for your clients to refer you.  Best of all, when they do refer you, they can literally refer you, and you get to deliver the actual message through text, audio, video, or all three.

Seth Godin reminds us that our objective should be to drop life-long clients out of our sales funnel.

Changes at Blog Consulting, LLC. as we Adapt to the Wild, Wild West of Social Media

I have long been saying that this social media transformation we are in is very much like the wild, wild west.

No one knows where it is going, no one is in charge, and everyone claims to be an expert.

For a company like ours, we must learn to be not only adept, but willing to make change.

It is readily apparent to me that even though we have much to offer this fast changing medium, the language we have been using to communicate our mission is not translating very well.

Blogging, websites, social media, search engine optimization, RSS Feeds, e-mail marketing, on-line marketing, Facebook, Twitter, and many, many more on-line socially orientated mediums are beginning to emerge from a blur, into perhaps one visible medium that businesses, and nonprofits might be able to more fully wrap their minds around.

To accommodate this new force in the marketplace, we are going to change our focus, shift our direction a bit, and start to communicate through the language of a social media wired website.

Blog Consulting, LLC. is going to become Social Web Design, LLC. 

In this new company, we are going to focus on helping businesses, nonprofits, and certain individuals move their "business card" websites to socially integrated websites, that will allow them to more fully take advantage of the change occurring in the marketplace.

Rather than merely plugging a blog into your existing website, we intend to bring a whole new website solution, complete with all the social media bells, and whistles, for less than you likely paid for your first professionally designed website.

We are very excited to be able to bring these new social web designs to our clients, and will soon have an example of our own to show you.

Stay tuned!

Kyle Flaherty: B2B and Social Media Marketing

While attending the BlogWorld Expo, I set out to learn how social media might apply for those who are building relationships B2B (business to business).

Actually, there is no real difference if you have the right mind.  Social media tools are best used to build relationships.  Those working B2B are building relationship with people inside companies, where B2C (business to consumer) practitioners are building relationships directly with the consumer.

Nonetheless, if you are learning to use social media tools in a B2B setting, I would recommend that you follow Kyle Flaherty.  Kyle spoke on a B2B panel and I found him to speak intelligently on the subject, and in particular, had a laser focus on expecting a return on investment (ROI) from social media strategies.

Here is a quote from his recent blog post from the BlogWorld Expo:

"Social media is still being viewed as a separate entity within organizations. My belief is that this is the wrong approach and that social media must be part of the DNA of all your communications, internal and external. You don’t do eMarketing anymore right? Well you shouldn’t be calling it social media marketing either, because it’s not true."

I couldn't agree with Kyle more profoundly.  Far too many see this as another way to sell stuff.  If rightly applied, social media is best used to build relationships, and the "sell stuff" will follow.

This was one of the fundamental lessons I learned in our business.  The moment I quite trying to sell my clients stuff, and rather diligently worked to meet their needs, and build life-long relationships with them, the "sell stuff" went through the roof.

People don't want to be sold stuff.  At the end of the day, they want stuff, and want to work with someone who has the stuff, but they want this to be someone that they can trust, and build a relationship with.  Although, most confusingly, they will never come to you saying this. 

This is a critical lesson to learn.  Learn it well grasshopper!  :)

Light at the end of the Tunnel

I was talking to my son today about life. 

Sometimes life, and a business venture, can leave you feeling cold, alone, void, colorless, hopeless, and with no end in sight.

Often, the answer, and the way to find the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is to:

• ask questions of trusted friends/family
• keep moving
• open lots of doors
• don't give up

Sometimes this means that you will find yourself down a rabbit hole with no course of action but to turn around. 

But keep going.  Don't sit down.  If you do, gather your thoughts, stand back up, and press on.

Life, business, and relationships are all on a moving track.  If you jump off the track, you will find yourself hopelessly frustrated.

If you find yourself moving, but also constantly frustrated, perhaps you are blind to something in your life, or your business, and you need the counsel of a good friend.

Remember the definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing, over, and over, and over, and expecting a different result.

A good many, in today's tough economic climates are looking for light at the end of the tunnel.

Son, if it makes you feel any better, I am bopping around those damp, dark, cold halls myself right now, as we are building this new business.  The advantage I bring to this task is my 20+ years of additional life.  I have learned that the quest is fun, and with persistence any task can be very rewarding.

Keep plodding.  Most will sit down.  Keep plodding.