Monica O'Brien is the author of the book Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. The book is a step-by-step guide for small and mid-sized businesses that want to find more customers effectively. Get the book:

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young entrepreneur

I finally read The 4-Hour Workweek. Here’s what I think.

By Monica O'Brien on April 28th in Entrepreneurship 21 comments

When it comes to business books, I’m like the anorexic girl at the five star restaurant. Always order, never eat. Push the food around on my plate.

My shelves are lined with interesting books, but I only ever read a small subset of fiction (usually urban fantasy or sci-fi). I told myself I would not buy any more business books, because I never read them, and because I already went to an expensive business school that assigned those classic HBR essays where 90% of the material from most business books are derived. At this point, if I want to learn more about business, my time would be better spent studying philosophy.

Find out why I finally read The 4-Hour Workweek

Gen Y Marketing Trends Point to Twitter, Not Facebook

By Monica O'Brien on November 5th in Marketing 39 comments

Gen Y growing upDoes your business serve Gen Y? If so, your #1 network should be Twitter, not Facebook.

Historically, moms, teens, and college students have been the most sought after (and most difficult to understand) marketing demographics. Get these groups on your side and your product will be a success, especially when you are a small business looking for brand awareness and lead generation.

The good news is that all three of these groups now fit under one larger group – Generation Y. According to The Parents Network, 68% of all births are to millennial moms (not Gen X). College students round out the middle of this generation, while teens are at the tail end.

It’s a no-brainer: most companies need to pay more attention to Gen Y marketing because this is the ultimate target demographic right now.

Gen Y is headed to Twitter

While Facebook’s average age has risen from 26 to 33 in the last year, Twitter’s average age is steady at 31 – and it’s dropping. Twitter is now the second youngest network of the big 4 (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). Furthermore, Gen Y now accounts for around 50% of Twitter’s network (if you assume Gen Y starts with people born in 1978 or later, making the demographic 31 years or younger).

young-people-twitter

This is good news for companies, especially those frustrated with low traction on Facebook fan pages. Compared to Facebook, Twitter is a more open platform that people use to get information from an extended network, rather than a tight knit network of friends. Twitter also works well for providing the information Gen Y values from companies and plays into the way Gen Y discovers products naturally.

From a company’s perspective, Twitter is far better for connecting with Gen Y than Facebook. Here’s some more evidence:

Gen Y wants honesty and optimism

According to research from Hill & Knowlton, there is a direct correlation between a company’s reputation and willingness of consumers to act (in most cases, purchase products or services). The research found that right now, early post-recession, consumers care most about companies that demonstrate honesty and optimism. Obama leveraged this emotional need to win the election, and other smart companies are also using this insight to their advantage.

Ford, for example, has seen success in the market recently due to better quality products (Consumer Reports rates them next to Honda in a recent issue) and its bailout rejection earlier this year. The company has been honest and optimistic over the past 6 years, but this wasn’t clear to consumers until recently. Social media, especially Twitter, has played a powerful role in Ford changing its reputation, and the 3rd quarter earnings prove it. (The company’s next target? Gen Y.)

Consumers want honesty and optimism, and to Gen Y this comes down to being transparent and authentic. Twitter is a fantastic way for companies to demonstrate these traits. Facebook? Not so much.

Gen Y looks to communities to deal with major life events

Gen Y as a demographic is going through huge life changes right now: graduation from high school or college, moving out of the house, getting married, starting new jobs, and starting families. According to a study done by Mr. Youth, the way Gen Y deals with life changes is by turning to online communities for support.

Facebook is an online community, but most of Gen Y still operates with a closed network. For Gen Y, Facebook is not a place to network with new people or to share information. The foundation of a community consists of new contacts and new information, making Facebook a horrible place to build new communities (but a great place to nourish old ones). Twitter, on the other hand, is all about experimenting with your community.

Companies that help Gen Y build communities around life events win, and Twitter is the perfect place to find and engage individuals to form a community.

Gen Y wants to connect on a personal level

Gen Y is obsessed with customization, from their music lists to their sneakers to their vampire novels. The demographic has also been bombarded with advertising during their lives, so they can smell BS through their iPhones.

Gen Y wants you to connect with them personally. There is no shortcut. Email automation doesn’t work, and Facebook makes it almost impossible to connect on a personal level unless you actually know someone personally. But on Twitter, “personal” is built-in – it’s first and foremost a conversation tool.

Gen Y gets annoyed with product campaigns

Gen Y, more than any other generation, learns about products through their peers rather than advertising. This means that one-and-done campaigns don’t work nearly as well as building long-term relationships with this demographic, because you want brand advocates and good reviews instead of immediate action.

Campaigns that use incentives are effective, but only if you are looking for very short-term results. In the long run, you can’t force Gen Y to talk about you, and this demographic will run from anything that asks them to do anything that even remotely seems like spamming their friends. Instead, you should build a platform of useful content that builds trust, establishes credibility, and keeps Gen Y coming back. Eventually, a portion will come back as customers.

You can build a platform on Facebook, but it’s not easy if you don’t have a loyal fan base already. (That’s why they’re called “fan” pages.) If you are looking to build brand awareness on Facebook and you don’t want to spend money on ads, you’re stuck. But Twitter is one of the easiest places to build a platform because people are open to connections, your content can be short (the opposite of blogs), your profile is easy to maintain, and viral ideas spread in real-time.

The stars are aligned.

Gen Y is getting on Twitter, which just so happens to be the best place for companies to reach them. According to Marketing Profs, SMBs also plan to step up their Twitter game in 2010, especially younger companies which are presumably focused on building brand awareness and finding customers.

SMBs-use-Twitter-for-marketing

To me, the Gen Y marketing trends are pointing to Twitter, not Facebook.

What do you think? Have you seen more success on Twitter or Facebook?

I also want to hear from Gen Y – do you connect with companies on Twitter or Facebook?

Integrating email marketing with social media

By Monica O'Brien on November 3rd in Marketing 11 comments

LijitAccording to the newest Small Business Marketing Health Check report from Hurwitz, the top business challenge for small businesses is by far attracting and retaining customers. As a result, most small businesses are turning to digital marketing channels. Over 70% of small businesses surveyed are using social media channels like blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, while nearly 50% are using email marketing techniques.

The question the report poses is, how can we integrated social media efforts with email marketing to meet the challenge of attracting and retaining customers?

The best welcome email I’ve ever received

As you may have noticed, I recently revamped my website. In doing so, I added a new search service I’ve been meaning to look into called Lijit.

I first heard about Lijit through a fellow blogger, Grace Boyle, who works at the company. Several of my online friends were also using Lijit, so it was a service I definitely wanted to learn more about. My biggest question was, “Why use this instead of Google Search?”

My question was answered without me even asking, within a day of signing up for the service and setting it up on my site. Here’s the email I received from Grace:
best-welcome-letter-ever

You’ll notice I highlighted a few sections of the email that I thought were special:

  1. A simple personal greeting – fairly basic, shows me that the company at least knows my name and cares to use it.
  2. An entire introductory paragraph that is personalized with my website and exactly what I downloaded and when. Nope, this wasn’t a standard, automated email we send to everyone, so I read more closely.
  3. Over 11,000 users. Social proof. This demonstrates I’m in great company, and making a smart decision by using Lijit.
  4. SPECIAL SAUCE! I love special sauce. Let’s break it down:
    • This is a great, non-confrontational way to say “Hey, you missed some functionality we think you should use” without actually saying it.
    • “Don’t worry, we turned it on for you, because you are cool and we want to share our most useful secrets with you.” No need for me to do extra work to try it.
    • “The features will be live shortly.” A soft call to action to log in and see the new features.
  5. “A really special tip from me as your friend (not the company), to optimize your usage of Lijit as a blogger.” More personalization, more connection. And I have to admit, the tip is a simple but powerful one that I’ll definitely be using!
  6. “I hope all is well.” Email me back and let me know how you’re doing, even if you don’t have questions. We’re not just in business together, but we’re also friendly.

Overall, the email message was incredibly personalized and brought forward a ton of great features that told me why I should stick with Lijit.

So many companies tell me that their email marketing conversion rates are low (less than 10% opens), and my response is I wish more small businesses did this. Sure, it takes some time to send out personalized email messages to every new user, but it’s clearly a great investment. Besides, you can probably see how easy it would be to create a template and personalize it for different people, or even do something automated that’s a little more personalized.

UPDATE: MarketingSherpa just published research that shows the incredible benefits of putting more efforts into your email system.

Personalized email marketing pays

Personalized email marketing pays

The facts don’t lie: automation is half as effective as relevant, personalized content.

Integrating email marketing with social media marketing

Some companies think this has to be hard, but I can’t think of anything easier. Grace is the perfect example of someone who integrates email marketing with social media, because she blogs, tweets, and creates personal relationships with lots of people online. While I did find out about Lijit from Grace, she never once reached out to me to push the product. She always looked to establish a personal relationship with her outreach, with the fact that she worked at Lijit a far afterthought.

6 months later, when I was doing a site redesign, I thought of how I should try the service. Grace’s social media interactions are what planted the seed in my mind, while her follow-up email is what will keep me using the service and probably turn me into a brand advocate.

If you want to better integrate social media with your email marketing,

  • Hire people who already blog, tweet, and generally build relationships online to do your business development and/or community management.
  • Let those people initiate contact when someone new signs up for the service. You can switch your new user to more general newsletters after the initial contact.
  • Let them handle customer support from their personal accounts in addition to the company account. The roles are blending anyway.

Do these things to meet your goal of attracting and retaining customers.

How do you use email marketing? How do you integrate email marketing with social media?

Free content sells. We get it. What’s next?

By Monica O'Brien on November 2nd in Entrepreneurship 22 comments

free-content-sellsA recent survey from Ipsos Mori of 1,000 16- to 50-year-olds in the UK with internet access found that people who download music illegally on average spend twice the amount on money on music as people who always pay. (Hat tip: Mashable.)

Internet marketers like Yaro Starak and Brian Clark give away tons of free content to promote their premium content. They have entire systems and processes for how to launch information products, and all you have to do to participate is hand over your email address.

David Meerman Scott claims that his free EBook helped him get 500 blog mentions and sell 30,000 books in 6 months. His philosophy is a one-up on internet marketers – don’t even require the email address. Let free be truly free and reach up to 50x as many people. Stop trying to measure your conversion rates like a marketer would, and just assume that the more you give the more you sell.

Chris Anderson has written a whole book to explain this phenomenon of “free,” entitled Free. He writes about how free music drives more sales of premium versions of the music (live concerts) and how free recipe cards once drove more sales of Jell-O.

Free content sells. It sells premium content, physical products, and valuable services. There are numerous case studies to prove it. And while some companies don’t want to believe it’s true, I think most people, even business owners, are really starting to get it.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what’s next. What do we do with the idea of “free?” How can businesses work within “free”conomics? No matter who you are, here’s where you should be looking:

Can you accept “free?”

You’ve heard of grocery stores making zero profits on certain items, just to get foot traffic to their stores, right? These items are called loss leaders. And content is the ultimate loss leader – you trade time and expertise for nothing.

Sure, it sucks. If you are Britney Spears, you are making less money than before because you aren’t selling as many CDs.

But seriously, just get over it. The economics of many industries are changing. Accept that you need new loss leaders.

In your industry, what is the “free” content and what is the “premium” content?

Business magazines are in the spotlight right now trying to figure out just that.

Every industry has a premium, even if you sell physical goods. For example, in the fashion industry, the free content is the designs. Anyone can copy your designs – the premium is in the brand, the quality of craftsmanship, and the pleasure of having “the real thing.” Likewise, anyone can copy your technology, but Apple doesn’t seem to be hurting these days.

How do you monetize “free?”

Nobody does something for nothing. Even if you are writing a free blog with no ads, you are trading for something – relationships, an ego-boost, personal development… Are you monetizing “free” the way you want to be?

How should you monetize “free?”

Maybe you aren’t doing it optimally. One of my friends told me about an internship program he runs – “free” intern work traded for ample mentoring time. I asked him, “Is your time worth the same as their time? Could you be selling your time in the form of premium content to pay for the time they work for you?” In these cases, I like Sarah Evans take on bartering for business. There was a reason money was invented, after all.

What do you think of “free?” How does it affect your industry? How will you harness the concept to improve your business?

How to Find Passion in Your Career

By Monica O'Brien on October 13th in Uncategorized 6 comments

60 Days to Entrepreneurial FreedomShould you be an entrepreneur? In most instances, people mistake becoming an entrepreneur for finding what they are passionate about. The two are sometimes related, but they are different concepts. Finding your passion could mean you are happy working for other people, while entrepreneurship is about building a company, plain and simple.

You don’t have to build a company to find your passion. I repeat, you don’t have to build a company to find your passion. Here is how to find your passion, whether you want to be an entrepreneur or not:

Look to your childhood

I spent most of my free time as a child with my nose in a book. I also spent countless hours documenting my life (yeah, not a good read from the perspective of an 10 year old) and writing short stories. In fact, my dad recently sent me a copy of a published short story I wrote when I was 8. It’s awful. But it reminded me that I have always been passionate about reading and writing. Always. So passionate about writing that when people ask me how I keep writing on my blog, or how I can write a book, I have no advice, because I always write.

You are probably passionate about many things, but you will find your strengths by remembering what inspired you when you were young. What did you care about then? Ask your parents or siblings if you are stuck.

Reexamine your hobbies

One of the best sources for finding your passion is stuff you already do for free. And don’t stop at things you do – also keep in mind subjects you are constantly reading about, ideas you’ve dabbled with on a blog, and magazines you are subscribed to. But be careful – sometimes turning a hobby into a job doesn’t work out.

Find the good in your current job

Compartmentalize your job. Even if you hate your current job, there must be at least one thing you like about it. Maybe it’s something unrelated, like you work with your friends, or it’s only 15 minutes away, or you get free bagels and orange juice for breakfast – but that’s still something you should know about yourself.

When I completed my analysis, I learned that I love to be near home. I think about the jobs I’ve quit and it was mostly due to the commute. So now I know to never take a job unless I plan to move within 15 minutes of it.

Do this with all your jobs, and look for patterns. You could find some skill set that you’ve overlooked. At the least, you will better understand your priorities in life.

Volunteer

You can find your passion by process of elimination. So volunteer whenever you can – for unusual projects at your current job, with a local organization or charity, at your church, wherever. Internships and apprenticeships, and shadowing are also good ways to eliminate options.

Throw out the BS

It’s so easy to tell yourself you are not good enough to do something as a career. Question those negative thoughts. Why can’t you? I recently watched something on TV where this guy who weighed over 600 pounds lost all his weight and became a fitness trainer. Can you imagine?

Pump yourself up, do whatever you need to do to boost your self-esteem, and above all, don’t rule anything out because you don’t have the education, the skills, the know-how, the degree, the talent, or the look. Skills can be learned, attitude can’t; so having the right attitude probably counts more in whatever field you want to enter.

This is not to say you should never stop pursuing an impossible dream, but don’t rule it out before you even begin.

Research

Learn about careers you think you could be interested in. Ask around. Sometimes your friends can help you see yourself differently – the people close to you may see a great career path that you wouldn’t have come up with on your own.

Take an assessment

I don’t have all the answers for you. It’s impossible for me or anyone else to look into a crystal ball and tell you exactly what your passion is. But luckily, there are a few people I can recommend who can also help you find your passion. Two passion tests I really love are:

Find Your Career Path by JT O’Donnell


Find Your Career Path is about getting a career and work environment that is compatable with your strengths. The workbook is divided into four sections using the G.L.O.W. Method:

Part I: Gaining Perspective – a series of unique personality assessments to give you a better perspective of your strengths
Part II: Luminating Your Goal – a guide to determining a best fit career and workplace environment
Part III: Owning Your Actions – information on creating your resume, developing a career story, and taking the steps necessary to get your dream job
Part IV: Working It Daily – a worksheet that will help you stay committed to reaching your goals

Get the book here. Or you can learn how this book literally changed my life (umm, yeah, I don’t say that often, so you know I mean it) by reading my entire review.

Passion + Profits Test by Jonathan Mead

ppt-previewI love this test. Jonathan first takes you through what getting paid to exist means in a video presentation. Then he has you brainstorm potential passion businesses, and gives you a 25 question quiz to evaluate the validity of your potential business.

Get the Passion + Profits Test here (short email sign-up required).