Instead of my normal posts on social networking for business and social media consulting, I wanted to briefly mention some thoughts on the recent news announced today on Amazon acquiring Zappos for a whopping $850 million dollars.

First off, I want to post the Core Values that makes Zappos such a great company:

“Zappos Core Values

As we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the Zappos core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble”
(pulled from http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values )

Next watch this important and educational leadership video of Jeff Bezos:

Now here is my opinion:
After watching Amazon grow and remain through the .COM bust, one thing is certain: They pride themselves on great customer service and obsess over this fact. They have innovative technology, and have done very well and I think it was a smart strategic move on their part.

Zappos too prides itself on customer service, transparency, and most importantly passion. You always see this demonstrated on a regular basis the passion that flows from top down and bottom up throughout the organization. I have been hearing especially lately from twitter on the amazing culture among employees at the firm and the #1 factor (and most important to me) I believe in why they were acquired because they are one of the top companies embracing social networking and social media (especially twitter and many other social tools) and leveraging these tools better than 95% of other firms to better service customers. Why? Because look at the CEO Tony. He is a model Social CEO who embraces social media so easily because it fits EXACTLY with their core values & will be a model for many other companies to follow.

My predication is that this is only the beginning of whats to come from other firms embracing social media as part of their business, marketing, and corporate strategy cohesively. I have a feeling (and has already started happening in San Diego) our TEAM of consultants will be helping some of these large local firms make this transition into becoming more “social” firms for the benefit of “engaging” customers more instead of just “marketing” to them all the time.

Your thoughts?
Thanks
JustinRFrench
CEO Social Networking San Diego

Many business and marketing people keep talking about social media and social marketing and how businesses can get into this new online marketplace, but I have some actual non-theory lessons from ACTUAL consulting on about 12 client projects we have worked on over the last seven months.

Social Networking for business is hard stuff. You have to be both technical, psychological, sociological, business savvy, marketing savvy, sales savvy, a good communicator, good writer,…… The list goes on. 1 full time employee or college intern handling social media marketing will not cut it I guarantee it.

My TEAM (together everyone achieves more) of Business consultants and I have been doing workshops, tweet ups in Carlsbad, tele-seminars, conference calls, coaching, training, blogging, strategy building, assessments, webinars, and consulting on social media and social networking for business for the last 7 months. (I have been doing various business and technical consulting for about 10 years)

I remember my first blog post on how i predicted that social media and social networking will save small business and STILL stand by that prediction and remember it like it was yesterday. I also remember each and every client experience, where WE went wrong, and what changes we made in our “process” to improve. I must say right off the bat that I could NOT be in this “Social CEO” position with out my twitter network. I learned more on twitter in 2 months from just listening, paying it forward, and helping others achieve what information, resources, or knowledge they cared about which in return they taught me what I needed to know to help formulate Social Networking San Diego. Consider it a PHD in internet marketing from twitter for FREE just 20 days a month on-line till 4am investing my time (video proof here).

I laugh at the colleges now trying to charge thousands of dollars for certificate programs for social media marketing and internet marketing (even Masters Degrees) when all people would have to do is just apply themselves a little bit, spend some time doing internet research, and start LISTENING! Also, we are in a HUGE recession, and colleges are in fact a BUSINESS too trying to stay on the trends and make MORE money off students. But I digress…..

Here are some tips about what to be careful of in the trenches of social media and social networking consulting for businesses:

1. ROI– If they ask you “what will be my ROI”, ask them, “what is your CURRENT ROI on marketing/ advertising?” Tell them to give you a fraction of that (at least 10%) show them some results in the first quarter or six months, and then ask them for a larger budget (if you can perform)

2. Don’t under charge– Your time is valuable, and just because they might not see the REAL value in social media and social networking for business development purposes and lead generation, you still want to attract the clients who have a “perceived value” in social media. This can be hard, but where are you looking??? Our first couple accounts we did FULL SERVICE for less than 1000$/ month AND worked on these accounts probably 80 hours per month. Talk about hustling! And you know what, they left because they didn’t want to “spend the time” in social media because they were too impatient and wanted overnight success. And they felt the training was something an intern could do. Do you really want an intern handling your corporate message and controlling your brand perception online???? Let me stress to you that being in the trenches now for 7 months, this will require your client to commit to 9 months to 1 year to make it worth your time. That is if you provide a comprehensive and holistic approach to social media and social networking for business. This is VERY time consuming and a lot of work I assure you but the BEST practices approach for building a lasting community around your client’s products and services.

3. DON’T DO PAY BY PERFORMANCE– Do you like working for free? I sure as hell don’t, and we tried that and learned NOT to do it again! On a few clients, we agreed to pay by performance model and you know what happen, we worked our A$$ off, did the research, the set-up, got them leads, and they still weren’t happy. (we don’t work for the company, we get you leads, its up to you to close your deals, we are not your sales team) I would advise AGAINST bartering as well, tried that too 🙂

4. Social Media and Social Networking is not for EVERY client– Every business is different so be sure you analyze the prospect in depth BEFORE taking them on as a client. If they have a 4 year old website, why would we want to drive traffic to it? So we recommended a new website FIRST, then we will drive the traffic. (they thought they could get a good site done for 500$ so I said be my guest, then they came back for a full word press site from us)

5. Make your deliverables clear– Make sure you specify where the hours will be allocated for the project so the client is clear about what THEY will bring to the table, and what YOU will bring. We ask our clients to commit to X amount of training per month, X amount of content submissions, articles, etc.

I hope this helps clarify what life has been like for the non-theory preaching social media enthusiasts (I used to be one too, and still am a little, but businesses need help so we are rolling up our sleeves and helping what businesses we can, and who have the budget of course)

Any thoughts on your experiences? I know we have many readers who are in this industry, so feel free to leave some insight or feedback on your experiences in the trenches of social media consulting,
Thanks
JustinRFrench
CEO Social Networking San Diego
Have any questions- hit me up on the G-Voice 760 – 576 – GOLF oh yeah!!

P.S. Get a copy of “Social Media Survival Guide for Business” The FAST TRACK
$9.95 Click Here to order: (if you have time to read it) But this will be a helpful guide for you and your business as you journey into Social Media and Social Networking for Business. Enjoy

I have been Blogging about social media and social networking since January 2009 and since then, things have just been exploding! Its Monday, time to get down to business!

This is a simple, to the point, NO BS Blog Post to keep you up-to-date on what’s been happening in the trenches of the social networking and social media consulting world in San Diego & across the country these last few months.

Top 5 Questions When Considering Social Networking And Social Media For Business
1. Who is your target audience? CFO’s, CEO’s, Purchasing Directors, Consumers, teens????

2. What is your objective? What re you selling? Product or Service? I.E. increase traffic to company website, increase sales, increase brand awareness, increase conversion, etc.

3. Get the right people on the bus (I can assure you that your corporation will most likely need an outside consultant to help with your social media strategy) Establish who is handling your content writing, tweeting, facebook, branding, marketing, design, content writing, etc.

4. How much time will YOU sped on this? This is not FREE! Its very complex, this is a social media science project so get ready put in some sweat equity

5. What do you want to do?

You have 3 options:
1. learn yourself
2. 100% outsourced online marketing or outsourced social media marketing to our team at Social Networking San Diego
3. Fast track to social media with Social Networking San Diego. This is the most chosen method by our clients. We help develop your goals/ objectives, strategy building, set-up, integration of all social networking and social media components, train, and coach you along the way.

Best success we have seen with our clients is a joint-effort or option 3. (we take a holistic approach that is cohesive and comprehensive which produces the most scalable results over time)

Are you ready to get your social media marketing strategy executed? Contact Keith our VP at 760-500-6043
Thanks
Justin

I have been hearing about these 3 components (Trust, Transparency, and Team) in Social Media and Social Networking for the last couple of days and I have an interesting story to tell you. I haven’t told a story in a while so please bare with me and I assure you it will teach you some VERY valuable lessons I’ve learned thus far in my 10 years in Business. I hope you can share some of your stories as well.

Trust-  Every single person I have come across in my life, I trust 100% until they give me reason not to.  I can’t tell you how many times in business this has turned bad for me, BUT there are some lessons to be learned.

1.  You learn to be less trustworthy of people who give you reason not to trust them by either body language, demeanor, research you do on line, or what other people say about this person or their firm whether it be online or offline. This is even MORE relevant in today’s business climate because of social media and social networking as we know. Everything is becoming exposed and brands and companies sometimes aren’t even aware of the positive OR negative effects it has on them.

2. People are becoming smarter in their buying decisions and in whom they conduct business with. We no longer want to be spammed or bombarded with ads and piles of junk mail. We want to engage and interact with others and build relationships and when we DO have a need we can ask our social network where/whom to buy from because of TRUST. I think this is good for business and much needed especially in today’s economic state.

3.  When you get burned in a bad business deal (I have made plenty over the last 10 years because of being to trustworthy of others) it makes you really have to dig down deep into yourself and overcome obstacles and challenges that come about from a deal gone bad. But once your get through it and your company stays afloat, you come out MUCH stronger and brighter. It’s a notch on the belt as a learning experience. Not to mention those deals and hours I spent reviving a server and not seeing a penny from the job even after staying in an office all weekend to have them up and running by Monday morning. Is it worth the fight in small claims court to recoupe???

4. I remember I formed a bad partnership deal (this wasn’t the first nor the last) in my old IT consulting firm back in 2004 and the company was in the brink of extinction until I put on my “hustle hat” and went to work.  I billed out $140,000 of IT consulting that year on my own but it was NOT easy.  Working 60 hours a week AND going to school was a challenge, but I stuck it out and saved the company thanks to my social network, understanding family (thankfully putting up with my sometimes bad attitude due to high stress levels, and of course aligning with the right strategic alliances (one of the most important business relationships a small business can have).

5. The same trust principles apply no matter what business you are in. Trust carries with you no matter what job or company you start. No company can take your TRUST away from you OR the relationships you have built. Hundreds of companies trusted me with their data, IT infrastructure, servers, etc. when I ran that IT consulting firm Perfect Integration and because of the integrity, trustworthiness and credibility that I spent building up over the years it has carried into the next company Social Networking San Diego (my 3^rd). And now I see companies are doing the same for their social media engagements, campaigns, and marketing- trusting our TEAM of social media consultants to help them with their online marketing in a holistic and comprehensive manner which can be very time consuming and complex for business professionals not exposed to this new trend. And be it known I know now what mistakes I made and what NOT to do for the future.

Transparency and Team will be the next posts. Please Re-Tweet this post if you can, I think other business professionals can benefit from hearing some of these experiences.

Cheers,
Justin
p.s. If you need an assessment or have questions, please call my VP Keith at 760-500-6043 and he can discuss your needs/ challenges personally.

Social Media Agencies are the newest of terms I have heard going around.  They usually have a combined offline and online approach to marketing and advertising but because of this new social media revolution occurring, social media agencies are coming to market.  The question is, how good are they?  Are they producing results for their clients?  Is their campaign on budget? Are they measuring results?  Our typical engagement is 9 months and this is the minimum time line i would suggest for a successful social media marketing campaign.

The internet has brought a tremendous change in our lives. Things all over the world are changing very fast, and people have to be on their toes to catch up with the changes in technology and media. The social media arena is just one vast area that has still not yet been tapped to its full potential. Opportunities are plenty, but unless you are aware of what social media agencies and social media consultants are about; you are not going to be able to use it!

Traditionally, social media was not considered a good market by agencies, but now times have changed. Marketers have now realized the positive aspects of using social media for marketing; and slowly but surely social media agencies are popping up. Social media campaigns are predicted to cause a great revolution online eventually, as 90% of the world’s population is online at one point of time or another.

At present, there are six different media that are used to support social media marketing and they are-

Social networking sites where individuals are free to build their own WebPages (personal profiles) and change the settings as they see fit. This allows them to be completely free about their individual personalities and thousands of people may popular pages and be influenced by their comments and ideas. A few of the more popular social networking sites are Myspace, Facebook, Linked-in and now my favorite twitter.

Blogs are another aspect where people can keep online journals with their personal ideas and thoughts about anything from products and services or opinions, but remember here that the value of the content to the audience is key.

Wikis are official pages hosted by Wikipedia but are open for editing and updating by the lay public. It serves as a communal store of information with over three million English articles.

Podcasts are available and a great source of advertising and spread of information through the internet.

Forums, communities and micro-blogging are the last three variants that allow large discussions to be held on several topics where thousands of people log in from all over the world. Twitter is the foremost leader in micro-blogging

Social media marketing companies can use these mediums to promote ideas or products and increase exposure of their product all over the world through a few simple click- throughs and a lot cheaper than traditional advertising such as radio and TV.  The returns on investment can be measured in a social media campaign, because basically social media is made up of people who frequently talk about what brands they like or dislike and what they buy and from where. An effective social media agency can maintain a brand presence in a social media campaign and can extract maximum benefit from a good social media commitment.

Social media or social marketing is about people and people buy things, its that simple.

What types of things do you look for in a social media agency?  Your feedback is much appreciated-

Justin

Social Media Marketing is a new form of online marketing using social media websites like you tube, podcasting, syndicating content, and many other web 2.0 websites to ENGAGE partners, customers, and potential clients. Social media marketing is exploding right now and your business should be getting involved sooner than later. The big thing to remember about social media is that its “social”. Traditional media companies are realizing that consumers are getting frustrated with traditional marketing tactics and we even have Tivo to fast forward through commercials now. If you think this is easy, think again. It will require a technology savvy company who understands strategy, marketing, branding, community building, and good content writing for starters. So a local college student tweeting for you, posting on facebook, writing your blog, and doing your discussions in linked-in might not be the best fit. Maybe you should get your business development and sales team some training on one of these social networking websites from our CEO JustinRFrench by going here: Twitter 101 or Linked-In 101 for Business Coaching/ Training and see how our clients are seeing an increase in their business by learning how to leverage these social media marketing tools.

“ I give it a “10” FOR SURE! ”

— Joanne Stephens on Jun 18, 2009.

The important thing to understand as business professionals is that this new form of social media marketing can produce better results than some forms of traditional marketing methods if done right. Not to mention is is even cheaper. The key to the success of your social media marketing campaign is the strategy.

At Social Networking San Diego, we help our customer’s develop a proper strategy around their products and services, implement the technology marketing system we have developed, measure the success, AND train the employees how to use these tools to be more “social” when reaching customers in these social webs. Businesses that are not getting involved in this social media marketing will be left behind by competitors and now is a great time to gain competitive advantage by developing a social media marketing strategy around your products or services. Here was a popular blog post i did on The 4 quickest Tips Ever To Social Media Marketing Success to help get you started

Need Help? We have Social Media Consultants standing by ready to help your business
Call 760-500-6043 and speak to our Vice President Keith about your next social media marketing project.
Or, sign up for our click here -> FREE Webinar- Social Networking 101 For Business here

What is your definition of social media marketing and how is your business leveraging these new marketing tools? Leave a comment below

Every single business professional knows that time is money. This is even more relevant than ever now thanks to social media and social networking. It is making my clients get back to business basics- building relationships with potential and current customers. Just like you pay an IT consultant to fix your computers (hourly billing) consider the time of a social media consultant at least double for the good ones.

If you are not good with time management, I suggest you get good with it real quick because when jumping into social media marketing, you can easily get caught up in the fun and excitement of connecting with great people all around the world.

How much is your time worth? I charge between 100$-350$/ hr. depending on whether I’m speaking, consulting, strategy building, designing, conducting competitive intelligence, training, coaching, teaching, researching, or even writing for clients. And when it relates to social networking and social media- even more time because there are so many components to having a successful and cohesive social media marketing campaign that the average business person just doesn’t get it. This is social media for business is very complex and time consuming stuff i assure you.

I have been asked since we started Social Networking San Diego, “How much time should i be spending on these social media and social networking sites Justin? I am not making money when i am networking online, writing my blog content, or filming a new video message to my clients.” My answer is simple- consider this time that you are investing in marketing yourself, your products or services, and you are investing sweat equity in your business. If you don’t have an hour a day to market your business, then you have a problem.

Many business professionals, small, medium, and large sized clients MUST understand this critical rule when dealing with social media and considering working with social media consultants and that is…………….stay tuned for tomorrows post when i will reveal the #1 Rule when dealing with a successful social media marketing campaign.

Please leave a comment, re-tweet this, and book-mark this post it would be much appreciated. Also, what are your thoughts on this post?
Thanks
Justin

Justin’s Secrets Revealed:

Secrets Revealed on social media marketing- to be successful in todays business environment requires innovation, creativity, change, technology, and of course competitive edge. These secrets will help you out- I guarantee it!

This post may be short- but small is the new big right? This is SOOOO Powerful! I have helped hundred of business people and taught them some of these tips and tricks and it has grown there business exponentially compared to other marketing tactics.

1. Act as if you are going to a virtual party (Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In are the parties- you shake hands in these virtual online networking groups to get them back to your home/business/blog/website)

2. You build relationships (Help others, givers gain, and pay it forward. By helping others gain information on things they are looking for or by becoming a resource to others you will build your community. Think of this as building brand equity (as Gary Vee Says) or investing sweat equity in your business. You are providing customer service)

3. Invite others to help you out (or to visit your home- which again is your website or blog) Consider my technique i use on twitter and linked-in: 1: how can i help you? 2: You can help me by…… This is Networking!

4. Then after the relationship is established, people potentially do business together/ refer you

What do you think? I am interested in your feedback. Do you have any tips that have worked for you? Please share your thoughts on this (leave a comment)
Thanks, Happy Networking

JustinRFrench
CEO Social Networking San Diego

“Justin has done business and Internet consulting for us, and we have been pleased with his abilities and results. He reviewed our processes by interviewing each employee, then came up with recommendations for improvement. He was right on target. His technical background, research and studies have given him an insight into what it takes to succeed with an all-encompassing Internet Marketing campaign. He doesn’t waste time; he gets right to the point.

Harold Nevin Language Translation, Inc. San Diego” March 17, 2009
Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity
hired JustinRFrench as a Social Media Business Consultant in 2009

P.S. I have personal coaching sessions i am doing so if you’d like more 1 on 1 coaching or training on how to leverage social media marketing to help grow your business: Click Here To Email Me Personallyand put in the subject coaching inquiry. I will contact you personally with more details about scheduling

first- lets define social networking.

Social- meaning being “social” in a group among people. Socializing among others about professional life and maybe even personal life of course because business is not always about business. People are people and doing business is all about people.

Networking- connecting with other people in a social setting (on line or off-line) and collaborating about what people they know and vice versa. This is no longer just a local chamber event. There are thousands of niche social networking sites- just find which one is for you and participate. Also when networking with others, find out what challenges they are facing and how you might know of a person or a solution for them to look into. Networking in these tough economic times is critical. Help others. Givers gain, and the pay it forward approach to business works magic- especially on twitter. Networking takes work! Social Networking takes allot of work and time too, but consider this sweat equity. Just like social media marketing and leveraging social networking for business purposes will require a considerable amount of time and a large learning curve for some. But this is good because consumers are tired of being interrupted during their busy personal and professional lives with marketing messages that don’t interest us.

Remember, its all about who you know, and especially now the growing trend in social networking and twitter, distance and borders no longer separate that. We are all connected globally thanks to the internet and the web 2.0 technologies that exist. Its not the tools that matter, its how you use these powerful tools. And this is only the beginning you watch- this movement is growing and is changing the way we do business. So get involved and net-WORK

Thanks

Justin

CEO Social Networking San Diego

Two passions of mine are golf and business. These two are very similar, especially when it comes to the on-line world. As we become a more digitally connected society, it is important to build business relationships online in the virtual world as well as the golf course. Major business deals believe it or not are  done on golf courses around the world. I have come up with some unique ways golf relates to social networking for business. I am interested in your feedback so please let me know if these are sufficient points.

1. Your business takes time to grow, just like your golf game
No one can go out and shoot 72 their first time, not even Tiger Woods did that. Just like in business, no one becomes a success overnight. It takes years of building up. Some newbie golfers go to golf camp to learn the basics or maybe a golf boot camp for the fast track approach. Just like our company in San Diego called Social Networking San Diego which gives the fast track (Bootcamp) to social media and social networking for business purposes. The same applies when doing business online. If you think its easy think again. The point is You MUST get educated on how to do business online if you are to play the business game online. Is your website generating leads for you? how is your pay per click campaign doing? Is your SEO up to par? What social video sites are you on? Are your leads converting?

2. Golfing is usually done with friends, business partners, or colleagues
I cant tell you how many times i have been golfing with people i enjoy spending time with. I have been golfing with clients, partners, and of course family and friends. The thing to understand is golf is relationship building just like social networking. It takes time and those who are in it for the short run or are looking at twitter negatively just don’t get it. Twitter is just a communication tool to build relationships online. Both personal relationships and business. Think of twitter simply as a virtual networking group on demand.

Please help vote for a Fellow San Diego Business EasyTurf as San Diego’s Best Green Product Installer by clicking here: http://budurl.com/easyturf

What are your thoughts on this post?
Cheers
Justin