Mark Cuban Did It and So Should You

For a couple of years now I’ve been telling you to harvest your blog posts, white papers and newsletters into a book. Could it be that Mark Cuban has been listening all along?

Until he says otherwise, I’m taking credit.

Cuban’s book, “How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It” is admittedly harvested from years of blog posts and sells for $2.99.

Here’s a guy whose blog readership hits between 50k-1m readers and he’s trying to sell what’s already out there in an ebook? Yep, and So Should You!

The WSJ notes that Cuban “refocused” the work and doesn’t expect readers to take it in like a literary masterpiece.  ”Don’t feel you have to read it like a book,” he writes in the book’s foreword. “Use it as a way to get fired up. A way to get motivated.”

Cuban’s book is about 30k words but I say you can go to market with half that.

 Here’s how to start writing a book:

• Do you read newspaper opinion columns? They average 700 words, so if you’ve written 22 pieces of that length, you could compile them into a book.
• Most blog posts average 300+ words, so 50 posts would total 15,000 words. Count the average words in your blog posts and do the math.
• How many speeches or presentations have you delivered?  Those add up, too.  If standard speech without long pauses runs 150 – 170 words per minute, a 20-minute speech is 3,000 to 3,400 words.  If you’ve delivered five 20-minute speeches on your subject, you’re ready to roll.
• Your old newsletter articles are good book fodder.

Read my series on writing, designing, publishing and promoting my book. Better yet, let’s get started on YOUR book.

Is it a Slogan or a Key Message?

In the continuing discussion of key messages in your business writing, here’s a quick example of how a slogan can reflect underlying key messages.

It can be a chicken-egg exercise deciding whether to start with a slogan or key messages. I usually find it easier to start with the latter and distill them into a slogan.

The difference between key messages and slogans confuses some people. If you need help, please contact me.

Case Study: My Social Media Road Trip

I had the opportunity to debrief the Business Sorority of NC on the vital role that social media played in my 2010 road trip. I used Twitter, Facebook Pages, Vimeo, Flickr, and my travel blog to:

• raise money for my expenses and  the National Breast Cancer Foundation
• get news stories in four states during my trip and hours of local coverage
• find co-riders throughout my trip
• earn sponsorships from Caribou Coffee, AAA and BMW

I asked how many of the Business Sorority members used the same tools for their businesses and was surprised how many used Facebook and how few used a blog; here’s the final tally:

• Twitter used by 10%
• Facebook Pages used by 90%
• Video by 5%
• Photos  by 0%
• Blog by 30%

The most important social media tool

In the Q&A one woman asked which I felt was the MOST useful/important of these applications.  I answered using the Swiss Army Knife example — in social media you’ll use a couple of the tools more than the others, but when you really need that tooth pick/Tweet, you really need it.

For example, when I reached Bend, Oregon (my westernmost destination) I wanted my hometown NBC affiliate to take the feed from the Oregon station and run it in the Charlotte market so I tweeted asking if anyone had a connection to WCNC. Sure enough! While WCNC didn’t get the feed from Oregon, they did three times more than that: they covered my arrival home, featured a live interview with me on their morning show and used footage from my arrival and interviews in a feature story about women motorcyclists.

YEAH, that’s the power of  the right tool at the time!

Start with a blog and Facebook page

While YMMV (your mileage may vary) from project to project, I think you’re best served to start with a combination of  a blog and Facebook (FB). The blog is your hub and the only asset you truly own. Any of the free online apps can change their terms of service on a moment’s notice, making you vulnerable to losing data or functionality at best and money at worst.  For the 90% of Business Sorority members using FB, for example, I asked what would happen if FB decided it was only going to keep the last 3 months of updates?  There is no satisfactory answer to the question if you don’t have a blog.

Why Facebook over Twitter? Notwithstanding my success with Twitter, if you’re a beginning social media user, it’s easier to use and a critical mass of most everyone’s friends and business associates are already using it. The key is to place content in your blog FIRST and then link to it from your FB page. That’s not to say you shouldn’t upload videos or pictures to FB, just store them on your blog for safekeeping.

The versatile  blog

I use a WordPress theme on my own url (not the free one on the WordPress site). Unlike FB or Twitter, a blog lets me write posts of unlimited length  and insert multiple graphics, videos and sound files in each. Facebook allows you to embed ONE thing and with Twitter you can only insert links.  I drive traffic to my blog using all the other apps but also send traffic out to those apps via widgets.  Take a look at my home page for example, where you can follow my tweets, watch my recent Vimeo videos and connect to my other social media outlets.

If you want to know more, reach out to me or Andy Ciordia, the impresario who makes everything I do online possible.

Key Messages that Resonate

Here’s an example of how two bankruptcy law practices’ key messages reflect different business models. Key messages will resonate with certain audiences and be dissonant with others. Use the messages that resonate with YOUR audiences and don’t muddy the waters trying to be all things to everyone.

Decide which audience you want for your business and craft key messages that resonate with them. In another post I’ll differentiate between slogans and key messages.

What is resonance?

To resonate means “to be understood or receive a sympathetic response.” Here’s a video demonstration of resonance using salt on a plate that’s wired to an amplifier. As the sound waves change, the grains arrange themselves into different patterns that resonate with the sound waves. The grains find the sound wave irresistible, which is what your key messages should be for clients and prospects.

What constitutes buying differs from company to company, but whether it means picking up the phone, hitting the “subscribe” button or authorizing a purchase order, you need to produce media with the key messages that resonate with your audience’s  ”buy now” instinct.

Examples of key messages

People always resonate with message they perceive to be in their best interests. This is why marketers use language that resonates with insecurities like fear, shame, and guilt or aspirations like fame, fortune and ease.

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Quick! What two key messages do people associate with your firm/business/practice? If you don’t know, let’s figure out what those messages should be and start publishing them.

Social Media: Ethics & Best Practices for Attorneys

Like financial professionals, attorneys bear the burden of using good sense and propriety online.  Would that everyone bore a similar burden! (but I digress).

Friday morning I co-facilitated a continuing education seminar for the Mecklenburg County Bar on social media with Andy Ciordia and Ted Claypoole . The attorneys asked great questions and the three of us presenting enjoyed the lively discussion.

Peppering his ethics guidance with jaw-dropping anecdotes of ethical lapses by legal professionals, Ted boiled everything down to four categories of concern:

• Talking too loosely
• Improper investigation (pretexting)
• Sites that don’t provide room for proper disclaimers (think: Twitter)
• Advertising Rules

I’m unqualified to say anything about legal ethics, but from a middle-aged lay person’s vantage point,  much of what Ted said seemed like common sense and good manners: don’t say anything about someone behind their back that you wouldn’t say to their face; don’t misrepresent yourself or your behavior; and don’t tell a judge you need a continuance because your father died if your Facebook page shows you were getting smashed at your college roommate’s wedding!

Advice for blogging, Facebook and Twitter

Andy and I showed several examples of what to do and not to do on the big three social media platforms:

Blogging: We didn’t need to dwell on the oft-repeated advice to publish frequently — they’d all heard it.  We took it further to show how you can subscribe to content feeds to supplement your own articles but also warned to keep non-pertinent content off your site. We showed an example of an otherwise-good blogsite by a divorce lawyer who inexplicably featured an article on SEO and Google.

Huh? Stick to your knitting.

Facebook: We see lots of lawyers using their personal FB profile as a professional site. Some even call it “The Family Law Firm of Jane Doe” or similar appellations — a big no-no and a violation of FB’s terms of service. FB created “Pages” for commercial use.  Go to my AUTHOR PAGE of FB and you’ll see how it differs from the personal.

Twitter: The main concern Andy and I expressed here is lack of engagement. Most of what we saw lawyers do is BROADCAST new blog posts or news of the firm. Blech. If you’re not engaging people on Twitter, don’t waste your time with it.

If you’re unsure where to take your social media marketing efforts, reach out. If I don’t have the answers, Andy or Ted will.

Strategy First, SPAM-Avoidance Second

WOW, it feels good when a stranger calls from two time zones away and says “Thanks to you I know everything I’ve been doing wrong.”

Disgusted by his email campaigns’ lousy open rate, he turned to Google. My blog posts kept turning up in his searches, where he learned that long subject lines with words like “Free” and “Limited Time Offer”  are surefire ways to shoot yourself in the foot.  YES, nice to know my blog is yielding high search rankings and helping people solve their problems.

He then went on to ask if I could write his email campaigns (double YES!)

Whiplash

Not so fast, Tam.  Turns out, he doesn’t know “who” his target market is or what triggers them to buy. A writer can’t get a foothold without that information. I can’t knowingly send a client’s money down the drain, and without a strategy, that’s what I’d be doing.

Although cliche, it’s nevertheless true: if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.

You’re Only Fooling Yourself

Last week, under the presumption of sending me St. Patrick’s Day greetings, I got this from a life insurance agent who likes to pose as a financial advisor:

St. Patrick’s Day is quickly approaching. Even if you’re not Irish, you still get an Irish Blessing to hold on to for the year.

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,

May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

This is also the week that I send one of my periodic checklists. Please take a second of time to check-off these questions. It could help reduce your taxes and provide new financial tips. That’s worth a second! Here is the checklist.

This is not a download or an attachment. It is a safeguarded link.

And here’s what I got in that safeguarded link:

Let’s break this down

First,using the elementary school holiday calendar as an excuse to send solicitations is disingenuous. I can see right through your ploy.

Second, when you say you’re providing me with a checklist that will help me reduce taxes and provide financial tips that’s what I expect. You lied.

Third, the visually wretched “checklist” leads with the setup that you are somehow helping ME  keep my “records current” when in reality it’s a lead generation form for YOU.

This kind of crappy communications gives the insurance sector a black eye.  You earned the Golden Retriever Crappy Communications Award for March, 2010.