Dan Blank, Author at WeGrowMedia - Dan Blank

Social Media Classes For Writers & Authors

I’ve been working on something for awhile now – building a course on how YOU can leverage social media, online media and online marketing. Today I want to share a few details about it, and talk about how we learn, and how what we know affects what we accomplish.

Most of us learn how to leverage the web by doing. We read one article and blog post at a time, take tentative steps onto services like Twitter, and try to replicate what we see works for others. Pretty soon, we each have our own secret sauce – a mixture of our personal comfort level, and customized online strategy.

But does it lead you to your goals? Is it working as well as you would like? For many people, I find that they are doing interesting things in social media, but are failing to find a workable system that is manageable, enjoyable and leads to the personal and career growth they were hoping.

This is the reason I am creating a class for teaching social media to writers and authors. Here is why I think a structured curriculum is important:

You Need Goals
The one thing missing from most people’s online strategy is goals. They know they want to grow in some way, they have a vague feeling of what success will entail, but they rarely define it with hard numbers and accomplishments. This is the first critical step. If you don’t know where you are going, then it is all the more likely that you will get there.

You Need a Plan
A curriculum is a plan, a committment. It takes you step by step through a process, and always leaves you with two things: accomplishments and a next step. It is a process for growing.

You Need to Get Your Hands Dirty
Its not enough to debate the value of certain aspects of social media, you need to get your hands dirty. For instance, I see far too many people debate the value of paid content or paywalls online, without ever trying themselves. They are debating theory – what-ifs in a universe that needs practical insight and experience.

You Need to Measure
Too often, we pursue a certain tactic or strategy, and validate it by blindly following it forever. That, instead of being honest about if it really works, we are too afraid to feel stupid by discovering that (while it was a good idea), it didn’t have the intended result. Measuring what works and what doesn’t is critical for true success, not just perceived expertise.

You Need to Iterate
You hear phrases such as “fail often,” and what they are referring to is iteration – the need to change, to evolve ideas and move towards finding the results you are looking for. Iteration is a process, something that doesn’t often come naturally. It is essential for learning, for growing, for building, for achieving your goals.

You Need Help
This does not refer just to a teacher-student relationship, but to the comradery and resources that other classmates give you. You can learn so much from others who are a part of the same program, pursuing similar goals, and following the same strategy as you . Likewise, alumni are incredible resources for years to come – those who can continue to help each other as they grow and become successful. Why is a Harvard education so valuable? Part of the reason is the ability to tap into it’s network of successful people.

I learn so much just by reading Tweets everyday. But this learning is disaggregated – found in stolen moments and dozens of Bit.ly links each day. And my concern is that this leads to a great deal of input, without much output. EG: Am I building my future with all of the things I learn?

So that is the background as to why I am building this course. And… here are some details on the course itself:

This is a 6 week long ONLINE class. You don’t have to leave your house!
It starts off with a 1-on-1 chat where I can assess your personal challenges and goals.
It includes weekly live webinars taking you through a structured curriculum. Here I share advice as to how to build, manage, and grow your online presence.
There are hands-on assignments which means you walk away from the course already well on your way to achieving your goals.
Each week, I help you tackle specific issues and questions via email office hours.
You will be able to learn from other writers going through this course with you.

Are you interested? Do you think you may want to apply to be a part of this program? Yay!

I’ll be sharing more information very soon.

Thank you!

-Dan

Media Companies Need To Be Developing iPad Apps Today

Yesterday I spoke at the “Custom Media Day” event in New York. About 110 people were in attendance, all from a variety of roles in large and small media companies.

One theme that came up again and again was the iPad. And it is clear to me that the iPad – today – is an opportunity that needs to be addressed. If you wait, it becomes a threat. Media companies should have learned this in the past 20 years – they waited to establish web-centric organizations, product lineups, and revenue streams, and suffered because of it.

Custom publishers have often relied on print media such as magazines as a core part of their business. Sure, we’ve all asked about whether “digital slates” would shift the marketplace, but those questions were often framed in a distant future.

Now, everyone’s perspective is changing. Because of the iPad, we KNOW the future will include this new medium. Those who are more apprehensive are asking “if” they need to address it now, or “when” will the adoption rate be significant enough to begin developing content for the iPad.

Of course, the answer to those questions is: the time is now. If you wait for everyone else to transition their business to include products and content for the iPad, it is not only a product differentiation they have over you, but an organizational differentiation. Start building those muscles from an organizational standpoint – considering how content is different, how sales is different, how interaction is different, how marketing is different.

Do experiments now – even if they are small scale and don’t deliver any business value. It’s better to learn in that manner now, than to wait, and bank the future of your company on your very first iPad venture 2 years down the road.

Here are some ways to consider why the iPad is an opportunity you need to address today:

It is a new medium, one that will require different types of products, content, and interaction. Learn what those differentiations are to your current lineup of products and services. Don’t look along traditional lines, such as only judging what magazine apps are doing on the iPad. Look at lots of games, at sketching apps, at productivity apps, at anything that requires interaction. Understand how these iPad work individually, and within the framework the iPad experience. Don’t look at how you replicate what you do now, look at what needs and behaviors make sense to address.
Understand how the competition will be able to outmaneuver you before they do. 20 years ago, newspapers would never have considered a free service such as Craigslist a threat. They would have cited bandwidth limitations, internet adoption rates, trust about online commerce, the cost of servers, and the inability for one man to scale a local service into a national phenomenon. And, while they may have been right when it comes to facts on paper, they essentially bet on all the wrong horses. That has cost the newspaper industry billions, taking away a primary source of revenue. Sitting on the sidelines with the iPad simply gives others room to explore and accept the possibilities before you do.
The biggest change the iPad will bring is not external to your company. Too many media companies underestimate the challenge of organizational change. This has a huge cost not just in dollars, but time. Most media companies are still grappling with how to evolve for the web. We are 15-20 years into the Internet age, and you still hear about reorganization after reorganization as media companies try to align their offline strategies to online strategies. Don’t underestimate the role of developing the mindset, skillset and organizational structure your employees need. Investing in the iPad will inherently be about investing in your employees.

Thanks!

-Dan

Customers Don’t Buy Features, They Buy Identity

What differentiates you from your competitors? What button are you pushing that gets someone to actually open their wallet and pay for your products or services?

I read two articles this morning that discuss not how Apple is changing brands, but what they are exposing about how people already associate with brands.

The Atlantic:

“When you’re buying into Mac, you’re buying into an ideology. You’re buying into a community.”

CNET:

“So, what do you do if you’re a PC maker whose business is still all about the Windows-Intel PC? You slavishly imitate as fast as you can.”

This is something that Simon Sinek discusses in his book Start With Why – that we associate with “why” a brand exists – what they represent – before we judge the “what” or “how” of their offering.

And yes, it is a more elegant – more human – view of business. That we are individuals constantly looking for self-definition, for identification, for purpose. That in a world of consumerism, we do these things through products, as much as by vocation, personal behavior or hobbies. Clearly, not everyone does this, and for those that do, it is not all in the same way.

But for many businesses, it would be an interesting exercise to consider how your products & services shape the identity of your customers.

This goes beyond premium products. Why do people by a Honda Civic instead of a Toyota Corolla or whatever Ford offers at that price range? There is a certain point at which you are splitting hairs – where all of these cars have the same features, price and safety rating.

Why are some families Toyota families, and others Honda families? Why do others pay a premium for Volkswagen even though a base model Honda Civic would be effective, inexpensive and long-lasting transportation for years to come?

Social media has been helping to expose these answers – how our preferences, how our sense of self, is shaped and expressed via the brands we buy.

In your market, in your niche, in your company, in your role – how do you shape the identity of the people you serve?

Thanks!

-Dan

How People Define Your Value

Many businesses and individuals attempt to define themselves by finding a simple description that communicates their value. On a corporate level, we have seen some go from being “publishers” to “media companies.” Circulation departments are now audience marketing departments. Human resources? No. Talent development.

What I find most interesting is not how a person or company defines themselves, but how others do. My favorite way to check this recently is via Twitter Lists. Here are the lists people have added me to, as an example.

This is intriguing for two reasons:

How People Define You
You get to see the specific wording people use to define you when they are forced to choose just a word or two. Are you PR, marketing, or social media expert? Are you an editor, writer, thinker, or blogger? You might be surprised.
Who They Group You With
You also get to see who else has been grouped with you in that category. Are these people you view as colleagues or competitors? Are they similar to you in job title and level of the org chart?

I am often surprised when I look at Twitter lists of someone I know – the range of descriptive words, and then the totally random categories. It reminds me how the way we define ourselves can limit our potential, and even miss the mark in terms of how others value us.

It is also a reminder that we are not our business titles. We are not a tagline. To build a career, the goal is not to be broadcasting a brand message, but to be engaging, helping and illustrating our value through actions, not pitches.

We all hear about the great expense that often goes into creating a new logo for a college or a new tagline for a business. And it’s a pretty cool to realize the process that goes into creating these things.

Oftentimes, they are supposed to help encourage an organizational change – a business that is responding to market shifts, a university that has a new focus, an individual that is trying to grow their reputation. So yes, the way we define ourselves is handy, and important.

But when individuals and organizations go through a transition, it is often slower and messier than just changing a logo or tagline. And the real value is not just in repeating the new pitch again and again, but in executing on that value, until your market begins to define you how THEY see you.

Thanks!

-Dan