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4 Things You Should Never do on Facebook

Jeph — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:07:46 +0000

1. Mass inviting friends – C’mon I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but inviting a bunch of people from your area to be your friend because it’s going to benefit you at your new job is just lazy. Once you send them a message about your “new job” that “remove from friends” button just got a lot bigger.

Did you leave caps lock on? Is it your first time on Facebook? Yes, you want to get our attention, we can see that, but typing in all caps makes it sound like you’re yelling (go on, try reading a message in all caps with a small voice, it feels weird) Most people upon seeing a message in all caps chuckle to themselves then ignore the message.

3. Creating a group or a fan page for the sole purpose of creating a group or a fan page. – If you don’t have a clear idea or goal in mind about why you are starting a Facebook group or fan page then don’t do it (or do it and don’t invite anyone). Nothing is more mind-numbingly obvious that you have no clue how to market to people then inviting me to your fan page to give me updates about your company that I do not care about. Before you create a fan page or group please ask yourself, why?

4. Excessively bothering people who are a part of your group, fan page, attending your event, etc. – If I join your group you’ve obviously peaked my interest in some way. Don’t ruin it for yourself by bombarding me with messages. Plan messages out and have a purpose for even the simplest ones. The best way to get me to leave your group or fan page is to keep bothering me with messages that do not pertain to me. Update all you want, you’ll end up in my news feed, that is fine, but sometimes all it takes is one meaningless message that loses the trust I once had in you, leaving your group never to return.

Did I forget any? Please let me know what YOU think people should never do on Facebook in the comments below.

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Executing Social Media in Regina

Jeph — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:09:36 +0000

On September 16th the Executing Social Media conference will be held in Regina at the Queensbury Convention Centre. Now I may be a bit biased but I think they have a great lineup of speakers. Some locals and some from abroad all taking about our favorite topic, online media.

Besides myself the list of speakers includes:

Kip Simon – President, 22 Fresh

Mike Klein Senior Online Communications Strategy at University of Saskatchewan

Philippe Leclerc, Interactive Communications Manager at the City of Regina

Adam Herstein - Partner, Pitblado LLP

Doug Walker - President, WebWalker

Ryan Lejbak – CEO & Co-Founder, ZU

To see all the speakers and presentation outlines click here. Let me know if you are attending as we may organize a small Tweet up the night of the conference.

Photo Credit: Hubspot.com

BEXDM5AZVCKN

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The Most Important Person in the World

Jeph — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:35:50 +0000

The other day I found myself in a very interesting conversation about strangers.

Her: “I always try to be as nice as possible to strangers”

Me: “Really? Why?”

Her: “Well, you never know who that person is and what if they’re the most important person in the World?”

Me: “So you assume everyone you meet/talk to is the most important person in the World?”

Her: “Precisely”

Me: I didn’t say anything just had a small explosion go off in my head.

My boss has always told me when going to a small town bar, make sure you treat the waitress like gold because she probably owns the place. I think this is a great metaphorical life lesson.

The person who I know who is the best at dealing with people does this all the time. You can see it when he talks to anyone, yes I mean anyone, he gives them the time of day, he truly cares about what they think and he makes them feel like they are the most important person in the world. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, this strategy works wonders for building your personal and professional relationships.

Where can you start? Remember peoples names more often. To anyone the most important word in the english language is his/her own name, if someone remembers it, it’s a sign of respect. Here’s a few tips on how to remember better.

If you have a story about treating a stranger really well that resulted in something amazingly spectacular I’d love to here about it in the comments below!

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What we take for granted

Jeph — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:28:28 +0000

Helping out at Regina’s Canada Day in Wascana Park I met a young gentlemen who was volunteering for the day. Blain, a quick-whited kid, just a bit younger than myself, had an adorable dog named Dewey with him at all times.

Just after sunset in the park, a man rushed over to Blain and I, he had a severe problem on his hands. Here is how the he started the conversation, “I have to go to the washroom but when you close the outhouse door you can’t see anything in there and the Legislative building is locked, I need to go to the washroom, what should I do?!?” Without missing a beat in a condescending tone Blain snapped, “well I could guild you!” Trying as hard as I could not to laugh at what just occurred in front of me, I helped this guy explore his washrooms options, apologized to him for not having lit outhouses, and he went on his way. It was a very interesting moment for me.

You see, Blain is blind but that doesn’t really stop him from doing anything. He can golf, get to and from places on his own (via talking GPS device), volunteers in the community and can go to the washroom in the dark on his own. Blain doesn’t complain very much and he makes the most out of life. I think if we saw the world through Blain’s eyes we wouldn’t be so quick to complain over a dark jiffy biffy.

So smile, we have it pretty good.

Photo Credit: Steven Wilde “Fireworks” from the Regina Canada Day Facebook group

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56 uses of social media in Saskatchewan

Jeph — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:35:39 +0000

Instead of “news” build your own RSS reader
Begin following local bloggers in your RSS reader and keep searching for new ones
Challenge a local blogger, disagree, leave a comment
Offer to write a guest post for a local blogger
Offer to write a guest post for an industry specific blog
Hold a local specific contest (Treasure hunt via Facebook?)
Start a local restaurant review site, make it fun
Ask for feedback of your product/service via Twitter
Offer to take pictures at an event and start a Flickr account for them
Host a picture contest
Host a picture caption contest for other businesses
Encourage patrons to take a picture of their meal and share it online for 25% off the meal
Tell stories about your product on a blog
Host a community blog with many different contributers
Start selling your product on Facebook
Encourage employees to offer reviews of the company via LinkedIn
Start a local trivia blog (written, video, picture)
Offer free products/services to people with lots of friends on Facebook
Put your website on all printed material
Put your Twitter name in places where no one would expect to see it (get creative with this one)
Put your blog and Twitter name on the inside of a box of donuts and deliver them to potential readers
Put your blog, vlog, landing page or video in your e-mail signature
Start a collection of local website on Delicious, sort them in a meaningful way
Host an online garage sale
Host an actual garage sale via Ustream
Add you company to Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and any other geo-location service
Offer different deals on Foursquare, see what works
Host a city wide treasure hunt via Foursquare
Host a 24 hour Foursquare challenge
Leave an unbelievable “deal” on Yelp and see who takes you up on it
Document the entire Foursquare challenge on YouTube
Do a video production of your safety manual
Record the “Monday morning announcements” on YouTube, make them fun
Set up Google alerts to monitor your company’s name being mentioned
Add you business to Google maps (seems simple but many people overlook this one)
Give me a reason to go to your website daily
Host a local “Tweet-up”
Offer to begin a Twitter account for a large local event
Setup an your automatic e-mail the next time you’re on holidays to say “you’re only responding to requests on Twitter”
Have a video contest, offer a large cash prize
Make a video explaining everything about your organization
Make a video about a different employee every day until you run out of employees
Start a YouTube channel for your company and post a video per week about industry specific topics
UStream your Friday at the office
UStream a different place/person in your office weekly
Have a “submit question” box on your homepage, answer every question that comes in
Submit a fascinating story to Digg and Stumble Upon once a week
Sell T-shirts on your home page for charity, let people vote on the charity
Start a Foodbank challenge with one of your competitors, document everything on a picture blog
Create an interactive fundraising tool on your website
Encourage all of your staff to fill out their entire profile on LinkedIn, make it a company wide activity
Host an appreciation BBQ for the employee of the month, video tape it and post all the pleasant things said on your company blog
Start an e-mail newsletter and fill it with the most helpful information/links in your industry
Recognize employees who go above and beyond on your company blog
Put your Twitter name on a billboard by a busy street
Give free coffee to everyone downtown who becomes a fan of yours on Facebook

This is just the beginning of what you could do, the possibilities are endless. Have anymore you want to share? Please do!

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Your Marketing Strategy? Start with a goal…

Jeph — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:50:36 +0000

If you own a small business in Saskatchewan what do you do to market yourself?

If someone gives you advice on an advertising tactic you “should” be doing, ignore it. In todays marketing world you must define your goal before any thoughts of a tactic are brought up.

Do you buy the big billboards on Ringroad? Maybe a large ad in the Saturday Leaderpost? Nah, make a Facebook fan page, everyone’s on Facebook, right? How about a commercial on the Wolf, Regina’s most popular radio station, that oughta bring in some new clientele! All these tactics I’m sure would work for some organization if executed correctly but that does not mean you should be using them.

Yes social media is growing but in Saskatchewan the adoption rate is much slower. Yes billboards have worked in the past but that does not mean they’ll work for you.

Define your goal first then look at your at your tactical options. Confused? Give me a call I can help you clarify.

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A Few Helpful Links and a Contest

Jeph — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:05:16 +0000

I have found some pretty neat tools while researching in the past couple weeks that I want to share with you. If you like the links enough share them, as Rework taught us, inspiration is perishable so send to someone who can benefit from them.

Spreeder: An online speed reading tool to teach yourself how to speed read. Give it a try!

Simply Hired: A Canadian job searching tool

Vintage Ad Browser: This is a catastrophic site that hosts ads from our past

Here’s a ten minute video on what actually motivates us

Only go here in dire situations

Here are some of the most amazing pictures I’ve ever found.

Now I want to know what some of your favorite sites are. You know, the sites you go to and say “wow, how cool! I have to send this to Jeph!” Post the link in the comments below, the best link gets not one but two boxes of my favorite sour candies delivered personally by me, or if you are not from Regina I’ll ship them. Now go and share your favorite sites!

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What Inspires You?

Jeph — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:53:53 +0000

What gets you up in the morning? What makes you go to a job day after day hating it, is it a means to an end? What is that end? What do you do on the REALLY bad days? You know, the ones where you feel like quitting, like the world is against you, like you just want to get out.

Something must inspire you to keep going.

For me its coaching. I love volleyball and I love teaching kids about the game. Last year my Senior Boys team from Winston Knoll won the city championship, the gold medal that was presented to me that day hangs around my rearview mirror in my car as a constant reminder when things get tough.

I’ve had some pretty bad days, days where I’m not sure what to do, days when I look into my future and for some reason it is a dark and negative picture (though nothing compared to Gabrielle). That all goes away when I get in my car and see that medal. It’s a constant reminder that I’m here in this world for a different reason than just having a job and getting by. It tells me that there is more to life than money, work and what society calls success.

My success is the smiling faces on those kids every season.

What inspires you?

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It Worked…

Jeph — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:54:14 +0000

The speed networking session worked. We brought strangers together, from a lawyer to hand-full of entrepreneurs, learned about them and increased our networks reach all within a span of 3 hours. Want someone else’s opinion on how it went, ask Ryan.

We considered it a success because everyone offered their contact info and wanted to be a part of the next one we host. Yes there will be a next time and we’re looking at increasing our numbers. The thought was possibly for everyone who attended bring one friend that wouldn’t know the group that well and let them share their story. The ideas that come from a group of strangers talking over beers are fascinating.

So my advice this week is to get out and meet someone new, once you leave that comfort zone and your left armpit begins sweating, that is when you will learn the most.

If you would like more info on what happened or to be a part of the next one, you can contact me here, here or here.

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First Speed Networking Session

Jeph — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:14:31 +0000

A month ago I wrote this post on an idea I had about a speed networking session. Go on now read that post.

Last week I received a call from someone who was interested in seeing if the speed networking session would work. I said why not? So we’re going for it. The first ever speed networking session for young professional (SNSYP), we’re working on the name, will be held next Thursday a 7:00 pm at a location disclosed only to the first 20 people who e-mail me with their interest.

We are limiting it to 20 people, the location is in Regina and it’s sure to be an interesting and enlightening event.

As of now there are only two rules:

1. You can’t sell your product or service to someone unless they openly ask you

2. Don’t be boring. If you’re boring please bring something to talk about that is not boring.

The purpose is to meet new people, find out what they do in life and to see if you can help them in any way possible. Simple right?

If your evening is free on Thursday, May 13th e-mail me at: Jeff(at)Fraserstrategy(dot)ca include you business please.

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