While I currently concentrate my own blogging on TheSocialMediaProfessor.com, I also maintain GlobalMarketingProfessor.com as a hub with links to multiple specialized sites on various aspects of International Marketing. When I teach MBAs, I sometimes give them as an assignment to blog and currently, my Executive MBA class in Marketing Management blogs on GlobalMarketingProfessor.com. Check it out, I’m sure you’d enjoy it!
Speaking on Social Media in Gothenburg and Prague Book Raffle
In January, I very much enjoyed the honor of making a keynote presentation on Trends in Digital Marketing and Social Media in Gothenburg, Sweden. The event was professionally organized and promoted by the leading-edge content marketing agency KNTNT and the Marketing Association of Gothenburg (pic credit!) and I got to speak to a full house of 185 very engaged attendees in a large movie theater.
While speaking, I promised a signed copy of Jonah Berger’s excellent book Contagious: Why Things Catch On to someone signing up for my email newsletter that day. Below you can see the video of how I determined the winner a couple of days later in a hailstorm on Prague’s Charles Bridge! I was in Prague to teach in Chapman University’s Prague MBA program run in collaboration with Anglo-American University. If you are the lucky winner revealed in the video, please shoot me an email with your address unless I manage to find you first, at least I should have your email address somewhere 🙂
Disclosure: Some of the links on this website are so-called “affiliate links” but please note that I only recommend products or services that I either use to satisfaction personally or am confident will add value to my readers based on endorsements by people I trust.
How Mitch Jackson Wins Social Media Friends and Influences Juries
Mitch Jackson, California Lawyer of the Year 2013, of the law firm JacksonandWilson.com, and founder/CEO of Human.Social shared perspectives on engaging and building relationships with clients, friends, and communities to my students and these are some of the knowledge bombs that he shared:
- In 1996, he realized the importance of the web as a lady called his law practice after seeing his URL in the Yellow Pages and apparently that impressed her enough even though she never used a computer! You need to learn how different clients prefer to communicate. Once he won over a client as the previous lawyer just left voicemails to someone who only communicated via text.
- The famous Cochran Law firm wasn’t responsive to inquiries by a client of theirs and when Mitch’s firm proved more attentive, they took over the case eventually resulting in a $5,500,000 jury verdict for wrongful death.
- You need to be good at what you are doing but all other things being equal, building social platforms and being a social business as described by Brian Solis in What’s the Future of Business, allowing people to connect is often the determinant of who gets the order.
- Mobile technology creates business opportunities for companies big and small to connect and build relationships globally. Peter Diamandis new book Abundance talks about how those who change their mindset can tap into an increasingly connected world.
- Bob Burg’s book of turning Adversaries into Allies is the best people skills book Mitch Jackson knows and junior lawyers he mentors first need to read this book and let Mitch know what they got out of it before he spends time with them.
- David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of Sales and Service lays out how you can succeed on social platforms with a focus on service and genuine helpfulness. Mitch is also featured in the book in a whole chapter dedicated to so-called newsjacking. Newsjacking is the idea of interjecting yourself and your business into hot current news stories and Mitch can attest to it working very well. Thanks to his prompt commentary on hot news topics, he has landed press, TV, and social media coverage eventually resulting in more business for his firm. To succeed in newsjacking, Mitch cautions that you should have at least something partially relevant to add to the conversation based either on your experience or perspectives. Mitch also always tries to take the high road on divisive issues by maintaining a positive and constructive tone.
- Mitch’s six communication principles for success on and off social media are inspired by Dale Carnegie’s classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People:
- Become genuinely interested in other people.
- Smile. Check yourself, deflect, reflect, and select your options regarding when to take action. Take smart actions and don’t dwell on bad decisions you made, keep smiling.
- Remember and use other people’s names. Mentioning people’s names works online as well to separate yourself from the noise. He uses Nimble which pulls in from connected social media feeds what you are talking about and up to this week. To “Nimble” someone is often more specific than when you Google somebody.
- Be a good listener and encourage others to talk about themselves. Listen 60-70% of the time, ask open-ended questions, and let people speak.
- Talk in terms of the other person’s interest. Phrase and categorize things in their best interest. Ask questions about their goals and constraints so you can best help them.
- Sincerely make the other person feel important. People do business with people they enjoy being around and making them feel that you care is a great way to develop rapport.
Mitch’s final advice to students. Learn how to say no in a respectful manner and start building an online platform today! Do you believe that these principles apply also in your life or career? Please share in the comments!
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links” but I only recommend products or services I either use to satisfaction personally or am confident will add value to my readers based on endorsements by people I trust.The Social Media Professor on The Human Side Interview
I had the pleasure of spending some quality time with my good friend and favorite lawyer Mitch Jackson when I had the honor of being featured on his new show, please check out the episode at The Social Media Professor on The Human Side Interviews. During this talk, we covered grounds in areas such as:
- How my background from Engineering school and subsequent exposure to international relations in a B2B context while traveling the globe interviewing executives led me to study business relationships and social networks even before the Internet took off.
Is Social Media Marketing an MBA course?
While teaching Internet & Social Media Marketing at Chapman University’s Prague MBA program hosted by Anglo-American University in the Czech Republic, I as The Social Media Professor was interviewed by The Prague Post on the role of social media in academia in general and in business schools in particular. While social media is affecting areas beyond the realm of business schools such as in the areas of journalism and politics, when teaching social media, myself I tend to focus on the implications of social media on business, especially marketing-related aspects. In my experience, focusing “just” on marketing and social media provides enough reasons for a dedicated course on social media.
7 Marketing Uses of Social Media
Some of the key points that I emphasized in the interview is that social media increasingly is being used by companies and consumers to:
[Read more…]
Erica Derrickson's Tweet Dreams
Erica Derrickson quit her desk job only a year and a half ago, and already has a thriving photography business because of her implementation of social media marketing strategies. She speaks at local universities on social media, has been recently featured in Trade Secrets, and manages a Facebook group Hollywood East Actors Group which has over 8,000 members. Check out her acting reel, her film credits range from the National blockbuster The Heat (2013) which starred Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy to independent films like Melt (2012) and Rafi Baby (2011).
One day, Erica Derrickson tweeted her enthusiasm over Gary Vaynerchuk’s latest best seller “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” suggesting it would be the perfect textbook if there were such a thing like a class on social media.
Microsoft gets "MicroPhone" in Nokia Deal
Today’s announcement that Microsoft is buying the cell phone part of Nokia (their Devices and Services Division) was hardly shocking. Yet, it is a noteworthy event and also a little bit saddening given that it represents a significant milestone in the downhill slide of Nokia from its heights as the undisputed leader in cell phone manufacturing only a few years ago.
With our Chapman MBA travel course Business in Scandinavia, we visited the Nokia headquarters both in 2010 and in 2011. In the following, I will offer some reactions to what this acquisition may mean in the evolution of the mobile phone industry and intersperse it with some pictures from our Nokia visits. [Read more…]
BBC Interview on Personal Branding with a Website
In an interview with BBC Capital, I was asked about the value for professionals of developing a website where they can manage their personal brands to support their career objectives. To me, it is surprising that this is still even an issue almost twenty years after we started exploring the World Wide Web. However, as I often encounter confusion regarding both what owning your own domain implies and its value, I find it necessary to further (also wrote a related post on “Good Domain Parenting” earlier) articulate why I believe this is important and outline the first action steps. [Read more…]
Chapman Students Boost Swedish Startup’s Social Media
Recently, I published a blog post asking companies if they wanted student teams helping them with their social media efforts. Heeding the call was Swedish startup Oricane, a green technology company offering energy efficient software and big data solutions often reducing cost by 98% and power use by 99%.
Internet Marketing In Real Life
I very much enjoy having my former students visit my classes and today was definitely no exception as my Internet/Social Media Marketing class was visited by Melanie and Devin Duncan. Melanie Duncan graduated in 2008 and met her future husband Devin Duncan while he was also studying at Chapman University. As true serial entrepreneurs, they have worked on, and successfully launched, a number of businesses together including Custom Greek Threads, Luxury Monograms, as well as a business around the Melanie’s personal brand. [Read more…]