Fusion Marketing

Have you ever thought of partnering up with a business who has a similar target market but who doesn’t compete with you? Your choices of who to partner up with is as limited as your imagination. Al Lautenslager writes in his article in Entrepreneur Magazine .

I have always loved collaborating, brainstorming and working with partners who have a compatible business that provides outstanding service. When you think of all the possibilities, new distribution, new clients or customers, new ideas, it’s exciting!

Social media allows you to build community around common interests, values, public service, hobbies and what better way to find a “power partner” to grow your business? Being a pioneer on the web in 1994, helping companies form such alliances, I have had the great fortune to build long lasting relationships in different industries that my clients have benefited from. I won’t hesitate to pick up the phone and plug them into someone I’ve known for years. They might not be the ideal partner for this particular client, but as Steven Covey said in “7 Habits of Highly Successful People”, one of my all time favorite books, “everyone has a circle of influence, those people have circles of influence”. I’m sure you get my point.

No matter how bad the news gets on any given day, I try and live by these words from a song I heard in Spamalot a few weeks ago, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. This is a great way to keep focusing on solutions to grow your business, reinvent your career or whatever your particular need is at this time. The point is, you don’t have to do anything alone, there are so many wonderful, inspiring and enterprising people on the web, and now you can find them through blogging and social media.

We’re about to enter 2009, just think of all those incredible people you will meet, it’s like serendipity, my favorite word. You never know what’s around the next corner, no matter where you are, there are so many opportunities just waiting for you!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends, the most precious gifts of all.

Mind your manners when using social media

Hats off to Tamar Weinberg for creating “The Ultimate Social Media Etiquite Handbook”. I found this extremely useful, if we’re all building relationships online, we have our reputations to protect and this is new territory to many of you.  This is an excellent guide to help you navigate through unknown and sometimes murky waters.

http://www.techipedia.com/2008/social-media-etiquette-handbook/

Is Blogging Dead?

Jan and I were talking yesterday about the article in Fast Company by the title of Is the Original Blogging Dead?

I think the article makes a few good points that blogging is not dead, but we are certainly moving in the direction of integrating social networks into this process. With the tools which are emerging, you can get your blog what I call “hyper connected” to over 30 social networking sites. If you are reading this post today via Twitter or Facebook, it’s because I know a few tricks to take this blog out to the world.

So…for 2009, start considering how you can get “hyper connected.” I believe the upcoming year is going to be “the year of social networks.”

The Case for Social Networks

Many people are asking this question lately: “Why should I use online social networks?” and many people see tools like Twitter, Facebook and My Space as purely tools for the younger generation. While this is true to some effect, business owners, marketers and corporate executives are now seeing how both microblogging and online social networks can be a wonderful tool for conducting research, recruiting and for building strong brand equity.

The following includes a list of articles and reports which we believe may help to build a strong case for using social networks.

According to a Pew Research Study, 55% of online teens use social networks and 55% have created online profiles; older girls predominate.

Why Twitter Matters: Can the fledgling microblogging service become a social media powerhouse to rival giants like Facebook—or will it be gobbled up?

How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands: Microblogging lets an airline, for instance, monitor customers’ gripes—and tweet back. Is this a creepy trend?

Getting Intimate (with Customers) on Twitter: Businesses should lose their inhibitions over using the microblogging tool to get closer to their customers

Are Social Networking Sites Useful for Business? To get the most out of social networking sites, small companies should look past the hype, set concrete business goals, then start experimenting

The Business Value of Social Networking