Listen, respond and share

More and more I'm heads down with work and don't make time in the evenings and weekends to post. I need to make time because I need to practice what I preach which is listen, respond and share. We all (individual contributors, brands, agencies, partners) need to listen first. Active listening, respond (repeat first two repeatedly), then share value-based content. I need to do a better job at all three so I can help others do an amazing job at all three.

Over this weekend, I've been catching up on social media initiatives - campaigns, new public and private communities, influencer outreach strategies, etc. and in news posts the brands all come back to listen first. They listen to what the target is asking for and respond, then they share.

Are we listening and responding to the ask OR are we sharing for sharing sake or campaign sake? Is there a way to blend? That's the secret formula we all hope for, right?

Digging through my old blog posts and found this one, a bit rusty, but the premise of going where your customer is, actively listening, then responding still holds true.

Posted via email from zenaweist's posterous

6 year old schools mom

I was working on my son's birthday invitations last night after a crazy busy weekend. I did old school paper invitations - the kind we used to get. They took awhile but my son's worth all the extra effort...even if it's hectic holiday time.

This morning as he's looking at the invites he says, "Mom, we can do laser tag." And I remind him we can't, we need to do bowling instead because the minimum age for laser tag is six and some of the boys in his class won't be six yet.

He looks at me and starts grinning, "Mom, everyone in my class is six...some are even seven."

I grab an invite. I had written in really cute calligraphy script "Come Celebrate LT's 6th Birthday!" for 15 invitations. Sixth! WTH?! He's turning S E V E N. UGH!!!!! I gave birth to this kid and I have him turning six again...sigh. 

My son says, "Mom, I think you might be seriously losing it." I made a mental note to remind myself not to keep saying to the kids, "You are seriously going to make me lose it." 

We all got a good laugh out of my mistake and I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't send the invites out. Phew!

Oh and I'm still going with old school invites for 7th birthday laser tag style fun...but I'm nixing the calligraphy, and of course my six year old is proofing each one.

 

Posted via email from zenaweist's posterous

Communication Shutdown

Amber Naslund wrote a thought provoking, "get-your-cause-on" post on Brass Tack Thinking about yesterday's autism awareness event called Communication Shutdown that sparked my response below (I changed it a bit from the comment I left)...

Being a mom of an autistic kid and being an autism advocate I completely got the premise of Communication Shutdown. Silence was our life when our son was 2 1/2. We went from a very vocal infant to a barely audible toddle in less then 12 months. For me, this event brought back the diagnosis, the struggle...gosh, it was almost 10 years ago.

Our son is 12 and as I mentioned he has autism. He was diagnosed at 2 1/2. The county early developmental team working with us at the time said that he would never be able to attend a typical school setting because he was mostly non-verbal and had so many delays. They told us to plan for in-home schooling, etc.

Well, our son's story is one of challenging the labels and the "low" expectations. We made our own game plan with the help of many a therapist/teacher and lots of loving repetition and I'm happy to say our 12 yr old is in a typical school setting without para support. We have our challenging moments (mostly social interaction, communication cue missteps) but we are moving forward every day.

He and I discussed yesterday's Communication Shutdown and he was thrilled about the worldwide effort to (as their chater rsays) create "a sense of disconnection and a sense of frustration. By creating a little empathy, we hope to encourage a wider understanding and acceptance of people with autism – an understanding we recognize those in the autism community already have."

He saw me sit down at the laptop and start up tweetdeck (by habit) while he was working through homework last night. I told him, "Oh man, this Communication Shutdown thing is hard for me. Do I ever want to get on Twitter and share this news...but I can't."

His reply, "Now you know how I feel about 87% of the time, Mom." And he smiled adding, "This is good."

Awareness is good. For me, the Communication Shutdown was a one day event to help people walk in my son's autistic shoes. From the blog #shutdown posts and twitter comments of the folks that did it in support of autism (but didn't know anyone directly with autism), I read a lot of "this was helpful". In my mind, it was a learn by doing (or lack of doing) model.

There's so many wonderful autism awareness organizations providing a ton of amazing information, programs, etc. every day including Autism Speaks and The Autism Society of America. There are fantastic autism resource blogs as well. And April is Autism Awareness Month with April 2 being World Autism Day. So there's a lot of resources and discussions going on every day. The Communication Shutdown one day event was one more way to help people understand how complex and how frustrating autism can be.

For me, yesterday was my day to listen and not connect. It was a good reminder for me on how far our son has come and that he still struggles every day. Today and every other day (but yesterday) is my day to share our story and hopefully help some folks along the way.

Posted via email from zenaweist's posterous

Please Text A Vote for Our School! Only Two Days Left!

DISCLOSURE: I have kids that go to St. Michael.

The quickest way to vote for our school is by SMS: Text 73774 and enter 103090 (St. Michael's code). You only have two days left to vote, you can vote via text once a day.

St. Michael’s is in the running for $50,000 to buy Smart Boards for classrooms. For all the deets on The Pepsi Refresh Project and all 10 amazing groups St Michael has partnered with and how to cast more votes (through Pepsi's site and Facebook) go to www.smawin.com.

Thank you!!!

Posted via email from zenaweist's posterous

Seven Days and Counting, Have You Voted for My Kids' School Yet?

DISCLOSURE: I have kids that go to St. Michael.

St. Michael the Archangel School and the Kyrie Foundation are two amazing groups that are in this month's Pepsi Refresh Project Challenge. They are asking for our help. The organizations are working not against, but with each other and 8 other phenom groups to help all 10 groups win grant money from Pepsi. They need our votes to win!

The quickest way to vote is by SMS: Text 73774 and enter 103090 for St. Michael’s or 103447 for Kyrie Foundation. You can vote every day through Sunday, October 31.

St. Michael’s is in the running for $50,000 to buy Smart Boards for classrooms; Kyrie Foundation is in the $250,000 division. The foundation will use the money to help fund research to cure pediatric brain cancer. For all the deets on all 10 amazing groups and to cast more votes (through Pepsi's site and Facebook) go to www.smawin.com.

Thank you!!!

Posted via email from zenaweist's posterous

My Mom's Battle With Cancer is Over

My mom, Maralyne Monsour, died at her home with our family by her side on September 12 just a few days short of her 73rd birthday.


She was an amazing woman...so very strong, such a fighter, so beautiful (inside and out)...such an amazing mentor. Yep, I miss her a lot and her death is the reason for my absence from this blog.

When I sit in front of my laptop, it often triggers memories of being with my mom for therapy, surgeries and recovery. Her ten year battle with cancer is inspiring. She's my hero.

It's because of her brain cancer diagnosis in 2007 that I become a heavy user of Twitter for instant information, contact and mass notification on Mom's condition.

Her passing is still really so raw that this post is a short "letting you know why I've been away" update and also a quick thank you to everyone that has helped me through my mom's passing. Thank you!

Commitment versus One and Done - Relationships

So I talked about how important executive level buy-in was for the social media leader's success in my last post. I know it sounds like a given, but I've worked in both environments. If you have buy-in, you have budget, you have executive sponsorship, you have the green light. Without buy-in, your social media initiative at best is a pilot program that might get traction but most likely won't.

The premise of this series is the CMO's commitment shift to more long-term customer lifetime value versus short-term spikes. Here's the four CMO shifts, I think need to happen for social media initiatives to get legs in the corporate world:

1) Peers/your team buy-in, hire leader
2) Relationships
3) Conversations vs campaigns
4) Long haul sentiment change (YOY) vs buzz spike (quarterly)

On the relationships front, it's the direct marketing lens that we are focusing on in social media...or more appropriately we aren't transaction based, point of sale based - we are looking holistically at the customer's experience with the brand and their life time value. So the shift is from a one and done transaction or get-the-sale-in-for-this-quarter-or-die mantra to a long-term customer relationship mentality. This means a focus on LTV metrics not just quarterly sales objectives.

I promise we'll dive into what that means from a social media metrics standpointin the last post of this series. Back to relationships...

Social media provides you ample opportunities to listen to your customers and potential customers through their journey with your brand and to engage with them through social media channels when it makes sense. Relationships take back and forth dialogue - there needs to be give and take or there's really no connection nor skin in the game.

Take advantage of the social sphere to listen and course correct along the way through conversation pulse analysis. Your customers will take note of your "big ears" and will show their appreciation through brand loyalty.

Next up...conversations vs campaigns.