Brent's Social CRM Blog

How Clint Eastwood, Rakim, Morris Day and Public Enemy Helped Me Land on Digg's Front Page

Who could've seen this coming - definitely not me. I was just trying to meet a deadline to get my monthly Inc. Technology column turned in the next morning. And quite honestly it sort of felt like I was mailing it in... well, you know what I mean. It was late at night and I was tired, so I really didn't think this was going to be all that great a read.

I guess I was wrong, because I found out that the article, Social Media - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and The Unexpected, ended up hitting Digg's front page garnering over 360 diggs. Now I've written a lot of stuff over the last five years, with certain articles causing a good number of folks to digg, stumble, mixx and bookmark. One of my posts was stumbled so hard that it literally moved me to the top of Google's search result for the term social crm. But nothing like this.

And this happened without my asking people to digg the article. I didn't use any "black hat" SEO tactics - mainly because I don't know any. And I didn't do extensive keyword or trend analysis to see what's hot. So why now... after five years? Why??? Especially since I was tired, pressed for time, and preoccupied with other stuff. Maybe the folks at Inc.com did something differently then they have over the past 12 months I've been writing for them. Could be, but all I can do is look at what I did - or didn't do - the night I wrote this particular article.

• I tweeted this, putting myself on notice:

I don't usually tweet random thoughts, but I was tired and knew I had to get this article done because I had other stuff to do the next morning. So I just had to put it out there, not for anyone else to see really, but for me to see. But with Twitter you usually get responses to what you put out there. And after telling a few folks that I will be up all night writing I got this reply from @prospertiygirl:

• I took @prosperitygirl's advice

This tweet got me to thinking about how I used to get amped up for big exams in college - by listening to certain songs right before taking a test. So I did just that and cranked up Eric B & Rakim's Follow the Leader and Public Enemy's Rebel Without a Pause. That's right, nothing like a little old school to get me ready for a long night. But there was one song that I pulled out when I really needed a big score - Morris Day's Color of Success:

• I gave myself a deadline

OK now that I was sufficiently pumped up, I knew that I only had a short amount of time to write something. So I gave myself a 2 hour deadline to get this done. This was good because it caused me to focus and not go fishing for stuff that was out of my area of focus. Fishing is ok if you've got time, but can get you in trouble if you don't.

• I stuck with what I knew and was interested in

One thing that helps is that I do a lot of reading on what's going on in CRM, social media, SaaS and other things I'm interested in. And luckily for me just as I was getting going a commercial for Clint Eastwood's new movie Grand Torino came on the tv. Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite actors, with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly being one of my favorite movies. And just like that I started thinking about some of my recent experiences with social media - some were very good, others were very bad, and then there was a very ugly episode that was still on my mind. So I decided to just pull from the things the make laugh, make me mad and make me interested, which made it easier for me to write under my deadline.

• I didn't try to do too much with it

Because I didn't have much time, I didn't have a chance to try to make the article all things to all people. It was written with a certain audience in mind - folks who were trying to get on board with social media. It wasn't written to make me out to be some sort of social media expert (because I'm not one - see Chris Brogan for that), just to help those interested in the subject pick up a few things.

• I got lucky

I think it might something to do with me writing it on January 15th (Martin Luther King Jr's birthday). And maybe it had something to do with it being published on January 20th (Inauguration Day). Or maybe it was a slow day on Digg's site.

Whatever the case, it happened and it was kind of cool. Now do I think the next time I write something under the same circumstances I'll be able to hit Digg again by doing the above? Nope. But it did make me take a look back at some things that actually may help me improve my writing some. And anything that improves the quality of the content I create can only be a good thing. Plus it also got me back to listening to Morris Day...which I'm listening to right now, by the way...after watching a little Clint.

Technorati : digg.com, inc.com, social media
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Chief Media Personality Officer - New Role for the Traditional Entrepreneur

My latest article for Inc.com's technology site is up. It's about the new roles for today's entrepreneur. One of those new roles I thought about is that of chief media personality officer. I thought about calling it King (or Queen) of all media, but I think that's already been taken.

Being the CMPO doesn't mean you have to find a way to be on CNBC, CNN, MSNBC or any other cable news outlet. But it does mean you've gotta show up on the web in those places you're customers and prospects are congregating. And as the small business owner, it really does mean YOU. Because you are the small business, the brand, etc. And in a business environment that is more and more web-centric, that means YOU blogging, YOU podcasting, YOU twittering, YOU Facebooking... YOU, YOU, YOU, YOU...

Ok, you don't have to do it all, but you've got to do some of it yourself. But what you absolutely have to do is begin looking at social media as a strategic tool, and then figure out the best way to use it. If that means finding someone to help you with this, do it. It will be as essential to the survival of your company as your traditional marketing and sales folks are today.

UPDATE: A special shout out to Sherman Hu who inspired the Chief Conversation Officer role I mention in the Inc. column. My editor "edited" my acknowledgment of him out, but he was the stranger-turned-collaborator that I mentioned helped me come up with a name for a new blog I'll be doing for Inc. Thanks again Sherman...Hu are the best!

Technorati : chief media personality officer, entrepreneur, inc.com, social media
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If it's Thursday It Must Be Charlotte

I'm still alive and kicking. I've just been on the road the last couple of weeks. And this week was the first time I've flown on three consecutive days. And each flight was actually ahead of schedule! I can't make this stuff up.

Anyways I left Sage Insights early (missing out on hearing Lou Holtz and Frank Caliendo) to make it down to Black Enterprise's Entrepreneurs Conference in Charlotte, NC.

I have been light on the posts lately but that will be changing once I get back... LOTS of stuff to get to! In the meantime please feel free to check out a few articles I wrote for other sites:

SmallBizTrends.com - Social CRM: Not Your Father's Customer Relationship Management

Inc.com - Assembling the Perfect Content-Creating PC

Technorati : small business, social crm
Del.icio.us : small business, social crm

Introverted Socialism

For someone as introverted as I am by nature, it's cool to be able to use social tools to really connect with people in ways I know I wouldn't have done using the more conventional methods. I guess that was on my mind when I wrote my regular online columns for Inc.com and BlackEnteprise.com:

• Inc.com - Social Media For Business Sake

• BlackEnterprise.com - Four Social Acts Business People Need to Commit

I've "met" some incredible people over the past few years because of these tools, and my life (personal as well as professional) has been truly enriched for it. Sometimes it's good to take a step back and see just how much of an impact this stuff really does have on us. But then again, this all begins and ends with people - the technology just gives us the ability to really understand each other if we choose to do so.

OK, I just got through watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, which always puts me in a weird mood...

Technorati : blackenterprise.com, inc.com, small business, social media
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New Inc.com Technology Column - Essential Tools for Solopreneurs

I will be writing a monthly article for Inc.com's technology site (http://technology.inc.com) and the first one hit the site this week. It's on essentials tools for the solopreneur. If you get a chance check it out and tell me what you think.

Thanks!

Technorati : inc.com, solopreneur