If Jesus Could Tweet! Communication & Salvation in the Era of Social Media (in 140 characters or less)
PLUS… Social Media Expert Kate Buck Tells All… Well, Not ‘Everything’ But Pretty Close!
‘MILLION DOLLAR BRAND’ Magazine
Time to Do the Un-Natural Thing and Be ‘Proactive’ Columbine. Aurora. Austin. Killeen. San Ysidro. Fort Hood. Blacksburg. Wilkes-Barre. Now we find ourselves adding Sandy Hook to the list.
You see, it’s in our nature to wait… and wait… and wait. Bob knew he shouldn’t smoke, yet he did… then the doctor broke the news. Mary said she was going to slow down and spend more time with her kids… and then one of them died. Phil thought about starting a retirement fund but never got around to it… then he turned 65.
We don’t act. We react.
In many ways, we are all Bob and Mary and Phil... each of us waiting for something to ‘react’ to.
An unbalanced 20-year-old shoots up a school and takes 26 lives in the process (including 20 under the age of ten), and:
May we all stop this holiday season, ourselves included, think about what is important to us, and do the unnatural thing:
We gasp in horror…
Take action, before it’s too late.
We shake our fists in rage… We call our representatives and demand something be done, and if not we get involved ourselves! (Okay, the last one is a stretch, but you get the point.)
-Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz Publishers, Million Dollar Brand
This week the President stood before weeping parents and said: "Mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change." Nice try, Mr. President, but where were you last week? And the week before that?
Andrea Waltz & Richard Fenton, Publishers/Editors www.MillionDollarBrand.com
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We are not writing this piece to espouse our views on Second Amendment rights or whether there should be a ban on Assault Weapons. We’re simply using the event to discuss the fact that we are reactionary beings, living in an age of reactivity.
In fact, where were we all?
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Features 2
This Week’s Publishers Page with Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz
6-10 Our Interview with Social Media Expert Kate Buck
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Tweeting with Jesus: Communication & Salvation (in 140 Characters or Less)
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The answer?
Design Matters.
KATE BUCK
Getting to Know
Feature Interview: Social Media Expert
Kate Buck
Katie Wade/Million Dollar Brand: I want to start out by asking you this: how did you get started doing social media? Kate Buck: I got hired at a corporation as the customer service representative, and I didn’t really know I was actually getting hired to do customer service for an online community. It was fascinating, and during my time I spent with the corporation I ended up learning about social media. We were still in the MySpace days at that time, and it just opened up a whole new world for me, and over the three years that I spent in that job I grew from a customer support person all the way up to the community manager because I just found kind of a home and a passion for working with people. MDB: What do you love about social media? Kate Buck: It’s really the people, it’s really the fact that we get to have conversations that are meaningful. I love talking, I mean that sounds like a silly thing to say, but I love talking to people. I love learning, I love helping others. I love teaching. I love helping other people learn. Through the various different social media channels that we have available to us we can connect with people around the globe, both creating friendships, but also creating partnerships, and creating customer relationships, and creating all different kinds and all different types of connections. We have the opportunity to learn about them and what’s important to them. We have an opportunity to share about ourselves and what’s important to us. Social media provided me with the opportunity to create a life and a career that I love, and that works for me, and is flexible, and all of that too, but you know at the heart of the matter is the fact that I get to spend every day just being with people and being myself, and that’s really what I love.
MDB: What are the two or three of the most important things that you teach people in social media that they can do to grow their businesses? Kate Buck: Like I just mentioned, this is a people-driven niche, so people want to know the face behind a brand. It’s not good enough here to (Continued…)
Feature Interview with Social Media Expert Kate Buck (continued)
“It’s not good enough here to put your logo or speak in an
anonymous voice. People want to know who you are; they want to get to know you.” –Kate Buck
put your logo or speak in kind of an anonymous voice… people want to know who you are, what your role is, they want to get to know you, and that’s really the gateway, that’s the first gateway here into being successful in social media. If you’re not willing to have some level of transparency, then you are going to struggle, it’s going to take you longer to get where you want to go, it’s not completely impossible, but it definitely does take longer. So, first and foremost, remember that this is about connecting with other people, and the more passionate you are about connecting with other people, the more successful you’re going to be. The other thing to know, most important thing to know about social media is that you kind of need to know what your objectives and goals are for using social media before or at some point shortly after you get started. I work with a lot of people who have solid businesses outside of social media, but then I just see people jumping in because they feel like they should be; they’re hearing so much about it, like if they’re not, they’re missing out, and this is the next thing, but they don’t really think about well, what is the objective? Once we get started here, what is the outcome that we would like to have from using this as our means to connect with our audience? Without that, you do end up with that kind of, you know, proverbial sitting around all day talking about what you had for breakfast, and lunch, and what you’re watching on TV. All of those things actually are important components of the human side of social media, but without those being part of a larger objective that you’re trying to accomplish, then your time is not really as effective as it could be. So, I have people really sit down and think about… are we looking for to generate leads with social media or are we looking to just have outreach and awareness? Are we looking to actually connect with people and make sales, are using this for search engine optimization or some other online activity that social media furthers for us or are we just doing it for fun and for the enjoyment of it. And that brings me to my third point, which is in my opinion you do get out of social media what you put into it. So, the more invested you are and the more you can incorporate social media into your daily life and your daily activities, the more it can just kind of (continued…)
‘Fierce Loyalty’ with Sarah Robinson (continued) become just like checking your email or any of the other daily activities that you do, the more successful you’ll be. The more you look at it as a practice or something that you have to do, that you don’t enjoy or it’s not a natural sort of expression for you and your business, for you or your business, then people can feel that, people can sense that; that vibe will come off from your status updates. Again it kind of points back to the beginning of being transparent and all that, but there is an investment of time that’s needed and the more that you’re willing to sort of put in, the more benefits you will see, that you will get out of it. MDB: What would your biggest challenge be when using social media? Kate Buck: Well, for me it’s that I want to stay there all day and I don’t want to do other stuff ever. So it kind of is that balance of, am I doing something that’s income producing right now? And if I am on social media, there are often times I am doing something that’s income producing, so my time there is completely justified and it’s not play around time. But then I’ll go off on tangents, and I really love being there, and I have built such a community that I enjoy just connecting with people for the sake of connecting, and sometimes I do have to minimize the distractions, close of all the notifications, turn everything off and do something that’s beneficial to me and my business. You have to really find that good balance between making sure that your time invested there is… That you’re investing enough time there and that you’re not investing, you know, too much time there that it becomes a detrimental to what you’re doing. MDB: What’s the #1 thing that people do wrong using social media? Kate Buck: I hate to say oh, you’re doing it wrong, because when people say that, I sometimes… get well… there really isn’t a right or wrong way. There really is not 100% one right way to do social media and one wrong way; there really is what it does for you. So, I would say back to kind of one of the important things that I pointed out, the #1 thing that
people do wrong is, again, not having that clear objective and not knowing how they’re going to determine if they’ve met that objective or not. So, a really well thought through strategy, and where social weaves into their business and it’s not this separate thing that stands alone. It’s like when somebody just jumps into social media for social media sake and they don’t do that thinking in the beginning. Because it’s like oh, it’s just Twitter, it’s just Facebook, we’re just going to put up a page and make posts, you’ve really got no substance there to work with… there’s people that actually do that by the way, and it really works for them, so that’s why I say… I shy away from saying that you’re doing it wrong. But the more you can think about what does social media add to your business?, what’s the best way to use it to reach the goal that your business is trying to reach altogether, not just that your social media department is trying to reach, how can you do that, the better off you’ll be. If you’re just posting random stuff and affiliate links and buying followers, and just doing all of those very superficial things, I would say that that is when I would tell somebody that they’re doing it wrong. MDB: What is your favorite social media platform and why? (Continued…)
Feature Interview with Social Media Expert ‘Kate Buck’ (continued) Kate Buck: That is tough. These days I’m really digging Pinterest, but you know my stable, my home is Twitter, it always will be; there’s just so much flexibility there and so many opportunities to really grow business, where a lot of the other platforms have limitations on them. So, to me Twitter is like the entrepreneur’s network and so I really find that I learn and grow the most there and I have the best connection there. I thoroughly enjoy from a personal perspective, my Facebook and Pinterest platforms. So, it’s really difficult to say, but if you made me only use one platform ever again for the rest of my life, I would probably have to pick Twitter. MDB: If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice when you launched your business in the early days, what would you tell yourself now? Kate Buck: When I first got started I really didn’t think about anything long-term, and so I didn’t have some of those things setup in place that I do now, like ways to build my email lists and the other multiple streams of income that were possible at the time.
I was very focused on just connecting with people, and connecting with potential clients, and landing those potential clients as clients. I did not build any of the other parts of my business that now - three years later, four years later are big parts of my business. So, if I could go back and start over, I would have taken advantage of a lot of those opportunities along the way to have a brand, which I did not have for the first, year to 18 months of my business, and I kind of kick myself for that now. MDB: Right and where do you think the future of social media is heading? Kate Buck: Interestingly enough everything online… we move at such a rapid pace… you already hear grumblings that social media’s dead. I just think that that’s silly, it just kind of reiterates itself or it morphs and changes. I really think social media is becoming just a part of the way we communicate and operate online. Inherently everything that we do online can be social, and so the way… Our identity online will be sort of backed up in all of our online activities,
the social platform being just kind of the glue, the platform just being the glue that connects all these different elements of our life and our activities online together. In other words, my Facebook profile is only just the glue that talks to about what’s important to me in my family life, and in my career, in my hobbies, all of those things are just pieces of the story that I tell via the social platforms.
I think if you look to where some of the new sites are going now, what other people are talking about, what’s important to people like you, what’s important to
“Social media is kind of in that phase where we’re transitioning from infancy to adolescence.”
people like you, what’s important to people in your social graph, and you know all of that is sort of becoming more part of the platform rather than an afterthought. Social media is kind of in that phase where we’re transitioning from infancy to adolescence. I think you will see it just kind of morph into where it’s not this afterthought or this button or something; it’s more fluid than that. It’s almost kind of behind the scenes. So, if anything, it’s going to become more important, but less visible, if that makes sense. As the visibility of social media sort of declines, people feel like it’s becoming less important, but the visibility is only seemingly declining right now because it’s becoming more just inherently part of what we’re doing online. So, I think the trend will keep going that way; it will become increasingly more important, but more seamless, being mostly integrated into what we’re doing. -MDB
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If Jesus Could Tweet! Communication & Salvation in the Era of Social Media (in 140 characters or less)
Here’s what YOU said (translation, don’t blame us!) Jesus does in fact Just wanted you to know: I love you, no text people all the matter what. #Jesus time. The responses, Gary Christensen, Delivery Business Owner Christensen's Delivery Service however, are often ignored or deleted:-) James Tibbs, Pastor @MyJesus Kingdom Dominion Church
Bible scriptures don’t justify or excuse war, racism, prejudice, abuse and That is so not what I said! #dontlie discrimination. Jennifer Hancock @jenthehumanist Writer/Speaker/Humanist/Dork Ellenton, FL US
Melanie Lundheim, Business Freelance Writer @mlundheim Writing | Websites | Optimization
The @thief cometh not, but for to #steal Verily I say unto you, don't tweet in all #kill & #destroy: @I come that @they lowercase or caps to try to gain clients. might have #life, and @they have it Thou shall use proper grammar and #moreabundantly. @Amen correctly spell words. @tracey007bond Hootsuite Certified
Ebony Grimsley, Creative Director @abovepromotions Above Promotions Company Publicity, Marketing and Promotions for Entertainment, Non-profit and Businesses
Social Media Professional
So, it's December 21. You ready to talk now? Dr. David Powers @Drdavidpowers Adventurer, Coffee Scholar, and proud father of 3 feral boys.
@JesusChrist Thanks for following me. We offer you a proven 2000 year old program that helps you "Save". Help a fellow man. @JC Brian Basilico @bbasilico Director of Direction, B2b Interactive Marketing, Inc. Nationally Recognized Speaker on Social Media
Jill Hickey @NotSoSoccerMom Mom of 4, Talk Show Host President, Shots4Tots.com
If only they'd stop talking ABOUT me and start
Dana London @DanaMLondon Blessed mom, commu Proud member of Delta Sigma Theta. Working to make
A Few of the Hilarious Tweets from @Jesus: I said 2 love one another. It’s not supposed to be a rule that’s difficult to live up to... lol @kizmorewishes Kizmo writes a brand of Christian books for nonChristians and for people who feel they are unique spiritually.
If twittering today Jesus’ first words would be: My God are you people still killing each other??? Dr. Britt Minshall @PastorBritt Renaissance Inst. of American Churches, Author of The Jesus Book: Who HE Really was What HE Really Said
Here to save mankind. Sacrifice required. Have strong following. Tweet @gospels for more. Focus on faith, hope, love. Don’t sweat the rest.
O me! #IAMrighthere
inspirational speaker. etter than I found it!
Mark Grimm @markgrimm Former TV news anchor who is a professional speaker and speaking coach, author, radio host
I know what "I" would do. What would YOU do?! It'll be a cold day in Hell, I just know it. On my way to Hawaii. Anyone want to walk with me? Yes Global Warming is real.... but it's caused by completely different reasons than you think. Unrelated, Dad loves chorizo. There was no miracle on 34th street. A guy owed me money and I had a good real estate agent. I was thinking maybe this year I would take Santa’s job. Make a few mall appearances, travel the world, then relax for the year. Please Note: @Jesus has 519,444 followers (seriously)
Would you still wish me Happy Birthday if you didn't see it on Facebook? But I won't Judge. Matthew 7:1 Frankee Chapa @FrankeeC Marketing Manager for @REMAXAllianceME Social media advocate, professional networker, mommy, and wife. Marketing & Social Media Manager RE/MAX Alliance
Coming in January, 2013…
Behind the Podium with ‘Sarah Barracuda’ Love Her Politics or Hate Her Message, Palin’s a ‘Player’ and Packs a Punch from the Platform
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