We had a nice turnout for our live audio sessions, but realized many people weren’t able to join us. So here’s the session in its entirety.
Google Twin Ports Conference Call
If you want to download the conference call, click on this link .
Posts Tagged ‘Google Twin Ports’
Google Twin Ports Conference Call Replay Available Here
Friday, May 28th, 2010
PureDriven Launching Online Classes
Monday, May 24th, 2010Many small business owners especially ask us to teach them the basics of using social media marketing. Once they’ve got those down, they ask us about the tips and tricks that help them get the most out of their social networking services. Too often it’s not cost-effective to really meet with each person individually. So we’re currently developing some online courses where we walk you through everything we know remotely, from the comfort of your own home. We’re holding our first introductory class for merely $25 per person at 9 a.m. on June 10. During that hour-long session, we’re going to teach specifically what we did that helped catapult our Google Twin Ports effort far beyond any other city’s in the United States. The cool thing is, much of what we did were the same kinds of things businesses can be doing to get free exposure, just on a smaller scale. If you’re interested in the course, you can check out the details at http://www.puredriven.com/GoogleClass/
Cheers,
Patrick
Hear about the Behind the Scenes of Attracting Google to Duluth
Monday, May 17th, 2010This is the ninth installment in a series titled, How to Get Your Client on the Front Page of the New York Times, explaining how PureDriven helped vault the Google Twin Ports initiative (focused on Duluth, MN and Superior Wis.) to national prominence in its effort to win Google’s attention and become one of the few sites where Google will build an ultra-high speed fiber network. I’ve written this series in hopes of sharing with businesses, politicians and grassroots organizers how to best gain offline and online attention for your cause, event or organization.
Lesson 9: Hear How We Brought Google to Duluth
Instead of reading another blog post, I thought you might enjoy hearing some of our advice. While we’ll be launching a new podcast in June, today I wanted to point you to a podcast where I was the featured guest earlier today. The podcast itself deals with job transitions, but the host asked me a handful of questions about PureDriven and specifically our success with the Google project. So for those of you who are more listeners than readers, listen to Your Story, at Coach Radio.
So Remember: I talked a lot in this broadcast about giving to others without knowing what direct benefit you’ll ultimately reap. Both getting into social media as a career, and the Google project paid off handsomely for myself, and PureDriven, but there was no way of knowing how or even if we were going to benefit, at the start. So next time you want to turn down a potential opportunity, examine it for potential long-term benefits, not solely on whether you’ll earn a paycheck from it next week.
To read the first post in this series, visit “Google called, so we vaulted our client to Page 1 of the New York Times”
To read the second, visit “In Campaigns, Little or No Money Sometimes An Advantage”
To read the third, visit “When Running Big Projects, Simple Tools Work Best”
To read the fourth, visit “Steer – Don’t Order – Volunteers For Best Results”
To read the fifth, visit “My Mistake Was Not Viewing E-mail as Critical”
To read the sixth, visit “If You Can’t Be Yourself, Be Someone Else”
To read the seventh, visit “ A Google Fiber Tip: Connect, Don’t Chastise Competitors ”
To read the eighth, visit “ Google Needs To Know You Exist, So Tag Correctly“
A Google Fiber Tip: If You Can’t Be Yourself, Be Someone Else
Friday, May 7th, 2010
This is the sixth installment in a series titled, How to Get Your Client on the Front Page of the New York Times, explaining how PureDriven helped vault the Google Twin Ports initiative (focused on Duluth, MN and Superior Wis.) to national prominence in its effort to win Google’s attention and become one of the few sites where Google will build an ultra-high speed fiber network. I’ve written this series in hopes of sharing with businesses, politicians and grassroots organizers how to best gain offline and online attention for your cause, event or organization.
Lesson 6: If you can’t be yourself, someone else, literally
Meet my good friend, Speedie Gigabit,
This little man was created by local designer Brian Barber, and it was possibly one of the most successful ideas of the campaign, which I initially balked at.
Luckily, PureDriven as a whole and the rest of the volunteers at Google Twin Ports loved the idea of the character. My main complaint was that it served as yet another project our staff didn’t have the time or resources to manage. In fact however, it turned out to be a fantastic way to rally our supports and speak to them on Facebook. Here’s why it worked so well for us, and you might want to consider having a mascot or single person represent your business online.
1. It gave our volunteers a unified voice online. Right now, if your business uses a Facebook Fan page that you are an administrator of, every time you make a comment, it’s like the company logo responding. If you’d rather respond as an individual, you have to remove your administrative privileges from the Fan Page, and then get someone to make you an administrator again, when you want to change the page in some way. Here’s an example of when I post something on our company’s Facebook page.
Even though I’d like the person to know who I am, responding as the page’s owner, makes the logo appear, where ideally, I’d like my face to be.
In some cases, an employee might also want to respond to a customer. But if he or she responds as an individual, an introduction explaining he or she works for the company would have to preface every comment.
But a mascot, or even one person creating a personal profile on behalf of the company, solves that dilemma.
Whether it’s a person or a mascot, the personal profile can respond to comments and take part in conversations, with a clear, singular voice, instead of multiple individuals respond to comments, or having the company’s logo appear by each answer.
But in the world of Facebook and sites like it, real pictures of real people are preferred. And people do business with people. So having a picture of a real person on Facebook and especially Twitter to represent you, is ideal.
Because our campaign was a regional effort, we went with the mascot. It provided a “person” yet didn’t identify the entire campaign around one real face, as would be best for solo-entrepreneurs and candidates for office.
On a Facebook Groups page there is no company logo issue, but you still want that unique person or logo people can latch on to. And even if you’re a private individual with your own business, having two private accounts – one as you, and one as your public persona – is often most effective on Facebook.
A friend of mine runs a new business called Sgt. Steve, for weight loss and coaching. His real name is Steve, but when he responds to a customer or potential customer, he uses a separate Sgt. Steve account, to go along with the persona, and to keep people from wondering, “Is this someone named Steve, or THE Sgt. Steve?”
So how do you create a second private account?
All that’s required is a second e-mail address. If you don’t have one, just sign up for a free one at Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail.
So Remember: Having an additional private Facebook account to speak to customers either with a picture of a person or a mascot, can give your business or organization more of a voice online, and it’s more personal than a logo talking to a customer.
To read the first post in this series, visit “Google called, so we vaulted our client to Page 1 of the New York Times”
To read the second, visit “In Campaigns, Little or No Money Sometimes An Advantage”
To read the third, visit “When Running Big Projects, Simple Tools Work Best”
To read the fourth, visit “Steer – Don’t Order – Volunteers For Best Results”
To read the fifth, visit “My Mistake Was Not Viewing E-mail as Critical“
