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Six simple ways to get more Twitter followers
2011-10-14 14:38:00
If you have a Twitter account, you no doubt have received a spammed DM or seen public spammy tweets promising quick and easy ways to get 10,000s of new followers overnight. Amazing but true! Well, the spammy part is true, at least. I’m here to tell you the real secret magic formula for growing your Twitter network. So, sshhhh! Keep it a secret just between you and me, okay? Follow other Twitter accounts. Most people will follow you back if you follow them. Look for people in your geographical area — like using NearbyTweets — or those who share professional and personal interests. WeFollow is a good tool for that, or simply Search Twitter. If you read blogs, more often than not, the author will have a link to his/her Twitter account. Also, many business and brand accounts will follow you back if you follow them — at least the social and smart business Twitter accounts will. Be interesting. (I heard Guy Kawasaki say that once during a Webinar.) What that me...
More About: Simple

Quotable Quotes: ‘Operationalizing’ Social Media
2011-10-11 18:59:00
What’s this? A blog post? Holy Toledo, Batman! While I have been active in my Twitter, Facebook and select other platforms, it doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about or even planned to do more blogging. But, when it comes to family, the still relatively new job and other priorities in life, some things naturally take a back seat. Still, I’ve missed blogging. I’ve always found it to be more therapeutic than self-promotional. The process of typing and thinking, editing and revising, and more typing is great at crystallizing my thoughts. In addition, one’s network is great in offering different ways to look at things that also can help crystallize thoughts. For example: @MikeDriehorst social media is new, sure, but I think it speaks to something else - operationalizing social is VERY hard. -Chuck Hemann at about 9:35 p.m ET Oct. 10, 2011 via Twitter Check out Bettween for a look at the Twitter back and forth with Chuck. “Doing” social m...
More About: Social , Media , Quotes

NOW…I can exhale
2010-10-11 13:00:00
Alternative headline I: Thanks to those companies I interviewed with during the past two years who didn’t hire me Alt headline II: What a long, strange trip it’s been I have had many headlines go through my head about this post — both insightful and snarky. The short version of this post is that I just finished up my first week as editorial director for online media* for the Chrysler Group LLC, working in Auburn Hills, Mich. And I’m very blessed and thrilled beyond belief to be working with the company at this point in its history. I have a strong feeling that I’m joining the company near the start of an amazing rebirth of a company that has had some rough years of late. Now for the longer version…. Since being laid off early afternoon Aug. 20, 2008, it’s been an amazing journey. While I had several months of solid, consistent, dependable contract work during 2009, for the most part I felt like I was a hamster inside a clear plastic ball, r...

Taking a test drive with the Ford Flex
2010-07-09 08:12:00
If you read my blog at least periodically, you know I hardly do product or any type of review. But, I am definitely open to suggestions (as evidenced by this post). A couple or so weeks ago, Gwen Peake of Ford Motor Co. contacted me and asked if I wanted to drive a Ford Flex to NYC. Ford would pay for gas there and to fly me back. I love to drive — but, I thought, “Why just me?” So, my wife, Amy, and I have turned it into a mini-vacation for the family. I’ve been to NYC many times previously for business but not with the family. The memories and time together would far out-value any added expense we’d incur. When Ford delivered the Flex Wednesday morning, we were a few hours away from setting off on the great American family road trip later that afternoon. We stayed with my aunt and uncle in New Cumberland, W. Va., Wednesday night (image at right) before arriving in NYC around 5 p.m. Thursday. We are staying a couple nights at the apartment of a close f...
More About: Drive , Test Drive , Test

B2B social media? It’s all about communities
2010-06-14 12:01:00
A couple weeks ago, eMarketer had a nice report about B2B spending in social media. I don’t have a source but have heard and experienced that B2B is about 18 months behind B2C in trends, marketing tactics, etc. To me, social media is still in its infancy, but it is approaching toddler-hood. Social media won’t be mainstream until it becomes an automatic consideration as part of annual marketing planning — just like advertising, PR, trade shows, etc., are now. What caught my eye about the eMarketing B2B report is the graph here. Three of the top four areas where B2B spent budget in 2009 were on community-focused platforms. Common B2C tactics like blogger outreach, promotions and contests, coupons, attempts at viral videos, etc., do not work in the B2B world. How many plastics engineers have blogs? What about doctors — any big bloggers out there? Or, even purchasing managers — hhmmmm? No. What B2B professionals want is information, education and ways do th...
More About: Media

True value from social media: Connecting & Community
2010-06-11 15:12:00
My early professional roots (and even education) are in journalism, and it’s something I am passionate about for many reasons. For most of my career, however, I’ve been in public relations — including being active in social media marketing since 2005. So, when I get to combined both strong interests — it’s a FTW! type of moment. Since March, I’ve worked with the Toledo (OH) Free Press as its social networking manager. Until then, I wrote regularly for the TFP beginning in September 2008. So when Editor in Chief Michael Miller asked me to write about how Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan dealt with the June 6, 2010, tornadoes and storms via social media, I said yes. As pointed out in the story, social media plays a great role in connecting people and building a sense of community — even if only for a night of deadly storms. Below is a repost of my story from the June 9 Toledo Free Press STAR. (As you can see, the version below does not in...
More About: Social , Media , Community , True

Small business putting faith into social media — but why?
2010-05-24 12:33:00
More and more, small business owners are buying into social media, according to a May 20 report on eMarketer (see table). “[A]lmost two in five small-business owners reported they would be growing their businesses with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. That was up from less than one-quarter who planned to up their game with social in 2009 and made social media the only tactic to increase in importance since last year.” While it’s good that social media marketing is becoming more mainstream, let me offer a bit of advice for small businesses (and any other business for that matter): Don’t neglect your Website. It’s your core online presence. But I digress. While I liked the report, what it didn’t go into is WHY? Sorry, “growing your business” is a bit vague and not a good answer. If I had to guess, I’d say that growing your business means you want to sell more. Is that really it? Ultimately it is &...
More About: Business , Social , Media , Faith , Small Business

Will anything replace Facebook?
2009-12-09 18:10:00
In the relatively short life of work-related and Internet-related software, and the even shorter life of social media, we’ve seen countless products rise to the top — only to be replaced a short time later by something else. There was Word Perfect…now (and for a while) there’s Word. There were WebRings…now there’s blogrolls. We’ve come to accept that the latest new social media site and tool likely may not last long. But, what about Facebook ? At the October 2009 Social Media Breakfast-Toledo, Curve Detroit’s Charlie Wollborg said that Facebook has staying power because of its “nesting” services. We post family photos and videos. We stay connected with friends and family. We’re not going to leave that behind. However, I’ve always had a bit of concern over the business-related uses of Facebook. With its servers generally closed to Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other search engines, the only way I saw reaching members...

Social media marketing in 4 simple words
2009-12-08 05:31:00
The great thing about social media marketing is how encompassing it can be, and how many parts of business it can touch. With all of its potential and many opportunities, a part of me still likes things to be simple. So, in this 1:37 video, I try to sum up what social media marketing is. In four simple words. Please have a look. I very much welcome your comments and if you agree or not — especially if not. -Mike
More About: Marketing , Social , Media , Words , Simple

PR lessons learned as a journalist
2009-12-03 16:41:00
I consider myself very fortunate to have worked — professionally — in both journalism and public relations/marketing communications. And, I still do both as I’m a periodic stringer for a couple area newspapers. (Yes, I am careful of conflict of interest and have passed on newspaper stories because of that potential.) Being on both sides gives me great perspective — and frustration when I see supposed pros on both sides make it difficult for the other to do their job. Like it or not, media relations/PR people need journalists…AND journalists really can do their job better with assistance from media relations/PR pros. Journalists don’t NEED PR pros but do benefit greatly from good ones. I know. Because I’m on both sides. In doing some recent newspaper work, I ran into some, um, issues by companies that do not make it easy for them to receive media coverage. So, let me offer three simple PR tips to help you get better coverage. If you’re...

Should our social networks be distinct?
2009-11-12 16:38:00
Whenever I get asked about the “future of social media,” one answer I often give is about the real emergence of tools that let you update once, and then you can communicate through all of your networks. That would be a real time-saver so you don’t have to go to Facebook, to Myspace, to Twitter, to your blog, to your __________ and post or update your $0.02. A one-stop, social media aggregator. Those aggregation or integration tools are growing. Tweetdeck let’s you do the update Twitter, Facebook and Myspace, for example. And, this week, LinkedIn and Twitter announced an integration so you can post status updates on both networks. After mulling that over in my head for a day or two, I thought: One tweet doesn’t always fit all. How you use one network doesn’t mean you use another network the same way. I view LinkedIn different from Twitter different from Myspace and even a bit different from Facebook, as well as other networks I belong to. LinkedIn ...
More About: Social , Social Networks , Networks

Get your Facebook Page here, free Facebook Page….
2009-11-05 07:21:00
(The post headline is supposed to be said in the voice of a newspaper boy selling newspapers at a downtown corner. Sarcastically, of course.) Last month, I tweeted: Creating in social media is easy. It’s the maintaining that requires know-how, patience & time. And, for the most part, that’s true. Social media technologies are cheap at worst; free at best. While there is value in the know-how in the creation of social media activities like a blog, a Twitter account, etc., the process often is not complicated. So, during the past few days, I created a four-step process to create a Facebook Page . I have a few more thoughts on the social media creation v maintenance issue at my latest Toledo Social Media Examiner article. If you want to see and download my “How to Create a Facebook Page for Your Business / Organization,” you can click on over to the Toledo Social Media Examiner article or see the file at my DocStoc account. Of course, any feedback on the how-...
More About: Free

Just because you can use a hammer, it doesn’t mean you’re a car
2009-09-23 05:23:00
Do you ever wonder why “entry level” jobs pay less than middle management and higher level positions? Do you ever wonder why internships are often unpaid (whether or not it’s legal) or paid very little? If you’ve never wondered either of those things, than I’m ecstatic and you can pretty much stop reading because I’m probably not talking with you in this post. If you’re still reading…then you probably recall when Pizza Hut received a lot of buzz when it sought a “twittern” in April 2009. But, Pizza Hut is not alone. Take a look at this Craigslist.org ad for a “social media coordinator.” (If the ad is gone, see this screen shot.) Here’s part of the ad: This position will begin as a part time position, potentially leading to a full time position within the organization. We would like to recruit a third year or fourth year college student for this position. Description: The ideal candidate is a savvy and cre...
More About: Hammer

Looking at price versus value
2009-09-09 16:34:00
I’ve read a few articles and comments about all the free tools online. While free is great, it may not offer the best value. In the below vlog, I bring up some points about price versus value, and focus on social media monitoring tools as an example. As always, I appreciate any and all feedback. -Mike
More About: Price , Versus

Social Media Monitoring: EVERYONE Must & Its Value (X-post)
2009-08-25 17:39:00
(NOTE: The below is a cross post of a post I wrote for the Techrigy Blog from Aug. 7. It’s not exactly the same as I use a different image here than I did at the Techrigy Blog.) You don’t really need to be active in social media. Twitter? No. Blog? No. Facebook Page? No. Social bookmarking? Nyah. Second Life? Forget about it. Social media — like any other tool for marketing — should be researched and evaluated based on how best to reach and communicate with your audience. But (you can tell it’s a big BUT), you do need to be monitoring and listening in to social media. Do you have comment cards available for customers and prospects? Do you have a suggestion box in your location(s)? Do your sales people listen to customers? Do you have a customer service department or person? Do you have your company name in Google News Alerts or have a paid clipping service for news releases and such? Have you ever conducted a focus group or other similar market researc...
More About: Media , Post , Monitoring

Help determine SXSW 2010 program
2009-08-24 06:41:00
I first heard of SXSW in 2007 when Twitter was the rage of the interactive-music-film festival. In fact, because of all the buzz, I joined Twitter and have been using it since. Since being on my own, professionally, I’ve enjoyed the freedom of getting out and about: being one of many others who are helping develop the social media community in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan, attending a couple conferences, and even being involved in some presentations. And, “being out and about” means submitting proposals like the one I did for SXSW 2010 on social media monitoring. Lo and behold, mine was one of 2210 selected for public voting for Interactive 2010. The neat thing about the SXSW voting process is that, it’s not just a popularity contest. It’s not just determined by a small, select group. It’s both. The votes for determining the final 300 panels and presentations for the final program comes from three key groups: 40% SXSW Advisory Board 30%...
More About: Program

An anniversary I’d rather not have — I think
2009-08-20 06:14:00
As I said, Aug. 20, 2008, stunk. In writing that post, I remember my original word was that it sucked. But, I resisted from letting emotions get in the way. Being laid off from a job — whether you are single or married with four children to support — really does suck. At the time. The emotions of fear, worry, self-doubt, anger and countless other negative ones the minutes and hours afterward collide like the line of scrimmage of a Sunday afternoon football game. It ain’t pretty. You can either wallow in that quicksand of emotions and sink, or you can be thankful for what you do have and get determined. You also can rely on what faith you may have. My wife, Amy, and I were already strong in our faith in God. And then that faith grew when she became pregnant with our fourth child. And, it grew yet again during the past year. The past year has definitely been a tremendous learning experience. Severance. Freelance work. Unemployment. Food stamps. Plenty of job intervie...
More About: Anniversary

Please don’t do a ‘naked launch’
2009-08-17 16:02:00
Okay, if you’re an individual, naked launches are okay. I mean, just go already and do it. No planning really required. But, if you’re a business or a similar organization, naked launches are not needed. Planning and work are required. I define naked launches as a business or organization starting/publishing a blog, Facebook Page, YouTube channel, Twitter profile, etc., in name only. No or very little content, or solid thought as to what the heck to do with it. I’ve seen many companies and organizations publish Facebook Pages with little more than their name, URL and logo. Before moving on, let me say that I understand the need of businesses to protect from name squatters. Okay, save your name even if you have no plans for it — but then state your corporate ID/brand protection intentions so it is clear, and visitors know that it’s not a dead account or that you don’t know what to do with it. So, what can you do to prevent naked launches? Here&rsqu...
More About: Launch

Is your agency organization a circle or a stick?
2009-08-10 06:36:00
Since leaving the field of full-time journalism many years ago, I’ve worked at a couple agencies, have applied for jobs it many others and have talked with folks at, again many others. So, I’ve gained some knowledge about how agencies can organize their client teams. I’m no expert, but know what I like and what seems to work. At one agency I worked at, the client team was structured pretty much like a circle: The client was in the middle and the entire account team around the client with each person having first-hand knowledge of client needs and access to the main client contact. At another agency, there definitely was a hierarchy — kind of like a stick in the mud: Most of the information came flowing down from the top level account person to the rest of the team. Sure, there was some client contact via meetings, but not much — unless you were in account management. Any questions I had, had to go up the line. One time, I emailed the client contact &mda...
More About: Organization , Agency , Circle , Stick

Public Relations 101: Know the basics
2009-08-07 21:31:00
Public relations* is often associated with strumpetting (sorry couldn’t completely resist the linkbait opportunity) and can have a negative connotation. There are several reasons I suppose for PR’s own poor image, including: The low cost of barrier for the profession. Anyone can set up shop with a low price laptop. Hey, you can write, right? Yes, but not everyone can really write. The fact that PR professionals are paid to communicate with others and the inherent potential for conflict of interest. While I don’t fully agree with Wikipedia’s COI policies, I can understand some of the rationale behind them. So, there’s a perception — born in reality by the crappy work of a few — that we’re not always the most trustworthy As part of the pay for services, PR pros are tempted to focus on short-term results at the risk of most everything else — like long-term relationships and burning bridges, and the potential harm on their reputatio...
More About: Public Relations , Public , Relations , Basics , The Basics

Social media blurs the lines — and that’s a good thing
2009-08-05 06:54:00
Facebook is where most every aspect of my life collides. There, my friends include people from grade school, high school and college; people I worked with at three of the five post-college jobs I’ve had; people who I have met via social media and some I have worked for as a contractor; and my immediate family and extended family like cousins. My professional and personal lives. Twitter is similar to Facebook in that the lines are blurred between professional and personal in who I follow and who  follows me. But, hey, that’s social media, right? So listen up all you companies: You can’t really have your employees tweeting, facebooking, blogging, etc., just about your company. Personal aspects will naturally flow into those messages. And that’s a good thing. Sure, go ahead and have guidelines and policies to try to ensure that those tweets are not bashing the food you serve or other potentially negative social media mentions. But, do know and trust that it won...
More About: Social , Media , Good , Lines , Thing

Traditional and Social Media: The same, yet very different
2009-07-28 06:22:00
The below is a cross post of a recent Very PR column I authored for TalentZoo. It’s a bit long, but hopefully still offers some good comparison between traditional media relations and outreach in social media. As always, I welcome your feedback. There are a lot of tactics that fall under the public relations umbrella, but media relations more often than not first comes to mind when you talk PR. Similarly, when you talk social media marketing, blogs are one of the first things that come to mind — though social media marketing is so very much more. A lot of focus during my nearly 15 years in PR has been in media relations. Similarly, a lot of the focus of my social media marketing experience during the past four years has been in blogger relations. While media relations and blogger relations are similar, there are nuances in each approach to make them different enough. Let’s compare and contrast the main components of each – and, hopefully, help ensure your next outre...
More About: Social , Media , Traditional

What is the role of value in business — and relationships
2009-07-18 07:00:00
Value is an interesting concept, and has many sides to it. Among other factors like price and quality, social media plays a role in determining the level of perceived value in business, an organization, etc. Whatever it is or how you define it, ultimately, nothing is purchased unless high enough value is perceived in that product or service. And, in relationships, you’ll really get no where — or you won’t get far — without contributing value to the personal and professional relationships you have. So, being inspired by Charlie Wollborg’s own thought-provoking and inspiring videos, I offer up my own brief commentary on value and its connection to business and relationships. I am no way comparing my video thoughts to his — Charlie’s are more inspiring, more fluid, more entertaing and more informative. As always, I welcome — and really want — your feedback. Thank you for stopping by. -Mike
More About: Business , Relationships , Role

PR pros want — should demand — purity
2009-07-15 21:29:00
Maybe it’s because of my journalism roots, but I never did like rags. In my POV, rags are newspapers and magazines that run every news release you’d send them, mostly verbatim. Yeah, sure they were easy “hits” and helped make me look good to clients (not that I needed help — hardee har-har ). But, I figured they did not provide quality coverage, and their circulation numbers were not really “real” (though I did include them in client reports). Solid media coverage comes from media outlets that take their journalism* responsibility seriously. They don’t publish everything you send — and you don’t send them everything you have. A real PR pro has solid news judgment, knows his employer or clients’ objectives, knows or can find the appropriate media outlets needed to meet those objectives, and knows those media outlets. That goes whether you’re talking traditional offline media, online media or social media. So, I...
More About: Demand , Purity

Free is not really free; or How much is your time worth?
2009-07-13 06:52:00
The generally free availability of information on the Internet and the technology that makes a lot of it so useful and efficient is both very positive and deceiving. Yes, there are a lot of great time-saving tools and a wealth of information to make many aspects of your life better. But don’t think that, just because they’re free there is no cost. There’s always a cost. And, when there is no charge to use something, then you pay with your time. Your time is not free. There’s always an opportunity cost. In a LinkedIn question I answered, John Ettore also answered and seemed to go on a rant when he questioned why would anyone spend money on a service that develops a media list for you. I can’t for the life of me imagine why anyone would have to use a paid service for this task in 2009, 15 years into the Internet era. All of this material is free online. You may have to spend a little time assembling it, but paying $2K for a list that someone laboriously c...
More About: Time , Free , Worth

Doing contests & events right in social media
2009-07-12 06:31:00
During the past several months, I’ve been professionally and personally involved in and have watched online contests and events that one way or another involve social media. During that time, I’ve learned a thing or two about what to do to help make them successful. Before Contests : As with any outreach project, plan how to promote your contest to help others spread the word. Include promoting the contest on your own online locations (blog, Twitter, Facebook Fan Page, etc.). Research those bloggers who have a passion and blog about the subject or geography connected to your contest. Also, there are A LOT of contest blogs — some bloggers I’ve gotten to know a bit include ContestforMoms (@PetiteMommy) and AContestBlog (@Valmg). As with any other blogger you engage, be sure that you know their audience, know them and DON’T OFFER THEM JUNK PR. Also, if Twitter is any part of your contest promotion, decide on and promote the hashtag. Finally, as you start to...
More About: Social , Media , Events

What is social media?
2009-07-02 14:26:00
That’s definitely a common question — with a complex answer. And, I thought I’d publish my first ever video blog — vlog — to try to answer it. (I have a vlog — whodathunkit!) As I noted in the video, during one of the first meetings of Social Media Breakfast-Toledo, Patrick Giammarco asked other committee members to define social media. He recorded his own answer. I balked at giving my $0.02 then, but didn’t forget about it. Here’s my brief answer to, “What is Social Media?” (And, yes, I did record it in my basement, where I have my home office. Other than the ceiling, it is finished, and I sit right next to our egress window — which is more window than I had at my last job. So, watch the video again, and stop looking past me.) -Mike

A brief on ‘blogger outreach 101′
2009-06-30 05:21:00
I’ve been involved in social media since reading my first PR blogs in spring 2005. Of the social media marketing activities I’ve been involved with, I’ve probably been involved with blogger outreach the most, starting back in late 2005. Doing blogger outreach came up during a recent email conversation with a friend, during which it was inquired and I relayed how I do blogger outreach. By the time I finished, I thought, “Hey. That could make a good blog post.” So, below is my take on how to do blogger outreach right. Please have a look. I definitely welcome your comments, criticisms and questions. Note that, the below assumes that you are working with bloggers that you do not already read and have no prior connection with. You’re working in a new market, new niche, new client or employer. Conduct a search using Google BlogSearch, Technorati, Techrigy (which is the service I mostly use), etc. to discover those blogs talking about your topic: your is...
More About: Blogger , Prime , Outreach

Inforum Social Media: Top-notch speakers in our own backyard
2009-06-26 07:42:00
On Thursday I had the great opportunity to take a short drive north and attend Inforum Michigan’s Jump Start! Social Media Event in Detroit (specifically, Dearborn). More than anything, the half-day event reaffirmed that there is great regional social media talent right in our own backyard. Who needs Boston, Austin or the West Coast?! While those locales have their own talented professionals, Detroit and the Midwest — including Toledo — can easily hold our own. Ford’s Scott Monty, global digital and multimedia communications manager for the automaker, was the keynote speaker. I had heard Scott talk at the Module Midwest Digital Conference (a/k/a Module 09) in April, and again, he did not disappoint (not that I was expecting it!).  He talked about his role and that of social media with Ford. He reaffirmed that social media is so much about connecting with people, communicating with them (not to them) and proper upfront planning with goal-setting. I was fortun...
More About: Speakers , Backyard , Notch

Media Relations Commandment: Know thy audience
2009-06-24 18:09:00
I’m seriously thinking of doing a series of blog posts about “Media Relations Commandments.” (Or, maybe Public Relations Commandments for the majority who primarily think of trying to generate editorial-type exposure when they think PR. But, that’s another post.) I — like a bunch of other PR bloggers — received a piss-poor pitch from a large PR agency. The image is the email header and pitch I received. Clearly, by sending yourself the email, you BCC’d the list. With so many tools available to at least personalize emails (I’ve used GroupMail in the past), that’s a entry level or small-time budget effort. And, there’s no tie in the pitch that the topic has anything to do with what I blog or tweet about. That’s a lazy effort. If you take 20 minutes to scan my blog, you’ll be able to tell that my blog is primarily opinion. My opinion. For the most part, posts are tips, ideas and links to other items of interest. I ...
More About: Audience