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2009 was arguably the year to characterize social media as the shiny new toy.  Excitement and curiosity drove critical mass adoption in many of the public social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  Other sites with less notoriety such as Jigsaw and Slideshare aimed to further develop, package and market their value proposition.  Niche players, Yammer and Xobni (“Inbox” spelled backwards), emerged with “Twitter-like” micro-blogging within an organization and visual insights from our email transactions.

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A mentor once told me “fame sells!”  You never know who’s going to read one of your articles, attend one of your webinars, or see a press clipping about you.  As such, you must consistently focus on building your body of work (intellectual property) and nurturing a brand called YOU, thus creating a sustainable “marketing gravity.”

So, how do you gain notoriety in your target market? 

1. Focus on being the very best at what you do!  Remember – Performance Trumps all!  Read, write, share unique perspectives and provide independent insights.

2. Stay Visible – add value to every interaction, share your insights and give freely of your time and expertise.

3. Consistent with our theme this year: balance great ideas with great execution!

At the end of the day, those who matter, will seek you out!

Watch the brief segment below from CNBC’s The Business of Innovation with host, Maria Bartiromo.

http://www.relationshipeconomics.net/CNBCVideo.html

By Robin Fisk

A June 2009 study from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research found that 89 percent of nonprofits are using some form of social media, and these organizations now are outpacing businesses and even academic institutions in their adoption of social-networking tools. With more than 400 Web sites and tools out there, according to research conducted by David Nour , managing partner of consulting firm The Nour Group Inc., how do nonprofits and associations know where to start? How do they to determine what components fit into their social-media marketing strategy? This article will offer some information on internal versus external social media tools and how organizations can take advantage of them, to maximize their marketing efforts.

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Saw this sign boarding a plane yesterday and couldn’t help but to think about how truly dysfunctional some of our regulations are.

1. Do we really need to be reminded that jet fuel is bad for us?
2. What’s the alternative – drive from coast to coast, or maybe we can go back to horse drawn carriages?
3. I wonder how much time, money, and effort it took to pass this proposition?
4. How many people are writing down that URL to check it out later?
5. Who’s benefit is this sign anyway?  The consumer who has little to no option at this point (at the end of the jet bridge boarding a plane), the state, the airline, the sign manufacturing company?

Power doesn’t’ corrupt; powerlessness corrupts!  Look around your office and ask – are your efforts adding value or wasting time.  One is vibration, the other – forward motion!  Don’t confuse the two!

Great flowchart found at TypeCut

So, are you?