One week ago I wandered out to UCLA for their 2nd annual Gravity Summit. I had scored a free pass due to my work with Social Media Club Los Angeles. Having never been to a Gravity Summit (they’re held at college campuses around the country from what I’ve been told) I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Those of you who followed my Twitter Stream that day know that I was basically live-blogging the conference to the best of my ability. Have become used to the unconference format of BarCamp it was difficult at times to sit in one room to listen to a series of lectures, but at the same the information was interesting and many of the speakers were very engaging.

I have to say, though, that the day belonged to Ramon DeLeon, a Domino’s franchise owner in Chicago who has integrated social media into his business in a way that I don’t think I’d seen before. He just plain got it, and his understanding of what made a BUSINESS work made it all successful. Like I said on Twitter, any guy who can sell franchised pizza in Chicago must be doing something right. Rather than listen to me talk about him, though, check out his keynote for yourself. This is particularly useful as an afternoon pick me up.

My experiences with Social Media conferences has largely centered around the unconference setting of the BarCamps. BlogWorld was a much more structured setting, but still had a loose feel to it. Today I’m attending my first Gravity Summit on the UCLA campus. It’ll definitely be a different experience for me, and one I’ll be live tweeting about over at my Hal Lublin twitter account (Dracu-Pig didn’t make the trip, in case anyone was looking/hoping for pics).

I’m looking forward to an informative and enriching experience. Hope you’ll join me.

A lot of traditional marketing methods have a built-in acceptance of failure. We might send a targeted direct mailing hoping to get a 2% conversion rate and be thrilled with that because that 2% represents a significant amount of income.

What about that other 98%? Are we hoping to scoop them up somewhere else in our “marketing funnel?”

Maybe those people don’t want to be bombarded by ads and promotions. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t do business with you. It could just mean that they aren’t interested in being treated like a number. Chris Brogan wrote a great post yesterday about how important “custom” is – how feeling “heard” or “seen” can make a huge difference for any of us. Social media allows us to engage the consumer as a person when they want, where they want and how they want.

One part of integrating social into your marketing plan is taking what you’re doing with you current marketing and figuring out how it can extend/adapt into the social media space. Another big part is allowing social media to change and evolve all of your other marketing. All of a sudden you have the ears and eyes to hear and see your market. You can connect with them and grow a relationship by listening and giving them value without asking anything in return and create a loyal group of people who share in your success.

Let’s go back to the numbers of the first example but look at it through the social lens. You’ve got a 2% return on your “investment” (of time, expertise and hopefully a little emotion), but now, instead of being “lost” that other 98% just aren’t looking to buy right now. You haven’t lost them at all.

Let me set the record straight here, though. I’m not saying direct marketing sucks, or that you shouldn’t send mail out if that works for you. I’m just saying that there are other options for reaching and connecting with that 98%. That’s where the power of “custom” comes in.

…Don’t wipe your hands on my drapes.

That’s not what they’re for, you know? I use ‘em to keep the windows covered, or at the very least as decoration. If you’re like me, your home is your place, where you have your own rules. When you visit someone else’s house, you don’t conduct yourself the same way you would at home because it’s not your place. That’s the golden rule, right? Simple.

For whatever reason (maybe because it’s “not real”?), our online “homes” are no different. How many of you have left a promotional, self-serving post on someone else’s Facebook wall? It’s OK to raise your hand – none of us can see you. Now, how many of you have FOUND other people’s spam (that’s what it is – unwanted, unwarranted, unbelievable) on your wall? Sucks, doesn’t it? Hell, I get upset when I see a friend getting spammed, even if they don’t mind. I think it’s rude, if I’m not mistaken it’s a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service (psst! It’s in there! Check the first item in the “Safety” section).

If you’re a smart business person, you know better than to storm into someone’s cocktail hour like a bull on speed and start shouting about your exciting new service. If it helps you, spammers, think of Facebook as a cocktail hour. Or a birthday party. Or a baby shower. Or a wedding. Or some other place where your well-honed “hard sale” is not only ineffective but offensive to some. Is it worth the few sales you might make to turn off 100 for every 1 you sell? If your answer is “yes” feel free to leave my blog (if the lack of a zillion ads didn’t drive you off in the first place). If it’s no, consider this alternative: Contact people privately if you think they might be interested in something you have to offer. If they say no, let it go. How about a Facebook BUSINESS page where you can PROMOTE your business openly?

Don’t get me wrong here: There’s no need to keep mum about your job or aspects of your work on the personal side of Facebook since they’re a real part of your life and can spark engagement with people. It simply means that your personal profile (and anyone else’s, for that matter) is not a billboard or a place for you to promote.

They have places for that. They’re called ACTUAL Billboards.

Am I off base here? Tell me what you think.

I went to an uber-liberal Quaker school for the majority of my formative years. Hippies reigned supreme, we didn’t have a football team, and competition was deemed “not in the spirit of Friends.” In my freshman year of Upper School (high school), I learned two things in gym class (before it went independent study, basically enabling my dislike of conventional exercise):

1. How to play badminton
2. How to juggle

Learning to juggle took patience. I had to re-learn how to throw and catch in a specific way before I was ready to add the second ball. Then I had to master that until I was ready for the third. The point is that if I had tried to juggle multiple balls right out of the gate, my progress would have been MUCH slower because I didn’t even know how to juggle ONE ball yet.

So many of the people I speak with are quick to become overwhelmed with being on just a handful of sites. No, this is not another post about not having to do everything. I’ve already talked about that here. Let’s assume, for the sake of this post, that you’ve already decided on a tool (or a small set of tools) that you feel fit your skill set and the goals you have for your business. People can still get overwhelmed by that, to a certain extent because they still feel like they’re missing something important. As a lifelong sufferer of shiny thing syndrome, I know how challenging this can be, but your evolution will occur organically. The first step is learning to use what you have.

Whatever tool you choose, commit to it, Create a plan. Learn the tool’s capabilities. Learn its weaknesses. Give yourself the time to really understand how it can benefit you. You may (or may not) reach a point at which you want to take your success on one platform and expand it to another, or add a new tool that extends the functionality of the first. Learn to juggle that ONE tool flawlessly and when the time comes to add a second tool, you’ll be ready to do it and the learning period will be even shorter.

Do you agree? What was your progression into social media?

Happy New Year, everyone. We’ve reached the first Monday of 2010, and with it comes the steely resolve to keep the promises we made to ourselves on Friday (weekends don’t count, right? We always start on Monday).

I call shenanigans on that. TOTAL shenanigans.

Resolutions are nothing more than promises designed to be broken.We like to tie them to the new year because of the feeling of renewal that comes with arrival of a new calendar year. If we’re honest, though, we like the idea of making bold statements more than we like putting in the time to actually affect change. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Humans are amazing animals. Our cognitive capacity, ability to adapt, and perceptive powers can serve as either a great tool or liability. The great news is that you’re in control. Rather than using resolutions to create space between where you are and where you want to be, use your powers to affect change now. How do you do that?

• Create a big picture plan with definable goals.
• Plot out steps and a schedule for those goals.
• Start taking those steps today.

Yes, you can apply this to social media strategy. You can create measurable goals (conversions, traffic-based goals, and as Amber Naslund points out, there are many “outside-the-ROI-box” measurables you can use ), come up with the means to achieve those goals, and implement them. You can do it to just about any facet of your business. However, it also applies to your life. Your outlook. Your ability to achieve.

I need to lose weight. You know how I’m doing it? One day at a time. Watching what I eat and making sure I get some sort of exercise done every day. I know my goal weight, but I know that I’m only going to get there a few pounds at a time.

As you move into 2010, make good things a habit by doing them every day. Set goals and just as importantly determine the steps to reach them. More importantly than that, TAKE those steps. Intent without action is meaningless. Action without intent is mindless. Combine the two and you can do anything.