Author: Garth Beyer

Expecting Conversation

Expecting Conversation

Garth Beyer

Instagram Photo

I see a lot of social media posts and talk to others who create online content wondering why they are not getting any engagement, why no one is commenting on their Instagram photo or replying to any Tweets. My reply is two-fold.

Lack Of Communication

Those who see the blog post, the Instagram photo, the podcast, don’t know what they are supposed to do next. Amateurs – and I don’t mean it as an insult – simply state what they want the viewer to do. Some write “leave a comment in the comments section below” at the end of their blogpost or ask “please share this video with your friends” at the end of their YouTube bit. It works!

The more experienced communicators can craft the message in a way that asks the viewer to participate, to communicate in some way without asking straightforward. The wording, the voice, the structure matters, but takes hours of practice to get right.

Writing into a void is easy, writing to interact without requesting the interaction is di-fi-cult.

Take care how you craft your next message, when you write your next blog post, when you post an Instagram photo description. Be sure an objective viewer will know what you want them to do.

Lack Of Emotion

Simply stating, a lot of created social media content is safe. It’s banal. It’s all numbered, bolded, bulleted and smells like a PowerPoint.

If you’re not getting interaction (when interaction is what you want) you’re lacking emotion in your content. The Instagram photo isn’t moving enough, the YouTube channel doesn’t make the viewer feel like anything has changed after watching, the blog post doesn’t make the reader giddy to start something new.

The question to ask before you start anything, before you tweet, before you share a photo on FB: how do you want viewers to feel?

Just as important, the question to ask before you finish anything, before you hit send, before you upload: will the viewers feel what you want them to feel?

 

Stay Positive & Voice Matters

Photo credit: me
Social Media Pacing

Social Media Pacing

Garth Beyer

Iron Man Madison Setting A Pace

For all the readers who are runners, don’t you get frustrated when you’re jogging and another person or group of people will run for a short distance then walk for a bit and you end up at the same finish line about the same time? Only you’re exhausted, sweating, panting, about to flop over and pass out, while they merely stop for a minute to catch their breath and they’re off to Starbucks to grab a drink? Frustrating.

They do have some smarts, though. They pace themselves. They invest a little bit at a time and still reach the finish line, but with more energy to immediately head off on another race (or to their reward).

Pacers are extremely successful on social media.

To gain a great following on Twitter, you don’t need to hover over your feed for 7 hours a day. No need to interact with every single tweet that shows up and send a message to every single person who follows you the moment they do.

To gain a great following on Twitter, set out to interact with three people a day, send two tweets out and follow someone knew. It’s my 3-2-1 rule. Let any other Twitter action be natural. This led me to get 800 strong followers on Twitter. Much stronger than those with 20k followers who don’t amount for much, are mainly bots, and who don’t interact (and if they do, it’s spam).

Pace yourself in all things social media. It shows you’re in it for the long run. It shows you’re committed to caring. It shows YOU are a person, not just a Twitter account with a name and automated software attached to it.

The 3-2-1 method works with all social media platforms. Give it a try for a month and tell me you haven’t begun to enjoy social media more.

 

Stay Positive & 3-2-1 Go

Photo credit (in lieu of Iron Man this week)
I Probably Type Faster Than You

I Probably Type Faster Than You

Garth Beyer

Fast Typing

In high school computer class, I was recorded typing 149 guam (words per minute). The average is 40. The average for an actual data processing job is 70. When I was last tested for speed typing, about, say, 2 years ago, I rocked a 104. The hiring manager at the agency said the highest he had seen was 80. My excuse for a low speed? I was used to a laptop keyboard (flat keys). I tested on a traditional keyboard.

I don’t really love typing. I’d rather be conversing with clients and mentors, strategizing media plans, going out in the field doing product-interaction research. I could type a lot of things at 150 guam that I would rather do than typing.

How do your employees feel?

They may be remarkable at something, but is it what they love to do? Don’t you think they will be more successful doing what they love rather than what they are merely great at? Don’t we owe it to them, the business, ourselves to find out?

 

Stay Positive & I Believe Learned Talent Trumps Natural Talent. Am I Wrong?

Photo credit

 

What The Click!

What The Click!

Garth Beyer

Click Responsibly

Clicking is a public act now.

The attention we give is the attention we get back. We control the media.

This shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s the same concept with our lives, our work, our art. We are the editors of it all, and someone is always watching. What people see can be defined as the influence we have on them, on the world.

We can fight it. We can close the shades. We can turn on Private Browsing. We can store away our art or not talk about the wars going on around the world. Or…. or we can make the sacrifices we need to make to only click what matters, to do what matters, to show what matters.

Before you ask what the click is up with our culture, remember we’re the ones shaping it.

 

Stay Positive & Drown Out The Negativity

Photo credit

How To Not Burn Yourself Out (It’s Ironic)

Garth Beyer

Overworked

Spending hours on Pinterest or skipping lunch to continue working on your business plan is exhausting. To be an expert in social media, undo, marketing, guitar, writing greeting cards, anything, it takes tons of time.

Over and over I’ve watched others burn out from spending hours upon hours on something.

I’ve seen friends spend days learning cool Twitter marketing skills just to burn out and scrap their campaign idea.  Others have exhausted themselves from writing for 4 hours straight or playing a video game for 8 hours non-stop. (Ask anyone in my family or my close friends, I’m quite notorious for burning myself out too, and it’s taken a number of years to write this post with pure confidence.)

The best way I’ve learned to not burn myself out is to do a little bit of everything. To be a social media expert, don’t spend all your hours trying to leverage Twitter. Do something with Twitter once a day and move on to doing something with all the other social media outlets. Instead of going all in, go in on all.

It’s not about knowing a little bit about everything anymore. Now it’s about learning a little bit about everything continuously over a period of time until you’re an expert on a lot of things.

This also means to go out and run in the rain, to cook yourself a damn good meal, to email a family member you haven’t spoken to in a while. Everything in moderation.

 

Stay Positive & Emphasis On The Everything

Photo credit
After Years Of Arguing It

After Years Of Arguing It

Garth Beyer

Writer Garth Beyer

I’ll finally admit it… Identifying your passion, discovering what it is you really love to do, finding your purpose is a damn difficult thing to do.

For some it seems to come so natural. That, too, I once believed. I don’t anymore. Being more forward with you, I thought I knew I always wanted to be a writer, an entrepreneur and a PR guy (even though I didn’t know the term PR at the time). “It’s  just who I am!” I would tell people.

Investigating my past, though, I can’t recall the moment when I knew. There was no epiphany, no wide-realization, no godly pronouncement of my passion.

After scrutinizing my past, I realized that it was through a series of forcing, tricking, and driving myself to love the things I did that lead me to declare I was a writer, I was an entrepreneur, I was what I now know is called a public relations strategist.

I didn’t always love writing, but I was always finding ways to love it. (Still am.) It started with poetry because I knew I couldn’t fail. It moved on to bullshitting school papers because I could mock the system when I received the same grade as someone who spent weeks on the same paper, and I, only hours. Writing became more fun when I could write love letters and make women blush. And starting this blog? Best decision of my life for reasons it would take a book to detail.

I didn’t always want to be an entrepreneur either, but I always found ways to love it. (Still do.) I started my own vending machine business with my dad because I loved eating the leftover candy. I helped run a card shop because I loved collecting pokemon cards at the time and got to watch old batman movies when no one was in the shop. Instead of a lemonade stand, I had a beanie babies stand because it connected me with more kids my age.

I didn’t always want to go into Public Relations, but it was a knack of mine finding ways to love it. (Still is.) Meeting new people and going to events alone was rough, but I made business cards for myself. They made me feel I deserved to be there even though I didn’t have an established PR business. I went to dozens of Toastmaster (public speaking org) meetings, not because I was fearless, but because I could learn from others’ failures so I didn’t make the same when I finally forced myself to the podium.

Passion isn’t really something you seek out on purpose, it’s more of something you come across. You don’t need an “aha” moment to realize what it is you’ve been put on this world to do. You get there by finding reasons to love what you’re already doing.

 

Stay Positive & You’ll Do What You Love, When You Love What You Do

What’s Your Competitive Advantage?

What’s Your Competitive Advantage?

Garth Beyer

You only need one. Certainly have more, but you only need one to highlight otherwise it seems you’re in the business more to compete than to truly give to a specific market segment.

  • environmentally friendly
  • long-term care
  • faster
  • sincerest customer service

Call it a superpower, call it your brand image, call it your competitive advantage. Give it whatever name you want, but have it. Own it. Show it. Without a competitive advantage, what are you trying to accomplish? How will you stand out?

 

Stay Positive & The Market Favors The Special