From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

Below is the slidedeck from my presentation to the Williamsburg Internet Marketing group yesterday. We had a great couple of hours discussing blogging for business on many different levels.

RSS and Facebook readers: click here to view and enter comments.

On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Caldonia by Albert Collins.

Pingdom, a service that monitors the uptime and performance of websites and servers on the Internet, recently published the results of a study they performed analyzing men vs. women and their use of social media.

Overwhelmingly, women outrank men. Does any of this data surprise you?

• Twitter and Facebook have almost the same male-female ratio; Twitter with 59% female users and Facebook with 57%.
• The most female-dominated site? Bebo (66% female users), closely followed by MySpace and Classmates.com (64%).
• The average ratio of all 19 sites was 47% male, 53% female.

RSS and Facebook readers: click here to view and enter comments.

On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to For the Good Times by Al Green.

Do you wonder who is JASE Group?
Do you wonder what JASE Group does?
Wonder no longer!

Related info:

http://www.JASEgroup.com
http://www.CoffeeWithTheCEO.com
http://www.jasegroup.com/brand_management
http://www.jasegroup.com/inbound_marketing
http://www.jasegroup.com/design
http://www.jasegroup.com/blog

RSS and Facebook readers: click here to view and enter comments.

On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to After the Storm by Norman Brown.

Do you encourage your clients to communicate with you over Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed or LinkedIn? Or do you bounce back to the old reliable email?

I think it’s smart that we make ourselves available through almost any social network. Our clients know how they can reach our sales team, our support staff, and me. But we do encourage the traceability and the power (unlimited threading, attachments, etc.) of email.

What about you? What percentage of your client communication is over email?

RSS and Facebook readers: click here to view and enter comments.

On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Puttin’ on the Ritz by Ella Fitzgerald.

The team put this chart together to depict where JASE’s efforts and energies are focused on social media marketing.

Click here to get more info on Social Media 2.0 and how JASE can help you.

In this age of sprouting social media, social networks and easy-to-use social communities, are we really practicing what we preach? Do we use social media to communicate and even more importantly to interact with our customers?

We should. Now, more than ever before, we have the tools to increase bi-directional and multi-threaded interaction with our closest and also the most distant customers. We should be thinking of new ways everyday via social media to let our customers know they can rely on us to deliver on our brand promise to them.

New Media Conventions

Agenda

Have you ever said that to yourself?

You know you’ve said, I want a tool that will show me how to become a millionaire without trying or investing and without risk.

You know you’ve said, I want a tool that will type this letter for me.

You know you’ve said, I want a tool that will make this sandwich for me AND cut off the crust.

Well, here’s the tool that I want -

I want a tool that will 100% sychronize my social media discussions. When I write a blog post that automatically flows down to the JASEzone, then to Twitter, then to FriendFeed, then to Facebook, I want all of the separate discussions from each of my networks to automatically synchronize themselves on my WordPress blog so that I and my network can see the complete discussion from across that Internet in one place.

Maybe that tool is out there somewhere but if it is, I haven’t seen it yet. Why not? In today’s technology blast, and the online social networking blitz, why can’t I get a simple communications tool that will make my networking more efficient? Why should I have to visit each of my networks to make sure I don’t miss all of the discussions?

Could someone get on that please? Thanks. Call me when you’re done. Or better yet, reply to this post on Facebook and make it so that it will show up on my blog for comment discussion.

Okay, I didn’t mean that as harsh as it sounded. But my life is digital. My family knows that. My friends know that. Most everything I do in my professional and personal life is captured in some way on some media platform.

I tweet my work. I tweet about meetings. I tweet about clients. I blog on several different blogs. I take photos like crazy with my BlackBerry and immediately email them to TwitPic which autoposts to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. I take videos with my BlackBerry and live stream them to Qik which autoposts to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. I tweet about my wonderful family. I tweet while on vacation. Heck, I even tweet while at Major League Baseball games.

I am digital. I am live. Hear me roar.
I get questions all the time about taking a break from being digital. And I always answer with the same response - “why?” I enjoy being digital. There’s no stress for me to being digital. I don’t need that break that some people might. In all actuality, I’m a bit uncomfortable not being readily connected.

Let me clarify a bit for you on what I mean by being “digital”. I don’t mean just having access to my social media channels, although they are important to me. My BlackBerry and notebook give me a safe place to write my thoughts, for my blog and for private. They give me quick access to my huge music library which is a great stress reliever for me. They give me a way to collect and view my vast photo and video libraries. They provide me a way to quickly Skype (audio or video) call with my Nicole or my daughters or my Mother.

So you see, being digital is not a burden to me at all. Being digital is my way of life that provides me the most efficient, profitable and comfortable way to manage my time, my daily tasks and my stress.

Besides, I love my job. My job is my life. My family and friends are my life. And my life is digital. So why would I want to change that?!

“Hi. Thanks for friending me. Do I know you?”

Really? You’re really going to ask that question to someone that attempts to meet you in a social network?

Without trying to seem arrogant or irritated, I usually reply back with something that essentially means, “You would if you would open your eyes to social media.” Of course I rephrase that a bit to not sound truly irritated.

Social media is the perfect platform to make new friends, expand your business network, and get to know people better. Don’t blow it right off the bat by seeming like you don’t like people in general.

What do you think?
Why would you ask that question before approving a friendship?
Or how would you respond to someone that tells you to “talk to the hand”?

Nicole and I cannot begin to express the sincere thanks for the thoughts, sentiments and prayers we have received from our social media family over the past week. Your thoughts and comments have been almost overwhelming during this tough time of loss for our family.

To our blog, JASEzone, Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook families: We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your friendship and prayers.

May God bless you all for your dear friendship.

New Media Conventions

Agenda

Stay tuned for the excitement! New Media Conventions is coming to Virginia Beach this fall. Check the New Media Conventions website for more details. Make sure to sign up for the email list to get details as they are unveiled.

I attended an event last night that included panelists and audience participants from many different verticals. Each member in the group was an entrepreneur at heart and by living the life. Each member has a passion for entrepreneurship so much that sharing those experiences is imperative to portraying their vision.

When we entered the panelist event room after a half hour or so of casual networking, I snapped a few pictures (see photo below) with my BlackBerry to send up to TwitPic >> JASEzone >> Twitter >> FriendFeed >> Facebook.

While I was doing so, a friendly woman sat down next to me. Here’s how our quick conversation went -
New Friend: Who are you here with while taking pictures?
Me: No one. I’m just taking them to send to TwitPic to get onto Twitter to share with my network of friends and colleagues.
New Friend: Really? [short pause] What is Twitter?

Since the event was getting ready to start, I spent all of 20 seconds explaining Twitter to her, its purpose, and its popularity. She seemed interested, but not really very interested.

Not thinking much more about our quick encounter, the Twitter conversation entered my thinking again when my new friend raised her hand during the panel discussion to ask a question. Her question was not what intrigued me; her introduction actually astounded me. She introduced herself as a “marketing” entrepreneur in Hampton Roads that has owned a marketing agency for over 20 years.

Huh?! Are you serious?! And you’ve never heard of Twitter? Do you do online marketing at all? Do you know what inbound marketing is? Have you heard of social media marketing? Immediately I had 30 questions for her running through my head.

Here’s the lesson for my readers: Question your marketing / advertising agency. Don’t take for granted they know your audience, much less know where your audience lives.

I’ve talked about this lesson a lot on this blog and on my vlog at Coffee with the CEO. Read through here. Watch a few videos. Don’t let my new friend be your marketing guru. Because they’re not, not matter what they say. Call our team at JASE and let’s get your organization on the right (successful!) track.