(Image: “Round-Up Room” by Whalt, on Flickr)

Favorite sites, articles and resources this week:

1. Superlist of What NOT To Do In Social Media (UPDATED)

2. I need an interview: “To help me get the job of my dreams I will be volunteering 5 hours to non-profits for each interview that I receive and an additional 1 minute for each unique visitor to my site.”

3. Why Intel’s social media policy is a really big deal. Really.

4. Where is Your Username registered?

5. Propaganda leaflets

6. Quarlo, Street photos of New York.

Favorite Tweets this week:

1. @amoxcalli RT @meshugavi: “For every follower I get, I will be donating a dollar to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.” Follow @mrsrosey! (pls RT)

2. @jowyang When you look closely, you probably know and can recognize more brands than you do people –Do you agree with that theory?
3. @McMatt Serious knowledge from @THE_REAL_SHAQ: B kinder than necessary because everyone u meet is fighting some kind of battle.

I have been reading up on word of mouth marketing and found an interesting conversation on the word of mouth marketing association’s website.

The organization has a ethics code review comment section, where they ask, answer and accept comments on great questions like:

Is it ok to have multiple identities while conducting online WOM?
Should people be paid to review or comment on blogs?

The second questions sparked a lively debate. In the comments, Yvonne DiVita make a compelling argument that draws a parallel between author’s getting paid to review books and people getting paid to review blogs.
What do you think about the issue?

As an marketer, there are several word of mouth networks I would love to access.  Here are my top 10.

1. The Barber & beauty shop Word of Mouth network
2. The flight attendant Word of Mouth network
3. The concierge and doorperson Word of Mouth network
4. The realtor Word of Mouth network
5. The administrative assistant Word of Mouth network
6. Religious & community leadership Word of Mouth network
7. The better business association members Word of Mouth network
8. Local bands Word of Mouth network
9. Support staff in dentist office Word of Mouth network
10. High school athletic directors Word of Mouth network

I know many of these networks don’t exist—as networks; however, from a local marketing perspective that is who I would love to reach.

Resourcefulness is one of the qualities I most admire.  These two designers exemplify it. They have built a landing page to raise money to travel from Tel Aviv to the Future of Web Apps conference. This page contains a dynamic chart illustrating their progress, and also a MP3 they are selling to help fund the trip. It’s a great concept. Check it out here.

The Sixty One is a website that helps you “find your new favorite song in less than five minutes a day.”  The site enables its members to earn points for discovering successful songs early and recommending them to others. According to the site, they make tastemaking “fun, competitive, and trackable.” I recently interviewed Bryan C. Russett, a the Sixty One power user who introduced me to the site.

1. Who should check it out?
Music snobs primarily. Ah, anyone really. If you spend more than an hour each week looking for new music then it’s a great place to get involved.

2. When did you know the site was for you?
Probably the first time a song I found hit the homepage. And then finding out who the song, a cover, was written by, seeing she was on the site as well, and meeting her performing at a gig in Boston. Either then or the first time I clicked on something and it made noise. It really is a very smooth site.

3. Can you explain how bumping, points, rewards work on the site?
A “bump” is a vote of confidence for a song. Just like other sites with ranking systems (digg, reddit), songs that get a lot of votes have a better shot at hitting the homepage. The difference is that there’s an up-front cost to vote and a scoring system based on how early you get in on good songs. You end up listening to songs outside your comfort zone because it looks like a good investment… There’s also an auction every couple hours where people can bid on a chance to pick a song to put on the homepage.  You usually get a thank you from the artist for reviving a song of theirs. You get some street cred for reviving under-appreciated songs. “Adding” music means selecting it for your list of favorites, which you can arrange into playlists and people can listen to when they click on your Radio. Detailing all of the features of the site would take a little long but suffice to say that most everything is well integrated and easy to pick up on.

4. What do you personally “do” on the site?
I go to the site, check my profile to see who’s commented on my wall and if any artists I’m a fan of have uploaded new music. I’ll open the browser window in a new tab and click through the day’s new music (usually about 100 songs) and start clicking on songs I want to hear (you have to listen for a minute before you can bump). So far I’ve bumped around 1700 songs which puts me just under 20 a day I believe. It is an addictive site, no doubt about that – you really have to scour the day’s music to catch hit songs early. I guess you could just appreciate the music and not worry about scoring tons of points but what’s the fun in that? Once satisfied that I’m up on all the day’s activity I’ll usually say hi to some other listeners on the site and check out their radio.

5. What’s your favorite thing about the community on the site?
The accessibility, I’d say. The artists on the site are generally responsive and the listeners are by and large quite friendly. It is, however, a bit difficult to communicate. The site’s owners are experimenting with social features but there’s really very little you can do outside of listen to music and post on people’s walls. There are community forums but the owners silence any conversation that’s remotely critical of the site or questions changes (which is what people would naturally do on a growing, evolving website). An independent community site called Max Bumps was started that’s open to all thoughts but it’s mostly for diehard users. Despite the communication gripes, T61 is still the best option out there right now for discovering and enjoying new music.

Feel free to say hi: http://www.thesixtyone.com/egospring/ (and remember to uncheck the box that says “block messages from strangers” so I can say hi back)

(Image: “Be prepared”, by pink hats, red shoes on Flickr)

In January I am flying to Latin America to conduct a week long workshop on social media marketing and sales strategy. There are many differences in language and culture and research and preparation is more essential than ever.

Here are a few steps I am taking to ensure the presentation will be helpful and relevant.

1. Do.  After listening to your talk, what do you want members of your audience to do? Conduct a meeting? Ask their customers a question? Read a book? Use analytics tools to determine what consumers are saying about the brand? The action you want your audience to take will inform your presentation content and structure. Start there.

2. Expectations.  What does your audience expect to hear? If you’re an established speaker, the expectations will come from your brand. If you are an unknown speaker, the expectations will come from the title of your speech. Before you focus on wowing them beyond their wildest dreams, start by delivering the content which brought them to your talk and captured their interest in the first place.

3. Confirming expectations.  When I am invited to speak to clients, I always confirm the three outcomes I am aiming to achieve with my presentation. I do this by emailing the client, asking them to review the outcomes I have selected and provide feedback. This makes sure you don’t show up to talk about “how something works,” to an audience that wants to know “how to make it work better,” or “why consumers use social media,” when the client really want to know “how their company should use social media.”

4. Be relevant.  Know to whom your audience is primarily held accountable and to what they are held accountable. Shape your presentation accordingly. If you are in a room of CEOs who believe marketing should be the first expense cut in a recession, you have to not only address why social media marketing is effective, but also justify the broader category of marketing as well. When possible, I conduct brief discussions with people of a similar backgrounds to my audience to understand what they are thinking.

5. Ask the simple question.  If the audience only understood one point from this presentation, which one would it be?

6. Be proleptic.  What are the three most likely questions your audience will ask about the presentation? Make sure you address these questions early in the presentation

7. Say the unsaid.  Your presentation just ended. Your audience files out of the room. What comments are running through their minds? While you may never know, this exercise helps you see things from their perspective.

What has worked for you?  Please leave your speaking preparation tips as a comment below.