Giveaways & Contests, Indie Business

UnMarketing. {Launch Week Giveaway #2}

Wow!  You guys made my freakin’ day with a boatload of happy Facebook comments, tweets, emails, and blog comments when I launched my shop yesterday! I am so thankful that I am surrounded by such encouraging, positive people!

Today’s the second day of my Janery launch week celebrations!  I wasn’t kidding when I said I had 5 days of awesome giveaways to celebrate the launch of my shop.  In addition to giving away several of my own products this week, I’ve arranged for three giveaways from people/business owners who have truly inspired me during this longer-than-expected process of starting a business.

Today’s inspiring business owner is Scott Stratten, the author and social media celebrity behind UnMarketing.

He’s awesome, and not just because he’s confident enough to dress up like a princess.

Scott-Stratten-at-Blissdom

Before I heard Scott speak at Blissdom, I seriously thought Twitter ranked up there with “stupidest things ever invented.”   Kind of like MySpace, or those damn shoes with wheels built into them.    But by the time Scott finished speaking, Twitter totally made sense to me.  Heck, I even got on my slow-ass vintage blackberry and “live-tweeted” a few of his nuggets.

Then I came home, and eagerly wrote a blog post summarizing everything I’d learned from Scott’s speech.  The info he shared was totally awesome, and I use it to this day.  You should go read it before you enter this giveaway.   I can almost guarantee it’s worth it, because Scott Stratten himself commented on that blog entry:

(If you can’t read it, he said: “Well, I just became the president of your fan club!  Thank you for this, and not just the epic pic!!  You summarized my points better than I ever have.  Thank you so much for the kind words, I’m so glad I had a hand in making the event worth it for you.  It truly was one of the greatest audiences I’ve ever spoken to.”

Yeah, I’m not gonna lie – I totally squealed with excitement to see that he not only read my blog post, but approved of my recap!

Giveaway #2:

An Awesome Autographed Copy of UnMarketing!

***This giveaway is now closed.***

UnMarketing Book Cover Scott StrattenIf you have a blog that you want people to read, or you”re at all involved in social media, or you’re a business owner who wants to understand how to use Facebook and Twitter to market your business without being obnoxious you need to read this book.  I have a copy, and I’ve read it several times, each time finding new nuggets to apply to my social media approach.

Now’s your chance to win a copy.  An awesome autographed copy!

Here’s how to enter:

  1. Simply comment on this post and if you’re feeling talkative, let me know where you stand on all things Twitter.
  2. For a second chance to win, tweet this post and include @borrowedabode and @unmarketing  in the tweet.  Here’s a shortlink to make it easy: http://theborrowedabode.com/?p=7827

Other details:

  • This giveaway closes on Thursday, 6/16/2011 at 10:00 PM
  • The winner will be randomly chosen and announced on or after Friday, 6/17/2011
  • The prize will ship after Friday, 6/17/2011

That’s it for today!  How about some awesome links?

Disclaimer:  No one paid me to ramble on about how awesome Scott and his book are.   Though now that I think of it, if they wanted to, I wouldn’t complain.   It’s totally my personal opinion.   Scott is, however, providing a free autographed copy of his  book for this giveaway.  And if you buy his book through my Amazon link, I get a minuscule bit of dough.

issdom ’11 Closing Keynote Address from Scott Stratten (@UnMarketing)

What made my decision to drive-overnight-with-3-strangers-to-nashville-in-a-snowstorm more worth the risk than anything else? The closing keynote address at Blissdom, given by Scott Stratten. Both he and his book, UnMarketing, kick ass.

His closing session was so full of great nuggets that instead of sharing one huge wrap-up post about Blissdom, I’m sharing my takeaways from his session all by themselves, because I want you people to READ THIS!

Do I have your attention now?

On Blog Comments & CAPTCHA:

Bloggers, listen up! Only 1-3% of your readers will comment on your posts.

We all love blog comments, right? They make us feel all warm and fuzzy and validated. So why do we keep doing things to discourage commenters?

Those “CAPTCHA” things where you have to type in a word before submitting your comment? Scott had one thing to say about that:

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.”

(I agree . . there’s nothing more frustrating when commenting than having to jump through hoops just to click “submit.”)

9 out of 10 times blog comment moderation is not necessary. There’s nothing more discouraging to a reader than to share their thoughts only to be faced with “This blog comment is awaiting moderation.” It keeps them from being able to immediately join in the conversation.

(I personally have spam protection built in with my WordPress blog, so it’s never really an issue.)

If you are going to have comment moderation enabled, customize the message to make it more friendly and personal.

Recommendation: Use the Disqus plugin for threaded comments. Also, it emails you when someone comments on the blog, and you can reply to the comment via email (and have it show up on the blog).

On marketing:

Marketing is not a task. Every time you engage with someone, you are marketing yourself.

Marketing isn’t hard. You just have to care about people.

People do business with people they know, like, and trust. So what are you doing to increase these three factors?

In regards to things going “viral” online:

People spread awesome. Awesomely sweet. Awesomely great. Awesomely horrible. Awesomely funny. Not “just ok.”

Therefore, blog when you have something awesome to say.

Here’s what you want to create with your blog: When you haven’t posted for a while, and you do finally post, you want people’s reactions to be “OH HOLY MOSES, HE FINALLY POSTED! I HAVE TO GO READ IT!”

And be honest with yourself: you know when you’ve created the awesome, just as well as you know when you’re just creating “content.” If you’re more focused on posting frequently than on posting “awesomeness” – that’s not good.

On making your site user-friendly:

Make your site mobile-ready. Check how it looks on an iPad, Droid, iPhone, etc. Scott recommends the WP Touch WordPress plugin to help make it more mobile-friendly.

On SEO (Search Engine Optimization):

We tend to over-SEO stuff.

Nobody ever said “This article is ok, but wow, I love how it’s keyword optimized!”

On “contact me” forms on websites:

For every field you add to a form, there is a 10-30% loss of registration. In other words, the more fields you have, the fewer people will actually fill the form out. Keep it quick-n-easy!

On social media platforms:

You can’t use every site all the time, so choose a primary platform and stick with it. Twitter? Facebook?

If you use Twitter, you can get your stats at TweetStats.com

Twitter is all about building relationships.

The great thing about sharing info on Twitter: you’re not spamming people, you’re sharing items and then they can choose if they want to check it out.

On negativity:

The more emotional currency you spend worrying about trolls and negativity, the less you have to spend on those you care about.

– – –

And that concludes the nuggets I can share from Scott’s speech. I wish you could have been there – he was 100% awesome, shared 100% interesting and helpful info, with about 50% stand-up comic. Want more? Go buy his book. It’s totally worth it.

You can watch his entire closing address here:

PS: Now that you’re done reading, here are some awesome links:

·My insane overnight drive to Nashville with strangers

·Follow UnMarketing on Twitter

·

Blissdom ’11 Closing Keynote Address from Scott Stratten (@UnMarketing)

 

What made my decision to drive-overnight-with-3-strangers-to-nashville-in-a-snowstorm more worth the risk than anything else? The closing keynote address at Blissdom, given by Scott Stratten. Both he and his book, UnMarketing, kick ass.

His closing session was so full of great nuggets that instead of sharing one huge wrap-up post about Blissdom, I’m sharing my takeaways from his session all by themselves, because I want you people to READ THIS!

Do I have your attention now?

On Blog Comments & CAPTCHA:

Bloggers, listen up! Only 1-3% of your readers will comment on your posts.

We all love blog comments, right? They make us feel all warm and fuzzy and validated. So why do we keep doing things to discourage commenters?

Those “CAPTCHA” things where you have to type in a word before submitting your comment? Scott had one thing to say about that:

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.”

(I agree . . there’s nothing more frustrating when commenting than having to jump through hoops just to click “submit.”)

9 out of 10 times blog comment moderation is not necessary. There’s nothing more discouraging to a reader than to share their thoughts only to be faced with “This blog comment is awaiting moderation.” It keeps them from being able to immediately join in the conversation.

(I personally have spam protection built in with my WordPress blog, so it’s never really an issue.)

If you are going to have comment moderation enabled, customize the message to make it more friendly and personal.

Recommendation: Use the Disqus plugin for threaded comments. Also, it emails you when someone comments on the blog, and you can reply to the comment via email (and have it show up on the blog).

On marketing:

Marketing is not a task. Every time you engage with someone, you are marketing yourself.

Marketing isn’t hard. You just have to care about people.

People do business with people they know, like, and trust. So what are you doing to increase these three factors?

In regards to things going “viral” online:

People spread awesome. Awesomely sweet. Awesomely great. Awesomely horrible. Awesomely funny. Not “just ok.”

Therefore, blog when you have something awesome to say.

Here’s what you want to create with your blog: When you haven’t posted for a while, and you do finally post, you want people’s reactions to be “OH HOLY MOSES, HE FINALLY POSTED! I HAVE TO GO READ IT!”

And be honest with yourself: you know when you’ve created the awesome, just as well as you know when you’re just creating “content.” If you’re more focused on posting frequently than on posting “awesomeness” – that’s not good.

On making your site user-friendly:

Make your site mobile-ready. Check how it looks on an iPad, Droid, iPhone, etc. Scott recommends the WP Touch WordPress plugin to help make it more mobile-friendly.

On SEO (Search Engine Optimization):

We tend to over-SEO stuff.
Nobody ever said “This article is ok, but wow, I love how it’s keyword optimized!”

On “contact me” forms on websites:

For every field you add to a form, there is a 10-30% loss of registration. In other words, the more fields you have, the fewer people will actually fill the form out. Keep it quick-n-easy!

On social media platforms:

You can’t use every site all the time, so choose a primary platform and stick with it. Twitter? Facebook?

If you use Twitter, you can get your stats at TweetStats.com

Twitter is all about building relationships.

The great thing about sharing info on Twitter: you’re not spamming people, you’re sharing items and then they can choose if they want to check it out.

On negativity:

The more emotional currency you spend worrying about trolls and negativity, the less you have to spend on those you care about.

– – –

And that concludes the nuggets I can share from Scott’s speech. I wish you could have been there – he was 100% awesome, shared 100% interesting and helpful info, with about 50% stand-up comic. Want more? Go buy his book. It’s totally worth it.

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23 Comments

  • Reply Samantha at 9:01 pm

    Yay! I love following @unmarketing and would love to read his book!!

  • Reply Jenn at 10:58 pm

    This book is amazing! I actually read it after reading your recap post :). I checked it out from the library, but would love to have my own version to reference.

  • Reply SarahRosemary at 10:58 pm

    I have not heard of unmarketing…I must be living under a rock…or with a one-year-old.  Thanks for the information – I am going to check that out.

  • Reply Rachel at 11:40 pm

    I am so keen for that book! I really love Twitter. Great place to network and find information.  However, here in New Zealand the percentage of people that use it is quite small. Out of all my close friends, about two of them use twitter. As a result of that, I use twitter to interact with other awesome people from all around the globe. I have been so inspired and encouraged by being part of a bigger network of people interested in similar things. I REALLY love twitter!!! It’s my happy place…along with Google Reader 🙂

    http://www.sweetasnzgirl.wordpress.com

  • Reply Dot at 12:11 am

    Looks like a good book!

  • Reply ltjacobs704 at 12:36 am

    I don’t really get the whole twitter thing,  but I will check out more — for now though, I basically just have it so that I can keep an eye on what my teenager is doing on it!

  • Reply Julia at 1:30 am

    Well I am the Queen of Lame on Twitter. However, I’m certainly interested in reading his book. Great giveaway!

  • Reply Kristi @ A Nest in the Making at 1:36 am

    Twitter… I don’t have it. Or if I do, I don’t use it. And I DEFINITELY don’t know how to use it! 🙂 However with my husband launching his business, I think this book would be a huge help to us!

  • Reply Anonymous at 2:26 am

    Twitter gets me an extra visits each day just for running my mouth soo… I guess i’m for it? haha

    I want to read this book soooo badly! <3

    xoXOxoJenn @ Peas & Crayons

  • Reply Anonymous at 2:26 am

    Twitter gets me an extra visits each day just for running my mouth soo… I guess i’m for it? haha

    I want to read this book soooo badly! <3

    xoXOxoJenn @ Peas & Crayons

  • Reply Anonymous at 2:27 am

    tweeted!

  • Reply Skooks at 6:13 am

    Ok, I just went back and read your post on his talk.  I love those points you pulled out and totally resonated with so many of them.  I’m on Twitter but I don’t hang out there much.  I tend to put more effort into my blog posts and interactions on Flickr and just tweet what I’m blogging, or when I just have something too small for a blog post, or when I want to disseminate info FAST (like when it was crunch time to call our congresspeople about the CPSIA thing).  I think it’s a good tool that I probably don’t use nearly as effectively as I could.

  • Reply Melanie L at 5:03 pm

    OMG! I would LOVE THIS!! I am totally new to blogging and am ignorant on all things twitter!

  • Reply Christina Leaman at 5:15 pm

    I’m kind of like the old you. I just can’t get into Twitter. I might consider it if it would make my blog better though…

    Christina @ The Scrappy Housewife

  • Reply Kelly at 6:28 pm

    Ok, so I think I really need to read this whether I win or not!  Twitter is growing on me, but I have such a hard time balancing “interacting online” time with actually doing my creative work.  I would love to find a better balance.

  • Reply Thedivaofcoupons at 1:22 am

    I would love to read this book – I do not have a twitter acct 🙁

  • Reply Jeannine @ Small & Chic Home at 1:57 am

    I definitely remember how fired up you were when you got back from the conference.  I’m intrigued to check out the book!

    I love Twitter.  I had my doubts, but social media is part of my real job, so I made an account back in the early days.  I ignored it for a while, but started using it heavily at conferences…it was a great way to take notes at conferences, see what was happening in other sessions, and share what was being discussed with those who couldn’t attend.  After that, I realized how tight the Charlottesville Twitter community was and got more involved with Twitter for non-work reasons.  Now, I have two accounts that I use daily.

  • Reply Jeannine @ Small & Chic Home at 1:59 am

    I just tweeted about the giveaway, too.  🙂

  • Reply Anna Hull at 2:55 am

    Ha, I’m the lame person who follows people on Twitter but never actually writes anything.  But from hearing you talk about this book, it does sound quite interesting!

  • Reply clickclackgorilla at 8:21 am

    I know I for one would like to read that book.  I am still not a member of Twitter, though I’m open for hearing arguments for its usefulness.  At the moment it just strikes me as one more thing that would take more time on a computer (I have an ancient phone absolutely not capable of tweeting live from anywhere).  So what did he say about Twitter that convinced you?  Or that’s in the book?

  • Reply Renee Gremillion at 4:00 pm

    Maybe this would be worth a read… I’ve been holding out on twitter because I’m really struggling with the idea of adding one more thing to my list of stuff that is addictive to me… seriously… some days I wonder if I spent more time with facebook than I spent with my kids.  (exaggeration)

  • Reply Jordan at 11:39 pm

    This book sounds really interesting. I’d love to read it! I’m a horrible twitterer. I’ve never been able to get into it, though I can see why it is so popular and effective

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