Tag Archives: Shari Weiss

Social media has changed my life — and if you are reading this, no doubt social media will be changing your life AND your business, as well.

Social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook have allowed me to meet and engage with a host of new friends — this is a very supportive community of individuals who interact with one another in a win-win situation for all of us.

I met Deepak Gupta on Twitter through some mutual American Marketing Association friends, and when he asked to interview me for his blog, I was honored.

Interview with San Francisco Social Media Evangelista — Shari Weiss

by Deepak Gupta [3/21/10]

I had the pleasure of interviewing and gaining insight from San Francisco’s own Social Media Expert – Shari Weiss. You can follow our discussion below:

What did you do before becoming a social media evangelist and how did you get into that industry?

My 35-year career has combined careers in magazines, corporate communications, and education – most recently as a marketing lecturer at San Francisco State and freelance writer for Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club. Early in 2009, I discovered Social Media and Social Media Marketing, and I’m convinced this revolutionary new communication opportunity will continue to change our world for the better.

What qualities and traits make for a good social media evangelist?

Open-mindedness must play a huge role because much of the new technology is foreign to generations of people raised with traditional methods and tools of communication.

Passion goes a long way in supporting the commitment necessary to continue studying every new tool and strategy as it is introduced AS WELL AS helping convince others of the ultimate benefits in store.

Knowledge of sociology and psychology to understand and empathize with people.

Honesty and authenticity in spirit and practice is critical to model best practices.

What tools of the trade do you use throughout your typical day and how do they help?

1) Email is number one, and I check my mail dozens of times every day.

2) I keep my Tweetdeck open throughout the day to see if any of my friends have written to or mentioned @sharisax – I have met and begun relationships with dozens of fellow Tweeters, some of whom have become partners and friends.

3) My email often leads me to notifications from Facebook and LinkedIn. Of late, I have been spending more and more time checking and participating in LinkedIn group discussions.

4) I have two blogs that I write articles for several times a week AND respond to commenters, all of whom I am excited to approve and reply to.

5) I do not yet have a SmartPhone, but I see that as coming soon. SOON has come. I now have a Droid and will be blogging about my SmartPhone/SmartBooMR adventures.

I cannot help notice how many people call themselves social media experts. Are they just throwing the title around or are there really that many social media experts out there today?

No comment, except to say that it is difficult to become an “expert” when something new is coming out all the time, and it is difficult to always know what will achieve “critical mass” and what will fade away as yesterday’s forgotten buzz.

Some of our readers are up and coming social media experts. What advice can you give them and how can they get that seal of approval of becoming an expert in the industry?

My first piece of advice is to forget about getting into social media to become an expert. Better to find the perfect fit for your particular skills/interests AND the tools and strategies that will help you provide value to others. In my case, I love both writing and teaching, so I blog and conduct workshops to help others learn everything I know.

Currently what are the best websites for promoting social media and why?

Without much doubt, Facebook – with its 400 million users – is, and will be, Number One. I do believe that YouTube – the second most popular search site – is a platform that should be understood and used to reach the most amount of people. I, personally, love Twitter and suspect it may replace email in certain circumstances. LinkedIn has great potential for those business types who learn how to use its many facets. Finally, with all its resources – particularly the brilliant minds in the organization – Google is bound to play a growing role in all our communications.

What kind of tips do you have in writing stories for our Readers?

I agree with the Common Wisdom that the best articles tell lots of “stories,” particularly case studies and narratives that show people accomplishing goals.

Also write clearly and simply, don’t whine, and tell the truth.

Give us one of your biggest accomplishments? What are your future goals?

One of my biggest accomplishments has been to continue my first blog SHARISAX IS OUT THERE with an ever growing passion . . . and a never-ending selection of juicy topics to learn and write about. And now I’ve started a second blog HOW TO DO SOCIAL MEDIA BY THE BOOK, where I share great lists of information from the wonderful social media books that I read.

http://sharisax.com

http://howto.performancesocialmedia.com

I have begun offering workshops to friends and small business people and plan to help small businesses begin to implement social media strategies. In addition, I am working on a magazine-type blog for Baby Boomers.

We cannot ignore that the popularity of social media is skyrocketing. What advice do you have for people who want to use your ideas to promote their business?

GO FOR IT! That’s what social media training is all about – helping people use these tools to build their businesses and help others.

BTW, You can find me in a number of places online:

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/shariweisssf
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/shari.weiss
Facebook Fanpage for Performance Social Media http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/Performance.Social.Media
Ning: http://performancesm.ning.com/
Twitter http://twitter.com/sharisax
Google profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/shariweissSF
Friendfeed http://friendfeed.com/sharisax
YouTube http://www.youtube.com/sharisax
Squido lens: http://www.squidoo.com/readandchat
Delicious http://delicious.com/Sharisax
Digg http://digg.com/users/sharisax
and
my San Francisco State website: http://online.sfsu.edu/~sharisax/

PHONE: 415/897-6052

Sharisax Is Out There

Social Media Sites Surpass Porn, and J-students Take Note

February 22, 2010 Shari Weiss 6 Comments

This summer I’ll be teaching a social media course for journalism students at Laney College in Oakland, and I got the opportunity to promote the class for the students in the Mass Media & Society course.

Here is the lovely story written by campus newspaper editor Tracey Tate:

Weiss spreads the word about social networking

By: Tracey Tate
Posted: 2/18/10 Laney Tower

“I unfriended you, posted it on my wall and tweeted it to all my followers.”

If that statement sounds like “Greek” to you, then you should have been present at “Making Sense of Social Media” presented by Shari Weiss, social media evangelist, on Feb. 9 in Journalism Department Chair Burt Dragin’s Mass Media and Society class.

An English teacher at Laney, Weiss is on a mission to spread the word about the benefits of social networking. She defines Social Media as “internet tools and platforms for sharing and discussing information.”

The top four social networking tools Weiss considers noteworthy are the following:

Facebook – the source of “unfriend,” which was 2009 “word of the year” in the New Oxford American Dictionary

Twitter – where one communicates via ‘tweets’ to their followers, a micro-blog

Blogging – a personal diary or web log

LinkedIn – a professional networking website

When asked how Facebook compared to MySpace, Weiss made this comparison

“MySpace is like being at a bar, Facebook is like being at a backyard barbecue and LinkedIn being at the office.”

With employers now checking out potential employees on the Internet prior to hiring, Weiss’ analogy about the world of online social networking was timely for a room packed with college students. “Once you put something on the Internet, you can’t get it back. It’s there forever,” Weiss said.

She told an anecdote about a woman who had her professional reputation slammed on Yelp and emphasized the need for everyone to be Internet savvy. Weiss then encouraged the audience to understand the importance of building a positive presence on the Web so that any negative information online will be “buried” by the good dominating the bad comments.

How “worthwhile” is social networking?

Conversation ensued about the worthiness of social networking. Student Naytasha Howard asked if social media would ever outrank porn on the Internet. Weiss and others in the class quickly responded, “It already has.” Others chimed in about the value of social media. Student, Christopher Fitz said, “Social Media is a tool to enrich our lives.”

Enrichment is exactly what Weiss promotes as a social media evangelist. In a time when self-promotion and viral marketing is becoming mainstream, using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for business purposes are tools that Weiss believes are indispensable for promoting one’s business or self. Keys to successful promotion include building a loyal community of followers on Twitter, building a fan base on Facebook and joining discussion groups on LinkedIn.

When asked by Weiss “Why do we care about social networking?’ several viable reasons were given by students. Kale Williams responded that every decent job has found has been through friends and that he just received an internship from his Facebook posting.

Marketing efforts for big companies turning to social media

Weiss emphasized the value social media for business purposes with the example Pepsi, who was a missing regular in this year’s Super Bowl commercials. When the decision makers at Pepsi did the research, they realized that they were not reaching their target audience by spending $2.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Their marketing dollars would be better spent using social media.

In a society where the virtual highway is getting wider and the traffic speeding up exponentially, social networking has become a necessity, not a pastime.

To connect with Weiss on her blog, go to sharisax.com. That’s sax as in saxophone, which Weiss plays in her spare time.

Blogging, Facebook, Sharisax Is Out There, Twitter

Managing MY Online Presence: A Road Map

July 25, 2009 Shari Weiss 17 Comments

If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there — If you don

Where do I WANT to go?

NOT

Where am I going?

I’m remembering the quote I often tell students: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

Back on July 1, I started to think about “managing” my online presence, i.e., putting some routine in place primarily to help me select where I wanted to make my Web contributions. So I wrote “How do you manage your Online Social Media presence?”

In essence, I was thinking aloud. What I accomplished — and, unfortunately, all I accomplished with that post — was to ask myself to set aside time in the morning to Go Online.

But I didn’t give myself a road map. Hence, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

Road Map — by the numbers.

1) Step one on the road must be taking time to clarify Objectives. So I thought I’d imagine the possibilities:

a) Casual: Whenever . . . of course that’s not me. It’s really OK if that label describes you, someone who spends as little or as much time as happens to be there: checking out your Facebook page, email, Twitter account, etc. I.E., WHENEVER . . . [been there, done that]

b) Experimenter: We’re ALL experimenting here, and that is a good thing. But there’s a danger — lost opportunity and value when you never really “move off the dime.” Get out there and BUILD, don’t just keep trying new things. [been there, done that]

c) Reader: One of the greatest benefits of Twitter for me personally are all of the website references with Great Stuff. I could read and read and read. How many of us bookmark and bookmark and bookmark . . . and don’t even get to read? [been there, done that]

d) Novice Participant: Read some blogs that strike a chord and add your voice once or twice a week. Join some groups and occasionally check to see what group members are asking and answering. [been there, done that]

e) Active Contributor & Engager: This is who I WANT to be. And we all know that Today is the First Day of the Rest of Our Lives.

So what does an ACE [Active Contributor & Engager] do?

Here’s my new plan . . . and a new Number One since the Objective has been taken care of:

1) Make a list of WEEKLY goals {I believe I can hold to that) and check off my accomplishments EVERY Sunday night.

2) Prioritize those goals to make certain that the ones on the top of the list are done for sure.

3) Because my original intention, way back when I first posted on April 23, was To Become an A-List Blogger — and that continues to be my Long Term Goal — Blogging will be my top priority. One of my students got around to reading my blog last week — and liked it. He asked how often I write. My immediate answer to myself was NOT ENOUGH. So Priority Number One for me is to make certain FROM NOW ON to have 3-4 posts (or more) Every Week!

4) Next, because I really believe that Twitter will become all that its creators are envisioning, my goal will be 3-5 Tweets Every Single Day! I will continue to follow my own advice on What to Tweet.

5) Facebook is a HUGE priority, especially since my partner Les Ross and I are building our Social Media/Internet Marketing consulting business Performance Social Media, which recently set up a Fan Page. We’ll be including the opportunity for small and large companies to find social media interns through us, so I’ll be monitoring and updating both my Facebook Profile and my Facebook Page EVERY Day. That means NEW content on the Facebook page at least four days a week.

6) I may be running out of time for Daily Tasks, but I thinking checking in and updating LinkedIn is essential. So besides that commitment, I plan to contribute to at least two LinkedIn Group Discussions every week.

7) Finally, my new Road Map will highly suggest that I check out at least one New social media tool, strategy or app every week; by checking out, I do mean more than reading about it.

Good luck . . . to me . . . and everyone else out there who may want to follow my Road Map.

Let me know what you think?

Do these suggestions help you?

Do you have any others to suggest?

In the meantime, I’ll see you all “Out There.”

And, Jay [my student who asked about my blog], how’s this for a new post?

Next post: What I read Saturday instead of watching cartoons

Twitter

Performance Social Media FACEBOOK PAGE is up and running

July 12, 2009 Shari Weiss 15 Comments

Catch up. Become a FAN of Performance Social Media and start to Make Sense of Social Media/Internet Marketing

Grow your business with social media strategies, tactics, and tools,

Forget the OLD Rules of PR.

Read below for David Meerman Scott’s NEW RULES for Marketing AND PR:

1) Marketing is MORE than ads.

2) PR is MORE than mainstream media.

3) YOU are what you Publish.

4) People want AUTHENTICITY, not Spam.

5) Participation NOT propaganda.

6) “Interruption” be GONE; instead: Content when people want it.

7) Focus on Long Tail, not Mass Audience.

8) Forget TV and maximize online presence.

9) Forget awards, forcus on winning business.

10) Public is back in PUBLIC Relations.

11) Content drives Action.

12) All sorts of social media platforms communicate directly with buyers.

13) On the Web: Marketing and PR are ONE.

You can read David Meerman Scott’s blog posts at WebInkNow.com.

Next post: Here are the Old Rules . . . for your consideration, or . . . for disposal 🙂

Interview

Business will rebound when firms learn and use today’s new resources for marketing

June 19, 2009 Shari Weiss 12 Comments

Strategic thinker & Brand Specialist: Russell Volckmann

Everyone wants to work for — or own — a successful company. And we are all looking forward to a positive turn for our global economy.

The news, whether from the beleaguered mass media or the intrepid bloggers and Tweeters, continues to depress us with seemingly insurmountable challenges from foreclosures to furloughs to bankruptcies.

It should be obvious that old systems are broken, and business people must figure out how to tap new resources for strategies and tactics that will benefit everyone.

Too many companies — and industries — are wasting money, time and other valuable resources by relying on metrics, customer profiling and science, according to Russell Volckmann, a marketing professional in the Bay Area of California. Russell was one of the five participants in a panel discussion that introduced me and my 48 advertising students at San Francisco State University to the overwhelming upheaval in the world of marketing.

Russell is a strategic thinker, storyteller, and positioner, who has helped entrepreneurs, small companies, Fortune 500 firms, and global organizations tell their stories and build their brands. He is currently the Executive Producer and Creative Principal at Volckmann (& friends), now focusing entirely on branding, visual identity, brand experience.

When Russell hears the cries that “Advertising is Dead,” his first reaction is that advertisers and their agencies are lazy:

They’re not creating branded experiences and other mechanisms that connect brands to people in meaningful ways. Instead, they continue to rely on the same tired old barking ad techniques that they’ve been using for the past 50 years.

“They also continue to rely increasingly on metrics that are decreasingly relevant,” explained Russell who blogs about Brand 3.0.

Since companies use the same metrics, we get the same kind of failed ad campaigns:

We need only look at the auto companies for an example of allowing MBA numbers to drive their business into the ground.

Russel’s new agency offers an 8-point brand audit process:

Brand Research
Brand Strategy
Brand Positioning
Standards & Systems
Brand Marketing
Organization Brand Building
Brand Extension
Employee Brand Competency

In addition, Russell is Executive Creative Director at partner agency Origami Tactical Creative & Branding (Montreal-based) now, and helping spearhead the new San Francisco office.

Why is Russell doing branding and branding-related experiences instead of advertising?

In 1965, thirty-four percent of consumers could name a brand advertised on a TV show. Thirty years later, only eight percent could do so. Consumers decreasingly find ads useful, informative, relevant, or differentiating.

Did you know that only six percent of people believe an ad is generally telling the truth? With numbers like these, it is no wonder even established brands are failing.

And with evidence like Russell provides, is it any wonder that our Advertising and Marketing textbooks are “incredibly impractical” as Seth Godin wrote in his recent blog post Textbook Rant. My SFSU students, as well as industry professionals, need to study “Today 101” while organizations that want marketing success — not marketing waste — will need to work with those marketers who are continuous learners.

Next post: Les Ross suggests putting websites on autopilot

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Blogging, Twitter

What to TWEET about — Part Two

June 13, 2009 Shari Weiss 15 Comments

Best Practices for Using Twitter

Since Twitter will be changing all our lives, according to Time magazine’s recent cover story, I was thinking about how my use of Twitter differs from other Tweeple — and whether anyone could really publish a Best Practices for Using Twitter.

Don’t most of us think we are right most of the time?

If I, personally, was “right” on Saturday, May 23, when I posted my first tips on What to Tweet About — a blog entry that has so far been my most popular [732 views to date] — then I’d like to re-visit one of my Tweeting suggestions, i.e. “Share an insight that you’ve gotten all on your own and are dying to share.”

Today’s post will feature a dozen of the personal ideas I tweeted since joining Twitter this past March. My hope is that readers will find at least one of these thoughts that resonates with them in a way that invites validation through a personal story.

So tell me if any of the following ring true for you:

About Business in particular:

1 – People are NOT numbers. When businesses fully understand this, their strategies and tools will adjust.

2 – Participation is today’s Marketing & tomorrow’s Loyal Customer Base

3 – To be an effective manager: Realize that you are smarter OR wiser OR more knowledgeable than your staff . . . and coach accordingly.

About Blogging in particular

4 – Quality of content wins over fitting into someone else’s box.

5 – Content-rich means both “key words” and total substance.

About Life in general:

6 – Multi-tasking is vastly over-rated.

7 – Motivation often comes after the Hard Work is done

8 – A Work in Progress: doesn’t that describe Everything?

9 – One cannot give from a depleted state

10 – We are what we think about

11 – We like doing what we do well: when we focus our efforts on our strengths, we build our reputation and loyal followers.

12 – The more I learn, the more I want to know.

Got an experience to share? Or an insight to add?

And Follow Me on Twitter @sharisax

Next post: Marketing success will depend on tapping into Today’s New Resources

Guest Post, Twitter

The NEW Marketer at Work: A day in the life of Justin Fong

June 5, 2009 Shari Weiss 1 Comment

Justin Gets a PR gig

SFSU student Justin Fong puts his Social Media lessons to good use

More than 100 marketing students in the College of Business at San Francisco State experienced All Things Social Media from classroom activities, influential guest speakers, and their own individual research.

Justin Fong was one of a half dozen students who had a double-dose, taking both my PR and my Advertising courses. After the semester ended, he began working for Scoreloop and here is a report on his internship activities:

Hey Shari,

How’s the summer going for you? My internship is really tough. Long hours and pretty much a non-stop day, but it’s a lot of fun. There is a lot going on at once.

The first thing I do in the morning is troll through the news for stories about our company and our competitors. I look through Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and other social media sites to see if anything’s new. If something does comes up, I e-mail it to my team and we try to de-position our competitors.

I also take care of all of our social media profiles. I made our Facebook fan page, our Linkedin company profile, monitor our Twitter account, etc. There are so many different things I do.

One thing that I helped the company with was the idea of creating a wikipedia page, which we discussed in a phone conference.

We had a big press release yesterday. It was a hit and got picked up by a lot of big companies, Google, Yahoo, CNBC, MarketWatch, and so many more. We do both traditional PR and PR 2.0. I’ll update you when more things happen for the company. We’re getting ready for Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference so we’re really busy this week. Have a good rest of summer!

Best Regards,
Justin Fong

Hey guys, if any more of you are “out there” doing social media activities, please send me your reports and maybe we’ll have a host of guest hosts.

Next post: What to Tweet – Part Two