If you were looking for Collaboration Insights…

We are thrilled to announce that Collaboration Insights is now known as Blue Marz Creative. While we still maintain some consulting clients under the umbrella of Blue Marz Group, we have streamlined our focus on what is our true passion… getting your brand and message out to those who need to hear about your services. 2011 is a brand new year… a year of new beginnings, and we here at Blue Marz Creative have great excitement about what’s in store! Keep checking back… it’s getting really good now!

Twitter ID: Personal vs. Professional

With more businesses emerging within the Twitterverse, a question of strategy arises: is it better to interact as a person or business? Our picture IDs on Twitter are very small, but they make significant difference in accessibility to others in your field, or “searchability”, and perceived authenticity from your followers. So if you wander how to begin or are considering a shift in approach, let’s evaluate.

1. When appearing as a Person

Pro: Authenticity. With so many timed, or spammed tweets bombarding us about maximizing SEO and tripling our income through social media in 2 weeks, it’s a relief to find real people in business, truly networking with others. Using your own photo is instantly  more personable, making it easier to harbor conversation. Above that, it is also easier to remember faces. With our home streams constantly being refilled, sometimes by thousands of Tweeple, faces are definitely easier to retain than names.

Con: This can leave a gap in specific business field recognition. When going under your actual name instead of your company name, You have to work a little harder to be seen AS a business. #hashtags are you best friend to place you in business-related list results (i.e. #marketing #branding #smallbiz), A tiny sentence about being a business owner in the ‘about me’ won’t do enough for you; a customized twitter background FOR your business is crucial, so when someone visits your page, they cannot miss your line of work.

2. When appearing as a Business

Pro: By identifying as your business, it is much easier to be located. Twitter has the mentality of a bar; when seeking out specific types of people to follow among the masses, we look briefly and move on. They are it or they’re not. Likewise, they’ll follow you or they won’t. When presented as a business, your are easier seen in the “at a glance” environment of fast track social media.

Con: Being located doesn’t necessarily yield more interaction. It seems that business-faced tweeters don’t converse with their followers as much. They are heavier on link-tweeting to their line of work, and related articles. This is helpful when they supply legitimate content, but it may get monotonous. Over time, following them can be like watching simultaneous commercials for the same thing. But, if you do have a conversational business front it can be peculiar for followers not to know if you are a male or female. It’s not a deal breaker, but it can create a gap in effective networking.

All in all, if you proffer your social media to be more social, it is better to be a person with a Business. Surely there are exceptions to every rule, and ultimately you should utilize whatever formula widens your business related playing field. Twitter holds the very real possibility of acquiring actual business, so using strategy can’t hurt. If you’re still on the fence, try a trial week of each possibility, and solidify your choice afterward. Remember, either way you choose, it then boils down to the content you supply to your followers.

Happy Networking!

Weather & Work: A Welcome for Spring

Here in good old Houston, Texas, we don’t have much of a Spring season as many other places in the States. We go from a bearable version of Winter to maybe a few weeks of green emerging, colors blooming, and our skin asking to spend time in the Sun. It’s a grace period of sorts, as after these short weeks of flirting with the idea of a sweet Spring, we’re thrown into obtrusive, relentless Summer heat and humidity that I, even as Houston native, have never become immune to melting in, or learned to overcome.

But now, still within these light days of a fleeting Spring, I find myself wanting to go with the calm of the season. Today, I realized I have not had a cup of coffee in 2 weeks. It’s quite uncharacteristic of the one I depended on and second I’d pour for kicks while our temperature was a bit cooler. It was a ‘Who am I?’ moment, but shortly thereafter, I saw clearly. The weather! The change! New life! A product of open windows and shoes that don’t require socks. Instant wellness, caused by the earth and God himself. It seems I’ve been living in it for weeks before I defined it.

So what is it to you all? Do changing seasons bring more creativity to your work? More subconscious ease to your life? Mostly, I wonder if the new life outside brings out newness in us, and I believe it does. I hope you all can see and feel it. So cheers, from me – from all of us at Blue Marz Creative – to you. As you welcome yourself into Spring and Summer, may your days settle with ease; may you find new ways to invest in your work and in yourself, with nothing more than blue skies weighing on your mind.

In Business? Be the Middle Man

To a large degree, professional success has always been driven by the positive regard of others, wether by customers or partners in the profession. They make acquaintance with your business or product, then give, shape and maintain your reputation. For better or for worse, the reflection of your work is shown by their opinion.

That said, I’ve heard much talk on every market becoming much more review-driven in years ahead. You may say it is already that way, which is true, but, our ever-expanding inclusion and dependance on social-everything is predicted to evolve leaps and bounds, primarily in terms of review. With so many platforms of communication on the web, and those to come, we are stepping in as the permanent critics. We will grade, rate, and value whatever we please, and it will all be read by whoever so chooses.

Before we’d sought word-of-mouth reviews by friends and colleagues – people we would physically see through our days. Now, the whole consumer world gives feedback on hundreds of outlets, many in 140 characters or less. As this trending way of life grows, no effort will ever be involved to get the scoop on what works and what doesn’t. The iPad is the perfect example. The web was already flooded with pros, cons and parodies of the product, before it was even available to buy! Sure, anything Apple is going to get goliath attention, but that’s the future, folks. Opinion Opinion, Everywhere.

With things going in this direction, product producers and companies need to be along for the sharing – essentially, they need to place themselves as the middle man. Fortunately, the key to managing your public life is relatively simple. First, you need to show up authentically; just be yourself.  Second, you need to take a genuine interest in others. After all, that’s what drives conversation! While the formula is simple, it helps to find and integrate the good advice, and OPINION of others. While the opinions flow, it’s important to be in on the conversation about your services or product. Feedback is key; it will be there for all of us either way, but it’s increasingly important to be in the midst of it all.

Charitable Uncle Sam

Here is the set up:
Washington has a heart to assist people in need. Just as they assist other locations in the world who are in need of assistance at any given time, our government recognizes multiple levels of need for those within our own borders. With recent legislation passed, they now become that help. To fund their works, they raise taxes here and there, save up the funds to help, then disperse the money to alleviate those levels multiple levels of need.

Here is the concern or question:
When taxes are hiked for the purpose of benevolence from Washington, how will that effect the giving of those who are benevolent on their own? The concern, of course, is a downgrade in individual-to-organization charitable giving, with assumption that Washington has it covered.

The concern for sustained charitable giving goes beyond our borders. Much of what our fearless leaders are aiding will be within America, and there is nothing wrong with that. Our home government is supposed to work for, and aide it’s home people. It isn’t about blaming the government for what we will (try to) trust as an honest intent to help Americans in need; it is only an examination of how the shift in finances will effect independently run charities, both within and beyond the United States. Will it notably deplete the giving numbers to non-government affiliated 501(c) organization, or is this venturing too deep within speculation?

What happens when Joe Citizen, who has less to give because of higher taxes, chooses to cut back on charities he supports outside of the U.S?  We are not the only philanthropic nation in the world, but Americans supply a significant aide in charitable avenues outside of our nation. Over time, what will the donation front look like as we continue to prioritize our money?

I don’t think this benevolence from Washington will translate into the government pumping money into pre established organizations that the public is familiar with, such as Charity:Water or Invisible Children. Money raised through taxes may translate into new government structures and programs to disperse the help. By then, the venture is more defined as government aide instead of charity. Though the two may be synonymous, this creates an instant opportunity for supplying for those in need to become a political debate, depleting the real worth of the giving.

I know many self-sufficient Americans who are agitated with families who live by food stamps, but they would not pass up the opportunity to buy that family in need a bag of groceries themselves. The way giving is labeled has a lot to do with the way giving is activated.

It will take some time for these changes to span out, so we can evaluate results. Until then, what is your response to the supposed financial shift? Will increased government giving yield you a reason to give less, or do you remain solid?

Someone Has to Keep Saying It

Within the last few weeks here at work, I’ve researched a healthy amount regarding nonprofit charities and ministries who go to the broken places in the world, aiming to shed a little light. I’ve known these people exist – the overlooked and the ones to give of their lives to go see, really see them. From building houses, to providing shoes or school uniforms, it seems each thing I find gets under my skin more than the previous. Among all the help, progress and healing, I can never move past the notion that there are places in the world who quite realistically have nothing, while such a portion of us swim in easy living. It’s past the point of specifics, really. Lack of plumbing, sanitary codes, suitable homes and medical assistance all point to the umbrella issue: Ultimately, it is unacceptable to have such places called “developing countries” in the 21st century.

I cannot recite all of history to tell you how some countries completely missed industrialization or even competent irrigation, and admittedly, I am mostly ignorant and careless of the formal financial structures of the world, but I believe that helps my case. Sometimes, knowing ‘the way things work’ yields excuses to never fix what is wrong. I do know there is enough money within the world to provide every human being a comfortable, healthy living, yet 26,000 children die everyday from curable and preventable conditions. Aide organizations do a tremendous amount in every corner of the world to alleviate gaps in poverty, but much more could improve if normal living folks could grab on to some conviction. Sound familiar?

That is why we care at Blue Marz. Though we do sleep in safe homes, and drive our cars to our air conditioned office, we know we can help from where we are. Some of us travel to China and fund trips to Africa, but on days when we’re here in our cozy red office chairs, we know need is still everywhere. We don’t want the continuing colossal failure when we, the Haves remain the Will Nots, causing the Have Nots to remain the Cannots. You follow? It does not always have to be about selling all you own and moving to a hut (though it is quite inspiring), it can be matching the amount you spend on fast food to the amount you give to a selected charity, or it can be volunteering every first saturday at a shelter. Ultimately, someone needs to constantly remind us to quit being complacent. Someone needs to get us fed up with human suffering. Someone needs to keep telling us to do something good for OUR human condition.

Helping the Help: How Social Media Has Aided Relief Efforts

We are all very aware of the natural disasters that have happened since the start of 2010.  Haiti in January, Chili this past Saturday, and nearly Hawaii. Aftermath news is plastered on all traditional fronts – from evening tv, websites and the antiques known as news papers. With all of those standard venues, something curious has evolved. It seems the most noteworthy news threads we follow are on social media platforms. We’re seeking instant news, in situations where every second matters.

TVs are on and newspapers are still delivered, but we’re depending on the people within our social media machines for most information. It has been an excellent structural support for organizations; within the last two months, a significant amount of benefit has come from what real time communication have made possible for relief efforts.

In the past, after initial damage and casualties were reported on standard televised news, and telethons aired to raised their funds, our attention would backslide. Now, we get to follow when the real work begins, as relief providers have it easier than ever to communicate. Like many organizations, the American Red Cross has taken full advantage of real time communication. Their Twitter alone is overflowing with fiscal follow ups, maps with their specific relief work locations in Haiti, US Citizen locator tools for Chile, and links to their own first hand video reporting by Red Cross workers on YouTube. With such substantial information streaming, they are more independent and effective than ever. It seems a significant amount of dependancy on major networks to get information to the public has been alleviated. By embracing multiple levels of social media, the American Red Cross has created their own microcosm of news production that everyone could learn from.

Of course none of us would have willed these natural disasters to have happened, but there is much to take note on how relief organizations were able to react. Such immediate gathering and mobilization of funds as well as people has been a major accomplishment by the Red Cross, as well as many others. As we keep studying, and even improve upon these progressive actions, we can all look forward to a greater silver lining after the affliction.

How To Turn Followers Into Donors

Keeping in the non-profit/social media relation vein, I’ve been lead to ask a basic question. Does social media truly provide the best for non profits? Like I wrote last week, platforms such as Twitter do a significant work in helping organizations and ministries gain visibility and a following. It is undoubtably beneficial for all organizations to have their word out, be retweeted, and have petitions signed, passed on, et cetera, but all of those things aren’t worth much if organizations aren’t accomplishing the ultimate intention of receiving donations to fuel their work.

Research and case studies back the notion of social media amping up the visibility, relatability and general online support of Non Profits, but also shows stagnant, flatline donation numbers. When that supporting presence does not transfer into dollars, progress halts, and the free marketing of social media essentially fails. Money may not literally keep the world in orbit, but it sure does keep the Do-Gooders doing their good.

For organizations to bridge the gap and move internet followers to become internet donors, they need jump-start incentives. By clicking around a bit, I’ve narrowed it down to a practical, basic list of what that can amount to for virtually any group.

How ORGANIZATIONS can pull in Donors
Incentives to begin, and proofs at the end!

• 1. Timed Windows to Gain a Certain Amount
  If your organization is requesting support for a specific project, there’s a good chance that project needs certain money by a due time. Let your followers know that! When you have that good cause, don’t be afraid to ask for funds to support it. Advertise as many specifications as possible about your project. Who, What, When, Where, Why. HopeMongers have taken project specification to the max on their website. Donors are more likely to emerge when inspired by a specific project, rather than sporadically give to an organization that appears nice. Let them see the actual work needed to be done, so they see a real need for their dollar!
  
• 2. Holiday or Special Event Tweets for a Goal
  Similar to the above point, plan within your organization to take advantage of specific holidays or events. Through February, Love146 asked for $10 Valentines Day gifts to their girls, and another non profit asked for a goal of 250 pairs of shoes to be donated  by the holiday, also at only $10 each. They were persistent in tweeting to advertise their goal, and reached it. Incorporate giving into the cultural happenings, which in our country, usually includes spending anyway. Consider this now, for Easter (39 days until Jesus rises!).
  
• 3. Show the Finished Product
  When your non profit does acquire funds for a certain goal or completes a project, keep up with showing where the money goes, and thankfully brag about it! If children were fed, show pictures of them at the table. If a park was built, show pictures of the community using it. Charity Water does a great job of project follow up with simple tweets. It will keep your contributors connected with your work, and makes them feel good for supporting your cause when they see the finished product.

How FOLLOWERS can turn themselves into Donors
It’s much more simple to become a giver.

• 1. Get convicted of your wealth
  Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. That’s couch change for most of us. What is minimal to us as America can do pure wonders to people elsewhere. It’s not about feeling shame for being a ‘wealthy westerner’, and I realize we cannot all be as philanthropic as Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey, but I am calling for us all to check ourselves with what we do have, and what we can give.
• 2. Give your money’s worth
  Begin by picking one charity a week to provide a $5 or $10 gift to. It is that simple. Here’s a list of those who would love to receive that gift.
• 3.  Advertise to your friends
  Once you have given that beginners gift of $5 or $10 to a charity, pass on the challenge to your peers! (And/or, pass on the conviction.) They’ll see your selfless heart, be more thankful to have such an inspiring friend like you, and emulate the cause.

So as a member of an organization, use your social media outlets to keep pulling on your followers to get real with giving instead of just following. If you’re on the opposite side as a serial social media user & charity-observer, step up and empty your change jar to begin. Giving of yourself and your resources provides a fulfillment you won’t find down many other avenues.

Happy Donating!

Define Value

Social Media is fascinating. At my age, I can’t truthfully review what life was like before Myspace, then Facebook, YouTube and now the instantaneous platform of Twitter. The days when simple e-mail and instant messages were the pinnacle of instant communication are foreign to me. The idea of such limited communication seems like a picture of the Dark Ages, as we now sit in the great light of an open, real-time updated accessible world. Not even our Girl Scout cookies are avoiding the virtual.

With so many of us living virtually, what we’ve done as a culture of followers is remarkable.  If we didn’t have YouTube to re-watch everything, would Susan Boyle have been such a phenomenon simply from TV? Could the concept of Post Secret have taken off on another venue, or would Frank Warren have seemed like a questionable area man collecting postcards? Without social media, how else could a chiropractor, wife and mother have gained such a voice? What I mean by all of this is we are the voters. Our republic goes far beyond voting for politics or American Idol; the concept has evolved, and we have yet to define it as such. When we follow gossip blogs or continue passing along a viral video on YouTube, we are voting that it is socially relevant to our country, and making it news worthy. We are saying it is valuable to us.

So here is the question this adds up to: if we are all watchers, followers and information hounds in general, and pour so much of our attention into relatively inconsequential things, why can’t we give equal attention to the thousands of nonprofit organizations and charities planted all around us?  Why don’t we use our influence for good, instead of… futile?

That is what we want at Blue Marz Creative: a SURGE of recognition and supportive action for people, groups and ministries, locally thru internationally. But it is not for business, it is for the betterment of the human condition. Groups like Ten Thousand Homes, LOVE146, Preemptive Love Coalition, Charity Water, Invisible Children and HopeMongers are established to bring light to the dark places in our world. They are out to bring true value to people and places that have been overlooked.

These companies have appealing website, they’re tweeting, and incorporating video into their non profit marketing. Essentially, they know what it is to make themselves relevant to our information-relationship culture. To confirm the value in what they do, all we have to do it follow, watch, ReTweet, become a fan, and donate a few dollars. Let’s invest in what truly carries worth. Let’s invest in each other.

S.E.O. For Dummies

Many of our clients at Blue Marz Creative who already have standing web presence still have a common work to improve upon: they want more visibility above all the “others” on the internet. This leads us straight to discussion about boosting their SEO for each platform they use on the web, such as a corporate website or personal blog. If you’re not too familiar with the term or intent of SEO, here’s a great article for your introduction.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO is the practice of building and/or formatting a websites content so it will be efficiently recognized by relevant and related web searches on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. The content to specify for effective SEO varies from HTML and coding to key words, image and video searches, as well as domain-specific searches.

Heighten accessibility through major search engines is key, as traffic received or lost from search engines can make or break a sites prosperity. So how is heightened accessibility really defined? It’s simple; Search Rank. The sooner a site appears in an engine’s search results, the more traffic it will receive. No one aims to be lost in the internet search abyss, but unknown or unseen aspects of a website can cause just that. Many small businesses, blogs and web organizations now utilize SEO to remove those barriers and optimize their web exposure, thus optimizing their own success.

Aside from HTML and keywords, a degree of “automatic” SEO can be attained through use of Social Media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook. When your brand is attached to such omnipresent sources within social networks, search engines can pinpoint where you are much easier. Simply creating an active account with these outlets is a very organic way of including yourself in the playing field of internet recognition.

SEO is an increasingly sought after service for a huge plane of web residents, from billion-dollar corporations to small business sites. No matter their caliber, every site wants more traffic than it’s competition. The bump in the process is this: an SEO campaign is rarely a one-step evaluation and fix of a website to skyrocket their Search Rank. As standard, it takes months to permanently and effectively gain web momentum. It is not such a financial issue for those major corporations, but for small business/website operators who need to gain web presence, SEO help may become a dilemma between their business ambition and the time and cost factor of such help.

A tone of ambiguity can be found in the SEO market when connecting what is charged, to why it is charged. It can be quite a loop hole, as different sites need different things to improve their Site Rank. For a small business operator who sees worth in seeking outsourced SEO help and is willing to pay $1,000 a month for 6 months for professional SEO services, it will prove beneficial to to get as specific as possible in the campaign agreement. Seek a very clear proposal from an SEO Specialist as to what will be done in the agreed time frame, and aim to view previous and current sites handled by the SEO Specialist to see if they are effective.

For a small business or emerging organization, the necessity for SEO may be debated against time and limited resources, but whatever the verdict comes to, the fact remains: you’ve got to be seen to have success.

Another great source of study is this article & video from the experts at seomoz.org. They’ve got a great recent post on how to decide on an SEO consultant, as you go from learning about SEO to taking action and investing in it.

Happy Searching!