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Mike Singletary

You Be You

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“Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before. Being so inescapably a part of it, I’ll never know what the listener gets, what the listener feels, and that’s too bad.” – John Coltrane

When it comes to social media, there is a fine balance between creatively staying true to yourself or brand and becoming an numbers-driven lifeless robot. With the vast array of analytical tools and research out there today, the amount of information we can gather on our followers and the insight we have on content engagement is seemingly endless. We really have everything we need for crafting the most likeable, shareable, retweetable pieces of content.

When Coltrane crafted a jazz piece, he described it as an expression of the inner most parts of his being. To him, his music was a way to paint a picture of his spirituality and life experiences. He also desired for it to have a deep positive affect on the listener. Coltrane saw music as a medium to uplift people and “help humanity free itself from its hangups.” And while he desired for his music to be received well, it never clouded him from writing music that came from the depths of his soul; music that was true to who he was, not just on how the listener would respond. It’s a fine balance.

Social media is also a fine balance. Unlike Coltrane, we actually have the capabilities to know what the customer or follower gets and what they feel. We can craft our content to incite the responses we want and then sit back and watch it happen. The problem starts when we swing so far to this side that we depart from who we (or our brand) really are; there’s no soul left in it. We become tone deaf robots, all banging the same notes. This is also a danger of automation. And if you know me, you know how much I rave about automation tools like Buffer, but you can’t let them get away from you.

Find a way to use automation to your advantage. Use your analytics to craft engaging content. But don’t let your lust for likes, retweets, and follower growth devour your authenticity. Find your voice and let it stand out. There’s already plenty of noise to go around. Play your own notes. Be YOU. And be you in a way that makes others’ lives better for following and listening to you being you.

“You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.” – John Coltrane

Just Tell Me the Truth

I’m a marketer. I get it. We’re all bending truths in our own ways in order to gain attention, glorify a product, gather information, and so on. But can we pull back just a little? Or at least give out some portion of the truth in our communication?

This morning I received an email from a top marketing and sales platform. Here is the primary value proposition and CTA of the email: Screen Shot 2015-12-17 at 10.54.17 AM.png

I thought, “Yeah, I’d be interested in checking this kit out. Let me download it and see what it’s all about.” So I clicked the “Download Now” button, assuming “Download Now” meant that I would be downloading the kit now. But no downloads were initiated by clicking this link. Instead, I was directed to a webpage:

Screen Shot 2015-12-17 at 10.55.03 AM.png

Ok, ok. I get it. I’ll provide my basic contact info in exchange for this hopefully valuable resource. So I filled out my name and email address and clicked “I’m Ready to Download!” Because I had already been tricked once, I didn’t assume at this point that a download would begin. My assumption was that I was going to receive a new email with the actual download link this time. But not so. Instead, this page scrolled down to another form!

Screen Shot 2015-12-17 at 10.55.40 AM.png

Now, instead of my name and email address, they wanted my name, email address, phone number, website URL, company name, number of employees, my role, department, CRM choice, services provided by my company, and my biggest challenge in marketing or sales. And ALL of these except the challenge question are required.

Seriously. What about the phrase “Download Now” suggests anything about taking me through a process of filling out a three part form to then filling out a twelve part form? Why can you not be honest with me in the initial exchange? Convince me of how valuable this resource is to me and then be straight! Tell me that I can access this resource after simply completing a quick form. Don’t mislead me again and again throughout the process.

Honestly, at this point the only reason I actually completed the form was so I could gather screenshots of each step to write this blog. I didn’t even want the kit anymore.

So finally, I clicked yet another button that said “Download Now.” And do you think that a download began when I clicked that button? NOOOOOO! I was taken to yet another webpage with the download link.

Screen Shot 2015-12-17 at 10.56.49 AM.png

But I had to know. I clicked the “Download File” button. Sure enough, a download began. Hallelujah! I also received a new email with the direct download link as well.

Screen Shot 2015-12-17 at 11.27.19 AM.png

I love how they assumed I would be in the mood for some social media advice at this point.

All that to say, just be honest. Please. I get that if I would have been warned in the initial email that I would have to complete a twelve part form, I might have checked out and never completed the process. That is very likely. Unless I believe that what you are offering is valuable enough. Establish value and trust first.

There are several other similar marketing or social media SAAS company’s whose resource I would easily download if asked to complete a survey or form first. Because they have already established value and trust with me, which didn’t come by first tricking me throughout a lead capture process.

Just tell me the truth.

You can GIF with this, or you can GIF with that.

That whole alphabet system thing is so 7th century BC.

We all (hopefully) know that animated GIFs are nothing new. Graphics Interchange Format (aka GIF) is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987. The developers pronounced it jif, like the peanut butter. But I guess they also pronounced graphics as giraffics.

Animated GIFs have particularly blown up on Tumblr as a primary form of media shared. You can get lost in there for days on end.

Until recently, though, sharing GIFs on Twitter and Facebook has been difficult. Twitter finally realeased a feature that allows animated GIFs to be viewed directly within your timeline and Facebook has come around some too (more on that below). When it comes to engagement, especially from a brand, utilizing media in clever ways can be one of your best strategies. GIFs can often be the perfect extra touch for many occasions.

But the real question is: Where do I find that perfect GIF?

Answer: Giphy.

Giphy is a massive database of animated GIFs. Giphy is to GIFs what Google Image is to images. If you’re a community manager, social media marketer, or whatever else you want to call your position of writing tweets for a fun brand, then Giphy should be at the forefront of your toolbox. You can either save a GIF and upload it to Twitter, or you can share the direct link from within the webpage, and Twitter will add the GIF into the timeline. I avoid the latter method because I don’t like the extra link cluttering up my character field.

For Facebook, uploading a GIF directly does not work. It will come out as a still image. However, sharing the link from Giphy does work. It will embed the looping animated GIF for all of your friends to enjoy! One little tip is once the GIF is pulled from the link and embedded, delete the link from your text field to clean things up a bit.

And for all you Chrome users, go get yourself this handy dandy little Giphy extension for finding the perfect GIF on the fly.

Now, GIF on with it.

GoodTask: A New and Better Face for Apple’s Reminders

I’ve been testing out GoodTask (formerly known as This Week) for iOS for about a month now. Simply put, GoodTask is a mask for Apple Reminders; it’s what Reminders should have been. This is great for those who work heavily with Apple products, since Reminders is already built in to many areas of iOS.

The beautiful thing about GoodTask is that it also pulls in your calendars to show your tasks right on top of your schedule. You can filter task view between list, day, week, or month, which also filters what calendar items you see. I love being able to go back and forth from seeing my day’s tasks and schedule to the upcoming week’s tasks and schedule.

What I love about this app is that there are no workarounds for syncing Reminders to it, as with some other apps. This allows you to take full advantage of all the ways Reminders are built into the iOS experience, such as using Siri to create new tasks, or adding a reminder from an incoming phone call that you can’t take at the moment, and more. All of the same features of Reminders are there too, like location-based reminders, priority levels, various task lists, shared lists, recurring tasks, etc.

I’ve always wanted to take advantage of Apple’s Reminders, but always felt that the viewing functionalities were so limited and task input was very clunky. GoodTask changes all of that. If you’ve been wanting a much better experience for using Reminders, this is it.

The developers are currently working on a Mac app as well. I’ve been testing it with them for the past week and so far it is working great.

This app would work well for those who like Omnifocus in the way it puts tasks and schedules on top of each other, but don’t quite need something that robust or don’t want to pay the price tag for it. It would also be a great option for those who like more streamlined apps like Any.do, but want a little more functionality when it comes to viewing and task input. One feature that sets this apart is ability to share Reminders lists with others. This turns GoodTask into a great task collaboration tool.

GoodTask is currently $4.99 in the App Store

Smarter Social Monitoring with Mention

If you spend time browsing through multiple tweet streams in Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, or if you clutter up your email inbox with Google alerts, you may want to look into Mention. I started using this app with Land of a Thousand Hills about a month ago, and I cannot imagine working without it now.

With Mention, you set up various “Alerts” that can be customized to include a single word, phrase, or set of words. For example, I have a Land of a Thousand Hills alert that pulls in anything on the web that includes “Land of a Thousand Hills,” “@1000HillsCoffee,” “1000HillsCoffee”, or “Thousand Hills Coffee.” Anytime any of these expressions are used, whether in a tweet, Facebook update, Instagram, blog post, or whatever, I see it. And the best part is, I can react from directly within Mention. I can retweet a tweet, reply to a tweet, comment on a Facebook post, etc. Mention even integrates with Buffer so you can add retweets or replies to your Buffer to be scheduled out. If you handle support or customer service as a team, mentions can be shared and responses can be delegated amongst the team.

Really, I do not think that I can recommend this app enough. If your company or personal brand requires you to be able to actively listen or monitor what is being said to you or about you, or even what is being said to or about your competitors, you need to sign up for a free trial of Mention. I am pretty sure you’ll be sold within the first week at how great of a tool this is.

Sunrise: A Beautiful and Fast Calendar App for iOS

I’m a sucker for a beautiful calendar app. Unfortunately, it can sometimes be a little difficult to find one that balances form with the right functionality. Enter Sunrise.

I’ve had this app nestled in the “Update Watch” folder of my iPhone and have been following all of the little design and functionality tweaks along the way. I have never cared much for the native Calendar app, and especially did not like the changes that came with iOS7. There are some great alternatives, and I have tested most of them, but after spending about 5 minutes on Sunrise after their last update, the app went straight to my front page. Sunrise works with Google and iCloud calendars, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, and Producteev (really hoping more project/task management apps are added down the road).

Some features that I love:

Weather – Sunrise shows you today’s and tomorrow’s morning, afternoon, and evening weather forecasts. Nice to get that information when checking my day’s schedule in the morning.
Foursquare Sync – I like being able to browse back through my calendar and see what I was doing on that one Saturday last month.
Open address directions in Google Maps or Apple Maps. Options, folks.
Assignable icons for different types of events, most of which are automatic. Coffee mug icon for coffee meetings, telephone icon for scheduled calls, etc.
Write on Facebook friends’ wall on their birthday without leaving app. Efficiency.
It’s so dang beautiful, sleek, and fast.

So here’s the thing. Sunrise is FREE. So you have no reason to NOT try it out. Download the app here.

Are you using Sunrise? How do you like it? What made you switch to Sunrise over other apps on the market?

I Joined the Dollar Shave Club

If there’s one thing I love, it’s discovering a way to make something in my life just a little more convenient and simple. Add to that a way to save a little bit of money, and I’m sold!

I recently started a subscription with the Dollar Shave Club, and I love it. If you are looking for a way to save money on blades and never having to run out, this is a great option. You choose which level of subscription you want based on what of blade you want and how frequently you need them, and let them handle the rest from there. The blades are priced right and having them shipped straight to your mailbox is super convenient.

I currently use the Humble Twin blade. I don’t really need anything more than that since the only shaving I do is a weekly trimming beneath my beard. And for that, these blades are perfect. Quality wise, they are your standard twin blade razors, nothing fancy. They seem to last as long as any other name brand twin blade razor that I’ve used.

Because of my limited need for shaving, I only pay $1 plus $2 shipping every two months and I get 5 blades in my mailbox every two months. So for $18 per year, I stay readily stocked with razors and never have to worry about buying new blades or running out. Super easy. I love super easy. I also love their clever video, featured below.

Check them out at https://dollarshaveclub.com.

3 Apps to Help You Read More and Share More

If you are looking to spend more time this year reading about things that you love or discovering new interests and sharing more with your social networks, here are three great apps to help you do so. Each of these apps have become part of my daily routine of sifting through articles, finding ones of interest or educational value, and then sharing many of those with my followers.

Feedly

When Google announced that it was pulling the plug on Google Reader, a certain level of panic ensued. I was using Reeder for iOS and Mac at the time, and was quickly looking for another option, even though Reeder had plans to ride out the transition (they now integrate with Feedly).

Feedly quickly jumped in to the rescue, providing a replacement for Google Reader. The apps were already pretty slick and only got better and better with new updates. Now I can’t remember how I ever operated without Feedly before all of this. From form to function, they have really put together one stellar experience for efficiently plowing through hundreds of blogs or thousands of headlines.

Feedly integrates with Buffer and enables you to easily add new links and updates to your Buffer. This comes in handy when browsing through a ton of interesting articles and allows you to space out sharing those articles on Twitter or elsewhere, instead of bombarding your followers with a flood of links in a short period of time.

Feedly is FREE on all available platforms. Click here to sign up, or if you already use Feedly, click here to add this blog to your reading list.

Pocket

Previously known as Read It Later, Pocket serves as a place for you to save and tag any interesting website, article, video and more for you to revisit at a later time.

I use Pocket closely with Feedly. I subscribe to hundreds of blogs and in no way have time to read every article posted. Instead, I simply scan through article titles and if I come across one that looks like something I want to read but not right that second, I use the “Add to Pocket” feature. The article is then saved and I continue scrolling.

At some point later, I go to Pocket and browse through my articles. Pocket provides a great reading experience as it strips away all of the website’s clutter and provides you with just the content. If there is something I want to share, I just add it to my Buffer, an option that is built in to each of Pocket’s apps.

Pocket is FREE on all available platforms. Click here to sign up.

Buffer

I have loved using Buffer for some time now. Buffer started as a simple way to load up tweets or updates and it would take care of spacing those out throughout the day. You simply set a particular posting schedule for each social network or use the default schedule and just start adding posts. Buffer has since added the option for users to schedule particular posts for a specific date and time, instead of just adding them to your regular schedule.

I use Buffer most when reading articles in either Feedly or Pocket. When I find one I want to share, I add it to Buffer and select which networks I want it to send to. Buffer can currently sync to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, App.net, and Google+ Pages. I’m really looking forward to the day when I can use it to post to my personal Google+ page.

So if you are wanting to start sharing more to your social networks and need an easy way to schedule them out throughout the day, Buffer is the best option.

Buffer is FREE for personal use on all available platforms, and they also feature upgraded plans that allow for more Buffer space, more networks, and collaboration with other social media managers. Click here to sign up.

Do you currently use Feedly, Pocket, or Buffer? If so, how do you use them? What do you love about them?

Wake Up with Clocky or Tocky

If you are anything like me, getting out of bed early in the morning can be a struggle. For mornings that I MUST get up early, I usually set my phone somewhere that requires me to get out of bed to turn the alarm off. Otherwise, I will continue to just hit snooze.

Nanda Home has created some really cool alarm clocks, the Clocky and the Tocky, that force you to get out of bed in order to turn them off. When it’s time for you to wake up, these clocks sound the alarm and then take off rolling, off of your side table and somewhere away from you. The perfect gadget for folks like me!

I like the simple design of the Tocky, myself. Check out the video below and visit Nanda Home’s website to see more.

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