This one has been going around the Internet all week so you may have already seen it, but if not, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Here’s the description from the YouTube entry, where the video already has more than 6.5-million views at the time of this writing.

When Halldor Orri scores a great goal he decides to go fishing and catch on his mate Johann Laxdal or Johann the salmon. The game was Stjarnan against Fylkir in the top league in Iceland and the goal was the winning goal in extra time. Lax means salmon in Icelandic.

As I’ve blogged about “others first” opportunities I’ve mentioned a number of organizations from local to global. But putting others first isn’t just about putting your weight behind non-profit organizations. It’s also about finding ways to help individuals in your on and offline communities. If you’re looking for ways to put others first, you really don’t have to look to far.

One of the easiest things you can do is monitor your social networks. Read through your Facebook news feed. Follow the tweets of those in your community. Very often you’ll find someone asking for help, either directly or indirectly. Perhaps someone needs a job, or just help moving a piece of furniture. Last night I had need of some microphones, stands, and cables, so I mentioned it on Twitter, and was flooded with responses.

Recently a local homeless shelter needed a few window air conditioning units. The call was put out on Twitter, and the need was filled.

I’ve seen people step up to meet the needs they are seeing on social networks.

So keep an eye on your community. Someone might voice a need. Or, their status updates and Tweets might indicate a need that they aren’t comfortable sharing publicly. Offer to help. Rally the troops if need be.

But when you see someone in need, just don’t sit back and do nothing. I’m learning first hand how effective Social Media can be at allowing the community to be the community. And I’ve been on both ends; sometimes giving and sometimes receiving.

We just need to be more intentional about putting other first.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

More than a year ago my wife and I sold our house in the suburbs and moved to the city. And as I write this, there are three houses up for sale on my block. When you sell a house you work closely with your Realtor to make sure it is attractive to potential buyers. Here are 9 Social Media lessons I learned from my Realtor and others as I was selling my home and as I observe the local housing market.

1. Curb appeal is important – A lot of people won’t even look at the inside of your house if the outside isn’t attractive. As you create your Social Media presence, your platforms such as Facebook and Twitter need to feel “lived in” and be pleasing to the eye. Yes, content is important, but people won’t even get to the content if they can’t get past the ugly looks of your website and social properties.

2. Practice full disclosure – When we moved we needed to fill out a disclosure statement that told any potential buyers about any problems that we knew were inherent in the house. Did the roof leak? Was there any hidden damage? We needed to make sure that any potential buyer didn’t run across any surprises. In the same way, we need to practice full disclosure and transparency online. Complete transparency is the best policy.

3. Form and function are both important - As people shop for homes they are looking for different things. One of the houses on our block is one of the few in our area with central air. Others look nicer than others. Our social properties not only need to be attractive to the senses, they also need to be functional. Are your social spaces and website easily navigable?

4. A house might be complete, but a home is a work in progress – When the builder finishes building a home, it is done. But when someone decides to move in they have specific things they want to do to make it their “home”. And even after you move in there are changes and updates, not to mention regular maintenance. Like I tell my clients, your Social Media program is never done. Every day you should be adding, changing, and tweaking your social presence. Your house needs to feel like a home. That means making sure it stays current and in keeping with your changing tastes and interests.

5. Don’t oversell or over promise – I love reading real estate listings. They are written in such a way as to draw you in and make the house sound really attractive. But we need to be careful not to oversell. Terms like “spacious” and “elegant” are rather subjective. The key to Social Media is not to oversell, but to let your product or service speak for itself. Better yet, let your community tell others how wonderful your product is. That’s one of the wonderful things about a community. If you’re doing your job properly, your community will speak for you so you don’t have to sing your own praises.

6. Respond to questions – When our Realtor showed our house to prospective buyers, she often had to come back to us with questions. If we wanted to sell the house we needed to respond quickly and honestly. I still see many social media properties, particularly Facebook, where “fans” ask questions that seem like they are talking to the wall. We need to respond, and quickly. Otherwise the conversation will die, and your “fans” will disappear.

7. It’s a give and take – Nothing in the home selling process is one sided. Once a party is interested in purchasing a home, there is a little dance that takes place. There are generally negotiations involving price, mortgage terms, and possibly last minute home repairs. Gone are the days of where consumers simply buy a product that you produce without any input. The price might not always be negotiated, but Social Media allows for an unprecedented (and hopefully welcome) amount of consumer input into the product development and marketing process.

8. Do your homework – You don’t just put your house on the market. Our Realtor researched the neighborhood and found comparable homes that had recently sold or were currently on the market. These were guidelines that helped in determining asking price. In Social Media,, your homework is extremely important. You can’t just create social properties without knowing how they mesh with your target audience. Who is your audience? How should you craft your messaging? Just jumping in without knowing what your goals are can lead to serious disappointment.

9. It’s not over until everyone signs on the dotted line – I’ve heard stories of buyers walking away from the table at the closing over any number of things. You can execute everything in textbook style, but until you’ve reached your intended goal, usually converting a lead into a sale, your job isn’t done. Having a lot of “fans” means nothing, just like having a lot of showings is meaningless if no one buys.

Have you ever bought or sold a home? What lessons have you learned that you apply to your digital social spaces?

During my 13 year stint in New York City I walked through Grand Central Station nearly every day. And on many of those trips as I descended the escalator I saw an elderly gentleman dressed in a suit and tie standing at the bottom holding an open Bible in the air. And each time he would be singing “Give Me That King James Bible” to the tune of “Give Me That Old Time Religion.”

Now I’m all about free speech, but sometimes I think we hurt our own cause by the messages we send, the tone of those messages, and the platforms we choose for sending them. If all we are doing is preaching to the choir, or causing divisiveness, then we have a problem.

We don’t like sales pitches, so why do we insist on selling? Using Facebook or Twitter to “broadcast” random statements of faith or partisan politics might send the wrong signal and seem like a sales pitch. More often than not, those tactics breed divisiveness and inhibit reasoned debate.

Sure I have distinct opinions on matters of politics and faith, but I find that  a platform like Twitter is generally not conducive to informed discussion. I’ll take those discussions to other channels, often offline or perhaps to more private online modes of communication. 140 characters can be very limiting, and even the most well intentioned of messages can come across as harsh, trite, or even downright silly.

As you navigate through the waters of Social Media, remember these steps:

1) Choose your words carefully

2) Choose your platform carefully

3) Make sure your words match the platform

4) Stop and think: If someone who disagrees with me were to make a similar type of statement from their point of view, how would I feeL? How would that message be received? How is my message likely to be received?

What are you contributing to the conversation? Are you building walls or tearing them down? Are you promoting reasoned discussion or merely preaching to the choir on one hand and breeding divisiveness on the other?

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I’ll say this up front: my philosophy of how I use my personal Facebook profile, and how I “friend” people, is very different from most. As sole proprietor of my own business, the lines between my personal and business lives are rather blurry. Business contacts become friends, and friends end up being great business contacts. So when I meet someone, either online or in person, I’m quick to friend them. I also get a lot of friend requests, and I have a rather liberal acceptance policy. That doesn’t mean I accept everyone! I look at their profile to see what friends we have in common, or if there is some other point of commonality.

Caveat one: If privacy is a major concern for you, this might not be the proper philosophy. If you begin friending people on a more relaxed basis, you’ll need to be more careful about what you put on Facebook. But remember: you can have different privacy settings for all of your friends, or even create groups with different levels of access to your information. Me? Everything I post can be seen by all of my friends. And while it may seem that I am rather open, I’m also very deliberate about what choose to post or not to post.

Caveat two: Motive is important. I never friend someone solely for the purpose of doing business with them. I genuinely do want to get to know them. I love meeting new people and making friends, and I never solicit my friends for business unless they make the first move. This is not about creating false friendships for the sake of getting the sale. This is about building real relationships which may or may not benefit your business. But it will benefit you personally as you will have more friends whose lives are a part of yours.

Having said that, here are ten ways in which I use my personal Facebook profile as an extension of my business activities and that might be helpful to you.

1) Create that extra touchpoint – by friending your business acquaintances you now have one more way of maintaining contact, and on a much less formal level. Some say they like to keep business and personal separate. But I think we’re more in an age where the two can co-exist nicely. Is there anything wrong with becoming friends with those with whom you do business? I’ll often use Facebook to connect with people I know from Twitter or LinkedIn (and vice versa).

2) Learn about them - This might seem like stalking, but if someone friends you, you have every right to check out their profile and everything that they have left open. They have opened the door and allowed you in to their lives. Find out their interests, check out their pictures, and perhaps you’ll find some areas of commonality. Do you like the same bands or teams? Little things like that are often the basis for deeper relationships.

3) Engage them beyond business -  Once you find those common points of interest, begin to engage them. Talk to them about anything BUT business. If they post something that interests you, comment or hit the “like” button. Remember: if someone accepts you as a friend, they are by default allowing you access. Be informal and tread carefully. Their reaction to your engagement will let you know whether or not you can engage them more fully in the future. If they post about the birth of a baby, celebrate with them. If they mention an illness, a death in the family, or some other difficult situation, let them know you are thinking of them, but do so appropriately.

4) Encourage them to engage you – This isn’t a blatant thing, but I often will post a status that generates a lot of discussion on my wall. And many times that discussion will involve people that I barely know. But when someone breaks the ice with me, that is like them opening the door and allowing me to further the discussion.

5) Remember their birthdays - Facebook kindly reminds us each day as to which of our friends are having birthdays. Every day I look at that list and determine which friends I know well enough to extend birthday greetings. That one little gesture can open the door for a greater relationship. People LOVE being remembered on their birthday. They’ll appreciate that you took the time to write a birthday greeting on their wall.

6) Support their endeavors – If you see them talking about favorite causes or posting events, feel free to help them out by sharing those events. Again, this must be done genuinely, but using the “share” function on the things they post sends a very strong signal. It shows that you care about them and their interests. If they invite you to “like” a business page, give it serious thought. Consider attending their events if they are nearby.

7) Reconnecting – Not only do I friend people that I meet in my everyday life, but I’ve also friended a lot of former classmates and coworkers. Some of my classmates might even be people I never really was friends with back in school. With the passage of time those HS and college cliques seem to be less important and the bond of having attended the same school becomes more so. These are great connections to have.

8 ) Find common friends – One of the first places I look when I’m considering friending someone is the “mutual friends” area in the left hand column. I’m often amazed at the connections I already have with someone, and in some cases those connections are just downright odd. Several of my friendships have started as the result of one of us saying, “How the heck do you know so and so?”

9) Extend your reach -I have a Facebook business page. But I also use my personal profile to share certain aspects of my business. Every day my blog posts are published to both of these pages. I’ll also use my personal profile for sharing my upcoming speaking engagements or classes, as well as other events which are important to me.

10) Play matchmaker – I don’t mean this in the romantic sense, but with Facebook we have the ability to suggest friends for people. If I know two people might hit it off or have a reason to relate, I’ll go down to the bottom left hand corner and “Suggest friends for so and so.” And sometimes I’ll write a private Facebook to two or more friends actually introducing them to each other and explaining why I want them to meet. Some rather interesting relationships and project have grown out of that sort of thing. This is one of the ways that Facebook can function a little bit like LinkedIn.

But to wrap this up, remember to be a good citizen in your community. Never, ever sell. Don’t be heavy handed and constantly shove your stuff down their throats. I admit that early on I would invite people to “like” fan pages, etc. and did so indiscriminately. I’ve learned to make sure you pick and choose. If you invite someone to an event, or to “like” a page, make sure it is appropriate. In other words, if there is an event in Lancaster, you might not want to invite your friends in Iowa. In other words, use common sense. Oh, and don’t be one of THOSE Farmville users…enough said.

You can bring all the traffic in the world to your page, but unless you get those folks to actually do something, it doesn’t really matter. In sales terms, are your visitors becoming leads, and are those leads converting to sales?

First, you need to know what your goals are, and then you need to find ways to achieve those goals. An important part of this can be the creation of a landing page on your website, complete with some sort of “call to action.” It’s important to know that a company’s website is extremely crucial when it comes to generating leads (83% of Websites Influence Lead Generation for Small Businesses). And then you need to track your conversion success rate to see if you actually are achieving your goals.

In this class, Jeanne Hopkins, Marketing Director at Hubspot, explains some of the most effective ways of creating landing pages that work, and calls to action that get results. This isn’t a one time thing, but something with which you need to experiment and tweak from time to time.

You can watch the class here, or visit our free Educational Resources page and attend all of Hubspot‘s Inbound Marketing University‘s seminars in order to become an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional. The courses are free and will help prepare you to become better at helping others find your business online.

If you are interested in learning more, you can contact us for hands on educational help or to speak to your business or group.

Check out other installments of this comic.

Comic created by Jeff Burkholder.

I was recently introduced to the work of my friend Bryan Allain. By trade, Bryan is a chemical engineer for a pharmaceutical firm. But, he’s also a very funny guy and a writer.

Bryan uses his blog to show us his own unique perspective on the world, which he calls “daily doses of nonsense and inspiration.” And in the midst of those he has quite a few videos, including a series called “Advertising Brilliance.” These videos poke fun at advertising, business, and products in some rather humorous sendups. I think these videos are the sort of thing that have the capability of taking on a life of their own and going viral.

Here’s one of those videos. Make sure you check out the rest of his blog for more fun stuff.

Advertising Brilliance 008 from Bryan Allain on Vimeo.

It’s easy to get behind a big cause, whether it’s international or even just a popular local cause. But why not consider one of the “little guys”? The big guys get all the press, and the little causes often slip through the cracks…many times because all of their funding goes to meet immediate needs, and nothing is left for marketing. We can do something about that. No matter where you live there are probably hundreds of small non-profits doing good things…and you may not even be aware of these organizations.

One such organization in our area is House of His Creation, a home that provides care and resources to young single moms and moms-to-be. (Full disclosure: my niece Jessica recently took a position with this organization). They provide housing for the young moms (and their children), pre- and post-natal health care, and childbirth preparation. But above and beyond that, they are helping to prepare these young women so that they can lead full, productive lives. This includes helping them continue their education, teaching them a variety of life and vocational skills, as well as parenting and nutrition skills.

The interesting thing about HoHC is that the entire organization is run on donations. The amount the employees get paid is based solely on the amount of cash donations that are received each month. Meals are prepared with food that has been donated. Household items, baby items….everything donated.

No matter where you live, there are bound to be several organizations like this in your area. They might not be high profile, but you can find them, and you can help.

Here are a few ways you can help House of His Creation:

1) Donate money – Like any non-profit, your financial support is greatly appreciated. And as I mentioned earlier, whether or not the employees get paid is contingent upon the money that comes in.

2) Donate food – HoHC is reliant on donations for their meals. This can include certain food items that are on their needs list, as well as gift cards to area grocery stores. The organization seeks to provide healthy, well-balanced meals to the women and children who live there, and your donations are an important part of that.

3) Donate other items – Next time you head to Walmart, Target, or another store, why not pick up some items that are on their list. Or you can donate gently used items that might help them out. They have a general needs list, as well as guidelines for donating large items. If you have something, and you’re not sure if they can use it or not, just contact them!

4) Donate services – Is there a service you can provide that might ease their financial burden? Perhaps free haircuts, free auto care, free maintenance or yard care. This is a great way to help them out.

5) Volunteer – This organization, like many others, relies heavily on the help of those who give of their time. This might include house sitting, baby sitting, providing transportation, teaching a class, doing office work or yard work, or even just being there as a role model. Every little bit helps.

6) Participate in events – HoHC will be having a yard sale on August 27-28th. In addition to attending and purchasing items, you can help out by donating items for the sale, and volunteering to help sort the items. Additionally, they’ll be hosting a golf tournament in September. If you like to play golf, why not have fun and support a good cause at the same time?

7) Spread the word – Word of mouth is an amazing thing. In addition to telling others, spread the word online. You can “like” them on Facebook and use your social presence to really get the word out about the organization, their needs, and their events.

And if you’re not in the Lancaster, PA area, find something similar in your city or town. Any group that empowers young single mothers and prepares them for a better life is great in my book.

There are only two things that I learned in my high school wood shop class:

1. Always wear protective eye wear
2. Never use a tool for a purpose other than that for which it was intended.

Well, I also learned that I am incompetent when it comes to building things out of wood, but that’s beside the point. But as for #2 on that list, they taught us not to use a screwdriver as a hammer, or vice versa. (And yes, I have to admit, I’m not very good at following this rule)

But sometimes I just have to shake my head at how I see people using the tools of Social Media. When people try to shove the square peg of outbound marketing into the round hole of inbound marketing, the results are ineffective, and often laughable.

You know the type: businesses with Twitter accounts that merely spew out irrelevant information and sales pitches. They want lots of followers but rarely follow anyone. They Tweet (and often reTweet their own information) but never engage. Go ahead, try to @ reply to one of them; you’ll get no response.

And they do the same thing on Facebook. Spit out info and not respond. They might even remove the ability to comment on their blogs.

Why? Because they’re talking, not listening. There might not even be a real human being on the other end.

There’s a term for what they are doing. It’s called traditional (outbound) marketing. They THINK they engaging in Social Media, but they’re not.

And while there is a place for traditional marketing, you need to use the tools of outbound marketing. If you’re trying to sell; buy print or broadcast. But don’t use the tools of inbound marketing for that purpose.

Social Media channels work best when you use them the way they were meant to be used. You wouldn’t use a newspaper ad or direct mail piece to start a conversation, would you?

In the long run, approaching the tools of inbound marketing with an outbound marketing mindset will do more harm than good.

There’s a reason we sign up for the Do Not Call list. There’s a reason we DVR programs or subscribe to satellite radio. We don’t want to be sold to, and if we do, we want it on our terms, not yours. Using Twitter, Facebook, and even your blog, in order to sell to me is a great way to get yourself flagged as spam in my mind. I’ll unfollow and unfriend you. I’ll tune you out and not only will you become irrelevant in my mind, you’ll become persona non grata.

Now look at your own Social Media presence. Are you using the tools properly?

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