This past year has been one of excitement, dread, thrills and challenges working as an independent digital and Social Media Consultant. That said, I would never have changed a single step along the way but I am proud to say that I will now be bringing my knowledge, experience and passion to the New Marketing Labs family. The team there has been a joy to work with so far and the clients are fun as well as challenging. My role as Director of Client Strategies will be predominantly in helping NML clients strategize, plan, benchmark and measure their social media and digital efforts. This role is perfectly suited to my talents, expertise and most importantly my passions! I’m excited to get up and work every morning and to be honest I never feel like I have to psyche myself up to get through the day. Unless of course the day turns to late night and early morning… hahah. (Right Justin?)

To be honest, I feel very blessed and I would really like to take this time to thank the team at NML for bringing me aboard and letting me spread my wings!

Thank you!
Chris Brogan – President
Colin Bower- Senior Vice President/Chief Operating Officer
Justin Levy, Director of Business Development, Corporate Strategy & Client Services
TJ O’Connor, Director of Technology
Stephen Saber, CEO of New Marketing Labs
Nick Saber, President of CrossTech Media

And the rest of the awesome team at NML who keep it running like a well oiled machine each and every day!

Photo Headshot Provided by: CC Chapman

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The Coffee Shop Chronicles

About a month and a half ago I visited a great little coffee shop and lunch destination in a small town just outside of mine. I began to work away on the computer as usual when a very well dressed gentleman sat next to me presumably stopping for lunch. After I finished banging out an email he seemed to get transfixed by my laptop screen as I opened up tweetdeck and asked me if that was twitter. I told him that it was a third party application but for all intents an purposes, “Yes it is Twitter” I answered. He went on to say that he had heard a lot about the service, but really had no idea why he would want to use it. And that my friends was the beginning of his love affair with twitter.

The Job

I went on to ask this gentleman what type of work he did. He told me that he was a pharmaceutical rep and that he was trying to get established with some local doctors. He had been at it for about six months and had regular calls, but most of his accounts were on the smallish side. I decided to do an experiment with him and run a twitter search on the name of some of the companies he repped for as well as names of some of the key drugs he was selling. So we went forth and created a real time conversational search using my tweetdeck client and he was amazed at what he saw.

The Search

The search immediately revealed that one of the drugs that he was told to push by his company was possibly going to be pulled from the shelves by the government due to complications of taking the drug. He was flabbergasted and honestly didn’t believe what he was reading. I mean you can’t believe everything you read on twitter….right? Well, like any other source you must look into the facts deeper. We clicked a few links and checked a few websites and sure enough this drug was in danger of being pulled. At that point this guys mind was thoughroughly blown and he left the coffee shop in a bit of a daze.

The Follow-Up

Two days after our first encounter I saw this gentleman again at the coffee shop and he approached me with a glow on his face that had not been there two days before. He proceeded to tell me that he called on a doctor the afternoon after we had spoken and that he was going to be making a fairly large purchase of the drug that we found was in question. He mentioned to the doctor that he might want to hold off and that he had done some research during lunch that indicated problems with this drug and that it may get pulled. The doctor thanked him and he went on to his next customer. The real magic came the next day when the doctor called him back and thanked him for alerting him to the news before it officially broke. The drug did get pulled from the shelves and the doctor was thankful for his insights. On his next visit to that doctor he was not only given a larger chunk of his daily orders, but was given three referrals of whom that doctor called personally in front of him.

A Month Later

About a month has passed and I have seen this salesman since. He is a regular user of twitter for it’s search and monitoring capabilities and he told me that his income has increased significantly due to the referrals that stemmed from this early information. He bought me lunch last time I saw him and I was happy to let him.

How have you seen social media tools change someone perspective? Share your stories in the comments.

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Mirror, Mirror

One tenet that I believe more than any other is that the life that you see and have created around you is a reflection of your thoughts and actions. Whilst, this may sound hokey… I also believe it to be true. Have you ever looked on something that happened to you in the past and asked yourself why that event happened? Has your power ever been shut off by a utility company? Have you ever lost a job? At the time these things happen, you feel betrayed and like all earthly and heavenly powers are against you, when in reality the world around you is just a mere reflection of yourself and your actions.

Lets look at this another way……

Had you worked your ass off in the job you thought would never take you anywhere you would have had money to pay the electric bill. You would have saved yourself heartache and had the passion and drive to come home and work on your dream business a couple hours each night that in one year would have let you leave that job you hated so much. Opportunities would seem to come out of nowhere and you might just feel blessed. Julien Smith shared a similar story like this with me over two years ago and it changed my life!

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.
~ excerpted from Living a Beautiful Life

Honesty is the Best Policy

The second tenet here is to be honest. Be honest with your loved ones, and be honest with your friends, but most of all be honest with YOURSELF. The mind is an interesting device. It can half believe the lies your telling yourself while all the while reminding you that you full of crap! be honest with yourself and face the hurdles in front of you. They are there for a reason…to jump over them. As you learn to jump the easy ones, bigger and taller ones will take their place. There is no place in your head for deceit. Stop deceiving yourself and start taking full responsibility for your actions.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
~ Thomas Jefferson

It’s easy to get in a Zone

Ever hear of that athlete that says he or she is in the Zone? they feel indestructible and unbeatable. Often times they are right! In fact in most cases of professional sports it’s the mind that differentiates between winning or losing. Athletes and professionals of all kinds call this “The Zone”. The only problem with the zone is that it carries momentum. This is great if you are in the right kind of zone and it is taking you toward your goals. See, momentum works in both directions. The direction you desire to be moving as well as the direction that you desire to be moving away from. When momentum takes hold, it usually takes a great act to derail the kinetic motion. What does one do when they find themselves in a tailspin heading the wrong way down an ugly path? Go back to tenet number one and look in the mirror moving to tenet number two to be honest with yourself.

I’m aware if I’m playing at my best I’m tough to beat. And I enjoy that.
~ Tiger Woods

Tips to getting yourself back on track:

Ask yourself tough questions, and answer them honestly.

- Am I doing something each day to move me forward?
- Am I deserving of the next step?
- have I maximized the opportunities that I currently have?
- Am I following through on promises I have made?
- Does my current skill set match my current set of goals?

Clean out the crap.

- Ditch the people that you hang out with that are on the same path to nowhere. Get involved with people that can be mentors.
- Clean out the garage, the office or any other area of clutter that messes your mind or hinders your thinking.
- Make reasonable plans to pay off old bills and debt.

Be helpful and Giving.

- Give five bucks to the local food bank, or volunteer at the homeless shelter. However, be mindful that it is important to give of your time respectfully and that you are not hampering your forward progress. I have a god friend that spends 20 hours a week at the homeless shelter giving his time, yet he has no money or free time for his own children. That does no one any good.
- Spend time helping others in your desired field. Offer your knowledge of a subject to someone in need. You will be repaid in spades.

I hope there was something in here that you can take away and can help you. Please feel free to leave your tips, stories or suggestions in the comments.

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Why is the profile important? I’ll let Twitter tell you.

Hannechr @KeithBurtis I agree the profile is really important, personally I don’t follow anyone who doesn’t have one #Fail

BizCoachDeb @KeithBurtis for the mere fact that in a snapshot, it will give people an idea of who you are. A filter, I suppose.

MicaR @KeithBurtis One reason: Worthwhile having profiles on soc.sites for search value. Someone Googles you and there you are, top of the list.

heykim @KeithBurtis i would imagine.. because it allows you to see important info about a person or co. that isnt in the tweets necessarily…

JimLittlefield @KeithBurtis I use the profile information to determine who to follow or not. No profile = no follow.

jmilles @KeithBurtis If you want followers, you need a profile. If you don’t want followers, leave it blank.

I think Jim Milles in that last tweet summed it up quite nicely huh?

How do you differentiate?

Like I said in the opening paragraph, the social media space is starting to look a lot like the Attack of the Clones. If I wanted to be attacked by clones, I would just read @JCHutchins book 7th son! Now thats fun! However, looking through a bunch of new followers every day who’s bio all look the same is not fun. My advice to anyone who is going to write a profile in any social network is to describe YOU. Don’t describe your job, self-proclaim yourself or make claims of a guru. Instead tell people a bit about yourself. Include your job or title if you wish, but I want to know you! What makes you an individual? What are you passionate about? What makes you different from every other SEO, PR, Marketing,Coach, Guru out there???? The cliches are getting lame.

Unique Profiles!

Marina Martin – A Type-A working on my goal to drink a Guinness in every country. I recruit filmmakers and help companies create affordable, high-ROI videos for the long-tail.

Saul Colt – Mayor of Twitter, Smartest Man in the World (and Head of Magic @ FreshBooks)

Kevin Lim – Cyberculturalist // Social Cyborg // Videoblogger // PhD candidate in Communication

Gloria Bell – Lovingly finding my way through the world. While helping Indies and Freelancers run their business better.

How do you differentiate yourself? Do you have a cool social media profile? Share it with us!

Photo Credit

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Welcome back. Chris always has a ton of value to add to the community and it’s the very reason I link to him a lot. (good strategy on his part ..huh)

As many of you may know I am passionate about the arts, social media and community. I have utilized the drive of my passion to get me to where I am today working for one of the largest most successful retailers in the world. Here is an anecdotal story from my online woodturning business Magic Woodworks. You will see the progression I took to capitalize in a completely genuine way on the attention I had gained through social media tools.

Awareness & Attention

It was early the early days of twitter and I was relatively new to the service. I had been blogging and sharing my woodturned art out of Magic Woodworks for approximately six months. It would be valuable for you to know that my intention at the time was to be able to leave my job in a cabinet shop to do my woodworking full time. I had a long way to go, but one thing that I noticed was that as I shared my creative process, and used social media tools like flickr to post pictures of my work in progress that people were really starting to take notice of what I was doing with my woodturning. In fact my twitter follower number was rising quite rapidly and people were starting to write about my use of social media to create awareness around an art form many had never even heard of. Seth Godin talks about being a purple cow, well I turned into the purple woodturner gaining attention and awareness with each passing day.

Engagement

As I spent more and more time in front of the lathe (my power tool for creating the art) because of increased business or prepping for an art show, I found myself getting a bit lonely. I turned to twitter! I brought my computer out to my shop, draped some plastic wrap over it to keep the dust out and started tweeting about the things I was making. People were intrigued and interested. I noticed one day that my twitter follower count was at 499 followers so I decided to try and make an event out of number 500. I told my followers that I was at number 499 and that I would send a hand made wine bottle stopper to the 500th follower as well as to whoever referred that follower to me. The twitter-sphere was a buzz very quickly and in no time I had not only added that one follower needed but easily 60 more folks who were interested in the process. At this point I could have dropped the whole thing, sent the wine stoppers to the winning parties and called it a successful passionate awareness campaign ~ But I didn’t

Execution

I decided a few hours after the twitter buzz that I would contact the two folks getting the wine stoppers and tell them that not only would I send them the stoppers, but if they could come up with a good time; I would create the stoppers live for them using Ustream. I was about to create a live streaming event from an event on twitter and I knew people would be engaged. We chose the next saturday morning to run the live event and I told people that not only would I be making the two free stoppers, but I would also take requests and would turn wood the entire weekend live on-line! When I flipped the switch to go live saturday morning I was greeted by at least fifteen people in my chat room eagerly awaiting the live show to start and I was having a ball! Without getting into the details of the entire weekend, I did 7 live shows and pulled in enough orders and sales to purchase a brand new lathe that would serve me really well in my business moving forward. Until then I had been working on a lathe that was not built for the amount of use and torture that I was putting it through.

Extended Execution

During the weekend of live streaming I had many, many visitors to the chat room. Many of them content producers and bloggers. They were interested in how I was using social tools to create awareness and sales for my small woodturning business. People were fascinated by the process of the art and I did many interviews in the coming days and weeks. This really kept the buzz high and introduced many hundreds or even thousands of others to what I was doing, including a story in the local Buffalo Newspaper.

Takeaways for Social Media

1. Engage people with what you are passionate about
2. Create awareness and attention with methods (tools) that suit your audience and product (Mine were photos, text and video)
3. Be creative with your engagement. Think outside the box and create events for people to gather around.
4. Everyone has to eat. Figure out a way to leverage your passion so that people will value and pay for your product or service. You shouldn’t have to shove it down their throat. People understand that their is an exchange of value for value.
5. Finally, go back to Number 1. If your not passionate about what your doing. Don’t do it! You’ll be better off following your heart and your passion than you will be struggling against the tide.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Does this teach you anything about the ways that you can implement social media tools for your business?

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Today I was inspired by a article from Chris Brogan. Yea, I know ~ Whats new? Chris’ post revolved around a quote by Thomas Kempis that says, “The object of education isn’t knowledge, it’s action” Chris goes on to say, “Even if our efforts are intended to inform, what we really seek is action.” I agree with Chris in that the intention of education is to incite action by the person or people who are absorbing the information. Chris also goes on to say that in social media circles that combining passion and action can produce wonderful results. He speaks about my jump from a passionate social media enthusiast to an important figure in Best Buy. I thank Chris for this mention, however I’d like to share some principals and guides I use to help me define when to take ACTION.

Intentions are Key

For anyone that knows me they know I often speak of having the correct intentions. In my humble opinion intentions are much more important than specific goals. The set of intentions that brought me out of a dusty grimy cabinet fabrication plant to doing what I am passionate about were what I call my three guiding F’s:

(F)inancial – I am getting married in May of this year, and I had a burning desire to be able to support my new family in ways that I had never been able to do before.

(F)reedom – Yes, I work for an employer but this has given me freedoms that have never existed before. I work really hard, but I am able to pretty much set the hours I work. I am not forcing myself out the door in the morning, but rather working from my home office, making a difference and doing what I love. The day I didn’t feel an emotional difference between a Friday and a Monday was one of the best days ever!

(F)amily – I had a vision in my head of what my family looked like. I had a feeling in my heart of the way we would feel from day-to-day. However, most importantly I have a vision of how I will be able to give back to my amazing family that has supported me for all these years.

Again, the intentions are great but sustained, intention driven actions are what produces results.

Take a guided tour

For a long time I believed that the places we wanted to be, the way we wanted to feel, and the money we wanted to earn needed to be very specific and layed out like a map. I mean, I have no idea how to visit my friend Marina Martin in Seattle, but with a clear concise map I think I could pobably hop into my car and get there no problem. What is the problem with that though?

The problem with the clear concise map is that it ruins your peripheral vision. You miss things that you say later, “I wish I had seen that.” You lose out on experiences that in hind sight you wish you had done. Your goal is to get from point A to point B. Granted, if I could go meet my longtime friend Marina, I would love that! However, in the spirit of good intentions I’d probably bring a map for guidance rather than follow a specific course. I would intentionally look for opportunity to visit places and experience things that I might otherwise not ever get the chance to do again. I would let my intention of the visit guide me rather that taking the tunnel vision approach to the travel.

Action is always necessary to Achieve, but more importantly it’s the way you act that defines the results.

Opportunity is on the Periphery

Do you have a friend that is always getting the best jobs, best relationships, and money rains out of the sky on them? How in the world do they do that? Why are they so lucky? I’ll tell you why, “They have their eyes open to the opportunities that are abound” If I had set a goal to work for only one type of employer or even narrowed it down to say one employer I’d probably still be looking for a job. instead I let my intentions guide me. By having specific set of intentions I was able to turn down opportunity that didn’t fit, and ultimately select the opportunity that seemed to fit like a glove. When the opportunity arose, taking action was easy.

Never Doubt

The title speaks for itself, but the last principal I followed, and wavered on at times was to Never Doubt. This might easily be the toughest principal in the book. With reporters telling you the economy sucks, people are losing jobs, and were heading into a depression how do you find hope, much less an unwavering faith in yourself? To be honest, I cant answer that with words on a page, but I can tell you that by combining my intentions, paying attention to the periphery and having an unwavering faith in myself that I was able to make a quantum leap in a time when most say it can’t be done.

Adversity, is your cue to take action. You can either be whipped by your own storm of doubt and fail or you can take that next action that moves you into the right direction.

Take Action

Don’t be afraid to take action. Listen to your heart and throw out that tunnel vision Goal Book. You’ll get to where you need to be soon ! Let your inner roadmap guide you and enjoy the ride. There is no beginning and there is no end. Which way are you heading?

Photo Credit: CC Chapman

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If you don’t have a chance to listen to the podcast before this evening I am going to be leading the charge on twitter to help support Tim. I am going to be gathering a bunch of friends and folks in the twitter community to live blog Tim’s Chuck appearance as one of the bad ass Fulcrum Agents! We will be meeting on twitter and using hashtag #ChuckTV. Be sure to tell your friends and lets show our support for Tim.

Enjoy the episode! I know I had fun chatting with another brilliant creative mind. Tomorrow, I will embed this post with the new episode of Chuck from Hulu.

Creatives & Community Podcast #2 – Tim Coyne Interview
Download:MP3

Links to Note:
Tim featured in iProng Magazine (PDF Download of the Magazine)

Thank you to John Meadows for the audio work on Podcast #2.

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Natasha Wescoat

So Natasha, here at keithburtis.com I will be talking about the way Art blends with social media. To start why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself, where you come from and what type of artist you are?

Well, I’m a mixed media artist as far as work goes. I stick my hands in
many forms of work – graphic, illustration, fine art, vector design. I
think since I was about 5, I dabbled in writing books, making handmade
magazines/newsletters, creating comics, drawing, cartoons, etc.

I lived in a small town, from a poor family, so I always had the
ambition to make my way in what ways were possible. And I was determined
to be an artist anyway I could.

At age 5 my obsession with Sunday comics made me determined to start my own
comic strip.

Since age 7 my goal was to become an animator for Walt Disney Animation
studios and become an Art Director.

By Age 9, I started designing my own comic strips and created my first
magazine.

At Age 12, I was creating and selling my illustrations for kids in my 6th
grade class, before getting caught by my teacher. Thankfully the Principal
of my school was on vacation for the week and he let me continue my
selling, complete with recruiting some kids to help me out. Kids in my
class even created a game called, “Can she make art out of sh*$#” and
would scribble onto a piece of paper and I would take the mess and turn it
into an awesome drawing.

By age 17, I was choreographing interpretive dances that I and some girls
performed, writing and acting in my own plays and skits, writing songs and
poetry – performing for audiences of about 300 in the midwest. I have
always created naturally. People would tell me how talented I was in all
of these things and I couldn’t believe them, because I wanted to do all of
that stuff and…did it whether it was good or not. It made me question
whether they were making up that it was good. I realized later it was
true.

Taking Cover in the Wind

Ok, so it has probably been almost two years since we have met. I first located you on justin.tv painting live for an audience. Tell us how you see some of these interactive tools helping artists.

Social media and the internet have really allowed us to create our own
success.

We can create a presence without the need for a huge financial investment
to get to that place. I started selling with $130. This bought new supplies and a
website. From there, I was able to reinvest through my sales and the rest
was simple research and networking with social media.

When it comes to connecting with our collectors, it’s more intimate. No
middle man. We can share our everyday lives through our blog, through
photos on Flickr, through our microblogging on Twitter.

We can partner with the wonderful sites online that offer artists royalty
options. Self-publishing gives us the chance to get products with our work
out there without the manufacturing woes of some entrepreneurs. If there’s
a will, there’s a way. The internet opens up HUGE possibilities without
the fuss of real estate, business loans, or waiting. Oh yeah, the huge
part – no waiting. You can go as far as you take it.

Another benefit is the ability to approach companies and others ourselves. I’ve been given a lot of opportunities simply because I found them or contacted them first. People are open to artists connecting with them and making the offer first. Despite what is the norm!

Silver Dreams

Natasha, I notice that you have many online brands that all seem to lead back to you as a person. Explain how you mange your many talents.

I manage my talents with lists. If I don’t, my obsessive nature will take
over and I will (and have) spend days on end just working on one thing. I
remember spending 3 days, 20 hours a day on one project and I felt
depressed and exhausted and wanted never to work ever again. Yeah, it’s
crazy but true.

I have to manage my excitement first and foremost with these things.
Having clear goals for each brand really helps me focus and remain as
patient as I can with each thing. Geez, I sound so Howard Hughes! Maybe I
AM!

“Utilizing to-do lists and brainstorming are a must. If I don’t have my ideas or goals in writing, it’s going to be chaotic and fruitless for business. “

Another thing I do is to decide which brand needs to be worked on or
expanded upon, and which ones I need to put on the shelf until a more
useful time comes into place for them. I try not to waste time on
something that’s not producing revenue for me at that moment, unless I
have free time to work with it.

Natasha, you are an avid blogger and media creator, what are your favorite web 2.0 applications and why?

My favorite applications are:

- Myspace: Keeps me connected with my 5-35 target audience. I like using
the bulletin board to announce new things going on. A free newsletter!

- LinkedIn: It give me the ability to send my resume to anyone at anytime
without having to do any extra work and I make great business connections
on there, which I hope will prove fruitful soon.

- Twitter: I’ve met so many great people and other artists on there.
Because of twitter, I’ve been able to work with people for projects and
gain inspiration for new ones. It’s a great place for announcing new
information and events at a lightning speed rate. I also have been using
it to bookmark news and info I want to investigate and read more of later,
using the Favorite tool.

- WordPress: great, easy to use interface with options that make it easy
to customize and professionalize my blogs! Plus, I can log in and work on
several blogs at once, unlike some sites.

- Tumblr. It’s like the twitter of blogging, where I can jot and add info
and content as well as brainstorm. I like to use it just for that. list
making and ideas.

- Utterli (formerly Utterz) – I mentioned in my article on Digi-Art
Statements that audio blogs or podcasts are useful for art statements and
other great things, but I mainly use this tool for ranting, thinking out
loud, and for announcements.

Natasha, can you give us any information on where we might find some of your art reproduced?

Though I’m currently working on expanding my licensed brands, You can find
my licensed art at the following places:

- Murals Your Way: http://www.muralsyourway.com

- Pure Country Tapestries : pretty much google Natasha Wescoat tapestries
and they are everywhere.

- Weatherprints outdoor art: http://www.openairdesigns.com

Natasha, sometimes I think people take for granted the hard work that goes into creating and marketing for a piece. Do you find yourself having to educate your customers?

Not so much as I used to. I think that with a certain price level, the
unappreciative customers dissapear. Don’t know why this is true, but it
is. I think when someone pays what the art is worth, they understand all
the hard work and magic that went into that piece, and they appreciate the
art for what it is. The ones that don’t either A: Don’t understand or are too
impatient or B: Aren’t really art collectors. But I have yet to
consider this over the next few years.

Finally, what are some of the coolest things you have done or that have happened to you online? Give us a story or couple of stories that might inspire our readers to take their online presence to the next level.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

Because of Ebay, I was given the opportunity to work on Extreme Makeover
Home Edition! One of the main producers bought a piece for her home, and
she really liked what I did and wanted to have me participate. I would
have been able to do an on-site project, but due to other factors and
changes in their schedule, I did a job for one of the houses in another
state.

Another cool thing, is this Christmas, the movie Marley and Me will have
some of my art in the movie. I’ve already done art for a Lifetime movie
about a women who plays an artist. I have yet to see that one. She’s
pretending to paint some of my works in the movie! haha

I was able to connect with a rock star that I had been a major fan of
since I was a teenager. They now own one of my original art pieces and it
means as much to them as their music has meant to me. That’s truly
inspirational.

Contact Natasha (989) 414-2208
natashawescoat.com
natashasartcandy.com
SHOP AT: http://natashawescoat.etsy.com

Marley & Me – The movie Natasha’s art will appear in.

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Speaking at Niagara on the Lake Meetup

For the past two years I have been immersed in the interactive web space some of us call web 2.0. I have learned a lot of things and made many great friends. I have spoken on technology for arts organizations and brought my knowledge to Podcamps. This blog hopes to be an extension of my community and anyone that is looking to use new media tools as a way to help extend their reach. This can be for personal, for business or whatever reason you give yourself.

I invite you to feel free and open to discuss anything that you are passionate about! If your looking for a forum to blog I will gladly bring on the occasional guest post. Mainly, however this blog will revolve around the things I am passionate about! I hope you decide to subscribe, and join me in what hopes to be a journal of passion, success, and sharing.

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