Worst Food I have ever eaten: Blood Sausage in Hungary, it was cold and bloody and in a stew of awkwardly cooked noodles and rice.

Worst News of My Life: My mother has Alzheimer’s Disease. Found this out 6 days ago.

If my mother invented a social network it would be a lot like Pinterest. Thousands of pictures, tons of content, and everyone talking with everyone about everyone else’s favorite things. This social network would consist of people just like my mother, caring, hip, and quickest to the draw when the silence calls for a witty comment. My mother’s social network would show pictures from her past, growing up poor in New Jersey and picking trash for her prom dress. It would tell the story of how she was #8 into the tub water, after her 7 siblings had already washed up. Most of all it would tell the story of an amazing woman who helped raise 4 independent boys who all would become successful in their own right. My mother’s social network would be amazing.

My mother’s social network wouldn’t consist of just profile pictures and timelines. It would also include a section for “where you’re headed” and “this is what you spoke into existence.” There would be an area for “lessons from the past,” and “what I’ve always wanted to be.” My mother’s social network would have a large section about “amazing buys from Big Lots” and “Saturday breakfast at Chutes.” My mother’s social network would be very social and very personal.

When I was a young man my mother would sign me out of high school to go to breakfast or to go and look in the windows of new houses being built. If my mother invented a social network it would show the pictures of those houses she’s been spying on, and offer tips for seeing into those windows over 6′ from the ground. (Pack a foot stool and empty houses only, of course.)

As I became an older man my mother helped me with planning a wedding and learning to iron. If my mother invented a social network it would have a section about those simple things she taught me. It would warn me to not hold the iron to long on my pink silk tie, and to not pack the dishwasher so tightly. My mother’s social network would offer a list of ways to get ketchup out of a white shirt.

My mother’s social network does not exist on the computer, currently it exists wherever she is. Though slower to the punchline my mother still has a knack for slinging the puns and dropping the one liners. This is why hearing that she has such a tremendously disheartening disease is almost unbelievable. I’ve never dealt with this diseases directly and when I found out, within hours I was getting support from my social networks.

On Twitter I heard from numerous friends and followers offering me advice and prayers. Through Facebook I found support and advice. YouTube offered a plethora of video’s and explanations. For a moment it seemed my Mother’s Social Network existed. Over the next few months and years I am certain of only one thing; time will pass. As it does, I will continue to be grateful of the support, advice, prayers, and love that I get from my social networks.

Though many of us have never actually met in person, or shared a conversation over an actual cup of coffee, your support is priceless and it warms my soul to know you would use your 180 characters to lend support to my family.

Any advice on Alzheimer’s Disease? Feel free shoot me an email or comment below.

I’ve been alive, ahem, almost 30 years. For roughly 28 of those years I struggled to figure out what I love about marketing and what I love about sales. Recently I was asked by the good folks at the Greater Portland Convention and Visitors Bureau to give a talk about using Social Media to increase business and brand. I gladly accepted and felt extremely enthusiastic to share my version of social media marketing and my philosophies on the effective use of it. During this talk (which I will have a video of in the coming weeks) I felt passionate and proud that so many of Maine’s extremely talented tourism professionals were willing to listen to me share my feelings about Social Media.

I began by sharing that I felt Social Media was all about the effective use of digital technologies to reach out and connect with your customers. I told them that the most effective part of social media usage was the humans behind the marketing. My talk was roughly 30 minutes long and as far as I am aware, only 1 person fell asleep, and 1 person had a phone call.

The attendees were kind with their feedback and it was during this speech that I became aware of what fire’s me up. Helping business owner’s grow their business. It was with great pride that I spoke of effective means of marketing business in a  social way – it was with even more pride that I spoke of how amazing Maine is as a destination and a workspace.

Sharing my Maine with people who want to help its economy grow is easy for me. We have so much to offer as a state and a destination that for me it’s hard to imagine a potential tourist or visitor not placing Maine at the top of their list. Mid way through my talk I shared that I believe Maine business owner’s need to focus on falling back in love with their customer’s. It is only by falling back in love with your customer, adding value to the relationship, and gaining trust that the social media relationship will turn fruitful. The key to a healthy relationship is not found in 85% off coupons, but in being 100% genuine and interested.

I will not waste your time by sharing with you my whole talk and once the video is ready I will post a link so you can check it our for yourself. This post was simply for those of you who did not have a chance to check out the class and more importantly sing the praises of state that is easy to fall in love with.

Why do you love your state?

A little over two years ago I was laid off from a job I absolutely could not stand in Charleston, South Carolina. The lay off came as a total surprise and the only head’s up I had was slimy text I received from my manager at 3am letting me know “We are meeting at 8am with HR.” I laid in the bed for the next 4 hours wondering why I had a meeting with HR and if the inevitable was actually going to happen. It did, and it was a blessing.

Four weeks later I started Social Impressions and landed my first major client, Chipco International - back up in southern Maine. Chipco International was once the world’s second largest poker chip manufacturer pumping out over 30,000 chips a day! I remember when I spoke with the owner on the phone and the morning he invited me back up to my home state for an interview. I made the 23 hour drive and all the way back to the Pine Tree State I listened to podcasts from Internet Business Mastery and studied blogs written by Chris Brogan. When I met the owner of the chip company I was blown away – he was casual guy, dressed in a sweatshirt with a polo underneath – with khaki’s. Not what I pictured in my head when I thought of an executive such as he. I found it made him a lot more relatable and we connected immediately.

A few month’s later I met a gentleman through this company who was a major technology guru and master at tech design and RFID security units. He had made millions. Something I noticed about him, polo shirt, and nice jeans.  I was beginning to notice a pattern.

Maine is a state where if you have made it, you don’t necessarily need to show it. I have been shown this time and time again. This being said brings me to the inspiration for this blog…

Last week I was walking up Congress Street on my way to visit Granny’s Burritos. I was wearing a suit that is required for my full-time job with the beautiful Portland Harbor Hotel. Halfway to my destination a person not from around here stopped me to tell me, “Finally, someone in this damn state who knows how to wear nice clothes! I’m from DC, (I am assuming that stands for Dimwhit County) and where we live and work we dress up. I cannot believe the amount of people around here who look like bums!”

I was shocked and didn’t really know what to tell this person. I suggested that he go back to DC, to a city where the professionals apparently know how to dress. I also told him that my job required this suit of me. As we were talking one of the most succesful internet marketers I know walked by and I believe he had on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Heaven Forbid!

This said, I love Maine because as a born and bread Maine-ah, I don’t have to dress to impress people I do not know. Here in Maine I feel qualified to say that we’re not too worried about what you and your DC friends think of us. Here in the Pine Tree State, The Moose State, The Mosquito State, The once stinky Paper Mill State, and the State who’s Governor used to specialize in selling boxes of expired Trident gum for .25 per hundred – we live for us. We care about our community but don’t need to impress it. We give to our neighbors but don’t need a plaque for it. More importantly we offer flights from PWM to IAD (Dulles Airport).

If there is one thing I have found to ring true on a pretty consistent basis it’s that if you work your ass off and never give up, things happen. In the past five years I have had some serious adversity and feel as though my wife and I have grown because of it. Some of the crazy things that have happened range from roughly 25 trips to the ER, 3 Lay Offs (between me and my wife), 3 Surgeries, and multiple waste sizes…for me. One constant that never seemed to change during the ebb and flow of life was whenever I would reach out to folks to try and connect and offer value to the relationship – it worked. Almost always. The largest connection of my life happened last week, but before I give you the details I need to give you the story before the story.

Roughly 5 months ago I read a book titled “The Instigators” by David Wolman. The book chronicles the A6Y movement in Egypt, that helped start a revolution that eventually overthrew the country’s dictator. The entire revolution was organized through Facebook and one of the organizer’s name was Waleed Rashed. The book was inspirational and I read the entire book in one day. When I had finished it I thought to myself, I would love to meet this person named Waleed and find out more about him, and see what he believes and how he feels for helping changing the world. With this in mind I did what any investigator would do, I hopped on Facebook and began searching.

It did not take long before I had found the A6Y movement and quickly realized that I couldn’t read Arabic. I requested to join the group on Facebook anyhow. Soon after I received a private message from Waleed, the same Waleed I had just spent 4.5 hours reading about. The message said something along the lines of “Hi David, I am curious how you heard of us and why you want to join our Facebook group.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I told him the truth. I wrote back and told Waleed that his story had inspired me and his use of Social Media to literally change a country was amazing. I asked him if we could connect more often and keep in touch because I found him to be a real inspiration. He said that would be okay. From there on out Waleed and I have chatted on Facebook probably once or twice every month.

Fast forward to March, 2012.

It was about 10:30pm and I was getting ready for bed. I opened my Facebook to do a final scan before I took 8 hours off and noticed that Waleed had posted a picture of him with Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple. I was surprised, but not really, earlier in the month Waleed was with the co-founder of Facebook – Eduardo Saverin. I commented on the photo and said “Wow, Steve is a rich man today! (Apple had just hit $500 billion in worth).” Soon after Waleed commented and asked me to sign on to Skype. So, I did.

When I called Waleed he said only one thing “Dave, meet Steve Wozniak.” There in my pajama’s and sitting on my couch I skyped with the person who changed computers and the world as we know it. I managed to stammer off a few words before Steve passed his tablet to his wife to say hello. Then before I knew it our connection got worse (They were both at an engagement in Singapore) and Steve and Waleed disappeared. There on my couch I could not believe that I had just spoken with 2 people who helped change our world. One a political revolutionary, the other a technology innovator and genius.

How does this type of thing happen to a guy in Maine? Easy answer, I stick my hand out a lot. I say hello, a lot. I love people and really enjoy adding value to my relationship with them. When I hear of someone who inspires me  I set a laser in my brain to create enough connections to meet them. It is safe to say that last week my laser was on point. In the next few weeks please keep an eye out for more information on Waleed and perhaps an interview with him.  One of my favorite quotes from Waleed I relate to very strongly is: “Part Time Waleed, Full-Time Dreamer.”

Odds are, if you have been to a function in Maine that required Audio Visual assistance, you have heard Dan Willis’ work. Personally I have known Dan for over 5 years due to my hospitality career and also other business ventures. His reputation is great and his work ethic and proven results are wonderful. According to AV Technik’s website the company was established with a few things in mind:

• Building strong relationships – people first, gear second.
• Crystal clear communication with an “always” open door policy. We always want to know how we are doing and what we can do to make a difference.
• Providing smart, effective, high quality and affordable equipment solutions.
• Kicking some audiovisual butt, smiling and having some fun while we are at it.

These principles should apply to what a lot of us do for work, or to the business’s we own.  I recently asked Dan if he would be interested in sharing with us a little bit about his successful company and what it’s like to do business in Maine. Let’s hear from Dan.

How long has AV Technik existed? AV Technik opened it’s doors in October of 2004.

How did you get started in the AV industry? I am a drummer and have been since the 6th grade. At my bands first paying gig we decided to hire a professional sound company with our money. When they came in with all the equipment, I was hooked. I called the sound company which was then GPE at the time and asked them for a job. I started the next day. That was 18 years ago.  

What made you want to get into AV? I always liked technology, flashing lights and buttons to press. I like doing different things and working with different people. It seemed like a good fit. 

What is the most challenging part of being involved with the AV world? The days can be pretty long. 18 hours multiple days in a row are common. We also rely heavily on the equipment. If something blows up during an event it can get a little stressful. You try to be as prepared as possible but bringing two of everything to the job is pretty difficult. 

What makes for a great event? When the attendees don’t know we exist and our client is the hero.

What was your favorite event to do AV for? My favorite events are the ones where we learn something, we have some fun and the client is all smiles at the end of it!

How is AV Technik utilizing Social Media? We have been using social media for a bit over a year now. We post to our Facebook business page and it pushes its way to our Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

Where do you see your company in 10 years? We just bought a new 11,000 sq foot building an South Portland. We are enjoying ourselves and growing organically. I see more of the same. Having fun and making a living!

How does the internet affect your industry? Virtual meetings etc… where do I even begin. Couldn’t operate without it.

What separates your company from other AV company’s? We have a strong focus on people. even though we are an equipment company anyone can go buy a projector or a speaker. We offer a very personalized service and I try and stay in touch with every client… even if it is just a follow up and to make sure they can have direct contact with the owner if they want it.

Do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs in Maine regarding building a successful business? Be fair, be honest, smile and go kick some butt!

Think your business is in need of some of AV Technik’s services? You can reach AV Technik at 207-510-6655 or go through their website www.AvTechNik.com

Google + is a network that is quickly gaining popularity, and it is surprisingly easy to gain followers there. First of all, you should make the most of your existing social network friends and followers. By tweeting or sharing your new Google + profile you will instantly benefit from those who are already connected with you online. Alongside encouraging your current connections to follow you, you should also promote your Google + profile on your website or blog so that your visitors can keep in touch. Have the means to share or retweet all of your Google + blog posts by those who find them useful.

As Google + operates on the basis of circles and conversations that are public to those circles, a great approach is to utilize them. Divide people into circles that fit certain categories, for example friends, family and those who share your business interests. When you want to gain more attention for a certain circle, engage in conversations with those who have followers you may wish to attract. If they find your content to be useful, they will soon +1 you. Make sure the content you post is as useful as possible, think about what you would find useful and get posting! While you are participating in conversations with useful content, you should also share those posts that you find useful. Much like any other social networking site, those who you connect with on Google + will do the same for you, and you will generate more followers in the process.
Finally, you can always be more creative in terms of how you attract followers. Promoting your Google + page online may seem like the obvious answer, but if you have business cards or newsletters for your company it is always worth letting your clients know that you are on Google +. You should also try encouraging interaction with your content; by periodically ending your content with a question. You may generate more interest and show others that you are engaged and worth following. Make sure all of your blog posts are available to be recommended by those who find them useful.

Looking for information about using Google+ for business? Check out Chris Brogan’s Book, Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything.

What did I miss, what makes your Google+ page worth following?

Additional Resources:

Google+ for SEO

Chris Brogan on Google+

Pinterest gets over 1,500,000 hits a day. With this many visits brands are sure to take advantage of the traffic Pinterest offers. Below is a list of some brands using Pinterest in a very cool way. Check out their boards, see what they are doing and hop on the train.

• Men’s Health Magazine - At the time of this article Men’s Health has 6 boards for their followers to choose from and a community of just 76 followers. “The Ultimate Grooming Guide”  offers everything you have ever wanted to know about grooming as a man. With the magic of Pinterest the reader can click the photo of Tom Ford Cologne, and be instantly whisked away to an article about men’s cologne and the various scents of the month. Another great idea – when I clicked one of their pictures it took me to a landing page offering me a free one month subscription. Other cool boards that Men’s Health Magazine offers is, Looks of the week, Must Have Styles, Men’s Health Covers, Look and Learn, and Infographics.
• Paula Deen - Much the opposite of protein shakes and creatine, we find Paula Deen with over 23 boards and just under 34,000 followers. Her boards offer great looking pictures of all those wonderful comfort foods that Paula Deen creates. Click a picture and be taken away to her recipe, like the looks of the Turducken? Share it with a friend by repinning it.
• Betsy White Stationary – This is a company that I have never heard of before Pinterest. I happened to be looking at stationary and came across this brand. Apparently they are popular seeing how they have over 781 followers. I love their Pinterest boards because they use some beautifully colorful pieces from their collection. With over 23 different boards Betsy White offers a great variety of pins to check out.

What I have found so cool about Pinterest is just how search friendly it is, and how I have been able to find some great gift idea’s that I would have never even known about. From the search bar you can browse gifts ranging in price from $1-$500+. I also see the huge potential that small business’s have by utilizing Pinterest as a way to spread their message and gain exposure of their brand and website. Below are a few idea’s for some industry’s I think could take advantage of Pinterest.

• Restaurants – Looking to drive traffic to your restaurant website? Try pinning photo’s of your specialty dishes, or pinning a video of your chef making a delectable dish.
• Hotels – Is there any better way to sell your guest rooms, and function space other than showing the actual rooms? Why not post photo’s of your beautiful honeymoon suite, pictures linking to romance packages, video’s linking to your concierge talking about your amazing city.
• Pet Stores – This subject is close to my heart seeing how my mother in law and my wife have a shop here in Maine, Paws Applause (shameless plug for my wife). Every boutique pet supply store has signature products and super cute services. Why not post pictures of those fresh treats you just baked, linking them to your website so your customer can purchase them and also get familiar with your website.
• Musicians – If I were a musician I would be pinning video’s of my band, photo’s of our CD’s and PR photo’s – all linking back to my website and where the interested Pinterest user can buy my CD.

Pinterest offers some great tools for all brands. I encourage you to begin exploring what Pinterest can do for your company. Please tell me, what brands do you follow?

1. Post about the history of your business.

2. Tweet a daily tip having to do with your industry.

3. Start a weekly video blog that gives updates on your company and what is happening within your local community.

4. Know other business people of influence in your area? Ask them to do a guest blog. It provides great exposure for you, and them!

5. Respond to all social media posts on your business page.

6. Post behind the scenes pictures. Having a staff meeting? Why not snap a photo? Cleaning up after a big party at your restaurant, show off the before and after.

7. Ask questions. Ask your community questions that pertain to your industry. Later you can use the answers for material on your other social media networks.

8. Join Google+ and get active with it. Stop putting it off.

9. Be consistent. Don’t start a project that you’re not willing to follow through with – same thing with social media.

10. Link to other sources of information. Don’t be afraid to mention other knowledgable figures in your industry. By being willing to share other’s information. By doing so you are also proving that you are a great source for new information and that you are aware of new things happening.

11. Send a Thank You note every week. Hand written – with ink, from a pen.

12. ABC. Always Be Conscious, of your surroundings and new content for your social media outlets. Some of my most well received articles were conceived by an ad I saw in a Rite Aid or while walking through Brooklyn, NY with my brother.

13. Know what needs to get done – Today. Some people use lists, others have software, other’s have a reminder app on their iPhone. Whatever your tactic, know what needs to get done today.

14. Set goals that make you stretch and celebrate when you knock them out of the park. Want to be motivated to stick to your monthly and yearly goals? Share them with someone who’s not afraid to remind you of them – for me, I share them with my wife.

15. Read 15 minutes a day from a book that will have a positive impact on your attitude. Here are a few I recommend (Affiliate Links):

•  Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You–At Work And In Life
•  The Power of Positive Thinking
•  Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness

16. Know your value. Often things that come easy to one person are easily under priced because that person assumes everyone knows it is easy. Marketing is fun for me but for my best friend who is a missile engineer – he’s willing to pay for it.

17. Don’t confuse your calling with your career. I love this advice that I heard from the Dan Miller Podcast. Often times we feel like we are called to be helping panda’s in the jungle but there is no real sustainable way to do this. Your career will sometimes provide a great funding source for your volunteer work.

18. Be willing to do the work. Don’t sell the service if you are not willing to do the work.

19. Fail fast and fail cheap. Try new idea’s, if they don’t work stop them. Be willing to take calculated risks that don’t require too much up front investment.

20. Stop and smell the roses. You won’t be here forever so stop and smell the roses once in a while. If what you are doing is not making you happy, then why are you doing it?

What did I miss?

After some brief scanning on Google and other pages I was able to easily identify the answer to her problem. She had two accounts. In fact, I confirmed my suspicion by doing a simple LinkedIn search and her profile appeared twice. One had a personal email address the other was linked to a work account. Answer in hand I set off to her offices to help her out of the jam she found herself in.

When I arrived at her offices I was quite proud of myself that I had found an answer to her problem and I was very excited to share the answer with her. Once inside of her offices her sales manager had a couple social media related questions for me. Being that social media is a passionate subject for me I found myself chatting with her for over 45 minutes before I was able to get to the question that brought me into her offices.

When I thought we were going to broach the subject that brought me down to her offices she shared with me about a conference she was planning that would take place in NYC and how they were looking for a New York band who had Maine roots. This provided me a great chance to share with her my incredibly talented brother in New York, Mike Pride and his band Bacteria to Boys. It so happened that she loved my brother’s music and they are now in negotiation’s to book the gig.
Shameless Plug:

At this point we hadn’t even got to the subject of her LinkedIn problem. So we finally began the conversation and I shared with her the simple fix. While discussing this simple fix I mentioned to her one of my favorite social media monitoring tools that Rich Brooks turned me on to, NutShell Mail. A great tool that summarizes all of your social media networks into one simple daily email. It even tells you who has stopped following you…which can get depressing.

As I began to leave my friend’s office another associate of hers came to me and asked if I could help their marketing person with some social media marketing issues. I said I would be happy to help, even though I had already been there over 2 hours at this point.

90 minutes later I was leaving the marketing executives office. Total time spent 3.5 hours – total bill $0.00. The next day I took an additional 45 minutes and composed an email to the employees that I met with and summarized what we went over, and provided additional support materials. Their response and gratitude made my day. Have I seen any immediate monetary return on this time investment? No, not right away. Here is what has come about since then though.

1. One of the employees asked me if I would be interested in addressing social media in a conference setting for hospitality executives. Having a chance to address a crowd as an authority is priceless and typically results in new leads.

2. The executive who’s problem I have fixed now thinks of me as a person she can go to with social media questions and concerns. She also now feels comfortable introducing me to her friends as someone who knows social media.

3. I landed a new client.

4. My brother may book a fun gig.

5. I felt good giving my time, and creating a lasting relationship with 4 new friends who I now know more about. I was able to give the time, and I tried to give more than they asked for. In return – they feel special (and they are), and I get to know that I made their day easier, helped them out, and helped increase my own business.

I’m sure we all have stories like this, I would love to hear your story of doing a little pro-bono work and how it resulted in some great new relationships and even some new business. After all, isn’t that what hospitality is all about? Making people feel special, unique, and important? This sounds an awful lot like the goals I set for my social media marketing campaigns. Make you realize you’re special, realize why you are unique, and then, I earn a chance to get your business.

Positive

The most challenging battle is the one man has with his own attitude. My number one focus for 2012 will be to remain positive and focused on things that uplift my company spirits, ethics, and culture. To strive to maintain a positive attitude I commit to reading more books, investing more time with positive mentors, and paying less attention to my competition. Nothing can take the wind out of my sails faster than a discouraging comment from someone I look up to or someone I see as more knowledgeable than I. In 2012 I commit to maintaining a laser vision of what matters most in my life and keeping positive about those things.

The end result for you, the reader, is a better feeling when reading our posts and the knowledge that I am looking for the bright spot in the midst of any stormy weather. With a positive attitude I can keep my energy levels up and by doing this I can be more aware of great content inspiration opportunities, and more ways to offer you value.

Give

In 2012 I will be more financially giving. I run a pretty tight ship and money is one of those things that I always think about and often wonder if I have enough, planned enough, or have enough socked away for a rainy day. In 2012 Social Impressions will focus on giving away more money. Money is in my top 5 for most important things and I believe the more I give it away the more I will be blessed. My giving will be my normal tithe to my church , and then additional non-profits, or families in need that my staff and I feel would be blessed by our good fortune. We will not give based on the whether or not we feel the person would piss it away…we will give based on whether the person or organization is in need. If they are irresponsible with the gift – that is their choice. It will not be my excuse to not give. We will have a fund labeled “The Giving Fund” and it will be from here that each month we set money aside to donate or save for the next month until we feel led to bless someone else.

I have an issue with money, and I believe this will be a great way to get over my fear of not having enough of it.

Reflect

One of my favorite quotes about life is, “Detours will almost always prove worth it.” In 2012 I will do my best to take time to rest easy and reflect on the amazing things that have happened thus far in my journey. I commit to taking time to reflect on my well connected and smoking hot wife, I will reflect on overcoming cancer 10 years ago, and I will reflect on the many mentors and positive influences I have been associated with. 2012 will be a year of reflection for me as I journey into 2013, a year when I believe the seeds I will have been sewing for many years will begin to grow into a bountiful harvest.

I need to make myself reflect, otherwise I will be caught up in the day to day whirl wind of it all.

Can you relate with any of my 3 words? Anything you would add? I encourage you to take a moment and read Chris Brogan’s Three Words and let me know if you decide to write your own!

I leave you today with the three words my brother Tom challenges me with everyday -
“Be the Best.”