Whew. You’d think we set out to start a PR book club focused solely on books with blue words in the title. But we swear, that’s not the case. It just so happens that the Black Sheep know more than a few authors. And that the ones we know tend to be the ones saying things nobody else does. Take, for example, Jason Falls, the co-author (with Erik Decker) of the new No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing. Using the Magic of the Internet, we (virtually) sat down with Jason to go over what his book is all about. (Spoiler alert: it’s not about bullshit.)

Black Sheep:
OK, first we have to ask you: Explain your book’s title?

Jason:
Erik and I wanted to point out that social media marketing had been a world full of “happy little trees,” to borrow a term. There were lots of people selling social media marketing as a great way to engage, join the conversation and sing “Kumbaya” around the campfire with your customers or prospects. But no one was completing the business end of the promise—talking about how to measure it, use it strategically, and so on. Our position is that if you add the word “marketing” to the phrase “social media,” you’re talking about business and you’d better come to the table with the ability to translate it into business. We were calling BS on the purists and offered up a No-BS look at social media marketing.

Black Sheep:
You mentioned your co-author, Erik Decker—what’s it like to collaborate on something like this?

Jason:
It’s actually quite fun if you like the person. I’m sure it would suck if you didn’t get along. But I’ve co-authored two books now (No BS and The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing with DJ Waldow) and really enjoy the give and take. Erik and I are a lot alike and obviously have a lot of the same opinions and passion points around social media. It was fun to write the book with him. I hadn’t written one before that experience and he had collaborated with Kyle Lacy on two other projects, so he kind of helped me figure out how to write a book. The cons? You have to compromise on some things and you’re dependent on someone else to hit some deadlines and what-not, but it’s nothing really major.
I guess there’s also the fact you have to share in the checks, but that’s fine, too.

Black Sheep:
What do you think are the top problems businesses have with social media?

Jason:
The main problem is they don’t approach it strategically, which is sort of what the book is helpful for. Without having goals and objectives, businesses don’t know what their purpose is, don’t know what or how to measure success and are, thus, disappointed with the results. There are lots of other less META problems— businesses aren’t inherently good at content because they haven’t had to be, the tool sets that are available are confusing and none do everything a business wants them to do—but approaching social with strategy in mind is the big one.

Black Sheep:
What do you recommend to someone just starting out with a small business—or with a large one—on social networks?

Jason:
Look for your audience and ask yourself what their pain points are, especially with regard to online content. What can they not find or learn or discover that you can provide? Filling some sort of content need is the most effective way to get in front of an audience in the social realm.

Black Sheep:
What are some of the worst mistakes businesses can make on social networking (do you have any examples you can share?)

Jason:
The obvious stuff—hiding things from your audience, not being responsive, ignoring your customers and what they want and need. U.S. Airways has a bad reputation online. Most of the other airlines are fairly responsive to customers. I’ve had 3-4 different people recently tell me they don’t trust U.S. Air because no one seems to be manning the communications ship. I’ve not experienced this first-hand, but when people are proactively telling me there’s an issue with a brand, there’s normally something there.

Of course there’s some top-of-mind case studies out there, too. Progressive copy-pasting legalese responses to multiple inquiries on Twitter, Ragu had a video a while back that was deemed offensive by some fathers and, in response, they were rather condescending and didn’t seem to care.

I think it’s important to know that almost all of the social media no-nos or bad case studies aren’t about social media at all. They’re about companies not cherishing their audiences. Disrespect the audience, or even just a member of that audience in any way and you’re gonna get the brunt of bad public opinion.

Black Sheep:
Does it surprise you that businesses still feel they don’t need a social presence?

Jason:
Not really. If the internal or external advocates for social media aren’t showing them the business value and doing a good job of illustrating why having a social presence is beneficial to sales, revenue or costs, then why would they want one?

Yeah, Black Sheep agrees with Jason. If you’re not part of the social networking solution, you’re probably part of the social networking problem. (Lookin’ at you, Ragu!)

So, want to make sure your social strategy is full of great content and backed up by some winning strategy? Scoot on over to Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Social-Media-All-Business-Marketing/dp/0789748010) and pick up a copy of Jason’s book. Because as we all now know, if your brand’s not full of top-notch social knowledge, well, it might just be full of … BS.

An interview with Jason Falls on his book.

Interview with Jason Falls.

Regular

What would you say if I told you that the makers of Twitter had created a new social networking platform—and that Black Sheep had been tapped as one of the original group of Beta-version testers/content creators? And that we’d put a spotlight on H-Town, making it the very first city to be featured on this new platform? Would you say “Woohoo!” or “Bad Mammajammas,” or, our personal favorite, “Tell me more!”

We’re going to pretend like you said that last one and let you in on what Medium is all about. First, we could say that this new platform combines the best aspects of Pinterest-ing and blogging. Or that it’s sort of an Instagram-meets-Facebook way to connect and share. But we Black Sheep think that Medium, the new “lightweight publishing platform” from Obvious Corp., is more than a mash-up of existing platforms. In fact, these guys’ forte is considering how people interact and share—and how to make the experience better.

Medium, in a way, is the platform for everyone, rethinking how (and why) we publish content on the Web. Users create “collections,” choosing whether to open them to the public or to keep them private, with themes ranging from “Been There, Loved That” to “When I Was A Kid.” Users interpret the theme themselves, posting stories, pictures, or combinations of the two—creating a wide range of content and a bigger picture of what these themes mean to people around the world.

Over the last few weeks, Black Sheep has been working with the Medium team to help form (and inform) the Medium experience as it takes shape. And from the beginning, our goal was to stake out an online space for the city we love.

The first Black Sheep-created collection is called “Hell Yeah Houston, ” and it’s the first collection centered on a geographical location, making Houston the first city to have a collection on Medium, and, therefore, the “Capital City” of Medium (look for that phrase on a coozie soon, BTW). This collection features our favorite locations, restaurants, sights, and sounds in H-town, giving both insiders and out-of-towners a new view of the city we love.

It’s an honor for Black Sheep to be among the very first users of this amazingly interactive, incredibly entertaining social platform. If there’s one thing we know about social networking, it’s that it works best when people feel they’re connected—and the fact that these collections can be as specific or broad as their creators determine makes Medium unique in the world of social networking. Sort of like Black Sheep!

So what do you think? What kind of collections would YOU like to see on Medium? And what Houston landmarks and secret locales would you like us to feature in Hell Yeah Houston? Keep your eye on the collection as it grows, and don’t forget, we’ll be opening it to the public soon, which means you’ll be able to contribute yourself. For our part, we think Medium is going to be a large part of our online life from now on, and we hope to see you there!

Black Sheep Puts Houston on the Medium Map