Corey Creed Interview
Corey's going to be laying it all out in a few weeks at Social Fresh Tampa talking about Facebook, social media and tons more. I had a chance to talk to him about his background and the work-life balance of the social web.
Your Background
Mark Regan: Tell me a little about yourself and your background.
Corey Creed: For most my life, I’ve done public speaking and training. I’ve also done a lot of project management and instructional design. But more recently, I’ve been using those skills with Internet marketing and social media. Here’s how it all came about…I grew up outside of Boston and then moved to New York for ten years. In 2002, I moved back to Massachusetts for one year. I had a hard time finding work, so ended up helping a friend with his e-commerce business. In three months, we tripled his sales. But it was way too cold in Massachusetts, especially for my wife who is originally from Daytona, FL!So in 2003, my wife and I moved to North Carolina and started HIPPO which has two parts to it. HIPPO Inc sells products via e-commerce to the hospitality industry. Hippo Internet Marketing did SEO, AdWords, and more for clients. In 2007, we stopped taking clients and started teaching Internet marketing seminars. In 2010, we stopped teaching seminars and started moving our content online instead.In 2011, I also started working with Social Fresh as the Training Director.
Time Management
Mark Regan: You seem to have your time spread out a lot from clients, training, speaking and your own personal brand. How do you manage the sometimes competing obligations?Corey Creed: I’m all about time management. Over the years, I’ve fired almost all of my clients. The few remaining are the best ones. I enjoy working with them and we each respect each other’s time. I regularly prioritize and keep my inbox down to zero several times per week. I move things to my to do list and work on one thing at a time in priority order.Oh, and I have three monitors. That helps. I only work 40 hours per week or less. I spend time with my wife and on other non-profit activities outside of work.
Fads
Mark Regan: What social media tactic do you see people jumping into too quickly? and what should they do more of in advance?Corey Creed: I see people jumping into the “shiny new things” way too quick. We all need to get better at Facebook. It’s good to stay somewhat informed of new things and to know what’s out there. But we’ve got to get better at what we have now. Focus on the opportunities that exist today and do them better.
Content is King
Mark Regan: Regarding social media, if you could make a business owner/stakeholder do one thing that they always don't want to do, what would it be?Corey Creed: They almost always need to become better writers. Content is king, but that’s just the beginning. The better we get at writing in all its various forms, the more success we’ll have. Good writing is not easy, but all marketers and business owners should work at it and stop trying to outsource it. It’s that important.
LBSNs
Mark Regan: How should small businesses take advantage of location-based social networks like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places? How can they gain a competitive edge with them?Corey Creed: This one is tricky. The adoption rate of these services is not that impressive yet. Small businesses have a lot to do. It may not be worth their time to put a lot of effort into this. At the same time, being an early adopter can get you extra business. Give it a shot and see what happens. But don’t waste too much time on it.
Bonus Questions
Mark Regan: What is your favorite online marketing/social media toy of the day?Corey Creed: For seeing what others do when they visit my site, my favorite cool new tool is Mouseflow. My every day tools are Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome, BlogJet, Digsby & Hootsuite.Mark Regan: Bonus: Any fun plans while you're here in Tampa?Corey Creed: Not really, Jason Keath has me working the entire first day of Facebook training. Also, I’ve got to keep up on my own business at the same time. But I do hope it’s warm that week. I hate the cold! :-)
Contact
Mark Regan: Thanks Corey! I'm excited to welcome you to Tampa on February 22nd as part of Social Fresh Tampa. How can people find out more about Hippo Internet Marketing and connect with you?Corey Creed: You can find most everything I do at www.CoreyCreed.com and www.HippoIMT.com.Thanks for the opportunity to be interviewed. It’s nice meeting you and I’m really excited to meet the various social media and Internet marketing people in sunny Tampa! See you at Social Fresh!