The first word in “Social Media” is SOCIAL

August 24th, 2010 1 Comment

There’s an old theory that states that “Any press is good press” - some add to this “as long as they spell your name right”. While you may not hold this theory in high regard, you can’t ignore it’s effectiveness in the past.  Especially in this time of “Reality TV” where the famous and in-famous become more famous (or in-famous) based solely on the fact that they are on our TV screens week after week…regardless of their talent or lack thereof.

I’ve met and talked to a lot of people that have been told that they need to “get on Social Media to help their business”.  Someone has convinced them that there is “gold in them there hills” and that all they need to do is jump in and claim it.  They come to me and ask me how they can get started in Social Media so they can help their business.

Often my answer is not good news to them…  They want the silver bullet of how to jump into Facebook and Twitter and start selling millions…  I get to break the news to them…

It’s just like when I take my car into the shop and I hope that it’s something simple.  “Yeah, it was just a loose hose, I tightened it up and you’re good to go!”  That’s what I’m hoping for, but when I get the “Mr. Pollard, your turbo needs to be replaced…”  I die a little inside – there goes my hopes for that vacation I wanted to take next month.

Can you use Social Media to help grow your business? YES.
Can you reach people you would have never reached before? YES.
Can you do it by the end of the month? NO.

The first word in “Social Media” is SOCIAL.  That has to come first.  This is not a “regular website” or “brick and mortar storefront” where you just open it up, advertise and wait for them to come.  Social Networking is a completely different animal and cannot be fed the same food, placed in the same pen or groomed the same way.

My advice to those just getting started?  Forget about selling anything for awhile.  How long?  It depends on how “social” you are three months, six months…those sound like reasonable numbers…to me.

Since I am usually talking to someone that is not using Social Media or has not engaged it yet this must be a real slap in the face. “Are you telling me I shouldn’t expect to be able to start selling or making money from Social Media for at least 3 to 6 months?” No…much worse…I’m telling you that you can’t start until then.

Don’t get me wrong, plenty of people try to jump in and sell from day one…those of us “social” people using “social networking” have a word for them – spammers.  We ignore them, despise them, loathe them and blacklist them.

So, the question remains, how do I get started with Social Media and do it right so I can use it as one more tool to build and grow my business?

I gave you the answer at the beginning, just replace the word “press” with “activity“.

Totally embrace the social networking idea and continually improve and grow your own, personal social network.  Increase the volume of activity inside your social network  -

then you become someone they trust, someone they know, someone they are interested in.

THEN when you share with them this part of you that is passionate about the products that you provide and the way you make a living it’s very natural and non-threatening…it’s just part who you are.

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Your “Social Identity” – Twitter:

August 18th, 2010 No Comments

In my previous post – Your “Social Identity” - I shared the importance of maintaining a single identity across all social networks.  Today I’ll discuss some techniques on how to create a useful and meaningful identity on Twitter.

The nature of Twitter is that a large majority of the traffic is one direction, so you don’t really pick and choose who your friends are more than you decide who you’re going to listen to.  Keeping that in mind…

  • Use the same profile picture as Facebook and other networks.  This allows people on Twitter to more easily identify you as someone they already know.  We do this all the time in real life – we know people mostly from their faces.
  • Fill in your location.  You don’t have to be detailed – just an idea of where you are.  Some people like to make this humorous and give a “state of mind” – I wouldn’t suggest this unless it’s somehow obvious of your general location by other means.  I might use any of the following:
    • Clemmons, NC
    • North Carolina
    • Piedmont Triad – NC
    • South Eastern U.S.
  • If you have a website, show it but DO NOT URL Shorten it.  Even if it’s long put the whole thing in there.  If you don’t have an “official website” use your Facebook profile page – that actually works pretty well.
  • On Twitter your bio is everything (unless they already know you or you are a celebrity).  For most people and most people browsing through Twitter your bio is the only thing that gives them a sense of who you are and what you do on Twitter.  Give people a reason to follow you, tell them about yourself.  You have 140 characters to describe yourself so I can decide if I want to follow you – make it good.
    • No bio – no follow (at least from me).
    • Make it creative and accurate.

When starting out on Twitter, create an account, follow the steps above and then START TWEETING.  If you do all of the stuff above and you only have one tweet or worse..none…then it will be for naught.  What you tweet and how often you do it is as much an indicator to a “potential follower” (strange term) as your profile.

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Your “Social Identity”…

August 16th, 2010 No Comments

Lately, many have asked me

How do I separate my business from my personal life on Facebook?

The answer is simple…you don’t.

Hello...My name is...

When someone asks this question they are really asking about Social Networking in general, but most people equate social media with Facebook ((Social Media) = Facebook).  Facebook is the single largest social networking platform in the western world, but it’s not the only one.  In fact, Facebook would not be as big as it is without the help of many, much smaller platforms, applications and websites that make up what we think of as Social Networking in general.

That being said…think about developing one social media identity, craft it, work it, maintain it and protect it.  With a few exceptions, individuals should have only one identity across all social networks and work to make that identity consistent and accurate.  Even corporations should have a single identity – but they will probably also have divisions, departments and locations that have their own single identity too.

Social Networks are social and they are about people and if you as a person want to make a name and place for yourself in it then you have to prove that you are a real person, that you live and breathe and that you put your pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us.  If I am going to have a relationship with you in the social networking world I want to know that you are a real person.

Above all, the number one rule at all times while working, playing, socializing and living on social networks is this…

Never share something that you wouldn’t be OK with everyone you ever knew, now know and may ever know seeing.

Once you press enter and send that off to Facebook or Twitter or any other network it’s gone.  Forget privacy settings and passwords and security – you have handed over control for what you shared to third party.  In general, the major networks will do all they can to honor their terms of service and keep private what you want private, but the bottom line is that once you release it – it is out of your control.

Some simple ways to create and maintain your social identity:

  • Profile Picture: your profile picture is the visual image others come to know and recognize.  We are visual people and in most social networks your profile picture will be seen many, many times by the people you connect with.
    • Use a picture of YOU, NOT your dog or your cat, and certainly not the hollow default image that shows when you don’t upload one.
    • The picture should have only you in it. It should not be a group shot or you and your spouse – remember many people that you meet will not know you any other way than what they see here so it may be hard to figure out which person you are in that group of three.
    • The picture should be a close up head and shoulders or closer image.  Since you and I are not Madonna or Ashton Kutcher we aren’t as easily recognized unless they can see our face.
    • Use the same picture on all social networks. As you expand to other networks (and you will) your friends on your current networks will be able to easily recognize you by your picture if it’s exactly the same as the one on the others they already know you from.
    • Don’t change it very often, but when you do change it – change it across all networks.  Teenagers and college students can get away with this because they are not cultivating a social identity – yet.
    • Spend some time to craft a short, catchy and accurate tagline and bio.
      • The tag-line should be one moderately short sentence.
      • The bio should be a bit longer, but still readable in a few moments.
      • Use the same bio on each social network.
      • Don’t take yourself to seriously – remember these are SOCIAL sites.
  • Shameless promotion on your profile page is OK.  That is what it is for – it’s the one place where talking about yourself is not only encouraged…but necessary for social success.
    • Tell us your website addresses.
    • Tell us what you do.
    • Tell us what you are passionate about.
    • Tell us anything you think helps to describe who you are
    • Be accurate.  Social Networking is not a contest or strictly a place to meet dates, so just be honest about who you are and even a bit self-loathing.
    • Tell us about the other social networking sites you are on.  Want to expand your social influence?  Tell people how to find you on other sites – you’ll be amazed how well this works.

Your “social identity” is valuable only if it’s accurate and represents YOU.  Protect it, nurture it and feed it regularly and it will grow…

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Twitter: Simplified…

August 12th, 2010 1 Comment


Duck Nation by snakstock (http://snakstock.deviantart.com/)

How do you explain what Twitter is to someone that hardly understands what the Internet is or doesn’t understand Facebook?  The more I talk to people the more I think we need to answer this question…  Here’s is the non-technical explanation of what Twitter is – this will not tell you the specifics of how to use Twitter, but what it is…

Imagine a large room full of people – you shout across the room to your friend, Bob… You tell him something interesting to him and (probably you too).  All the other people in the room can listen to what you say to Bob or they can just ignore it (maybe they’ve already heard this or maybe it’s just not of interest to them).  Most of them are too busy listening to others, saying something too or just not listening at all.

Generally, the people that are keeping up with you and want to know what you say have heard you before, know you (from real life, from Twitter or from somewhere else), and are interested in some of the same things you are.  They may or may not be hanging on every utterance (probably not), but they are generally interested in what you have to share – they are actively listening to you.

Bob hears what you have to say and he likes it and thinks that the people that are actively listening to him (some of them are also listening to you, but most are not) will like it so he repeats it.  All of the people that actively listen to Bob now have the opportunity to hear what you said through Bob.  At the same time, others are listening in – most of them are people that are already actively listening to you – others hear you because they were searching for someone talking about what you shared – they found it on a big, “Jumbotron” screen in the room.

A few of the people that hear your message through someone else also decided to repeat it and the process may keep going based on how relevant, interesting, funny, news-worthy or strange what you said is.  Some of them add their own comments to yours and others just simply pass it on.  If you are lucky, smart, funny, a celebrity (did I say lucky?) or powerful what you shared may go “viral” – it may spread like wildfire across the room.

Sometimes someone just wants to talk to you so they say something to you that only they can hear, but you can only do this if that person has decided to also actively listen to you.

You are also listening to the crowd and you keep track of a number of people that are interesting to you for different reasons.  Sometimes you just read what they share and move on, other times you repeat it to the people that are actively listening to you.  Sometimes you decide you want to remember this message and save it for later.

Occasionally, you realize that someone you are listening to continually says stuff that’s just not interesting to you or just plain boring and you decide to stop actively listening to them.  On a rare occasion someone you are actively listening to may end up being offensive to you, so you decide to stop listening and you don’t want that person to be able to actively listen to you anymore.

Often you say something to the whole crowd – like an announcement.  What you have to say may be useful or interesting to most or all of the people that actively listen to you.   However, sometimes you may want to share this broad, public announcement but refer to someone else in the room or increase the possibility that they will notice it and you include their name in the announcement.

A very small percentage of the topics being discussed are very popular and being talked about by a great deal of people, there is another board in the room that shows a list of these topics in real time.

All the while all of this is being recorded in real-time and saved so that others can read it later.

  • The room is Twitter.
  • The people in the room are Twitter users, also called Tweeps or Twitterers.  They are account holders on Twitter who post and read Tweets.
  • Bob is one of your Followers.
  • Others that are actively listening to him are his followers.
  • Others that are actively listening to you are your followers.
  • People in the room that you are actively listening to are people you are Following.
  • When you or anyone else repeats something someone else said without any comment that is a Retweet.
  • When you or anyone else repeats something someone else says with a personal comment that is an “old-style Retweet” or just RT.
  • When you want to say something back to someone but not include the original message that is a Reply.
  • When you send a private message to another person in the room that is following you that is a DM (Direct Message).
  • When you decide you no longer want to actively listen to someone else, you Unfollow that person.
  • When you decide to save a Tweet for later you mark it as one of your Favorites.
  • When you decide that you no longer want to actively listen to someone else and you don’t want them actively listening to you that is a Block.
  • When you simply decide to share something with all of your Followers – that’s a normal Tweet.
  • When you include someone else’s name in something you share with everyone but do not put it at the very front of the Tweet you Mention them.
  • The big screen that shows the popular topics is Trending Topics.
  • The big screen in the room is search.twitter.com.

Some great resources about what Twitter is and how to use it:

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Social Media and “The Masses”

August 9th, 2010 1 Comment

I spent the last four days talking to as many people as humanly possible about social media at the MarketAmerica International Conference.  About 25,000 people from all over the world were there and I was at the social media booth answering questions about social media from the full range of usage and understanding.  I learned as much from the questions that they asked as they learned from me.

The experience was an eye-opener and I’ll spend some time sharing my thoughts in this post and others…

When you see the number 190,000,000 Twitter users, you think that it’s hit the big time – that it’s one step away from taking over Walmart and world domination.  Developers, social media experts, celebrities and journalists live on it and we all think that everyone else is too.

The reality is very different.

The CEO of MarketAmerica asked the crowd of almost 25,000 to take out their phones and tweet about the conference using the #marketamerica hash-tag.  He and most everyone else that uses twitter daily expected that we would swamp twitter and even possibly trend #marketamerica.  On the surface, that seems plausible, even easy I mean out of 25,000 people we should be able to get most of them to participate and that would be a lot of tweets…

Not so much.

Yeah, we got close, whatthehashtag showed a number of times that we were doing well for the hour, but the real numbers show the problem.  According to whatthehashtag, over the lifetime of #marketamerica only 589 people have tweeted it (as of the morning of August 9, 2010).  That is about 2% of the people at the conference…with those numbers getting any real legs to #marketamerica was a pipe dream.

During the course of the four days I spent a great deal of time just describing WHAT Twitter is, not just how to use it.

What does this mean to me?  First, it means we have a long way to go as far as getting the masses to use Twitter.  Also, it makes me wonder if we are fooling ourselves about the real impact the service has for the masses.  Is it a great tool?  …without a doubt it is, but we need to educate people about what it is and how they should use it.

In the meantime, I’m going to stay on my soapbox and continue to promote Twitter and other social media tools because I believe in them…  Now I just realize how far we really have to go.

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Is #Twitteringinchurch Disrespectful?

May 31st, 2010 6 Comments

#twitteringinchurch (or “Twittering in Church” if you like) – the act of tweeting during a worship service.

Twittering in Church

If you haven’t witnessed this act of communication just look for the person during worship with the faint “phone glow” from their lap lighting up their face – while their fingers fly trying to sneak in a tweet without calling undo attention to themselves.

Because of my hectic life at Church (between choir, praise team and other stuff) my wife and I don’t always end up worshiping at the same time, so I wasn’t surprised when she started complaining about people using their phones during worship while we were out to eat the other day.  She hadn’t seen me using mine, so she wasn’t specifically directing her irritation at me.  She explained how she felt it was disrespectful and she couldn’t understand why someone would have any reason to use their phone during worship.

I…delicately…explained to her that there were a few good reasons to use your phone during worship…I showed her YouVersion on my phone and that I used it during worship sometimes.  Then, I tried to explain to her that I didn’t have any problem with someone tweeting during Church…that’s when the conversation got strange…  Let’s just say that like a number of topics, my wife and I had to “agree to disagree”…

#twitteringinchurch is a hashtag I use when I send a tweet during worship, it wasn’t my idea and I can’t remember where I first saw the hashtag, but I think it started with an article from Time Magazine in 2009.

It’s not something I would expect very many people to understand – especially since most of my friends hardly understand Twitter in the first place…in fact, I think it would be impossible to understand why you might do such a thing unless you already use Twitter daily.

For me, it’s part of what I do all the time and is an extension of me.  I love the idea that people all over the world are worshiping God and sharing part of their experience with everyone else.  It reminds me that the Christian community goes way beyond my little world…that the same day I’m singing praises to God, someone is praying in Texas, warming up in Sydney, singing in a small town in England…Christians all over the world are participating in this collective praise to the same Author and Creator that I am.

For now, I think that “Twittering in Church”, in a large majority of circles, is an underground thing that I don’t expect to get a lot of legs for a while (if ever).  I’m still trying to figure out how to tweet between songs on stage, but I’m not pushing my luck so far.

What do you think?  Is tweeting in Church disrespectful?  Is it useful?  If so, how are you using it?

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Why I won’t buy another Blackberry

May 26th, 2010 No Comments

Over a year ago I accidentally busted my phone, it was in my pocket and I leaned over a counter and shattered the screen.  Anyway, I needed a new phone and I decided to go ahead and dive into the smart phone.  At the time Verizon’s flagship smartphone was the Blackberry Storm (2nd gen.), so I jumped in.

Needless to say, compared to a semi-normal cell phone (LG Chocolate if you must know) I was ecstatic with all it could do…  I love the Twitter apps, email and a few other apps…however, in the case of  the Blackberry Storm time has not been an ally.

When I purchase my next smartphone (why would I ever go back?) it won’t be a Blackberry – here’s a few reasons why:

  1. Many of the other reasons that I mention below are really just symptoms of this reason, so it’s the biggest reason.  The Blackberry Storm is the “Red Headed Step-child” of the Blackberry family.  Yes, it’s the sexiest of all of them, but look around…how many apps are written for it alone?  Yes, there are plenty of apps that work on it, but I can’t think of one of them that make complete use of it’s fundamental strength – the touch screen.  RIM made a great attempt at standing up to Apple, but failed miserably – and the biggest reason – because they didn’t completely leverage what the device had to offer.
  2. So, why would a Blackberry fan buy a Storm?  Because they want the best of both worlds, to have all the great business functionality the Blackberry line has to offer AND to have some fun.  They missed the fun part. The multimedia experience on a Blackberry is like watching “Avatar” on a 13″ black and white TV.  Their mp3 player stinks, the replacement “FlipSide” does scrobble, but the app is buggy and a pain to use, YouTube works about half the time and the experience pales in comparison to the iPhone and gaming…gaming?   …forget about it.
  3. Yes, we have a great network behind it, but the browser sucks.  I mean it has a fowl odor that makes you wonder if someone stuffed a dead fish in an old shoe and covered it in dog poop.  It’s useless, I stopped using it months ago.
  4. Tell me, what does it say about a device when the official tech. support solution is to “pull the battery at least once a day”?

So, I am done with Blackberry.  Nice try…really…except the part where you put a buggy device with terrible apps on the market to plug the holes in the dam of users running to the iPhone.  Luckily for us, we no longer have to wait for Apple to come off it’s jewel-encrusted pedestal and offer a Verizon iPhone…we have the Droid.

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Why the iPhone isn’t magical anymore

May 24th, 2010 5 Comments

I’ve been waiting for Apple and Verizon to get together for a couple years – I can’t tell you how many times I have lamented the fact that I have to choose between a great device and great service.  It seems that every cool app works on the iPhone and the ones that work on my Blackberry Storm were made for Blackberrys with a keyboard.  As a consumer I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place.

For me, there is no way I would switch to AT&T just for a specific device – even if it tied my shoes for me (which I believe someone is right this minute writing code for the iPhone to do).  While no wireless carrier is perfect Verizon has been good to me.

Every week it seems we get another rumor that Verizon and Apple are going to get together and make a baby, but now it just sound like noise and I won’t believe it until I see one in a Verizon store, on the Verizon network…

So where does that leave me?

It’s very simple.  Apple, you missed the boat – well, you missed me.  Even if, magically, iPhones arrived at the Verizon store tomorrow the iPhone mystique is gone.  Apple no longer has a monopoly on smartphone magic, we now see the man behind the curtain and it’s just not as cool anymore.

Thanks to the Droid.

The Droid has shown us that there is a viable alternative to the iPhone and that we are not at the mercy of the Apple-innovation-monopoly.  We have figured out that it’s not magic, it is cool, but they aren’t the only ones that can deliver – in fact, for at least 80 million Verizon subscribers, they haven’t delivered…Google did.

So, would I take a Verizon iPhone – yes.  However, now I have a choice…and a choice I will make.

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Bob Tries to Build a Website

May 22nd, 2010 3 Comments

Luddite Bob goes to the Web-Improvement Store, let’s call it “Web Depot” and here’s how it goes.

Bob: I need some help, I would like to build me own website, is it easy?  What do I need?

Web Dude: Yeah, I can get a website up in less than an hour if it’s an easy one (and aren’t they all).  No sweat.  OK, first you’ll need to design your site, you’ll need some graphics software.

Bob: Oh, I have MS Paint, will that work?

Web Dude: You’re kidding me – you need to get a real graphics software package.  I can sell you Photoshop CS3.

Bob: How much is it?

Web Dude: About $900...

Bob: You want me to pay $900 for a TOOL I’m only going to use once?

Web Dude: Yes, if you want to do it right.  By the way, do you know HTML, JavaScript, ASP.NET, PHP and SQL Server?  You’re going to need all of that too, you know how to use all of that stuff, don’t you?  I mean you are a man…

Bob: Well…er…  If you say it’s easy, just package up what I need and I’ll figure it out when I get home.

Web Dude: Cool, I figured you were just playin’ with me.  With this stuff, it’ll be easy, you’ll have this website up in an hour..tops! I mean isn’t it just relaxing to spend the day put-zing around the computer building a website here or setting up a new web service?  Most of the people that come in here say its… therapeutic.

Bob: Thanks!  My wife will be so happy that I got this done!

Later…much later…

Bob has thrown his computer down the stairs, scared the kids and his wife is completely disappointed that he couldn’t get this simple web-improvement job done.  He feels like a loser, it ruins his whole Saturday, and by the time he get’s back to work on Monday – where he builds houses for a living - he is completely dejected.

What a loser, he can’t even figure out how to setup a simple AJAX call, that JQuery slider is a complete mess and don’t even get me started on that non-normalized database he built for the back end!

The following is complete fiction and has never happened.  However, if you replace “Web Depot” with “Home Depot” and “web site” with “hanging a new door” you’ll be miles closer to how a tech guy (like me) feels about home improvement.  I can do it, but I hate it, a job that is supposed to take 15 minutes can take me 2 hours, 3 band-aids, a week of guilt for what came out of my mouth and still look like crap.

So the next time you look down on me for my lack of skills in the home improvement department and call me a dork because I could spend all day in Best Buy…remember, some day you may need a website…

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Two Degrees of Separation

May 19th, 2010 3 Comments

Kevin Bacon

Yesterday after reading “Weird Prayer Requests” by Jon Acuff I left a comment about one of the things that drives me crazy about public prayers.

Have you ever heard a prayer that started like this?

“Can you pray for my husband’s-cousin’s-neighbor’s-sister-in-law…”

You know, the one that has 4 or more degrees of separation?  This is not a new phenomenon, but it has become much more prevalent in the last 20 years or so as people become more comfortable sharing prayer concerns for people-they-know-because-someone-else-they-know-heard-someone-talking-about-their-friend’s-neighbor.  This phenomenon is a corollary of the “Six Degrees of Separation” theory made popular by the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” trivia game from the 90′s.  All of this has to do with a series of experiments called the “Small World Experiment” …OK, what was I talking about again?

Oh…prayer.

I would like to propose a “Rule of Engagement” for prayer that states:

All public prayer requests should be limited to two degrees of separation with a provision of three degrees in the case grave danger within your family.  Any prayer request of more than three degrees would be left for personal prayer time.

Why do we need this new rule?  Think about it, when you are in a room full of people sharing prayer requests and someone pulls a five or six degree request please don’t tell me your mind doesn’t start to wander after the third degree.  Suddenly you ask yourself, “if we are praying for her brother’s-neighbor’s-mechanic’s-wife’s-mother’s-gardener then where does it stop”?  We could be here literally forever because if we are praying in six degrees we might as well be praying for every single person in the world, because if the theory is correct at six degrees we are all connected!

I would argue that once we get past 3 degrees it cheapens the rest of the prayer requests.  If I’m waiting patiently for my turn to submit my prayer request for my mother who is in the hospital with a serious illness, it occurs to me that if we are also praying for Nancy’s-brother’s-co-worker’s-wife’s-brother’s-son-in-law’s-neighbor (six degrees) to get a job (a valid prayer for most of the people within the degrees of separation) that I would prefer to have my mother’s pressing need submitted to God in a more serious fashion than the shot gun approach being pulled together at the moment.  Also, if a prayer request does make it to six degrees, chances are good that someone else in the room may know that person directly and that person should just submit the request.

So, the next time you are mentally preparing your public prayer request start counting, if you get farther than two…just keep it to yourself, or at least just say “a friend of mine…” – who’s gonna know the difference?

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