Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

With all of the tweets and news stories going on around the newest web tool, Chat Roulette, I have to admit, I was curious. Although most of the conversation about the tool touted how awful it was, that every other person was behaving obscenely and it was a bored teenagers strange idea…I still wondered about it (darn that curiosity!). But, I hadn’t checked it out, I just simply didn’t have the time. I pushed it to the back of my mind, and kind of forgot about it.

Yesterday, me, my hubby, @vetlovingpetshb and @elecsecurityguy had brunch at Memphis in Santa Ana, and over unlimited mimosas and french toast, we got on the topic of weird tools and unique websites. Which of course, brought up Chat Roulette. We started talking about what we’d heard about it and what it was really like. None of us new more than the basic principal – go to the site, click play and wait to see who (or what) shows up. It was basically a video chat room, where you just clicked next to move onto another person/conversation. We had all heard that it was definitely nsfw, and that the majority of people on there were men, showing body parts that we had zero desire to see…but of course, after those mimosas, the curiosity came back and so we decided we just had to check it out (curiosity will getcha every time!).

The first tries to get the site to work completely failed…apparently Chat Roulette does not like Firefox. So, we switched over to Internet Explorer, got the ‘play’ button and took the chance. We clicked play, and waited. Three things we realized right away:

1. It auto turns on your own webcam which means the other person can see you laughing.
2. It auto turns on your microphone which means the other person can hear you laughing.
3. No one can prepare you for it, but you’ll definitely be laughing!

As all the news stories and tweets had told us, it was a strong mix of obscenity, with a few normal (albeit bored) people. We lasted about an hour on the site, clicking through about 15-20 different people, and had only one normal conversation, with a college kid in the UK who couldn’t sleep.

My final verdict? This site is a wreck, will end up the late night game at many sleepovers or drunken fraternity parties, and I doubt it will have any real staying power. That is unless they can figure out how to clean it up, segregate the types of conversations and turn it into a safer site for viewing…either way, I wouldn’t venture back.

Have you been to ChatRoulette? What did you discover?

Steve Woodruff talked last week about is social media circles: audience, acquaintances, friends and intimates (inner circle) and what they mean for business. He explained that each of the levels serve a certain purpose, and that we need all four to really get the most out of our social channels. Of course, as you go down in levels, the people do become more important. For example, it would be better to have high quality intimates than just a bunch of audience. His final thought in the article (which is a great one) is that we need a way to filter these people more effectively…being able to separate them out and monitor them all differently would make connections and conversations much easier.

I know that I have all of these levels, but I have never really thought a lot about who exactly is in them. If I were forced to answer right now, I could probably name 30-40 people in my inner circle. Would it be all of them? No. Would some that I mentioned not actually be in my inner circle if I really thought about it? Yes.

And I think this needs to be remedied. I need to know my lists, I need to understand who I can trust, and I need to know that they can trust me too. I need them to know that I think they are part of my inner circle. We need to be on the same page because not knowing where you stand with someone can be dangerous. What if I think someone is on my inner circle, and I share with them a business idea that I have. They love it, we chat about it, share lots of details and brainstorming. Then a month later, I see them using my idea without asking me. Why would something like that happen? It happens when you don’t actually know your relationships – when you think someone is inner circle and they don’t.

Today, I want you to take some time and think about your inner circle. Who do you trust with your business ideas? Who would you turn to if you needed help promoting something or a new client recommendation? Once you have determined your list, I want you to send each person that you believe is part of your inner circle an email. Let them know why you have chosen them, and what they mean to you. It doesn’t have to be long, and it doesn’t have to be over the top. Make it simple and straight to the point.

After you have sent the emails…come back here. Don’t share your list (as that is a little personal) but please share your thoughts and experiences in building that list. Was it easy? Did you find people you thought would be inner circle that really weren’t? Did someone you expected to respond not respond? Were you greeted with any especially surprising results?

Discuss.

Picasso once said that Good artists copy, great artists steal…

So I am “stealing” @IkePigott’s video in regards to the new Facebook page changes, because well, he says it better than I could…and he already did the work

I’m thinking it would be good to be Caligula in this situation…

The final post topic I gathered from my readers and followers was from Angry Julie (the first two were from @HealthOC and @Hagre). She is convinced the world is dominated by bloggers and wanted to know my thoughts.

I think I agree! Why you ask?

Let’s start by looking at the sheer statistics (stats from Techcrunch, Technorati, comScore and FutureBuzz):

• 133,000,000 – number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002
• 346,000,000 – number of people globally who read blogs
• 900,000 – average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period
• 1,750,000 – number of RSS subscribers to TechCrunch, the most popular Technology blog (January 2009)
• 77% - percentage of active Internet users who read blogs
• 81 - number of languages represented in the blogosphere
• 59% – percentage of bloggers who have been blogging for at least 2 years

Need more convincing? Let’s look at the State of the Blogosphere and who these bloggers really are:

• Two-thirds are male
• 60% are 18-44
• The majority are more affluent and educated than the general population
• 75% have college degrees
• 40% have graduate degrees
• One in three has an annual household income of $75K+
• One in four has an annual household income of $100K+
• More than half are married
• More than half are parents

If all the facts aren’t working for you, let’s look at facebook and twitter for a minute. Think about tweets, status updates and timelines…how many links do you see on a daily basis? How many of those sites are run on a blog platform? If you said “almost all”, you’re right. It is rare to see links to “websites” any longer, even if you are referring someone to a product, you tend to send them articles (blogs) vs static sites (websites).

But, it’s not just the sheer volume of blogs anymore, it’s the volume of the voices. People blog about products, whether they like them or not. For example, when the new iPad hit last week, there were articles everywhere about it…and the majority of those articles were written on blogs! Who does the iPad need to impress? Those bloggers! What about something non techie, like a new food item? Doesn’t need to worry about bloggers right? Wrong. According to Technorati, there are over 33,000 blogs dedicated to just food (and the statistics are the same for almost all genres). Bloggers are the new journalists. They can write from anywhere, say (almost) anything about you, and are easily accessible. And if the blogger is popular? Their blogs can often outrank the “normal” articles on any given topic!

But of course, this is just what I see.

What do you think? Are bloggers running the world?

A recent article from Vanity Fair: America’s Tweethearts proves how little they actually understand twitter!

Thanks to @markdavidson, I discovered and read the story. Pretty soon, many of us were in conversation about the missteps and failings of the article.

Mark believes that it capitalizes on female stereotypes and paints these intelligent women as objects.

Joe mentioned that the people they chose were not a representation of real twitter elite.

Jason commented the entire article comes off as patronizing and is bothered that people find it interesting.

EricaJoy added a few others that should have been considered – and the fact that as it stood, it was crap.

While I agree with the points they made, I have a few of my own:

1. I believe that the article paints a poor picture of twitter and really fails to capture the point of the tool. Twitter isn’t about followers, it isn’t about popularity, and apart from @juliaroy, the key women in this article are very poor examples of twitter users. They all have 40k+ followers but follow, on average, less than 10% of them back! That means they are not conversing, not sharing and definitely not participating with their followers. Pathetic, and not the way twitter should be used.
2. The other “twilebrities” it mentions – Obama, Britney, Ashton – are just as bad as examples! None of these people will ever be asked how to use twitter to improve your business, they will never speak at a conference about combining twitter into a social media strategy. The people that do get asked those questions? And do speak at the conferences? THOSE are the “twilebrities”
3. This line from the article “Twitter doesn’t even require real sentences, only a continual patter of excessively declarative and abbreviated palaver” really twisted me…Twitter does require real sentences, real thought and real participation. If what you are doing is declarative and abbreviated palaver (which is really just big words for a short statement of unimportance) then you really are failing at twitter. And, the fact that Vanity Fair thinks that’s what twitter is – proves they have absolutely no idea how it really works.
4. And the last reason I know that Vanity Fair fails at twitter? Their account is run the same way…48k+ followers, only following about 300. How is that participation?

What do you think of the article?

Today, @MiaChambers posted a link to twitter about ghost tweeting, asking for our thought on whether it was right or wrong. Most responders were quick to say that they thought ghost tweeting was wrong in all areas – but I disagree.

I believe that ghost tweeting for an individual would be wrong, but a ghost tweeter for a brand is completely acceptable (and is commonplace).

For example, if @scottmonty had a ghost tweeter and didn’t tell us, that would be misleading. However if @Ford hired their marketing company to manage twitter for them, that would be perfectly acceptable as we don’t expect it’s the ghost of Henry Ford behind that account.

What say you?

Tweetup Tomorrow!

How many of us work on projects, take on clients, or attempt to do things that we know we’re just hurting ourselves trying to handle? *hint: the answer starts with every and ends with one*

When I attempted to hand code html or php, it hurts. So I don’t do that anymore. Instead, I found someone that I trust and I can work with that does enjoy hand coding for me, does it at a great price, and allows me to focus on my own strengths.

If I tried to work in illustrator and create things like Abduzeedo’s #377 Daily inspiration , that would hurt too. So guess what? I don’t do that. I hire someone for those pieces too.

Oh, and if I were required to do all my own accounting? Well, lets just say I’d probably need the Madoff defense…

Instead, I spend my time working with clients on blog management, wordpress and typepad designs and teaching people how to improve their social media strategy. Why? Because it doesn’t hurt when I do that.

I also don’t take on clients that are trying to get work for free, are extreme headaches or that I know won’t be worth working with. While this may sound harsh, not all clients are the same, and money does not make the “pain” worth it. (Freelance Folder has a great article about the types of projects you should turn down).

Bottom line, if you are doing something that causes you pain (mental, physical, emotional), stop doing it. You are amazingly talented at {fill in your own blank} and that is what you should focus on. Leave the extra stuff to someone else, because it is always less expensive to hire a professional than end up hurting yourself by attempting to do something you’re just not good at.

Now onto the fun part: Win a free bag of the oh-so-amazing Portola Coffee – just by adding a comment!!!

Here’s how: Add a comment to the post telling us one thing (or many things) that hurt when you do them. Or, things you have given up that did hurt.

C’mon…it’ll feel good to share, I promise!!

Then, tomorrow (tuesday) at 12pm PST, I will select one of the comments at random, and send you a fantastic bag of your choice, just in time for the holidays!

*extra comment credit to the first person who can tell me from which movie I got the quote and the book*

UPDATE: The winner of the free @PortolaCoffee is: @swoodruff Your comment was picked by random.org Congrats!!

If you are a brick and mortar facility, there are 4 big pieces to your branding:

1. The store (what it looks like, how it is organized, the people who staff it, the products available, etc)
2. The website (whether or not you sell online, you must have a kick butt site for people to visit)
3. Social media (everyone and every business can benefit from using some pieces of social media)
4. Customer service (in person, over the phone, via email)

If you are solely an online retailer or a business which doesn’t need a physical location, you still need to consider #1 (people, products and how you are organized). The only difference is #1 & #2 are combined into one thing.

With this in mind, I decided to analyze a store that I found through Cracked.com’s list of Images you won’t believe aren’t photohopped (it’s #14).

Located in Southampton, UK, this is the actual store front for The Guitar Store. Surrounded by the traditional lift up store gates with simple signs declaring the store name, this store captures audiences attention – even if they aren’t in the market for music. Because of their unique store, I figured they would be a perfect company to look at their branding strategy, and how you can do it for your own business.

Following the above branding guidelines, we will start with #1: The store. First impression, obviously they are doing something right as they have immediately differentiated themselves from any other store on that road (and probably any other store in the UK). Secondly, they got themselves noticed by Cracked.com, which spread their name worldwide. Finally, (after visiting their site) I was able to see some photos of the interior…they have definitely created a beautiful musical haven. Unfortunately without a trip to the UK (hmm…wonder who I could bribe to get me there? lol) I can’t speak for their staff, but with the pictures and the obvious involvement of the owners, it seems they are probably doing okay.

Onto the second step, the website. When I visited the site, I was definitely surprised, as most companies I have seen fall short of “continuity with branding”. Their site not only matched the store front, but improved upon it (click on the image to visit the site, and mouse over their nav buttons…)!  The copy is to the point, honestly written and shows the dedication to true music. I found it easy to use, fun to navigate and it to be well done overall. What I didn’t see was any social buttons, or a quick way to reach them via email (without a form). Which leads us to the next step was to check out their social media strategy…

As I mentioned above, there are no social buttons or blog links. After some searching, I discovered that they do have both a Facebook page (2 weeks old) and a twitter account (with only 1 tweet). There is no blog. I will give them small credit for setting up facebook and twitter – and for the small amount of activity on FB. But, these strategies could be expanded tremendously and could bring in some serious attention. As far as the missing blog – I am a little surprised. I would assume that this would have been one of the first marketing tasks they tackled. Creating a blog that covered tips and tricks, featured unique guitars and even short video lessons would not only gain a lot of attention but would be helpful for the music community as a whole. I think that if they were to simply add a strong social media presence, they would immediately notice a difference.

Finally we reach the discussion of #4, their customer service. Again, not being able to visit the UK it is tough to decipher if they are doing this properly. They do have their number listed prominently, and their location easy to find (two pieces that lead to a great start). What they do need to add is easier access to their contact form and/or email addresses. Also, twitter is a huge customer service tool, being able to answer questions and connect with musicians both in the UK and throughout the world. I think without improving access to their email and their conversations through social media, they are definitely falling short in customer service.

Now, onto your task: When is the last time you looked at the 4 pieces of branding for your business? Do they all work together or are you missing important pieces? Feel free to respond with your thoughts on your own company in the comments – or ask other questions!

Let’s get talking!

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post – I started this blog in July of 2008 and really, nothing has been the same since. I often love to look back at my first few posts (Creativity is in the eye of the beholder) and compare them to now (Using what you have to motivate you). Both posts are similar in topic and conclusion, but entirely different in word choice and the way they are written. Doing this helps me in two ways. First, it gives me a little glimpse back to why I decided to start this blog in the beginning (which can sometimes get lost in the craziness of life). Second, it reminds me how much I really enjoy what I do and motivates me to keep going and strive to improve.

While I dislike the outcome, the 2008 presidential election was the first to use social media platforms as a large part of their messaging strategies. Without the use of social media, it is suggested that the election could have turned out very differently…