Strengthen Your LinkedIN Connections Through SocialMinder
Every now and then (actually all the time) Mashable has a great review over a social media t
ool that helps business owners strengthen their online connections. Today they had a post reviewing the LinkedIN tool SocialMinder.
An excerpt from the CEO from the Mashable post:
SocialMinder is an online assistant that helps you maintain relationships with your LinkedIn network. It learns from your previous email patterns, reminds you when losing connection, and gives you relevant news items to send to people in your network to make sure that your relationships are not stale.
From the look of things (I just signed up for the beta test) it has similar features as the LinkedIN Toolbar for Outlook. There is one really cool feature that SocialMinder has added into their application that gives you the ability to bring up different subject matters (business news) that will allow you to reignite a long lost connection. SocialMinder gives you the opportunity (as a small business owner) to strengthen your connections and allows you to delve deeper into business productivity aspects of LinkedIN.
I believe SocialMinder has given LinkedIN another little push to be much more effective in the world of business social networking. Whether you are using LinkedIN as an address book, Q&A platform, or networking tool, the benefits of this application is extremely apparent.
For more information on the SocialMinder tool read the Mashable post or check out the SocialMinder site. I will be digging a little deeper into the application once my beta account is approved.
Until then… kick some business butt.
Week 2: Social Media Mission 2008: Adam Small
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I had the pleasure of meeting Adam Small after “running” into him at Smaller Indiana.
What do you love about social media?
The opportunity to meet other people.
What is your favorite tool to use when connecting to other people?
The only real social tools I use are Twitter and Smaller Indiana. Smaller Indiana is more of a site than a tool. If we are speaking on social media tools it would be Twitter.
Have you met any of your followers on Twitter?
Yes.
Okay. So who is the most memorable?
James is someone that I have met off twitter. Patrick Welch is also another follower I have met off of Twitter.
What did you like about meeting him?
We have similar interests in technology.
What do you do in the offline world?
My wife and I own a mobile marketing company. The company is called Connective Mobile. What we do is we help our customers and clients reach their clients using text messaging.
Give me an example of a client that you have helped?
One of the best clients we have helped is Noodles & Company here in Indianapolis. They have a different text club for their stores here and in Bloomington. They have managed to grow them to a couple hundred.
What does that mean to you? Growing to a couple of hundred?
What does that mean? More revenue for us. When we see our client gaining more following in their text messaging clubs it means that the whole process is working.
What do you love about what you do?
I’m a tech guy and I like to make things work for people. I love to create innovative solutions for my clients.
What is your favorite Spam bot on twitter?
I got one the other day that I thought was Spam: kyleplacy and firstdaddy
Funny.
Small is the New Big in Social Media: Smaller Indiana
My fascination with social media has grown leaps and bounds (through Myspace, Facebook, and now FriendFeed) since I graduated college and entered the work force in Indianapolis. Enter Smaller Indiana.
Smaller Indiana is a NING network created by Indianapolis locals Pat Coyle and Douglas Karr. I have been a part of the community since its inception in late 2007. The purpose behind Smaller Indiana:
Smaller Indiana makes creative people and innovative ideas easier to find. This is the place for you to share your ideas and engage with Indiana’s most creative and inspired souls…working together to build community,culture and commerce.
Smaller Indiana has become a breeding ground for creative individuals to collaborate to make Indianapolis a better place to work, live, and (frankly) exist. I have become intimately involved in all the processes feeding in and out of this network and have been amazed by the success it has garnered in the community. The Indianapolis Star and Indianapolis Business Journal have written frequently about the social network site catered to Indianapolis professionals. Talk about a great way to get social media into the minds of non-users!
As you can see to the right we have decent traffic, in the month of August, for a site with 3200 members. The growth of the site has been steady and the overall membership was built from a starting point of 30 people.
Smaller Indiana was also involved in the organic/viral marketing push for Indianapolis to become the site of the 2012 Superbowl! As many of know by now, we got it! Smaller Indiana members blogged about the benefits of hosting the Superbowl in Indianapolis and also posted comments on the main Superbowl committee site.
I get a lot of information from other sites on the net including FriendFeed and LinkedIN. I do not, however, get the local flavor and community building that Smaller Indiana has offered me through the past 8 months.
If you want to gain offline connections through your social media experience I encourage everyone to find a geographically based social network like Smaller Indiana.
Unique Brand Identity Has Failed In Social Media
My first passion: Social Media
My second passion: Branding
I love everything about the concept of branding in the marketplace. I am completely obsessed with how a brand grows over time and gains new followers/evangelists.
I have been disappointed with the lack of brand identity in the Web 2.0 community.
You can argue that the technical advantages of a social media platform has more to do with the brand than design and I would agree with you. That does not negate the fact that good design is a MUST in the creation of a brand identity.
There is a huge difference between the brand identity of a product or service and the brand. Social Media has done a great job in the overall brand development of certain services because of one thing: the community. In the Web 2.0 world a brand is built on the customer evangelists surrounding the community.
The Web 2.0 world has become a mundane assortment of bright colored, reflective, and odd word images sporting as successful brand identities.
What do you think? Is the Web 2.0 world ignoring good design? Am I beating around the bush? Is it even important?
It’s 3log Day! My 3log Day Links.
Well. This is my first year participating in Blog Day. I have been pushing through my google reader and making a detailed list of the top blogs I have read in the past couple of months. It was extremely hard for me to cut down the list to 5 but here it is:
1. Mike Fruchter at My Thoughts on Social Media: I have been communicating lately with Michael over FriendFeed and rest assured, he never leaves you disappointed.
2. MooshinIndy. Ahhh Casey. I met Casey at the recent blogIndiana conference and she is absolutely delightful to be around both online and off. Her rants and musings are centered around her family and the city of Indianapolis. She caters to the mothers of the net but she has a little something for everyone.
3. Erik Deckers. The Laughing Stalk. If you ever want a chuckle, Laughing Stalk with Erik Deckers is the place to be. Also an Indianapolis native, Erik writes humorous columns about news events, as well as, “repressed memories that have recently resurfaced.” Always gets a laugh out of me.
4. Hutch Carpenter of I’m Not Actually A Geek. Another FriendFeed acquaintance, Hutch brings a detailed approach to his writing that is hard to match. His views on Social Media and breakdowns of certain communities goes much farther than the “how to” guidelines.
5. The Marketing Technology Blog by Douglas Karr. Doug is one of the premiere bloggers in the Indianapolis area and someone I look up to when it comes to the blog-o-sphere. Doug has helped me numerous times on my blog with optimization and idea generation. He breaks down technology and has some awesome applications he has designed for the web.
There are many more who should be on this list. Other blogs you should check out and subscribe to:
Sports Marketing 2.0 by Pat Coyle
Roundpeg by Lorraine Ball
MacroLinz.com by Lindsay
Justin Korn’s Blog
Squaredpeg by Brad Ward
Still more are on the list. I would encourage everyone to visit two places to find GREAT content.
1. SmallerIndiana.com: An online social network for Indiana residents. We have surpassed the 3000 member mark and are a collection of creative, entrepreneurial, blogging, and business minded fanatics.
2. FriendFeed: Add me as a friend and follow the people I am sharing content with. You will not be disappointed.
Contests Still Work In Blogging World
I am an avid reader of Louis Gray’s blog. I have always enjoyed his reviews and in depth thoughts in the world of social media and networking. Join Seth Godin, Louis Gray, and Mashable and you have a trifecta of viral, social media knowledge!
Recently Louis Gray wrote a post about Social|Median. Social|Median is a social news network that connects people with personalized news and information. Social|Median is a fairly new service launched around the beginning of March 2008. We can only imagine the promotions problem a new social media site faces when a launch date nears. There are numerous beta programs launched daily. Social|Median figured it out.
They supported a contest where their users voted for their favorite “news source” in the blogging world. Louis Gray happened to win a new iPhone 3G through the Social|Median. The president of Social|Median tweeted that Louis Gray had won the contest. Louis Gray, in turn, posted a blog talking about the contest and how we won the iPhone. He also propped up the Social|Median twitter account by posting a link to the actual tweet.
Whether or not Social|Median used the contest as a way to gain promotion through a famous blogger, it still goes to show the promotional contest still works. Social|Median received increased exposure because of awarding Louis Gray the iPhone 3G.
As business owners, artists, and employees what can we learn from the Social|Median contest?
GoToMeeting Has a Customer for Life!
Recently as a company Brandswag has decided to utilize the web conferencing application called GoToMeeting. We signed up for a free account and have used the service twice in the past month. We had been testing out other web conferencing software much like GoToMeeting. The past few days the company has been deciding which service to invest money.
Today I received an email from a woman named Amalia Asan. Basically, the email stated the following:
We show that on Jul. 16, 2008, you created a GoToMeeting trial account. I am contacting you to provide you with my direct telephone number and email address in case that you may have any questions, or would like any assistance in using GoToMeeting.
BORING. I yawned and moved that nice email to my trash can.
And then something absolutely wonderful happened, my phone started ringing. Hmmm, California area code I wonder who that could be? I answered and Amalia was on the other line asking if I had received her email about assistance sing GoToMeeting.
Talk about customer relationship! GoToMeeting just recruited a customer evangelist for life because of a simple phone call. This goes to show the power of working two forms of communication towards the same goal. Email + Phone or Social Media + Face to Face. When have trouble communicating with a person, try two forms instead of one.
And go check out GoToMeeting.com.
Are you reading this Men’s Wearhouse?
My Problem with Mr. Tux
We have all experienced it. We have all scurried around Target, Crate & Barrel, or Bed-Bath-and-Beyond to quell the list registered by the lucky couple. If you are not a complete hermit and have at least one friend, you have been to a wedding and have experienced the WEDDING SEASON. I am on the tail end of the wedding season. Two of my good friends have taken the leap and another is on the way.
Other than Target and Crate & Barrel, another store looms on the onset of every wedding: Men’s Wearhouse. I guess you can call Men’s Wearhouse a suit store, as well as, a tux rental location. The two wedding I was blessed to be a part of had rented their wedding attire from this store.
As a personal preference I have never understood the idea of renting a tux (fancy suit) for the price of buying a nice suit from a place like Express or Macys. Many people decide to go the tux route for their wedding and to that I say, “To each his own.” I was happy to fork up the money to honor my friend and his soon to be wife.
I did have an interesting interaction at the Men’s Wearhouse in Castleton last Friday. I ran into the store to pick up the tux for a wedding I was to be in that evening. The nice man at the store handed me the massive tux bag and added that I probably should try the tux on before I left the store. Everything fit perfectly except for the shirt. It was a little large. Unapologetically he searched for a new shirt, which he found and gave to me. It fit perfectly except for a large stain on the shoulder. Hell, stains happen. I’m cool with it.
He proceeded to tell me they didn’t have my shirt here at the store but it was at another location for me to pick up. Excuse me? Did I hear you correctly? You want me to waste more of my day to go pick up a shirt in the mall because you didn’t have the right product to begin with?
Needless to say, I left the store in search for the shirt only after I informed the man that next time it would probably be best to go get the shirt for the customer. The last thing you want to do is give the customer another errand to run because of YOUR mistake.
It has happened numerous times, not only to me but also to many friends. A tux doesn’t fit. The measurements for the arms are two sizes to small. Is it that hard to get something right the first time? A tux rental costs between $130-$175 and this is a RENTAL! They get the tux back the day after.
I can only imagine the margin Men’s Wearhouse makes off of tux rentals, assuming they all come back in one piece. You would think they could afford customer relationship training for their employees.
Why would Google buy Digg?
(hat tip to Mashable’s Stan Schoeder)
There is a qualified rumor being spread around pertaining to Google’s recent developments on the purchase of Digg. From the Digg site:
Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online.
Long story short, Digg exists to rank blogs or content based on qualification from a group of people. You can usually find the DIGG button on blogs in your Google Reader or any type of blog aggregation tool. If you like the blog you should digg it!
So why would Google want to buy Digg? Ever since the purchase of Myspace by Murdoch’s Media Company we have seen a decline in the value of a large group of people on a social network. Today the social media world is judged based on an active and vibrant community it represents.
Digg has great traffic and it allows for the ranking of content whether visible to the Internet community or not. Stan makes a great point by stating that one of the reasons Google might want to purchase the site is the influence it has in the blogging and content community.
Another reason Google may want to purchase Digg is simple: They can. Whether or not the Digg community will bring any validity to Google as a company doesn’t matter.
When purchasing the Digg community there is one thing Google needs to remember. Keep it the same. The last thing Google needs to do is change the Digg platform or try to reinvent a wheel that already works. The acquisition will work if Google remembers not to alienate the Digg community.