Online and Offline Networking: Connect the Two

The past couple of posts at KyleLacy.com have been about the value of a relationship driven model of social networking. The process of connecting to individuals on and off the web is an extremely important idea that needs to be embraced.

Chris Brogan has always done an excellent job at giving tips on connecting to your readership, as well as, social media friends and acquaintances. He wrote recently on the Five Ways to Connect and Add Value to your networking practices. I thought I would add my own spin on connecting on and offline.

1. Combine Online and Offline Connections

In any business centered social networking group in an offline environment being a connector is a huge priority to most members. In Indianapolis we have Rainmakers, the Chamber of Commerce, and BNI (plus many more).

Personally, I am a member of the Rainmakers Marketing Group. We have hub meetings all over the state of Indiana and we are approaching 3000 members in the community. The group has recently launched a social media platform for the members called: Let’s Make It Rain. The community has allowed for members to network online and move the relationships to an offline meeting (whether lunch or coffee). This has increased the potential for strategic relationships because of the power of connecting 24/7 in an online environment.

I use the sites Let’s Make it Rain and Smaller Indiana to align myself with professionals I may not meet at a Rainmakers Marketing event. If you can use both networking mediums (web and events) to grow your network you have a better chance of connecting with the right people!

Combine the two models to get the most out of networking (whether business of personal).

2. If You Want To Be Interesting, Be Interested

This follows the second guideline on the Chris Brogan post, Connecting Other People. A fellow FriendFeeder, Mona N. (check out her blog), posted a feed that had this image.

This image speaks volumes when pertaining to the concept of the value of connection in social media and networking.

If you want to be interesting to other people you need to be conscious of what they are needing in return. If someone sends you business, write them a note or send them a gift card!

Always be thinking about the individuals who helped you get to where you are today. In the small business world and even in social media this is the most valuable concept you can and SHOULD remember.

Pay it forward. Always, pay it forward. Take interest in what your friends are posting. Take interest in what your clients are doing (other than your project.

Be Interesting. Take value in what others are offering. Connect with your online friends in an offline environment. Make the community a rich combination of community and influence.

Social Media has huge potential to help companies all over the world connect with each other. It is our place to help that dream become reality.

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.

2 Important Things to Remember When Blogging

I am a new believer of Gary Vaynerchek. Gary is a self-made millionaire and web 2.0 genius! I stumbled across his site the past week and fell in love with his daily video blogs (vlogs anyone?). The energy Gary instills in the listener is unbelievable! Check out his site if you haven’t. You will not regret it!

My “social media circle” on FriendFeed, SmallerIndiana, and Twitter have been talking a lot about the secrets to blogging. What should be the reasons to blog? What kind of content do people want to read? Should you cater to an SEO type system?

Gary posted a great video about his opinion on How To Build a Great Show on the Internet. He relates building an online show to the likes of a blog or podcast. What I loved so much about the video is Gary completely destroying the glitz and glam aspect of social media

From Gary (semi-paraphrased by me):

“All that glitz and glamor is horse crap. It is not about the camera I use. It is not about the high-tech blogging software you use. It’s NOT! It’s not about the widgets. It’s not about the SEO

It is about Content and Community.

It is about giving from your heart on topics you understand.

Simply brilliant. Gary comes from the hardcore tactics of posting daily, responding to every reader email, and always being involved in the conversation. Content and Community should always be on the front burner of goals associated with business and personal blogs. If you start a blog strictly for SEO purposes, go ahead and join the ranks of lifeless posts.

If you care more about your bottom line than helping and joining the COMMUNITY behind your brand… Go ahead and send out an e-newsletter. Don’t waste your time with a blog.

Politicians Do Not Understand Social Media!

I say this with some exception. There are a few political hopefuls browsing around the Smaller Indiana site. I give them respect for keeping with it and igniting conversation. Now, on to the people who do not understand.

We had a political hopeful, Jill Long Thompson, browse through the site recently. She (we think) posted a couple of thoughts on her personal page, as well as starting a forum post about her Green Job’s Initiative. She was given front row promotion from our great co-founder, Pat Coyle. She also had up to 8 comments and 2-3 wall posts the day she joined. All that said, we haven’t heard from Jill since then. Maybe I have a problem with ignoring a website with up to 3,000 members and daily hits. Maybe I have a problem with posting content and never sharing your own opinion. Maybe, just maybe, I have a problem with politicians not understanding the POWER of social media. Anyone ever heard of Barak Obama?

I’m not talking about the power of viral marketing or word-of-mouth promotion. I am talking about the raw power of 3000 people (linked to an exponential amount of others in the State) sharing information and CARING. I was excited to see Jill Long Thompson joining the community. I was less excited when I read her profile. I was even less excited when she didn’t respond to ANYONE. I wouldn’t even care if I got a response from an intern!

When joining a social media platform do it with authenticity. Do it with some type of human interaction. I can at least give Mitch Daniels credit for not even joining the conversation. Jill joined and failed miserably. Don’t hire a 21 year old college student to repost information to your page. Take some time and do it yourself. If you love your job. If you love what you are doing, you can take 30 mins a day to promote yourself and collaborate with people who matter.

I love Smaller Indiana and I will not tolerate individuals using it as a promotional platform.

Here is my call out to political hopeful, Jill. Redeem yourself. Because in the end, without authenticity and utilizing tools like Smaller Indiana, you are just another cardboard sign on the side of I-69.

And.. I don’t … care.

Adjustment to 4-TouchPoints Model of Social Media

I spoke with Lorraine Ball this morning about the 4-Points model I talked about in my post, Being Productive with Social Media.

She had some excellent ideas that rounded out the model to perfection. Anymore thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

We have rounded out the four touch points to a more “proactive” arrangement: Business Interaction, Business Productivity, Social Development, and Education/Information. An example of each can be seen below:

Indiana Chamber Suing Christian Chamber

Oh the woes of networking groups.

I am not quite sure how long this battle has been going on between the two chambers. I was alerted of the unfolding situation by the IBJ and a forum post in Smaller Indiana.

Excerpt from the IBJ article:

The Indiana Chamber is basing its Web site arguments on the Federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, as well as Indiana law. It also argues that the Christian Chamber, by infringing on its protected trademark, committed criminal conversion. The counterfeiting and forgery allegations stem from the Christian Chamber’s attempts to publicize itself.

The Indiana Chamber became concerned after state legislators expressed confusion about overlap and assumed an affiliation between the two groups, said George Raymond, the Indiana Chamber vice president of human resources, labor relations and civil justice.

The article goes on to state that the Indiana Chamber contacted the Christian Chamber multiple times since the inception of the group last year.

“Your failure to respond to our earlier letter suggests that you have no intention of complying with our requests and resolving this matter in an amicable fashion,” Taylor wrote. “Several alternatives to the name ‘Indiana Christian Chamber of Commerce’ were offered to you as being acceptable to ICC, to which you have not responded.”

The article makes it very clear that the Christian Chamber failed to respond to multiple inquiries made by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. It is a shame that this dispute has been taken to the legal level.

Whether or not the failure on the Christian Chamber’s side has been blown out of proportion, they do have a long battle on their hands. There is some merit to the Indiana Chamber’s claim of copyright infringement, as well as, the Cybersquatting Act.

I am not going to sit here and take sides. I just wish the matter had been resolved behind closed doors before it was taken to the courts.

Would it have been out of the Christian Chamber’s control to change their name?

For those of you who know me, I am not a supporter of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. It is my humble opinion that the Christian Chamber made a misstep when they started outwardly promoting their brand despite the warnings of the Indiana Chamber. Even if the Indiana Chamber is incorrect in their legal assumption, it would have been in the best interest of the Christian Chamber to settle the matter before things got out of hand.

Smaller Indiana Party at Intelligent Offices

I attended the Smaller Indiana party last night and it was AWESOME! I had the pleasure of meeting a ton of people and also had the pleasure of catching up with others.

Intelligent Offices did an awesome job at hosting the party. Smaller Indiana now has an office at their beautiful building. If you are in the Indianapolis area you should def. go check out the office building. It is a very cool set up.

Small Pox and Smaller Indiana

Seth Godin has another great blog on gimmicks. I didn’t pull much from the actual blog pertaining to gimmicks but he had a great thought at the end:

As you sit down to consider ways to be more remarkable, the challenge is to be worth talking about… at the same time you are adding value for the person who’s talking about you.

I encourage all members in Smaller Indiana to invent your “gimmick” for Smaller Indiana. Does it add value when you are virally spreading? What will it take to create a Smaller Indiana that is worth spreading like an epidemic from city to city? Are we already there?

I will leave you with this:

I was playing Oregon Trail on Facebook and well, I died from a virus (my body was probably eaten by a pack of ravenous wolves but that is beside the point). It made me chuckle and ponder on how a virus spreads and infects.

And much like a small pox outbreak on Oregon Trail, Smaller Indiana is turning into a virus.