15 Ways To Be HUMAN Online and Not A Screen Name

Jason Baer at Convince and Convert has an excellent post today on the 9 Ways to Humanize Your Brand (with real Humans). It got me to thinking about how we try and humanize ourselves as much as possible in the Internet landscape.

I know that I try on a daily basis to be as human as possible online. I don’t want to be seen as another social media marketer trying to sell his/her wares over the Internet. I’m just me and me is the best I’ve got.

Jason has 9 tips to Humanize your brand and I will add 11 more tips:

1. Build and optimize a blog
2. Reach out to other bloggers in the category for guest posts
3. Syndicate content to vertical aggregation sites
4. Publish white papers and ebooks, and/or conduct Webinars
5. Create a few killer presentations and get them on SlideShare
6. Do at least a little video blogging to make him/her three dimensional
7. Hustle for speaking engagements
8. Get on Twitter and make sure he/she sets aside time to really engage people
9. Make sure current company customers know all about the initiative and are invited to participate

These are great points and I wanted to add in some small business owner pointer to humanize your personal and professional brand online.

11. Join an offline networking organization: I am involved in a group called Rainmakers which allows me to network in the offline world and then connect it to the online environment or vice versa. This allows you to start connecting with more and more people over the course

12. Attend TweetUps and parties centered around social media. I would rather redirect you to an awesome post by Corvida of SheGeeks: Using Social Media To Get Our Of Your House.

13. Join Geographically Base Social Networks. Ning has a huge database of niche social networking that will allow you to meet and start conversations with professionals and other people in your area. I am a member of Smaller Indiana and it has given me a massive amount of exposure as a HUMAN and not a screen name.

14. Join a Network like Flickr or Facebook for Picture Galleries. This is not meant to say you should post every party or outing you have been involved in. This is just a way to post pictures or your family and friends. People buy into people and not products. In this emotionally charged world, a brand is the people behind it and not the billboard on the side of the highway.

15. Authenticity. Authenticity. Be Authentic. I preach about this non-stop. Authentic communication and content is key to humanizing yourself in social media. Talk about what you do and add personality into your posts and usage of social media. I can pick up the Wall Street journal every morning. I want to read REAL content.

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What Twitter Needs To Go Mainstream

Image via CrunchBaseI can never explain it and I am always asked.

Public: “What is Twatter? Wait. Is it Twittered. You sure? No.. it must be Tweaker.”

Me: “You mean Twitter? Oh it’s just a micro-blogging network where you post information and updates in 140 characters or less.”

Public: “……… So… It’s like a Facebook Status Update”

Me: “Kind of but people use it for all types of learning, sharing, and development.”

Public: “… I don’t want to know or let people know I am taking a shower, seeing a movie, or eating corn puffs.”

Me: “It’s not really….. just try it. If you can’t figure it out for yourself in 30 days …move on.”

This is an example of conversations I have on a daily basis about the use of Twitter and the definition of this awesome tool.

This problem might be a good thing for the current users of Twitter who would rather not have to deal with millions of people. On the other hand, the developers of Twitter have a slight problem with identity that needs resolved (in my humble opinion).

You cannot achieve growth without some semblance of an identity, a universal definition of the tool. Is this right? Are we seeing a shift from a centralized definition of the tool to a massive brand with hundreds or thousands of identities and definitions? Is this a good thing for growth?

The question I have is this:

Do you think the slow mainstream adoption of Twitter is the direct result of our inability to truly define the tool?

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“I Don’t Play on Facebook, Sir. I USE It.”

I am still surprised when many of my friends bring up the fact that they cannot use social media (Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIN, etc) in their offices. Most of them work for corporate America and their bosses still view Facebook as playtime.

Jason Falls has a great post today on How To Be The Social Media Champion At Your Office. What do you say when you are being made fun of for using Social Media? What do you say when you are constantly being beat down with this “new-fangled-fad”?

And what do you say when superiors and peers tell you social media marketing is a waste of time? Jason has six steps to help you along your journey. I am also going to add in a couple of my own.

1. Illustrate the Benefits

2. Make Yourself Available

3. Target the Right Co-Workers

4. Get To The Professional Through the Personal

5. Operate Within The Rules

6. Solve Business Problems With Social Media Tools

I would encourage you to go read Jason’s blog and learn from his expertise. I wanted to add a couple that will help my peers along the way of social media domination in the corporate environment.

1. Show Historical Data of Productivity Enhancement. I know that title sounds like something from the inner vaults of Forrester but I have found this method to work numerous times. I have used the success of Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation to champion the use of social media in the corporate environment. This adds to Jason’s first point and if you can show the success of peers…. it will be easier.

2. Work Behind the Scenes and Work Often. I am not saying go behind your supervisors back and start using social media for productivity and marketing enhancement. Ask to use social media for the companies benefit on your OWN TIME. Map and track everything you are doing to show management the value of all things social media. This will also show the leaders that you are serious about social media and SERIOUS about the companies success.

If you ask… you better hustle. Hustle hard and work your butt off.

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20 Reasons Why You Cannot Ignore Social Media

I will forever been an advocate for Social Media. If you want me to jump up on a soapbox and talk about social media marketing until I am blue in the face… so be it. What used to be a “fad” two to three years ago is fast becoming the premiere way to communicate.

I have been reading the Wave.3 Presentation from Universal McCann and they had the follow facts relating to the power of social media.

1. 394 million people watch video clips online
2. 346 million reaqd blogs/weblogs
3. 321 million Read personal blogs/weblogs
4. 307 million visit a friends social network page
5. 303 million SHARE a video clip (viral marketing anyone?)
6. 272 million manage a profile on a social network
7. 248 million upload photos
8. 216 million Download a video podcast
9. 215 million download a podcast
10. 184 million started a blog or weblog
11. 183 million uploaded a video clip
12. 160 million subscribed to an RSS Feed

Not enough reason to start the journey into connecting with your clients and consumers? Here are eight more reasons to continue on the social media marketing path.

13. Blog Reading has risen 66% on a global scale in a year
14.  60.3 million american have read a blog
15. 36% of consumers will think more positively about companies that have blogs
16. 32% of consumers trust bloggers opinions on products and services
17. Social Networking has an estimated 272 million users (Myspace, Facebook, etc)
18. 43% of online consumers belong to a social network
19. 74% of social networking users message friends as part of their daily routine
20. Video Uploading growth is 31% to 82% global reach seen in all markets

I am not sitting here writing this foaming at the mouth and demanding companies (both small and large) use social media marketing exclusively. It is important to combine both traditional marketing and new media marketing in your overall strategy.

If the numbers from Universal McCann do not convince you of the overall important of social media in the years to come….

I am at a loss for words.

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Newspapers and Music: The Market Doesn’t Care About You

Scott Karp over at Publishing2 has a great post entitled: The Market and the Internet Don’t Care If You Make Money. It opened my eyes to how some industrys feel the need to hold out there hands and demand for new media to give them money: Music, News, and Books.

Scott cites Seth Godin by saying:

You have no right to make money from every development in media, and the humility that comes from approaching the market that way matters. It’s not “how can the market make me money” it’s “how can I do things for this market.”

I am going to type this again because we deserve to remember this: “It’s not how can the market make me money it’s how can I do things for this market.” Traditional entertainment media has persued new media with swords drawn ready for battle.

“This isn’t how we did it in the past. I am going to sue as many people as possible until they stop downloading our music” I’m sorry to break it to you big suit record label exec, the world is changing. The market is shifting to where music is not worth what it was in the past. You can no longer sell 10-20 million albums and fuel an empire.

The newspaper and music industry need to stop focusing on how to reap the same profit margins that they did in the 1980′s and start thinking about the new world. The world of lightning fast communication. The world where I can listen to a song and then download it. While getting a news story from a FRIEND in Seattle.

NOT YOU.

Scott says it best:

The problem with the newspaper industry, as with the music industry before it, is the sense of ENTITLEMENT. What we do is valuable. Therefore we have the right to make money.

Nobody has the right to a business model.

Ask not what the market can do for you, but what you can do for the market.

And let the market happen.

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LinkedIN and Social Media: A Powerful Business Tool

Anne over at Brandeo has some interesting information about LinkedIN users taken directly from Anderson Analytics and the SPSS:

60% of 30 million LinkedIN users have high personal incomes, hold executive level or consultant positions, are decisionmakers and likely to be active networkers.

The survey sponsors are quoted saying that social networks (social media) have become powerful business tools as well.

I am still running into business owners and professionals who dismiss social media and online social networking as a fad. It puzzles me that people can be so nieve to think that the interconnectedness of the web could ever dissapear.

Turn into a different medium in 5 years? Perhaps.

Disappear completely? Never.

Take this survey as an example. The communication world is changing. Jump on the wagon or be left in the dust.

Just jump on a little bit.

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Twingr: Create Your Own Twitter? Micro-Micro Blogging

I am a huge advocate of applications that allow you to create your own personalized community. In my opinion Ning has perfected the system of geographic or niche social networks. What better way to start my day than read about a new niche Micro-Blogging application out on the net. Thanks to Zee over at The Next Web for making me aware of a new system called Twingr.

I have stolen the Twingr demo video from Zee. I don’t think he will mind.

I haven’t quite figured out how a small business owner could use the Twingr application. Web 2.0 conventions and seminars could definitely take advantage of this tool by connecting the attendees.

I am still waiting for an application that solves the “ROI” problem of Social Media. I am getting tired of new applications being launched that are simply tweaks to older, more successful programs….

If you ask me… that sounds like a blog post.

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The TRULY CARE Factor: It’s What You KNOW Not What You Think!

I read a post this morning that rocked my world and I wanted to share it with you. Isn’t that nice of me?

Brad Ward of Butler University has become an extremely influential member of social media marketing professionals in the education arena. He is also someone that I try to talk to on a regular basis to share information and learn from each other.

He has a post entitled, It’s NOT What You Think. The post talks about a Seth Godin quote relating to using the tools to capture user attention, people who truly care. The quote:

It’s not about what you think the students want or want the students to want.  It’s about creating and assembling a collection of tools that captures the attention of people who truly care.

What a great quote! Brad breaks down the quote in relation to the education world in his post but I wanted to break it down for the small business world.

1) It’s not about what you think THEY want… We would all like to think we know what people want. What does my client need… want… desire? The truth of the matter is to not rely on your own understanding. In this communication driven world… just ask. Ask your client base what they want! Send out an email and ask what people desire and need. How can THEY help YOU understand?

2)…or want THEM to want. You can plant the seed but it better be a good seed. Nourishment is key to growth. You can’t WANT them to WANT but you can create the environment to help it grow.

3) It’s about creating and assembling a collection of tools… What does your target market use in terms of communication tools? Do they read blogs? Do they have a facebook or myspace account? Maybe they just use email? God forbid it is a direct mail campaign. You need to KNOW what they use and take advantage of the medium.

4) that captures the attention of people who truly care… This is a great line to remember as we are testing this new “fad”, this new form of socia marketing. You cannot force people into blogging or reading your blog. You cannot force a group of clients onto a social network when they do not TRULY CARE about communicating online.

Wouldn’t you rather have clients that truly care about your product and service? I would.

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Social Media? Networking? Good For Small Business?

Ricardo Bueno has an excellent post at Ribeezie called Social Networking: Is It Good For Small Business?  He piggbacks off of a Seth Godin quote from the Amex’s Open Forum:

“Networking is always important when it’s real and it’s always a useless distraction when it’s fake. What the internet has allowed is an enormous amount of fake networking to take place.”

This quote hit me simply because I have been debating on how to make social media more effective in a marketing environment.  The small business marketing world in Indianapolis is a buzz with the concept of using social media marketing to drive revenue. So how do we go about using social media to drive revenue? Brand development? Pure enjoyment?

Ricardo and Seth hit it right on the head: Genuine Relationships.

When using social media it is extremely important to take time in developing your network on a personal level. The concept is the same with Offline Networking in a group like Rainmakers Marketing Group. Offline and Online networking are extremely similar in many aspects when it comes to mutual respect between individuals.

Respect me. I will respect you.

Add in a personal thing or two. Do you have kids? What do you enjoy most out of life?

I would rather not have posts constantly talking about your new blog post or new product offering. Tell me something that makes it personal.

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Networking with Authenticity or Blandly Giving a Presentation?

Gary Vaynerchuk has another brilliant video on his website called Giving a Presentation vs. Working the Room.

In this video Gary talks about brands using social media in terms of giving a presentation versus working the room. When you are giving a presentation you are speaking to a group of people. When you are working the room (as many networking junkies know) you are getting involved in the group, in the community.

There is another facet of working the room and giving a presentation in social media: authenticity.

Authenticity
When you are working a room at a networking event you have to put on an air of personality and authenticity in order to gain any foothold in an individuals mind. If you are not yourself and try to wear a facade…you will not be successful at networking with professionals.

In giving a presentation there is a small amount of personality involved but is not truly involved in the process of giving a presentation. You are relating information to a group. Push. Push. Push and no Pull.

It is truly important to work the room when you are using social media for your business. Work the room at 30 mins a day. Heck! Work at the room at an hour a day online. You get what you put in!

And Gary ends his post by saying something brilliant:

“Their cost is just their time. They just have to care enough to work the room.”

The cost of your social media endeavors is your time. Plain and simple. If you want to gain a foothold in the Web 2.0 community landscape… make the time.

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