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.

The Beautifully Disturbing Aspect of FriendFeed and Social Media

I have been reading recently about the psychological aspects of social media and the online medium of communication (I will be posting in the next couple of days my thoughts and research). As many of us can attest to, we have created some relationships online with people across the country and on the other side of the world. You can categorize some of these relationships as relatively strong compared to your offline friendships.

I have always been under the assumption that online friendships can be just as strong as their offline counterparts. They become even stronger when you combine the two (meet offline after meeting online or vice versa).

I have been spending a lot of time recently on FriendFeed. I have communicated with some amazing people, sharing in some laughs and conversations that have been extremely satisfying. There has been something that has been bothering me though and that is the beautiful disturbing aspect of Social Media: not being balanced.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I have a self-diagnosed case of an addictive personality. I become literally obsessed with certain things for unspecified amounts of time. It has been a good thing for my business and a ‘not-so-good’ thing for my personal life. I have been addicted to social sites like Friendfeed, Facebook, and Seesmic.

It is beautiful (I have met some great people) and yet disturbing (I have neglected offline relationships). I have finally figured out that the name of the game is balance. Isn’t that true in everything we do in life? Balance seems to be the name of the game when trying to magnify experience and learning.

Balance your offline and online relationships. When the opportunity arises to combine the two, don’t hesitate. You will not regret it.

Social Media: Ideal for Branding and Not Sales?

An interesting post flowed through my Google Alerts email this morning from Digital Response Media. The post was entitled: Social media ‘ideal for branding.’ The point of the post was to explain how the digital marketing manager of British Airways, Chris Davies, uses social media to raise the profile of his brand online. Basically, he finds extreme value in user generated content on the web.

There was an interesting quote in the piece from Mr. Davies:

Most UGC site users are wary of big brands coming into what they conside to be ‘their space’…. But if you are giving them something that helps then, some sort of social currency, then they’ll likely thank you for it.”

I found it interesting that Mr. Davies thought of a social media strategy as a COMPANY enterting into a space of individuals. I find that branding/communication strategies in a social media environment obtain more useful information and build BETTER brand value when personality is added to the mix. A good example of this would be Comcast. Whether or not you agree that Comcast is an excellent services (sometimes they are far from it) they have done a great job at using twitter for customer service. You can connect to Comcast on twitter @comcastcares.

Comcast did it right. They entered a space where individuals were sharing information and they added content themselves. When I ‘tweet’ @comcastcares I do not think of it as messaging a company but messaging an individual.

A brand can no longer enter a space as a ‘sponsor’ throwing up their adds all over the page in an attempt to gain recognition. We can see this through Myspace and Facebook. Does it work? You might get some click throughs. You might even sell something!

When it comes down to it you are not really building a lasting brand image.

You are building a weak wall that will crumble and fall.

The post ended with a quote stating that 27 percent of companies use social media as part of their communications strategy. I find that hard to believe.

The Paradigm Shift of Social Media and Time Management

It has been a pretty busy week around here at Brandswag. Projects have been piling up and there never seems to be enough time… for anything. The past 48 hours have been pretty efficient in terms of business and extremely inefficient in the realm of Social Media. I have been writing posts every day for the better part of a month and yesterday was the first time I have missed in awhile. Truthfully it upsets me.

I thought about continuing the posts on Being Productive in Social Media but I ran across Andy DeSoto’s new post entitled, Observations on Social Media Compression. I found myself reading exactly what I was going to write today! Amazing how these things happen.

Andy has been extremely busy with starting up classes in his fourth year of school and hasn’t had the time to really invest in Social Media.

From Andy:

Social media becomes something to be attended to when all other responsibilities are fulfilled, kind of like an ever-present background process.

When time is tight, not only do we rely on applications and services to filter for us, but we also engage in a more implicit, natural filtering of our own: discovering what does, and what doesn’t, work for us when free time becomes considerably scarcer.

When I am talking to small business owners about social media and being productive in online communities there is always the issue of time. “I don’t have time to manage social communities.” “I don’t have the time to write three to four blog posts a week.” “I have clients that demand my attention. I feel like I will be left out in the cold if i ignore a network for a couple of days.”

The last statement is where the curse of knowledge will get the best of us. In everyday life there seems to be an underlying belief that if you do not keep up, you will be left behind. If you do not attend a social networking function regularly the members will forget all about you and your business. In some cases this is true but, in my opinion, it is the exact opposite in the social media world.

A paradigm shift needs to occur in terms of time management and social media. Frequency of posts and over-commitment to social media communities does not necessarily mean you will be noticed. There isn’t a measurable ROI when it comes to time and social media.

The beautiful thing about social media is that you can leave and come back, save and rewrite. In a world in which content changes every second of the day it is not hard to re-join the conversation.

Don’t get discouraged if you do not have time to update a network for a day, two days, or even a week! I have to keep telling myself this as days become busier and the work gets deeper. If you are committed to staying in the conversation the members of your group, your social posse, will understand. They will remember. They will contribute and grow with you.

As Andy has shown, most of us are busy. Most of us have the daily routines which fall precedent over our social media community involvement.

Be efficient with your time. Find the best way that works for you and if you need help….ask. You have a community of people spread all over the world who would love to help YOU in this ever-changing process.

Why am I Neglecting FriendFeed? The Rebirth.

Recently I wrote about my neglect of FriendFeed. I had been having issues with using the platform and spending time on the site. When I first joined I hit a firestorm of posts and comments only to explode into a sense of disenfranchisement.

After I wrote the post, I surprisingly garnered some attention from FriendFeed followers, as well as, some outside hosts. I began to realize that FriendFeed wasn’t just another social network. It wasn’t just another LinkedIn, Facebook, or Myspace. I decided to give the site another try and actually INVEST in the conversation and content in the feed.

Something happened. I would imagine it was a sense of realization, an epiphany of sorts. FriendFeed has a lot of power when it comes to the idea of collaboration. There is not a platform on the web that gives the simple and yet undeniable sophisticated arena for community thought generation. I started learning things and “meeting” people that were changing my perspective on everything from politics to art, technology to web application.

And so it went. I started spending more and more time on FriendFeed. Subscribing to individuals that have view points, opinions, and ideas similar to mine. And then it happened…

The Rebirth.

The new design for FriendFeed was launched and I had a reinvigorated interest in a platform I was already becoming obsessed with. I am not going to attempt to breakdown the new FriendFeed design. I will leave that up to FriendFeedBlog, Read/Write/Web, and AJ Batac.

Some of you reading this post have not ventured into the FriendFeed waters. To that I say: Try it.

Here are a few people you should subscribe to when joining the “feed.”

Louis Gray, Zee, Mona, Rahsheen, Hutch Carpenter, Shey, Justin Korn, Mike Fruchter, Mark Trapp, Lindsey Smith, and Alex Scoble.

There are plenty of others that bring something new to the table every minute of every hour. The list above is only a representation of the people I have spent the most time with in communication. They represent a good database of other people with the same ideas and preferences.

Jump in the water! Dive over the edge! Get inaundated with an amount of information you could never possibly comprehend. Most of all, communicate. Join the conversation and thrive.

For more tips on FriendFeed visit Louis Gray’s blog.

Through the Doors and Beyond the Lobby…Welcome to the New Company

Recently, Vincent Hunt of SurfaceBurn wrote an absolutely brilliant post explaining Social Media entitled There is Nobody in the Lobby…Intro to Social Media. When I say brilliant, I mean absolutely, positively without a doubt brilliant. He explains social media with a visionary, and yet simple, scenario of an office building.

From his post:
An orchestration of web services all tied together, powered by the individuals who have something authentic to say, and are not afraid to say it. Each door on this corridor represented a service. MySpace was room 101 and Facebook was room 102, Twitter was full of clamor, it was room 105, and with THIS revelation I understood even the more, that IF we do not get off the couch – and start walking into these rooms and saying something, we will be left in the lobby.

I found myself envisioning the office building. This massive steel structure filled to the top with people. People of all ages, race, personalities, opinions, and ideas running from room to room in an exuberant, mind-altering speed… Conversations bouncing from wall to wall… Ideas forming in one room, only to disappear and explode in another.

I wanted to expound upon his idea of the office building analogy. I wanted to put more thought into the idea of Social Media being an endless steel structure jutting high into the sky, the steel and glass glistening in the sun before pushing into the clouds above.

Welcome to Social Media Corp. The largest non-Fortune 500, non-commercial, non-capitalistic, and utterly EXPLOSIVE company on the planet.

You can leave your money outside because ideas, content, community, and collaboration are the currency. It is the only company in the world where you are CEO and deep-pocket commercialism is clamoring to get inside. Where they find themselves handing each other business cards in the lobby and trying daily to join in the hallways.

You will find that every room and every floor is different and yet oddly connected.

We are all employees of this new company. We choose to spend time investing in the rooms we deem fit. There is no upper-management or lunch break. There is no 401K or vacation time. There is only the content and the community behind it.

And the community is building… stretching…expanding. There are daily breakthroughs in architecture to build it higher, stronger, and wider.

We are the employees, the architects, the CEOs, and the investors. We are the company.

I cannot do Vincent’s post justice. He wrote with a touch of clarity that I could only hope to mimic. Read it. Write about it. Build on it.

This is where we become explosive…through the doors and beyond the lobby.

The Beauty of Viral and FriendFeed

I am a frequent follower of Mike Fruchter’s Shares on Google Reader via his FriendFeed stream. I am inaudated hourly with Mike’s recent blog favorites. He shared a blog post today called: There is a Down Side To Viral Marketing from the people at the Social Marketing Journal. The central concept of the post: you can’t control viral marketing. If you try to control it you fail. If you ignore it, you fail.

The Three Down Sides of Viral Marketing according to the Social Marketing Journal:

1. Viral Marketing is Hit and Miss

2. Viral Marketing Has No Control Measure

3. Viral Marketing Can Go Negative

After reading the post, I found myself thinking about the concept of viral marketing and conversations on FriendFeed. Usually the conversation wildfire is centered around politics (most recently a convo started by Alex Scoble around 9/11.. I think we are approaching 60 some comments?). There is a massive viral opportunity on FriendFeed for the Tech community to embrace. The best example I have of a viral campaign in the works is my post recently on FriendFeed regarding the new social media site, Yokway.

I had received an email from Stephan Osmont at Yokway inviting me to try out the service. I had no idea who he was or how he had my email. I decided to post to FriendFeed to ask if anyone had heard of Yokway. Here is what happened.

Louis Gray picked up the conversation (after making fun of me, mind you) and eventually Stephan from Yokway had joined the conversation. A simple question had turned into a firestorm of debate over social media services. With Stephan defending the Yokway…. way.

What would have happened if Stephan had not joined the conversation? I probably would have still checked out the site (thanks to Louis) but the rest of the group involved in the conversation would have been left with questions.

Whether we are talking about FriendFeed, Twitter, Rejaw, Strands, Plaxo, LinkedIn, or Facebook, (not to mention the 30000 other networks in existance) it is important to remember to be IN the conversation. If your demographic frequents any social network GET INVOLVED. This might mean hiring a part time employee or spending some extra time yourself. SUCK IT UP. This is not something to be ignored and as we approach the next couple of years, it will become an even stronger force.

Honestly, you don’t have to suck it up. Maybe I was a little harsh? You could keep on ignoring the conversations and drive your brand into the ground. Your choice.

I’ll buy you a shovel but don’t expect me to help you dig.

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.

Is Generation X the Blog Generation?

Most of us have a close group of friends in which we share time and energy. Being of the millennial generation (24 years old) most of my close friends are under the age of 30. I attended a going away party for a friend moving to Nashville, TN and we had the normal conversation centered around sports and daily life. Occasionally our conversation shifts to the Internet where we discuss Second Life, blogging, social media, and other topics of interest.

Being a Social Media Nerd, I am usually the individual who talks about certain topics and new things I learned on FriendFeed and through my Google Reader. The interesting thing about all of this is the face that my friends are complete novices when it comes to the idea of blogging and social media. I mean most of us are on Facebook but the majority of my millennial friends have no idea how to blog.

It was an interesting concept to consider. Many of the individuals I follow on FriendFreed, Twitter, and through Google Reader are over 30. Is micro-blogging/twitter/sms more of a communication medium rather than blogging for the millennial generation?

I know that I haven’t completed any type of research centered around this topic but it struck me as odd that I do not know of any millennial (in my social circle) that were blogging regularly. Other than Brad Ward of SquaredPeg. Does anyone have research catered to this subject?

Are we going to see a decrease in “true” blogging?