Week 1: Social Media Mission: James Paden
It is now time for the first installment of the Social Media Mission 2008. I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow Hoosier here in Indianapolis named James Paden. I met James on Twitter.
What do you love about social media?
I don’t know if I love social media at the moment. I read a lot of blogs from time to time but I haven’t, until recently, tried to do any online networking. I’ve always been busy. Twitter has gotten the best of me lately and I have been pleasantly surprised by the affect that it has had, meeting new people and networking.
I have been a big believer in LinkedIN (James’ profile) for a long time.
Why are you big believer in LinkedIN?
I see the value of having a business focused network rather than having the typical Facebook and Myspace friends. I am very much a business oriented type of guy. It allows me to reach people that I wouldn’t be able to reach normally. I really appreciate the questions and answers section.
How long have you been on Twitter?
I have been actively twittering for about 3 weeks.
Okay, so, you don’t know whether you love social media. What is one thing you love about the Internet?
I love building websites. I love creating small business. I have an entrepreneurial mentality. It is fairly easy to be able to take an idea and transfer it into the Internet world. That is what I love.
What do you love about building websites?
I love creating things. As a kid, my group of friends always loved to play in the make believe world. Using GI Joes or any other type of imaginary game (ie. cops and robbers). When we played Lego, my siblings would always just play with the toys. I always focused on building something. I love to build by nature, creating things from scratch is a passion of mine.
How much time do you spend on the Internet daily?
I sleep for eight hours.
So that means you spend around 15 hours on the Internet? What the heck do you on the Internet for 15 hours?
I get up in the morning and go to work. I am a lead developer for a network of e-commerce websites. I will spend eight to nine hours at work. I will go home and have a quick supper and work on either my freelance client’s websites or my web designers directoy.
Let me stop you. Tell me about this web designers directory.
The web designers directory grew out of my freelance web design companies website. In late 2005, my search engine ranking had grown to the point where I thought I could profit more from referring visitors to other designers and their website rather than just working as a freelancers.
I am really trying to focus on becoming involved in social networking to connecting with designers and web programmers to further my visibility in LinkedIN, Twitter, Plaxo etc.
What is your favorite spam bot on Twitter?
You, man. No I’m kidding. Santaclaus_127. He/She/It is a pain.
I would like to thank James for taking the time to sit down with me. It was a great honor to meet him and connect a face with the twitter account. Thanks James! Stay tuned for the next week meet.
What Would Seth Do? Seth Godin and Compendium.
Most of the readers of my blog know that I am a huge Seth Godin fan. I have devoured every single book he has released, as well as, keeping updated on his blog. Whenever there are videos or blog posts about the brilliance of Seth Godin, I try to prop them up or comment. It just so happens that a company here in Indianapolis has started a video series on corporate blogging. It also just so happens that Seth Godin is featured in the first video!
Chris Baggott, Co-Founder and CEO of Compendium, is featured in the video talking about his WWSD way of life: What Would Seth Do?
Check it out. See what you think! I would love to know what everyone loves/hates about Seth Godin.
Redefining Innovation in Social Media: Adaptation
Social Media Innovation is a huge topic among early adopters of technology in cyberspace. Talk about an over-used phrase! The term social media is already dieing in the minds of the technologically savvy. And innovation?
First, let’s define the terms from Wikipedia:
- Innovation : may refer to both radical and incremental changes in thinking, in things, in processes or in services (Mckeown, 2008).
- Social Media : the use of electronic and Internet tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with other human beings.The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.
It makes sense to couple the terms together to create a definition for beta products, new platforms, and applications on the web. However there is a new way to look at innovation in Social Media. I read a post from Brandon Coon titled: Redefine Innovation. In the post Brandon talks about the concept of innovation in business and technology:
“We relate the word innovation with companies like Google and new products like the Internet, Social Networks, or Blogging and innovation is all of these things. But innovation can also be different ways to do business.”
“Always be trying to invent new products, services, ideas. But almost more important is that we always find a way to make our business model better, more profitable, and more (invent a word to go here).”
You are hip to the beat if you are on the next best thing in social media. Beta applications and products are released on a daily basis and become slightly overwhelming (except for Louis Gray who has the uncanny ability to be on all networks).
The only thing I hear sometimes is innovation, new applications, and beta tests.
This may be an old thought. This may be something that has been discussed in the community driven world of social media. Perhaps… I thought I would expound upon it: Turning to Adaptation instead of Innovation.
I have found it difficult to keep up with the countless number of social networks out there. I have decided to become an adapter instead of an adopter.
- Adaptation: are traits that have been selected by natural selection
The concept of traits being selected by natural selection can be applied to social media. When we are investing time into a social community we are building respect among members, as well as, sharing information back and forth. By natural progression, as users, we start to single out certain traits of a site that could be changed or improved. This is the beautiful concept of adapting a process into something better.
The concept of becoming a continuous adapter instead of an early adopter could be a post in itself.
It is encouraging to see members taking the necessary means to help make a site better instead of joining and spreading out over new platforms.
We don’t always have to be radical. The concept of being rational can make that much MORE of a difference.
When a social media community helps the site adapt, in my opinion, that is when the magic happens.
Social Media Consultants’ Top 2 Dangers and the Solutions
I love social media. I love it. No question about it.
Through all the giddy love and unquestionable dedication to social media in the past few months, I have realized one thing. There is fine line to draw when it comes to embedding yourself into the social media world, especially as a business owner and social media consultant.
The Dangers of Social Media:
Danger 1: Loss of Productivity in Your Offline Work Environment
When I first started getting involved in sites like FriendFeed, Plaxo, LinkedIn, and Smaller Indiana I started to see a slow decrease of my productivity in my work flow. I was spending so much time writing blogs, commenting in FriendFeed, and searching for new content my Clients were starting to suffer. I was missing a few deadlines and not getting the sleep I needed to run a successful and productive company.
I have read more than a few posts in FriendFeed pertaining to this topic. When you become entrenched in a social community you grow to love the content and the people on the site. What do we do when we love something? Invest in it. Plain and Simple.
Solution
- Time Management: Try to set a certain amount of time aside for social media once a day. Set a goal to spend 30-60 mins in the morning and 30-60 mins in the evening (this is just an example). Maybe you decide to spend time on social media at night after you get home. Maybe it is on your lunch break. Manage your time and stick to it.
- Crowd Sourcing: Use your social media communities to help with your work! I recently needed some ideas of where to find stock pictures of run-down gas stations. I posted the question on FriendFeed and within 2 minutes, I had 6 responses! Social Media communities are filled with extremely intelligent and talented people. USE THEM!
Danger 2: The Curse of Knowledge
Most of us on the social media circuit are self-proclaimed social media experts. We love to be the early adopters. We love to try every new and shiny beta out there. We debate and talk about certain sites to the point of beating the conversation to death.
Owning a company that caters to small businesses, I have found myself ROCKED with the curse of knowledge. Most small business owners are not engrained into social media. LinkedIN and Plaxo are the extent in which they enter into the social community realm. For social media tycoons and experts the curse of knowledge can be detrimental when consulting to your small business clients.
“Have you ever tried Twitter? You should really check it out.” ***blank stare*** “Okay, let’s go back to LinkedIN and Plaxo.”
Solution:
It is simple. Remember that the social media fanatics are a completely different crowd than most small business owners. I have tried to slow myself down when discussing social media with a prospective client. I tend to get really excited and go on tangents of social media effectiveness and crowd sourcing in FriendFeed (blah blah blah).
- Get to the source of the pain. Maybe you are overwhelmed by all the sites out there? Maybe you need some help in finding the right sites and managing the content to the sites? You want to get into blogging? The Basics? Sure!
The greatest lesson I have ever learned is actually from the Sandler Sales Course, which I would love to take some day. Ask questions. Get to the source of the problem. Don’t overwhelm with knowledge and wealth of information.
Most people could care less about the amount of knowledge you have about social media. They already know you are good…..They are meeting with you. They want to know how YOU are going to solve THEIR problems. They don’t care about the new THING in social media. They care about how it helps them.
FastCompany: Myspace Has A Brand New Bag, Baby.
There has been plenty of talk about Myspace the past 4 years. Ever since the launch of the social portal GIANT, there has been conversations centered around Facebook applications being Myspace killers to the terrible design of the site’s personal pages.
I started out in the social media world through Myspace. I loved it when it was first launched. The customizable pages, the photo gallery, and the blog entry (I moved my xanga over to my Myspace page). I remember the friend trains and the thousands of people I didn’t know.
Fast Foward 2 years: Enter Facebook to Anderson University. Everything changed for me when Facebook hit the scene on my campus. The design was simple and quick. The UI of the site was not daunting or cumbersome. It was a hit in my book!
I have since slowly migrated away from Myspace for fear of being glitter blasted through the web space. This all to say, I was browsing through the magazine at the airport yesterday and the new FastCompany caught my eye. There on the cover stood Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, the Myspace cofounders. The title read: Don’t Mess with Myspace: Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe Say Their Business Is More Innovative Than Apple, Google, and Facebook. Could They Be Right?
Needless to say two things happened: I tried not to laugh out loud for fear of being stared at and I was really intrigued. I bought it.
I am intrigued because I know that Myspace has an excellent business model beneath that terribly designed site.
Facebook has been owning Myspace in terms of user/member growth:
From FastCompany:
World wide visitors
Facebook: 123.9 million up 162% from May 2007
Myspace: 114.6 million up 5% from May 2007
Clearly Facebook has been owning Myspace on growth over the past years. The competition from Facebook has pushed the Myspace co-founders to go back to their roots: Music.
From FastCompany:
“Myspace Music is a new site that promises to let people listen to and share streaming songs from a full catalog of music for free, as MySpacers do now with video-but also create playlists and buy ringtones, merchandise, and concert tickets.”
Is Myspace going after the iTunes music share? They have made pacts with major labels in the music industry to offer their content without digital rights management.
It is interesting to see Myspace reinventing itself in the wake of the social media movement. Now dubbing themselves a social media portal instead of a social networking site, Myspace is trying to tell the world. “HEY! We are still here. ZUCKERBURG… You are going down.”
They have the business model that Facebook and other sites have not figured out. They may be a little cumbersome, ugly, and completely stupid to the tech-nerd world. Honestly… who cares.
From FastCompany:
“Murdoch mandated $1 billion revenue target in June, but the unspoken defense is that Myspace alone contributed the vast majority of the $900 million that did come in. That’s three times even the most optimistic estimates of Facebook’s perfomance.”
I may not use Myspace anymore but I say, “Go for it Tom. I would love to see a Battle Royal of social networks.” Zuckerberg vs. Anderson vs Steve Jobs.
A New Level to FriendFeed: Confessions Room
Currently on the Confessions Room: 360 posts, 2815 comments today
I have been preaching about a new level of relationship building on social media. There needs to be a deeper connection between individuals on social platforms. Enter the Confessions Rooms.
Friendfeeder Shawn Farner started the confessions room as a way to share some deeper things in Friendfeed and post it anonymously. At first I was hesitant, shrugging the room off as just another way to spread myself farther across the wide expanse of FriendFeed. I decided to join the room after hearing a couple of excellent comments crossing the feeds.
I have not been disappointed. Other than the random meanderings of some complete idiots, the FriendFeed confessions room has been an excellent way to really get deeper with friends on an online platform.
Some Examples of the feeds in the Confessions Room:
“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind not having kids. It would really not be a big loss to me…”
“I was drunk the night I asked my wife to marry me. She was as well…and also on the other side of the country at the time. That was 10 years ago October 
”
“I just had a terrible fight with my girlfriend. And now i feel like shit.”
“I want to make a big difference in this world, but my career goals and the fact that I’m lazy means I never will.”
The Confessions room is an excellent way to get to know your FriendFeeder’s in a more intimate way. Join the group. Start a conversation. If you want to do it anonymously you can sign in to the Confessions account and post.
I encourage everyone to check in and see what is going on. What a great way to make social media have deeper meaning!
Rebellion! Personal Branding and Social Media?
Social Marketing Journal had a post today called, Is Social Media Starting to Rebel. In general the post talks about the deletion of accounts at Facebook and the changing of names at Bebo.
Andy Beal was one of the members who brought the ‘profile changes’ on Bebo to the limelight.
He is quoted saying,
“Let this be a warning. Don’t ever rely 100% on your social networking profile for brand building. Bebo-and perhaps others-can and will change your profile without warning”
The Social Marketing Journal goes on to say that bloggers and social media users should be wary when it comes to using social media as a branding tool. At least not as your major tool.
I don’t completely agree with the stance of the Social Marketing Journal. Just because a website or social media community has the ability to change your information doesn’t mean you should be wary of using social media as one of the staples to your branding strategy.
The truth of the matter is this:
If you are spending time on your networks and investing yourself into the community will you not have a problem with the branding behind your profile. The people who have problems (when their profiles are changed) are the individuals who start profiles just to be ON the site and not INVESTING in the site.
Being on and Investing in a social media community are two completely different concepts. Anyone can sign up for a social platform but not everyone can spend the time and energy it takes to invest in the community of the site.
When you invest in the community you shouldn’t have a problem with the changing of a profile or your brand identity.
This does not go to say that you shouldn’t worry about your profiles online. Whether or not you should be wary of social media for personal branding is up for question.
My Social Media Mission 2008: Collecting Genuine Relationships
There has been a small buzz going around in the social media community pertaining to the quality of relationships being built online. What is the difference between on online friendship compared to an off line friendship? Can you build genuine relationships online?
I recently found a video from Gary Vaynerchuk via the ProBlogger post called, How To Get Noticed [The Art of Positioning]. In the video Gary talks about the importance of connecting to people and building relationships rather than building a bank account or a subscription list. As always, Gary never ceases to inspire. The video:
I have always been under the assumption that you can only build true, strong relationships if you combine online and off line activity.
So… here is what is going to happen. Social Media Mission 2008-2009. Maybe this has already been done, maybe it hasn’t. I am going to make it a point to meet with a social media contact, in person, once a week until the end of the year (week long Holidays may be out…we will see). I will be posting about the meeting and conversation either here or at another blog.
I am craving the leap to connecting my online with the off line. I figure this is going to be the best way to do. It starts next week. Got any ideas let me know! First one, Chris Hadley who I met on Seesmic.
When Does Subscription Turn into a Relationship?
Recently this has been an ongoing thought in my head:
Do online relationships have the same depth as relationships off line? Can they obtain the same meaningful purpose as your friends you see in day-to-day life?
I have had some interesting conversations recently with people on Seesmic and Friendfeed about the friendship dynamics between online and off line relationships. I have only been debating this because of the increased time I have been spending on social media platforms over the past few weeks. I have had the opportunity to ‘meet’ some interesting and extremely intellectual people through feeds at Friendfeed.
The problem that exists, for me, is the overwhelming urge to know more. The desire to get deeper into a persons psyche and actually understand where they are coming from and where they have been. I have had fun debating and sharing in conversations over the communications platforms and yet I am left with this undeniable longing for something more.
The sharing of information and idea generation has always been a staple in the increased support of social media. I started using social media as a way to gain more insight into technology, entrepreneurship, and the overall aspect of viral marketing. What I have found is (while all the information is great) there is a point where a person stops and wants something more from a relationship or an acquaintance.
I have had extreme success in meeting people in my area off line whom I had the first interaction online. The relationship factor grows exponentially when you are sharing both online and off line forms of communication. I am relating more to the people I have met online who do not live in my vicinity.
I know research and data is a prerequisite to have in blog posts pertaining to an opinion. In order to support an idea it is always better to have others opinions to strengthen your own. Unfortunately, I am running off the cuff here and spouting words over a virtual page.
When is the right time to want more from an online relationship? Is there a need for it? I love the information super highway sometimes more than the road outside of my house and that is what bothers me the most.
How do you strengthen online relationships to the point where you can say they are a friend? Where does a follow or a subscription turn into a relationship?
Are we meant to delve deeper? We should be.
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.
