Successful Blog

What Is Social Networking?

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The LANGUAGE of SOCIAL MEDIA

Words have a deep effect on
how we interpret and interact with the world.
The words we use and how we define them
reveal our interests, concerns, and values.
This series explores the words of social media.

social networking and a social network

Most literally, social networking would be meeting and making connections and relationships — both business and social — online and offline. In the lexicon of social media, social networking involves establishing an online presence and connecting regularly with other people and businesses who have done the same. Connections are made through hyperlinks and references embedded in personal profiles, comment text, audio comments, podcasts, videos.

Social networking sites provide efficient ways for individuals (and individual businesses) to find and connect with friends and colleagues, to establish new relationships and deepen them, and to introduce friends and colleagues to each other. Many social networking sites also offer platforms for discussion of topics that a community or network finds mutually interesting or beneficial.

In the most concise terms, a social network is a group of like-minded individuals connected by a common interest.

@rubybluesox: “we know ‘enough’ about each other that we could ‘hang out’ in person and be friends … but in a ‘linguistic’ way… so it requires a certain depth that most ‘marketers’ aren’t used to”
@thomasclifford: “What is social networking? A means to validate our search for meaning.”
@brendansmith: @pixelfan for me everything i do in social networking is business, for fun, family and friends, I use the phone or meet face to face
@pm_41: @mashable Why would I hire people to tweet for me? The whole idea of social-networking is to express YOURSELF in front of the world.
@brunsvold: I sometimes get the feeling that social networking is like high school. The only way to survive is to pretend to be too cooler than everyone

For more information see:
Social Network
Social Networking in Plain English
Social-networking sites work to turn users into profits
I Saw The Future Of Social Networking The Other Day
Leadership, the Internet and the ‘Tribes’ of the World

SEE ALSO:
What Is Social Media?

Got more to add? C’mon let’s talk.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

The Mic is On: It's About T-Shirts, Cards, and Bumper Stickers

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

The Mic Is On

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

and Other Witty Remarkables

We’ve all seen them. The classic remarks that say what we’d really like to say, the ones that describe us so well we wear them or give them to our friends, and the ones that mystify and confound us, but get us talking just the same. C’mon share a few.

  • This t-shirt has been read more than your blog
  • Please pass, I left early
  • Visualize Grilled Cheese
  • How can I miss you if you won’t go away?
Fred Babb T-shirt "Don't Drink and Draw."
Fred Babb T-shirt Don't Drink and Draw.

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)

Oh, and bring example links.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: Fred Babb t-shirt
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How to Leave an Unforgettable First Impression … of the Very Best Kind

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Irresistible Beats Embarrassed Every Time

First impressions. Guess we’ve all made our share of bad ones. In my experience, bad first impressions tend to happen when I try too hard, when I focus on myself and what I want from a certain situation. Whether the occasion is personal or business, if I become about attracting attention, I end up looking like someone who wears sequins and top hat to blue jeans bar … It’s an unforgettable first impression, but not the one I wanted to leave behind.

It happens. People do it. So do big corporations. We’re even inventing new ways to do the equivalent as the noise level rises on the social web.

In a hard economy, first impressions become even more important. People have less time, fewer opportunities, and more competition. A bad first impression may not lead to a chance for a second meeting.

Unfortunately trying too hard usually too often leads to the wrong kind of attention.

Do you, does your business, leave an unforgettable first impression … of the very best kind?

How to Leave an Unforgettable First Impression

In a one-to-one market, every individual and every business is meeting customers as individuals. As the social web grows, people discuss experiences and pass their impressions far further than was ever possible. Suddenly a bad day can become an incident or a nice passing gesture can be raised to heroic. Every first impression has the possibility of being amplified.

We all want to make the positive, unforgettable first impression. That’s the one that wins us friends and business.

What makes someone unforgettable? What makes us want to go out of our way to see someone we hardly know? How do some people leave an indelible first impression so attractive that we look forward to being with them again?

What do those magnetic people and companies consistently offer?

  • a curious, open, intelligent mind
    Some people spark our imagination. They energize and motivate us. When we share a conversation, they literally make our brains light up with thoughts and ideas. Their kind of thinking inspires confidence and respect — in them and in us. People who are mindful and curious find solutions where other folks find problems. They don’t let small differences or ambiguities throw them. They help us find the action inside our ideas. They listen well and respond. We feel that they truly see us.
  • a positive, open, knowing heart
    Some people love living. They don’t really have an easier life; they just look at life and business differently. Small things don’t get to be worries, so they spend time on little disagreements. When others might be a little more distant, they pull us near with positivity. They smile soon as they see us, long before we say say hello. It’s easy to say hello when we feel like we already know them.
  • a clear, open, meaningful purpose
    Some people see the world and everyone in it with the eyes and the mind of a discoverer. When we say things, they listen for what our words mean to us. They know themselves in a real way, which makes them easy to understand and easy to be with. They offer everyone solid ground to stand on, which makes us all feel a little taller when we’re around them.

People like that are unforgettable. When we see them again, we go back to where they’re standing, even if we hardly know them. We want that unforgettable experience again. If we are able, we introduce that unforgettable person to our friends.

It works the same for companies. When companies meet customers in that unforgettable way, customers want to have that experience again. We often tell our friends about how we were treated and bring them back with us so they get the same positive experience.

You might notice that each point closes on the feeling we’re left with. Isn’t that what a first impression is? A feeling about someone or something that we’re getting to know?

People remember most how we make them feel. The most unforgettable people … of the best kind … focus their attention and care on the people around them. They know that an unforgettable positive first impression is the doorway to true communication.

What’s your recipe for a unforgettable first impression of the very best kind? What tools do you use to make that impression a reality?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Do Your Customers Look a Lot Like You? Could that Be a Good Thing?

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People Who Think Like We Do

Starting an online business doesn’t seem that complicated. People do it every day. Some even start by doing what we love — building a product or service that captures their imagination and best skills — because doing what we love makes good business sense. Then they figure out who’s like to buy it.

That’s often where folks make their mistake. They don’t know who their ideal client or customer is. As a product developer, I leanred that building products and services takes a lot of knowing how customers think.

If you don’t already have a customer base that you know intimately and well, or you’re new at making product, it’s likely that the first customers you attract will be folks who look a lot like you. Why is that?

Ever notice a pattern in the people you think of as engaging, entertaining, or just plain smart? Ever notice a corollary pattern in the people you think as … not?

Consider this:
We think people who think like us are smart and people who don’t are being difficult or unable to keep up.

Of course, we allow for migitating circumstances. She’s only 5 years old. He’s having a bad day. He’s not good at math. It’s semantics that threw us off. But if it happens again and again, that person who doesn’t process thoughts the same as we do, must be disagreeable or not too swift — no pleasure to spend time with. Who can blame anyone for that? It seems guaranteed that he or she isn’t having a great time with us.

Sometimes if we listen closely as we talk, we find that the “difficult, not so smart” folks think more like we do than we first suspected. Sometimes we even form a relationship.

Is it a good thing that our customers look like us? What should we do about that?

How Do You Use that to Grow?

So the customers we attract first will be the customers who think like us. It’s only natural they’ll think what we do is smart. They’ll see the brilliance of our products or services. They’ll work with us to fix our problems and will see enough of themselves to forgive our occasional misteps.

That’s why our first customers look so much like us.
That’s why they love what we do.
And I agree with Steve Farber that’s the best foundation on which to build a business …

Do what you love in service to those who love what you do. —Steve Farber

But suppose you’re a rare and divergent thinker … not that we know anyone like that … how can you find a group of customers large enough to sustain a business like that?

As soon as your customers get to know how you think, make it your driving goal to know everything about each one of them. That’s the beauty of the social web. It lets us do that so much easier than we could in the past. But don’t leave out on the gound networking events.

  • Meet them and talk to them one at a time whenever, wherever you can.
  • Ask them about them, not about what you’re doing.
  • Test and try their ideas, ones resonate with them — especially those that make you a little nervous.
  • Give them a stake, a voice, a place in the business.
  • Showcase your regulars so that other folks can identify with them.
  • Be curious, learn from, and fall in love with the differences in the like minds around you.

What will happen next is that, your thinking will grow and change, and together you and they will attract people who look like you and them. Then show everyone how to do the same thing again. Open ideas, open minds, and open doors are how people find their way in.

Of course none of us are the same. But especially on the social web, we know what it means to say that like minds attract. It’s a fact that can dilute a business or be a strategy.

Have you got customers, readers, clients who look like you? Can you make them a bigger part of your business?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Buy the ebook and find out the secret.

Every Participant Can Add Their Best Work

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This year at SOBCon, we’re more than excited. We started planning in October to bring you an event that would be

  • more solid information
  • more time networking
  • more potential partners
  • more opportunities to be SEEN, HEARD, and UNDERSTOOD

As part of that promise, I’m delighted to announce that we’re inviting attendees to participate by adding to the gift bag.

If you have a book, an ebook, a checklist, a product of value that you want to share with the participants to show what you can do, bring it along and add it to the gift back that we distribute. Share what you know. It’s one more way to show folks how and when they might refer you.

Every participant at SOBCon is has a voice that valued.

Liz