Successful Blog

It's Not How Big the Tool … It's the Thought, Skill, Fluency, and Authenticity Behind It

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Show ‘Em What’s to Love

Are you caught up in the conversation about social media tools? It’s fun to talk about what they do. We could spend a lifetime inventing new toy and tools that measure and move conversations on the Internet. Unfortunately, that won’t make business more relational or more efficient.

As we reach further fragmentation in the communication business, influx points how critical it is for us to specialize, get to know the tools and to put them to proper use.

Ad agencies aren’t that well equipped to play in this space, given their fundamental skills are all about creating commercial messages, not bare bones, message free entertainment. In social media, it’s about having specific tools, data sets and people skilled in the media who can create responses and ideas with social applicability.

In the short term, this will force agencies to identify and work with third parties to engage in this practices, where strategically relevant.

The opportunity is here for new working relationships. We can make the transition easier if we:

  1. Think vertical — the business opportunities will be in relational niches.
  2. Start with a marketing plan, a problem or a goal that your vertical is working on.
  3. Choose and use the tools that will best meet the goal and solve the problem.
  4. Name and claim the skill sets that the tools you’ve identified require.
  5. Evaluate and analyze the contribution of each particular tool to further the solutions and meet the marketing goals.
  6. Propose what you know to the companies in the vertical you’ve chosen.

My point is that no big brand, no agency is going to be able to speak print, television, radio, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blog, and other social media with fluency. Few people are that social media “multi-lingual.” The opportunity to specialize is huge.

It’s not about the size or scope of our tools. It’s our thought, skill, and authenticity when we use ’em. It’s about showing them what’s to love about what we do.

The key problem before us is …
How do we help business become fluent in the social sphere while maintaining authenticity for us all?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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Will You Remember Who Paid the BAAA-Studs?

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Saturday Night at the Virals …

Picked this up from a fabulous article at influx about the new sophistication in the world of viral.

Looking at the world of viral, it seems to have shifted into a new gear recently. The LED sheep film for Samsung is evidence of the sophistication of viral. It’s no longer a one hit gag wonder, it’s layered and detail and full of lots of elements.

Watch this it’s a fabulous 2 minutes and 44 seconds

Influx makes the point that social media is now about special and specific tools, understanding data sets, and people with the ability to create socially applicable and strategically-relevant responses with immediacy.

But the question remains …

A week from now, will you remember who paid the BAAAA-Studs in the video?

Or will you just remember the extreme sheep LED art tricks?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOB Business Cafe 04-03-09

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Modite via Livingston Buzz
An observer that sits in a wagon pulled around by “the influencers.” What chance do you have if you’re not even thinking on your own two feet?

Middle Zone Musings
OK; I know you’ve faced adversity at least once or twice. Sometimes the source is the circumstances you happen to find yourself in. Other times, it knocks on your door in the form of, well, a person. Or three.

Confident Writing
So, your keyword phrases and search terms are working, and readers are starting to arrive at your site. If you want to provide information, get someone to click on a link, or generate a quick sale… perhaps that’s enough. But what if you’re hoping they’ll stick around?

Logic + Emotion
This morning a couple of things came together for me. The first, was that I unfollowed a company/individual on Twitter because the volume they were producing felt automated and not human even if there were college interns manually updating it (or maybe just a script). It just didn’t feel right. The second was reviewing a deck where it talked about the need for “being human” on the social web. But it didn’t get into how exactly, and that’s where my gears started turning.

weblogtools
Like most of you, I have experimented with many WordPress plugins. I have seen a lot of great plugins and also a lot of bad plugins. I am a bit of a WordPress plugin developer myself, and I admit that I borrow many ideas from other good WordPress plugins. From that experience I have consolidated these good ideas into a checklist that you can follow when reviewing or coding a new WordPress plugin.

Related ala carte selections include

ImJustCreative shares the glory …

Oh and..
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Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Listening, Big Brothers, Logic, and Believing What You Hear

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What Did He Say?

Loan me ten dollars, but only give me five. That way you’ll owe me five. I’ll owe you five, and we’ll be even.

My younger, older brother is a clever guy — always has been. He could talk a fish out of water. He could get the neighborhood to wash the car for him. Everything he did seemed to be a game or a show of some kind.

“I can read your mind.”
“No, you can’t.
“Sure I can. You’re thinking I can’t read your mind.”

He’d send a whistle through his teeth and I’d be there. He had a junk drawer filled with exciting objects and a mind of exciting ideas.

“Kid, let me tell you about that picture. See, the princess — that’s you — She has two kings beside her and she has to do everything they tell her except on St. Patrick’s Day. On St. Patrick’s Day, she gets to be the queen.”

I’m his younger sister by more than 8 years. If he wanted company, I was there. I saw magic in him. He saw an eager audience in me.

“Want to split a coke?”
A few minutes later, I’d get an empty bottle.
“Sorry, kid, my half was on the bottom. I had to drink your half to get to it.”

He wasn’t a teacher in any traditional form, but I learned a lot by growing up with him.

“How does that work?”
“If you don’t know, I can’t tell you. If you do, then I don’t need to.”

I learned to listen for the meaning under the words.

Most folks don’t play quick and clever like my younger, older brother used to play with me. Still we all get caught using convoluted and circular logic — even when we talk to ourselves. Be on the lookout for it, especially today.

Happy April 1 … “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.”

Ever bump into someone like my younger, older brother?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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What Is a Social Media Friend?

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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 media friend

Traditionally friend denotes a co-operative relationship that includes supportive action usually based in knowledge, respect, loyalty, and some availability in times of stress or crisis. Friendship can grow from participating in common activities, spending time in common work or study spaces, and usually involves discovering common values. A friend protects and looks out for a friend. Honesty and some degree of intimacy are hallmarks of friendship.

In any situation, the quality of “friend” depends on the reason for connecting, the situation, the longevity of the existing relationship, and the sophistication of the people in the relationship.

Linking up on a social networking site is is often called “friending,” as in Liz wants to be your friend. Those we connect with instantly become our “friends” in that network database. These can be non-personal friends, such as when two countries enter into an agreement for political purposes and international relations. Connections made to extend a network’s reach might be seen in this light.

Relationships online also rise to the level of personal friendship. The values of the social web — authenticity, honesty, transparency of purpose, and trust — make it natural for like-minded people to become friends in a real sense. Many people in social media overlook the term and hold friend to a higher meaning than a non-personal connection.

A growing number of meetings in person has added to this complex situation. In a simple, nonscientific social survey Twitter users answered this question this way. We seem to be drawn to meeting those we friend online.

What percent of all your friends are online friends only
— you’ve never met in person?

less than 20% 28 responses(43.75%)
20-40% 7 responses (10.94%)
40-60% 11 responses (17.19%)
60-80% 9 responses (14.06%)
more than 80% 9 responses (14.06%)

A totally equal distribution would be 20% in each response section.
In this 64 person group, it seems that once we cross the middle we quickly continue converting online friends into people we know in person.

Here’s how some folks define their online social media friends.

@deeped: “that X-factor in conversations – that makes you feels comfortable and interested”
@johnprew: “Perhaps its’ one who you’ve never met face to face but share your souls in what you share online and enjoy the mutual exchange.”
@sra_nelson: “I’ll usually just say they are my real friends I haven’t met in person yet.”
@debrasnider “Just as IRL, someone interesting who tells you the truth, listens to you, supports you & for whom you gladly do the same.”
@miraclady: “I have not met 90% of my commentors on my blog -less on Twitter. Still, there is such a connection. We know each other.”
@timbursch ” I think the tough part is trust. Trust that this person is who they say they are…”
@workhappynow: ” I define a friend in social media as someone who will offer help when I struggle. If he is a fair weather friend then he is cut.”

For more information see:
Princeton WorNet
Wiktionary
Friend / Friendship
Non-personal friendships
Etymology and definition of the term “community”
Friendship Network
Non-personal friendships

SEE ALSO:
What Is Social Media?
What Is Social Networking?
What IS a Social Community?

Got more to add? C’mon let’s talk.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Who's Worth Listening to?

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Listening

Listening is the critical start of an effective social media plan.

Whether you’re a big brand or a solo blogger gathering up the conversation about your work helps develop perspective, adjust perceptions, and make plans to serve the people who love what you do. Listening has been called the new marketing. We’re learning to sort through the chatter for:

  • people who are talking
  • volume and location of conversations
  • tone and sentiment — content and context
  • advice, complaints, ideas
  • direction, timing, and growth

We’re learning to sort to the relevant:

Congratulations. People are talking about you and your industry so much that you need a more robust tool for making sense of it all. Several good monitoring services can help, including Radian6 and Nielson’s BuzzMetrics. –NTEN, Got Your Ears On? How to Listen to Your Audience Using Social Media

We’re even beginning sort the signal from the noise to see:

  • the positive and negative
  • the patterns and trends
  • the random and the regular

The information we gather can be overwhelming and contradictory. How we decide when it should move us to change what we do?

Who’s Worth Listening to?

People online are talking all of the time. Sometimes what we say is influenced by the moment or by the group. Sometimes our opinions are uninformed, missing bits of the big picture, bits that would change what we thought or what we would suggest someone might do.

Beyond all that it’s important to remember that we’re a self-sorted group. Everyone online has access to a computer and is literate. Not everyone who has an opinion offers it. Some who offer their opinion have agendas other than helping us improve. And those opinions and the wisdom we offer can fall woefully short of the depth of our feelings. Those opinions and that wisdom also can be far from what we’d actually do.

Even when we listen in the best of faith, we’re still we’re likely to be confused by whom to listen to.

How do you know when a complaint is worth changing a feature or strategy?
Do you listen to the critics?
Do you listen to the fans?
Do you listen to the people who don’t care all that much about you?
Do you try to get the folks who usually don’t talk to weigh in with an opinion?

Seth was brilliant on just this point this weekend.

… the critics won’t be placated. Changing your act to make them happy is a fool’s game.

Here’s a surprising thought, though. You should ignore your fans as well.

Seth suggests that the most important feedback comes from the folks who thrive on sharing what you do. Those “sneezers” are the people who will help you grow.

How do you recognize your “sneezers.” How do you listen for the folks who thrive when you do?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!