Archives for 2008

Take Me To Your Leader

Most people have seen the classic sci-fi movie scene (take your pick from any made in the 1950’s) where an alien lands and says “Take me to your leader.” The next step is to take the alien to whoever leads the country – so, President of the United States, Prime Minister of Great Britain, that kind of thing.

I thought it might be interesting to swing that around a little. Put you in the place of the alien and offer you some of the blogs I read that I feel “lead” when it comes to not only social media, but pretty much anything. Just a way of sharing some blog love for people you might never come across otherwise, as well as the usual suspects.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Chris Brogan. Probably someone who’s on more people’s list of recommendations than anyone I know, but deservedly so. Offers fantastic insight into social media, as well as being a genuinely nice guy.
Mighty Red Pen. I make this one of the very first blogs I visit each morning. An often hilarious look at examples of really bad grammar.
PR-Squared. As a PR guy myself, perhaps I’m shooting myself in the foot by recommending a PR blog other than my own. But Shift Communication principal Todd Defren’s personal blog is always worth a read.
Children. Outstanding and touching blog aimed at protecting the rights of children worldwide.
Stuff White People Like. Some people have said that this blog is racist. Personally, I find it a pretty funny (and true) look at one particular part of the human race.
Daily Blog Tips. Excellent reference site for bloggers of all expertise. Offers tips on promoting your blog, formatting, and the always fun Blogging Idol contest.

These are just some of the blogs I read on a regular basis that I think you’d like. I’ll be sure to share more in the near future. How about you – any blogs that you feel are worth reading?

Footnote. The animal in the picture is a lemur. They are currently on the Endangered Species list. If you wish to help protect them, you can find more details at the World Animal Foundation.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment and subscribe to my RSS feed or via email to ensure you can enjoy the latest post(s).

Milk Cartons and Plastic Ninjas

I’m a fairly resourceful guy. Don’t get me wrong – I’m no Chuck Norris, but I’d like to think I’m pretty good at working a way around a problem. Just give me a little time and I’ll work out a way. May not be the right one, but if it’s workable then that’s all I need.

Which is why I get frustrated when simple things turn out to be anything but.

Take milk cartons, for example. Almost 100 years old now, they still have the same basic design flaw that the very first ones did – the cardboard spout that the milk comes out of when you pull the flaps apart. Not only can they be a pain to open without spillage, once you’ve managed to open the carton then the fun’s just beginning.

If you’re like me, sometimes you just like to drink from the carton when you’re really thirsty. (And no, it’s not gross to drink from the carton!). Trying to do that, however, without getting milk all down your top is second only to sneezing with your eyes open for levels of impossibility. Strike one against consumer friendliness.

Then you have the plastic ninjas. You know when you buy a new pair of scissors, or a carving knife, and they come enveloped in that tough plastic to stop you accidentally cutting yourself when opening? What they don’t tell you is that you don’t get a chance to cut yourself because they’re impossible to get into in the first place! You need another knife or pair of scissors to open the new ones – doesn’t that seem just a little counter-productive?

So why do we make ourselves like milk cartons and plastic ninjas when it comes to social media?

I read a great blog post today by Lisa Hoffmann. In it she suggested that the reason so many companies aren’t getting into social media is because we’re scaring them away. Yes, the people that evangelize most about social media could be the ones responsible for stunting its growth.

We’re doing this by pretending to be experts when there’s still so much to learn. We do this by telling businesses their approach to social media is rubbish and they should follow our lead. After all, we’re the social media experts and we know best.

Except we’re not and we don’t.

We may know what’s best for our needs, but until we get to know about a business we don’t know about theirs. So why do we jump straight in and say to business owners, “Get a Twitter account now. Join Friendfeed. Start Digging. You’re nothing if you’re not on Facebook.”

Instead of telling businesses what they will do with us, shouldn’t we be saying what they can do? Show them what’s available and what each benefit is, as opposed to join this or sign up for that or else you’re missing out?

Yes, businesses need to get into social media and begin building their community. But unless they’re able to do it the way that is right for them and not simply just right for us, then they’ll continue to be disappointed with the results. And frustrated.

Much like trying to deal with milk cartons and plastic ninjas.

Discussing Social Media with… John Easton

A little while back, I sent out a request via Twitter asking if anyone would be interested in being interviewed for a discussion on social media. With the medium meaning so many different things to so many people, as well as how it can be used, I was interested to hear the views of the people I connect with.

My original plan was to run a ?round table? style of blog post – raise the questions and then have a mix of views as the responses. However, the answers I received back were all excellent, and showed why social media is the mix of interesting people and views that it is. So, I decided individual posts would be far more effective in an on-going series of interviews.

Sharing his views today is John Easton, founder of Eastonsweb Multimedia, a new media company helping businesses attract the best customers through the use of video, web and multimedia tools. My sincere thanks to John for taking the time to reply and share his views. To connect with John, or find out more about him, please visit his blog Customer Flypaper.

If someone was to ask you for your definition of social media, what would it be?

The use of online, communal tools and their associated communities to engage an audience around a message, idea or discussion.

What is your reason for using social media?

That is an easy question. I use social media to expand my thinking beyond the boundaries I set by interacting with truly fascinating people and to lend my thinking to supportive communities of interest. In addition, I find social media to be a great tool for expanding my professional network.

Do you feel that social media is being used to its maximum effect?

I would say yes. Does this mean that there aren’t unexplored SM applications? Without getting too philosophical here social is just like traditional media. It’s constantly evolving and at its present state of development, the medium is being used and explored by some of the world’s most creative minds and with every Twitter tweet and new blog posting a different angle is being explored. So I’d say it is where it’s supposed to be.

What social media tools or applications do you use? Why these ones in particular?

My choice of social media tools is a function of my capacity, being a business owner and parent. My personal and professional goals are to build relationships with interesting people and grow my professional network and the behavioral profile of those I am looking to engage.

That said I am an active Twitter user, a vigorous blogger and I am an enthusiastic member of several online communities (The Society for Word of Mouth is one). I can interact with each of these communities via my desktop PC, my laptop computer and my BlackBerry and each of these neighborhoods has members who regularly stretch my thinking.

Where do you see the future of social media, both in general and for you?

In general I see social media and its conventions converging more and more with traditional media. The line between the Internet and television as an example will blur. Gone will be the days of cable networks and TV stations. You will watch user generated video alongside professional media wirelessly through your glasses and you will be able to exchange comments with other viewers in real time building relationships as you add perspective to each clip.

I don’t see my goals for the use of SM changing but I will certainly ride the wave and continue to be a bridge between those on the bleeding edge and more middle of the road adopters.

Are businesses effectively using social media? If not, what can they do to improve?

That’s a loaded question. Big business is not successfully using SM. Most of the leaders in this pool approach SM from the old world perspective of controlling the conversation, not realizing that a revolution has already taken place with the power having changed hands from the elite few to the masses. SM is less about controlling the message and more about participating in the discussion, give and take.

Small businesses are doing a better job but still have opportunities to explore. They have to learn to be less revenue focused when it comes to measuring the benefit of SM and consider the wider spectrum of return (building awareness, testing ideas, soliciting new product/service ideas, collaboration, word of mouth, etc).

After all is it better to close one deal or to build a Twitter relationship with someone who can evangelize your offering to several thousand people with the tap of a keyboard?

What do you feel are the best and worst features/uses of social media?

I believe the good and bad of SM is less about the features inherent in the technology and more about the way people use it. At its best social media accelerates the spread of information through networks of linked? communities and at its worst it can be a haven for often mindless and self-promoting chatter. All of this depends on the behavior of community members.

You can find more ?Discussing Social Media with?? interviews here.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment and subscribe to my RSS feed or via email to ensure you can enjoy the latest post(s).

How Do You Boil Your Social Media Egg?

One thing I used to love when I was growing up was breakfast at my grandma’s. She’d make toast soldiers and boiled eggs.

(Just in case anyone doesn’t know what toast soldiers are, it’s when you make normal toast and then cut it into about 4-5 strips. You then butter these strips and use them to dip into eggs or beans).

The reason I liked having breakfast at my grandma’s was because she always gave me a choice of how I liked my eggs boiled. Unlike my mum who always hard-boiled her eggs, which was okay when I was in the mood for them. But every now and again, you just want to get a runny egg and dip some toast in it.

This is where my grandma stood tall.

If I wanted runny eggs, she’d boil for three minutes and then I’d have my runny yolk. If I wanted hard-boiled, she’d keep them on the heat for six minutes and you sure got one solid egg!

It may not sound like much, getting the choice between soft or hard-boiled eggs, but trust me – for a 6-year old kid, it was everything. I felt that I had a voice, and my grandma really wanted to know my choice, as opposed to me having to like something just because everyone else did.

Social media’s kind of like the boiled egg. Initially, it can be a tough shell to crack if you’ve never tried it before. You wonder what’s the best approach – should you slice the top open and dig in slowly from there, or try and break it open evenly and absorb it whole?

Deciding how you want to use social media can be a lot like choosing your yolk. Do you want to just dabble and maybe use a mix of Twitter and Facebook? Then you’ll just want the three minute boil. If you really want to get something to dig your teeth into, though, and you want to try all the different tools and sites that social media has to offer, you better give your egg an extra three minutes.

But you know what? It doesn’t matter how you like your social media egg. Just like my grandma always gave me the choice, so you have the choice too. Because both ways are right. There is no wrong. Social media is your egg to boil as you choose – the main thing is that you enjoy it when it’s done.

To Magpie CEO Jan Schulz-Hofen

Dear Jan,

Firstly, I would like to offer my appreciation that your company Magpie is trying to give Twitter users a means to earn money. At a time of economic worry and uncertainty, any company that offers a passive income stream should be encouraged. Sadly, your model is flawed.

Your modus operandi is to pay Twitter users to allow third-party advertisements to go out via their Twitter stream. The default setting is that every fifth Tweet will be an advertisement. That’s a lot. Yes, you mention that Magpie users can change the default setting to a less frequent schedule, but then won’t that be less effective for those looking to earn revenue from your service? After all, less adverts=less money, no?

So, let’s say for arguments sake that people leave the default setting of every fifth post. That’s 20% of someone’s Twitter stream taken up with advertisements. Looking at some of the people I follow, that could be anywhere between 60 and 5,000 advertisements. Don’t you think that’s a bit excessive? And that’s just on the default setting – what if people went with the suggestion on your homepage and lowered the settings to every other Tweet so they could earn even more?

Where your model suffers again is that you seem to have missed the concept of Twitter altogether. I’m sure you must have carried out focus groups and various forms of research to see what social media site offers the best potential for Return on Investment (ROI). Yet did you actually look at how the service is used and by whom?

Twitter acts as a wonderful way to have a two-way conversation and interact with like-minded individuals. Yes, there is self-promotion as people recommend their latest blog post but that’s a very small part of the Twitter experience. This is where Magpie falls down.

The key word here is conversation. Not broadcast. Not advertising. Conversation.

Where does the Magpie model fall into the description of conversation? Simple – it doesn’t. By paying users of your service to Tweet on behalf of your advertisers, you’re forcing followers of these people to read your adverts. In other words, you’re broadcasting. This is perhaps your biggest error with the Magpie model.

Look around any social media-centric blog, website or even Tweet, and one thing that stands out loud and clear is that social media is all about the conversation.

Not the pitch. Not the shameless promotion. Certainly not the broadcast. If Twitter is about the conversation, and Magpie is all about the broadcast, can you see where the problem lies?

Perhaps where your biggest problem lies, though, is with the very people that will be using your service. While initially it will be beneficial to them as far as compensation goes, how long will this last?

Looking around Twitter conversations and the blogosphere, there is a lot of negativity towards Magpie’s business model.

Indeed, there is a groundswell that unwanted adverts could lead to people simply un-following Magpie broadcasters. This isn’t just a Magpie problem, in case you were thinking the negativity is unwarranted. I, and many like me, stop following people who shamelessly self-promote, because that’s not what we want from Twitter.

How many of your early adopters will continue to use the service if it means they are losing people they really want to connect with?

I know you’ve been following this conversation. My friend Lucretia M. Pruitt has started a very healthy debate at her blog and I noticed your comments there. It’s commendable that you’re taking the time to answer concerns – but unfortunately you’ve even failed here.

At no time have you offered an alternative to un-following someone. Maybe if you allowed the option to filter your ads out then there wouldn’t be such disillusionment with your service. But you can’t offer a filter, can you – if you do that, then who gets to see your adverts? And no company is going to pay you revenue to promote a product that doesn’t get seen.

As I said at the beginning, I do actually want to encourage any company that allows users of any service the chance to make extra income, especially with Christmas approaching. Sadly, I don’t think Magpie is the answer.

To use the Twitter message itself, “What are you doing?” – I don’t think the answer would be, “Buy your next car at Dealer X”. Do you?

Regards,

Danny Brown.