Archives for 2010

Blog Awards, Recognition, And Your Part in It

When I first started this blog just under two years ago, I had one clear goal – fostering thought connections.

Sure, I’d be using it to offer my views on the still-emerging (at the time) social media platform, as well as ideas and solutions on how you could get the most out of the new networks and tools that seemed to be popping up all over the place.

But the overriding factor would be to have my blog as a focal point where ideas could be shared; viewpoints could be discussed; friendships and connections made; and a community built that wasn’t afraid to challenge thinking to help each other grow.

What I didn’t expect was how the blog would grow in that timescale.

Today I found out that this blog was one of the recipients of Young Entrepreneur’s Top 10 Marketing Blogs Award. While I was uber-happy to be recognized by such an organization to start with, my jaw literally dropped on the floor when I saw the company I was keeping – Seth Godin, Andy Beal, John Jantsch and Valeria Maltoni among others.

These are marketers and bloggers that I look up to immensely, so to be sitting alongside them is pretty mind-blowing. What’s even more mind-blowing is how the Young Entrepreneur award is part of what’s been an incredible first half of the year for this blog.

In January, it was voted PostRank’s Top Marketing and Social Media Blog.
In February, it came in at number three as one of the Top 50 Canadian Marketing Blogs.
In March, it received the Hive Award for Best Social Media Blog at South by Southwest.
In April, it came in at number six as one of Cision’s Top 100 Social Media and Internet Marketing Blogs.

Couple that with its syndication across the Social Media Today, WebProNews and Newstex business networks as well as its inclusion on the AdAge Power 150 list, and this blog has taken on a life that I could never have foreseen back in September 2008.

Now, while I could lay claim to having done it all myself and how the content has spoken, blah-de-blah-de-blah, even it if were true it’d only tell half the story.

As I mentioned at the start, the aim of this blog has always been to foster a community that would not only question and offer views, but would help the blog grow because of that questioning and view sharing. And these awards and recognition are proof that’s exactly what has happened.

If you didn’t come here and read my thoughts; if you didn’t come here and offer yours; if you didn’t question my viewpoint and make me think differently and strive to be the best I can every time, none of the recognition or award-winning would have happened. I’m not that dumb.

So.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for giving me the time from your life to make me think better. To make me question my thoughts. To make me learn and improve daily.

And thank you even more for helping foster what is, without question, one of the best resources of knowledge, expertise, thought leadership and more – our community.

Your community.

Here’s to you.

photo credit: blentley

Putting the I in Social Media

Whenever I used to meet with a potential new client that was interested in a social media program, I always used to take a piece of paper with a little drawing on it.

The surprise on their faces was always entertaining when they’d ask for my ideas for them, and instead of presenting a huge multi-slide PowerPoint, I’d show them this piece of paper and the four words on it.

The reason for keeping it simple was simplicity itself – if they couldn’t see the benefit of each point, they probably couldn’t see the benefit of social media.

I’ve since upgraded that piece of paper a little, but the message of the four points on it still works today.

Identify

There are so many different social media tools and applications that it can often be like trying to work your way around a maze. So many different turns to take, easy to get lost with all the options available ? which is why it?s important to take the time to identify what will work for you. Decide what you want from social media and then use the appropriate tools.?

Identity

Having an easily identifiable brand is key for anyone both online and off. Although this is usually applicable to business, personal branding offers an invaluable way of building a reputation as someone to go to for a certain niche. So your identity should be the same across whatever platforms you use ? from bio, to profile, to picture, to logo ? keeping the same identity across social media platforms will help people remember you more easily.

Invest

There?s an old saying that says, ?You get out of it what you put into it.? While this can be used for most topics, it?s particularly true of social media. It?s not something you can dip into now and again ? it changes too fast for that. Instead, to really see the fruits of your labour, you need to invest time into it.

A big part of social media is all about building relationships ? and just like relationships in real life, the best ones take time to foster. Use this mindset with social media, place proper investment into it, and you?ll see the benefits fall into place.

Interact

It may seem an obvious thing to say, but there are only two words in social media and one of them is social. Yet still so many people ? businesses, usually, more than individuals ? are missing this key fact. Instead of simply broadcasting yourself, interact with the community and actively take part in social media.

Read and comment on blogs, both inside and outside your niche; converse on Twitter instead of just spamming your latest blog post or affiliate deal; share helpful news with people instead of keeping it to yourself for your own benefit.

Social media can often be a difficult thing to navigate, with different uses for different people. One thing it is to everyone, though, is a wonderful opportunity for all parts of you or your client’s business.

How are you helping others understand their opportunities?

photo credit: Eva the Weaver

Prelude…

Facebook Fan Page Evaluation Fun with Vitrue

One of the reasons I set up a Facebook page was to offer an outlet where folks that were more comfortable on Facebook could connect and interact.

Yes, my blog is my home space, and then there’s also Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social profiles where we can connect. But not everyone likes reading blogs; not everyone’s on Twitter; some folks don’t like to get too involved with LinkedIn, and so on. So, making an outpost available where you’re most comfortable was a no-brainer.

So far, it seems to have worked pretty well. There’s a good mix of extended blog posts, shared resources, exclusives and connections, as well as folks that add comments or make suggestions of their own about resources that may be interesting to those that like my page. And I can’t ask for much more than that.

However, it’s always cool to see how anything we do online is perceived. After all, if we’re not measuring (or at least evaluating) our progress, how can we see where we’re going wrong and correct, or what we’re doing right and build upon?

That’s why something like Vitrue’s Social Brand Evaluator is so interesting.

At its heart, the evaluator is a simple method to see how your Facebook page rates for interaction, social value, and the potential for future marketing or monetary worth.

It also highlights some of the best practices for growing your page, as well as give you a breakdown of page value history (so if you’ve had your page a while, you can see if you’re going in the right direction or not).

While it’s not a direct replacement for proper metrics and measurement, it is a solid enough little app that can show you how you compare to others in your niche or industry. So if there’s someone you really admire, then Vitrue’s evaluator will let you see where you need to be headed to get closer to that page’s social value.

The main problem with it as it currently stands is that it doesn’t really tell you what these figures mean. For example, what does the Annual Page Value indicate – what the page is worth to advertisers, or how much you have the potential to make with offers to those that like your page?

The same goes with the Earned Media Value slider – again, is this for advertisers, page owners, a mix of both or none of the above? A little more clarification on the evaluator would be really useful (though maybe Vitrue is saving that for paid client work instead).

Either way, it’s a decent look at how your Facebook page is being used and viewed, and that’s always useful.

Here’s my social value. If you have a Facebook page, check out the evaluator for yourself and see where you currently sit and where you could either change or improve interactions. And I’d love to hear what you think of the tool and its use.

Coming Soon…

photo credit: trovster