Social Media

What the Cool Kids Can Teach Us About Selling Out

My friend John Haydon shared a link with me to a video by Youtube user italktosnakes (Kristina Horner). It’s a video response to another Youtube user, nerimon (Alex Day).

In both the videos, each discuss the merits of being paid to advertise products on their Youtube channels. What’s interesting is their take on how companies are approaching this. Kristina praises Ford for its Fiesta initiative (which she’s part of) while Sanyo’s “insert here” example by Alex shows a company still getting to grips with the new tools.

Each video also acts as a nice rebuff to marketers and advertisers who say that Gen Y aren’t worth dealing with as they don’t have the influence or business savvy of older media users.

How about you? Would the approaches talked about in the videos work on you? How can businesses reach you?

From Twitter to Blog – #FollowFriday Vol. 2

Recently I wrote about why I was moving my #followfriday recommendations from Twitter to this blog. So, without further ado, here are my recommendations for this week.

I hope you check them out – they’re all worth getting to know.

Community. John Haydon (@johnhaydon). John is a massive influence on me. From his sterling non-profit work to his social media smarts, and his incredibly friendly demeanour, he’s the true spirit of community. He also plays a mean guitar. One of my “must meet in 2009” people.
Ladies of Twitter. Gina LaGuardia (@GinaLaGuardia). Did you know Gina has Mafia connections? Granted, it’s the Twitter Mafia, but still… Gina is an editing genius – so much so that she’s known as the Content Pimp. Got typo issues? Speak to Gina! She’s also funny as heck, as her exchanges with people on Twitter testify.
Gentlemen of Twitter. David Holliday (@_djh). David is one of these guys that everyone should know. He has a hand in many pots – photography, marketing, social media and it’s all mixed up with dry UK wit. His Twitter feed is a mix of laughs, questions and information. Which makes David great for Twitter parties.
Non-Profits. Mark Lovett (@GlobalPatriot). Mark is incredibly inspiring, both on and off Twitter. I’ve spoken to him many a time and always come away revitalized. He’s a Californian on a mission to end poverty and hunger, and offer sustainable solutions to many charitable problems. Basically, the guy’s a saint.
Marketing. Maria Reyes McDavis (@websuccessdiva). For anyone that relates Internet marketing to spam emails and pyramid schemes, let me introduce you to Maria. Brilliant online and offline marketer, Maria is a bundle of great information and tips that will help anyone looking for marketing advice and business success. Oh, and she’s a really nice person too.
Public Relations. Dave Fleet (@davefleet). Another Brit in the list yet deservedly so. Dave is to PR what Industrial Light & Magic are to George Lucas – inseparable. A genuine expert in both traditional and social media-led public relations, Dave also has one of the must-read PR blogs around. He’s also probably one of the fittest Twitter users I know. The swine.
Social Media. Scott Henderson (@scottyhendo). Incredibly knowledgeable due to his wide-reaching travels, Scott approaches social media from not what it can do, but what it can achieve (and there is a difference). He’s a connector in the truest sense and will help you see social media uses that will surprise you. Underrated star.
The “Everyone Should Know” WildCard Entry. Patrick Badstibner (@PBadstibner). Pat is one of life’s good people. He hardly has a harsh word to say; he obviously loves his family; he never fails to offer help wherever he can (both online and offline); and he has a great wit to boot. If you’re looking for a gentle giant on Twitter, Pat is your man.

Cheers guys, for being who you are every day of the week.

Ten Green Bottles

The phrase “drinking from the Kool Aid” is a strange one. Originating from a cult mass suicide, it’s also used to describe belief in perspective. I still can’t decide whether I’m a fan of the term or not, but that’s neither here nor there.

Either way, if I was to drink from the Kool Aid and share with you, here are ten bottles of Kool Aid that would fill your creative juice needs anytime. I hope you enjoy.

Gary Vaynerchuck Can’t Help You. Great post from Seth Simonds about why change will only happen if we make the change for ourselves. Inspirational.
How to Be a Social Media Expert – Chop Lettuce. This post from Scott Hepburn is actually the inspiration for this one. An insightful look at what it means to share and be informative to your community.
Have You Ever Gotten On the Escalator and Stopped Walking? We live in a fast-paced world that shows no sign of slowing. Tim Jahn offers a reason for stopping and breathing in the air.
Is Your Business Boring You? From time to time we all lose heart in a project. Although this is aimed at small businesses, Frank Reed gives us encouragement to get enthused again.
The Beauty in Simple Stories. Oftentimes we make things more complicated than they need to be. Chris Brogan reminds us why simple is just as effective – short and sweet.
What is Your Blog’s Bigger Idea? One of the stumbling blocks to people and businesses taking up blogging is the question of value. Here Mack Collier suggests how to offer just that.
My Pitch Log Mashup, Vol. 3. Finding what tools and services to check out can take time. Which is why this series from Jason Falls is the perfect lunch-time treat for all the latest goodies.
Tao of Marketing – Doing More With Less. When something is recommended by Maria Reyes-McDavies, it’s worth looking into. Here’s why.
Leadership Fail. Just as Barack Obama inspires confidence in leadership, you’ll always get the flip side of poor leadership. Drew Weaver gives us a prime example.
49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 and Internet Stats. You like figures? You like lists? You like all things social media and more? Then Adam Singer is your man.

Hopefully I’ve satiated your thirst with these drinks. But now I’m thirsty. So, what would you suggest I drink – any recommendations?

photo credit: Vicki & Chuck Rogers

10 Ways to Boost Your Blogging

As a communication and community-building tool, blogging is up there with Twitter as a key social media platform. A place to both offer and share opinions as well as a view at the person behind an online persona, a blog is more than just a personal or business journal – it’s your voice.

There are many blog platforms, tools and plug-ins around, all with various benefits. Some are better than others and depend on your own needs. Here are 10 of mine. Since it’s my platform of choice, these are mainly based around WordPress.

Self-hosted blogging. While free blogging (Blogger, WordPress.com, MySpace, etc) is a great starting point, self-hosted (WordPress.org, TypePad, Squarespace) is definitely the way to go. For sheer optimization and personalization options, it’s hard to beat. Buy a domain name for about $10 and then get a web hosting package for less than $4.00 per month.
Premium theme. There are some great free theme designs for WordPress, and Smashing Magazines has a list of 100 free themes. If you’re willing to pay, however, you can get a premium theme. There are some great ones from iThemes, Thesis, WooThemes and Revolution. There’s also great support for premium theme members that you don’t always get on free ones.
Analytics. Knowing who your main audience is can help you tailor your blog more effectively. Of course, writing for you first should always be the aim and hopefully others will like it too. There are some great tools for monitoring your readers. Two I use are Woopra for actual traffic analytics and Quantcast for more in-depth information on demographics. And they’re both free too. Technorati is also a great way to see who’s referencing your blog.
Comments. An integral part of the blogging experience is the comments section. Giving you insight into what your readers think, comments are a great relationship builder between blogger and reader. CommentLuv is a plug-in that shows your visitor’s last post and a great way to show blog link love (coming here soon). Threaded comments using IntenseDebate or Disqus are also great tools to encourage conversation and debate. Offer an option to subscribe to comments as well, so your readers can keep up with an ongoing conversation.
Images. Picking images for your blog can be a pain. Finding the right ones can take time and often copyright is involved – so services like those offered by Zemanta or fotoGLIF are a major plus. Zemanta offers you a choice of Creative Commons-approved images, as well as links and a reblog option to share your post, while fotoGLIF offers more than 1 million free to use and copyright-free images. PhotoDropper also offers a great service for licensed images. (Disclosure – I’ve previously carried out some PR work for fotoGLIF).
Feeds. Gaining readers is part and parcel of blogging, so making it easy for them to find and come back to your blog helps. Your blog will normally have a standard RSS feed, but offering more options will benefit you and your readers. One of the most popular is Feedburner, which allows your readers a choice of feeds or email subscription. Other options include Feedblitz, Feedstats and Feedity. Make your options visible – you’ll see mine at the top right of my blog.
Navigation. Make it easy for your readers to navigate your blog. Offering something as simple as a search box lets anyone look for a certain topic. Lijit makes it even easier by not only searching your blog, but any content from your social networks on the topic as well as that of your contacts.? Use your blog sidebars to offer topic breakdowns as well, so readers can go straight to posts that interest them. The Yet Another Related Posts Plug-in shows similarly-themed posts that your readers might also enjoy.
Sharing is good. The great thing about social media and networking is the selfless sharing of information. So make your blog another resource of information by offering the option for readers to share something they’ve enjoyed. Share This and Tell-a-Friend are two customizable options to share your blog on other social networks. They can help you gain new readers too.
Google is your friend. While having a loyal readership is great, it’s always nice to get new visitors as well to join your existing subscribers. Make your blog easier to find by optimizing it for search engines. The All-in-One SEO pack is a great plug-in that helps you stand out with keywords and search terms. If you use the Thesis theme, this has a similar option already built in.
Protect your work. While blogging is a great way to build community and friends, it’s also open to plagiarizing, with many bloggers victims of RSS thieves that post your content as their own. One way to counter this is with Better Feed. This allows you to place your copyright in your RSS? feeds and email subscriptions and ensures that any “borrowed” work will link directly back to you with your copyrighted message.

These are just some of the tools I use. As I mentioned, they are skewed heavily towards WordPress, although some will work on other blogging platforms as well. Yet as good as they are, they’re just a small window into all the great blogging options around.

What do you use for your blog? Any not on here that should be must-haves?

photo credit: Mexicanwave

5 Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Good Twitter Relationship

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I find Twitter to be one of the best social media tools around. The fact that it only allows you 140 characters to get a message across usually means that there’s no waffle.

People genuinely think about what they want to say, and it’s a great way to connect with people you share interests with, personal and professional.

Yet lately I’ve been getting a little frustrated with Twitter – not the service itself (although the fail whale is never a pretty site). No, my frustrations lie with the way many users are spoiling what Twitter has to offer – at least for me.

I know that people use Twitter for different reasons and I have no qualms with that at all. I just feel that some use it less effectively and far more selfishly than others. So here, in no particular order, are my Top 5 peeves when it comes to Twitter use. (These are just my peeves – it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right – Twitter should be used how you want to use it).

Shameless self-promotion. Yes, we’re only human and that means we like to talk about ourselves. Yet social media is all about the conversation and interacting – sharing others as well as yourself. There’s nothing more annoying to me than a Twitter stream from someone that is nothing but a plug for their latest blog post or product. To me, that doesn’t offer anything to the community – sorry.

Selfish shouts. One of the reasons I love using Twitter is the way I find great new content, thanks to users I’m following recommending new blogs to check out. This has introduced some great opinions to me that I would never have been aware of otherwise. However, only recommending blog posts where you’re mentioned? Just as bad as shameless self-promotion (and possibly a little egotistical).

Twitter DM spam. So I’ve just agreed to follow your Twitter updates, and BAM! All of a sudden you feel it’s acceptable to send me direct messages telling me to sign up to your newsletter or join this group or that forum. Sorry, no – show me that you’re offering something selflessly and I’ll find that information anyway. Bombarding me with DM’s is akin to email spam and I instantly delete that.

Open conversations. This might be a bit contentious and I apologize if it comes across wrong – that’s not my intent. But if you feel that you’re going to have a long conversation with a particular user, can you use the DM option? Seeing half a conversation taking up every other Tweet isn’t particularly conducive to community spirit. You wouldn’t like me listening in on your phone conversation, would you?

Competition Tweets. While it’s nice to have the chance to win something at any time, Tweeting about it every other minute is not a great way to go about it. Instead of blasting everyone in your Twitter stream, why not have the competition URL and short spiel about it in your bio?

I’m not saying that Twitter is becoming annoying per se – just some of the ways that it’s being used.

Of course, maybe I’m missing the boat altogether and it’s me that’s in the wrong and the above points are moot. I’d love to hear your opinion, and if there are any other Twitterisms that annoy you.