social media tools

Define Your Digital Footprint – Lacing the Shoes

Whether you like it or not, you already have a digital footprint that you can’t fully control. People are talking about you; dissecting you; and?making decisions about you every day of the week.

You don’t even have to be online to have a digital footprint – people and businesses that don’t have an active web presence are being talked about. By their customers; their clients; their past and futures. So if all this talk is going on and you’re late to the party,?isn’t it already too late?

Not necessarily.

But it is?time to define your digital footprint so you can?at least help guide what you’d like to be found. In this first part of a series, I’m going to look at how you can define a strong footprint. Upcoming posts will look at tools you can use, how to connect strongly, how to react and converse with negative footprints, and more.

Who Are You?

There are a ton of ways for you to define your digital footprint, but let’s face it – unless you know who you are and who you want to be known as, any kind of defining could turn out worthless. If you don’t have a strong signal of you, everything else is just guesswork. So how do you make a strong you?

Be consistent. Wherever you are online, make sure you’re not confusing anyone. While the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Squidoo and other popular networking sites appeal to a different audience, that doesn’t mean you have to be completely different on them. Adapt to the community; make the conversation fit the space; but keep a sense of you while doing it. Is it a business approach you take? A more personal one? A mix of the two? Find a voice and run with that.
Claim your space. Think of a glass of scotch or bourbon. Pour it neat and it’s a strong colour. Add water, and it’s not just the taste that’s diluted – the colour is too. Think of your digital footprint as the scotch, and networks where you’re active as the water. If possible, try and grab the same username on each profile you’re active on. If this isn’t possible, it can be better going for a derivative as opposed to numbers – so, @danny_brown on Twitter as opposed to @dannybrown18275. This will keep your name strong and prevent it from being diluted.
Be recognizable. As much as what you say and how you say it will help define your footprint, the way you look will help define how you’re viewed. It’s true – first impressions do count. Use an avatar that states who you are – personable and fun if a personal account, business-like but approachable if a professional account. A good choice is an informal head shot or a clear, smiling face. You could use a brand icon, but why not show the human face with a small brand banner across the bottom instead? Either way, being easily recognizable on first viewing is something to aim for.
Start walking. If you want to create any kind of footprint, digital or otherwise, you need to do one simple thing – start walking. Online, that just means start talking. Talk to people; talk with people; join discussions; post a blog comment; write a blog post (there are a few options available if you don’t like the idea of a full on blog, which I’ll look at next time). No-one will know you’re around unless you walk up and say “Hi” – so walk on up and introduce yourself. Set yourself a clear direction and start that journey; just don’t be afraid to ask for directions along the way.

These are just the early steps that you can take toward defining and identifying your digital footprint – but they’re important ones nonetheless. Get the early steps right, and the rest of the path might become just that little bit easier to navigate.

In the next post, we’ll look at what tools are available to help you plant your footprint and maintain it, and the platforms that may be more beneficial to you than others.

In the meantime, what have I missed? What would you recommend when it comes to setting up your digital footprint?

photo credit: G a r r y

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.

For Those About to Bob – We Salute You

Okay, so sue me for being an AC/DC fan. But hey, what a classic song! Apart from being a slight spin on words of the Aussie rockers’ classic, though, it’s an apt description for all the Bobs in the world. Confused? Here’s why.

I read Chris Brogan’s latest blog post today, which told the story of Bob (not his real name). The basis of the story is that Bob engaged the customers of the company he works for by interacting with them online.

This was via a forum, and Bob found that the customers in question loved the fact he was communicating with them. It was as if the company he worked for really wanted to know what their customers thought.

However, Bob’s company found out about his online conversations and senior managers weren’t happy – despite the fact Bob was putting the company in a hugely positive light. I won’t give you all the details – Chris describes it far better in his own inimitable style, and I’d highly recommend reading it. Suffice to say, it was the example of another company not getting social media.

Why is this? Why do so many companies, small and large, fail so miserably to get what could be one of the best promotional tools they could ever have? Is it because they don’t understand it? Or is it because they just see it as a waste of time because there’s no tangible return on investment (ROI)?

A good friend of mine has an interesting view on ROI in social media. Chris Kelly, a new media marketing expert working at 77Academy, offers his viewpoints from a marketer’s perspective. What makes Chris’s views even more interesting is the fact that, despite being the traditional type of professional for whom ROI is everything, Chris acknowledges that this isn’t the way to go.

In one of Chris’s recent blog posts, he talks of how businesses – and marketer’s in particular – are getting it wrong by approaching social media from an ownership perspective. While it would obviously be simpler for businesses to understand social media if there was a tangible ROI to work from, this won’t happen for the simple fact that social media doesn’t work this way.

It’s about connecting with your customers, and helping them make decisions. Not telling them how to make these decisions, but offering the knowledge and tools that will help them to decide instead.

You want to sell your latest gardening supertool to the masses? Get online, meet your audience, listen to what they’re saying and converse. As a human being. As a person. Not as a corporate entity who reads everything from an autocue.

The companies that get this idea will be the ones that benefit. They’ll be the ones that employ guys like Chris Kelly and listen to consultants like Chris Brogan. The others? They’ll be Bob’s employers – though for how long remains questionable. After all, it’s easier to change companies than it is to change mindsets.

But I’m sure Bob has already figured that one out.

How to Take Social Media into the Mainstream

For anyone reading this blog, it’s a pretty good chance that you’re already social media-savvy. Whether you found it through a Twitter link, a blogroll, Technorati or similar means, I’m guessing that you know about the benefits social media can offer.

(For anyone else that arrived here by mistake – well, I thank your error and hope you’ll stick around!)

And therein lies the problem. If you did use one of the methods I mentioned, you’re already a social media user, which is great. But for each one of us that “gets” social media, there’s another 10 that don’t.

(By the way, this figure hasn’t been scientifically proven – I just like round numbers).

This is the problem that social media needs to overcome if it’s ever to be taken seriously. There are some great people out there helping to spread the word about social media, both for personal and professional use. But there needs to be more to help the medium into the kind of acceptance the Internet now has with everyone.

One of the main issues is that there are just too many social media sites, applications, tools and more that it’s all too easy to get lost when you first jump in. No-one likes to be the guy that made the wrong choice – just ask Betamax video or HD-DVD early adopters.

What’s needed is a standard format for the different tools available. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want to see a monopoly of social media any more than you do – but figures prove that something is much more likely to enjoy success the easier it is to use.

Instead of having multiple microblogging platforms like Twitter, Pownce or Plurk, etc, have one main platform to work from. Differentiate the users by offering categories, if you like, that helps them find like-minded users more easily.

Have three main social networking sites – Facebook for people, MySpace for music, LinkedIn for business. Integrate some of the better features from other sites like Bebo and FastPitch and make these three sites the one-stop shop for whatever field it covers.

Combine the best of Stumbleupon and Delicious to offer a bookmarking site that truly does drive traffic to your website or blog.

These are just some ideas to bring social media to everyone. The biggest stumbling block for people and businesses is simply confusion as to what social media offers. Having so many platforms doesn’t help. Narrowing all the current options down into a more manageable resource would go a long way into negating this confusion.

I’m not saying it’s the ideal solution – but it’s got to be better than the mish-mash that’s currently out there, no? What do you think – are there too many social media platforms or is all this choice a good thing?

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Harness the Power of Stumbleupon with a Social Media Group

One of the social media tools growing in popularity and use is Stumbleupon. A simple yet effective application, Stumbleupon allows users to find random sites on the Internet either by recommendation from other Stumblers, or by happening across it by accident – all with the click of the Stumble button on your web browser.

It’s also one the most effective tools for web traffic in social media – yet Stumbleupon is still being underused by many, despite having the power to increase your web traffic by several hundred per cent. However, there are ways to make sure you’re utilizing all that Stumbleupon has to offer.

Start a Social Media Group for Stumblers

I can’t take credit for this idea – it was suggested by an online friend of mine and I was invited to participate. Yet the idea is so simple I’m surprised no-one else has picked up on it yet. Simply, gather a group of friends and create a social media group (not to be confused with the excellent social media clubs you can find online).

By gathering a number of online friends that use Stumbleupon as a social media tool and emailing each other a couple of blog posts or links each week to Stumble and recommend, you’re instantly getting new traffic to your recommended link. It also means you’re reaching new Stumblers through your friends, who can help you grow both your Stumbleupon and social media network.

To make sure it works to its maximum, keep the email requests to just a couple a week, and have your social media group at no more than 50 members. That means you only have to Stumble a maximum of 100 recommendations per week (including your own) which takes no time at all.

Use a Stumbleupon Widget

Although all blogs should really have some form of Share This or Add This widget at the bottom of each post – which allows readers to recommend the post to their friends – not all of them do. This is missing out on a great opportunity for your blog to reach a far wider audience – the Share This button allows the post to be shared on Digg, Technorati, Facebook and much more.

However, if you simply don’t like having too much clutter on your blog post, at least have the option to Stumble the post. This will see it being recommended to that reader’s Stumbleupon subscribers, which again will see you enjoy an immediate traffic spike.

(As an example, whenever one of my posts is Stumbled, I usually receive anywhere between a couple of hundred to over a thousand new reads. The more popular blogs receive several thousand new hits, so you can see the potential for business marketing as well).

The great thing about Stumbleupon is that once your blog has been stumbled the once, it offers a passive traffic flow for as long as your blog or post is live. Any time someone online hits their Stumble button, they could be taken to your original post. That’s just as good as any Pay-per-Click or AdWords campaign that I can think off – best of all, it’s free.

If you’re truly interested in all social media offers, Stumbleupon is one of the tools that you really should have a look at. Its potential for business is also only just beginning to be realized – be there when it happens.