Socialmedialand

Social media was made for amateurs.

It’s easy to use. The more intuitive a service or network is, the better it does. It’s not complicated. In fact, the beauty of it is how delightfully uncomplicated it is. It makes sense, it enables us to do what we  like to do best: socialize, connect, learn and grow. It just makes it easier and faster.

So I’ve had it with the whole “who is an expert and who isn’t” debate. Being an expert is not what it’s all about. Have you noticed that the only people arguing about it are the ones who work in this space anyways?

I wasn’t going to write about it. I wasn’t going to be a part of that noise, but honestly, I just can’t take it anymore.

The only reason there are social media consultants in the first place is because companies and brands weren’t built to work like humans. Individuals will find it fairly easy to naturally adapt to social media, whereas businesses find it “strange” and contrary to how they’ve done business over the last X number of years. Enter social media experts/managers/consultants/etc. They explain to businesses why it’s important and essentially how to behave properly and be successful here.

You’re doing it right if the company you’re advising is achieving successful results (however they’ve defined that based on their goals) and they’ve begun to act like a human – creating personal connections with their customers.

My coworker, Dustin, told me a story the other day about his friend who goes to the same cafe on a regular basis. He struck up a conversation with the manager about Twitter and how the business could use it. His only qualifications were 1) He was a frequent customer 2) He uses Twitter and 3) He knew what he would want. He wasn’t an expert. He doesn’t even work in this industry. He is an amateur. And you know what? The ideas he had were pretty insightful.

I’ve realized that my goal should be to think like an amateur, not an expert.

The amateur model of social media:

1) Think about the customers and their needs. If you’re not one yourself, find some to talk to.

2) Find out what social networks and services those customers use online. Where do they go and why?

3) Put those two together to figure out what they would want from this business online.

4) (or the *bonus* step) Learn, adapt and try again. Experts have to know it all, amateurs have the advantage of being able to continually grow and learn from their mistakes. It makes them a little more versatile in an ever changing world like Socialmedialand.

I’ll continue to give you my (amateur) opinion on social media and it’s uses – you can disagree with me, you can do things differently, and we can learn from each others’ experiences. But let’s stop arguing over who’s the expert. Ok?

Thank you.

Photo credit: www.amoeba.com

I saw this billboard at the Diamondbacks game Saturday night and it caught my eye. Notice there is no phone number, no web address – just their twitter name. Simple. Easy to remember. And just a little bit mysterious…(Side note- check out DD&F’s Twitter profile – looks like they get it.)

As the game went on, I thought about the implications of that sign (what can I say, the game wasn’t very pretty, we lost 8-1, I needed a distraction) and came up with a few things:

1. A social media profile CAN be your only web presence. Jason Baer talked about this a while back and I think it’s an intriguing idea. There are definitely some business models where this would make a lot of sense. If your website would mainly just be a digital business card – trade it in for a social media profile that’s more interactive. At the recent Tempe Chamber meeting (where I spoke about the importance of blogging and social media) this topic came up with a few of the business owners. I’m going to dig into this a little more and research whether there have been any successful examples of this model yet but I think it would be especially relevant to small and/or local businesses.

2. If it’s not you’re ONLY web presence – it can be your calling card. After I went home and visited their Twitter I found out that DD&F does have a website. But they didn’t put that on the sign. They also have a phone number, address, the works – none of that is included in the advertising. They’ve identified a social network as the easiest way for their customers to get in contact with them and get a taste of their business. From there the customer can click through to their web page for more information.

3. It may not be truly mainstream yet – but it’s on its way. Looking around the stadium at the diverse crowd reminded me of some of the things Bret mentioned in his recent Gangplank presentation on connections. He said that the adoption rate of some social networks is still less than that of the snuggie blanket. For those of us who are in it, it’s sometimes hard to remember how many people are still not participating. However, even if they’re not participating, at this point they have heard of it because it’s being referenced in mainstream places, like on the news, and at baseball stadiums. So I think the mainstream adoption is coming and we, as early adopters and advocates of social media, need to be ready to help the public learn to use it. Whether that means technically (how to use it), or socially (developing norms on how we act in this space), we need to be cognizant of it.

I got a reality check on this at the Tempe Chamber meeting, when I was talking to some of the members, a lot of the questions were about the real basic how to mechanics of using sites like Twitter. This is the reason I created a very elementary guide on how-to use Twitter in my resource section. I realized a lot of the how-to resources out there assume you already know the mechanics, when many of the newer people joining still don’t. After that, most of the questions I got were on what types of things you can say and what is expected of you on specific networks or in certain spaces – so look for follow up guides on those things.

A lot of stuff for one little sign huh? But let’s talk about all this - I want to explore these ideas more fully in the future so leave a comment with your opinions and thoughts and let’s see where this all leads. 

P.S: Later that night I took the lightrail back to Tempe and went to one of my favorite bars on Mill Avenue – this sign was up in the restroom, almost as a little confirmation of everything I’d been thinking about earlier:

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Socialmedialand has been under construction the last few weeks and I wanted to give you an idea of what new things are in store for you:

- The resources section: There’s a new page up there on the menu bar called “Resources.” Check it out. I provide you with tools you can use on your own adventure through Socialmedialand. Some of the things I find are so cool they need their own dedicated post – other things might just get added to one of the toolboxes I have included under resources. It’s my place to collect new things and your place to find new things, so check back often.

- The superficial side: You’ve probably noticed the new design, hopefully it’s a little cleaner and easier to read/use. Personally I’m a little bit in love with the customized subscribe, follow, and chat icons on the sidebar. Haven’t seen them yet? Look over there > (and hey, if you want to click on one who am I to stop you?)

Those are the two major updates you’ll see around here. Take a second to explore- oh and if you come back often you might just get a visit from a trickster up in the header…

_{*Photo credit: bucklava (Flickr)}

One of the things I learned at SXSWi that really resonated with me at the time (and has stuck with me) came from Kathy Sierra’s talk on breakthroughs. It was repeated throughout the panels on community building so this is more of a summary and not a direct quote:

Customers really suck at making breakthroughs

That’s right. You heard me. Your customers’ or community members’ ideas can be sub-par.

It makes sense when you think about it. It’s the classic dichotomy between writer/editor. Individuals have great ideas, they put those ideas into some sort of form, format, place, media, product, etc. Then the editor comes by and says things like, “You should spell check this” and “You should take out this part and add more explanation here.”

Customers are the same way. They buy your product/service or join your network, like it, then think up ways it could be better. It should be blue, it should go faster, it should have more memory, it should play music, it should be made of more durable materials. That is the crucial role that they play, and they do it well. They’ll take your product and do things with it that you never thought of, and in your next version you can adapt and add to it to make it better.

But when it comes to redesigning your whole service, or coming up with a brand new product – they’re not your best resource. As a collective they tend to think inside the box and, as people, they are naturally resistant to change. If you asked a group of cell phone users years ago how they would improve the phone they might’ve suggested “Add a camera and MP3 player,” “make it come in different colors,” but they wouldn’t have come up with the iPhone. This is why Alpha and Beta releases are so popular. You can put your revolutionary idea out there and let your customers do what they do best, suggest improvements.

This is crucial when it comes to social media and crowdsourcing. Using social monitoring tools to gather insights about your product and service from your consumers is a fantastic idea. And using them to make incremental improvements is a perfect application of that information. But beyond that, it’s up to YOU to internalize those insights and use them to make the breakthroughs your company needs to get ahead and reach the next level.

Agree? Disagree? Think I’m misinterpreting something? Leave me a comment -

Photo credit: Capture Queen (Flickr)

I want to apologize for my recent abscence here at SocialMediaLand - I didn’t have a laptop at SXSWi (which rocked by the way), then I spent an extended vacation in Texas and when I returned home I found that AT&T had dropped the ball causing my blog server to go down for several days.

But all of that is behind me now and I’m excited to get rolling on the list of blog topics I’ve been carting around with me in my little moleskin notebook for the past two+ weeks.

You’re probably pretty excited as well, so with no further ado…

Photo Credit: MollyPop (Flickr)

You may have noticed that my blog has taken a new name, Socialmedialand, and a new URL – socialmedialand.net. It’s an exciting day!

For the last 6 months or so I’ve been mainly focused on getting started and filling in some content but now that SXSW is coming up I wanted to polish some of the rough edges to get it ready.

While I was thinking about my personal brand in terms of the name of this blog, the direction I’d like it to take and what my niche is here it lead me to think a lot about the term “social media.”

What is “social media”?

I’ve read a few people’s blogs and heard some great arguments regarding the term “social media” and whether or not it’s descriptive of what we do in this industry. Here are my two cents:

One of the concerns regarding the term “social media” is that it’s too narrow. That it will be outdated in a few years and like the “Railroad Companies” that eventually had to rebrand into “Transportation Companies” we’ll find ourselves boxed in by our names. I don’t really agree with this. I think the narrow definition is only in the way individuals tend to associate “social media” with certain things – not the definition itself.

So here’s my definition:

 So-cial [soh-shuhl] Me-di-a [mee-dee-uh]: refers to any technology, space, network, or type of media that facilitates communication, sharing, learning, or other social activities.

By this definition, social media isn’t just Facebook and Twitter; it can be mobile applications; it can be email and IM; it can be things we haven’t even come up with yet – anything that uses a medium of some sort to promote or support any type of social activity.

How does this relate?

Using my working definition of social media I think it’s the appropriate name for the topic that I wish to discuss in this space. This blog, Socialmedialand, and the Alice in Wonderland theme will speak to the way that, like Alice,  we’ve found ourselves in a totally new world that is accelerating and changing at a pace unparalleled in human history. That means that the rules aren’t clearly defined and, like I did above, we’re free to make them up, change them, mold them and evolve them as we see fit. The things I write here will be the explorations of social media including thoughts on what the rules are (or aren’t), ideas on how to shape it and use it, examples of things that have gone right or wrong and more (got to leave room to evolve right?)

If that sounds good to you, click on the subscribe button over there on the sidebar.

Can’t get away from these giants this week.

Facebook is updating its homepage to include more real-time functionality and sharing mechanisms which has the whole industry a flutter with rumors that Facebook is trying to “crush” Twitter, Google is ignoring Twitter’s true capability, and what Twitter’s response will be.

I have the exact same message I had about email and IM v. Twitter: No one is going to beat anyone.

*Disclaimer – this is my opinion, I have no crystal ball to base my prophesy on*

I don’t think that people truly understand the major differences between all these online services.

Twitter - Mass, short messaging to a large group of people allowing others to join into public conversations and quickly share small doses of info.

Email - One to one (or One to a few) messaging where you can send information, content, attachments, etc to a specific set of interested people and thread the discussion and back and forth of said information/content.

IM - Direct (normally short) messaging, one to one (or One to a few). Allows short term sharing of content, information and conversation. (I say short term because normally you sign off and that conversation is over where email lives in inboxes and folders for longer)

Facebook - Advanced content sharing, profiles and community building. Rather than quick messages, Facebook lets you share (visibly rather than through links) video, longer message, photos, notes, blog posts, messages, audio with your friends or post to your profile to share with anyone who visits you.

Is there some cross over? Yes. But is the functionality of any of these identical? No. Can anyone of these fully replace the other? No.

The real-time messaging in Facebook is weighed down by the amount of content that is also shared through the network. The real-time messaging of IM is not public. The real-time messaging of Twitter is confined to 140 characters and links. The real-time messaging of email is not public and with too many messages/day can get cluttered.

My prediction is that all these forms of communication continue in their separate ways, but that a new platform is developed to connect them together so the user can easily flip between them and their respective functionality. That’s the idea with the upcoming Palm Pre’s combined messaging and I see that evolving in subsequent smart phones and migrating to the desktop.

What do you predict? Take a glance at your crystal ball and let me know if I’m missing something (also feel free to mention the winning lottery numbers if you see them…)

I wrote a post cautioning you against ignoring the giants - like email, Facebook, Twitter, etc when choosing tactics for your social strategy. But now I have to caution the major giants from ignoring the David’s of the world.

@Copyblogger sent a tweet out linking to this post about Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt’s, position on Twitter:

“Speaking as a computer scientist, I view all of these as sort of poor man’s email systems,”

“In other words, they have aspects of an email system, but they don’t have a full offering. To me, the question about companies like Twitter is: Do they fundamentally evolve as sort of a note phenomenon, or do they fundamentally evolve to have storage, revocation, identity, and all the other aspects that traditional email systems have? Or do email systems themselves broaden what they do to take on some of that characteristic?

I think the innovation is great. In Google’s case, we have a very successful instant messaging product, and that’s what most people end up using.

Twitter’s success is wonderful, and I think it shows you that there are many, many new ways to reach and communicate, especially if you are willing to do so publicly.”

It has the ring of “famous last words” if you ask me. To think that Google’s instant message is equal to Twitter is a little over the top in my opinion. They serve very different purposes and really aren’t comparable. Email, also, serves a different purpose than Twitter. Twitter allows you to communicate to a broad network of people, start dialogues with them, join into conversations already in progress and share the wealth of the results of these interactions with the world. When I “reply all” on my email I doubt that has the same type of reach.

I’m not saying email is dead. I’m not saying IM is useless. I’m saying that all three things are separate, individual things that serve different purposes and for Eric Schmidt to categorically dismiss Twitter as something that will either evolve into email/IM or fade away as a novelty is extremely short sighted in my opinion.

Enough about my opinion, what about yours? Leave a comment!

I’m actually going to SXSW! I’ve never been and hadn’t planned on going this year either until there were a few shifts in responsibilities at work and a spot opened up for me to go. Talk about lucky.

I’ll keep you updated on it as it happens, including what events I go to and all the awesome things I’m sure I’ll learn (you’ll be able to find these posts in the ’Happy Unconference’ category – A new category I created for any conference news/updates with a nice little reference to the Happy Unbirthday tea party…)

For right now I’ve signed up for “My SXSW” which is – as you could probably tell from the name – the social network for SXSW attendees.

It’s powered by the Social Collective which specializes in conference communities. Pretty decent functionality – you can:

• Import your friends from Facebook and Twitter.
• Use a twitterlike message system
• Create a “badge,”
• Build your own schedule
• Find people you’d like to meet (search by Name, Industry, City orState)

I like that they provide a community up front like this – if I wasn’t already going with some people I know it would help me to feel more comfortable being able to get to know people before heading out there. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from SXSW.

And if My.SXSW isn’t enough to get you excited, there are all the parties and mixer invites going out on Facebook…uh, I mean all the conference event descriptions… :) 

Anyone else going or have you gone before? Any advice or suggestions you have are welcome!

My coworker, Andrew, attended a Digital Summit with Google where they gave the attendees the following quiz to test how digitally immersed everyone is. He created this quiz for Sitewire’s blog but I wanted to repost it here as well. He scored a 92. I got an 88 – where do you rank?