Tag Archives: MySpace

Lyndi Thompson is an M&M peanut-aholic and treehugger-wannabe, but she has also taken her nerdy HTML and CSS skills into the Blogosphere with her new blog lyndit.com.

I met Lyndit in Twitterville after she happened upon my article on 10 Mistakes Made by Social Media Newbies. Apparently Lyndit didn’t want to make any of them, and she even mentioned the article in her first post Listening — First Pillar of Social Media:

Whenever I am working with a new small business or even a larger company, my first advice to them is to listen. Listen to how people are currently talking about your business, products and competitors.
Listening is one of the core foundational skills that all people working within the marketing field must master. To effectively reach customers, we have to listen to them.
“Not listening enough at first to understand the workings and sentiments of a community” – 10 Mistakes Made by Social Media Newbies

I liked her personality right off and thought my readers might benefit from —

Lyndi Thompson’s Getting Started Blogging Story:

Q1: Lyndit [as she likes to be called], how did you get started in social media?

Lyndi: The precise moment that I went from a nerdy caterpillar into a social butterfly must have been when MySpace appeared on the scene. My geeky online coding skills had even the high school cheerleaders green-eyed with jealousy.

Seriously . . . over a MySpace page?

Soon after, I started helping small businesses create their own presence on MySpace.

Q2: Let’s talk about MySpace. I didn’t get techie until MySpace was on the way down . . . but, honestly, I think it’s a shame. I like the idea of being able to DESIGN your own space and not [like Facebook] have the same platform as all my “Friends.”

How do you feel about that?

Lyndit: MySpace was originally created for up&coming musicians to showcase their work. The flexibility of MySpace was appealing because you could customize your page to brand it exactly how you wanted.

But just think about it. Can you imagine that every time, you went to someone’s home, there was a different way to get in the door. Finding the bathroom might be like trying to make your way through a rowdy party.

Personal pages were littered with animated graphics, hundreds of quotes, videos, and tons of content. It became almost impossible to interact with the profile.

Facebook took the idea of interacting Front and Center with the Wall. Facebook appealed to me as a place for a different profile of a person. Gone were the spam-y friend requests and glittering distractions – just a place for me to interact with my friends and family.

Q3 Hmmm . . . I’m going to play with MySpace, but I’m happy to have the “back story.”

So Lyndit, why did you start your blog?

Lyndit: Developing a strong personal brand is definitely an asset that I wanted to invest in for the future.

What I was looking for was a place to serve as a sort of campfire – to share ideas and pass on stories that I’ve heard from marketing professionals. So my objective is to provide a place for me to share, listen, learn, engage, and be a true and genuine marketing professional.

Q4: How did you learn to start your blog, and what obstacles have you had to overcome?

Lyndit: For the past year, I had had the pleasure of getting my feet wet working with MazdasNW.com, a WordPress site on which I wrote blog posts and created banners for events. I really fell in love with the seemingly endless options that the WordPress community had created.

Initially, Blogger kept me satisfied with its simplistic editor, and I still recommend it for those who want an enjoyable, easy-to-use platform.

However, WordPress raises the bar, allowing more versatility.

On an almost daily basis, WordPress’s library of plug-ins and themes are increasing exponentially. If you can’t find a particular functionality, you just haven’t looked hard enough. By a simple installation of a plug-in, you cannot do a host of ecommerce functions including very complex accounts.

Q5: What do you think is the Number One struggle for new bloggers?

Lyndit: Creating space in our often jam-packed busy lives for writing, interviewing, finding photos, design and editing is a huge challenge. Stealing attention, focus, and energy away from the normal hustle and bustle of my life was essential to work on Lyndit.com.

I applaud all writers, artists, entrepreneurs and visionaries for following their passions, and I look to experts to find inspiration and encouragement — as well as comical ways to relate to the common mud puddles that bloggers sometimes seem to step in. Comedy is found in every corner of the creative world. We laugh together because we know it’s true.

Lyndit lives out “in the sticks” in Washington State. She is the proud owner of two border collies, a cat, a guinea pig, a dwarf rabbit, a horse, and a donkey. And even though she’s never lived outside the state, you’ll find her globally on Twitter @lyndit and lyndit.com

Blogging, Twitter

With 100’s of social media platforms, which do you choose to use?

August 9, 2009 Shari Weiss 25 Comments

Every day we hear of “new” or “new-to-us” social media tools and platforms. How is a person, or a company, to choose what to use?

The Top Three: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are “no-brainers,” i.e. you really do need to sign up and start experimenting and/or incorporate your participation into your daily routine.

But what about the rest of the dozens and dozens and dozens [100’s] of sites?

We ask this question a lot in PR class, so the students worked in teams to examine 15 online sites: Google Reader, Zemanta, Flickr, Technorati, Squidoo, Ezine Articles, Del.ici.ous, Stumbleupon, Friendfeed, Digg, RSS, BlipTV, Hub Pages, Truveo, and Vimeo.

After brief team reports, the class as a whole voted on one of three options; (a) They would definitely check out the site for personal use; (b) They “might” check it out; or (c) They had NO intention of seeking out more details about the site.

The most popular platform by far was Flickr, followed by Delicious and RSS, with Technorati and Google Reader also scoring high in the (a) option. The lowest scoring sites included Ezine Articles, Truveo, and Vimeo.

Below [in the order seen by the students] is a brief description of each site, with a student comment, and the reported “scores”:

Google Reader: Helps you follow all your favorite sites by managing RSS feeds on one page. Free and easy to use: “Google Reader is a great site with sharing capabilities. You can subscribe to blogs and other sites on a regular basis, which reduces search time considerably” – Jason Khorge.

Class vote on Google Reader: (a) 13 will definitely check it out. (b) 31 said they may check it out; (c) 4 voted against.

Zemanta: This free Firefox add-on download that offers related web content — both text and visuals — that can help bloggers link and use valuable online information. “Zemanta is a great assistant for bloggers because it is easy to use, cuts down research time and enables content producers to enrich their publications with just a few clicks.” — Alisa Guan “I’m interested in checking out Zemanta to help me upgrade my blog. The suggested articles could help me give a more informed and useful opinion.” — Angelica Maduell

Class vote on Zemanta: (a) 14; (b) 24; (c) 13

Flickr: Online photo management and sharing web community. “”In my eyes, Flickr has garnered a lot of attention from reputable photographers and amateurs alike. It’s definitely a haven for people who want to share their passion for picture-taking and connecting with others of similar interests.” — Sarah Awang Razali “I personally thing that Flickr is really useful because of the quality of content provided on it. There are personal pages and professional pages, and all users are equally respected within the community. A lot of the photos are also the basis for much online content. They say, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ so thousands of pictures must be worth a lifetime of endless content.: — Frank Lin

Class vote on Flickr: (a) 31; (b) 18; (c) 2

Technorati: Top rated blog search engine that indexes more than 1.5 million blog posts in real time. “I’m always looking for new blogs to follow and I think Technorati can really help me enlarge my collection.” — Petya Somleva

Class vote on Technorati: (a) 17; (b) 15; (c) 18

Squidoo: Content publishing on steroids: Free community website that allows users to publish pages [lenses] on line in a wide range of topics, virtually anythinhereg a person is passionate about. “Squidoo appealed to me the most, and I believe it has the greatest opportunity to grow. Providing such a diverse collection of material means it can reach a wide variety of interests.” — Liz Looney “I like the free Squidoo community website where content you’re interested in is easy to find. It is easy to use, simple to post comments, and you can earn money for charity.” — Brandon Wong

Class vote on Squidoo: (a) 13; (b) 31; (c) 4

Ezine Articles: Publishing site for original articles including tips, strategies, techniques, analysis, and case studies. Great for sending links back to a website. Sadly, no students chose to write an opinion about this site.

Class vote on Ezine: (a) 2; (b) 14; (c) 27

Del.ici.ous: A social bookmarking service that allows uses to save websites online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking. “You can build a mountain of information before ever adding a single bookmark. You find Del.ici.ous users who have saved articles you enjoy reading. Add their names to your network and with a single click, you can save all their bookmarks. That was amazing to me.” — Sarah Awang Razali

Stumbleupon: An Internet community that allows users to find, share, and rate favorite websites. “I was really impressed by Stumbleupon, particularly when someone said it was ‘a good site to waste a lot of time on the Internet.’ That being said lightly, it did strike me as the kind of site you could go on and be entertained by by topical content. I could see this website becoming part of my daily routine.” — Anna Rahnvonih

Class vote on Stumbleupon: (a) 5; (b) 20; (c) 16

Friendfeed: This microblogging site offers users a stream of updates which, unlike Twitter but similar to Facebook, allows comments and conversations to attach to updates. “With the decreasing popularity of MySpace and the growth of Twitter and Facebook, I think Friendfeed may just be the next best platform, using features from all three of these social networking sites.” — Sheena Diaz “I like the added Friendfeed feature of receiving feedback underneath your post.” — Ashley Dordan

Class vote on Friendfeed: (a) 12; (b) 27; (c) 5

Digg: A user-driven sharing site that is divided into categories for easy search. It also allows you to connect with Facebook and Twitter to share sites. “I am considering Digg because it filters news and other topics by what is important to other people.” — Caroll Vongsouthi

Class vote on Digg: (a) 6; (b) 35; (c) 7

RSS: Stands for “Really Simple syndication” and simplifies the process of getting information. It is a data format used for supplying frequently updated content. “RSS feeds allow you to easily get the latest information that you are interested in and they build Google Juice for shared sites.” — Bo Zhang

Class vote on RSS: (a) 22; (b) 21; (c) 3

BlipTV: Website for video distribution intended for anyone who wants to create a webshow to share with the world. “This site offers free hosting in any video format and tells you who is looking at your page and how they found you. I will definitely check it out.” — Ashley Hall “It’s interesting that you can find sponsors and earn revenue.: — Diedre Moseley

Class vote on BlipTV: (a) 10; (b) 28; (c) 4

Hub Pages: Website is designed for sharing advertising revenue for high quality, user-generated content. Members create individual pages on narrow topics based on the users interest. Not as popular with students as Squidoo.

Class vote on Hub Pages: (a) 3; (b) 25; (c) 18

Truveo: Video search engine that allows users to embed videos through a third party site like YouTube. It has a rating feature, and you can save favorites. “Truveo has many ways to search, e.g., by categories like business or comedy, by TV stations, by name of show. You need to become a member if you want to rate videos and add them to your favorites.” — McKenzie Hanson

Vimeo: Video file sharing and uploading site specifically for noncommercial content.Caters to a high-end artistic crowd. “Users can share or embed. Other options include title, byline, and portrait of the video listing beofre it starts playing. Videos can be enhanced with site tools.” — Riciaig Panlaqui

Class vote on Truveo & Vimeo: (a) 11; (b) 11; (c) 23

Student comments after the two-day experience:

I’ll be honest, I’m not a blogger. I don’t use Twitter and at times I don’t understand all the hype about these forms of social media. However, after seeing these presentations, there is no doubt in my mind the importance of these new media platforms. It’s plain and simple — if you want to spread the word, you MUST use these forms of social media. — Liz Looney

It was interesting to see how social media has exploded in recent years. Seeing all the sites — big and small — showed how each has its unique features. A lot of people do not realize that a small not very well known site today might in fact be the most popular six months from now. Anyone starting to use social media for business needs to check out many of these sites. — Eddie Neyman

From these presentations, I learned a lot of useful tools that will come in handy when I start looking for a job. Some of my favorites were the ones that help you find related articles on certain topics. Too often, I have the hardest time finding good information. — McKensie Hanson

With all the information presented, I feel like I’m already falling behind in the online social media world. To really be able to participate in all the social media sites, I will have to invest an outrageous amount of time. I plan to get involved by signing up for a handful of sites that I can keep up with. This was a great opportunity to learn that many sites can bring news and articles I like, rather than for me always having to search. — Caroll Vongsouthi

Next post: I evaluate my Online Presence Management

Sharisax Is Out There

15 Social Media Maxims for Marketers – My Comments

June 1, 2009 Shari Weiss 9 Comments

Sharing and commenting is the “name of the game” in the Social Media World, so I’m re-distributing a great post I read Monday morning by Erik Qualman and including my own comments on each maxim.

Like the structure of a blog — where you read the most recent entry first — I’m starting with number 15:

15. The overall achievement of individuals and companies will be largely dependent on their social media success.

Genuine success usually comes to those who work, and work diligently. towards a worthwhile goal. Marketing on New Media, whether it is your personal brand — or a company brand — will not lead to overnight success. Even our new celebrities Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert paid “offline” dues taking lessons and performing in front of audiences before their meteoric rise to fame.

The Social Media are NOT a fad, folks. The sooner those who want to offer goods, services, and themselves to others, the sooner they need to discover the right platform(s) [i.e., Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Ning, LinkedIn, etc.] to reach the right people and then get “out there” and Do It.

Online search has revolutionized the way we hire — and get hired

14. The information exchanged in social media in relation to job searching and recruiting has rendered it unrecognizable from the information exchanged 10 years ago. Appropriate matches between employer and employee have increased as a result of an increased information flow.

My students at San Francisco State are learning this lesson on a daily basis. Those who’ve recently graduated know that so many new jobs require social media knowledge, experience, and skills. Plus prospective employers are checking LinkedIn pages for connections and endorsements and, even, personal blogs. Savvy employers are Googling prospects rather than spending much time with resumes.

And savvy job seekers, whether fresh out of college or fresh out of a job, are discovering a myriad of ways to research employers in even more depth than a company website. One great “trick” is going on LinkedIn, clicking the “Company” link on the top menu board, selecting a company of interest [e.g., Microsoft] and checking out tons of information opportunities you couldn’t find anywhere else, like “former employees” who might be able to offer great strategies for landing a job or avoiding pitfalls.

Engage in conversations that are already going on

13. If you’re a large brand, you can rest assured that there are conversations, pages, and applications constantly being developed around your brand and by the community at large. The social community is “doing” social media even if your company chooses not to.

THIS IS HUGE, especially for HUGE companies. We know that none of us can “control the message” online. I’m reminded of a student who was blasted on Yelp because a bank customer blamed her personally for his frustrations. She came to me crying because every time anyone Googled her, this nasty Yelp comment was the first thing they saw. We’ve learned that there’s no technology to erase bad comments; there’s even something called the Streisand Effect where companies have learned what happens when you try to.

What do you do instead? THIS IS EASY. You put your own good stuff online, and the nastiness is buried on page 54 of Google [or now the new soon-to-be popular search “Bing”]. As they say, the “cream rises to the top.”

12. Making multiple mistakes within social media is far better than doing nothing at all.

Picasso said, “I am always doing that which I do not know how to do in order to learn to do it.” An art instructor of mine once told the class that we all had 1,000 bad paintings in us, so we’d better get started to get those out of the way. An English professor once said that if we read everything written by Thomas Hardy, we would think he was just a hack, but it is his masterpieces that continue to be read, studied, and remembered.

11. Marketers’ jobs have changed from creating and pushing to one that requires listening, engaging, and reacting to potential and current customer needs.

For years we’ve heard that “The Customer is Always Right” but we haven’t really listened to them, and THAT is what is so powerful about online opportunities. When your customers have questions and concerns, you can shape your products and services to respond to real needs and wants RATHER THAN simply producing things and trying to manipulate people to want and acquire them.

“Content is key” is MORE than the message

10. Companies that produce great products and services rather than companies that simply rely on great messaging will be winners in a Socialnomic™ world. The social graph is the world’s largest and most powerful referral program.

Why have testimonials always been so sought after by marketers? Because people like to hear how wonderfully products and services have worked for others — and also when those products and services have NOT worked. The better mousetrap works well , people will use it, and so will their friends and neighbors.

Focusing on core strengths leads to leadership

9. Being “well-rounded” as a company or individual is less beneficial. It’s more productive to play to your core strength. This differentiates you from the competition.

Rarely is a jack-of-all-trades in the League of Superstars. We like doing what we do well: when we focus our efforts on our strengths, we build a trustworthy reputation and retain loyal followers.

8. The transparency and speed of information exchanged within social media mitigates casual schizophrenic behavior. Having a “work” personality and having a “party” personality will soon become extinct. People and companies will need to have one essence and be true to that essence.

Back “in the day” when I studied journalism, we were taught objectivity, i.e., keeping ourselves out of our stories. But just as the news”papers” themselves are disappearing, so is the way we’ve communicated with audiences. Neither preaching nor more subtle manipulation works anymore. What does is honesty, authenticity, sincerity, and friends helping friends.

Figure out which platforms work best for your community

7. The most successful social media and mobile applications are those that allow users to brag, compete, or look cool by passing it on.

Today’s social media landscape is burgeoning with a vast variety of platforms to share opinions, insights, and graphic contributions — the most useful will become the most popular, and the most popular will become the most powerful. Experimenting with many of them will help you figure out which are most likely to build your community of engaged customers, clients, and friends.

6. With the increasing popularity of e-books, there will be new digital media placement opportunities for brands. This is very similar to product placement in movies, only this is for books, and the placements are clickable and measurable.

A great feature of new technology is the opportunity to modernize the tried-and-true: longer stories and lessons are being published online in the form of e-books, which offer readers an additional layer of credibility but with the ultimate in ease-of-use. When businesses find appropriate ways to sponsor these applications, the ROI will be evident.

Fun and games is more than fun and games

5. Successful social media marketers will function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners rather than as traditional advertisers.

Tradition in marketing has meant treating customers in an “impersonal” way that just won’t work anymore. As entertainment options increase — and our ability to discover and access them online grows — our expectations are necessitating new traditions. We audience members are putting ourselves “out there” with our likes and dislikes broadcast on Facebook, Twitter, etc. All of this will make it easier for “producers” to create appealing, targeted, winning communication strategies. As one commenter to Erik’s post put it, “Every company will be a media company.”

4. The old adage that you can only have two of these — cheap, quick, or quality — doesn’t hold true within social media. It’s possible to have all three.

We don’t have to pay to play, so the online world is accessible to all with an available computer. Information is readily obtainable and often in “real time.” Thus quality is never compromised because of cost or speed.

3. Social media’s ability to quickly disseminate information among friends and peers helps eliminate different people performing the same tasks (multiple individual redundancies), whether it’s researching the best vacation spot or smart phone. This results in a more efficient society.

No one likes wasting time, so online searching avoids the delay and frustration of waiting for postal delivery, a return phone call, or even getting past the button-pressing in a phone tree. Businesses can send personalized messages to a community — thus eliminating the waste of mass marketing and the expense of one-on-one promotion.

Quality goods and services lead to great word of mouth

2. Consumers are looking to peers for recommendations on products, services, health issues, and more via social media. Only companies that produce products and services of great value will be part of these conversations; mediocrity will quickly be eliminated.

Society as a whole will be improved as we help one another create and discover the highest quality products and services.

1. Successful marketers will be more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy; listen first, sell second.

Everything in this revolutionary world of Social Media Marketing begins with improving (a) the way we listen to one another and (b) the means to do it.

Let’s re-visit #15 and more fully comprehend that business growth and success in the future will be tied to mastery of opportunities offered in our Brave New World of Social Media

Your turn for comments and additional maxims.

Blogging, Facebook, Twitter

10 Reasons Why Baby Boomers Like Me Should Embrace Social Media

May 30, 2009 Shari Weiss 24 Comments

The Future is NOT just “in the future.” The Future is NOW!

Just after New Year’s, a friend told me she was spending three hours a day on Facebook. “How could you be wasting so much of your life!” I’d asked her — genuinely concerned that she was “stupid” for getting caught up in all the silly buzz.

How dramatically my own life has changed in four months!

That’s the purpose of this blog — to help my Baby Boomer generation, and my retired friends, and my career-contemplating students all discover how this major New Media revolution is changing Everything — and for the betterment of all.

Here are 10 reasons why we — Baby Boomers in particular — should “Dive In”

1. Something “out there” for everyone: It’s not just Oprah, Demi Moore, Dave Matthews, and Barack Obama on Twitter. Thirty million other Tweeters plus around 300 million users each on MySpace and Facebook . . . and the list of social media participants goes on. A host of different platforms with a variety of advantages for people from widely different walks of life with a huge diversity of different interests. There is something “Out There” speaking to you — if you listen.

2. “Fountain of Youth”: Ask yourself what you “want” — to make you happier, more fulfilled, more connected, more ________________ [fill in the blank]. If you are one of the “elder” Baby Boomers like me, then one possible response might be: “I’d like to feel younger and, perhaps, more hopeful.” After having spent these several weeks learning/experimenting/engaging with the New Media and the communities of folks using them, I can appreciate the “Fountain of Youth” properties associated with being a young person just embarking on a new, exciting adventure.

3. DO something New: Laziness is not next to Godliness. Get off the couch and do something NEW.

4. Get “famous”: Think about someone like Susan Boyle – a 48-year-old Scottish woman with a magnificent voice, who thanks to the magic of YouTube and Twitter is now known worldwide and will get a chance to bring joy to multitudes. You, too, can be famous if you’d like. Read my first blog post.

5. Find answers: Is there anything you don’t know? I’m talking here to the men (who occasionally don’t like to admit lack of knowledge) as well as the women (who usually do know “everything,” right, ladies?) Not only are answers to your questions all over the internet, but you can discover new friends who share your interests by asking questions on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms.

6. Be creative: Speaking of Twitter, it’s a very simple technology with tons of “applications.” That means any of us can shape the medium in creative ways. Lots of people may merely “text-message” friends and family, but some of us use it to discover new information available on the internet. It’s also a cool way to share personal insights that may be helpful to others. And its a great place to ask questions. On a more creative note, as an English teacher I found it useful in having my students frame a message of “substance” in 140 characters or less. I’d love to hear other creative uses people have for Twitter.

7. Keep in touch: Then there’s Facebook: you don’t have to spend three hours a day for this site to prove its value. Here are some of the ways it works for me: (a) keeping in touch with close friends and new acquaintances who don’t require phone calls; when you connect up with people on this site and they “update their status” you can make a comment and carry on a mini-conversation; (b) showing photos of your grandchildren; (c) letting family members know about the plays you saw on Broadway during your vacation — all at one time if they are on Facebook, too.

8. Start a blog. Set up your own soapbox and proclaim your views and knowledge to the world — online and, even, offline about any topics that excite you.

9. Be an explorer: Then there’s Friendfeed, Del.icio.us, YouTube, Digg, Flickr, Ezine, Squidoo, Technorati and the entire Blogosphere to explore.

10. Make Great New Friends: I made a new friend on Twitter one afternoon, and she said something that rang true for me, as well: “Honestly, nothing as exciting as this social media revolution has happened to me in decades.” Try it, you may feel the same.

Readers, do us all a great service: write a comment and share some of the reasons you believe Baby Boomers . . . of all ages . . . should embrace social media.

Next post: My comments on 15 Maxims for Social Media Marketing

Blogging, Twitter

Personal Branding is Powerful Strategy in Social Media

May 15, 2009 Shari Weiss 8 Comments

The last class of the semester will not be the end of studies for many SFSU marketing students.

What a wild ride –

Jumping off the PR 1.0 trail and on to PR 2.0!

And I’m happy to report that many of my 90+ students will be continuing our trek down Revolutionary Road. Below is a sampling of their semester wrap-ups:

Consumers create the buzz:

“I learned that people are changing the way information is given and received. Today Social Media is influencing all of us in ways never thought possible 5, 10, 20 years ago. Websites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are evolving into powerful tools. And companies are seeing this as consumers are now the ones creating buzz about products and places.

Today we all have the opportunity to use the Web to tell stories, to educate, to entertain, and, most importantly, to engage in conversation. We are only beginning to explore the many ways to communicate.” — Alice Ng

Social Media is our future:

“It is not only a way for people to connect and maintain relationships, but the Future for marketing and business, as well. Most of the population has hit their limit with mass advertising. People have figured out that everything is a selling gimmick and they have become immune. Marketing has become Word of Mouth — and what better way to facilitate the discussions than through social media.

If I am interested in a new TV, I want to hear real-life reviews and opinions — and with just a few clicks I can find them with Twitter. Or, if I want to know more about a person or organization, I simply go to LinkedIn or Facebook. As more people are realizing that everything is available online, more companies and people are adding valuable content to be discovered.” — Natalie Leadbetter

What’s just a fad?

“The number of social media websites id mind-boggling. The question is which ones are here to stay, and which ones will be merely fads. It’s frustrating that more and more aspects of life are moving to the Web. Personally, I find that staring at a computer screen for longer than a couple of hours at a time can induce headaches. Also, social media is killing privacy, and I have always considered myself a private person. I haven’t felt comfortable putting myself on the Internet for anyone to Google.

One of our speakers told us, ‘If I Google your name and nothing comes up, then you can forget about a job1’ I still have a hard time getting myself to put my name out there and start the multiple social networking profiles that are required for this class — and what now seems, required for life in general. Is there another niche out there for me to avoid this whole Web 2.0 thing? I DOUBT IT. I guess it’s time for me to bite the bullet and join the massive conformity that we call Social Media.” — Emilio Siqueiros

Personal Branding 101:

“I’m personally appreciative to have been immersed in the New Rules of PR. Communication has been revolutionalized and one of the most important lessons for me has been about Personal Branding. From everything I post online to my contributions to others’ web conversations, being Proactive is the Key. I now understand the importance of contributing to other people’s blogs as well as creating and maintaining online profiles — to connect with others and to contribute to the Worldview of Knowledge.” –Alvin Lee

Be careful online:

“When I first began this PR class, I hadn’t known what to expect. All I’d ever heard about PR were statements about making a company Look Good. But now my understanding has changed to the view that PR is more of a process of having a company do the kinds of things that will make it look good and earn that good reputation. And I can see how the internet — and everything we post online — can affect our reputation for the bad as well as for the good. Before this class, I’d tried Twitter when it wasn’t all the rage. I thought it was interesting, but it would fade away.

Now, though, I’m surprised that I’m Tweeting on my final — social media has grown so powerful that wherever I look, someone is bombarding me with some sort of advertising cleverly disguised as Tweets. Every action we take, we have to know that a potential client or contact is watching, and what we write online can make or break us in the Business World.” — Victor Atilano

Share your experiences with us. How has your life changed? Most of us believe that ours has improved? How about you?

Next post: http: Twitter 101

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Twitter

Facebook is a Waste of Time

May 3, 2009 Shari Weiss 10 Comments

. . . and Twitter is for Dummies, and Friendfeed, well, that’s way over the top!

Just how is one supposed to counter . . . and even live with . . . people who just don’t “get it” i.e., that the world has changed dramatically?

“Everything never changes. Something has changed and it impacts everything else.” [Quoting John Naisbitt in Robert Scoble’s Naked Conversation]

SOCIAL MEDIA impacts everything . . . now and in our future. So back to my original question, What do we say to anyone — particularly from my BabyBoomer generation and older? How do we share our enormous excitement about the possibilities for the world, for our friends and family, and for ourselves as individuals?

Personally, I believe I have a distinct advantage when it comes to answering the question, mainly because just three months ago, I was telling a friend that his use of Facebook three hours a day was a huge waste of his life.

What has happened to me?

First off, I have remembered that Open Minded-ness is key to Critical Thinking and as such I needed to check out the BUZZ before categorically dismissing a phenomenon that has captured the attention of millions in one way or another: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, YouTube, and countless numbers of blogs.

What helped me most was Twitter, which surprisingly still is a mystery to so many people I talk with — but, of course, not to the vast majority of people who will read this blog post.

I’m not a cellphone texter, so that particular use of Twitter didn’t seem relevant. Initially I wondered if this great new technology could be molded into a teaching tool, i.e., to force my students to write something of substance in only 140 characters. The essence of good writing is clarity and conciseness.

Playing with Twitter

While I liked developing that “writing with Twitter” idea, however, I began playing with Twitter, i.e., following people, reading their updates, posting some of my own — especially “retweeting,” re-posting a particularly good update. Most of all, though, I was reading on a daily basis just what all this social media was about and the great benefits it has to offer.

And now I’m hooked.

In a nutshell, social media is allowing us all to share our research and our thoughts and, yes, our products/services with a community of like-minded individuals whose lives can be enriched by being connected to us through the Internet.

Like most knowledge, the more you learn, the more you realize there is so much more “out there” and that’s the primary reason for this blog — to help me learn more and to answer the question, “Why Social Media is NOT a waste of our time.”

Please let me know about any conversations you’ve had when people have told you that blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are all “a waste of time.”

Next post: Facebook for Business

Archive, Blogging, Facebook, Sharisax Is Out There, Twitter

Follow Me Along Revolutionary Road

April 23, 2009 Shari Weiss

To: My friends in the Blogosphere

From: Shari Weiss @sharisax on Twitter

Date: Thursday Sharisax is Out There , April 23, 2009

Re: My First Ten Things Memo Blog Post

FOLLOW ME . . . ALONG REVOLUTIONARY ROAD: Ten of the 1000’s of things I’ve learned in two months studying the Social Media Revolution/Evolution

How does one tell a story from the middle of a raging river [i.e., in medias res]? You just jump in the boat, I suspect, and start paddling.

As a journalist for more than thirty years and a marketing instructor for more than a decade, I’ve had a variety of valuable experiences learning to write, to sell, and to teach. But nothing has so excited and energized me as what is happening TODAY in what I refer to as the Social Media Revolution/Evolution.

The following is merely a place to start:

1. Social Media: After two months of talking about this social media phenomenon in my classes, one student was brave enough to ask, “So what is this thing, Social Media, that we’ve been spending so much time discussing?” Of course, anyone can go look up the phrase on Wikipedia and learn the consumer-generated definitions that are shaping how many of us are understanding the world.

My simplistic, starting-place answer is to take the word “media,” i.e., the vehicles we use to send a message from a sender to a receiver AND combine it with “social,” i.e., the environment in which people are living and working together. This is a New phrase/label, so what I believe we are talking about includes the New Methods being used and developed to have enhanced conversations with one another via enhanced technology, most specifically the Internet. Examples would include Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbledUpon, Flickr, Yelp, and a whole host of others. Check out Brian Solis’ Conversation Prism: http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducing-conversation-prism.html

2. Web 2.0 vs. Web 1.0: The term Web 2.0 was coined to describe all those extensions and further uses we have found for our technological connections via our computers. Where Web 1.0 allowed us to search for information and begin communicating via email, Web 2.0 has become a platform for community building and business growth. Web 2.0 marks the start of Social Media. So what will Web 3.0 look like?

3. Blogging: According to recent statistics, Technorati [Internet search engine for blogs], tracks 133 million blogs, and more are being produced each second – just as I’m doing here. Blogging has flattened the communication landscape. No longer do a few publishers, editors, and journalists control the flow of information to the public. Any one with an Internet connection can post his or her thoughts, opinions, and activities “out there” for everyone to read and comment upon.

4. Bloggers: Bloggers are the new influencers . . . or they can be. Many online writers simply post diary narratives on the Web for a host of reasons, which likely include the human need to be acknowledged. But hundreds, if not thousands, of bloggers are posting online content that gets read and spread – and what they say matters. Business organizations, both profit and nonprofit, have recognized the power of bloggers to market messages about products and services.

5. Micro-blogging and Twitter: Twitter has changed my life. Two months ago, a business acquaintance asked me to follow him on Twitter. Initially I didn’t get it. What did I care about what someone had for breakfast or what the traffic was like on the freeway. Then I discovered that “there are no rules” and that Twitter can be a host of different experiences, depending on how one chooses to use the technology.

During my first fumblings, I decided to use Twitter as a platform for my English students to send me substantive messages in only 140 characters – to teach lessons of clarity and conciseness. I was soon pleased to see a link to 100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter: http://onlinecollegedegree.org/2009/03/19/100-tips-apps-and-resources-for-teachers-on-twitter/

Where did I find that link? On Twitter, of course, after I learned to use Twitter in a way that works well for me: I follow “Tweeple” [i.e. people with Twitter accounts] who are interested in topics of interest to me, e.g., future of marketing, future of PR, future of journalism, future of advertising, etc. My husband now calls me Tweetie Bird, since I’m so often online reading the blogs that offer more indepth facts, observations, and opinions on these subjects and more.

6. The New Rules of Marketing: It was on Twitter, of course, that I first learned of David Meerman Scott’s book The New Rules of Marketing & PR. As a marketing lecturer at San Francisco State University, I have felt compelled to address, acknowledge, and learn about Why? there need to be New Rules and Why? The Old Ones do not work any more.

One quote from DMS’s book: “Marketers must shift their thinking from the short head of mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy targeting vast numbers of underserved audiences via the Web.” Brian Solis and Deidre Breakenridge expand on this in their recent book Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: “PR has begun to look less like a typical broadcast machine and more like a living, breathing entity capable of also participating in conversations with publics.”

7. The Future of Advertising: The death knell for newspapers has been sounded; young people don’t read them, and advertisers are pulling away. And that is only one medium suffering. Selling radio spots is not getting easier although radio listenership may be expanding because of Internet and satellite radio. The biggest changes are likely to be on Network TV. There is no longer a need for “mass marketing” on a “mass medium.” Large advertisers like Pepsi have admitted to misspending hundreds of millions of marketing dollars, and that probably indicates too much expense for TV commercials that are zapped via channel changing or TIVO fast-forwarding. Traditional forms of advertising will still be necessary to reach the large numbers of people who aren’t yet online [or not online very often], but figuring out how to successfully advertise online is where future strategies must be aimed.

8. Reverse-Engineering: This is a fascinating process to contemplate. Think about your goal and work backwards to make it happen. I’m reminded of the Silicon Valley slogan of the ‘90s: “You imagine it and we will build it.” I read a recent post by noted blogger Seth Godin whose paragraph for the day was titled “Imminent” and he began with this quote: “The one thing that will allow your business to get funded, or to get a business to business buyer to buy from you or a college to admit you is the sense that your success is imminent.” This is my understanding of the theory of “intention” in which you focus on the result you want – and it will come about.

9. Creativity: Amidst sea tides of change, the need for creative thinking remains constant. That requires recognizing that new ideas are healthy and need to be encouraged and embraced, not feared and dismissed. What has worked in the past can be twisted and turned and looked at in new ways, while brainstormers stay open to totally different thoughts that emerge and can provide exciting new solutions. Picasso said, “I am always doing that which I do not know how to do in order to learn how to do it.”

10. We do not go out to find ourselves; rather, we go out creating ourselves: Why am I starting this blog? Let me count the ways. First of all, I have learned so much in the last few months that I am compelled to share that knowledge and hear what others have to say. Second, I believe in the power of the individual to make significant contributions to the betterment of society. And third, as I’ve told some of my students and my new blogging buddies, my “intention” is to join the A-list bloggers.

Next post: Future of marketing