Christmas dinner. 

A time where friends and family gather ’round a Christmas tree and stuff themselves with lots of food.  For some of them it has been a year since last time they’ve seen each other so there’s a lot of talking going on. 

At one time or another the question pops up: “What are you doing right now?”.  I explain (again) where I work and what I do (basically sell theater tickets and try not to screw up) and if they’re smart, they shut up and don’t ask any further.  But there’s always one smart ass uncle around the table, he’s the one that always has some controversial opinion about something political just for the hell of it. 

So I tell about social media and get a lot of confusing faces, it’s like teaching algebra to toddlers… it just doesn’t work.

Everything I throw at them, they don’t understand it.  They give me answers we all have heard a million times over and true or not… you can’t argue because there’s some truth in them.

Yes, you’re never sure if the person you’re talking to is exactly who he says he is. Yes, a relationship in real life has a better chance of being a profound and meaningful relationship. Yes, bodylanguage and tone of voice are very important in conversations.

Yes, yes, yes,…

Just before I decide to give up I throw the argument of numbers at them and they shut up.

There’s not really anything to counter that right?  If Social Media Guru X can reach about 50k people with just one tweet.  How can you deny that?  You can’t.  Social media is a numbers game.  You don’t have to befriend everyone at Facebook or add Tweeters and hope they follow you back.  It means that social media people have the tools, the possibilities and the knowledge to handle more connections than anyone in real life.  Is the relationship meaningful?  I don’t know, but does it has to be?  Does every connection have to be your friend?  Social media people are in the ‘we share’business.  They don’t care if it’s someone they hardly know that asks something.  They’re just glad they could help.  And isn’t that meaningfull enough?

Now light a fire, pick up a bag of marshmellows and sing kumbaya! :)Tom is a marketing & communications manager at Kursaal Oostende in Ostend (Belgium). He writes about marketing, management and social media on Who’s Reading Anyway? and about customer relations on Who’s Listening Anyway?.

In a way the same rules apply, but they’re slightly different between online consumers and offline consumers.  The biggest difference is the amount and the quality of information  they get exposed to and how they use that information in their decision making process.

·  Short attention span.  Depending on who did the research you’ve got from 1 nanosecond to 2 seconds to catch someone’s attention.  Online, it moves even faster. ·  They filter more information.  Because of the information overload they develop the necessary skills to filter more efficiently and more quickly through it all.  This means you have to strip down your information to its essence.

·  Better quality of information.  Logic determines that when there’s more information, you have a better chance of finding quality information. ·  And last but not least, online consumers know what they’re worth.  They know you want to catch their attention and probably know most of the tricks we use.

Understand the power of the community.  Even if it’s not fabricated, the web (that’s the entire web) is a community.  So if in the past you made a mistake, the effects remained locally.  Online, the effects of that same mistake are globally.  Companies face a huge task, but also huge opportunities, if they realize they should target both groups differently. 

·  Strip down your information to its bare minimum.  That doesn’t mean your company slogan, cause chances are it was developed for an offline audience.  It means if you have 4 pages of information, write it down in half a page.  We all know that the story we like to tell is a lot longer than what we should tell.  Catch their attention first, reel them in second and feed them more information third.

·  Release quality.  I read a lot of press releases that are just a waste of bandwidth.  If you’ve got nothing to tell… please wait until you do, there’s enough information going around.  Chances are you’ll stand out.

·  Be honest.  If you’re not, if you even try and distort the truth a bit too much, you risk losing all credibility.  And in an online world, that means global!

·  If it’s possible, make your information target orientated.  No-one expects to be treated like an individual offline.  By that I mean people know that the advertisement in a magazine is made for 1,000,000 readers, not just for them. 

But online people want interaction, and that means they want to be treated as individually as possible.

If companies can truly understand the impact of an online presence, the possible consequences of right/wrong actions and the possible results they have a better chance of making a better business plan than companies who don’t understand it. 

Too many companies dive in for all the wrong reasons (cheap, easy,…) without understanding what the consequences can be…

Ahmed :Please introduce yourself.

Steven : My name is Steven L. Johnson and I am an Assistant Professor in the Management Information Systems Department of the Fox School of Business and Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My primary job duties include scholarly research targeted at academic business journals and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on Information Systems.

Steven : Last week I attended the 2008 International Conference on Information Systems in Paris. This is the premier academic conference for Information Systems researchers. It covers a broad spectrum of research interests including topics as varied as IS Economics, Design Science, and Knowledge Management.

Academic research of information technology moves far slower than practitioner usage. We lag well behind in studying emerging technologies. Still, as social media is growing in importance as a phenomenon, researcher interest is also. Last week, I spoke to authors of several interesting research-in-progress efforts related to social media, including: the use of Wikis to augment real-time presentations, the impact of clan membership on repeat usage of MMORPGs, and why people continue to use social networking services.

Steven : I take a rather broad view of what Social Media is. Looking back at non-digital technology, I might argue the party line telephone in my grandmother’s rural community was a social media. For a class on social media marketing I taught last semester, I prepared this statement:

Social media supports self-disclosure, content generation and relationship formation in a web of inter-related networks and communities. Effective marketing through social media requires the development and promotion of a consistent virtual identity. It’s not a definition, per se, but I did find it to be a useful mental model for what Social Media is all about.

Steven : Yes, I’ve been a member of online communities for over 20 years (going back to days of BBSs) and began formally studying them while earning a Ph.D. from the U. of Maryland. My doctoral dissertation studied online communities to better understand leadership in leaderless groups. In some ways, online communities are the same as they’ve always been. There are lurkers, newbies, leaders, trolls, and so forth. There are flame wars, goodbye cruel world diaries, and all sorts of personal drama. These dynamics have always been there and always will be. In other ways, changes in technology have supported dramatic changes in online communities—they have grown in size, scope, and sustainability.

One major change in what it means to be online—what I call the Facebook effect—has to do with personal online identity. Part of the original web ethos was the idea of pseudonymity. Facebook represents a trend away from that—it tightly couples your virtual identity to a real-world identity. I see far less embrace for pseudonymity on the web. Even followers of corporate brands want to know who the person is they are interacting with. The higher touch web means more credibility is gained with an identity appearing to be a real person with a real face.

Steven :Wow, what an interesting question. Really, I’m not sure if social media tools make anyone more productive! I find social media to be entertaining and occasionally informative, but I can’t say it makes me more productive. So, my advice is, like anything else in life, do not confuse activity with accomplishment.

Social media is useful for staying more closely connected with others in between direct interactions. Facebook, twitter, your blog, these are all ways to communicate more effectively with a larger number of people and maintain social connections. But, they are not an end unto themselves.

In terms of the time spend reading blogs, tweets and so forth, I suppose the best you can hope for is finding consistently useful information sources—places that provide insights or actionable ideas. Your time and your attention are your most precious resources. Follow, friend, and bookmark those who provide a high signal to noise ratio. If a source isn’t providing value, drop it.

Steven :I’ve been actively blogging for several years and just recently jumped in to other social media tools in a bigger way. I’ve been using Twitter, along with Twitterfeed to send blog posts there automatically. Also, I recently took the iPhone plunge. (I haven’t been this excited about a piece of technology since I got a Palm Pilot the first week it came out.) I’ve had fun with the AirMe application for iPhone. Its automatic tagging and integration social media websites is cool.

Steven :Three pieces of advice.

First off, don’t wait until you know what you’re doing to do it. Social media is something you will learn by doing. Create a twitter account, join Facebook, create a blog, join Flickr, and start searching for content about your brand or organization. You may be surprised to learn your customers, employees, or competitors are already talking about your organization. If nothing else, join in that conversation.

Second, before you can be successful in building your brand through social media tools, you need to know what your brand is. This may seem obvious, but it is very important. Successful social media efforts reinforce branding in all other channels. Before you can build your brand through social media, make sure you know what your brand is.

Third, as Woody Allen once said, “showing up is 80% of success.” So much of building an online brand is about maintaining a consistent presence where people already are. That means frequent updates to content, daily responses to requests, and the timeliness of response people expect online. For larger organizations, this likely means one person whose has a primary responsibility of maintaining the online brand. If the online social media channel is an after-thought, it will show.

Steven :I would also stress the importance of measurement for successful social media marketing. I’m a big fan of free web analytics tools like SiteMeter and Google Analytics. Get a professional account on Flickr and see what content is the most popular. You can learn a lot about your traffic from these tools. A huge benefit of the web compared to communication channels is the opportunity for feedback. Take advantage of that.

Ahmed : Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to interview you.

Steven : Thank you very much for all these interesting questions! Good luck with your blogging and all of your social media efforts. I wish you and your readers very Happy Holidays.

What do you guys think of the interview? share your thoughts ;) .

You can also follow Prof. Steven through Twitter @stevenLjohnson

Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing along with other concepts and techniques to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. Social marketing can be applied to promote, for example, merit goods, make the society avoid demerit goods and thus to promote that considers society’s well being as a whole. This may include asking people not to smoke in public areas, for example, ask them to use seat belts, prompting to make them follow speed limits.

So what makes an expert in these fields an expert?

I certainly couldn’t and would not claim to be an expert in anything, I’m interested in many things but would never proclaim for love nor money that I knew everything in a field or niche!

This post gives you a few clues as to what to be on the lookout for ‘Beware self-proclaimed social marketing experts – 10 simple rules to tell who you are talking to’, now I’m not sure if this is an original source document so sorry to the original author if its not!

If someone tells you they are an expert in social marketing, they are probably not…

I have to laugh when I see (and I’m talking mostly Twitter here) all the so called experts and their claims and advice which they dish out second hand, mostly handed down to them by other Twitterers or via an RSS feed their subscribed too and quickly dish out the advice they’ve pawned from it or save it for a little later when they think most have forgotten about the original post!

Check out your ‘expert’ for yourself

Now the expert that I motivated me to this post and you’ll probably figure it out from my timeline and comments really should think about what their site and their guest posts say about them!

Some examples and please correct me, slag me, shout at me and call me names if you like but these are just opinions and like I said I’m no expert either but I never Claim to be!

I have a blog and I archive all my tweet’s on it weekly . . . Sorry Fail!

I have links to backlink sales promotions . . . Fail, especially when you have a PR0 site with minimal backlinks yourself! (Yes I have no PR on this subdomain but I only started it 2 weeks ago ;) )

I openly claim to be an entreprenuer . . . No this should be a title given by others either in the news or industry experts but definitely not something you give yourself.

I always follow a few hundred more people on Twitter than follow me . . . Fail, you had a good head start and now you just keep adding a hundred a day to get the number’s up!

Use tacky stock photos in your blog posts . . . Oops I Fail!

Am I an expert? ;) LOL You can bet your ass I am, an expert in my own opinions!What anger’s you about the Social Media / Marketing scene? What positive point or tips have you experienced?

Direct Link: Seattle SEO John Andrews challenges Sphinn to top 400

Talk about baiting! ;) But it worked catch a new site early enough and catch the interest of some early adopters and bang 409 Sphinns to date!

What about that “greatest hits” page? Appearing in the top 10 on that page adds exponential growth possibilities… everyone knows you can’t go wrong Sphinning something on there. Everyone else has already said it’s worth Sphinning! Did you ever go there? Ever Sphinn anything up?

Are you a new Sphinner? I certainly didn’t think to head to the Greatest Hits page until today and like I said there are some pearls!

So Sphinn this article to 100. Or don’t. I don’t care, but I would love to see it, and I suspect it would help push Sphinn further down the road to becoming a true marketer’s resource community, like we need.

I guess the biggest thing to learn from the Number 1 Greatest Hit is don’t be afraid to ask your readers for something!

Direct Link: Top 21 Signs You Need a Break From SEO (2007 version)

A funny parody of some of the thing’s that tell you your too involved in your work:

16.) The nurse tells you and your spouse that you’re going to have twins. You secretly hope they’re not identical. You know … duplicate content issues.

Any chance of an update on this one!!!!????? ;)

Direct Link: What Pisses Me Off About SEO Blogs

Not publishing the date or the name of the author

Oops! I personally hate dates on posts for the simple reason if not published they can hide the laziness or infrequent posting regime! OK the Author I got covered even if the Bio isn’t actually me.

You have such great content, why is it so difficult to find?

This really screwed me on a previous blog bounce rates up the Wazzoo because I had NO repeat NO Category archives, search facility, tag cloud or anything, What a dumbass!

Stop using keywords in your URLs. Stop using keywords in your titles.

This SEO stuff is really difficult!

Create your own SEO book by collecting your favorite SEO forum and blog posts, newsletter articles, and tech tips in a .PDF file that you review once a month.

One SEO guy screams about don’t use .PDF format’s that’s bad for SEO, then another says use it (but not for SEO)!?

So What did I learn from these Greatest Hits:

Please Sphinn this!

NEVER learn the names of your colleagues or Internet celebrities pets!

STOP Writing about Twitter UNLESS you can really claim uniqueness!

Is Link baiting ever REALLY dead?

Make sure there is enough humor in your life or you’ll end up a very sad and miserable SEO!

SEO tips WERE fashionable but are they still?

But in the end just WRITE what you like!

Oh and did I mention Sphinn this! Or Subscribe to the RSS, or by email?

What are your favorite stories featured on Sphinn do you have a Pearl that didn’t make it?

I was introduced to the movie in 1990 after a started work for a new software company selling Graphic Development tools. My immediate reaction, OMG who is this new sales manager and WTF does he want from me, my soul?

Take a look first and then we’ll discuss some elements (WARNING:there is some use of profanity in this video clip):

Coffee’s for closers

Don’t expect anything for not making a sale.

First prize is a Cadillac El Dorado second prize is a set of Steak knives

Again basically means their is no second prize, the same can be said about your site visitor’s first prize is an RSS subscription or comment, second prize they leave and never come back, nada.

The Leads are weak!?…The Lead’s are weak you are weak!

Now don’t misinterpret the purpose of this post, Sales is not about forcing your product on the customer (visitor) but each time you have an email a subscriber that’s a lead, those leads are not ‘weak’you just need to find the right message or products for your visitors, try taking polls, try different advertising techniques ask your visitors ‘What do you want?’

I know a very successful blogger who makes his money purely from Hosting referrals! The reason is that his site is tailored towards New bloggers, people who may not have taken the plunge yet and need that newbie advice, when I heard about his success and how much he was earning just from Hosting I thought ‘I’ll give that a try’the problem being I tried it on a design site, of course 90% of visitor’s to the Design related site are designers and they have hosting already so not a good choice of advertising options!

Only one thing counts in this life, get them to sign on the line that is dotted

What is your dotted line? What are your immediate goals? Make money?, RSS subscribers?, Twitter followers? Concentrate on one think at a time and promote it, you want more Twitter followers then link in all posts put a big ‘Follow Me’badge in a prominent place.

For a new blog ‘Money’shouldn’t be your first worry or goal if your good at what you do and talk about content and value and give that to your visitors the rest will come in time.

A,B,C….Always Be Closing

Now the days of the hard sell are apparently over!? I disagree to a point Yes we need to take care of our visitors and find out what they want that’s in Sales Handbook Chapter 1, Asking Open questions, Finding their needs, How they want to buy etc etc.

But at the end of the day it’s about number’s if 1 visitor from 10 converts into a sale then if you ‘talk’to 100 visitors thats 10 sales and so on. Numbers!

A,I,D,A Attention, Decision, Interest, Action. Do I have your attention? Interest, Are you interested I know you are! Decision, Have you made your decision…. And Action….

You have the visitors attention What are you going to do with it, thats your choice. Interest, the visitor is still reading you have their interest, again, What will you do with it? Decision, well not in your power I’m afraid. Action, think when reading your post as a preview, when you got to the end What do you see? Where do your eyes go?

This kind of 80′s hard sell is extreme but as with any techniques they come and go, learn from each technique take a piece of it with you and evolve.

Don’t know yet I’m going to surprise you and to see if anyone actually bothers to share any links without knowing what the incentive will be….

Share with us your favorite Ebook or post about SEO (have to spell it out also Search Engine Optimization), Social Media or Marketing that gave you that Ahhhhh clarity of purpose or vision, I know mine which I’ll share at the end.

Either comment or you can also DM me on Twitter @Styletime

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Chris Brogan

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And here’s a funny one 50 Signs You Twitter Too Much