Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category
Thursday, October 30th, 2008 |
My good friend Ruud
Hein over at Search
Engine People asked me earlier this month if I would like to write a guest
post on the Search
Engine People Blog. I was thrilled of course…. I am a huge fan of SEP.
I have been a loyal reader of that blog since I met Jeff
Quipp on Sphinn about 16 months ago.
The truth is I feel that the majority of the Search Engine People staff have
got Social Media right. Social Media is all about conversations and collaborating
with others online. But, these interactions need to be genuine… they need
to be sincere. Jeff Quipp and the rest of the staff at Search Engine People
understand that.
So, to me it made perfect sense for my Guest Post on Search Engine People to
be about the values
I follow when I participate in Social Media activities. These are the same
values my mother taught me growing up and I believe have helped me to become
successful in Social Media.
Go check out my guest post over at Search Engine People and let me know what
you think. Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe
to their RSS feed. Trust me…. you won’t be disappointed.
Posted in Blogging, Guest Posts, Parenting, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Tips and Tutorials, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 Basics | 3 Comments »
Thursday, September 18th, 2008 |
Photo by JasonRogers
Earlier this summer my good
friend, and fellow Collective-Thougthts author, David
Harry was interviewed by Garrett of YourSEOMentor.com. In it he talked about
the Collective-Thoughts
group and what each of our assets to the Collective-Thoughts team was. In
this interview David explains how I am the "Emotional Tie"
in Collective-Thoughts.
Normally, if any man would declare me "Emotional" I would become
raving
mad and scream and cry and give him all the reasons that I was not
"Emotional"…. Of course, with doing that I would prove, in fact,
that I was Emotional after all.
But, with listening to this awesome interview of David I wasn’t in the least
bit upset at all…. in fact I was more than thrilled to have that title. And,
do you know why? Because he is right!! And, I’m proud to be Emotional…..
in my writing, that is.
I’m an Emotional Blogger
Yes, it’s true….. I’m emotional. I’m emotional in reality and it carries
over into my writing. But, you know what?? It’s okay. Because I want you to
enjoy reading what I write. I want my readers to stay for the whole conversation.
And, if being me…. if being emotional keeps you here reading. Then I’m a happy
blogger.
People Love Being Entertained by Emotions
What gets people hooked on Talk Shows like Jerry Springer or Jenny Jones? It’s
the emotions, the embarrassment, the anger, the craziness. The viewers heart
pounds and their excitement builds. The viewers keep watching to see what is
going to happen next… to see what is the next thing they will say.
Or, how about romance novels? Its the emotions….. The feelings the author
portrays to you. This style of emotional writing that gets the reader imagining
what that would be like… remembering what you felt like when you were that
happy.
And, let’s not forget those "made for TV movies"
that draw us in with those horrific story lines. I’m sure you know the movies
I’m talking about, but let me give you an example of a "made for TV movies"
plot…The kind of story line where the husband seems to have drowned while
on a boating trip with friends…. the Mom then has to raise three children
with barely making ends meat only to find out that he never died in the first
place, but instead pretending to die so that he can start a new life 3,000 miles
away.
What is it that these 3 different story examples have in common?
All three examples pull at your emotions.
Whether it’s anger, horror, happiness, love, lust, fear, disgust, or embarrassment
it gets you interested because for the most part you can relate at some level.
Even if you can’t relate to the situation you can relate to the way the characters
in the story feel…. and it keeps you watching/reading just to get to the end.
To find out where the feeling takes you.
Sometimes, its the fact that I can’t relate that
gets me. I love watching/reading stories that remind me that even at my saddest
times that there are people and situations that are so much worse than my own.
It reminds me how lucky I am….. it makes me feel good.
What is the point? What does this have to do with Web 2.0 or Social
Media?
Everything. It is the type of Online Conversation I like to hold with you.
This is how I relate to my readers. It is how I get their attention and keep
a hold of it. Because unless you are holding people’s attention with your blog
posts they will leave. Lose their attention too many times & you might lose
a reader forever.
Grab your readers with your emotions.
Blogging is your way of holding a conversation with your readers. However,
if you lose your readers half-way through your post it is no longer a conversation….
it is more just boring babbling. "Blah, blah, blah, blah".
Have you ever got stuck in a conversation with someone that had a lot to say,
but lost your attention because they were soooooo….. boring? I’m sure you
have…. we all have. And, it’s not as if they didn’t know what they were talking
about. As a matter of fact, the person could be brilliant and be making an excellent
point, but if your attention is lost… the entire conversation is lost. There
are many different styles
of blogging. It’s not as if I don’t ever write in any other styles. But,
I believe I am at my best when I’m using my emotions to make my point. Even
when I am being more technical or writing a "how-to" post…. my emotions
seem to come into it at one point or another.
Ways to add Emotion to a Post
With a face-to-face Conversation there are a couple way of adding emotion to
a conversation:
- Vocal Words
- Body Language
- Touch
With a written conversation adding emotion that a reader can feel may be a
bit of a challenge, but can be done. There are a few things you can use to help
reiterate the feelings you are trying to perceive.
- Pictures - Adding pictures of things can help you express
your feeling. After all, have you ever heard the saying, "A picture is
worth a thousand words"? It really is.
Photo by Victor
Bezrukov
- Videos - Another way to easily get your feelings across
to your readers would be through video. It’s a way for your viewers to be
able to see you as well as hear you while you tell your story.
- Podcast - Express your emotions through sound.
- Written Words - The most obvious method, but not always
as easy at it sounds.
In order to get your feelings across to someone with written words you will
need to be quite descriptive. Use descriptive words to get your point across.
And, to do this you need to change it up a bit. You will need to use Emotional
Words.
Emotional Words are what I call words that help you get your feelings
across to your readers. These words let the readers know exactly how
you feel or were feeling. You need to think of yourself as a storyteller…..
you are telling a story.
Emotional Words are more than Happy, Sad, and Angry.
Happy, Sad and Angry are great emotional words & there is nothing wrong
with using them. However, you need to open your mind a bit. This is where this
area might get a bit difficult for some. There are a bunch of words that portray
sad. Another words, were you a bit sad? Or, were you really, really sad? How
intense is your sadness? With some help from Ms.
West, a Science Fiction Author, here is a chart of Emotional Words and different
levels of intensity.
Emotional Words for Blogging
You have readers, but are they listening? Are they staying around to read your
entire post?
Make sure you are being
a good storyteller…. speak to them with emotions and let them know exactly
how you feel. Keep your readers intrigued, keep them focused, keep them wanting
more.
I’m an Emotional Blogger. What Style Blogger are you? Check out this Slide
Show on Blogging Styles
Posted in Blogging, Social Media, Tips and Tutorials, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 Basics | 19 Comments »
Thursday, August 28th, 2008 |
I wrote my first ever guest post over at Hobo
SEO Blog. No, It’s not about SEO….. it’s about my true love, Social Media.
Shaun asked if I would write a post on how
to get involved in Social Media and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I don’t
write about the basics of Social Media often enough. I have a tendency to get
too advanced or talk about special techniques. It was nice to get back to the
basics.
Social Media can be very intimidating for many, so I broke down the process
into four steps making the process a bit easier to handle.
- Figuring out what you want to get out of Social Media
- Creating your Profiles
- Learning the Community
- Becoming an Active Part of the Community
So, check out my guest post and let me know what you thought.
Posted in Blogging, Guest Posts, Mixx, SEO, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Tips and Tutorials, Twitter, Vlogging, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 Basics | 9 Comments »
Friday, August 15th, 2008 |
This Featured Guest Post is by James Duthie of Online
Marketing Banter.
Image by activeside
How many businesses really ‘get’ the social web?
Rand Fishkin recently wrote a post on SEO Moz about ‘getting
it’. By ‘it’ Rand was talking about the web… and
he guesstimated that just one person in every million truly gets the Internet.
My first thought after reading the article was that based on Rand’s estimations,
there must be a hell of a lot of online marketers out there that don’t
get the web (there’s a scary thought for you…). My second thought
was that if so few people get the web, which has been widely accessible for
over a decade, how many actually get the relatively new phenomenon of social
media/ social networking (clue… not many). And my final thought was if
so few people really understand social media, how many businesses have their
finger on the social media pulse…? The answer it seems, is not many.
When the social web goes wrong…
By now, we can all probably recall the most infamous corporate social media
disasters off the top of our heads. Brands such as Dell & Sony immediately
spring to mind. But above all else, it’s probably Wal-Mart that sticks
out above others as the worst exponent of social initiatives on the web. The
two most documented disasters are:
- Wal-Mart
attempted to create its own social networking site targeted towards school
kids entitled ‘The Hub’ (ala MySpace & Facebook). However,
the project was abandoned just 10 weeks after it was launched due to a lack
of usage.
- Wal-Mart was at it again (along with PR firm Edelman) when they published
a fake Wal-mart blog called
‘Walmarting across America’. The suspiciously pro Wal-Mart sentiment
of the blog set alarms bells off in the blogosphere and it wasn’t long
before the blog was exposed as a fraud.
If it achieved nothing else, Wal-Mart has set a fine example of how not to
adopt social media technologies. However, despite the fact the ‘The Hub’
imploded well over two years ago, it seems fellow marketers refuse to learn
from Wal-Mart’s social networking mistakes. The
Wall St Journal recently painted a somewhat frightening picture of the state
of social networks and communities within the corporate world. The key findings,
which were taken from a research report developed by Deloitte, include:
- 35% of corporate online communities had less than 100 members
- 25% of corporate online communities had less than 1,000 members
- 6% of businesses spent more than one million dollars establishing their
community! Let’s hope these 6% aren’t amongst the 35% of businesses
unable to attract more than 100 members to their community!
So what exactly is the corporate world doing wrong when it comes to social
media…? Why have 60% of corporate social networks failed to attract more
than 1,000 members? The answer is quite simple. They’ve failed to recognise
the fundamental principle of the social web - that it’s not all about
them.
The social web is about people, not brands or technology!
It seems as if the marketers behind many of the corporate social networks/
communities operated on the premise – ‘If you build it, they will
come’… particularly if you make it really shiny. Unfortunately,
many have had to learn the hard way that this simply isn’t the case. The
fact is that unless you’re Apple, people really aren’t that interested
in your products or services. Deal with it. One of the primary features of Wal-Mart’s
social network ‘The Hub’ was the ability to generate shopping lists.
Hmmm… how many teens do you know that are interested in making their very
own shopping list? Not freakin’ many. Wal-Mart made ‘The Hub’
about them. And that’s why it failed.
For the ultimate example of a self-centred social networking initiative, check
out David Hasselhoff’s personal
social network. Sure… everyone loves to have a good laugh at The Hoff,
but does he really think people care enough about him to make his page their
social networking home…? You do know people laugh at you Hoff…right…?
Social initiatives can go old school… if that’s where your
audience is
I recently wrote a social media strategy practically devoid of technology (some
would even say it was positively old school). The strategy was for the Australian
arm of a major global organisation, with a budget stretching into the hundreds
of thousands of dollars. If I wanted to, I could potentially have sold them
on the development of their very own social network. But I didn’t. Because
I know that social media is not about the technological platform… it’s
about the people.
Instead, my first recommendation was to begin monitoring and participating
within existing online forums. Yes… that’s right… forums.
How very 90’s of me. But the fact was that a community of over 60,000
people had already formed to discuss this company and their products within
online forums. Indeed, they were lucky to be one of the very few companies with
a customer base passionate enough about their product to create an online community
around it. So… instead of trying to host the conversation, why not just
simply join it (at least initially)?
My second recommendation was to establish a company blog. Sure… a blog
isn’t as feature laden (or shiny) as a Facebook clone, but communities
can form around blogs just as effectively as they congregate on social networks.
Just look at Tech Crunch. A blog provides a cost effective way for the organisation
to establish a social media presence without spending hundreds of thousands
of dollars on development (thank you Wordpress!). And who knows… if the
blog takes off we may consider implementing some more advanced social networking
capabilities. But that’s the last consideration, not the first. After
all, if the audience are happy in forums, they don’t need all the bells
and whistles yet.
The social web mind shift
The reason most corporations don’t ‘get’ the social web is
quite simple – success requires a shift in marketing methodologies. Traditional
marketing principles just don’t cut it in online communities. Amongst
the most fundamental shifts in thinking, marketers need to recognise that:
- You don’t need to own the traffic, you just need to own the relationship
- You can’t control the conversation, all you can do is listen and respond
- One size does not fit all, and nor does one message
- Actually talking to your customers isn’t such a bad thing. You may
even learn something from them.
Until marketers ‘get’ these principles of the social web, it seems
we’re destined for more corporate social networks built around shopping
lists… or worse… washed up celebrities.
Author Bio
James Duthie is an Australian
online marketing expert. He writes on all things social media, blogging,
SEO & online marketing at his blog - Online Marketing Banter. Subscribe
to hear more of his ramblings.
Posted in Blogging, Guest Posts, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 Basics | 8 Comments »
Monday, August 4th, 2008 |
Happy 1st Anniversary StumbleUpon
July marked my first anniversary being a member of the StumbleUpon Community.
It has been an incredible year for me. I have met some wonderful, wonderful
people. And, I have stumbled across and discovered some truly amazing websites.
Sites that if it wasn’t for StumbleUpon I probably wouldn’t have come across
them in the first place.
I spent this past weekend going through my stumbles over the past year. It was
a lot of fun to see the sites and my reviews over the past year. There were tons
and tons of
Stumble-Reviews to go through…. After all, at the time of me writing
this post I had stumbled 7,357 pages, 27 videos and 876 photos. It truly has
been an amazing year.
I love StumbleUpon. I love it for so many reasons. Here you will find 113 things
I have learned from using StumbleUpon
113 Things I have Learned from using StumbleUpon
- Inspect
all food before you purchase.
- We could learn a lot if we listen to the wisdom
of children.
- That a Nintendo System can be completely
homemade.
- That Business
Strategy Can Be About Love
- Helped me Learn Sign Language
- Learned to Identify where I was Sacrificing
my Freedom
- Multiplication
Songs & Raps to help me teach my Children.
- Mother Nature is AMAZING
& Beautiful!!
- That I can use my Local
Newspapers to Promote my Blog Offline
- That even the Busiest of People will Lend
a Helping Hand to a Newbie
- 100
Painless Ways to Cut Calories
- I can be a Positive
Parent
- You and I can Erase
our Fears.
- I can find awesome recipes
using only what little ingredients I have at home.
- How to Relieve
a Bee Sting in under 30 Seconds.
- I found out what Tarot Card I am. What
Tarot Card are you??
- Found Tips to Immediately Increase
my Confidence.
- There are certain things I
need to remember when launching a new site.
- That it only takes 90
minutes a day to become a better blogger.
- There are special ways to draw
StumbleUpon Users into your blog.
- How to Run a StumbleUpon
Advertising Campaign for my Blog.
- How even Blogging can
make a Difference in the World.
- That a 5-year
old can Deliver a Baby.
- 10
Things You Can Blog About On The Weekends
- Creating
a Sneeze Page can Propel Readers Deep Within my Blog
- There is actually a time when Getting
Lots Of Visitors To Your Website Isn’t Good.
- There are at least 5
essential things you ought to know about StumbleUpon
- PageRank can be explained with a Cool
Graph.
- Why
Top 10 Lists are still the Best
- Found out that there are 7
Easy ways to get more Weekend Traffic to my Website.
- Tons of Fun
Activities that Moms and Dads can do with their kids.
- What it would look like if SEO’s
mated.
- Learned that I need a Seasonal
Search Engine Optimization Strategy.
- Found out that Social
Media has a Direct Influence on Search Engine Ranking.
- A Splash
of Color
can make me Smile
- I learned that even I can open
a Beer with a Lighter. Thanks for that Pat…. I love showing off to men
in the Bar.
- Saw what Google
Search would look like if it was designed in Comic Sans.
- Found Sphinn shortly after
it was born…. another turning point in my professional life.
- Avatar
Optimization - Why Top Sphinners have photo avatars while top Diggers
have graphic ones.
- How I can deal
with Criticism.
- That there are unusual
ways that I can use StumbleUpon.
- I found that I love to learn SEO from Patrick with the Hitchiker’s
Guide to Linkless SEO.
- It
sucks to be on top - the downside of Social Media.
- I learned there are 10
Steps to Building an Online Media Empire
- Muhammad showed me 4
reasons I should be blogging on weekend.
- Found out how to get traffic
& links from Popular Blogs…. thank you Maki.
- Apparently, random
funny pictures are good for my health.
- Brian Wallace taught me taught me the Ode
to StumbleUpon.
- That I can become a Success in Online
Networking.
- 5
StumbleUpon BuzzKills
- That I can get
help for Writer’s Block.
- I even learned How
to Read a Painting.
- I found out that my good friend Brian Wallace thinks my StumbleUpon
reviews are verbose. No worries, Brian…. I still love ya.
- What I already thought was reinforced when I read that a Blogger
can be successful by being nice.
- I learned there is such a thing as Time
Management when it comes to Social Media.
- Learned to Optimize
for Universal Search.
- Kind of Morbid, but I found a web page that tells me how
many people died the day I was born. Approximately 130,755 people died
worldwide on my birthday.
- The difference between SEO
& SMO.
- Pictures can help explain The
Difference Between Marketing, PR, Advertising, and Personal Branding
- I was reminded
what makes for a successful
Blog.
- Logos
can be freaken funny!!
- Which Hook Attracts the Right Fish?….. in regards to Link
Baiting.
- Dosh Dosh has taught me so much about the Importance
of Social Media Marketing.
- I learned that blogging
is a lot like Sex.
- I had no idea until I can across this page that there are 23
types of Social Media Users.
- I learned that People
in the SEO & Marketing
Industries are some of the Funniest People I know.
- Kim of Cre8pc showed me how to build
a better website by writing about her son’s challenges with his sport, football.
Such a loving post…. absolutely unforgettable.
- There are ways to build
traffic that have nothing to do with Google or SEO.
- A Web Page of Words
that Feel Good. Thanks Michael.
- Found that Others
Felt the Same Way about Sphinn that I did.
- Tips
to writing my Best Post Ever.
- Tons of Free SEO Tools
- Found out there was such a thing as "Social
Media Hangovers".
- Darren showed me how my StumbleUpon
Profile put
me on his Radar.
- Learned how to divide
my time for maximum exposure.
- Size
does matter when it comes to blog posts.
- Stumbled across the best explanation of
what it feels like to live with a chronic illness (PDF file).
- A
simple workout for Bloggers.
- Why some pages
don’t get stumbled.
- The Importance of StumbleUpon
categories.
- I learned Do’s
and Don’ts when it comes to babies.
- How to find out if I am a Social
Media Addict.
- I can now say, "I
Love You" in 100 different languages.
- 10
Commandments of Social Media
- Chris Brogan reminds me that I need to recognize when to scale
back…. I don’t need to say "yes" to everybody.
- I found out Why
Guys like Girls.
- I came across a Comprehensive
Guide to Keyword Research for Bloggers
- Finally I learned how to fold
a fitted sheet correctly. Normally I use my arms to wound it up.
- I learned how to Go
with the Flow.
- How
to write a report that a client will "get".
- I learned how to blog
and work-off 600 calories at the same time.
- That photos can say so much more than words. What do you think this
photo is saying??
- I learned that there is a difference between healthy
and toxic love.
- How to simplify
my life with kids.
- Even Digg can play some April
Fool’s Jokes.
- Found out ways
to reduce stress.
- Food can taste
as good as it looks.
- I located a bunch of great
moms on Twitter thanks to Wendy.
- I was shown a bunch of reasons why Twitter is a great
Social Media Tool.
- I was surprised to learn that it wasn’t only MY children
who don’t recognize
when the bathroom door is closed.
- How to make
a dollar stretch during a recession.
- How to bury
negative posts about you or your company.
- Tamar with the help of Weezer
shows me a thing or two about Viral Marketing.
- More ways I came across to say, "I
Love You".
- StumbleUpon gets my mind thinking with a question
that stumps me.
- Little did I know that there was something called, "Blogger
Imposter Syndrome". You can even take a test to see if you suffer
from it.
- How to Find
the Perfect Image for your Blog Post.
- I had no idea that cigarettes
could teach me something about branding.
- Kids
can teach us how to be happy.
- Learned that there are certain techniques that will make
your blog or website sticky.
- I stumbled across a thing or two about Link
Building Optimization.
- That I can actually SEO
my site in less than 60 minutes.
- And, apparently I will stumble
into the happiness of my life.
Posted in Blogging, Humor, Link Love, Parenting, SEM, SEO, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Time Management, Tips and Tutorials, Web 2.0 Basics | 21 Comments »
Thursday, July 10th, 2008 |
This Featured Guest Post is by Mark Hayward of MyTropicalEscape.com.
Why am I asking - because your clients want to know! How do I know - because I am them.
image source:
azrainman
I am a small business owner in the purest sense of the term, in fact, it’s just my wife and I who run our bed and breakfast here in the Caribbean and marketing dollars are NOT plentiful.
Of course, most people who read Social Desire are social media or SEO experts. Therefore, there is no reason for me to extol the virtues, power, and inherent value of social media to you.
But, what about the small business (non-social media expert) perspective?
Recently, I had a discussion with a really great guest who runs his own business-to-business trade magazine for the wedding industry. Out of curiosity I asked him if his magazine has a website or any type of online presence.
And I almost fell out of my seat when he said, “NO!”
The guest then went on to explain to me that they have run the magazine successfully for over twenty years and he pointedly asked,
“Why should I change now?”
I highlight the above statement because I assume that this is the type of pessimistic attitude that most of you in the social media profession face on a daily basis.
My Small Business as a Social Media Example
Because he was a paying guest I had to politely disagree with his hesitance to establish an online presence, and furthermore, the next time you come across a skeptical client I would like you to feel free to use my business as an example.
You see, the bed and breakfast that my wife and I purchased a little over a year ago had no real financial records and essentially sat empty with no marketing or promotional activities for over two years. In essence, even though we purchased the business structure, we had to build up a clientele base from scratch.
So with the ink still fresh on the mortgage papers and a new mountain of debt, I thought –
“Oh $hit, what now?”
Paying for advertising in traditional print media was financially out of the question for us, so I only had one option, the internet. From an expertise perspective, I had never run a business before, nor had I blogged, or been into social media and online networking. Pretty much, I assumed blogging and social media were for pimply-faced kids and people with too much time on their hands. But I was desperate and decided to jump in and learn.
What did I do?
The Fruits of My Labor
For the short-term thinker I believe that the concept of social media, as it relates to small business success, can be a very difficult one to grasp.
I know from my own experience when I reached my seventh or eighth month of blogging and trying to promote my business online I was frustrated by my perceived lack of progress. I was ready to give up. In fact, I was so disillusioned that I decided to put my site [MyTropicalEscape.com] up for sale at SitePoint.
Then something crazy happened!
Literally, the day my site was going to go into escrow I received an email from an editor at a fairly large U.S. travel magazine. Turns out that she was working on a story regarding, “The Ten Best Islands to Live On” and she wanted to interview me about my experience on Culebra. When I inquired as to how she found me, she replied,
“Why I just happened to StumbleUpon your blog.”
The interview, which you can see online at Islands Magazine, would have cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000 if I had paid to advertise in the magazine. Because it is currently summer in the northeast US I have not noticed a huge spike in reservations just yet, but the article has already sent well over 2000 visitors to my bed and breakfast’s website, who might not have found us otherwise.
Additionally, just when I did not think my online efforts could net any better results, about two weeks after the Islands Magazine writer emailed I received an actual phone call from a freelance writer for Conde Nast Travel Magazine who wanted to interview me.
Amazingly, the Conde Nast writer was also doing an article on my little island home. During her research phase she just happened to get pointed to my blog from one of her Twitter contacts, which for this former non-social media believer meant I was able to chock up another $25,000 worth of complementary promotional advertising.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the Conde Nast Traveller print article made it online at cntraveller.com but if you have the July issue you can go to the “Word of Mouth” section and you will see my that my business has been written about in a very positive light (and they also included our phone number and a website link) and it did not cost me a dime.
How do I think social media can help (really) small businesses? Pretty much the same way social media can assist large business and mega-corporations:
- promotion
- networking
- branding
- as catalyst for collaboration
However, you must think long-term and be persistent, consistent, and proactive if you want your online efforts to help support your business activities.
(Editor’s note: Mark is getting ready to launch a fairly significant online project with some blogging friends. You can follow him on Twitter or visit his site MyTropicalEscape.)
Posted in Blogging, Guest Posts, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Web 2.0 | 20 Comments »
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 |
Social Desire will be featuring
Guest Posts for the next few weeks. Today’s Featured Guest Post is
by Mark Dykeman.
Image by Steve
& Jemma Copley
Everyone’s got a Top Ten list, an 8 step guide, or some other how-to post to
succeeding in social media.
This isn’t one of those posts. Not exactly. Not really.
OK, maybe a little bit.
What I’ve done is to take each letter of the alphabet and try to find one or
two words that can be used to describe social media. I’ve tried to cover many
of the important points and aspects of social media that I’ve picked up through
my own activities. I hope you enjoy and find it useful.
The A – Z listing for social media
Ask/Acquire – social media is a place where we can ask
questions and acquire knowledge; there are tons of great resources out there.
Bold – push yourself and test your limits. Try things
that might have scared you in the past, either due to lack of confidence or
experience. Be bold!
Communicate – it’s all about the conversations.
Demonstrate – show people what you know; help educate
them. (note: I was very tempted to use the word "desire" here…
)
Evaluate – absorb everything you can, but keep a critical
eye open. As you meet different people you’ll gradually get a sense of who knows
their stuff and who doesn’t. Don’t accept advice blindly – think it over
and make up your own mind.
Friend – "friend" has become a verb in social
media, where you give or are given permission to share stuff with other people.
It’s a key component of social media, hence the word "social".
Give – contribute to the body of knowledge with your
own thoughts, ideas, tips, tricks, critiques, and others. It’s not valuable
if you keep it to yourself.
Help – as per give, take the time to do favors for other
people. Answer their questions; show examples. You get a lot back from this,
even if it doesn’t happen immediately.
Ideas – social media contains some of the coolest parts
of higher education – the discussion and refinement of ideas.
Join – if you’re going to be social, join groups that
interest you. It’s all about relationships.
Knowledge/Learn – this K and L go together like peanut
butter and jelly; learn stuff, increase your knowledge.
Mentor – help a beginner and you could have a good friend
for life.
Name – names are important, doubly so in social media.
Meet people, remember their names. They’ll do the same for you!
Open – be as transparent as you can. Consider different
points of view, as well. Speak respectfully, but freely.
Passion – that burning sensation isn’t an, um, infection,
it’s the power of love and desire when you discover something that you love
to do.
Question – questions drive social media. Why? Because
we all want to find answers!
Reveal – tell the world about yourself to the extent
that you feel comfortable to do so. People want to know something about their
follow social mediaites!
Share – as with giving, sharing means doing things that
don’t just benefit yourself, they benefit other people as well. Give credit
where credit is due and share the rewards!
Teach – again, show people what you know and we all
benefit.
Understand – this is critical, because language is an
imperfect means of communication. It can be very easy to misinterpret someone
else’s writing, especially if it hits an emotional hot button. Make sure your
reactions are tempered by understanding so that you know what was really meant
within a communication.
Vigor – show some life there, sparky!
World – it’s a big world out there and social media
will expose you to places that you never knew existed.
X-Ray – look inside and see what’s really happening.
Don’t be fooled by exteriors or pretenses. Get the real story.
Yearn – satisfy those self- actual cravings, at least
temporarily, through social media participation. But stay hungry – there’s
always more.
Zen – practice, be mindful, and learn constantly as
a path to enlightenment (of sorts). You might not become a spiritual master,
but these principles can still lead to fulfillment in social media.
Social media from A – Z – there it is. I hope you were paying attention
because there’s a test coming up!
(Of course, the test never ends… )
If you enjoyed this post check out more of Mark Dykeman’s work at Broadcasting
Brain, his blog about communication and social media.
Posted in Blogging, Guest Posts, Humor, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Tips and Tutorials, Uncategorized, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 Basics | 12 Comments »
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 |
This Featured Guest Post is by James Duthie of Online Marketing Banter
Image by dmax3270
Do onto others as you would do to yourself. It’s a fine philosophy to
live by. The laws of karma state that our personal actions & behaviour influence
future experiences. In other words, we’re responsible for our own destinies
and the ultimate happiness & success we achieve. I can’t think of
any other environment in which karma is more relevant than social media…
Free is the new currency of the Internet. Social media is a perfect example.
How many people make real money from blogging? Very few. Yet every day millions
of bloggers produce content for free distribution. Why? Because they believe
in karma. They believe that giving their content away will lead to positive
future outcomes, whether they be business or personal.
Social news communities such as Digg and Sphinn are even better examples of
karma in action. A selfless attitude is expected within social news communities.
Good karma can only be earned by dedicating free time to positive community
activities such as:
- Submitting content that the community values
- Creating relationships with other community members
- Contributing to blogs of community members via comments & guest posts
- Reading and voting for your friends’ content
- Adding meaningful insights to conversations within the community
- Asking for nothing in turn for your positive contributions
People who succeed in social media embrace the principles of good karma. They
don’t ask for support from the community, but they receive it anyway because
of the positive contribution they make.
Newbies in particular need to display the strongest faith in social media karma,
because the karmic circle takes time to turn. In my case it has taken months
of participation within Sphinn before the good karma returned some personal
rewards. But good things come to those who wait…
Social media karma in action
About a month ago I crossed paths with a blogger named Robin Cannon. Robin
manages Fog of Eternity,
a blog dedicated to web design, social media and online marketing. Like me Robin
is fairly new to the game, and is still establishing his blog and audience.
I liked Robin’s work and quickly subscribed to his blog. I also began
to submit his work to Sphinn and StumbleUpon because his stuff was well written
and deserved a broader audience.
According to Robin, it was my social media support that helped give his blog
the kick start it needed. A number of my Stumbles helped him generated thousands
of visitors a day (who ever knew my Stumbles were so powerful…?). Before
long that momentum grew and he was averaging over a thousand visits a week.
In fact, in just a couple of weeks he had far surpassed my own traffic levels.
Robin has thanked me a number of times for the social media love I gave him.
He didn’t need to. After all, social media submission also shines the
limelight on the submitter if it goes hot… But despite that, Robin made me
a special offer recently. Noticing that my own blog design was a little uninspired,
Robin offered his design skills to help give it a little spark. As someone without
an iota of design experience or skill, this offer was like gold to me!
And that, my friends, is the circle of social media karma in action.
Robin never asked me for social media support, but I gave it anyway because
his work was great quality. I would never have dreamed of asking Robin to redesign
my blog, but he offered anyway out of goodwill.
If you’re not succeeding in social media, perhaps you should take a look
at your own behaviour… Are you exuding an aura of good karma…?
Author Bio:
James Duthie is an Australian
digital marketing expert. He writes on all things social media, blogging,
SEO & digital marketing at his blog - Online Marketing Banter. Subscribe
to hear more of his ramblings here.
Posted in Blogging, Guest Posts, Social Media, Social Networking, Sphinn | 16 Comments »
Friday, May 30th, 2008 |
Social Desire will be featuring
Guest Posts for the next few weeks. Today’s Featured Guest Post is by Chris Estes. He is a Frequent blogster at SEO by Chris
When I set out to help Shana I couldn’t come up with a topic. Topic block
or writers block plagues lots of bloggers. If you are like me you want to write
something people want to read or add value to the subject. That is often hard
to do. I had a manager
that was always asking “how does this add value?” Not all post add
value, like this post, sometimes it is about the status quo.
A while back problogger posted “How
to have a Constant Stream of Blogging Ideas”. In the article the authors
acknowledge that everyday print newspapers aren’t filled with exciting
or breaking news. The difference between bloggers and newspapers is typically
bloggers are lone writers and do not have a staff to write articles like newspapers.
So occasionally a generic blog post is necessary.
Problogger talks about setting up a blogging plan. On your calendar put two
headings. 1. Post topic 2. Topic title. The topic title should be something
that you can write about at any given time, generic topics if you will. Then
follow the schedule and write it. But what about the breaking news and other
off plan topics? Write them too and post them but still stick with the blogging
calendar. Don’t substitute trade or move your calendar around. Post the
planned topics on the days you plan and make the other breaking news flashes
bonus post.
When setting up your calendar the topics can be hard to come up with. Do what
I do. Pick one of your friends that aren’t tech savvy, my parents make
good partners for me, and bounce Ideas off of them. The less tech savvy seem
to always have an interesting take on your subject material. I get more of my
posting ideas from explaining what I do than what they suggest to write about.
I hope you enjoyed the post and follow more of my post at Search
Engine Optimization by Chris. I wanted to speak to Shana’s heart felt
story about keeping her illness private and away from public view. I understand
her situation with conditions of my own. Since I get to use SocialDesire.com
as my own for a post I would like to give the greatest gift of charity we can
do as marketers with a link. Because it will benefit me personally I charity
link to the American
Sleep Association (ASA).
See now you have A blog post Idea. Post a snippet of information about your
charity and why you are giving them this link. Then once you put the post up
come back and comment about it and share the link to your post. Giving back
will only take you a couple seconds and plus it makes you look good.
Happy blogging!
The author Chris Estes is a Frequent blogster at SEO
by Chris and has started a new business in Birmingham, AL – Birmingham
Search Engine Optimization
Posted in Blogging, Guest Posts, Link Love, Social Media | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 |
Social Desire will be featuring
Guest Posts for the next few weeks. Today’s Featured Guest Post is by Peter
Newsome of SiteMost.
Image by Lady-bug
Offline Reality Online
When I catch-up with friends we’ll usually talk about the highlights
of our week, we’ll have a whinge about the things that got under our skin
and we will vocalise our opinions some of the current events that we feel strongly
about.
Take away the face-to-face interaction, convert the speech to text (although
not in every case thanks to how easy it is to create and share audio and video
content) and you have a blog.
When I get home from work, I’ll look through the cupboards and fridge
and work-out what I’m going to make for dinner. Once I’ve made a
decision, I’ll usually vocalise this to myself - “Tonight I’m
going to make spaghetti bolognese!” (yes, I know that talking to yourself
is the first sign of insanity and a lot of my friends already think I am a little
insane).
I’ll also continue talking to myself as I prepare the meal “a little
bit of oregano, a dash of wine…” and as the TV is usually on in
the other room, I’ll often make comments about the day’s stories
“Interest rates are up again, there’s still conflict in the Middle
East and Britney Spears did what?!?”
The above examples of small conversations that we have with ourselves everyday
could easily be seen by having a quick skim through Twitter logs.
When you’re at school, the more friends you have, the ‘cooler’
you are – aka MySpace, Facebook
etc. etc.
Take away the cheesy voice-over and Benny Hill music from ‘Funniest Home
Videos’ and I’ve just described at least a third of YouTube’s
content.
My mother sticks little yellow Post-It notes on the side of her computer monitor
listing websites she’s found and wants to remember how to get back to
them – if she understood what I was talking about when I tried to teach
her about del.icio.us
For your daily dose of tabloid news in an online format you don’t need
to look much further than Digg.
And just like you’ll need Amy Winehouse throwing-up on your shoes if you
want your pic in the tabloids, you’ll also need some Social
Media Celebrity Endorsement if you want your articles to appear on the front-page
of Digg.
So as you can see, most online social media has been inspired by something
offline (even if the inspiration was far from the examples above, you still
get the general idea). The only problem is that there is still a very big disconnect
between the real and the virtual worlds.
It’s like comparing reality TV with actual reality. I don’t know
who’s reality it is, but I can’t recall the last time someone locked
me in a house with a bunch of strangers and recorded my every move whilst making
me perform challenges like eating worms or pouring spiders on my head, or watched
me painfully sing karaoke, or become a model, or survive on a desert island
or made me lose half my body weight etc. etc.
Sure, it might be entertaining, but it certainly isn’t what happens to
you and I on a daily basis.
I’ve met bloggers that write well, seem quite entertaining and have hundreds
of subscribers but in person they are very shy and introverted or waaaay over
the top and are incredibly annoying to have a conversation with.
Whereas other bloggers that only have a handful of regular readers have been
charming, interesting and insightful when I’ve met them face-to-face.
There was a guy I went to school with who still lives with his parents, works
for the local government in an accounting role, hasn’t changed one little
bit from the weedy, nerdy, annoying guy from senior school… but his Facebook
page says he has 300+ friends.
Now I’m not trying to say that one’s online persona is inversely
proportional to how popular they are offline… there are some really great
people that I’ve met who are very popular both online and offline.
Although I think that we should observe how the online world has taken most
of its inspiration from the real world and as it continues to do this, there
will become a requirement for social media mavens to genuinely be as interesting
and insightful in reality as they are online. Otherwise they may find that the
virtual reputation they’ve worked so hard to build won’t hold-up
as the two worlds (offline and online) become one.
If you enjoyed this Guest Post you can check out more of Peter’s work at SiteMost.
And, while you are at it subscribe to the SiteMost
Feed.
Posted in Blogging, Guest Posts, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
