Monthly Archives: December 2010

What is Your Goal for Social Media Marketing?

We each enter social media marketing with a goal. The goals may be different in nature or in definition, but they all share the same points, why? We are all marketers and we all share the same point of view. In a post in 1 Good Reason – Social Marketing entitled “The Goal of Social Marketing” :

The Goal of all social marketing is simple:

To identify advocates in social media, engage and build relationships with them, and enable them to spread your message virally.

This principle is in my mind immutable for any social marketing effort. It’s the reason we are involved in social media for business. And it doesn’t matter if your business is personal branding, small business branding or corporate messaging for the largest companies in the world. All of us who are marketing in social media have this same simple goal.

All too often we forget about engaging and building relationships and we get caught up in the finding new people to follow race. As many pointed out two weeks ago when I wrote 9 Point Social Social Media Expert, it’s not about the numbers. It’s about whether we have real relationships with people. Do they find our content, our information, and our connections with them valuable? Or do we simply feed them uninteresting, lines that are all about me, me, me?

So just for today, why don’t you concentrate on building the relationships you have in your network. Strengthen them, by reaching out to people who you’ve not connected with recently and reconnect. Find some people in your network who you aren’t familiar with and strive to learn more about them. Go read their blogs, or Facebook pages and learn more about what they do and what they are interested in. This will lead you to a stronger network which will be much more valuable for you.

I do agree that it is not important how many millions see your advertisements, but what matters is how many of those people pay attention to you and follow you. It is how many people will value you and your product because you have a connection and a relationship with them.

What is Your Goal for Social Media Marketing?

How Many of Your Social Media Circle of Friends are Real?

Have you ever tried to sort out your real friends from your mere Facebook friends? You may have a lot of followers and many people you follow on Twitter, but do you know them all? I would guess not. I always see people with “Add me up” on their status or a thread of “Follow me, I’ll follow back” on my stream. A lot of them must only care for numbers of people they are connected to, maybe they just wanted to enlarge their circle of ‘friends’ and they can’t see that social media can be used to communicate to your real friends and family. Allan Wolk states in his “How Many Friends Have I Really Got?” : **Where’s the Link?**

One day you got an invitation from Bob who you considered a casual work acquaintance asking you to connect as a friend. Fair enough. You were likely flattered that Bob considered you a friend. But if Bob was listed as a friend, then Arun, Maria, Dave and Kevin, all of whom you had listed as work connections, needed to be made “friends” since you were certainly closer to themm than you were to Bob, and it wouldn’t make sense to have him as a Friend and them as mere co-workers.

And that’s the problem: friendship is never as simply as a math equation. The people most of us consider friends rarely have us on an equivalent plane of friendship. So the potential for hurt feelings is quite high. And the second I give my Facebook email to an acquaintance is the second its value as a communication device with my inner circle diminishes in value 100%.

It’s human nature and I’m not sure how technology can fix it. The best bet seems to be to maintain various levels of communication and allow water (or friendship) to seek its own level. That way we’re not forced to declare our level of friendship with someone based on our communication style.

I have nothing against those people adding somebody just to have a long list of followers and friends. That is one of the goals of social media too, making the world as small as a monitor, interconnecting people from all around the globe. Well, in that case it is a success. Social media is now a line of communication and a place where friends and friends you haven’t met meet.

How Many of Your Social Media Circle of Friends are Real?

What Type of Facebook Jerk Do You Hate the Most?

While cruising Google Reader this AM I stumbled upon Don’t Be One of These Facebook Fools and really enjoyed these grossly-accurate generalizations of the types of douchebags that populate Facebook on a daily basis. Great list, Mickie Kennedy!

The Ghost – The Facebook Ghost created his or her account, but either forgot the service existed in a matter of seconds or has a serious self-image problem. Either way, their account is left with only a spectral silhouette where the picture should be. This causes all kinds of problems for friends and potential friends. “Is Greg from 12^th grade calculus?” “Why am I being friended by a ghost?” Take some of the mystery out of Facebook and add a picture.

The Lurker – This Facebook fool never interacts on Facebook. He doesn’t play Farmville, he doesn’t “like” any of your status messages, and he certainly never replies to your Roller Skate BBQ Scuba Diving Extravaganza invitations. But when you see him in person and start to tell him your good news, he interjects with “Oh yeah, I already saw that on Facebook.” This is highly unsettling behavior! Either acknowledge the fact that you are reading Facebook, or sit through your friend’s good news twice.

The Ambusher – You wake up to the fateful email – “Amber Ambusher has tagged you in a photo.” Wincing, you click the link only to find a picture of yourself at a Tri Delt party back in college, in a compromising position with a beer funnel, a Chihuahua and a clown. What the Ambusher doesn’t seem to understand is that Facebook is a public forum, and that Grandma follows your updates more than she follows her soaps. Think carefully before posting incriminating photos or awkward messages on someone else’s Facebook page.

The Chatterbox – “Cathy Chatterbox just put the clothes in the dryer.” “Cathy Chatterbox wonders if she should have Chinese or Mexican for dinner. “ “Cathy Chatterbox can’t find the remote control.” These are the scintillating details of the Chatterbox’s life, cluttering up your friend feed day after day after day. In her worst incarnation, the Chatterbox clutters up your page, too, but commenting on all of your status updates and “liking” your activity every time you become a fan of Banana Republic or the Surprised Kitten.

The Self-Promoter – More annoying than the Chatterbox is the self-promoter. Instead of just regaling you with the mundane details of his day, the Self-Promoter’s updates are all about me, me, me. He got a promotion, a raise, a novel published. He’s dating a supermodel, who’s also European royalty. He met her at the after-party celebrating his Nobel Prize. And the Self-Promoter’s updates about his fabulous achievements usually appear at the point where you’re feeling the lowest. It’s always tempting to share your good news with the world, but social media is about being social, not bragging about your accomplishments. Tone it down.

Hell, even I know I am not without sin — which one am I? Maybe a little bit of The Self-Promoter? Am I a chatterbox? Which one(s) are you? Which of them do you suffer? Which one do you hate the most? (Via Chris Abraham)

What Type of Facebook Jerk Do You Hate the Most?

Social Media: The New Connection

There was this guy I know who approached a girl, I was guessing that he would ask for her number after asking her name. To my surprise he said, “Miss, do you have a Facebook? I’ll just add you.”

Social media really has a big impact on our communication, that scene for example, instead of asking for her mobile number he asked for her Facebook account. I agree with him in a way, when I have her number, I can send her messages or call her, but when I have her Facebook account, I can chat with her, view her photos, stalk her status updates, I can even play games with her.

It has changed and improved how we connect with our friends and families, but is it right to just rely on social media for personal affairs. Imagine, you will just celebrate your birthday with virtual friends greeting you on your wall, people tweeting you their places and having a chitchat with others without going out of your room. How about “Guys we have a party tonight go ON skype.” That will be just great if we were thousand miles away, but just a few houses away?

Social media is a great tool in building relationships and a great help for communication, but it is not a substitute for the real deal. Would you rather poke your friend on Facebook than giving him or her a hug when you’re missing each other? It is just alright to dive in social media and to have fun, but personal and physical approach is the best foundation of a good relationship.