I was tagged by fellow blogger and friend Paisano to write about some best practices in social media. Pai mentioned two best practices, Honesty and Respect. Those are key to any relationship.
So how does someone from a tech point of view look social media?
1. Stop thinking us vs them: Of course you’d say, but often in business to customer and tech to user there is animosity. Those in the tech industry tend to look at users not as opportunity partners but people that won’t fully understand nor appreciate their work. This is not a productive approach.
So how to you turn it around? Don’t talk at them, talk with them. Sounds easy, but the key is to join the conversation, and don’t worry about leading it. If you don’t think there’s a conversation, it’s only because you aren’t taking part. Find it and jump in, but don’t try to tell folks how to think or why they’re confused. Spend most of your time listening. Benefits will abound.
2. Look for the niche and unique: Everywhere in social media is another company doing a video appealing to the technorati. Yeah, lots of blogger fodder out there, but what about the stuff for grandmas with a piercing.
Believe it or not, someone besides another tech geek might be interested in your product. Consider gearing some of your social networking and media for someone besides a web guru.
I know of one large niche, home schoolers, that is aching for all the industries to reach out to them, especially the tech industry.
Part of reaching out to niches is learning their language, or at least de-geeking your current stuff. When I’m reading about the latest genealogy tech tool for example, it’d be nice to hear about it’s features without having to understand how RSS works, or how BlueTooth links this or that.
Not new thoughts I’m sharing, but none of it is. They keys to being successful marketing in the social media world are the same ones that work in day to day life, it’s not the signs, it’s the conversation. Whatever enables and supports that will be what works.
Alltop much? If you want to know what’s hot, or at least the top 100 in something, there’s no better way than to visit alltop.com. Today is the premiere of utterati.alltop.com. It’s the site for the top Utterz users on the net.
Notice anything? Yep, yours truly made the page. My name is up there along with such greats as Chris Brogan, Andy Caster, and Paisano. Woot.
Do stop by the Utterati page and check out some of the goodness. You won’t be sorry.
My vacation plans started off ordinarily enough, time away from work and visiting with family. In this case, the family is my daughter-in-law and granddaughters up in Washington State. The plan was one week up there, visiting and perhaps drifting up to Seattle for a day or two. Well, things changed!
In my searching around for things to do, I came across some folks that sent me to a link on Jeff Pulver’s next breakfasts. Guess where? Seattle and Vancouver on back to back days! Yeah. We’d thought already about heading into Seattle, Vancouver, or both, so I was excited about this.
As it turned out, Seattle was too hard to make, so we changed plans to make a week day trip to British Columbia and have breakfast the next day. That travel adventure is fodder for another post.
The breakfast was held in down town Vancouver at the Subeez Cafe. Sharon and I arrived about 8:30, and the meet-up portion was already in full swing. There was Jeff, live and in person, elbow deep in schmoozing with the locals. It seems folks from all over the area were interested in this get together.
Minutes after getting there, we were handed our personal social networking tool kits. If you’ve never seen one, then please check out this Facebook video. Jeff explains it all.
Kit in hand, we quickly put on our name tags and gave ourselves tag lines. I labeled myself as a social media gadabout. Sharon chose the oh so true social media widow. This made a great intro for discussions folks had with her. Moments later, someone handed us each some other tags to label ourselves with. Tagging is a big part of these breakfasts.
We spent some moments looking around this rather unique restaurant, but most of the time after our tagging was spent in deep conversations, and there was plenty to talk about. Conversations obviously included social media and networking as topics, but also strayed into all kinds of areas. Sharon ended up talking about our travels, where we’re from and learned plenty about Canada from Ian Hood and Roland Tangloa. These gents made us feel the more like friends than strangers. Of course my wife is like that with folks anyway. Ha.
Everyone was talking and there was a wealth of interesting folks to engage there. Jeff Pulver was going to be my primary target but once I got settled, I found there were others just as interesting. And just so much I couldn’t take it all in. If you get a chance to go, do talk with Jeff, but don’t ignore all the wonderful people like yourself that showed up as well.
Conversation didn’t come to an end even when breakfast arrived. The breakfast was a treat and a nice surprise. Originally this was going to be a continental breakfast. In most places that means bagels, fruit, cereal etc. Not so here.
The Subeez Cafe apparently doesn’t serve breakfast regularly. So for us they whipped special up. Check out this picture.
The first thing to catch my eye was the fresh fruit. Strawberries and apples fresh cut and colorful sat nicely on each plate. This was the first time though I’d had fresh fruit and toast though. Turkey sausage and baked beans nestled nicely with fluffy scrambled eggs between the fruit and toast. To top off the toast, there was a side of peanut butter on each plate. Needless to say, the breakfast drew much of the immediate conversation.
Interesting things besides breakfast included that I’ve been a much busier Twitter user than most in attendance. Most folks there used other social networking tools, though no one had heard of Plurk yet. Facebook seemed popular though, and several folks had full blown websites and blogs. Photography seemed popular as well, with several folks having cameras and video going.
What did I take away from this? What value added did it have in my life? The biggest thing for me was getting face time with folks I’d normally only meet online. In a world where many of us will communicate but never shake hands, this is even more important. Being there in person also allows for more intimate communication, including other forms of personal communication, such as body language and expressions. There’s nothing quite like a real life wink to cement meaning in a message.
Documenting this with words isn’t doing this event justice, so I took some pictures as well. Please check out my pictures of the Vancouver Jeff Pulver breakfast. If you’re on Facebook, be sure to check out the event page. Please feel free to tag the pictures, and leave comments if you know anyone in them.
Now what? Now I start planning on joining Jeff Pulver for breakfast in St. Louis. How about you?
Plurk is a made up word and a fantasy creature. Plurk is more; it’s the latest chat and conversation tool on the market, and plurky just about describes it.
Plurk takes a whole new spin on on chat though as you can see. Chat isn’t just streaming up the window as with Twitter, Pownce or IM. The flow is left to right. Like little boats of conversation floating down the river, the watchful eye of the plurk beast overseeing it.
Already you can imagine it takes a bit of getting used to, but now check out the chat popup.
Each conversation box opens up, and a complete thread can take place there. The whole of that conversation is contained inside that box. The neatest thing is it’s a live update box. As folks comment back in it, it updates while you watch.
This feature is especially interesting when the plurk message is a private one or to a clique. Then it’s not even visible except to those invited into it. The box becomes your own private chat room.
Karma! Just one of the interesting features of plurk is Karma. You, me, the guy with the rat fetish, we all earn karma. Let me just say, the karma wars are on.
Karma is earned through some obvious activities. Adding friends, inviting people, and posting messages all seem to have a positive affect on your karma. You can’t always tell though, as karma points are only updated about twice each day. The notes are fuzzy on when updates occur.
So what’s the point of karma? Well unlike regular social networks, such as Twitter, or Facebook, plurk doesn’t open all of its features to new members. As your karma increases, more features, really customizations, become available.
Customizations include changing your backgrounds, cool chat icons, including dancing bananas, picking out your version of the plurk creature, and naming your plurk page. Those are most of the things that get unlocked, and it seems obvious there are more to be found.
The whole unlocking thing, coupled with the ever moving stream of messages, give plurk a game like feel. At first this is fun and appealing to almost everyone it seems. The problem is that karma updates so slowly that for most folks, they are unable to unlock anything until their second day on plurk, and even then just one or two items.
The other downside to making it so game like is that the aggressive gaming of the system is already occurring. You’ll see folks with several hundred friends and thousands of messages sent. You’ll see threads of conversation going into the hundreds of follow on comments. People are hunting down karma like it was the next big thing. Remind you of WoW?
So the game like feel may not be for everyone, but overall plurk is an interesting take on conversation online. I find it is a lot more interactive than Twitter or Pownce, and with the built in chat features, more fun to actually use.
I’ll be putting a follow up post together just about the chat text and link features. Feel free to share your best and favorite ones here, as well as your take on using plurk. Please, jump in and share, and post your plurk me link.
The MidWest Media Conference was a success. What was it you ask?
IF YOU TWITTER, POWNCE, BLOG, SEESMIC OR UTTERZ - THIS IS THE CONFERENCE FOR MEDIA RELATED ISSUES.
HOSTED BY WORKING PROFESSIONALS, IT’S DIRECTED TO EVERYONE INTERESTED IN IMPROVING ONLINE MEDIA PRODUCTION.
The conference was the brainchild of Duane Myers, aka PreppyDude. Seeing the strong interest in St. Louis and having connections, he went forward with his plan. He brought together a diverse set of panelists to help out.
Byron Sletten of Mindactive, headed up the technical side of the conference. His company provided the site, as well as the equipment to live broadcast the conference. Byron himself bookended the row of panelists. He provided valuable insight about site design and purpose for businesses and artists.
Steph Stockman, geologist and science educator, brought her expertise as a developer/implementer of education and outreach programs for NASA to the panel. Not content with mere drawings and a few pictures, Steph has strived to use online media in her education efforts. She’s now quite familiar with online networking and media, for both professional and personal use.
Dana Loesch, professional blogger and talk radio host, has been online and sharing writing and media for decades. An experienced hand at online media from blogs to broadcasting, she shared her experience in getting it right online.
Bill Streeter, a video blogger, blogger and more, is the man behind LO-FI Saint Louis. He brought a strong background in online media publishing as well as production to the table. A good portion of his work has been with local St. Louis musicians and artists.
Frank Ireton, Ph. D., a retired educator and public outreach professional, turned those years of experience to becoming a social media and virtual world expert. He’s created numerous things for clients and private projects in Second Life, including a representation of Belfast Ireland, including a pub that streams live music from Belfast.
Michelle Havens, professional photographer and stylist, worked on both the panel and as technical support for the evening. Her expertise in creating and publishing digital works was a welcome addition to the group.
David Myers, radio host and voice over talent, came with 14 years of radio industry experience. He’s now acting as Operations Coordinator for CBS Radio’s Kidstream Internet station. David played cohost and spurred on the panel.
These people came together to share their expertise and experiences in putting media online and making it work. They handled questions from privacy to investment to get something online.
One of those most interesting things to surface was the panels agreement that up and coming artists, especially musicians, should get their art online and put up an interactive site at the earliest opportunity. Also, the panel made clear that interactive doesn’t mean just a few news updates now and then, but a two way communication, between artists and fans.
Cost to get involved was a big topic. The answer? It’s cheap, just do it. They key is to focus on the quality of the content in general, and not on the gear. There’s no need to invest in $1000 plus camera or recording gear to get started. The panel talked about even using a cell phone to get initial things online.
Though the panel had limited time for questions but also managed to talk about privacy concerns, some pet projects, and what other first steps an artist should take.
The turn out was small for this initial conference but the attendees and panel enjoyed themselves. After the conference proper broke up, the entire group of folks retired to another section of the Roadhouse for dinner and drinks.
Lessons learned:
1. You can put a conference on with no in person meetings.
2. You can put a conference on without tens of people.
3. You can put a conference on in just about any place, even a noisy restaurant.
4. You can put a conference on and have a good time.
5. Noisy restaurants aren’t the best venue.
6. Get their early to set up.
7. Have questions prepared for the panel.
8. Advertise the hell out of it; you’ll get more attendees online and in person.
The biggest success about this conference was that it happened. It’s hopefully a gateway event for St. Louis and a sign of more to come. It’s also a great lead in for the upcoming St. Louis Interactive Festival.
I’m already excited about the next event. What’s great is that you don’t have to be an expert to get involved, just have the urge and energy. Do you have an idea for a one evening conference? One afternoon? Target audience 20 folks or less? Let’s make it happen!
They’ll hook up 2 of you with an Amazon or Mobile gift certificate when they announce the second Utterz Game next week.
**BONUS** up your odds by sending in a picture of the total on your gas pump to go@utterz.com. Send it within 10 minutes of calling so it matches up to your recording.
What are you waiting for?! Go, pump, pay, and share the pain! Share your Utterz posts here in the comments was well for extra fun.
St. Louis is going to be host to the Midwest Media Conference. A variety of speakers will be on hand for an evening of stories, questions and answers about online media. One of my favorite guys involved in social media, Duane Myers, aka PreppyDude, will be hosting the show.
Three of the presenters are well known folks in St. Louis media, David Myers, Bill Streeter, Dana Loesch, and Michelle Havens. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting these folks in person on more than one occasion. But not only are locals turning up, like the St. Louis Bloggers Guild, one of our Ohio favorites is joining us as well, Ann Miller, aka AnnOhio.
Duane and the out of town speakers will be here a bit early. I’m hearing rumors of dinner and drink plans. Be sure to get a hold of these folks and let them know your interested.
An Utterz Ambassador? No, it doesn’t mean you’ll be talking to more cows, but it does mean you could be representing good old Bessie for Utterz. Utterz is kicking off a Memorial Day weekend contest to find a small group of folks to become Utterz Ambassadors. Here’s the scoop straight from Sim and crew.
Here’s the skinny: The Utterz team will be hand selecting a small group of Utterz users to help shape the future of Utterz for the entire community. If you’re selected to be an Ambassador, you’ll get to peek behind the Utterz curtain to learn what we’re working on now, as well helping us design and refine our upcoming feature releases. And of course, you’ll get “more cowbell”.
So how do you become an Utterz Ambassador? Easy.
Send us an email (ambassador@utterz.com) or create an utter tagged “utterz ambassador” (bonus points) describing why you’re the perfect Utterz Ambassador.
Be creative, have fun, show off your riffs, and prove your chops as an Utterz user.
We will begin the selection process Tuesday, May 27th, so be sure to get your submissions in before then. We’ll announce the newly minted Utterz Ambassadors by Thursday, May 29th.
You read it here; you could be the next Utterz Ambassador! There’s an Utterz blog post with the same information in a video for your more visually fixated Utterz fans.
So what are you going to do? Join the fun! Be the next Utterz Ambassador!
