In the best Twitter conversation I have ever had, Olivier Blanchard (@thebrandbuilder), myself and others had one of the most intriguing conversations. We realized that while there’s some sort of “algorithm” that tells us how influential we are, where’s the true, realistic value that yields an almost tangible result?

Klout is full of it

Like it or not, Klout is math. It measures, analyzes, and then shows you a result. But what is it measuring? How can one single Tweet have a value to it because it was retweeted 15 times, or replied to with a witty answer? Simply put, it can’t. The value of a relationship, of an interaction, has a fallout that is immeasurable. Let me put it this way: Over the course of about an hour and a half the thoughts that were exchanged have built a level of communication that in the future could hold more for me or Olivier than what happened in just that time. This blog post may yield some clicks on an affiliate link or a Google Ad, or maybe even reach someone willing to employ me. Can Klout measure those repercussions? Yeah…no, they can’t.

@desertronin said:

But digital influence is like a mirage, I may be known by a certain segment, but there’s a good chance that I’ll ever be able to move them to buy a product, give to a charity, start any meaningful action.

I couldn’t have said better. But to him my answer was that the people that we meet first-hand, in person and have held a conversation with become the people that influence us or that we influence; Klout can’t measure that. We are better off using the smaller communities that we are a part of to get a message out to those with whom we have mutual trust.

Gaming the System

Chris Brogan was right in Trust Agents when he talked about tinkering and gaming the existing models for out benefit. As NSFW as this is Olivier was right:

The problem is the combination of “personal branding” and “influenceitis.” It turns social platforms into a giant circle-jerk.

Quora, Twitter, Blogs, it’s all a “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” mentality. The constant revolution of using these tools to promote ourselves and prove that in an atmosphere where the playing field has been leveled, we are all competing against each other where we are all the same. Essentially perfect competition. The people who can become these influencers are the ones that have tinkered with it to form “influential opinions”.

Tools like Quora are beneficial, they do give us answers questions that need solutions. Too often though, are we asking the wrong questions, we ask for opinions on solution, not for the solution itself (which goes back to perception).

It’s time to start seeing social media as a problem solver, not an opinion giver (yes I realize that I’m stating an opinion to a solution not a solution, call me a hypocrite). When you realize that someone is looking for a solution, where’s the harm in an explicit answer, not some roundabout bullshit answer that may vaguely give the asker a concept.

Stop caring about yourself, trust me your personal brand with grow more by helping the people in your community rather than boosting yourself.

Follow this on David Armano’s Question on Quora.

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What is your focus in the social sphere? Networking, Marketing? Whichever it is there is a difference, and one that many people tend to blur. Networking and marketing are two entirely separate strategies and methods for their own unique goals. While many strategist employ the usage of both to further their means, we cannot make the mistake of misnaming one type of social ideology with the other.

Networking

A Social Network as put by Wikipedia is:  a social structure made of individuals (or organizations) called “nodes,” which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

When it was decided to take social networking out of the face-to-face daily contacts that we have and turn it into an online craze, Social Networking turned into another type of game; Not the game of high school’s, who’s most popular, but rather a game of who has the most important and useful contacts. Whizzes like Mary Kurek (@marylkurek), and Chuck Hester (@chuckhester), base the majority of their time seeking out contacts, making connections, and being a hub for others whether job hunting, client hunting, sponsorships, any possibility of business networking.

One of Mary’s recent blog posts, outlines what could be taken as her procedure for social networking. By bringing every person into the hub and keeping an eye on their activity, Mary can look at one connection and say, “Hey! I know someone who can help you out with _____.” Providing utility and quality for these networks everyone benefits.

On the other hand Chuck Hester, is more of a Live maven for these networking events. By hosting LinkedIn Live Raleigh, Chuck has managed to pull off events of over 500+ professionals from every walk of life to come together and simply do what people do best, socialize. In one way, this is exactly what Mary does, but on the other side, it’s entirely different. By simply bringing local professions together and simply having them in the same room, people will naturally begin to talk and find out about each other. So should one person find another who suits their need, wham bam business card exchange, they’re good to go.

This, is Networking.

Social Marketing

Marketing defined by the Business Dictionary is the, “Management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. As a philosophy, it is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction.” (The italics are mine for emphasis.)

Yeah, it’s different.

If you’re in marketing, you know the 4P’s, and while marketing uses these concepts, we could probably agree that Social Networking comes into play when you need to reach out, whether through promotion, distribution, etc. Networking becomes a part of marketing but is not a replacement.

From my perspective, and this is not an exhaustive explanation, social marketing is the ability to provide a presence; the presence for customer service, promotion, ad placement, whatever way one chooses to look at the term “presence”. Although there are many niches to marketing, like international marketing, strategic marketing, research marketing, the list goes on, they all are to reach a goal. The goal for marketing is to complete the need or want of a client while keeping them satisfied so that they can come back again and again for the excellent service or product they expect.

Managing the way the product is viewed, sold, and using proper customer service social marketing is giving managers a way to less expensively monitor the activity around the product and respond accordingly.

The two concepts of social networking and social marketing are vastly different. Which are you? Which do you do better? Mix or choose one.

LinkedIn – Mary Kurek

LinkedIn – Chuck Hester

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A while back Chris Brogan mentioned using Follow Friday for Blog Traffic. So I figured I would give it a shot.

Here are April 16th’s Follow Friday.

Roger Harris – @rharris – Former Social Media Manager for Capstrat, now owns his own company Harris Social Media.

Allie Sullivan – @AshevilleAllie – She might become just @allie, or @wherevershemovesto-allie. But a great person to follow .

Danielle Hatfield – @dhatfield – Graphic arts designer, has a knack for Twittering and waking up at 5am.

Dan London – @danlondon – Director of Online Marketing, at ShareFile.com, great guy phenomenal information from his tweets!

Phil Buckley – @1918 – SEO, Social Marketing and all around nice guy, Phil Buckley is incredible for new news or conversation.

David Armano – @armano – Senior Vice President at Edelman Digital,  a very active participant in engaging his friends and communitu, David Armano is a leading digital marketing genius.

Any recommendations or follow ups?

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Gen-Y this, Gen-Y that, for Pete’s sake, it’s NOT about us! We aren’t the decision makers, we aren’t the new revolution we’re not everything you’re making us out to be!

Generally, the assumption has been that the Gen-Y has been taking social media and networking by storm. The truth is, we’re the growing portion, but by no means are we the controlling factor or the vast majority.

In 2009 a PEW document showed some interesting stats on Twitter.

Nearly one in five (19%) online adults ages 18 to 24 have ever used Twitter and its ilk, as have
20% of online adults 25 to 34. Use of these services drops off steadily after age 35 with
10% of 35 to 44 year olds and 5% of 45 to 54 year olds using Twitter. The decline is even
more stark among older internet users; 4% of 55-64 year olds and 2% of those 65 and
older use Twitter.

The thing to take into account is that, yes the Gen-Y range is the growing range, but the combined weight of the other ages outside of Gen-Y is greater.

On Facebook, the stats are similar according to Quantcast.

• Ages 13-17 represent 22% of the total
• Ages18-34 represent 42% of the total
• Ages 35-49 represent 20% of the total
• Ages 50+ represent 12% of the total

Again, we represent a good portion but the combined weight of outside of Gen-Y is larger.

What does this mean for your marketing and your point of view?

Stop focusing on just that generation. While we can represent a good portion of the online network we can never forget that being able to teach someone else is also key. A generation older than us can also go online and search for a business on Google, or find a way to communicate via Twitter or Facebook.

Over at A New Generation, Kristin Dziadul (@KristinEDziadul) said,

The rise of video has certainly become a trending theme for Generation Y today since we are seen as the “Me” generation who wants to be the focus of attention, loves technology, and likes to be socially active. For instance, I have been seeing an increasingly large number of people on Facebook sending simple videos to friends, even just to say hi.

And she is 100% correct, the thing is, it isn’t just about Me, or my generation. It is about everyone connected. Everyone being able to communicate to one another and be able to share with each other and teach our parents our bosses what this new media stuff is all about.

There is an opportunity that so many marketers are overlooking by focusing just on Gen-Y and our addiction to being in front of a screen.

Let me know what you think!

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Do you know exactly what you want in a product? What about in a service?

Here is a long (18min) video from Malcolm Gladwell at TED in 2004. Watch it if you want but it has only some bearing on the rest of this post. In 2004, Gladwell also released this article in the New Yorker (The Ketchup Cunundrum).

Consumers are naturally dumb. Not to say they’re unintelligent or anything along those lines. But when it comes to knowing exactly what they want they have almost no idea what they want or what will make them happy.

So what does this mean for us as marketers in a social world? There is no reason we shouldn’t know what our potential clients want! That may be stretching it a bit, but with the wealth of information and the range of demographic & psychological analytics we can derive from information posted (thanks to restaurant check-ins and social ratings), we can cater directly to the clients unknowns.

As consumers it’s likely they will not know exactly what they want, but we as the providers can take this information and take a look into their tastes. By using this information we can develop strategies for companies that cater directly to these people and literally exploit the things that they love.

Mashable! also related to the way consumers behave on internet but from an alternate perspective, User Competency in Social Design.

If these are simple assumptions that Adrian Chan is making, then we can also assume much more about their behavior based on their previous trends.

Let me know what you think! Leave a comment!

Probably one of my favorite parts of this film! But you may be asking, “ok…what does Top Gun have to do with Social Media, or Branding?” Fine, it doesn’t really have anything to do with it except for the fact they’re “Communicating”.

Communication is the one thing that without it, you will crumble. Communication in your enterprise may not exactly be your top forte, or your main focus. But as a marketing or sales department, it should be. The ability for a company to maintain a constant interaction with it’s clients or associates is an aspect that cannot be surpassed by many other departments.

US Airways & the Harvard Business Review had a case study of  Dessert Gallery.  In it they used a Survey and Facebook, to alter their customers behavior (read the Case Study for more details).  On the off hand I look at this from a different perspective.

What did communication have to do with their success?

Probably more than you might lead to believe. The fact that their upkeep within the Facebook page and in their surveys shows more interaction than before they began this campaign. An ability to start, build, and maintain a constant stream of communication and interaction not only on Facebook, is a difficult task. The time and effort that is needed is one that not everyone can hold on to.

Don’t Focus on Yourself, focus on everyone else who is in your Twitter or Facebook stream. Look at your competition, how are they interacting? Are there questions being unanswered about a product or service you prove?

Answer them, be a presence. Be something people want to be a part of!

With your brand that is; your personal brand. What are you doing with it? Do you have your objectives set up?
Since the first times I have been following a lot on personal branding and self-marketing, it’s rather interesting to see how little has changed and how much is repeated. Often times I will stumble in and read something I see that is new but in reality I am reading the same tips and suggestions over and over with different wording. To be quite honest it gets kind of frustrating.

For the sake of clarification here are some of those points. Engage on Twitter, Engage on Facebook, build recognition though a blog, and for those in a more professional setting; enhance the use of your LinkedIn network. Now, that’s all fine and dandy but if you’re not entirely new to this gig, like me, reading the same thing gets tiring and overwhelming.

I love the Student Branding Blog, an offshoot of the Personal Branding Blog. But the thing is, I’m tired of reading tips I’ve been hearing from my parents and college advisors. Every once in a while I will come across something interesting that I have yet to read, but that is a rare occasion. With no disrespect to the author, I would like to look at this post at the Student Branding Blog: Facebook: Personal Branding Friend or Foe?. I just have one comment on this; the whole post is almost one big, “no s*** sherlock”. The points are obvious, points that people already know, but yet students obviously still haven’t caught on to efficiently. I still see my friends’ pictures with beers and bongs thinking, “are you stupid?”, not to mention on a 100% public profile too!

When all is said and done, I implore many of you personal brands, and aides to personal brands to advance your techniques and posts. Don’t repeat the same information for a professional personal brand for a student. It IS different, there are differences that should be addressed, that have not been explored to their full extent.

So I ask you again; where are you taking your personal brand? Are you advancing in the way you want to? Where is your focus?

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The buzz about the buzz is buzzing (cheezy I know but I had to). This week I had the luxury of seeing two great releases applied to me. As many of you know those two releases are 1) Facebook’s new layout, and 2) Google’s Buzz.

Facebook

I’m not going to say that I dislike the new layout because the truth is I do like it. The layout is simpler, just as easy to follow, and it doesn’t change things around so much that the users will have some new kind of heart attack causing groups of hundreds of thousands to whine and moan about it.

Pros

• Just as simple, easy to follow, it has good flow.
• Everything you need is within the first left column or on the top bar.
• The search bar becomes more prominent, easier to find, and still just as great to use.
• More focus on the real-time news feed, and the option to control it better

Cons

• It’s a little bit too blue. I don’t know if I’m colorblind or what, but the three icons next to the Facebook icon, are hard as hell for me to see. I will definitely not use them as much.
• Message inbox isn’t as noticeable. I like using the inbox, private messages are helpful. But now accessing the inbox is a little bit tougher by creating a non-top bar icon and moving it to the mix of the left column.
• It’s a hair slower, my connection here in my dorm sometimes isn’t tip-top, so when it slows down and comes to a crawl, it’s noticeable.

I have my opinions, about it but all-in-all it’s a new layout. I don’t think that it will cause too much controversy.

Google Buzz

I’m normally a late adopter finding about things behind the curve and even more so becoming accustomed to using them.  But before I give my opinion, read this, it’s a funny bashing of Google Buzz (no I’m not 100% against it).

The new Buzz feature isn’t new. As Microsoft and Yahoo have recently been doing by belittling the new tool explaining that they have had the feature for over a year now, this is nothing new, but the dominant market of social-medialites has normally been associated with Google. The shear fact that this expectation arrives out of Google immediately offers it up to a larger and more target market. Buzz will just stick more with the people who want it.

Now I don’t like that Buzz provides me a number (like unread emails) from people I don’t follow, such as commenters from people I do follow. It’s annoying and when I read my friend’s posts, I will then look at the comments, I don’t want to see 587 Buzzes when I actually only have 20. It’s annoying, I don’t want that. Oh, and make the settings a little more prominent while it’s still new.

I like on the other hand, that there is not as much of a character limit, like Twitter. This will lead to better search linking especially if it turns into real-time search results. It’s easy to use, just like Twitter and FriendFeed it’s simple to figure out and won’t take long for people to use Buzz almost in a way to connect their other social media sites. Google’s Friend Connect also incorporates well into this!

Overall good things, I like new changes.

What do you make of all the new releases?

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Have you burned any bridges lately?
← Please not that one, I happen to like it!

But really, have you? Why? Sometimes I think it can be the best thing you can do. Although, should you ask many of the A-list bloggers and Personal Branding gurus, they will say no keep them around you never know when you will need them.

While I agree with that, I don’t mean erase them from your book and be the world’s biggest jerk to them. Just don’t ruin it to where they will be undisposed to help you in the future. Because really they will be a help for you.

But what do you do when you just can’t stand someone, or they’re destructive to your client relationship, your business, or your own brand? You have to realize that there will always be someone you won’t get along with. Thanks human nature. The reality of the matter is that even though they are affecting you negatively you must turn that into a positive realization for you and what you stand for. Be it your B2B, B2C, relationship, whatever. There is always something constructive to be obtained from negativity.

Let’s take Dan Schawbel for example, the premier on Personal Branding. A few days ago he tweeted:

You have to be as committed to your social media profile as you are to your husband or wife.

And boy oh boy did that spark someone. Just read the response at Jerry Albright’s Blog.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying to burn a bridge but learn from it, why do people misunderstand advice? What can you do to clarify? Don’t go on the defensive and strike back, understand the misconception and react appropriately. Let us also not forget to take things with a grain of salt. No need to dwell.

Sometimes though, you must sever the connection. Just let things go and only attend to that contact when needed. Burn Bridges, it just might be productive.

What do you think? Have you burned bridges? Why? Did was it a wise move?

Image by Anirudh Koul