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

Image by TheScatteredImage

Related posts:

1. Community Marketing – Relationship Series pt. 3
2. We’re Losing the Social
3. Social or Social Media?

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?

Image by Mr. Greenjeans

Related posts:

1. #FF – Follow Friday for 07/05/2010
2. #FF – Follow Friday 05-14-2010
3. Musibility’s Doing It Right

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!

Image by Gizwomack

Related posts:

1. You’re Wrong About Gen-Y
2. “Screw Google”
3. You Can’t Get Everyone

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!

Related posts:

1. We’re Losing the Social
2. The Small Business Impact
3. Culture Not Clique – Relationship Series pt. 1

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!

Related posts:

1. YouTube – Changing The World of Commercials
2. Community Marketing – Relationship Series pt. 3
3. Long or Short Social Strategy: Part 1 – Long Term

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?

Image by DigitalParadox

Related posts:

1. Student Branding vs Professional Branding
2. How I Made Page 1 of Google
3. Be Everywhere?

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?

Image by ayche_em_ayche

Related posts:

1. AT&T’s Buzz and Facebook’s Take Over of The World
2. What if MSFT Buys Facebook?
3. ShoTools – Review

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

Related posts:

1. Seven Pounds and Relationships – Relationship Series pt. 2
2. Community Marketing – Relationship Series pt. 3
3. Culture Not Clique – Relationship Series pt. 1

The market as we know it has been changing, and rapidly. The real question is, who’s fault is it? Is it the consumer, the businesses, both? Well in reality, it can be easily attributed to both. 

As marketers we have to realize the difference between marketing to a community or marketing to an individual business. This has become a major difference in B2B marketing and B2C marketing. 

When you’re looking to seek out the community your relationship becomes, not less focused, but re aligned, per se. When looking for the community you must not only take into account one business or one individual, but the whole market for that community in itself. Where does their trust lie? With you with another competitor or are you looking into such a niche community that there has yet to be anything like what you’re offering?

These are times of treading carefully, with so many options of marketing and products and services, building your relationship before pushing yourself into the market is a huge consideration. People need to understand that yes, you have in fact been around for a while, that you understand their wants and needs and that your offer is right up their alley because you understand them. You don’t want to jump in blindly and have no idea what your market is looking for and hope for the best. You would be setting yourself up for immediate failure. I’m not saying build surveys and spend a lot of budget in case-studies. That’s a little too concrete. 

• Be on Twitter, connect, participate in the conversation revolving your community.
• Interact – don’t just be a link pusher, and repeat what everyone else is doing.
• Innovate – are you doing what it takes to stick out?
• Trust them, they will trust you – Relationships are mutual, stick to what you offer and don’t back out.

Image by khalid almasoud

Posted via web from Greg’s posterous

Related posts:

1. Seven Pounds and Relationships – Relationship Series pt. 2
2. Culture Not Clique – Relationship Series pt. 1
3. Burning Bridges – Relationship Series pt. 4

I almost titled this post, Everything I Know About Relationships, I learned from Seven Pounds, but it was a little too long and it would’ve been a lie. The thing is I finally got around to seeing the film Seven Pounds with Will Smith. It’s the story of a man’s post-accident life, and how he goes about making up for what he did during that accident. One of the few films showing the stress and the emotional impact of a man after a terrifying and life-taking car-wreck. 

I am going to try my best to write this post without giving away any spoilers so here we go:

We under-value our relationships. We always have and we always will. Whether you’re looking at this relationship from a work point of view, or a dating/marriage point of view, pure human natural tendency is to undervalue your relationship. It’s natural for a person to be closed when they disagree with something or to ignore the facts when it comes to making the best of what needs to happen.

Everyone however, can always tell when something is going downhill in a relationship, being strong and standing for what you want and what you need should really be a priority. Now even though, you could be talking about a b2b or a b2 relationship but holding your principles and evaluating what has to be done for the improvement of your mental, physical, accounting (or whatever else’s), health taking a stand and using the best of your abilities is the best way to establish these relationships. I think a great example of this can be seen in Love Actually where the Prime Minister stands up to the President. Watch it here on YouTube

Within these relationships there should always be a matter of trust and communication. I’m not saying go out into what you’re trying to get done and be 110% transparent about your needs or wants; however, to simply let the facts be known, let the truth be there without walls, without barriers, and definitely without the BS. When you need something from a client or a partner, let the facts be known, understand each other, establishing the priorities and the trust for a fruitful relationship.

But don’t just take it from me, check out Chris Brogan’s Trust Agents and watch Seven Pounds you won’t regret it. 

If you have any comments or objections let me know in the comments!

Image by Jim Boud

Related posts:

1. Community Marketing – Relationship Series pt. 3
2. Culture Not Clique – Relationship Series pt. 1
3. Burning Bridges – Relationship Series pt. 4