by jginsberg on May 30, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
You’ve got a Page on FaceBook for your business. You have started Suggesting the Page to your friends and even gotten a few friends to Share your Page. You are doing the basics, like including links to your Page in your email newsletter and printing the link on all of your collateral, but your Page is not growing fast enough. What’s next? FaceBook Advertising!
Set up an Ad on FaceBook for your Page. Keep the traffic directing to your Page and limit the Ads to friends of your Page. Why? Because a referral in business from a friend is invaluable. When people see your Ad, you want them to see that one of their friends has already liked your Page. This is the equivalent of a business referral.
What else? Tie in a Sponsored Story. This is a long tail Ad that will be purely Social (only friends of people who like the Page will see it). Why do you want this second Ad running? As you get people liking your Page, you will want to reach out to their friends. This Sponsored Story will be promoted in the news feeds of the friends of the new people liking your Page. This is Hot!
What are you waiting for, start your Advertising campaign today!!!
by jginsberg on May 10, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
I make fun of the Cleveland Clinic a lot in the world of Social Media. Why? Because they are the GIANT company in Cleveland and their Page on FaceBook has less people liking them than they have employees. A few months ago FaceBook “viralized” a new feature, Questions. This means, if you use the new feature, you will create a larger wave on FaceBook. Use Questions, it is a brilliant FaceBook feature. Plus, you can limit the potential answers via radio buttons, reducing potentially brand damaging answers.
Because I make fun of the Cleveland Clinic, I also offer them FREE unsolicited advice, see the picture below.
by jginsberg on April 26, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
Creating Lists in FaceBook is the key to staying up to date with all of your friends on FaceBook. Why is this useful? You can click Most Recent on your NewsFeed and filter your feed by the Lists of Friends you have created. This how I check the updates from my Yoga friends and my localized networks such as New York City, the Bay Area and Cleveland. I keep a few more Lists to cover College, High School and a few other smaller hobbies. Why else are Lists GREAT on FaceBook? You can Suggest a Page to a “Group,” Select your List as a network and invite all of the people you have put on your List. Note: This feature (Select All) is not available unless you have put them in a List or they are in a college network.
How do you create a List for your friends on FaceBook? Start by clicking Account (top right), the Edit Friends and finally Create List on the Top right of your newsfeed. You can either add people to the List on the spot or back up and create a few more Lists.Already have some Lists? Click here to figure out which friends are not on Lists and easily put them on Lists.
by jginsberg on April 25, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
Do you like to save money? Maybe get a complimentary cup of coffee when you check-in at a restaurant like fire? FaceBook is letting you subscribe to localized Deals within your city/zipcode. Is this hot? Judging by the success of Groupon, Americans love to save money. Now you can find out where there is an incentive encouraging you to check-in. Exciting? Yeah, this is going to encourage competition and that is good for everybody. Competition? Yeah, Competition. Businesses are going to look at what their competition is offering as a deal and you the people of FaceBook are going to be rewarded with better deals.
Want to get in on the action? Subscribe to your local deals on FaceBook here. Update: Nice looks like Techcrunch and the NY Times are reporting this also 
by jginsberg on April 21, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Social Media enables us to reach more people faster than ever before. You can share more effectively and reach the entire world, for free. Sounds great right? What’s the catch? There is not enough of you to go around and you need to go around a lot more.
We are not chasing Rainbows here…we are looking for the Pot of Gold. Get in your car, buy your plane tickets, take the train or bus. Get together with your people in person and develop the deeper personal relationship that makes your social media come alive. This is going to take time, money and a commitment to being authentic in everything you do. Are you ready?
by Jamie Ginsberg on April 21, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Video
We talk a lot about techniques and actions that will ignite your social media and build your community. It is critical to feed and nourish your budding community. How do you do that? Shareable Content!!!
What makes content shareable?
Our traditional response is Sexy, Funny and/or Educational. Pick any of these 3 areas, develop great content and your community will be well fed! There is a trend in a new category we all have to consider. INSPIRING. Content that is inspiring is very shareable. ask yourself as you develop your content, will this inspire people? if the answer is YES, you are on the right track.
Feed your community with shareable content and your community will grow!
by jginsberg on April 18, 2011 in Best Practices, LinkedIn
So, you landed the job you wanted, proudly added the new job to your LinkedIn profile and started working. Now what?
1) Update your company website in your profile so it is accurate. You can customize this by selecting Other as your type of website and putting in some details.
2) FIll in the description for your new job and update your summary and specialties as needed. yeah, this might feel strange as you have just started, but it is key for people to understand how and why you are a resource. Maybe even post a Status Update telling your network about your new position.
3) Connect to everybody you meet at your new job, better yet, continue to connect to lots of people just like you did when you were hunting for a job. Your network must NOT become stagnant just because you have a new job and are busy. You will always need a strong network/community. Continue to nourish and grow your network, it will make you a more valuable employee!
by jginsberg on April 5, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Twitter
I have been thinking about this post for too long and haven’t shared it. Make sure you catch the last bit on Questions.
As you post content on FaceBook and Twitter, ask yourself “Am I being a Shmuck?” Are you Educating or are you Selling? How can you sell if you haven’t educated the customer? are you pretending to educate? If you are, forget about it. We see right thru it, you are just being a shmuck.
What should you do? Develop quality authentic content that educates people. Let your competition be the Shmuck (I have a better word here that I like to use in conversation that starts with a D and sounds like Swoosh, but it is inappropriate and for some reason I think Shmuck is o.k).
Do you want a piece of Gold today? Your Page MUST start using FaceBook questions. This is a GREAT feature that is Viral by Nature (Like Naughty By Nature, but not a rap group). Why? When you Post a Question on FaceBook (Note this is a feature right above the status bar), the answers are seen by the friends of the people who “Like” your Page. If they answer the Question, they will see your Page and be exposed to your brand.
*Tip – Use your name or brand in the Question, it will be more visible!
Educate More = Sell More.
by jginsberg on March 28, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Laying on the beach this week (Spring Break rules), I watched a tall built guy spray sun screen on the attractive woman in a bikini next to him. For the first time in my entire technology loving life, my heart sank. In the old days, this guy would have been rubbing the cream into her skin, an intimate experience worthy of envy. Even more intimate and far more accesible for most of us, is the hug. Whether you are a 30 second bear hug person like my old college friend Ross, or a single shoulder lean pat on the back kind of person, we all need to hug more.
How can you use technology to create more intimate relationships, rather than create space and barriers between us? I am convinced FaceBook is the cream we all need to rub on more, the hug that is personal and engaging without being inappropriate. How do you hug more people on FaceBook?
Start with high fives. These are easy forms of personal contact that will not invade your space or make you feel uncomfortable. High fives are fun, quick little bursts of energy that will motivate you and somebody else. What is a high five on FaceBook? The “Like” button. Go ahead, try it. Clicking Like on one of your friend’s posts is easy and let’s them know you are there and you hear them. It is the most basic acknowledgement of your mutual existence, it is a high five.
If you are high fiving with ease, try hugging. What is a hug on FaceBook? It is a comment!!! Commenting on FaceBook is the way we create conversation, it is a longer touch that opens the door to deeper insight into each other, it is the Hug. Comment on basic banal details of life, from “I love that restaurant” to “I can’t wait for the sun to come out.” Commenting on the little boring details of life turns our black and white pictures into kodachrome. These gentle hugs are the glue that binds us together.
As you comunicate more on FaceBook, it will be easier to comment on more personal posts and even to make your own status updates. This is where we can engage in public conversation and share our thoughts. Stop waving at people and start hugging people more.Get to know each other better today. I don’t want to be the guy spraying sun screen on my wife at the beach, I want the physical connection of rubbing the cream into her back. I don’t want to be the friend you wave at either, give me a high five or better yet a hug.
Be Social, Hug More People.
by jginsberg on March 23, 2011 in Best Practices
After reading on TechCrunch about the new mobile app Color, I had to give it a try. What does Color do? It let’s you take social photos and see photos being taken around you. it has the same strange excessively public quality that Twitter has. Is it easy to use? Yes. I signed in and had taken my first picture in under a minute. There isn’t a lot of functionality right now, but I appreciate the simplicity of design. It has a certain elegance to it…
Will I use this much? Maybe. It will be fun at things like conferences, meetings and events. Places where you see a lot of people you might kind of know. Is it the next FaceBook? No. I’d rather look at any of the 62 Billion photos on FaceBook, then at the shaky photo from an event. However, I think the younger bar going crowd will really enjoy Color, the application lends itself to the young and uncommitted. Should you check it out? Yeah, photos are fun. Will FaceBook be doing this? Yeah…they kind of already are doing this with Checking In and Who is Here Now. Still this is a simple application without the baggage of FaceBook. Did I mention it is free?
by jginsberg on March 16, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
I always tell people the best thing they can do for themselves is to promote somebody else. This is incredibly difficult when they networks we use are based in self-promotion. FaceBook asks you to post a status update with “What is on your mind?” Your mind! LinkedIn encourages you to “Share an Update.” Yes, it is all about you. Can you make it about someone or something else? If you do, you will receive a greater benefit than you ever could with self-promotion.
Sounds great, what should you do? Start by Sharing a FaceBook Page for something else than your business. This is a link to the FaceBook Page for Imagine, a great organization that is working to end Human Trafficking. Try using the Share button on their Page to promote them, it is 10x easier than sharing what is on your mind and it helps someone else.
You can do the same thing on Twitter, start using the Re-Tweet functionality to raise awareness for causes you believe in. We are doing the same thing on Twitter for Imagine. Re-Tweeting a message is the best way to promote a cause and share it with your community. Looking for a cause? Check out http://sharedwith.me – we built this amazing software so you can sign up with a cause once and you will automatically Re-Tweet one message a week for them. Could it be any easier to do something good with your status update?
Yes, you can donate your status on LinkedIn as well. Is there anything else you can do? Sure, write a recommendation for someone who you know that works at an organization doing good. Follow their company! Or the easiest action you can take is to Like or Comment on one of their status updates, exposing it to your newsfeed.
With all of these ideas, what are you going to do to Donate Your Status for Social Good?
by jginsberg on March 4, 2011 in Best Practices, LinkedIn
Do you have a daily LinkedIn Practice? Start with the 2 minute drill.
- Log-in to LinkedIn and scroll down, look at your newsfeed. If you see anything interesting “Like” it or Comment on it.
- Spend 1 minute looking for a new contact.
Why do this daily? It is a simple GREAT habit. You will stay current with the news on LinkedIn directly from your network. If you do this Monday – Frday, you will easily add 250 connections into your network.
Want to be more Aggressive? Do the 2 minute drill 2-3 times a day. Do the 2 minute drill on FaceBook 2-3 times a day. What are you waiting for?
by jginsberg on February 17, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Twitter
What makes content shareable?
1) Funny
2) Sexy
3) Smart
Being funny is very hard, comedians are professionals and they practice and experiment to be funny. Being sexy is a commitment your brand or company may not be willing to make, meaning the risks may out weigh the rewards.
What can you do? Be Smart. Share your knowledge. You are an expert at what you do – you study, practice and apply knowledge every day that people want to know about. When you decide to create content for social media, make sure you are educating your intended audience.If you are a resource to them, they will include you in their community. If people learn from your content, they will share it. Think about what you know and make that the cornerstone of your social media campaign.
by jginsberg on February 10, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
The Official FaceBook Page upgrade is coming, and if you don’t do the optional upgrade now, it will be done Automatically for you on March 10, 2011. Don’t wait, don’t complain – The Upgrade kicks @$$!!! Why? (see screen shots below).
- The ability to change your settings so you can comment on your Page again personally. This is nice if you are a member of your community!!!
- FINALLY – Get email notification when someone comments on your Page. Thank You FaceBook (Jamie bowing in deference).
- Greater control over communicating what Pages you “Like” and “Featured Page Owners” – This is is an opportunity to cross promote and build some social capital. Kind of like you might do when you link to someone’s website or Blog on your site.
by jginsberg on January 4, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
I may be the only one who cares, but FaceBook has unofficially eclipsed 50 Billion Photos. Don’t believe me? Check the Math!
They Officially reported 17 billion photos and growing at 2.5 billion per month as of January 2010….with 400 million users!
That would equal 30 billion photos added in 2010.
17 Billion plus 30 Billion = 47 Billion Photos!
But wait there is more!!!!
Should we account for the growth to 500 Million plus people (25% growth at the least!!!) a conservative number…Do you think that the network grew by more than 25% and the amount of photos uploaded stayed flat? If photos grew just a little that could be an extra 8 Billion Photos!!!!
How about FaceBook reporting today that 750 Million picture were uploaded over New Years Eve? A new record, but note that is 3/4′s of a Billion Photos over a weekend. Are you kidding me?
I think the new number is really 55 Billion Photos. What are you doing? You should be uploading 200 photos to an album today!
by jginsberg on December 30, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Video
2011 is going to be a great year for social media as the perfect storm of audience and content mix together. Are you ready?
Top 7 Social Media Tips for 2011
- Clean up you personal FaceBook Page. Start by doing an inventory of your security and privacy settings, then edit your friend list. Delete some dead weight that you can not remember why you are friends with them, add each and every friend to at least one List.
- Review your LinkedIn Profile. Is your job description accurate, have you taken on any new skills or projects that are not listed in your profile? Have you joined any organizations? Are you missing any jobs that should be included?
- Delete anybody not following you back on Twitter. Really, cut the Fat. Anybody that is offended by this can start following you, at which point you can follow them back. The people that do not follow you back will not see your content, lose them.
- Get your YouTube Channel on!!! Put a little effort into adding in the details, flush out your profile and subscribe to some channels. If you have a Twitter account, integrate it in. Make 2011 the year you “Like” videos on YouTube and share them on FaceBook!!! Better yet, start making your own videos or hire my company Cleveland Groove to make you engaging and very “Shareable” videos. Video is the future and the light is getting closer, catch this train!
- Upgrade your Mobiles access to your network. Learn how to use that smart phone (or buy one), download applications that enable you to update your network and view what is going on. You MUST have applications for FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter loaded on your phone and easy to access. Start “checking in” on FaceBook, comment and Like more pictures and updates. Interact with your network, do not simply lurk. Mobile makes it easy!
- Share more pictures. January of 2010 we had 17 Billion photos on FaceBook, growing at 2.5 Billion Photos per months with 400 million people on FaceBook. If those numbers held steady, we have at least 47 Billion Photos on FaceBook. My guess is as we grew to 500 million FaceBook users and beyond, we added more than 2.5 Billion photos per month. Are you contributing to that massive collection of 47 Billion + photos on FaceBook? Are you setting up logical album names and maxing out the 200 photos per album like you should be? Are you getting people tagged in your photos?
- Go Out More. Really. Make plans with people or simply show up and make a new friend. This is the Gold at the end of the Social Media Rainbow!!! Connect up with people you meet out in the real world on LinkedIn or FaceBook, get to know them, include them in your world!
Follow these simple tips for 2011 and you will have an engaging and interesting year.
by jginsberg on December 10, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook
You have built out a presence on FaceBook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. Now What? The real dirty work begins. Is there an easy button to click that will build your community? No. Can you communicate with the entire world or your local city tomorrow morning? No. Does that mean you shouldn’t try? NO!!!
Building your community takes time. Start by seeding your content, show people what you will be sharing with them. When they come to your Page on FaceBook or YouTube, show them you are providing useful information they want, not simply advertising to them non-stop. Start inviting your friends and family into your community. These are your ambassadors, you need and want them.
Next, reach out into your second degree network. Tapping into your second degree network is critical to finding the community that really cares about your content. Do this one person at a time. Go thru your first degree network, friends and family – encouraging and enabling them to share your content. Most will not know how, they want to help you – help them – help you. Walk them thru sharing your content or your Page, and show your appreciation.
Developing your community on FaceBook to YouTube takes time, creativity and perseverance. Nike…Just Do It.
by jginsberg on September 17, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
Last week I spoke with the Spa community in Chicago as a guest of Spa Exec and Questex. There was a fantastic panel discussion hosted by Lenny Lacour with Pete Hillman, Tracie Wertz and Rick Duarte – leaders in the mid-west spa community on customer acquisition and retention. Listening to Rick Duarte, the Executive Director of Sundara Spa, talk about how he is managing his advertising now that his budget has been reduced by almost 70%, I shuttered as I heard him utter these words “Print is Dead.”
Rick is not the first person to say they have cut their marketing budget over the last 2 years. But this conclusion came after shedding his print budget, working on smarter marketing deals and having positive revenue growth in a challenging environment. Doing more with less is possible if you are creative and willing (or forced) to take some risks.
What I realized, is it is not the cost of print or even the lack of effectiveness of print. It is the distraction of print that really kills a campaign. I hear a lot about integrating traditional media advertising and social media, I am not a believer. The effort that Rick was spending on managing print advertising had reduced his time, focus and energy for more creative and innovative advertising opportunities. The potential with social media is less time spent on advertising, more time invested in developing and managing relationships.
This reminds me of an area we all need to think about. “What tools are you putting in your utility belt Batman?” Pick your networks and platforms carefully and dedicate an appropriate amount of time to finding success. Don’t let print advertising kill your potential in social marketing. Start with LinkedIn and build out your profile, then your network. Take a deep breath and dive into FaceBook. There is a brave new world out there and Social Media is King.
Kimberly Rhoten of Spa Exec took this photo of the speakers at Spa Exec Chicago 2010. From Left to Right is Jamie Ginsberg (me), Lenny Lacour (LH Connects), Tracie Wertz (Universal Companies) Pete Hillman (Sir Spa), Rick Duarte (Sundara Spa).
by jginsberg on August 28, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook
FaceBook Places is going to change the “face” of FaceBook in an amazing way. Looking out 6-12 months, we are going to have an amazing database of information. You will be able to ask your friends who have check-in at Places what they think of it. Imagine if Reviews on Fan Pages are Tied in with Places and the Fan Pages? This is going to be huge!!!
Until then, this is what you need to know as a business owner directly from FaceBook.
If you are the official representative of your business, please take the following verification steps to claim the Place on Facebook:
1) Search for the Place on Facebook you wish to claim as your business. If no Place exists for your business, you can create a new Place.
2) Once you locate the Place for your business, click the “Is this your business?” link at the bottom of the Place.
Complete the step-by-step verification process to claim your Place.
3) Please keep in mind that only official representatives of a business can claim the Place on Facebook.
Why Claim you Place?
By claiming your Place you can manage your Place’s address, contact information, business hours, profile picture, admins and other settings.
*As you can imagine, FaceBook is also enabling you to promote your Place, hello FaceBook advertising opportunity. If you don’t want to pay for advertising, see my tip below for getting even more valuable engagement.
What else?
Do something very basic, like put up a sign asking people to check-in. This is the best word of mouth advertising you can get. Get more aggressive and ask them to tag you (must be friends) or better yet Tag their friends!
*Think about your business and how you can use Places. Get Creative. Use this as an opportunity to connect with your customers.
by jginsberg on August 12, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
This piece was done with Alex Sukhoy of Creative Cadence in mind. I’d also like to credit Susie Sharp who connects people on a weekly/daily basis and actively promotes opportunities in the greater Cleveland area. You don’t have to be actively searching for a job to use these tips to grow revenue at your current company. I could have called this, “things you know if you have read every one of my posts on this blog.”
1) Complete your LinkedIn profile.
This should be a 1 hour work session. Fill in the details, make sure your personality and experience shine. This is your “living resume,” make sure you are well represented from your professional experience to your education to your interests. The more information you share in your profile, the easier it will be for people to connect with you. You must have a decent head shot that shows your eyes, an easy to share link to your profile (that should be included on your resume and in the signature line of your email), and your specialties included as keywords. Never ask for a recommendation on LinkedIn, give them weekly until you run out of people to write them for. Giving recommendations on LinkedIn promotes your profile keeping you in front of your network and builds social capital. Write a recommendation for everyone that has worked for you, that you have worked for, that you know professionally or personally. Keep them short, simple and honest, remembering these recommendations build your credibility and communicate how well you write to the reader.
2) Lock down your FaceBook profile.
Yes, your potential employers can look you up on FaceBook and see all of the posts in your newsfeed, if you let them. My rules for FaceBook privacy settings are very simple. Everything should be set to “friends only,” except for Search and Messaging which should be set to “Everybody;” and “Pictures and Videos,” which I encourage you to set to “Friends of Friends.” When you lock down your privacy settings under Account, you do not have to worry about potential employers or school admission teams looking thru your profile. That said, CLEAN IT UP. If you are not comfortable with your mother seeing what is on your FaceBook profile, it should be deleted. You are responsible for what you post and the pictures you are in. If someone posts inappropriate pictures of you, untag yourself and politely ask them to remove the picture. Yes, you must put in your education and employment history on FaceBook. Although FaceBook is your “social network,” it may be your most valuable (especially since it has 500 million users and is growing faster than ever before). Give your friends the chance to know you professionally as well as personally.
3) Tell your network what opportunity you are looking for.
People have to know how they can help you. The worst thing that can happen is people will not respond or they will say no. You must get comfortable telling people what you are looking for and asking them for help with specific goals. Asking to be introduced to specific people or even types of companies is the best way to empower people to help you. You can use the status updates in LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter as well as direct email followed by a phone call.
4) Do your research.
Look up companies you are interested in on Google, LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter. Do the same thing with people you are meeting or interviewing with. If you are doing your research you will find connections, common ground and areas of focus. How you use this information will play a role in your success. What kind of information will be useful to you? Anything form a shared interest, to a mutual friend, to the alma mater of your potential employer to recent news about the company. You have access to an unlimited power, knowledge. Use it!
5) Expand your connections.
I call this the Rainbow Theory. The connections in your Network make up the rainbow of your life. Each of them is a unique color representing some aspect of you and your relationship. We want a large beautiful rainbow (friends and connections), why? Because at the end of that rainbow is a pot of gold, only you can limit how big that pot of gold is. Expand your connections, friendships and relationships and you increase the potential of that pot of gold. How do you find that pot of gold? See #6.
6) Meet up in public as often as possible.
Social networking is not a competition to see who has the most “friends” or “contacts.” It is the opportunity to get to know people better. You must dig thru your contacts and set up meetings every single week. When you travel, find people in your network and get meetings, breakfast, coffee or drinks with them. Your next opportunity may live in another city yet have a great connection for you. By meeting in public places you will see other people you know, this is not an accident. Follow-up with these people and participate in your community. Remember to stay actively engaged in the process of helping other people with opportunities they are looking for.
7) Be more generous.
Share your skills and time liberally. Volunteer. You can do more good for your reputation and search for opportunity by giving your time and the most valuable skills you have, until you are “running on empty.” People will see the value you bring to the table, you will meet new people in real working situations and you will have positive situations to talk about with potential employers and clients as you look for your next opportunity. You are the most valuable asset you have, the more you share your skills and talent the more valuable of an asset you become to society. Increase your value, be more generous.
by jginsberg on August 9, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Twitter
If your company is blocking employees from accessing FaceBook or Twitter or YouTube, then your company is missing the boat. How do you remedy this situation? Start with a social media policy that will help your company grow revenue, set parameters for what behavior is appropriate and build morale. There is a link in the navigation to a sample social media policy that will get you started.
Looking out into 2011, the corporate market is going to change from a “prevent defense” to an “option offense.” Think about your employees as players on your team. Ask yourself, “Does my company empower team players to be successful or are we limiting our own potential for growth?” If your employees are not engaged with your social media presence, then start asking questions now, so you are prepared for success in 2011.
Build More Bridges.
by jginsberg on July 3, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
How does the Rainbow Theory work? You must build up a vibrant beautiful rainbow of connections, that represent all of the phases and aspects of your life. At the end of that Rainbow, is a pot of gold. How do you find that Pot of Gold? Get together in the real world with your online connections. Make times to meet your friends, family, connections for coffee or breakfast or drinks. When you get together in the real world with your online connections, you are exploring the pot of gold. Finding opportunity where only potential existed before.
So, how do we balance Quantity vs. Quality as we build out our network? Your strategy should be – Connect to everybody you know, or want to get to know better. 10% of your network should be Phat. people you don’t know, but might be interested in getting to know better. As your connections expand, the Phat factor is going to increase. Make the effort to get to know your connections and your Phat factor will decrease. Each year you should cut some Phat and give your network some room to expand with fresh Phat. You get the idea, make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold.
There are no easy answers to the question of quantity vs. quality. What I can tell you is that nobody can limit the potential of your network like you can. If you add more connections, you create more opportunity or more potential. In the end, you must convert that potential into kinetic. You must put in the time and energy to get to know your network and understand the resources available to you. Apply the Rainbow Theory to your network, build a great big beautiful rainbow and find the pot of gold waiting for you – then share it with everybody you know.
by jginsberg on June 14, 2010 in Best Practices, LinkedIn, Twitter
Integrating a company Twitter account into your Corporate strategy for LinkedIn is critical to your social media campaign. Why? Best practice is to add a Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile and set the account to update your LinkedIn status when you include #in your Tweet. This accomplishes a few things:
1) You promote your company Twitter account across many profiles, increasing relevant interested followers organically.
2) The company Twitter account can update the employees’ status every 2-4 weeks with a relevant link driving traffic to specific resources (maintain a “best practice” by not over-posting, avoid reducing your employees social capital/value).
3) Your employees will not be polluting LinkedIn with irrelevant Tweets (setting Twitter to update your LinkedIn status all of the time reduces the quality of our news stream, it is that simple).
4) All of those employees on LinkedIn without Twitter accounts can directly help the company they work for.
Yes, all of your employees should be connected to each other on Twitter, this builds your base network effectively. Integrating in a company Twitter account is critical to your corporate strategy for LinkedIn, your messaging can reach a lot more people. Do you see why you want your employees to have 500+ connections each on LinkedIn.
by jginsberg on June 1, 2010 in Best Practices, Video
I have been thinking about YouTube a lot lately. Why? Two Billion videos a day are being watched on YouTube. This is amazing for a site that has only been around since February 2005. I have become fond of saying “You can own your own media broadcasting station on YouTube.” That doesn’t really do YouTube justice. It is far more powerful than that. Not only can you upload your videos for mass distribution, people can watch them on their phones, homes and even in coffee shops. Mass media TV hasn’t gotten there yet. It is also amazingly easy to share your videos. How easy? As Israel battles an activist group trying to end the embargo in the Gaza strip, the government directs people to YouTube to see their version of the situation. What? Yes! An international diplomacy issue is being settled on YouTube, right now.
Check out the video distributed by the Israeli Government over You Tube HERE. As governments start using social media effectively, we can see these truly fit into classical tools for dissemination of information such as newspapers, radio and television. Even more importantly, social media enables you to share the news and information relevant to you. You can do that also – get your own YouTube channel. Take the time to fill in your profile and include your keywords. Unlike FaceBook, search on YouTube is powered by Google (parent/owner). Translate that to means earch actually works on YouTube and if you put in your keywords appropriately on both your videos and your channel you will be found easily by any of the 2 billion people tuning in each day who are interested in your material.
What else should you be doing? Build up your subscribers. These are people who will be notified when you post new content to your YouTube channel. Share your videos on FaceBook, YouTube makes it easy. Attach your Twitter account to You Tube so your YouTube activity is broadcast automatically on YouTube. This is the only painful step. You MUST have a Gmail account to attach your Twitter account. It is the only crappy process I have ever encountered with Google products, but it is powerful enough that it is worth the effort. Own your own media broadcasting station, get active on YouTube today.
by jginsberg on January 21, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook
After going to sleep way to early last night, I found myself awake at 3 am. What do you do when you are bored at 3 am? I decided to look at FaceBook Statistics. Why? Because I kept thinking the last time I looked there were 250 million active users loading 1 billion photos per month, the newer 350 million number has been out for a few months. I wonder how many photos are getting uploaded now?
The new number is 2.5 billion photos per month! Holy Cow, Batman! Can we simply call FaceBook a Photo Sharing website? This is ridiculous! I am guessing FaceBook is now well over 20 billion photos on the site (the last number I recall was 15 billion). Notably missing is an update to the amount of videos being uploaded monthly. The last update was 10 million videos with an average running time of a minute. This number may be too small for FaceBook to brag about; however, the potential for video in FaceBook has never been greater.
Increasingly FaceBook is a source of entertainment and social interaction, as proven by the numbers. The ability to watch live video shows and comment with your friends will bring a whole new dimension to FaceBook. CNN experimented with this during the presidential inauguration a year ago on FaceBook. It rocked. You Tube did their Live show, then the Live U2 show from the Rose Bowl. O.k, it wasn’t FaceBook and I had nobody online to chat with at 2 am (damn west coast shows), but that really rocked. If I was Conan O’Brien, I’d take my show to FaceBook and leave the networks behind. FaceBook is NOW, are you participating?
As reported by FaceBook:
More than 350 million active users
50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
More than 35 million users update their status each day
More than 55 million status updates posted each day
More than 2.5 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
More than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
More than 3.5 million events created each month
More than 1.6 million active Pages on Facebook
More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
Average user has 130 friends on the site
Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
Average user becomes a fan of 2 Pages each month
Average user is invited to 3 events per month
Average user is a member of 12 groups
by jginsberg on January 7, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
Looking at a friend’s profile today on LinkedIN, I was surprised to see she did not have a profile picture. Pictures are the key to growing your presence online, networking effectively and growing your revenue! On LinkedIN this is easy, pick a decent profile picture that shows your eyes and communicates just enough of who you are. There are enough suits on LinkedIN already, find a picture that keeps you looking like the professional you are and encourages people to do business with you. Being memorable is difficult, but rewarding. If you have a great headshot, use it. You want people to recognize you and pictures are the key.
FaceBook, welcome to the largest photo sharing website in the world! Start taking pictures and adding them to your personal page and Fan page if you are a business. Tagging people in pictures is the key to growth! Why, because when you tag someone it hits their news feed, anyone who is friends with them may potentially be exposed to your pictures, brand, fan page. If you have your personal privacy levels too strict this will not do much for you (I suggest friends of friends for pictures and videos), Fan pages do not have this issue. You can take pictures with most phones today and easily load them into FaceBook, if you don’t know how get a tutorial (there are lots of ways to do this). For as little as $100 you can get a shockingly respectable point and shoot from Nikon or Canon, upgrading the quality of your pictures and even taking video. If you really like taking pictures, DSLRs are amazingly inexpensive today. You too can play with the big boys.
Everywhere you go, snap pictures and start sharing. Just like you enjoy looking at other peoples’ pictures, others will enjoy looking at yours. If you have a Fan Page, make the leap….the more content you have that can be shared, the more people will see your page and engage with your brand. Start today…
by jginsberg on January 6, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
It is 2010, the year of the Mobile Web…are you ready for it? From a social media perspective, your phone can be a photo, video, audio, text gathering tool. I am a long time fan of Apple and use an iPhone daily to gather media and stay in touch with my networks. The FaceBook application on the iPhone is one of my favorite mobile applications, period. I use it all the time to check in, comment on a friend’s update, upload a video or picture and check my FaceBook email (I do not receive any notifications via email from FaceBook as I am a daily user). As reported today by MG Siegler (Go Blue!) on Tech Crunch, the iPhone app for FB just got a major upgrade letting you sync contacts from FaceBook directly into your contact address book. Besides pictures connected to contacts, this will make it even easier to communicate with your people. Using your phone to get your email is very 2003, updating your FB status and loading video and pictures fom your mobile phone is now officially standard in 2010!
Who is up for the most improved mobile app award? LinkedIN. Yes, they finally have evolved their application to be useful. A slick interface with relevant buttons, it is now easy to stay in touch with your LinkedIn network while on the road or traveling. The new application let’s you “reconnect” or find people you might be connected to, process invitations, update your status (of course), view updates, see who has recently updated their profile and most importantly view profiles(profiles are easy to view now and look great). The “recents” button is useful, saves you looking someone up again (even someone you are not connected to). What is missing? Questions and Answers. This is a little surprising since it is a great resource and very important part of LinkedIn. You also do not see Recommendations given or received on profiles. It is hard to give the LinkedIn App an “A+” without these features, especially as I think Recommendations are critical to the value added by LinkedIn as a social and professional networking tool. Still even with a “B+” – LinkedIN has earned the most improved mobile app award. If you do not have this App on your phone, you are not using LinkedIn enough.
I use Echofon to update my Twitter status, I rarely if ever use the mobile phone to read Tweets (too much information). Is Echofon the best? I doubt it, but it is free and it does not crash (also does a great job with handling pictures and links). I do experiment with other Twitter Apps occasionally, but have not been willing to pay for any. I do believe Seesmic will bring a great application to market this year, if you have blackberry or Android they already have a mobile application for you.
With all of the hype about the Apple Tablet (yes I want one) and the prevalence of net books, screen size is going up and it will be even easier to use the mobile web. Admob (recently purchased by Google) has released statistics all year showing mobile web usage sky rocketing, mainly due to the iPhone and iTouch (approximately 50% of all mobile web traffic). Based on my recent testing of the Motorola Droid, we are going to see even more growth. The Droid is a great mobile phone for people who refuse to have an account with ATT or hate Apple. Is it an iPhone, No! But it is a great substitute and will force Apple to continue to innovate (competition is great).
As you look to grow your business in 2010, evaluate how your employees are using the mobile web and include social and professional networking on the mobile web in your social media strategy. In 2010, the mobile web is alive and growing – how will you participate?
by jginsberg on January 4, 2010 in Best Practices
Watching Tinker Bell a few weeks ago, I laughed as Tink struggled to do anything but “Tinker.” Thinking about how hard it is to make anything successful, I am reminded of Tink and the importance of “Do What You Love.” Your passion and desire is the key to success! If you believe in something, it is easy to spend long hours working on it, perfecting your technique, creating product, becoming an expert.
As you look at your skills and passions, find the time and energy to share your knowledge with everybody and anybody who is interested. If you sell a product, take the time to educate people as to why your product is the best. We are quickly advancing into the age of enlightenment. Your consumers are smart people who want to be educated. What can you teach them? How can you teach them? What have you done to expand your network today?
Share Your Knowledge. Do What You Love.
by jginsberg on December 18, 2009 in Best Practices
I have been thinking about a story one of my yoga teachers tells. It goes roughly like this, there are 2 trees growing by a river, a very large broad tree and a small supple tree. The large tree mocked the smaller tree laughing at their differences, relishing his comparative strength. The small tree smiled and continued his natural duties of processing light and air. A huge storm flooded the river, massive winds tore thru the trees, until the large tree caught so much air it crashed into the river and floated away. The small tree bent with the wind, flexing this way and that until the storm passed.
As you navigate the world of social and professional networking, holiday parties, and even driving on the streets – Be The Tree That Bends.
by Jamie Ginsberg on December 13, 2009 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
My cousin Jesse told me this summer that I need to listen more, hear what people are saying and avoid being condescending. Somewhere along the line I lost some of my sensitivity, my filter, that keeps me from acting like a know it all. This was hard to hear, because it was personal and honest. I swallowed my humble pie and started thinking about what this means in the big picture of social and professional networking.
Listen More. Hear what people are saying. Whether you are meeting someone for the first time or they are an old client or friend, listening for the conversational cues that communicate what you need to know. When somebody says “call me,” they mean it. Avoid being the person who always says “let’s get lunch sometime,” and never follows up with an email or phone call. Be the person who calls, asks people to get together, stays in touch.
Listen More. I have a lot of information to share and I love to talk with people. This is a dangerous combination. I am committed to listening more, hearing what your ideas and/or problems are and finding out what kind of solution you are looking for. Remember, people generally know their business very well, they hold the secrets you need to mix in with the tools you bring to the party. In the best situations conversation is natural, this means we need to pay attention more to listening and identifying exactly how we can be a resource to someone. In the worst situations, you need to ask questions and get people talking. Find out what rubs them the wrong way and get yourself some material to engage with.
Why is this such a funny topic for social media? Whenever we post a status update or tweet, we are talking. Listening has become harder and harder. Easy ways to listen are as follows:
1) Search your name on Twitter (really easy thru the Twitter site or any of the software programs). Are people talking about you?
2) Read your friends posts on FaceBook, comment, “like” stuff, engage their media. FaceBook will become a lot more fun. and interesting. You will need to implement and fine tune your Lists on FaceBook if you are going to do this.
3) Check LinkedIn daily and see what kind of updates are coming thru your network. Read your connections recommendations, answers and their updates. Occasionally comment, always participate.
These are three easy ways to start listening more on your social and professional networks. As you listen more, you will get better at it and it will become easier. Listening Better – What We Need To Do in 2010. Start Now!
by Jamie Ginsberg on December 11, 2009 in Best Practices
Continuing a theme started a few weeks ago at the local Cleveland Social Media Club, I’d like to share what I see coming in social media and the world of social and professional networking in 2010. I start from the idea that there has been a settling in the market with some very clear winners (FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube) – This means I am transitioning away from what is the next big thing and focusing on Going Local, Each One Teach One and We Are The World. What do I mean by this?
The future of business next year is LOCAL. Meaning get your local business integrated into Social Networks. Help them find the right aesthetic, communicate the most compelling message and truly be engaging. The message of customer service and discounts is very much 2008. The race to the bottom is on, the cream will rise to the top. Your local business does not need to “listen” to you, they need to find their voice and communicate their essence that makes you spend your money with them. This takes time, energy and commitment. As you connect up with your local businesses, remind yourself to support them (shop there). Increasingly, I am trying to eat local, shop local and work local. Become a Locavore, Go Local in 2010!
Education and social media has a long way to go. These websites are software, it takes time and a teacher to understand how to use them. If you are in the know, share it and help people use these tools more effectively. The smarter everyone gets with social media the more interesting these networks will get. This call to action starts at home – helping your significant other, spreads to helping a friend and then bringing your skills to a local business. When I look at the landscape, I don’t see big changes coming. Yahoo will continue to consistently fail at social networking, GoogleWave (sonicallstar@googlewave) is interesting but a very slow moving wave right now and I don’t see anything else really interesting happening. This means we need to focus on fundamentals (Back2Basics). Get really good with FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Learn how to Blog. Even if you are not an expert, engage people in the discussion and help them use their tools better. Each One Teach One!
As we hit the holiday season, I am increasingly obsessed with the idea of how can we help people. You may have seen me asking about KIVA recently. I asked people what they were doing in a Wave on GoogleWave and got 2 great responses. Susie Sharp mentioned she is putting in elbow grease and donating her time and energy. I love this and have encouraged her to Blog! Robert S. said “provide all possible assistance to people seeking work.” The more I thought about this simple and pure statement, the more I have become convinced it is the secret to ending the current recession and becoming an innovative and productive society again. If each of us helps someone we know get employed or even just stay employed we can get this economy back on its feet one person at a time. This is truly a grass roots effort.
As a bridge builder, you know that I love to introduce people to each other. Sometimes it is simply hey you both like this and I like both of you. Usually it is an introduction that I think will improve the business opportunities of both parties. My friend Mark J. hosts a wine and tequila night at his house to introduce people to each other and get his mutual friends working to help each other. In today’s market, it is about keeping people working. If you know someone that needs a job or wants to grow their business, keep an eye out for people or situations that will help them, then facilitate the introduction. In my not-so-humble opinion, this is the BEST thing you can do today! You can make a difference in the world! Start Now…We Are The World!
by Jamie Ginsberg on November 24, 2009 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
This is a post that hurts me write, but I have been thinking about it for awhile. Once a year you need to parse thru your friends and connections on your various networks and cut some fat. Delete or remove some of the random people you have connected to that have not enhanced your online experience. Maybe that person on FaceBook who you hid, now is the time to simply remove them. Start now and finish your clean-up by the end of the year. I started last night with one on FaceBook and one on LinkedIn.
Yes, I understand some of you are going to drop me after reading this post, I know I am fat to some of you (more ways than one). Yes, I will miss your status updates on FaceBook and recommendations on LinkedIn, but if I annoy you or simply don’t add value to you, then now is the time to cut me. Our social and professional networks have grown dramatically over the last two years. You are being overwhelmed by information and have to learn how to manage it. I think it is natural and healthy to add some random people over the course of the year. With trees and plants, sometimes you have to cut them back for them to grow, this is true for your networks as well. Open up some space in your life and then fill it with some new people.
I understand this may appear on a superficial level to be anti-effective networking. Fahgetaboutit. Yes, you should be using Lists on FaceBook and have edited your options at the bottom of the newsfeed so you can see more than 250 people. Yes you must check-in on LinkedIn regularly and look at your connections regularly. Still, you need to trim that 10% fat and add some new fat. Your online life will be more interesting as a result. If you dump me after this, no hard feelings – hopefully we can connect again in the future. See you on the other side.
by Jamie Ginsberg on November 23, 2009 in Best Practices, FaceBook
So…you thought it was annoying when I said you should take the time to add some Lists on FaceBook, organize your friends so you can easily see updates from groups of people. FaceBook realized you needed more of an incentive, now you can click on one of your lists and update your status to that list. This is potentially a powerful communication tool if you have your lists organized as I do, school, places I have lived, etc.
Continuing with this line of thought, FaceBook added a similar feature to the Fan Pages. Now when you post as an Admin to a Fan Page you can specify what language or country you want the post to be seen by. This may only be useful to Fan Pages with large groups of Fans right now, but this is also a potentially powerful communication tool.
The good news to me is I am increasingly feeling like FaceBook is implementing well thought out logical features. The reality of FaceBook is you need to play with the features to get it. This is complex software that looks and feels very simple. It is not. If you want to dig deeper, you will find a high powered sports car waiting for you to drive it. By the way, I am pretty sure FaceBook is currently hosting more photos than any website in the world, put that in your pipe and smoke it.
by Jamie Ginsberg on November 18, 2009 in Best Practices
Here comes the ReTweet features of Twitter! This should be an exciting feature to unfold. Itis nice to see Twitter evolving their product. This is just the start of a potentially powerful feature. While power users have been ReTweeting for a “long time” (fine not more than 3 years), software developers and users have really evolved this functionality and given Twitter reason to work on making this form of communication and sharing useful. One exciting feature is the ability to “undo” a ReTweet. It will be interesting to see if this truly works. I tried it and according to Twitter it worked 
What else is exciting? You may have noticed Twitter is starting to get back to real time. You can see your messages piling up, encouraging you to refresh or simply click on home. FriendFeed started experimenting with the Live Feed several months before FaceBook purchased them. The Friendfeed real time engine truly works. Whether it is a scaling issue or simply integration FaceBooks Live News Feed has not been moving in real time for a few weeks. I suspect they are fine tuning this functionality to keep people from freaking out when they see their newsfeed updating without them doing anything. The geeks all complained a lot on Freindfeed when it was implemented (too fast too slow etc.). Because Twitter crashes so often currently, I fear what will happen when they actually start updating the feed in real time, with any luck they will license the technology from FaceBook.
by Jamie Ginsberg on November 17, 2009 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
As I wind up my second night in a row of getting out to events and engaging with people, I am reminded that meeting people is easy, getting to know them takes work. The reason I am so passionate about networks like LinkedIn, FaceBook and to a lesser extent Twitter is that it makes it so easy to get to know people. All you have to do is put in the work.
In FaceBook, I use Lists to make it easy to keep up with all of my friends and connections. By managing my Lists effectively, I can slowly get to know as much as you share about yourself with me. I still have to check FaceBook regularly to keep up with the flow of information. On LinkedIn, I have to look at profiles and learn what you have done or are doing. I have to read the answers you post to questions and the recommendations you write. This is how I get to know you better. Twitter, I have to look at your links, analyze your content and get you offline and into the real world for coffee or wine…otherwise my memory does not retain enough information to match the face to the person.
Why is this important? Every day there are opportunities to connect people and make introductions. The better you know people the easier it is to see how you can help them. I put the work in to try and get to know you better, because I want to make the world a better place for all of us. This means looking at business cards at 11pm, following up on that email from this morning, commenting onthe micro level news occurring on various networks, as well as sharing the seemingly boring details of our lives. Talk with me about food, wine, sports, politics and life. Share your pictures, passions, successes and failures. This is the only way we will get to know each other better.
Put the Work in. Grow Organically. Develop deep strong roots. Bend – Be Flexible, it is better than simply breaking. Whatever you do, participate. We are waiting for you.
by Jamie Ginsberg on October 14, 2009 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
Last night I presented and discussed Twitter & LinkedIn with Professor Elad Granot’s marketing class at Cleveland State University. We covered a lot of ground in a short period of time. I realized halfway thru the night, that we rarely discuss why you actually want to build out your connections on these networks. Why do you need a lot of connections? Let’s look at this from a few different angles.
1) Your potential on these networks is limited by your number of connections. There is a fine line between finding the right amount of kinetic vs. potential. Too many connections and you will have a hard time getting to know them and listening to them. Too few connections and you will not have access to the resources you need as situations arise. Generally speaking, more connections is a better problem to have. Why? Because these sites are adapting to these problems and letting you filter your information. On FaceBook you can keep lists of friends in categories, on Twitter using Seesmic or Tweetdeck you can create lists to track people, LinkedIn is rolling out a new paid feature for lists as well.
2) Access to information, knowledge is power. As your network grows you will see more information. On LinkedIn your search results improve as you have more 2nd degree connections, on FaceBook you start to see trends and can participate in conversations, on Twitter you need the excess overload of content to discover what is happening right now. You need to be connected to people to see information.
3) Touch your network. How often do you call your connections and/or friends? Practically speaking I contact about 20-35 friends a year as a normal activity. Is that how many people I have known and would like to stay in touch with? No, that number is closer to 400. By staying reasonably active within your networks you can keep your network up to date with your social and professional life. This is why we will have strong bonds in the future with people we do not speak with regularly. We will know each other, it is easy to speak candidly with people you know. Make sure your network knows you. Check out some of my earlier posts on how to “touch” your network.
4) Ok, I’m connected to everyone I know, now what? Start talking, start listening. Participate in the conversation. As you find people that are interesting, take the conversation offline – to email, phone calls, and coffee. This is where you will find the most success. Some of my most interesting live meetings this year have come from Twitter conversations. LinkedIn should be the first place you search for information before meeting that person for the first time. Invite a FaceBook friend to coffee, try and figure out how you can help them. Transition interesting people and opportunities to the real world. It is a lot easier to talk with someone in the real world when you know them from one of your networks, you have ‘stuff” to talk about.
There is a random side to Twitter and even LinkedIn. People you connect to that you do not have a history of school, work or friendship with. Why should you connect to new people you don’t really know? Because each connection brings you closer to your potential. Each connection is an opportunity to lend your skills and knowledge to someone else. I encourage you to be a bridge builder, a resource. You have developed fantastic skills over the course of your life, share them with your network. Extend your network and more people will benefit from you as an information resource. Be the valuable resource you are.
Remember, social and professional networks online are just an extension of what we have been doing our entire lives, Networking Effectively. Like the old MaBell commercial said, Reach Out and Touch Somebody.
by Jamie Ginsberg on July 21, 2009 in Best Practices
This image was done by Phil Guy. It reminds me of the Harry Chapin song, “All My life’s a Circle.” Each or any of these arrows can be the center of your attention. Each can also be a critical step in building sales, name recognition and relationships with your customers. Getting Back2Basics and developing a strong base is essential for growth. Each of the above arrows must be integrated into your social media strategy.
The question you must ask yourself is, how can I inspire activity within the various arrows? How can I ignite people to engage?
by Jamie Ginsberg on June 1, 2009 in Best Practices
FriendFeed is a website that starts as an aggregator of all of your online activity and enables you to publish directly to your profile. You can pick and choose what activities link up to FriendFeed and get published under your profile. I have my Tweets, Flickr photos, Blog Posts and shared Google Reader Posts flowing automatically into FriendFeed. You can manually post information as well, using full sentences and complete thoughts as you are not limited to 140 characters. I have the Bookmarklet sitting in my toolbar and can easily post any website directly to FriendFeed (and have it automatically post to Twitter as well).
Staying ahead of the curve is easy with FriendFeed. Why? Because so many early adopters gravitated to FriendFeed, there is an intelligent and engaging audience waiting for you. More importantly all comments are attached to the post creating conversations you can engage with from simply “liking” the post or adding in your 2 cents. Creating conversations is an art form in social media marketing, FriendFeed enables you to be an artist.
How do you find friends to subscribe to on FriendFeed? The suggested friends are somewhere between the ordinary and the extraordinary. As you subscribe to people the suggested people to subscribe to evolves based on who your subscribers are subscribing to. That may sound confusing, but the core point is that these people are selected based on popularity amongst the people you are subscribing to. This is more interesting than the suggested follows on Twitter which are less focused.
Last but not least you can check your email, FaceBook and Twitter to see who you know on FriendFeed and subscribe to them. I have found the most people coming over from Twitter, but slowly the contacts in my Gmail have been coming on board. As with other networks, it is a good idea to check monthly (or more frequently) for new potential people to subscribe to. You can also check who is subscribing to you and Subscribe to them. As this number grows it is a good idea to use the List feature to enable you to effectively monitor and participate in conversations.
The last word on FriendFeed is evolving. This site is a great example of high tech software as a service. They are building in new features regularly and you can really customize your experience. FriendFeed has a corporate copycat in SocialCast, which is a great white label social network using the newsfeed format of FriendFeed. As FriendFeed evolves you have to play with the features to figure out how to make them useful to you. Luckily, we are all learning together.
by jginsberg on April 7, 2009 in Best Practices, LinkedIn
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can not make him drink.” This saying plagues consultants. In the end, our success is dependent on you listening and trusting our advice enough to implement the critical features (drinking the water). Yesterday, I got an email from someone I have been consulting with. My eyes blurred as I read his short email and suddenly focused on a series of links at the bottom. Awesome! Not only did Scott register and start using all of the social media outlets suggested, he grabbed the low hanging fruit. Adding links to himself and his groups on LinkedIn and FaceBook at the bottom of his email. Example of my signature below.
It is critical to embrace traditional marketing in your social media marketing. This means pasting social links on your website, email, and business cards. Printing new envelopes or letterhead? Add your social media links. These are not as easy for people to click on and follow thru as in an email or web site, but it is a critical reminder that you are reachable. As you look at the various ways you contact your friends, family, clients; think about how you can integrate in your social media (FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, FriendFeed, YouTube etc.). Do not keep your presence a secret. Place links to you every where.
by jginsberg on March 30, 2009 in Best Practices
Every day there is activity on your network. Are you listening, engaging and conversing? From “liking” a picture to commenting on a blog, each time you touch your networks you create opportunity and invite interaction. It starts with baby steps, one network before you check your email and right before you put the computer to sleep at night. Creating good habits from the start will enable you to build your presence on more networks efficiently and effectively. Social media is like Yoga, breath and build from a strong foundation.
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