If you’re rolling around on Twitter every Friday, you’ve probably noticed a trend that started a couple months ago – #followfriday. People recommend favorite Twitterers to their community, thus creating a chain and viral effect on Fridays. It’s a great way to meet new fun folks and has even gone a step further with people creating starter packs for new users. One thing that’s missing, being 140 characters, is that there isn’t always depth on why you should follow those people.
So, what I decided to do was start a little weekly series of Follow Fridays but with a little twist – I’m going to juice it up a bit and suggest great folks to follow, not just for their value on Twitter, but for what they bring to their respective blogging communities. Here you have this Friday the 13th’s Follow Fridays: (more…)
One of the things that we social media/tech heads preach, is to educate; educate those about Twitter that don’t get it, clients/companies who need help understanding the new media space and how it can build community and enhance their current marketing strategy, or our readers through how-to articles on how to better utilize Google Reader or Firefox. (more…)
I’ll save the buildup and get right into what started this post at 1:30 a.m. this morning. There was a lot chatter yesterday on Twitter about a new ‘service’ that basically asks this question:
So you’re looking to get a massive following on twitter?
The site is TweeterGetter and apparently Gary McCaffrey guarantees that you’ll get 16,000 (give or take however many thousand) followers in 30 days. It doesn’t require you to follow anyone back as you can just sit back, relax and enjoy the thousands of followers you’ll be getting, of whom you have had absolutely no real interaction with.
I’m sure you can sense my disdain for this service and the negative thinking that it promotes. The thought of ‘auto-piloting’ the follow process and building a humongous following has SPAM written all over it. Gary, and the unfortunate that have taken part in this, fail to realize the value of building relationships vs. just having a large follower count. (more…)
I had a quick chat yesterday with Marc Meyer and was struck by his tweet:
If I hear another company say, we’re “doing social media”
“Doing social media” is something a lot of us hear far too many times and honestly, makes it sound like a cheap date that you pick up in a dimly lit alley. (more…)
It’s that time folks – time to choose the winner of my recent book giveaway for Rohit Bhargava‘s, Personality Not Included.
As mentioned, I would be choosing the winner through random selection via Random.org. There were a lot of great people that participated in the contest but the winning copy of PNI goes to Eric! I’ll be emailing you to congratulate and ask for your mailing address (don’t worry, I won’t stalk you). (more…)
Last year at the MarketingProfs Digital Mixer, I attended Rohit Bhargava‘s book signing, along with a bunch of other fun folks, for his new book, Personality Not Included. He explained how he came up with the idea and what makes it different than other marketing/business books. The biggest thing that you’ll notice is that the book is split up into two parts. Part I consists of several stories and real-life examples on why personality matters. Where Part II brings it to life as every story in Part I is linked to an action guide in the second part. It definitely makes for an interesting read and one you’ll be able to pull actionable items from.
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As layoffs continue to hit a lot of us, it means that even more of my friends and colleagues are feeling the effect. What’s tripped me out lately is the lackadaisical attitude that people have had on networking. Those being laid off are just now creating LinkedIn profiles, wanting to build sites/blogs and joining Twitter. I’m, by all means, supportive and will help them out in any way possible but networking is a thing that doesn’t happen overnight and takes time to build mutually-beneficial relationships/connections. (more…)
I had the pleasure to talk with Marc Meyer over the phone yesterday. We had a great chat as we talked about an issue that’s been on his mind of late – the lack of context on Twitter. He had some deep thoughts on the matter and got the perspectives of several other great people as well. The main thought I shared with him was that the minute we begin questioning what we tweet about because someone might not understand the context of it, is when we, and the industry, begin to take a step backwards in our growth. We were born into this Social Media world with this word tattooed on our foreheads:
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We all heard about it, while many others were taken advantage of, as a phishing scam hit Twitter last weekend. The scam spread DMs that told people to click on a link that went to what looked like the Twitter login page, which is where many gave away their sensitive account information. It quickly spread and everyone was encouraged to change their password. What had me thinking though was the thought about trust and our seemingly lack of understanding and adhering to that word. I was quickly reminded about an interview I did at the MP Digital Mixer with Chris Brogan, in regards to his upcoming book, Trust Agents. Though the clip was probably full of bloopers on my part, I remembered being asked what I thought a ‘trust agent’ was. The answers Chris got during his interviews were great but what I’ve realized is that we all have a vital role in creating trust and this little fiasco that happened over the weekend shows that many of us have forgotten that.
The role has more to do than just who you trust personally but is more so associated with one action, such as this past weekend’s, and its related/adverse effects. These relations encompass the services you use on a daily basis, the perception companies have on social media, and the communities you interact with.
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As I sit here, back home in Cleveland for the holidays, I reflect on what’s been a very interesting year for me – actually, the most interesting than any in the past. I’ve learned a lot about myself, on personal and professional levels, as I’ve gone through a lot of changes this year with family, friends, and my career – with most recently, my lay off. But even with all the highs and lows, I’ve enjoyed every second of it and wouldn’t change it a bit.
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