Is Social Media really for you?

Like anything that is hot and trendy, Social Media has seen people jumping on the bandwagon just to make a quick buck or a quick headline. Unfortunate, but true. I see the ‘wannabes’ all too often. And they actually manage to find some clients – yet it’s clear that they don’t have deep insights into Social Media. I am a Social Media Expert, if I may say so myself. And there are a number of us. We live Social Media. Day in and day out. We’re using the Social Media tools. We’re tasting the bitter and sweet tastes of this new revolution. Yet, we’re very nervous to call ourselves “Experts” or “Gurus” – and I will only do so here because this is my own blog. There has been a bad stigma surrounding those titles, because every other person suddenly became an “Expert” and a “Guru” – they made it bad for everyone who really deserved those titles. They are the bad apples. Bad apples are everywhere. Unfortunate, but true.

I found a real interesting post called Get Real Time: 44 Signs Social Media Is NOT Working for You. The post is intended to be funny, and I thought it was, but I also found some solids truths in it.

These are some of my favourite points:

4. You can’t remember the last time you got a lead online.
5. 95% of your leads are still coming from the chamber and local meetup groups.
8. You can’t understand why those other agencies are wasting time on plans and objectives? Why aren’t they tweeting and Facebooking for their clients?
14. Sales conversion funnel, what’s that again?
17. You have 500 likes on your Facebook business page but don’t know any of them because they won’t talk to you.
19. You have a blog but only write in it quarterly. Even when you did you just copied someone else’s work and added a link hoping nobody would notice and think it was yours.
20. You have resorted to asking your son & his best friend to retweet your content.
21. You have bribed your mom grandma, and great aunt Martha to login to Facebook once a week and like everything on your Facebook page
22. You could tweet with your eyes closed and sing Karaoke at the same time but can’t pay your rent.
23. 95% of your clients are either related to you or could fall in the category of BFF (best friend forever).
24. A lead with a budget? What’s that?
25. If you build client websites none of then have a sales conversion funnel either.
26. Your website knows how to tweet and you thought that would be enough.
27. You didn’t know you had to talk to your fans after the like! Why won’t they just buy something?
39. You haven’t changed or updated your web content in a year. It’s not needed as it must be working with all those followers you have.
42. You don’t understand why so many people spend money on their brand. Who cares if all the colors look the same. Social media is all about conversation anyway.

You can read the complete list here.

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Facebook vs Twitter

Facebook and Twitter are not the same. They function differently, and they serve different audiences. There are some overlaps, but there are also very distinct differences. When using Social Media as a serious business marketing tactic, it is incumbent to have deep insights into the differences between the Social Media platforms. I see the mistake everyday of people treating all the platforms equally. This is certainly a road to failure.

For example: most folks on Facebook and LinkedIn don’t understand what “RT” is. It’s Twitter lingo for Retweet, and it’s akin to a forwarded email. If you find an interesting message on Twitter, you forward it on using the RT function. I see RTs everyday on Facebook and LinkedIn. This is the result of treating all the platforms equally. It’s just wrong. Each platform is a house. We should respect the rules and etiquette of the house. That is polite.

I caught an interesting post tackling this topic. The post quoted Tim Webster as saying:

“The temptation, I think, will be to see Twitter as smaller, and therefore less important, than Facebook. Certainly, Facebook is the gateway to the masses, since it now reaches the majority. For brands and businesses, however, the differential character of Facebook users and Twitter users means that for some products and companies, Twitter might indeed be the best channel for outreach and customer communications, while for others…it might be terrible. It’s imperative for companies to cut past the hype, do their own research, and be where their users are, not where the noise is.”

And it quoted Morgan Stewart as saying:

“Twitter appeals to a niche audience. Most people simply have no interest in the real-time, condensed form of communication Twitter facilitates. However, this does not mean that Twitter’s role is insignificant or that its’ importance is overrated.

Comparing Facebook and Twitter in this manner is like comparing shopping malls and fashion shows. Malls, like Facebook, have mass appeal and are an expression of larger culture. In contrast, while only a small subset of the population actually attend fashion shows, the interactions that happen there influence the larger culture. Twitter is where online influencers congregate and share new ideas, and that alone is significant.”

I think these are brilliant opinions. Twitter and Facebook are both useful and both incumbent, but they should not be treated the same. They are different.

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Social Media Revolution

Have you seen this video? It was published on 30 July 2009, and has been viewed 2,015,452 times to date. It reveals some interesting statistics, and I think it’s worth spending a few minutes to watch.

The Character Ethic

Recently, in a post titled The Amazing Race, Facebook, and Twitter, I spoke about the Personality Ethic and the Character Ethic.

Facebook and Twitter (and some other websites) reveal who we truly are. Sometimes we try to put up a facade (the Personality Ethic), but sooner or later the real you (the Character Ethic) is revealed.

If you want, you can go and read the entire post, but I want to repeat just a few lines from Covey which is in that post.

He says:

Many people with secondary greatness – that is, social recognition for their talents – lack primary greatness or goodness in their character. Sooner or later, you’ll see this is every long term relationship they have, whether it is with a business associate, a spouse, a friend, or a teenage child going through an identity crisis. It is character that communicates most eloquently. As Emerson once put it, “What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.”

I truly believe that people’s characters are revealed online. Sometimes that may be good, other times not, but it happens nonetheless. Now this has been proven…

A recent study was conducted to ascertain whether people are their true selves online, or if it’s all just idealism. The study disproves a widely held assumption that online profiles are used to create idealistic images of ourselves. Participants for the study included 236 Facebook users – 133 from the United States, and 103 from Germany. Participants ranged from 17 to 22 years of age.

I’ve always maintained that Facebook and other websites are not popular because of fancy technology and fancy websites. No. It’s because Web 2.0 principles are in alignment with human principles. Trust, sharing, transparency, etc – these principles are what make the Internet work today. The study says, “OSNs [on-line social networking sites] might be an efficient medium for expressing and communicating real personality, which may help explain their popularity.”

Furthermore, it explains:

Our results were consistent with the extended real-life hypothesis and contrary to the idealized virtual-identity hypothesis. Observer accuracy was found, but there was no evidence of self-idealization, and ideal-self ratings did not predict observer impressions above and beyond actual personality. In contrast, even when controlling for ideal-self ratings, the effect of actual personality on OSN impressions remained significant for nearly all analyses. Accuracy was strongest for extraversion (paralleling results from face-to-face encounters) and openness (similar to research on personal environments). These results suggest that people are not using their OSN profiles to promote an idealized virtual identity.

This is just the beginning of this type of research (and this fact excites me!). More in-depth research is planned, and explained as follows:

Our findings represent a first look at the accuracy of people’s self-portrayals on OSNs. To clarify the processes and moderating factors involved, future research should investigate (a) older users and other OSNs, (b) other personality traits, (c) other forms of impression management, (d) the role of specific profile components (e.g., photos, preferences), and (e) individual differences among targets (e.g., self-monitoring) and observers (e.g., OSN experience).

I hope this post intrigues you as much as it intrigues me. You can find the complete details of the study here.

Photo credit: massimobarbieri

The Amazing Race, Facebook, and Twitter

I’m a student of the world. Everywhere I go, I try to learn, and I try to think about what is really happening. Psychology is a subject that fascinates me, and I’m very fortunate that many of the successes and principles behind Web 2.0 and Social Media are grounded upon human behaviour patterns.

I’ve watched The Amazing Race a few times, and one of the reasons I like that show is because it exposes you to cities across the world. I think this is what is referred to as armchair traveling. As you know, the teams always comprise of varied relationships – best friends, married couples, engaged couples, parent and sibling, siblings, and so on. I think this is a smart move by the producers because it brings an interesting dynamic. The last show I watched (which was a few months ago, and I’ve had this post lurking in my brain since then) made me aware of something. I thought about the fact that certain teams, especially when they were behind in the race or in difficult circumstances, started to argue and be really nasty. They had a camera right in front of them, would that not deter them from showing their “true colours” and behaving just slightly more civil? Surely they knew that this was going to be aired to millions of viewers, including their own close friends and family.

I watched this and pondered about it. The camera didn’t matter. The millions of viewers didn’t matter. They wanted to win the million dollar prize – that is all that mattered.

I’ve been researching and monitoring behaviour patterns and trends on Facebook and Twitter for a very long time now. In fact, I capture most of these conversations using a neat application called Evernote. [You'd do yourself a huge favour by checking it out.] I have a few thousand clippings, and I intend to use them in 2 eBooks I’m planning to write. What is very clear to me is that when people are tested, and go through a bad time, they tend to say all sorts of things. They don’t seem to care who is watching or listening. I’m not talking about the moaners (I wrote about them here) – those who complain all the time – that’s a different group of people. I’m talking about people who are seemingly moderate and polite, but change when faced with even the slightest challenge or discomfort.

Stephen Covey refers to these behaviour changes as the Personality Ethic and the Character Ethic. You Personality Ethic is what the world sees at first glance. The Character Ethic is who you really are, but not all people see this – sometimes it’s hidden, but in tough circumstances hiding it becomes close to impossible.

He says:

In most one-shot or short-lived human interactions, you can use the Personality Ethic to get by and to make favorable impressions through charm and skill and pretending to be interested in other people’s hobbies. You can pick up quick, easy techniques that may work in short-term situations. But secondary traits alone have no permanent worth in long-term relationships. Eventually, if there isn’t deep integrity and fundamental character strength, the challenges of life will cause true motives to surface and human relationship failure will replace short-term success.

Furthermore…

Many people with secondary greatness – that is, social recognition for their talents – lack primary greatness or goodness in their character. Sooner or later, you’ll see this is every long term relationship they have, whether it is with a business associate, a spouse, a friend, or a teenage child going through an identity crisis. It is character that communicates most eloquently. As Emerson once put it, “What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.”

Of course, if we’re people with true integrity, our Character Ethic will show that in tough circumstances, and this will validate our Personality Ethic. This is why customers now have a choice of who to work with. Customers can now monitor the ethics of an individual or company and then choose whether or not to enter into a business relationship. The same is true for personal relationships. The Internet has exposed us, so to speak.

I think it’s time we need to work on our Character Ethic.

Photo credit: place_light

Apponomics

Yesterday I tweeted the news of the newly opened Google Apps Marketplace, but I feel that I need to blog about this. This, I feel, is important for us all to understand, because the future of business and technology is being defined – and redefined – in and by online advancements.

One of the many things I love about the Web 2.0 world is it’s direct and natural resemblance to the real world. Web 2.0 – like the real world is all about sharing, honesty, transparency, and all those feel-good things. In the real world, no man can live alone. No man is an island, as they say. We need to connect, collaborate, and help each other to build a society. Everyone is important. The famous NASA story comes to mind. One of the cleaning ladies at NASA was asked what she does, she said: “I send people to space.” Now that is a profound understanding of common purpose and vision.

In the Web 2.0 world collaboration is fundamental. There is no surviving without it. If you want to “go it alone” in this space, you’re going to go nowhere slowly. Successful online companies (like Google, Facebook, and Twitter) have realised this. They’ve realised that they have to allow collaboration into and of their products, in order to provide more value to end users. This is not an easy thing to do – it is to some level a relinquishing of control.

If you’ve ever been on Facebook (who hasn’t!), you’ve at one time or another used an Application, an App as it is commonly known. There are Apps for everything, obviously the gaming Apps – like Farmville (reporting 83, 755, 953 monthly active users) – are very famous. There are Apps in all sorts of categories – Business, Education, Entertainment, etc. You can find a full directory of Facebooks Apps here.

Facebook wouldn’t be Facebook without the Apps. So picture Facebook as a big company in a big building. The company is theirs. The building is theirs. But they’ve opened up little side doors all around the building, to allow other companies (the App developers) to have access to their users. It’s a Win-Win-Win situation. Facebook wins because their users have a more enriched experience. The App developers win because they have access to millions of people. And the end user wins because we have a better experience on Facebook.

These little side doors are called APIs. An API is an Application Programming Inteface.

Apple has done the same with the iPhone. Apps really make the iPhone. And there’s an App for virtually anything. See the official Apple directory here. Some Apps are free, and some carry a price tag. Prices are very affordable though. Ranging from $0.99 to just a few dollars. App developers have already made a fortune selling millions of Apps in the Apple App Store. The Apple iPad is going to be released in a few months, and already there are Apps being created for it.

There are so many Twitter Apps available. TweetDeck, Tweetie, and Twhirl allow you to monitor and send tweets. Apps like Twitpic allow you to send photos on Twitter. It’s very interesting that the Twitpic founder was interview by Andrew Warner on Mixergy.com recently, and he said that last year he was offered over $10 million for his company. He didn’t sell, of course. What’s more interesting is that Twitpic doesn’t have offices. The founder works from home, and his parents also work for him – from their home, and he has also employed another developer – which he hasn’t even met yet, and who also works remotely. Yep, that’s how drastically the business world is changing.

If you look at the homepage of this website, you’ll see our Flickr photos displayed. This is an example of WordPress using the Flickr API.

The examples of API usage are endless, and it’s going to grow. To understand this dynamic of mass collaboration, I really recommend the book Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams.

It says:

Even ardent competitors are collaborating on path-breaking scientific initiatives that accelerate discovery in their industries

and…

McEwen saw things differently. He realized the uniquely qualified minds to make new discoveries were probably outside the boundaries of his organization, and by sharing some intellectual property he could harness the power of collective genius and capability. In doing so he stumbled successfully into the future of innovation, business, and how wealth and just about everything else with be created.

I suggest you buy this book. It’s well worth the read if this sort of thing is of interest to you.

The latest spark in the App world is the opening of the Google Apps Marketplace.

Google says:

More than 2 million businesses have adopted Google Apps over the last three years, eliminating the hassles associated with purchasing, installing and maintaining hardware and software themselves.

We’ve found that when businesses begin to experience the benefits of cloud computing, they want more. We’re often asked when we’ll offer a wider variety of business applications — from accounting and project management to travel planning and human resources management. But we certainly can’t and won’t do it all, and there are hundreds of business applications for which we have no particular expertise.

In recent years, many talented software providers have embraced the cloud and delivered a diverse set of features capable of powering almost any business. But too often, customers who adopt applications from multiple vendors end up with a fractured experience, where each particular application exists in its own silo. Users are often forced to create and remember multiple passwords, cut and paste data between applications, and jump between multiple interfaces just to complete a simple task.

Today, we’re making it easier for these users and software providers to do business in the cloud with a new online store for integrated business applications. The Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps customers to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps. More than 50 companies are now selling applications across a range of businesses…

Watch this interesting video to see how easy it is to use the Google Apps Marketplace:

Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg

Google’s Buzzing, again

In case you missed Google’s Press Conference last night, Google launched a new social platform called Google Buzz. The Web has shifted to becoming extremely social and interactive in recent years, and this is going to continue without a doubt. Twitter and Facebook have been dominating the “conversations” on the Web, and now Google Buzz appears that it might change things – perhaps totally, but definitely in some or other way.

According to Google, Google Buzz is “a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there’s nothing to set up — you’re automatically following the people you email and chat with the most.”

Before I continue, I want to say this: In my talks and writings over the past 2 years I have been emphasizing the importance of principles, not technical intricacies. The technologies are ever-changing – these websites that we know now were not around a few years ago, and they will be drastically improved and changed, or even replaced, in the coming years. My focus is on the underlying principles and fundamentals about why Web 2.0 and Social Media is so powerful. Once you have a grasp of them, the technology changes will not affect your ability to harness the full potentials of the online tools available.

Back to Google Buzz…

We’re not sure about the affect that this new platform will have on Twitter and Facebook. Firstly, it allows for status updates, commenting, liking, and also integrates with blogs, Flickr, and YouTube. It has a “Friendfeed” feeling to it as well. The only thing that stumps me at present is that it sits within Gmail, and on a “Google Profile” page. Personally, I use my Gmail account very rarely – my business emails are all in Google Apps accounts. Buzz will be integrated, but only in a few months time. There has been no talk of an API – but I don’t see Buzz surviving without it. Due to the API of the other social networks, I manage Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn via TweetDeck. This simplifies my life a whole lot, and makes my social interaction much more valuable.

I agree with Augie Ray from Forrester Research:

“While bringing relevance filtering to the noisy social media world could prove a significant advantage, this doesn’t (yet) seem to be enough to pull people away from the networks they’ve already created elsewhere. Buzz doesn’t update user’s Twitter or Facebook feeds, so I expect experimentation but not wholesale switching in the foreseeable future. Buzz could end up supplementing rather than replacing users’ other social networks for now.”

What does get me excited about Buzz is the mobile access – available at buzz.google.com – and the extremely advanced integration with Google Maps.

Google says:

With Buzz for mobile, we hope you can start interesting conversations about places and be more spontaneous when you are out and about. How many times have you missed a fun event, even though it was nearby? Or a better choice of dessert, just because you didn’t know about it? How often have you wondered “Where are you?” when reading a text message from a friend? Now, you can use Buzz to learn that there is going to be a movie night at your favorite park, share with the world that there is an awesome ice cream place right around the corner, or tell your friends about that delicious homemade lasagna.

The Google Buzz for mobile video explains it all:

The mobile component of Google Buzz is believed to impact Foursquare, and I think that will prove true, at least to some extent.

Mashable’s article “Google Goes Social with Google Buzz” gives a very nice overview of Google Buzz – read it here.

Also, read these very useful Mashable articles (all posted only hours after the release of Google Buzz):

What Google Buzz Means for Mobile
The Location Implications of Google Buzz
target=”_blank”Google Buzz: What It Means for Twitter and Facebook
Google Buzz: Competitors and Experts React
Google Buzz: Will You Use It? [POLL]

I was surprised to receive access to Google Buzz immediately, I assumed US users would be linked up first. You can connect to me at http://www.google.com/profiles/jamaal786. I’ve been following the conversations on Twitter, and many folks can connect to Buzz via their mobiles, but not yet via their Gmail accounts on the Web.

Of course, if you want to avoid the Buzz altogether, this article might be of use to you: Banish Google Buzz Updates from Your Gmail Inbox.

At the time of writing this post, about 7 hours after the Google announcement, the topic is still very hot online, with blog posts being written, podcasts been produced, and thousands of tweets flooding Twitter. I’ve estimated about 2, 500 new tweets with the words “Google Buzz” every 3 minutes. You do the math.

Facebook’s Latest Redesign

Facebook has launched it’s latest redesign this weekend. The first deployment has been to 80 million users – just a fraction of it’s 400 million user-base.

Many people are complaining about login and news feed problems, and I expect that this will be the case for the next few days. Many users like the new design though, and I assume there’ll be less of an outcry about this UI upgrade.

Peter Deng presented the new changes in a private press meeting. Thanks to Mashable for making this video available:

Facebook gets into email?

Rumour has it that Facebook is developing it’s very own Web-based email system. The system is dubbed “Project Titan” and if successful, will prove to be a rival for Google and Yahoo. Facebook us currently celebrating it’s 6th birthday, and has recently passed the 400 million user mark.

This new development is said to be an enhancement to Facebook’s current messaging system, which it has – to the joy of many – been steadily improved over the past few years.

Do we need another email address though? I’m not sure about you, but I have about 5 already. I have also become quite used to the current messaging system – which is confined to Facebook users, and offers quite a convenient option for communication. Folders would be a good addition though.

The Los Angeles Times says:

With Facebook gravitating to the center of the online world for hundreds of millions, it is well positioned for such a move. Facebook users already stay in touch and share links and photos with friends on the social networking site, making it a logical place to e-mail and chat. Time spent on Facebook soared to 27.6 billion minutes in December, up from 17.8 billion minutes in October, according to data from ComScore.

Facebook is all about communication, whereas Yahoo aggregates content and Google focuses on search. Yet both Internet giants have legions of faithful e-mail users and deep stakes in the messaging market. The proof for Facebook will be in the execution.

So it would make sense that Facebook tap the creator of the popular Gmail to lead its effort that TechCrunch reports has been dubbed internally “Project Titan” and that some employees have unofficially dubbed “Gmail killer.”

Facebook’s Paul Buchheit, a former Google engineer, denies working on an email product.

Should Facebook really be delving into these waters? Or should they be focused on improving their social networking platform?

Photo credit: biscotte

Content is still king – but who’s content?

[Ok, so I haven't blogged in a while. A tad hypocritical of me since I advocate blogging so strongly in my talks. Each time I get an idea for a blog post (which is usually more than once a day) I shift it aside and make something else priority, I think I need to change that, now!]

Ever since the start of the Internet, we’ve been saying that “Content is king” – and that’s been very true. A website with more content – be it text or any other type of content – always won over a website with no content. The content surely had to be good, make no mistake. As the Internet has evolved, I think the content paradigm has evolved as well.

I caught an interesting link on Twitter last night, it was a recent TechCrunch article titled: “Facebook Is Now the Fourth Largest Site In The World.” Facebook boasts 340 million unique visitors during June, 2009. This article returned a memory from a few months ago. I was consulting with a client and helping them understand how Facebook could help their business. I was setting up one lady’s Facebook profile, and it looked very strange. There was nothing going on there, there was more white screen than anything else. This was because she had not “connected” to many friends at the time, so there was little information displaying on her profile. I mentioned this to them, explained how “busy” my profile is, and we had a chuckle, but it’s stayed in my memory – perhaps waiting for me to write this post?!

Content is still the most important component of a website – but who’s content is an entirely new question! We visit Facebook every single day, several times a day, from our desktops, laptops, and mobiles. Who’s content are we looking at though? Facebook’s? Very rarely. We’re looking at content that we’ve created ourselves, or content that our friends have created. Twitter? Twitter without user content is an empty shell. When we go to YouTube, are we viewing their content? Nope. Flickr? Wikipedia?

User-generated content is what really drives the Internet today. And it’s going to get bigger, and bigger. Facebook et al will need to continually make it easier for users (that’s you and me) to publish our own content and share others’ content. It’s about the content, still, but there’s been a shift in who publishers that content.