Social Media
My Interview With Shari Weiss
A number of months ago my friend Shari Weiss (an online friend) requested an interview, I said sure! Our schedules weren’t lining up to well for a short while but the interview finally took place, and I am going to share it with you here.
Shari is a Social Media Maven if you will, she teaches this misunderstood arena, there’s so much we don’t understand about this space. I actually met Shari on FriendFeed a few years ago, we got connected through a chat with Robert Scoble, and we have been chatting regularly since that squable.
Shari can also be found on LinkedIn she loves to discuss Social Media at length, be sure to ask her about her group as well, and tell her Owen sent you there.
I hope you enjoy and learn something from the interview, more importantly, I want you to think. Here is the link to Shari’s website where you can read the entire interview, enjoy:
What If Your FaceBook Profile Was a Book?
I was surfing about and came across this great video on Cristian D. Cano’s marketing blog, I just had post this video here on my blog, well, because I had to have it in my database : )
Having said that, Gary Vaynerchuk once said, everything we put on the Internet becomes our legacy, and that’s exactly what the question implies. If everything you put out there was turned into a book, would it be a best seller and how would people view you, not to mention, grand kids and so on.
Food for thought, but what would your FaceBook book be like?
The Top 3 Social Networks
In my last post I touched on our aging population and how the Baby Boomers creat a problem, but they also present endless opportunities. As we become more mobile and social, I thought it would be interesting to look at some data in regards to the social networks I use. The real question I am asking these days is, will these networks be around in the next 5 – 10 years? I think the social part will be embedded into everything mobile, Twitter is really a glorified version of IRC don’t you think, just more open and out there, not private or closed. Real-Time is probably the key to everything mobile.
Social
Social Media Networks are very popular, and they are growing at an exponential rate, the world is loving these networks, and that creates challenges for the business world. There are hundreds of social networks on the Internet, but the most popular ones we hear about most tend to be the three below. We have become a connected world, this trend is not going away. Here are the Top 3 Social Networks I use, Twitter is my Primary Network and that’s where you will find me 99% of the time.
FaceBook is the most used of these three, but I don’t spend much time there, it’s too cumbersome in my humble opinion. FaceBook does have incredible support and huge numbers compared to all the rest, check it out below.
– More than 550 million active users
– 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
– Average user has 130 friends
– People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
– There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
– Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
– Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
– More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
– More than 70 translations available on the site
– About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
– Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
– More than 2.5 million developers and partners from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
– People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day
– Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
– Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day
– More than two million websites have integrated with Facebook
– There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
– People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
– There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
– 351 Employees
– 190 Million Registered Users
– 65 Million Tweets Per Day
– 800 Million Search Queries Per Day
– 80% of visitors are outside of Twitter.com
– As of January 2011, LinkedIn has more than 90 million members in over 200 countries around the globe.
– A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of our members are outside the U.S.
– Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.
– LinkedIn started off 2011 with about 1,000 full-time employees located around the globe.
What are your top 3 social networks?
Why Is Social Media So Hard To Understand?
I’ve been struggling with this question for some time now, I could go in so many directions on this question but, I’ll just share some random thoughts. Why is it that we default to our old conditioning when we don’t understand something? It’s a natural human behavior to either lash out or try to fit what we know to make things work. The square block into the round hole kind of thinking. Some businesses treat Social Media like any other advertising channel, they continue to practice what they have always done, they advertise, they yell, and then try to force you to listen, and then force you to buy. A HUGE mistake if you are asking me. The future of business is not business as usual friends, we are in the midst of a paradigm shift we can’t control with old practices.
To make matters even worse, the mobile movement is going to reshape not only how we communicate, but the landscape of commerce in the digital world. But that’s another topic for another time. The RESET button is being pushed, business is trying to prevent that reset. Why? They don’t understand what it means, and worse yet, they realize they can’t control it.
In order for the business of the future to survive, they will have to figure out how to give up some control to consumers. Provide access before revenue, actually listen to their customers, build a different relationship, and hire the right people who have a better understanding of this space called Social Media. This list is long and confusing, it requires a willingness to admit your business doesn’t get it. Humility will take you along way if you are willing to risk embarrassment.
In my community, we have people being hired to market on social networks, some of these people either don’t understand what to do, or they are being told to do things in a traditional manner because that’s what they know and understand. Business owners need to get out of the way, but how can they, they are wired to be in control. Taking risks in business these days only seems to happen in the start-up phase, why is that, probably because they believe the community needs what they are offering and will do whatever it takes to make it (risk). Once established, they lose they ability to risk again because they go into a management mode over what got them there in the first place.
Social Media has the ability to keep your business moving forward if you are willing to risk again. Let me give you a very low level, low risk, and simple example.
When a company wants to change something, it could be anything, what do they do? They go into the board room and try to find a solution to the problem, they look inward rather than outward. They try to solve their problem with the same thinking that got them to where they are, with a problem. Why not go out onto one of the Social Networks like Twitter or FaceBook and ask the world for a solution to your problem. You will be very surprised at the response you will get from the people formerly known as consumers. These are smart people, why not hire them for free and have them help you solve your challenge. Talk about building trust, an opportunity to actually have a relationship with those who buy your products and services. Your transparency and willingness to listen changes the relationship at a level yet to be calculated.
You as the business owner or leader, have an opportunity to take this even farther, what if you were to recognize the person or person’s responsible for solving your problem in a very public way? I’ll let you ponder that one.
We all are becoming very public, more and more we are putting our lives out there for all to see and learn. There is a risk in that act alone, consider long and hard what you put on the Internet, it’s now your legacy once it’s out there.
Building relationships is not new or changing, it like 60% of commerce has merely gone via the digital realm, that changes the rules, ummmm….what rules? Maybe the rules are the problem, maybe that is what the business world struggles with most, I think it still goes back to one thing and one thing only, Control.
When it’s all said and done, Social Media is not that complicated really. It’s forcing businesses to be human rather than machines that run by unchangeable rules. Start giving your business away to customers, let them help you and more importantly, treat them with the respect they deserve. Why? Because that’s what a Social Business does, it values those the same way you value people in your personal life. Stop trying to complicate Social Media by thinking too much. I could go long and deep on this topic but I’ll let you do comment and add value to the subject.
How Do I Get Your Attention?
Attention is a funny thing, kids are masters of getting as much as they need, but how do businesses master that same art without becoming annoying? Sometimes annoying works well for advertising campaigns, but do they win friends and influence people? Do they get your attention, or just your anger?
Some people, like me, can’t walk into a room quietly, we naturally draw attention to ourselves, probably because we are insecure or some other mental issue. I don’t know why it is, but it is. I love people, and I love helping them when I can, but that doesn’t get attention the way I would like it to. It might have something to do with my opening : )
I’m going to use me as the scape goat in this post, as an example of what some of us are dealing with. I hope it stirs some emothions in you and makes you think.
People and business are not the same, they have two different personalities and yet some of the same needs. When a person fills the role of business owner, they look at the world completely differently than when they are at home. OK maybe, but usually. The business owner, if they are doing well, tend to have healthy happy relationships with staff, and the staff reflect that out to those who are dealing with them. In a perfect world that’s probably very true, but not always the norm.
Every business has the same need, they want your attention, and those who figure out what gets your attention tend to survive longer. I’m generalizing, but you get the idea. So how does a business of one get your attention the same way a business / Brand or many people do? It still comes down to need doesn’t it. There has to be a need for me to look your way, and more importantly, a compelling need for me to find out more about what you are offering. Not all businesses need my services, they do, but don’t realize they do, why? Urgency. I may show you a tidal wave, but it’s not going to get here till 2014, I’ll wait and see mentality sets in, and well, you know what happens. So how do I get your attention?
I’m not a kid any longer, so I can’t get your attention the way kids do, and I can only cry wolf so many times before you take my work seriously, so what will it take? Why do most small business have a tougher time over bigger businesses? Probably because big businesses have more resources and can buy attention at a level small businesses or individuals can’t. It’s not a level playing field by those terms is it?
If it’s that hard now, what will it be like when another 3 – 4 billion people come online? If you haven’t noticed, we are moving away from the Bricks & Mortar style of consuming, we are buying more and more through our smart phones than ever before. That is going to increase, and it’s not going away as if it was a fad like Bell Bottom Blue Jeans.
My tag line should be, I SEE DEAD BUSINESSES! Why? Because most small businesses know the tidal wave is coming, if they don’t, they aren’t listening. It’s as if they are looking the other way, hoping it won’t actually happen. Fear is an immobilizing thing most of the time, but that doesn’t mean what I’m sharing isn’t real or going to happen.
You should be doing three things in your business right now, no matter what size it is, become social, become very mobile, and be prepared to serve a portion of the 4 billion people yet to come. So I ask you, how do I get your attention? The better question might be, forget about me, how do you get the the attention of 4 billion yet to come? Attention is the currency of our future, learn how to get it.