Social Media Stories - Latest Comments

Re: Telling social media stories: what I’m trying to do here

rodos — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:40:53 -0000

Dr Troyer, I don't think you should be too concerned with the "secret" getting out that their is strategy behind what you do for the "community" around VMware. Just like you understand that there is a strategy behind what we do from our end (some more than others). Given though, the strategy from our end is probably a lot more loose and fluid, we don't have managers measuring outcomes.

I think its great you are sharing some of your insights, you have build up a very successful social media community so you do have some great "stories to tell".

Rodos

Re: The ethical technology blogger junket

johnmarktroyer — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:58:12 -0000

Sunshine, thanks for the comment. The event was great and I'm glad we were able to have a small part in it. If we do put one on, I won't try to pull it together so quickly with so many moving parts, believe me! As I've thought more about it afterwards, I've been
* surprised that we haven't thought of this kind of event before - both a real 'whack on the side of the head' and perhaps a sign that the online community has matured;
* wondering about the disclosure implications of some of our other activities. If everything goes right I'll be giving away millions of dollars of software licenses soon - how does that compare to a flight & a hotel room?
* glad that the right crowd got invited. The more top down this kind of invitation is, the more likely a PR firm or vendor just picks the "influencers" with a lot of followers, not people with actual authority. In fact, I think I'll add that as another success factor to the article.

Re: The ethical technology blogger junket

sunshinemug — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:49:23 -0000

Another great post John! Loving this new blog. I think a Tech Field Day of sorts would be excellent for VMware. Unless you have someone as uberpowered as Foskett on the job, you might want to give yourself a *little* more time to pull the event together. Although as we discovered there is something about tight deadlines that can have a galvanizing effect, making the event that much more vibrant and energized. I really only had a small hand in it--but all of us snapped into action and the results do speak for themselves, as you note. Thanks to you and VMware for the Thursday morning session, breakfast and lunch!

Re: I contain multitudes: how many personas do you have?

johnmarktroyer — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:59:06 -0000

Chris, thanks for commenting. I think we're all negotiating between Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn these days, so I'm there with you!

As I've thought about it more over the past few days, I realize my two Twitter accounts are about respecting two different audiences/communities -- one that is interested in virtualization and IT, and the other in social media and marketing. In the olden days, we'd just use different forums or mailing lists, but today we've mashed everything together in a single set of channels. I've gone into knowing I'm tapping in to two community firehoses, but then again, this is part of what we do for a living.

That still leaves me with not knowing from which account to talk with my neighbors who are on Twitter. I guess we'll feel that out as we go along!

Re: I contain multitudes: how many personas do you have?

twitter-16491888 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:25:52 -0000

John Mark, I've chosen to have one persona online geared around my area of expertise. My agency persona is still, ironic as it may sound, finding itself. The key social network/media services I use are Twitter and Linkedin. I blog in two places as well.I find the personal and professional lines get blurred on Facebook.

The biggest risk of social media is the amount of noise and quantity of content being created. Content may be king but I'm wondering if the firehouse is wide open. No one wants to be drowned in information. Too much information can stop someone from doing something.

Re: Influence is not authority. Keywords are not conversations.

johnmarktroyer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:21:32 -0000

Gabe, I agree. I worry that someone new to social media (in my world, it would be a marketing manager), might just go look at some social media blogs and “Twitter influence” scores and then get a very wrong impression. I’ve just never had a case where these influence scores are useful, even when researching a new topic that I’m not familiar with. I suspect they are measuring at a broad level and I’m generally more interested in specific subject areas.

Re: Influence is not authority. Keywords are not conversations.

johnmarktroyer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:21:11 -0000

Thanks for coming by, Gina! I think Topsy just recently started indexing the (titles? content?) of the links in the tweets, which has made it pretty useful. Of course, I’m always surprised by what “everybody” shares vs what “my crowd” does…

Re: I contain multitudes: how many personas do you have?

johnmarktroyer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:20:22 -0000

Thanks for the kind words, Stu. I’ve been pointed “inward” at my community for a long time — as are most of us in specialty fields! After reading all these social media gurus talk about things that don’t seem to apply in our enterprise-focused world, I thought it was time to share what we’ve been doing and hopefully connect with other enterprise marketers and help each other out!

Re: Gestalt IT, the Craigslist of new tech journalism

johnmarktroyer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:19:41 -0000

Rich, I think you guys are doing a great job there, and you should let me know if you ever want to take ads… ;-) But hold the praise until Part 2, where I’ll say Tech Field Day has now taken us down the slippery slope that ends in blogger junkets, pay-for-play, payola, and scandal!

Re: Influence is not authority. Keywords are not conversations.

gabechesman — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:22:22 -0000

@John It's important that people know the difference between the number of Twitter followers and authority. Even though they can go hand-in-hand, the number of followers doesn't prove you're an influencer or if you're trustworthy. Nevertheless, it does make you feel important.

Re: Influence is not authority. Keywords are not conversations.

gminks — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:21:22 -0000

Thanks for reminding me about topsy!

Re: I contain multitudes: how many personas do you have?

nohype — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:21:07 -0000

John,
Great stuff! Chuck Hollis had a social media blog (http://chucksblog.emc.com/a_journey_in_social_m...) and when he stopped it, a lot of people were looking for other sources of the journey to social media. VMware and you have done some great things and it's been fantastic to share and learn with you.
Stu
http://blogstu.wordpress.com

Re: Gestalt IT, the Craigslist of new tech journalism

rbrambley — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:23:10 -0000

John,

Great analysis on GestaltIT! "The Craigslist of new tech journalism" - love it. Thanks for the mention.