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The Future of Personal Networking

ochojoe — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 03:45:09 +0000

This content is from: The Ocho! Blog

A vision of the future…you are at an industry conference with the goal of making some valuable new connections for your company. Rather than trying to collect business cards, you simply snap each person’s photo with your smart phone’s camera. You phone automatically performs a facial recognition search, and discovers (with reasonable certainty) a handful of that person’s pictures from their public online profiles such as LinkedIn and Facebook. The software then culls the data attached to these profiles to find relevant information about the individual, and packages it into an electronic business card that includes highlights about their online activities (photos, tweets, status and location updates, etc). You are able to tag this contact with something memorable, such as ALTA_Conf_2010, and group all of these new contacts in your contact manager, where you already have a marketing campaign prepared. If this sounds a little far fetched, then you aren’t paying attention.
Consider the disparate parts to this equation: Smart phones have high resolution cameras and internet access. Picasa and Flickr (among other services) offer facial recognition options for grouping your personal photos. The processing muscle could be pushed off your phone and into the cloud where bandwidth is not an issue. Once the results are culled and returned to the phone it’s just a matter of confirming your new contacts correct identity and integrating them into your CMS. All that remains is the privacy hurdle…
Does this vision of the future excite or frighten you? What are some other ways you see current technology changing and affecting your marketing efforts in the near future?

Commented on “Mashable – The Social Media Guide”

ochojoe — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:04:10 +0000

This content is from: The Ocho! Blog

I have the Droid on the Verizon network and can make VOIP calls with Google voice. The call quality over wi-fi is far superior to the quality over the 3G network. I use Skype on my laptop (over wi-fi) and the call quality has not been consistently good. I’m curious to know if this is a software issue that could be resolved if VZ puts Skype on the handset.

Originally posted as a comment
by ochoconsulting
on Mashable – The Social Media Guide using DISQUS.

The Google Buzz opportunity for small businesses

ochojoe — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:35:10 +0000

This content is from: The Ocho! Blog

The past three days have seen a flurry of comments and criticisms for Google’s latest product, Google Buzz. The most common complaints are:

It’s not enough like Twitter
It’s not enough like Facebook
It’s not enough like FriendFeed
It’s not enough like ______(fill in the blank)

But let’s go back a few weeks to the end of 2009, when everyone was posting their predictions for 2010. The biggest trends to watch emerged as:

Local search
Real time search
Augmented reality
Opportunities on the mobile device

As a Droid user and an unabashed Google fan, it seems to me that Buzz hits 3 of these four out of the park. Using Buzz on my Droid phone is a phenomenal experience, as I can switch quickly between the stream of my contacts, and a stream of localized comments. I can choose to hide or include my location with a post, and even choose a specific location near me (like the restaurant where I ate lunch today) to Buzz about. With their installed user base, Google has the capacity to very quickly surpass Yelp as a local rating depository. And there is no question that ratings have altered consumer buying patterns. The opportunity/threat here for retail, event management, conference attendees, etc is enormous.

There is ample room for improvement. I’ve been banging the drum that the Google Contact Manager (which integrates with Buzz) needs significant improvement. But the small business owner, independent worker, or relationship marketing professional should continue to watch this product very carefully over the next few months.

What do you think? Are you Buzz Lightyear or a Buzz-kill about Buzz?

Don’t get LinkedIn…

ochojoe — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:26:56 +0000

This content is from: The Ocho! Blog

Today I gave a presentation about social networking to a sophisticated corporate audience. The goal of my talk was to offer a primer on social networking tools for career development. During my preparation I realized that technology – no matter how slick – needs to be contextualized for it be be relevant. My clients are typically sales organizations or rainmakers (responsible to some degree for generating business), people for whom the social network is easily contextualized as a business development tool. But today’s audience, consisting of several corporate attorneys, upper managers, and insurance underwriters, was much different. For a point of reference, about 1/3 of the group had a LinkedIn account.

The language of social networking

For many of those who are not required to generate business (sales, marketing, independents, etc.) the social networking space remains a bit mysterious and vague. This is exacerbated by the unusual terminology and vernacular of the various social networks: Status Updates, Comment Threads, and Live Feeds are obvious terms to those who are familiar, but peppered into casual speech they seem esoteric.

Making the human connection

Any technology tool needs to serve a purpose – it must fill a need. Looking at the dramatic growth of social networking platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter it is evident that a need is being met. Strip away the strange terms, the security and privacy concerns, and the din of negative comments from friends at the local watering hole (“Status updates? I don’t care about what I’m doing right now – why would anyone else?”), we are left with highly efficient modes of communicating and connecting with the people in our community. We have a basic need to be accepted, to become part of a community, and to belong.

The LinkedIn user base

Today’s presentation skimmed the surface of the blogosphere, and touched very briefly on other social technologies, before ultimately landing on LinkedIn. As of this writing, LinkedIn claims over 55million users, in 200+ countries. They claim that the average household income is $107,000, and that over 40% of their users earn 6 figures. What makes these stats interesting is not that they describe a fairly affluent and sophisticated user base, but that LinkedIn is boasting these numbers in contrast to the user base of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Business Week. Clearly, LinkedIn is targeting a sophisticated, business savvy professional. If that describes you, and you have a basic desire to connect to your community of peers, then LinkedIn should be a natural extension of your current career development activities.

Bottom line…if you don’t get LinkedIn, you need to.

You can see the generic presentation (using my new favorite presentation software, prezi.com) here.

Social Media: first, define the problem

ochojoe — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:28:02 +0000

This content is from: The Ocho! Blog

In a previous post I made the argument that accountability for the results of a social media plan needed to be pushed out to the edge of the organization at which the execution takes place. Stated another way, social media tools should be baked into processes and job descriptions and results should be included in existing metrics. Perhaps more importantly, I think it unwise to measure the ROI of a social media plan outside of a department-specific context. Accountability and results need to be measured based on the specific objectives of the business unit that the plan applies to.

Metrics and ROI are a hot topic in the social media space right now. Buzzwords and hot topics aside, at the end of the day, the technology needs to solve a specific business problem. The quality of the solution will be proportional to how well the problem is defined.

One of my favorite challenges as a consultant is helping my clients clarify their goals. With regard to social media, the excitement about the technology has created such a fervor that tempts us to plunge headlong into implementation. When something gets a lot of attention, we have a tendency to take a reactive posture, facing outward at our competitors rather than inward toward our own business needs, or better yet, listening to our customers. We reason that to stay competitive, we need to jump on the bandwagon and chase the shiny new gizmo.

We have to step back and spend the time to understand what we are really trying to achieve before investing resources in a solution. Be proactive, set goals, create a roadmap, and then look for implementation solutions. Scan the competitive landscape and the slate of emerging technologies during this process. Seek iterations of process, rather than complete overhauls. And the bigger your organization is, the smaller the iterations need to be.

Or, as Franklin Covey wrote: “Start with the end in mind”

Who Owns Social Media, Part 3

ochojoe — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:22:00 +0000

This content is from: The Ocho! Blog

Two big questions continue to circulate through the social media space: What is the ROI of Social Media, and Who Owns Social Media. This is the third in a series of 4 posts about my thoughts and philosophy on these topics. My objective is to bring clarity for those seeking greater understanding of how social media will impact their organization.

Despite seeming unrelated, I think that these questions are actually inter-related. The first step to gaining clarity is to parse the question of ownership into two subsets: Thought leadership within the field; and accountability within an organization.

Accountability within an Organization

The question, “Who owns social media” is asked in one of two contexts:

within an organizational context

Will our social media program be controlled by the PR department, the marketing department, HR, etc.

or outside the organizational context

Who is developing best practices, who are the thought leaders, what are the standards and who is determining what they are.

(I answer the second question here)

Social Media Governance

At their core, social media technologies strip away real and perceived boundaries between humans (or at least the relatively few humans with access to the internet). Inside the firm, this escalates the need for trust, as every one of your employees can now become a spokesman for your company. This can go very wrong very quickly. The knee jerk reaction is to prohibit or ban social media activity during company time or about company issues. But this is just putting a finger in the dike, and is based on fear and control. This policy is doomed to fail in 2010.

In my previous post in the series I made the argument that accountability for the results of a social media plan needed to be pressed down to the level at which the execution is entrusted. Pushing responsibility out to the edges of the organization requires that those executing the plan know the expectations and policies governing their activity. This looks very different at the enterprise level than it would at the small or mid-size business, as more layers add complexity to the relationship between the executive leadership and the customer. But in either case, the key is governance.

Handrails and Edges

Effective social media governance should identify what I call the handrails and the edges. Handrails provide a safe area within which people can navigate freely, without concern. Edges identify the danger-zones, where one mis-step has immediate consequences. The area between the handrail and the edge represents a need for careful discernment and consideration. Imagine the tourist area at the lip of the Grand Canyon:

There are handrails that provide a very safe zone for people to enjoy the park. Anything they do in these areas is safe. Maybe your social media policy says that any activity on a personal site (such as a facebook profile) off company time is at the employees sole discretion. Employees then know they are free to rant on their personal profile page about whatever they want after hours. Will they? Maybe, or maybe not, but the point is that they know they have the freedom to do so without fear of retribution from their employer.
Jumping over the rail won’t kill you in most places. There is some room between the rail and the edge of the canyon. Pay attention here, and you are going to be okay. Lose focus and you could slip and fall. In your social media policy, this is the white space between what you define as safe behavior, and what you define as unacceptable behavior. This is where discernment, trust, and company culture guide employee actions. Ask employees who maintain a blog to include a disclaimer that the views expressed are theirs alone and do not reflect the views of their employer.
Take a step over the edge at the Grand Canyon, intentionally or not, and the consequences are evident, immediate and dire. Your social media policy should be just as clear about the consequences of stepping over the line. You have a brand to protect, and one person’s bad day can wreak havoc on millions of dollars of brand equity with one 140 character rant.

2010 is rapidly approaching and the idea of social media as a distinct channel is quickly dissipating. Social media is a consumer-driven toolset, and all of your employees are consumers. Therefore your social media policy needs to address each and every member of your organization. Gone are the days of “better to ask forgiveness than permission”, as the stakes are only getting higher.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on social media governance in your organization. What’s working and what’s not?

Six ways technology is transforming small business – Trends in the Living Networks (via postie)

ochojoe — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:37:07 +0000

This content is from: The Ocho! Blog

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http://rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2009/11/six_ways_techno.html

How I Used Twitter to Earn 34,771 Unique Web Hits (via postie)

ochojoe — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:21:21 +0000

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Great how-to tips for getting attention and action in social media

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How I Used Twitter to Earn 34,771 Unique Web Hits

via Prevential by Derek on 4/5/09

You’re about to learn the tactics I used to write a blog post that went viral on Twitter.

And, this was a VIRAL blog post. It was sent to around 300,000 Twitter Feeds.

Want to know the best part? This all happened when I had less than 300 followers on Twitter — my profile clearly didn’t do the work.

First, let me set the record straight. Of those 300,000 Twitter Feeds, only ~ 30,000 people clicked over to my website. But, who would turn down 30,000 unique visits?

Now, here’s how I did it.

1. Talk About Twitter

Did you know that more than 40% of the most retweeted URLs are about Twitter? Just head over to Retweetist and take a look at the top 100 retweeted links.

This won’t change in the near-term because Tweeters are vain (and who could blame us? this service rocks!). And, in the long-term, it won’t change either. Just take a look at Digg. The Digg community still loves articles about Digg. Fark? They love Fark.

Tip 1: So if you want to go viral on Twitter, write about Twitter. That’s what I did and it worked.

WARNING: You need great content. Learn more about this in Tip 5.

2. Promote Other Services

When your article starts to see some traffic, make sure you slap a Delicious or Digg button on the page.

Most people have been using the “Tweet This” button, but I’m not sold on its’ usefulness. Tweets are great, but I prefer links. And, when you hit the Digg or Delicious home page, you get links AND traffic for a lifetime.

For example, when my article started receiving some traffic from Twitter, I used a Delicious button — I got to the homepage within a few hours. This resulted in more tweets, 10-20 links, and thousands of visitors.

Tip 2: Don’t limit your options to just Twitter. Pick one other service to promote heavily. If you land on the Delicious home page, don’t be afraid to switch it up to Digg… This is how you leverage success.

3. Use Copywriting Templates

There is a reason why expert Copywriters make a ton of money. Their tactics persuade people. And, these same tactics work on Tweeple.

Copywriters pack a lot of punch in their short headlines. This premium on concise writing is perfect for Twitter because we only have 140 characters. So, when you title your articles, you should use the sure-fire copywriting templates that work. Here are three examples:

How to [Blank] on Twitter

[3, 5, 7, or 10] Ways Twitter Helps [Blank]

Little Known Ways to [Blank] on Twitter

If you want more examples, look at Brian Clark’s Magnetic Headlines series and add “on Twitter” to any of the templates.

Tip 3: Copywriters know how to make people act. Study and use their tactics.

4. Ask for Tweets

I started my snowball by asking people to Tweet my article — and they did. But, please don’t mistaken that for spam everyone. I asked people I had rapport with and they were happy to help.

Or, you could try another method for asking for tweets…

You could include (pls ReTweet) in your Twitter Headline. This call to action lets your opt-in followers know that you would like them to retweet your article (you may think this sounds like begging, but it is no different from a “Tweet This” button).

Tip 4: Twitter is a great community. They won’t mind helping you out if you ask.

5. Create Comprehensive Content

You have heard this before. But, when you’re writing for Twitter, the rules change. If you want people to Tweet your article, you need to create a complete resource — something people NEED to Tweet.

In my Twitter Tips article, I created a comprehensive list of resources that help people improve their Twitter game. And, please note how I divided the entire post into small sections (chapters).

Since comprehensive resources require time, sections allow your reader to divide that time up how they see fit. And, take a guess how they get back to the article? They favorite it for later reference.

Unfortunately, some people can’t create comprehensive resources. So, here are some other examples of content that works on Twitter:

Be Contrary – It’s easy to say what other people say, but as the saying goes… “only a dead fish swims with the stream all the time.” So, if you want to be comprehensive, ensure that you say something different.

Break News – This is a no-brainer. If you break news, your article will get credit for it. I won’t go into much detail here because this is not within all of our capabilities.

Borrow Influence - You may remember my Gary Vaynerchuk articles. They borrowed influence from Gary Vaynerchuk and since it was good content, people tweeted it (including Gary Himself).

Tip 5: Pick one of the above types of content and create it.

Is This The Real Deal?

That is the first question I would ask too.

But, I’m certain these tactics work because they worked for my good friend Gyutae Park of Winning the Web.

And, he just wrote a similar article where he talks about how he received 35,967 hits to his website in 14 days

I Challenge You…

…to use these five tips on your next blog post. Remember, this is exactly what I did and I received more than 30,000 unique visitors.

Want More Viral Twitter Tips?

If you found this article useful, I suggest you get these articles delivered straight to your email inbox. This will ensure that you don’t miss any great tips and tactics.

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Manage a Facebook Group (via postie)

ochojoe — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:18:40 +0000

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HOW TO: Manage a Facebook Group

via Mashable! by Alison Driscoll on 10/7/09

Alison Driscoll is an interactive copywriter and social media consultant who specializes in Facebook. She authors a blog at alisondriscoll.com.

Facebook Pages may be taking the social network by storm, but they can take time and technical skill to set up. When you need to promote something quickly, or are looking to foster a stronger sense of community, the more traditional Facebook Group is often the way to go.

While not as fancy as Pages, Groups offer many of the same features, with a slightly more streamlined look. This makes it easy for virtually anyone to create a Group, for any number of purposes, and get them live quickly—an important benefit in the time-sensitive social media sphere.

However, the ease and speed with which a Group can be set up has created a lot of spammy or messy Groups that are slapped together in minutes and abandoned soon after. In order to break through the clutter and gain members, you need to take the time to set up a Group correctly. Here are a few tips:

Global, Open, and Public

In order to get the maximum reach and value out of your Group, you need to ensure that anyone who wants to can join, without you having to approve them. You also want them to be able to invite their friends, as this cuts down on the work for you and allows you to focus on building a Group people want to join and share with other people. So, when setting up your Group, make sure you create it as a “Global” Group so it is visible to all of Facebook, and that the access is set to “Open,” allowing members to invite friends. Members should also be able to post and share links and media on the Group page.

Fill Out All Fields

First and foremost, you absolutely must include as much information as possible—not JUST the required fields. This is what truly separates a successful, professional Group from a spammy, “I-lost-my-phone, give-me-your-numbers” Group. Don’t go overboard with lengthy text—stick to basic web-reading principles—but don’t leave anything blank. This includes the image field: think of it like a profile picture; would you really friend someone with a question mark for a head? Didn’t think so.

Use Correct Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

Another huge tip-off that a Group was slapped together in a few minutes and won’t provide much value to members? Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Print out your Group and proofread it to make sure it says what you want and reads the way you want it to sound.

Include Keywords for Easier Search

Groups are indexed by the ever-evolving Facebook search, as well as traditional search engines. So having a completely and accurately filled-out Group description not only looks good and provides valuable information to those clicking on an invite, it also increases the chance that a potential member will find your Group while searching for similar topics, organizations or events. Put on your SEO hat when coming up with a Group name and crafting a description; think of keywords people would associate with your content or purpose of the Group and popular searches around your topic of interest.

Use With Profile or Page

When Facebook first introduced Pages, they offered Group admins the option of automatically transitioning members into fans. As a result, many brands now have a single presence on Facebook, in the form of a Page. But in order to launch a Group, you need a “parent” Page or Profile. This will give you a base from which to invite people and provide you with a more human connection.

Make New Friends

Since a Group cannot exist on its own (see above), your Profile, as admin, will more than likely be tied to the initial members, as they will have to be your friends in order to invite them. Send a friend request that explains how or why you found people and want to be friends. Selling socks? Search for “funky socks” and friend people in relevant groups, with a personal message attached to the friend request that says something along the lines of “I share your love for unique footwear.”

Segment Friend Lists

While building your friend list (and by extension, potential member base for your Group), segment your friends into lists relevant to the Group for future marketing purposes. If you start friending random people based on a search for similar Groups, name lists after the keywords you searched for to find these people. The “funky socks” friends could go in a list called “funky” or “crazy patterns,” so you know that these people will appreciate updates on your more outlandish designs.

Incorporate Events

Events and groups have a greater reach than other elements on Facebook, as they have built in “pass it on” functionality. Always include a brief intro when sending event invites and keep them as open as possible: allow guests to invite other people and post their own videos, links and photos. Try out “virtual events” as well, asking people to invite their friends to join the Group.

Participate and Post New Content

Keeping the Group wall, photo and video restrictions open encourages content sharing and discussion, but that only goes so far; you need to post and update yourself as well. In order to create a Group that people remain members of, particularly engaged members, you need to keep the Group’s page fresh. Pages can be automatically updated, and to compete, you need to provide interesting, valuable perspectives or information to members.

Post Links, Photos, Videos

Besides providing fresh content, frequent posting keeps members engaged and allows for greater interaction. Post a link to any site, or off Facebook, to ask members to join, sign up or take action in some way. You can also post photos or videos from events and tag members in them to increase their connection to the Group.

Send Messages

Groups have mass messaging capabilities, allowing you to quickly keep all members up to date on Group news, events and information. Select “message all members” and draft your message like any other private correspondence on Facebook; it will be delivered to members’ Facebook inboxes just like a message from anyone else. This is one advantage Groups have over Pages; Page updates are dumped into a hidden folder, whereas Group messages carry more weight. That said, they lack the formatting functionality of Page updates and can clog up inboxes quickly, so use sparingly. You may also want to utilize your segmented friend lists to deliver more targeted messaging.

As you can see, a lot of elements go into even the simplest of Facebook Groups. But the tools are all there for you; you just need to use them correctly. And as Facebook pushes users from Groups to Pages, it will be easier and easier to stand out from the crowd of “lost cell-phones” and differentiate your Group as one of the ones to stick with.

More Facebook resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Integrate Facebook With Your Blog
– HOW TO: Set Up a Winning Facebook Fan Page
– 3 New Facebook Strategies for Building Your Personal Brand
– The Journalist’s Guide to Facebook
– HOW TO: Do Good on Facebook

Image courtesy Chris Spooner

Reviews: Facebook

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It’s Facebook, Stupid (Not Twitter, by a Margin of 5 to 1) (via postie)

ochojoe — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:17:47 +0000

This content is from: The Ocho! Blog

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Importance of going to where your audience is, not where you think they are…

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It’s Facebook, Stupid (Not Twitter, by a Margin of 5 to 1)

via Redfin Corporate Blog: Notes on Redfin, technology, real estate and life at a startup. by Glenn Kelman on 11/16/09

Twitter has certainly been on everyone’s minds lately. The company’s traffic has declined recently, but its news coverage hasn’t. TechCrunch has written about Twitter 45 times in the last 15 days alone — including MG Siegler’s magisterial 2,500-word think-piece on Twitter’s re-tweet function .

Over the same fortnight, TechCrunch has written about only one other company so often — exactly as often in fact — and that is Google, with hundreds of products and $180 billion in market capitalization, which has in the past 15 days settled its dispute with book publishers, announced a $750M acquisition with federal anti-trust implications, and launched a major new rival to the iPhone.

By comparison, TechCrunch has only written 34 times about Facebook, often as an afterthought, in a post about Twitter.

But don’t blame TechCrunch; its Twitter articles get more traffic than posts about almost any other subject. And besides, while the distribution of overall media coverage is different from TechCrunch’s distribution, it isn’t that different. It’s the nature of news organizations to cover new companies more than old companies, and thank goodness for Redfin and all the other new companies in the world that this is so. It’s also undeniable that Twitter’s popularity among the media is in part driven by Twitter’s usefulness to the media, especially now that every journalist feels compelled to build her own personal brand.

But even if Twitter’s importance among journalists is natural and even good, entrepreneurs may not want to accord it the same importance.

It’s natural for us to focus on the bright shiny company, too. We certainly have here at Redfin, discussing all sorts of features to encourage Redfin users to share data via our site using Twitter. But we also survey our users two or three times a year, and here’s what we found last week when we asked 450 consumers what social networks they use: that they prefer Facebook by a margin of nearly 5 to 1.

So straight away, Redfin’s Lisa Taylor started working on sprucing up our local Facebook pages in Seattle, the Bay Area, Sacramento, LA, Orange County, San Diego, Chicago, Boston, DC and New York. Please join up!

And meanwhile, we wondered: could our users’ preference for Facebook be because our demographic is different? Well actually if any group of consumers could skew toward Twitter, it would be Redfin’s user-base, big-time: according to the same survey, our users are mostly male, about a third high-tech, and young but not too young (none of the teenagers who prefer Facebook are likely to be looking for a house). It’s hard to imagine a business with a meaningful cross-section of consumers that would have a different result.

So journalists and bloggers should keep talking about Twitter. But entrepreneurs shouldn’t always listen, at least not yet.

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