Why not?

Ah, well, you caught me. I must confess I just wasn’t born that way. Talking about me is definitely not one of my skills. Ask me a question and I’ll respond enthusiastically; but lacking a direct query I’m not likely to pipe up about my life.

Thank goodness so many people do like to share their impulses and off-the-cuffness. Social media would be dull indeed without it!

Before you bust me for a deadbeat, let me point out that being spontaneous and freely sharing is a breeze for me when it comes to commenting on other people’s updates. It’s completely natural for me to participate in discussions that others start. I’m a player and supporter as much as anyone.

Every show requires an audience. There are the extroverted types who lead online, and the introverted types who arbitrate between those leaders. The internet is made up of both speakers and listeners.

You can probably picture it easily:  a stream of tweets tracking the real time  life of your town. What could be more natural?

Botti suggests using Twitter searches to discover what peeps are tweeting about your town, being helpful, posting tons of photos, and a few other tremendously useful tips.

From my point of view, this is what it’s really all about: a community of people in constant real-time communication; an improved system of messaging so that community is continuously reinforced. When the community is defined geographically, I believe the results can be awesome.

For example, I live in a rural location in the south. To say I disagree politically with the majority of my fellow county residents would be to put it mildly. But surely we have a great deal in common nonetheless, as residents of the same area. Sharing based on our common location could lead to breakthroughs in cooperative understanding.

Twitter’s a no-brainer, one would think, for communities everywhere.

To be honest, the valuation of just about anything these days shocks this old lady. Gee, we used to buy gas for 65 cents a gallon.

It’s funny how, in a way, as inflation soars, money becomes increasingly irrelevant. Getting what you want becomes a matter of leverage, involving many assets besides money. Assets like content and contacts, systems and apps.

I spent an hour this evening on Facebook, as I’m often wont to do. It was entirely enjoyable.

Google+  lets me lounge in video hangouts enjoying my friends and family of an evening as if we’re in the same room. Will that overshadow the use of FB? In some ways at least, I bet it will.

But the breathtaking leap that Facebook has allowed us will never lose its worth. Being able to communicate so casually and yet so meaningfully with friends, family, and whoever else re-defines our humanity. 

Ironic, isn’t it? The immediacy of the internet is counter-balanced by the slowed pace of written composition that allows for crafting perfected communications. This contrasts with in-person conversations or telephone talk. Most social media updates allow for editing before (and often after) publishing.

What happens online is both word of mouth and ad copy, at the same time. You cannot control what others say about you, but your control of the company message is more powerful than ever before.

This doesn’t just boil down to refraining from tweeting when you’re drunk.

Do you proofread every update to be sure your language makes sense? Do you work diligently to use language that is responsive, authentic, and compassionate? Do you stay alert to issues of concern to your market and address them appropriately?

Smarter conversations. That’s what inbound marketing is.

Crazy. I set out to master a literary trick, and the software labels me a fraud.

It’s woman vs. machine!

Well, no need to overdo it, but I’m going to take this opportunity to rail on a bit about blog post length.

My message, in short: cut ‘em down, people!

I get so tired of wading through excess verbiage. Give it to me straight: I can take it!

No search engine should rely on length of text to determine a page’s worth. As a lowly layperson, I don’t know if alternatives are possible. But we humans mustn’t be bound by some arbitrary, technical rule.

Such conventions exist because we fear pretenders who would short-shrift us. This is a false limitation. We can trust ourselves to know the difference between poetry and garbage.

Search engines aren’t so wise, but until they become so, they’re of limited worth to real people.

I’m referring to our habit of insisting that in order to get a leg up with your internet presence, you need to identify where your target market ‘hangs out.’

Now, you’re a professional, you have responsibilities and a helluva lot to do. You may party down once a week or month, but ‘hanging out’ is not something on your daily list. Oh, you visit Facebook every day, but the chance you’ll see a certain update is small.

So now we have to face the fact that it’s far less a matter of figuring out “where your target customers are hanging out” and much more a matter of ranking for a large number of keywords, being ubiquitous online, turning up around every corner.

Alright then. How do I connect with my ideal customers online and get them to opt-in to my list? Simple. Content, content, and more content. Title it, tag it, publish, rinse and repeat. Give, then get.

I loved that story because it shows how social media is supposed to work. Too many companies remain faceless, all-business, and always selling. They ignore the miracle of the internet, which allows us to be real people, with diverse interests and talents.

Online, the truest way to establish your brand is to show your humanity. No one is simply an insurance salesman. No one is just a bus driver or janitor or CEO.  Everyone has a life, too.

Do you love dogs and also sell insurance? Do you play golf and also run a travel agency? Do you enjoy going to spas and you work as an accountant?

Tell us about it.

Sometimes I fear that my clients’ patience will give out. We set up some app or site and then the rules shift.

I wonder how anyone who doesn’t study the internet in depth can understand what’s going on, much less trust any of it. When you are there everyday, the pieces fit together; but if you check in only sporadically, it must seem a crazy tangle of nonsense. How can you keep up with all the changes?

This is why the person you select as consultant for your business needs online must be someone you deeply trust. As with your broker, your lawyer, or your doctor, you may at times trust them to take actions on your behalf whether or not you completely understand the rationale. You’re too busy to stay on top of all that: you trust your advisor to handle it.

Look for technical and communications expertise in an inbound marketing consultant; but far more important is to know the person sincerely has only your best interests at heart.

My client, for instance, is an author. She posts exquisite updates, but is relatively innocent of the ways of the web. We were chatting the other day when she suddenly realized that anything she posts might be copied and used by another person. This shocks and frightens her.

I murmur rationalizations, saying that an impostor won’t get far, won’t make any money or curry any fame. They can’t be my client, can’t actually produce on her level. Their gains in stealing her content are so short-term as to be worthless.

But we’re talking about a mother’s pride, here; the tender love of a creator. That some stranger should seize her babies … well, it’s intolerable.

This is eminently understandable. According to everything we’ve been taught, what we produce must be protected from theft.

But online we give a lot away. Online, our approach is the opposite of hoarding. Anything we post we are providing for free. Some things you sell, while a nice percent of the basics you offer as pure giveaways.

This new viewpoint requires an emotional as well as practical recalibration.

To summarize: the post says Pinterest sets the user up for enormous liabilities because of the potential for copyright infringement.

Copyright is so often an issue because only some  internet users ‘get’ that it’s all about sharing and that limiting the spread of your digital content is just dumb. Too many users still think of the internet statically, not interactively.

As of now, there are 535 comments on this photographer/lawyer’s post. I read a few from each side of the argument.

It’s easy to state my view on the controversy, one that’s shared with many sensible people: if you put it online, you no longer control where else it will appear.

Ever tried getting a scraper to stop copying you? Is the effort really worth your time? What, exactly, are you losing when your free-to-the-public content is stolen?

It seems sharing trumps hoarding on the internet. No question but the web turns our ideas of competition and defense on end.