Archive for category Social Media

Are Blogs So 2000 and Late?

Jun 3

Posted by Robert Stinnett in Social Media, web 2.0 | View Comments

Is it just me, or are blogs becoming yesterday’s news? I realized today that it had been a month since I updated my blog here and thought about what to write to keep it fresh. It dawned on me that perhaps what I was trying to do was fit my lifestyle to the tool instead of the tool helping me with my life. Let me explain.

Blogs were great back in the days when pretty much all the content came from the “big companies”. Blogs were a way for people to have their voice heard and to actually use the web interactively instead of just one-way. It was no longer acceptable on the web to have a static web page in which you blasted out information about your product/company/etc and only update it once a year and have no way for the readers to interact with you and the content. Blogs allowed us (and businesses) to update their sites non-stop and for discussions to be two-way. They were the first step into the Web 2.0 world.

Today, blogs are just a pain to maintain – at least from my perspective. It’s so much easier for me to Tweet my current thoughts via Twitter in 160 characters or less, or to update my Facebook status (and even then I’m wondering is Facebook is getting to be a little 2000 and late). In a nutshell, I find that Twitter is giving me everything I need without taking up a lot of my time. Even better, its allowing me to find the topics that interest me via a real-time search engine. The important stuff bubbles to the top because of the re-tweeting taking place, and those people I trust the most I follow so I can always see what they have to say.

Now before I say blogs are dead and gone, let me state I do think that blogs still have a purpose. After all, you can’t dive very deep into a subject when you are limited to 160 characters! I think blogs are becoming the website instead of being a part of the website. Take my site for example, sure I have this “blog” if you will on the front page – but really the entire site is a blog. I’ve just adapted it to display the information I care about. I might not update it for a month, or I may update it every day for a week – but the idea here is to share information that I want others to add to and use over time.

Compare this to Twitter where I am interested in sharing information and collaborating in real-time. A year from now (or even a month from now) I am not interested in what happened on Twitter 30 days ago – I only want to know what is going on right here and right now. A real-time search engine.

Blogs at one time were the public squares of our time – where everyone went to shout out their thoughts, opinions and advice. Today that role has been taken over by Twitter – and instead of a lengthy speech we hoped a few people would read now have bullet points that we shout out to the crowds in short, digestible chunks. Sort of like moving from a Microsoft Word document to a PowerPoint slide if you think about.

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Tags: blogs, facebook, twitter, web 2.0

Forget Research Polls, We Have Twitter

Feb 25

Posted by Robert Stinnett in Marketing, Social Media | View Comments

Last night I was busy watching, along with millions of other people from around the world, President Obama’s State of the Union address. Not only was his presentation inspiring and a call to action for every American, it was also the most heavily Twittered State of the Union ever. At one point, by my count, over 700+ tweets were rolling in every second about the speech. Even members of Congress were in on the act.

Regardless of what you think of Obama (and for the record, I’m a big O-man fan), what took place last night – and all throughout the 2008 election – is a sign of how the social landscape has changed. In years past it would take hours, sometimes days, for researchers and survey firms to tabulate how people felt about an event such as this. Even then, they were highly limited in what they could measure. It was impossible to measure second-by-second response, and you only got a few people which (you hoped) represented the masses. It was time consuming, inaccurate and limited.

Fast forward to 2009 and the social networks have transformed how we view any event, political or not. Almost instantaneous reaction to the different parts of Obama’s speech flew through the Twittersphere. Facebook and CNN provided a direct link so you could not only watch online, but also provide real-time feedback of what you thought. Responses and reactions by the masses were available within seconds, not days. The Whitehouse blog (let’s not forget this is the first Administration with a blog!) was updated with video and transcripts of the speech within minutes of it ending. You just know that Obama’s administration was keeping tabs on what worked – and what didn’t.

We now live in a digitally connected world in which our social networks are a part of us just as much as the networks we form with our family, co-workers and “offline” friends. No longer is it acceptable to “wait for the data” or to claim that you aren’t sure of how something played out in the marketplace. We no longer need the polltakers or the research firms to tell us how the world reacted – we know how they reacted, and we are a part of that reaction.

The transformation to social media is still in the early stages, but nobody can deny it has already crossed the point of no return – and let’s be honest, who would want to return to the old way? We know the value of being active in the social media; and we know what happens if we aren’t. This is the golden era for the 3rd generation of marketing – and it’s exciting to watch it all unfold.

Think I’m off base or right on the money? You could leave a comment, but how about dropping me a tweet instead?

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Tags: blog, facebook, obama, Social Media, social networking, twitter

Secure Your Place in the Social Networking Line

Feb 24

Posted by Robert Stinnett in Marketing, Social Media | View Comments

On occasion I’ll be talking with a friend or co-worker and the conversation will wander to talking about the various social networking sites (Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, etc.) and online presence in general. On occasion they will even ask me what’s the best way to get their name “out there”. To which I reply that it is vitally important that you get your place in the social networking line as soon as possible. Wait too late and you have lost a golden opportunity to market yourself.

So what do I mean by this? Start by looking at the URL for my blog. You’ll notice it isn’t being hosted at some 3rd party blog service, or being run off a commercial site. Instead my blog is being powered by my own domain – robertstinnett.com. I’ve also setup my email and Messenger programs to all tie back through this domain. It is important that you register your name as a domain as soon as possible before someone else gets it and does “who knows what” with it. Even if you have no skills whatsoever in domain management take 5 minutes to go to Godaddy.com and search for and register your name as a domain. You want to make sure that you retain the power of your name and securing your domain is an important first step – if you are not already too late.

Next, let’s hit the social networking sites. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Bebo, etc. Here you want to practice the same thing as above, except you want to try and secure as your username your real name. On almost every social networking site I belong to my username is my real name. Again, the philosophy here is you want to make sure you control it before someone else does. Plus, by by securing your name you are forming a 1:1 relationship between searches for you and results pertaining to you. You are, in essence, helping to build your own rank. Call it SEO for peeps like me!

Next, integrate! By this I mean that don’t make each social networking site an isolated island in the middle of nowhere. Use the tools provided to integrate and share between the sites. This is an excellent way to make sure that all your social sites stay up to date and it also helps make your personal brand stronger in search! See the pattern here? It’s the same techniques we’d use for commercial clients, just applied to you!

Finally, be yourself – but remember on the Internet it lasts forever. You don’t have to be afraid of posting. Living your life in a vacuum is going to hurt your personal brand. You may be the world’s greatest auto mechanic, but if I can’t find you in Google then you don’t exist. Participate in forums, be active in the social networking communities and know when to eat a piece of humble pie. Before you know it, your personal brand will sing your praises for you – all thanks to the 3rd generation of marketing and social networking.

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Tags: personal brand, Social Media, social networking

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Archive for category Social Media

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