Over the last couple of years, SEO Bridges has served a two-fold purpose. To generate income and to be a marketing engine for myself and my writing. When I started writing my novel, an author friend suggested I begin marketing. I had wanted to start a business, and I figured starting a business that allowed me to focus on the needs of readers and writers would help me market myself and my writing.

Over that time, I have treated myself as I would any other client. Or at least that has been my goal. For the first year, @SEOBridges maintained a larger following than @ErickWrites. Then, my personal Twitter feed began to outgrow my business Twitter feed. I had adopted a new strategy. I started to focus more on conversations, rather than just dissemination of information.

Once I started doing that, I found more Twitter followers who Tweeted well and just liked to chat. Now, as I continue to chat, I am changing my Twitter strategy once again. I will continue to use Twitter to find conversationalists and get into conversations, but I will also use it for market research.

If you feel your Twitter strategy has become mundane repetition, you might want to consider changing your Twitter strategy. If your Twitter strategy is all about you and not about your followers, you might want to change your Twitter strategy.

Have you considered changing your Twitter strategy? How has your Twitter strategy changed? Is your Twitter strategy working for you? Do you have a Twitter strategy and what is it?

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

Last week, I read this blog. It inspired me to think about the value of social media, e-readers, and e-publishing. As writers and thinkers, we have a responsibility to the future. Or more accurately, we have a responsibility to preserve history. We must make published documents accessible for future generations.

Do you think they’ll use the same technology in 2511 we use now? Is publishing our most valuable information in such a way that is likened to thousands of authors 500 years ago writing a trillion documents on papyrus, shredding each document into 10,000 pieces, and strewing those documents across the earth the best way to preserve our history?

In that blog, the author jokingly theorized that perhaps future generations might study Kanye West’s tweets. Do you think civilizations 500 years from now will consider what he tweeted, in the midst of zillions of gigabytes of information, that valuable? I’d argue that in the 26th century Kanye West and Lady Gaga will be celebrated, if they are known, in the same way we celebrate minstrels. Do you consider lyrics of a minstrel from 500 years ago valuable? Do you know any?

I theorize ancient civilizations had better means to preserve their most valuable documents. Though, just as we publish in a way that is the most convenient and cost saving for us, perhaps they published in the same way.

What do you think? Is e-publishing likened to thousands of authors, writing trillions of documents, shredding each of those docs into ten thousand pieces, and strewing them across the earth? Or is e-publishing likened to the advent of the printing press? I’d love to know your thoughts.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

Last week, Avinash Kaushik tweeted that some people don’t think before they Tweet, and that can lead to adverse consequences. I Replied, “It makes one consider that the freedom of speech has given rise and justification to the freedom of criticism.” I thought I’d write out a Social Media Marketing Rights version of U.S. citizens’ Miranda Rights:

“You have the right not to post or tweet everything you’re thinking or doing all the time. Anything you post or tweet can be used against you by anyone, anytime, anywhere for any reason at all. You have the right to maintain a social media presence separate from your everyday social and personal life, now and during future interactions with your friends, followers, and fans. You have the right to hire or consult a social media marketing agency, before you engage in social media. If you cannot afford to hire or consult a social media marketing agency, you’re on your own. If you must let everyone on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other social media sites know what you’re doing and thinking all the time, all those free social media tools you use may cost you your job, privacy, and dignity.”

Like your Miranda Rights (If you’re a U.S. citizen), which are meant to remind you that you don’t have to incriminate yourself under police interrogation or in a court of law, your Social Media Marketing Rights should remind you that when engaging with your friends, fans, and followers on social media sites, there are just some things better left unsaid because not leaving those things unsaid could spell trouble.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

No matter whether you’re a social media novice, aficionado, or expert, there is bound to be something in this book you can glean from. It’s a great resource for teachers and students, and it covers all of the basis from blogging to the importance of a social media plan.

If you’ve read this book, let me know your thoughts. I’d love to glean from you, and learn what has and has not worked. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, you can buy it below.

The Social Media Survival Guide by Deltina Hay

You can learn more about Deltina by visiting her website, Social Media Power, or following her @Deltina.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

When it comes to a person’s online reputation, there are two sites that are most commonly used as a barometer—Klout and PeerIndex. My Klout has been bouncing between a 49 and 50 for a while, whereas my PeerIndex rank just bounced from a 21 to a 22. Just as we use those sites as barometers to measure our online influence, those sites’ online influence is measured according to sites like Alexa and Compete.

According to Alexa, Klout ranks 390 in the U.S and PeerIndex ranks 7,891 in the U.S. Alexa also records that 1,567 sites link to Klout, but only 254 sites link to PeerIndex. Google records different numbers, but we’ll leave it at that. Compete is  much more incognito and stricter about how they rank sites, and why they rank sites the way they rank them. They rank Klout at 14,533 and PeerIndex 100,341. You get the idea that those sites that measure those sites that measure people’s influence consider Klout more reputable.

Whether you use Klout or PeerIndex or another online reputation monitoring site, I would advise you to get a holistic understanding of your online influence and not just one site’s bulk number. There are many more sites you can use; though, as I mentioned in a recent blog, due to so many sites shutting down, I am going to steer away from linking to other sites unless I am confident they’ll stick around for a while. If you’d like to research for yourself, search here or here, or peruse the cloud of blogs to the right.

Stay social my friends!

Erick

In the restaurant industry, a good dining room manager will ensure the entire staff’s trained to take ownership. That means if a guest’s water glass is empty or nearing empty, whoever sees it and makes note of it should either fill that water glass or escalate it to the right person (the server). Social Media Monitoring works in much the same way, in that whichever person in a company sees a specific tweet or comment, should either respond or let the right person know so they can respond.

Now, on the social media initiative side, that is sending out Tweets, such as promotional Tweets or posting comments to blogs and Facebook, it should also be a collaborative effort. Companies that choose not to hire one or more people to handle their social media should consider setting up a social media task force that consists of one person from every department to head up the social media initiative for that department. Larger companies can assign one executive to act as liaison or Chief Social Media Officer to head up that task force and speak on behalf of the company.

If your company has a specific social media department, or a department assigned to handle social media, and that works for you, great. If you have one employee who handles all your social media, and that works for you, great. If you outsource your social media, and that works for you, great. Though, if your company’s large, and you are in social media limbo, consider a social media marketing committee.

I’d love to know your thoughts about what has or hasn’t worked for your company.

Stay Social My Friends!

Erick

When determining whether or not you should create a Twitter account, consider not all tweets are created equally. The value of your tweets is determined by your Social Media Radii (SMR).

Factors to determine your SMR:

1. The type of business your operate (If you’re a restaurant, people in your area have greater value than those outside).

2. People’s demand for your product or service.

3. The number of people who follow you.

4. How well and often your followers use Twitter (If a person follows you, but hasn’t used Twitter in months, it is unlikely they will see your tweets).

5. Your followers’ location(s) in proximity to you (See number 1).

6. Your followers’ potential to buy your product, come to your event, or otherwise engage with you in a way that is profitable to you.

7. Your followers’ potential to retweet or otherwise inform others about you, your business, and your product and/or service.

8. How well you integrate your twitter account with your other social media accounts.

The best way to determine your SMR is to use a social media monitoring service like Postrank or Sysomos. I also listed some free tools to help you get started.

Klout Trendsmap Mentionmapp Hootsuite

Your social media radii determines the value of your tweets and all your social media efforts. So, when determining whether or not to put up a Twitter account, how often to tweet, and what to tweet consider the above eight factors. Can you think of any other factors to include in considering Social Media Radii?

Stay social my friends,

Erick

If you use Twitter, you’re probably using a Twitter desktop client like Hootsuite. If you’re not, you’ll want to set that up and connect it to Twitter and your other social media accounts. You can also try Tweetdeck or Seesmic, but I prefer the ease and functionality of Hootsuite.

At some point, you’ll want to create Twitter lists, which can help you raise your Klout score and manage your online conversations. Create lists that are useful to yourself and your followers. The more attractive the lists you create, the more people will want to follow those lists. And if you’re worried about your online reputation, Klout judges you by whom you add to your lists and who follows your lists.

Once you’ve created your lists, and you’ve chosen your Desktop client, you can turn up to ten lists into columns on Hootsuite. I turned my Conversationalists, Informative Tweeters, and SD Writers and friends lists into columns. I included those lists because they consist of Tweeters I want to engage with the most and those sources of information I find the most relevant. I reserve my other columns for keywords, hashtags, and my home feed.

One other way Klout judges you is according to how people interact with you. So set up lists of people most likely to engage with you, retweet you, and/or thank you for retweeting them. If you want to follow some great people who will get into conversations with you, follow my Conversationalists list, interact with tweeters on that lists, find other conversational Tweeters, and check out my blog about Engaging on Twitter.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Over the weekend, I watched National Treasure with Nicolas Cage. While it was one of his rare decent movies, Cage doesn’t make a good action hero or tough guy. The only thing that could be worse is if Cage and David Schwimmer teamed up to be the dynamic duo in the next Batman movie. According to IMDB, most people who rate his movies rated 45 of his movies below average. And Forbes and Comcast agreed he’s one of Hollywood’s most overpaid actors. Still, he’s won many awards and received nominations for many more.

While watching National Treasure, I started wondering if social media could save Nicolas Cage from being known as an overpaid, self-indulgent, block buster wanna be, B actor who rarely rises above the status quo of acting. I think it can. I think social media can save anyone from only meeting the status quo of any profession.

Just as all of Cage’s movies, awards, and millions of dollars won’t change how people feel about his acting, the mark of someone who uses social media well is not their thousands of Facebook fans or Twitter followers. It’s how they interact with and listen to those fans and followers. People judge people on the Web by the quality of their content and how they use social media to engage with their friends and followers.

Cage rarely rises above the status quo of acting, perhaps in part to his lack of listening to his fans and critics. The question is are you listening to your fans and followers and rising above the social media status quo?

Stay social my friends,

Erick