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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

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

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

Think of social media monitoring tools like garages where you can store social media boxes (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). You no longer need to worry about outside elements, but the social media garage does not take away the social media clutter.

Let me explain. When I move, which is sometimes more often than Jason Bourne, I often think I should list specific items in those boxes. I never do. Even though my boxes are in a garage, their location does not solve the problem of needing to dig through them to find specific items. The location of the boxes just makes the boxes easier to find.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a huge proponent of social media monitoring tools. If you would have asked me a year ago about the future of social media, I would have said social media monitoring sites need to offer ways for people to listen and respond. While that is still true, another component of the future of social media is apps for smart phones that use voice recognition technology to allow people to update their social media status by talking.

If I wanted to go George Orwell on you, I’d blog about technology that allows people to update their status just by thinking. That technology will happen. For now and the foreseeable future, apps that allow people to update their Facebook, Twitter, and other social media statuses by talking is the future of social media.

Voice recognition technology has been around for at least 25 years, companies have integrated it with the World Wide Web for at least the past ten years, and those and other companies have integrated that technology with smart phones and social media sites for the past few years.

So, why do I say this technology is the future of social media instead of just telling you it exists? Because while that technology exists, other technologies, including social media sites, social media aggregation sites, and social media monitoring sites should integrate with those voice recognition apps to offer more seamless ways for people to listen, respond, and integrate with social media.

Voice recognition apps that integrate with smart phones and social media sites:

Optimus 7 by LG Shoutout by Promptu Vlingo Lighthouse SQ7 MID IM+ by Shapeservices

Blogs I’ve written on social media monitoring:

The Omission Factor of Social Media Monitoring Branding Your Identity with Integrity

Playing the Social Media Market Identifying Your Audience’s Common Denominator

The Value of Monitoring the Social Web: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

Monitoring the ROI of Social Media Marketing

Using Google Analytics as a Social Media Monitoring Tool

Listening to the Conversational Web Techrigy Allows You to Play e-God (Techrigy’s Alterian)

Stay social my friends,

Erick

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Last week, I took part in a group study for a potential new game show.  I sat in a room with about fifty people and held a gadget with a dial that connected to a computer in another room.

To one side, the gadget had a + and ++ sign, and to the other it had a – and – – signs.  The test conductor instructed us to turn the dial according to however the show made us feel.

During the show, I thought it would be nice if I could test how people responded to messages I sent out into the world.  And then I realized there are.  In fact, I’ve blogged about them.

Listening to the Conversational Web

Monitoring the ROI of Social Media Marketing

Identifying Your Audience’s Common Denominator

Playing the Social Media Market

Day 1: The Value of Monitoring the Social Web

Day 2: The Value of Monitoring the Social Web

Day 3: The Value of Monitoring the Social Web

Day 4: The Value of Monitoring the Social Web

After the show, they let about half of us go home early.  They kept the other half for discussion groups.  I have a feeling they let the people who were indifferent to the show go home early.

Let the people who are indifferent to your message go home early.  Interact with those people who interact positively with you, get feedback from people who might react negatively toward your message, and don’t worry about the people who remain indifferent to your message.  They’re not your target audience, and they probably either don’t have anything constructive (criticism or other feedback) to add to the conversation or won’t share.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Of course you should blog.  The question should be, ‘what should I blog about’?  Well, what is the theme, or the central purpose, of your website?  Blog about your site’s central purpose or things related to your site’s central purpose.  I started blogging about social media marketing (SMM) and SEO/Web content.  I branched out and started blogging about social media monitoring.  Of course, I continue to blog about SEO and SMM, but there’s nothing wrong with branching out as long as you stay on topic.

Offer people information they want, but offer it to them in alternative ways.  For instance, every Friday, just to break routine, I write a ‘This week in social media’ blog.  I deviate some times, depending on how I’m feeling, but I like to break things up at the end of the week.  Aside from that, the closer it gets to the end of the week the less likely a person is to read blogs.  Their minds are on the weekend.

Another good way to break things up is to post videos on your blogs.  Or you can also post video blogs (vlogs).  I haven’t done any vlogs yet, but I might try them at some point.  A few weeks ago, I decided to have some fun and post a Bruce Lee video.  I titled that blog, “How to be the Bruce Lee of SEO content” and compared Bruce Lee’s fighting style to writing good SEO content.

Whatever you do with your blog make sure to keep your audience engaged.  Ask questions.  Post videos.  Start a conversation.  Keep it fresh.  And no matter what, develop a central purpose for your blog and stick to it.

Stay social my friends,

Erick