Niche Marketing Matters

If you are not a believer yet, you will be after you watch this. Socialnomics

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Do you have a stable network up of close friends with which you can go to for advice or for conversation? Is this network made of friends of convenience or are they handpicked? Are your friends from childhood or from last week?

Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst of Utrecht University in the Netherlands was interested in finding out exactly how much our networks are shaped by social context or by personal preference. His conclusion was that the average person will replace half of their friends every seven years and that much of this is driven by circumstances, along with personal choice.

Work is a major factor for some. While working at a company you can develop a social network that is built on the commonality of work related issues. When you leave that employer, you have less in common. Often these relationships atrophy or just discontinue.

The same applies to friends that we made at school, church, or clubs. As we age and make new choices, the bonds weaken with many of our older friends. We have less and less in common. We lose touch with them by choice or maybe we are just negligent in our communication.

Also, there may no substitute for frequency of contact. Staying in touch and being available for others enables friendships to grow and flourish. Conversely, lack of communication can kill a friendship.

A new twist to retaining friendships is the advent of social networks like Facebook and Linkedin. These tools make staying a snap. It may be that retaining older friendships may have just gotten easier to do.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

For some, the sole purpose of social media is ruthless self promotion, if not outright narcissism. At the very least, they consider social media an outbound marketing tool. It is my opinion that that they are missing the point of social media—social media is all about two-way communication.

For example, we all know that Twitter is populated with many vain and useless comments. Still, if you use the search option on the Twitter page, you can “data mine” some very interesting stuff. Essentially, you can use Twitter as a very specialized search engine within your own personal network.

Facebook and LinkedIn allow you the ability to ask questions of your network. Call it basic market research. Depending on the size of your network and their response rate, the results could prove to be significant from a statistical perspective.

Maybe the greatest benefit of social networking is the opportunity to help others. You could help a colleague find contacts for a job search. Or, you might be able to recommend a solution for a problem that someone is having with their email marketing campaign. When you help others, you will be remembered and rewarded some time in the future (OK, maybe the afterlife).

Social media allows for a dialog that might not happen in traditional communication channels. Turn down your personal volume and listen to your social network.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

I am sorry but I am buried in Twitter messages. And most of them are not the least bit relevant to me. It borders on abuse—I call it Twitter overload.

Like many people, I signed up for Twitter thinking that there must be a value proposition for me, too. What did I get? I got hundreds of messages from experts like Guy Kawasaki (maybe my favorite marketing guru and blogger). Guy bombards me with short twitter messages about neat URLs and blog sites that I should go read.

To make matters worse, Guy sends his Twitter messages to this Facebook account. Guess what? Guy is in my Facebook network. I get his messages there, too. Enough is enough.

Buried in these short, irrelevant, and too frequent messages, I had no choice but to delete Guy from my Twitter and Facebook networks.

Think before you Twitter. http://twitter.com/johnbjackson

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

According to the San Jose Mercury News:

“Facebook has crossed the 200 million user mark”, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a blog post on Wednesday. He continued, “Growing rapidly to 200 million users is really a good start”.

So now, do you believe me when I say Facebook is for real?

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the other social media websites have supplanted the water cooler as the place to go when you need a break from your work day. I suppose for many in this increasingly virtual world having a chat with a cyber friend brings some meaning, if not a respite from the grind of work.

Yet, I am stunned at the time that my social network friends spend on these sites—they must be spending many hours everyday posting goofy photos, useless links, and smarmy comments about others. If only their bosses knew.

Actually, their bosses do know. Increasingly companies are monitoring the behavior of employees who post regularly on the social networks. Human Resources with the help from the guys in IT can data mine the social websites to find prospective employees. Additionally, they can function as a data source for background checks, so beware what you post. The world is watching.

I agree that the social networks provide business and monetary benefit to the individual. With that in mind, here are a few tips:

1. Be friendly but don’t be stupid. Be careful about who you allow in your network since friendship is about quality not quantity.
2. Keep your profile page simple. Try not to overload the page with goofy widgets, bells, and whistles.
3. Post tasteful photos only. Pictures of you and your friends in a drunken stupor from last weekend could prove to be hazardous to your career.
4. Avoid trashing your friends, classmates, and employers.
5. Use spell check and write in English. Text-speak is unbecoming to a professional.
6. Always respond to your friends requests and messages.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

This is a guest article by Social Media expert Daniela Bolzmann

Maximizing the use of LinkedIn by a business is a function of the type of business and of the target market company. If the target market is primarily found on LinkedIn, I would suggest an active participation in the LinkedIn community. This can be built in a variety of ways such as adding applications, starting and joining groups, and updating status. The key thing to remember is that your active participation is required.

These variables are dependent upon the type of business, but for most businesses I would recommend integrating into a variety of social media platforms. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all work well together and can all be used for promoting and marketing a business in a professional manner.

When using social media you want to look at every tool individually and be creative in how you can apply it to your brand. LinkedIn sends out a weekly newsletter of the status of your “connections”—so, what can you do to get people’s attention? If you have a company or personal blog, why not share it on LinkedIn?

By utilizing multiple social media tools simultaneously you are essentially creating a community within a community. When setting up multiple tools, be sure to link them to each other and let your audience know the other sites. Building a community around each brand requires a custom strategy because not all brands are marketing towards the same audience.

For instance, a social networking site such as MySpace typically has a younger audience and would be better suited towards companies with a younger following such as surf apparel. Although a surf apparel company should keep this as their primary focus, they should not stop there because there are growing numbers on Facebook as well.

In order to engage your audience you want to utilize tools on each site such as bulletins to announce upcoming sales, status updates to remind them of events, photos from the latest surf competitions, etc. All of these tools are ways to reach your market and engage them in your brand.

Visit www.SocialSkoop.com for more on this subject.

Daniela Bolzmann,
Social Media Consultant
SocialSkoop.com

Facebook, the social networking firm, now has a user base on the verge of topping 100 million people; amazingly, this lofty number is driven by a largely North American demographic. If you are waiting for social networking to catch on, you need to know that the train has already left the station!

And there are many other social networks to choose from including LinkedIn, Plaxo, Myspace, DirectMatches, Ryze, Bebo, Friendster, Habbo, Orkut, and Xanga. The reason that you may have not heard of some of these social networks is because they may have originated in Asia or Europe. Nonetheless, they all have millions of users and potential “friends” for you to meet.

In my opinion, Linked In is the most “business friendly” social network with Facebook coming in a close second. If you are not a member of these two sites, I highly recommend you do so now. Using social marketing tools such as Facebook and LinkedIn provide a great way to reach new groups of people. Employers are actively data mining both of these sites for talent. Additionally, entrepreneurs are looking for partners.

For example, I used the term “Angel Investor” in my own Facebook profile and was recently contacted by a start up that was looking for money. The company founder was doing a search with the term angel investor and found me with just the one use of the term. While I did not invest in the firm, I was able to refer them to someone to help them out.

Note to self: Need to update Facebook Profile with new term “Send Money to John Bradley Jackson Now!”

Here a few tips on using social networks.

1. Use your “profile” to introduce yourself to others. Take the opportunity to make friends with people who have similar interests as you.
2. Add valuable content that will be of interest to your visitors. Many of these networks have a blog function which gives you yet another way to build your personal brand.
3. Keeping your profile updated with frequent content will help increase the traffic to your profile.
4. Beware of adding too much personal information which you might regret later. One of my former employees recently included bachelor party photos; while he seemed to be having a great time in the photos, they could be images that he might not want to show a prospective employer.
5. Take some time to visit other profile pages to get a feel how other people brand themselves. This might inspire you to update your profile.
6. Leave comments wherever you can. The more comments you offer (and receive), the more likely it is that your profile will show up in the search engines.
7. Join and participate in as many groups as you can. I anticipate that they will all get acquired and merged anyway.
8. Do not spam users.
9. Update blogs and content on your profile frequently. This will keep it interesting to your visitors and keep them coming back.

Networking is more than handing out business cards at cocktails parties. Social networking on the web is the new thing.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

FaceBook, LinkedIn, and MySpace —–The opportunities to join the wave of social networks are seemingly endless. Not wanting to be left behind, I jumped in feet first and joined all the popular social networks and posted all sorts of information about my likes and dislikes.

Like many people I joined Facebook as a way to connect with old friends and to make new connections. I populated ‘my page” with information about where I live, my gender, my marital status, my desire to meet new people, my birth date, hometown, political views, religion, my favorite activities, favorite TV shows, favorite films, music preferences, contact information, and a simple bio. All this stuff is for my “friends” of which I now have 115 most whom I have known from work.

In much the same way, I have done this for LinkedIn—I now have 300 “friends” on this more “business like” network. My work history is openly displayed; all you have to do is do a search for my name and you too can know too much about me. A number of colleagues have given me recommendations and they are openly posted for the world to see.

I also have dabbled with MySpace and even added special music and photos of my car to make me seem cool for the younger folks (of course, that did not work and I am still a geek). My kids just laugh at my MySpace website.

I got a call from a recruiter who viewed my “public” profile and wanted to talk to me about a SVP of Sales job at a startup. The truth is I am not looking for a job and I am very happy with my portfolio of entrepreneurial activities: writing, consulting, teaching, and my other assorted businesses. Yet, this call is clear evidence that social networking works.

Yes, you can say that I am a real player in the social media space. But, here is the rub. The recruiter already knew all about me….I mean everything. He knew where I had worked before, my interest in horses, co-workers that had recommended me, and my current activities. Candidly, he knew too much about me and it is my own damn fault. I disclosed all this crap on these networking websites—yep, I am really a player or, should I say, I am really a chump,

You need to ask your self, do you really want new friends (i.e. strangers) to have access to your vacation pictures, political views, and thoughts about religion? What if the reader is a web pirate building up a dossier in preparation for identity theft? Be aware that there are bad guys out there who prey on those who put themselves out on the web.

Or, in my case, a potential employer who might view photos of yours truly in compromising positions while vacationing in Cancun? OK, I have never been to Cancun, but you get the picture.

Speaking of pictures, a former employee of mine and a “friend” just sent me a FaceBook “news feed” showing pictures of her at a bachelorette party stuffing dollar bills down a male stripper’s thong. She seemed to be having a great time, but what image does this portray to a potential employer doing a background check? Might it kill the job offer? I think it might.

My recommendation is to make sure your public profile on these websites is purged of any information that might be controversial or extreme, since your next employer might be viewing it. Or, maybe a web pirate might be watching.

Bah. Humbug.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

A few weeks ago I proudly announced that I had joined MySpace much to the chagrin of my three children. I think my youngest daughter said something like, “How gross, Dad”. Nonetheless, I thought it was important that I join this special social network for commercial reasons: there are 200 Million profiles on MySpace and maybe I could connect with some of them.

So, with the guidance of my former student, Neda, I designed my own page on MySpace page. It included my profile with my age and gender. I created a screen name, added pictures of my family, my car, and my horse. Instead of a photo of me on the profile, I chose to use the image of my book cover. I added my blog along with some catchy music (the song from the Caveman commercial for Geico). I posted some of my articles and included a link to my book website and this blog. I was good to go. Now all I needed were friends.

By making my site “public” I allowed unsolicited viewers to read my profile and ask me to be their “friend” and in virtually all cases I accepted. Additionally, I invited others to be my friend including old friends, business associates, and former students. Soon I had over 100 friends, but this took many hours of work. These new friends would occasionally send me messages or bulletins which amounted to short e-mails.

I received an unbelievable amount of spam; most of the spam messages were from porn sites and other low life sources hoping to spread viruses and such. My kids also warned me that MySpace was “lame” which meant that it was prone to problems such as uninvited lurkers, outages, and technical problems. A big problem on MySpace is people masquerading as someone else such as someone famous. Thus, you really don’t know who you talking with on MySpace.

All of this took dozens of hours of work on my part with no discernible benefit to me as a business person. To top it all off, after about three weeks of usage, I could no longer log in for “technical reasons”. For the next two weeks, I emailed MySpace support on six different occasions and was finally told that if I deleted my own profile it was permanent and if they deleted my profile because I violated their rules it was also permanent. To the best of my knowledge I did not delete my own profile and I did not violate their rules (such as offensive photos, threats of violence, etc). Anyway, I was booted off.

How stupid is this? In their defense, with 200 million profiles, I was just a flea on their butt. Yet, their response was late, callous, rude, and stupid. If I did something wrong technically, they should have told me. If I violated their rules, they should let me know what I did wrong.

All in all this was a colossal waste of time on my part. I found MySpace difficult to maneuver in and cumbersome. Customer service was non-existent. Virtually all of my incoming messages were unsolicited advertisements and spam. What a joke. I got zero value out this exercise other than some snappy blog material.

My kids were right. MySpace is lame. End of story.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.