Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask ...

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Preface........................................................................ixIntroduction...................................................................xiii1. Where Have We Been?.........................................................12. The Basics..................................................................73. Using Social Media to Promote Your Business.................................144. Using Blogs and Microblogs..................................................245. Social Networking Sites.....................................................336. Do You Know Where Your Friends Are? -Brightkite.com.........................387. Bebo is Under-Rated ... -Bebo.com...........................................438. Is it all About Business Exchange? -Bx.Businessweek.com.....................489. W'sup Facebook! -Facebook.com...............................................5110. Fotos that Flickr -Flickr.com..............................................6111. All Your Friends on FriendFeed? -FriendFeed.com............................6812. hi5 Around the World -hi5.com..............................................7213. Indenti.ca Tweets 2 -Identic.ca............................................7814. IncBizNet for Small Businesses -IncBizNet.com..............................8215. Microblog on koornk -koornk.com............................................8516. Link in on LinkedIn -LinkedIn.com..........................................8917. Professional Services on Plaxo -Plaxo.com..................................9718. Plurk for Perks! -Plurk.com................................................10519. Spoke for Business Folk -Spoke.com.........................................11020. Tumblr for Blogging -Tumblr.com............................................11321. Tweet in Twitter Land -Twitter.com.........................................11822. Yammer for Internal Use -Yammer.com........................................12723. YouAre Where? -YouAre.com..................................................13324. Audio and Video to Get Your Message Out....................................13325. Watch YouTube Regularly?...................................................14026. Do You Have a Second Life?.................................................14427. Non-Profit Organization's Role in Social Media.............................14728. Media's Role in all of This ...............................................15429. Dealing with Bad Media? Crisis Web?........................................15930. Going Viral!...............................................................16231. Where Do We Go From Here? Web 3.0 .........................................166Acknowledgements...............................................................169Author's Bio...................................................................171

Chapter One

"If Facebook was really counting friends, there would never be trouble finding enough poker players for Thursdays nights or finding enough players for basketball games."

Guillermo Paz, Director Comercial Infoxel de Argentina S.A.

* * *

Close your eyes and think back to when you were young. Do you remember what technology you had in your house?

Growing up, I had a black and white television in my parent's bedroom with no remote and a single telephone that we kept in the kitchen. As technology became more affordable, I remember my parents buying a color television set. We were the first in the neighborhood to have a color set and my friends were so jealous!

After that, we started to have phones in all of the rooms in our home and eventually, my parents offered my older sister, Lori, her own phone number. That was a big deal. Everyone wanted his or her own phone line, Lori included.

My parents had a Super 8 camera that recorded on film that we played back on a projector. I remember sitting in the living room watching the movies we made on a roll up screen.

In the 1970s, the Polaroid Land camera was the next big breakthrough in technology. It was amazing because it had film that developed within seconds. (Fanning the photos was half the fun!) Everyone wanted one. It was the hottest product around. Unfortunately, I remember the film being very expensive and when my parents bought a Polaroid camera for the house, they controlled every photo we took.

We also had a record player that played 45s, 78s and regular LPs. My friends and I compared albums while listening to music. Lori was a big music listener too. My fondest memory was when she played her favorite songs over and over and over again, in order to learn the words. She favored Earth, Wind and Fire, Carole King and America. I liked the heavier sound of The Who, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.

Before I graduated high school, the first Sony Walkman appeared on the market. People listened to music through headphones and loved the portability of the product. My friends and I snuck our Walkmans into high school but couldn't listen until we were outside during recess or lunch, out of the teacher's sight.

When I went to college and lived in New York City, the Discman was the music device of choice. It was unbelievable! Compact disks fit into tiny little players and we played our favorite CD while wandering through town. I walked around New York City listening to "Talking Heads 77" on my Discman. I played it over and over again because I only brought along one CD.

In the mid 1980s, I worked at Ogilvy & Mather PR. We had a telex machine that allowed us to send documents internationally. This machine was so big that it needed a room of its own! Each desk had an IBM typewriter with correction ribbon and if you made a typo, all you had to do was press the back space key on your keyboard to erase it. For massive changes, you used white out or strips of white out and would type over it after it dried. I remember working until 11pm trying to make sure that every line and every word looked as perfect as possible and that the white out did its job.

A few months into my first job, management announced everyone in the organization was getting a word processor. I remember the other assistant account executives getting upset. I was mad too!

"If we learn word-processing, then we will never be able to move up," my friend Sheila told me, upset that we would be forever stuck in our current position, when we were capable of so much more.

"I worked too hard in college to be a secretary for the rest of my life," said my friend Nancy.

Of course that wasn't the case. Having a word processor made it so much easier to edit. Instead of staying until 11pm, we finished our work by 9:30pm.

I even remember the first Macintosh computer. It was so incredibly cool. It was a small little box-shaped machine that sat on your desk. It had a graphic user interface complete with smiley Mac and dogcow (that made "moof" sounds). The Mac could do so much and you didn't even need to know basic computer language to use it. Shortly thereafter, computers became ubiquitous. Businesses had computers and so did families. Computers became smaller and more compact.

In the 1980s, my husband, Brian, worked at Westlaw, a provider of legal research services. He trained other attorneys on the Westlaw system and conducted legal research. I was amazed at all the information at his fingertips. He could find out so much with the click of a few buttons. I never realized that technology would continue expanding at such a rapid pace.

In the late 1980s early 1990s, mobile phones came on to the market. At first, you only saw them in people's cars. (I think my father-in-law was one of the first to have one.) Then you saw people with them on the streets. Those chatting on phones while walking looked as if they held a loaf of bread to their ear! My friends and I supposed those calls must be very important. "Why wouldn't someone wait until they got to a pay phone to make a call?" we asked each other.

Today, there are very few pay phones around. (I know, because I left my cell phone at home one time and had to find one. Little did I know the old charge of 25 cents for a call doubled to 50 cents!) Now, everyone has a cell phone, including children and senior citizens and many use these phones as their primary number.

Within the past 10 years, the trend has been to text message, that is, short message service or SMS, instead of talk. I find myself regularly sending out quick text messages, preferring to do that than call someone. When I had a Blackberry, I used Blackberry Messenger to send out messages. It worked similar to Instant Messenger, which my staff and I use in my office to communicate with each other.

When I started HJMT COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, the full-service boutique public relations, event planning, social media and graphic design agency in March 1992 out of my one bedroom apartment in Long Beach, NY, I had a rotary telephone and an Apple computer. That was all I needed!

Today, I have three offices - Westbury, Manhattan and Rochester and all I need is a telephone (my iPhone) and a computer (my laptop). The one thing that has changed is I now communicate via social networking sites. I talk with my parents, friends, clients and business associates all on Facebook (see Chapter 9), LinkedIn (see Chapter 16), Plaxo (see Chapter 17), Twitter (see Chapter 21), Brightkite (see Chapter 6), Seesmic (see Chapter 5) and FriendFeed (see Chapter 11). And, I'm coordinating with my staff on Yammer (see Chapter 22).

In addition to communicating via emails and instant messages, I also use Skype (a computer program you can use to talk with people through live video) and even blogs. Sometimes, it all seems too distracting. And yet, if you think back to simpler eras, our communication method was just as distracting. You would be in the middle of some task and the phone or doorbell would ring. Times are changing and we need to change with them to find that perfect balance in our lives as technology continues to evolve.

In the following chapters, we will explore the world of social media, putting it into context to enhance productivity, expand social reach and understand and appreciate its value in today's technological world. Subsequent chapters will focus on how to build business using social media tools. All of the opinions stated in this book are either the sole opinions of the author or my online community.

At the end of each chapter, I added "My 2 Cents" to analyze and evaluate the site to help you cut through the clutter.

Chapter Two

"To paraphrase Jon Stewart, "new" does not always equal "good." Companies and individuals need to fully evaluate and understand new technologies before adoption. Observe how other people use a tool/service before you jump in. And don't be afraid to ask your kids about how all this newfangled stuff works!"

Julie Dickenson, Research Director Rochester Business Journal

* * *

Why bother with social media? What can be gained from it?

Many people tell me that they feel that social media is just a "waste of time" and that there is just too much clutter. What people don't realize is that social media is becoming the fastest way to communicate ideas and values, even faster than word of mouth because social media creates viral marketing.

Just look around. Everyday, there is another article from a government agency, corporation or small business using social media sites to get their word out. For example, I was at my parent's home in Tamarac, Florida and was reading the TamAgram, the official publication of the city of Tamarac, Florida. The lead story was "Tweet, Tweet! We're on Twitter, You Should Be Too!" The story talked about how the city is using Twitter to send information to its residents.

If municipalities are using social media to get their message across and if corporations are using it to promote their products and services, then don't you think you can promote your business this way too?

You have taken the first step by purchasing this book and now you will learn to promote your goods and services via social media.

And Now The Real Basics

While writing this book, I realized that there are a lot of new terms to know and understand prior to delving into social media. This chapter provides the basics, while subsequent chapters will reinforce what you learn here and show you how to use it in concrete ways.

Building a Community

Is the basis for all social media. The goal is to gather people who have similar interests or ideals and bring them together to form a community or, what Seth Godin in his book, Tribes, calls a tribe.

Social Networking Sites

Online places where you build communities and exchange Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask... dialog with that community. All social networking sites are very similar. Most feature a place to post your status (or what you are currently doing) and on this status, you can have conversations with your friends and followers (defined below). You also have an opportunity to post photos and videos and you can share a little bit about your personal life to help make a connection.

Friends and Followers

People in your social networking community. Each social networking site calls these people something different. For example, on Facebook, they are called friends, on LinkedIn, they are called contacts, on Plaxo, they are called connections and on Twitter, they are called followers.

Blogs

Weblogs or online diaries. Some bloggers (writers of blogs) talk about their personal lives or businesses while others blog about specific topics. There are industry-related blogs, for example, blogs about social media and marketing. There are blogs about niche markets like fishing, golfing, running, dieting and more. Blogs also help build a community by creating interesting posts where people can comment and get a conversation started.

Microblogs

Mini blogs (or more commonly known as status updates) that have only 140 characters. Some people microblog about what they are doing, promoting or need that day. Others microblog to promote their blogs. Examples of people who microblog and blog include important policy makers like President Barack Obama who uses this to build a consensus for his agenda; celebrities like Britney Spears to build a fan base; and large corporations like Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks to build their brand.

Link Shrinking

Software like Tiny URL and Adjix are used to shrink long URL's that you can then use in the microblog. Go to either site, paste in the long URL, click on the link and then you will be provided with a shorter version. With only 140 characters allowed, make sure every character counts. By shrinking your URL, you can fit more content into your microblog. (Many of the new features on some of the social networking sites automatically shrink the URL, so you may not have to take this extra step.)

Real Simple Syndication (RSS)

Allows you to receive information via news or feed aggregator like Bloglines or iGoogle. Both takes all of the RSS feeds and puts them in one place. This enables you to read blogs that you are following all in one location. You can also send RSS feeds to your email address, which is another convenient way to compile them into one place.

Wikis

Web pages that allow individuals to update or add information to the page. For example, Wikipedia is the online encyclopedia that enables anyone to input information on just about anything. Wikipedia has become the online source to get free information. Years ago, it was Encyclopedia Britannica, now it's Wikipedia, written by consumers like you.

An Internet Forum or Online Message Board

Where people with common interests get together and post messages. Questions are asked and answered by those involved in similar situations, in a non-real time discussion group.

Chat Rooms

Places where people go to find others with common interests. There are many different types of chat rooms including ones on AOL and Yahoo. To find a list of various chat rooms on the Internet, search a specific topic and various chat rooms will come up on the search engine. The difference between chat rooms and forums or message boards is that they take place in real time getting you instantaneous responses.

Listserv

Similar to a chat room or a forum. Listservs enables you to join a group or community and post questions or comments. The listserv goes automatically into an email account where you can respond to the group or individual posting the question. The difference between a listserv and any of the other services described above is that in order to participate in the conversation, you need to subscribe. Listservs can be found by searching Google or any other search engine. Many listservs are closed to the general public and only members are allowed to get the information. For example, if you are a young public relations professional and would like to get information from the Young PR Pro listserv, search on Google for the group, click on the link and join the group. By doing so, you will gain access to the listserv which allows you to participate in conversations and post questions.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A process to get your web site, blog or anything else on the Internet to appear higher up on the rankings of popular searches engines like Google and Yahoo.

SMS or Text Messages

Messages sent through your mobile telephone. They are becoming more and more popular every day. Interestingly, it started as a tool that many teenagers used to communicate with each other instead of placing a phone call. Today, adults and business owners use it to submit a quick message to another party. Oftentimes, I will get a text message from a business associate saying, "I'm running late," or "I'll be there in five minutes." Text messages are also used for marketing businesses. For example, real estate businesses have been using text messages on the lawn signs of a seller's home. If a caller dials up the number on his/her cell phone, details about the home will be displayed. Text messages are also being used for point of purchase as well. Many of the larger companies are starting to put codes on their products so that consumers can get more information on the products via text.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask ...by Hilary JM Topper Copyright © 2009 by Hilary JM Topper, MPA. Excerpted by permission.
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