Zane Safrit

Tomorrow's Show with Yvonne DiVita, co-founder of BlogPaws

Yvonne DiVita is joins our radio show tomorrow. The show begins at 9:30 AM, Central. Yvonne and her partners in BlogPaws, Caroline Golon of Romeo The Cat and Tom Collins, her partner with Scratchings and Sniffings and Windsor Media realized their common passions of pets, and their rescue and care, and social media and its power to connect were passions commonly shared by, well a huge community of people around the world.

Being the leaders they are, they led. They created the BlogPaws community, and it quickly grew into a vibrant online community of social media experts and resources who shared their social media talents along with passions for pet rescue and care.

They created the first BlogPaws event held last year. You can read more about it at DogTipper. Now, they are thrilled to be hosting their second event, BlogPaws 2010 West in September this year in Denver.

As Yvonne wrote:

The first event was so fun, so inspiring and so educational that we wanted to do it again!

We’re going to talk about startups and leadership, pulling together those who share your common passions, growing a community, innovation....taking risks.

Oh. And we’ll talk about pets and their rescue and care and how you can help there in your local community.

Your listening options:

LIVE

1. Listen in streaming on-demand here.

2. Call in during the show's live portion: 646-915-9212

LATER

1. Listen in streaming on-demand here.

Social Media and Social Change: Who's Driving?

I asked this question on LinkedIn last week.

Is social media the cause of social change or does it result from changes in society? 

Here are the answers from LinkedIn's community.

 

Rob Duncan
☆ Innovation catalyst ☆ Director of commercialization & innovation group. Keynote speaker, author, consultant, educ

- Director, Applied Research Liaison Office at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)
- CEO, Great Capes Consulting.

Hi Zane,

I'd say it's a bit of both. Online social networks provide an enabling function that allows more widespead and efficient networks to take shape. In turn, that changes behavior because more people see what a vast and distributed network is capable of in terms of business leads, collaborative innovation and idea-sharing (LinkedIn Q&A being a good example of this).

Social networks and the theory behind them are not new at all. Researchers like Granovetter have been doing work around the strength of weak ties and the value of social networks for decades. The difference is that we now have the cheap technology to turn theory into practice.

This reminds me of the development of database marketing. It was always possible through the centuries for the corner grocer to remember you, your shopping preferences, your family's names, and even their birthdays. When computing power got strong and cheap enough, it became possible to do this on a vast and distributed scale. Another example of a cheap and powerful technology that enabled a long-standing behavior.

********************************************************
Wink Game
Sales at Wink Game LLC/ ACN/ Oxygenetix
http://www.myspace.com/winkgamellc

Yes.
Links: http://www.clearchannel.com

*******************************************************

Rick Sharrard
I level the legal playing field when somone is accidentally injured

Owner, Sharrard Law

Hi Zane,
So which came first, the chatroom or the blackberry?

But seriously, I believe that people long to be connected and to communicate. As each new technological innovation in communication (mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, cell phone, email, message board, chat room, text message, twitter, etc) leads to use of and evolution of that technology to form new and faster ways to communicate.

Social networking and use of social media is the modern equivalent of the friday night poker game, or CEO's meeting at the athletic club, or getting together for coffee at the town cafe. People still do these things, of course, but now they can do them day or night, with people from all over the world.
The technology fills the need to be in relationship; the ease with which global relationships now occur will change society...and those changes will drive the next innovations which are on the horizon.

My 2 cents.

************************************************
Jacques Vilar
Business Solutions Manager - Capital Markets at JPMorgan Chase (formerly WaMu)
Business Solutions Manager at JPMorgan Chase
Jacques Vilar suggests this expert on this topic:

    * Jordan Mitchell

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Mathew Best
Owner, Best Solutions, Entrepreneurial Coach (Sole Proprietorship)
http://www.somedayisland.com/
http://eadd.wordpress.com/

Social networking is merely the tool. It certainly assists in social change - maybe by the speed at which it happens, but I can see how it would be the cause of social change. The idea for change comes first. This seems similar to asking if money if the cause of greed. Money is neither good nor bad, it is merely a tool.

*********************************************
John Cass
Director of Marketing at ideaLaunch
Blog: PR Communications

Without the technology, you would not have the ability to come together in groups and discuss, once people have the ability to create content, comment and connect very easily using social media it become easier to affect social change. So I'd say social change that occurs because of social media is the effect from those changes in society. Though we have to understand the level of change may be greater, or even wouldn't have happened without social change. In a way it is both.

*********************************************
Josh Chernin
General Manager at Web Industries; Itinerant Writer; and Decent Little League Coach

Hi Zane,

The same question has often been posed about one-way media such as TV. I think it is both--SM reflects what is going on, but can cause change too. It depends on the creativity and originality of the content provider.

Josh.

********************************************
Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Web Marketing Strategist ★ Consultant @ Traffic4u

Hi Zane,

I'd say that it is neither.
Social Media is an effect by technological possibilities and developments.
The fundamentals/roots of social media (engagement/participation/communication) is rooted in the human being, nothing more, nothing less.


Best regards,
Gianluigi Cuccureddu

******************************************

Thanks, all.

It is the classic chicken or egg, chatroom or blackberry ( excellent contemporary excellent, Rick!), question.

It's fascinating for me to watch social media serve as an accelerant (as Steve MacGill, CEO of Peersight Online, described social media) to the speed of social change. And at the same time be driven by that change to itself adapt to the needs of the community and users and their vision of possibilities as they're awakening to them. The potential for wondrous innovations and solutions personalized for our needs and dreams only rises as we find more ways to get together, digitally or virtually for the friday night poker game, or CEO's meeting at the athletic club, or getting together for coffee at the town cafe...any time we want with anyone around the world when they want when we share common dreams and resources to assist in reaching those dreams.

And as always, thanks to Susan Poirier, CEO of Ace Concierge, for her excellent work putting all this together.

This is the 2nd in an ongoing series of blog posts that result from crowdsourcing the community at LinkedIn. The first blog post in this series was Social Media: Would you recommend it?

Note: The original question for this blog post was edited here for clarity. Thank everyone at LinkedIn for getting past my clumsy phrasing of the original question.

Small Business Social Media Starter Kit

A friend and colleague of mine shared a complaint common to many small business. She needs a social media program for her company and at the same time she lacks the resources, time and money, to launch and sustain that needed social media program. The time restrictions are hers as CEO, and, like all small businesses, cash is precious.

I created a simple social media starter kit for her. It has the features of low-cost, low-risk, manageable requirements to execute that should generate benefits in a range of areas.

 Here it is, the Small Business Social Media Starter Kit:

RESOURCES:

Student Intern. College or high school student. The work experience for them is invaluable. Many schools encourage internships with local companies and include professional internships as a graduation requirement. Students will likely already be fluent with the social media tools needed and listed below. And oftentimes, there is no salary requirement for the intern. They work for free.

Blog. You’ll need a blog. Most hosted websites and the aps used to create them have a blog component easily attached. If not, use a service like Typepad. With a 3rd party hosted blog resource like Typepad you’ll pay no more than $15.00 a month. 

Google Alerts. Create Google Alerts for news and blogs. There’s the source of your blogging and Twitter commentary and community-building outreach.

Twitter. Create a Twitter account.

EXECUTION

Initiate: Have the intern organize these materials and resources.
Review: Review all of these steps with the intern as they are completed.

Blog:

1. Brand the blog with your corporate logo. A good designer can brand your blog, even on a 3rd party hosted resource, with your corporate logo and link it back to your company site. I did that with a company and 50% of the traffic to the corporate site came from visitors to the blog.
2. Have the intern write the drafts of your blog posts.
3. You can review them any time.
4. Once finalized you can schedule them to be published at a later date of your choice.
5. Prepare and schedule a minimum of 3 blog posts to be published weekly.

Google Alerts:

1. Create Google news and blog alerts using keywords pertinent to your company, your industry, your market, your interests.
2. These will provide the source for your blogging and Twitter posts.
3. They will also prove valuable for crowdsourcing market research.
4. Have the Google alerts sent to you, also, to start. (It's educational for you as well as a good management oversight step.)

Twitter:

1. Create a username/profile: The username should absolutely be your company name, unless you're the person tweeting. Then you have the option to Twitter under your name with the create two Twitter usernames: one for your company and one for you.
2. The bio should point to your company, including your desired URL. 
3. Subscribe, ie, follow your company's Twitter username.
   1. Again, it's a good oversight step and will educate you in a time-efficient way for the power of Twitter.
   2. That means you will have to setup a twitter account.
4. Tweet daily. Morning - Noon - Night. (Total time: 15 minutes, per day, tops)
5. Follow the 80/20 rule of Ben McConnell:
   
   1. 80% of your tweets are NOT about you.
6. Search Twitter regularly. Use search.twitter.com. Regularly means...once a week at this point. Use the same keywords, and in the same manner, as  you use with your google alerts.

BUDGET

• Intern - $0
• Blog - $15.00 per month
• Designer:  $300.00 to brand your blog with your logo and link it to your site or add the blog to your existing site.
• Twitter: zero
• Google Alerts: 0
• Your time: 10 hours the first week; 3-5 hours per week thereafter.
• Results: Priceless. Traffic, community, conversation, prospects, enhanced brand image, and possible future savings from lower advertising budgets, free organic bite-sized market research with crowdsourcing on twitter and your blog.

SUMMARY

 Let's assume you have a product or service or mission worth sharing in an open, transparent, manner. That means others will want to hear about it as it adds value to their day.  Let's assume you can learn these simple skills to manage an online conversation. I think you will: A. be delighted with the results over time; B. Find the resources to expand this beyond a starter kit (hint: hire the intern). 

Regardless, let us know how it works. Other companies need your example, your inspiration, with success. Other companies need to know what to avoid or change if this plan does not produce the desired results. At the very least, I need to learn from my failure with this plan.

Happy New Year.

Dan Schawbel: Read Him

I read a lot. Honestly, I always have. And now with digital media, I read a lot more.

The more I read the less I find authors and content that really wows me. There's some very good writers. And they write some very good posts,  far better than mine.

But, it's increasingly rare that I give a blanket endorsement for a blog or blogger. 1% or less of the blogs get the blanket endorsement.

Dan Schawbel's blog, Personal Branding, is the most recent one. I interviewed him earlier this year on my BlogTalk Radio show.  You can listen at this link. I found him great, motivated, sharp, passionate about...Personal Branding. He's also very successful at it.

But it wasn't until I saw his blog that I saw he's the real deal. He's a resource you should use every day. You should start with his blog. I read it this morning and ...every post was one a I bookmarked to revisit again this weekend. And much of it was about...others's success building their personal brands.

That phrase building their personal brands makes me squeamish. So does personal brand.  It's so...vague, squishy. Why should I care about someone's personal brand?

Dan showed me we all should care about ours, theirs, yours.

He shows you the cash. ( I know we're all about passion, missions and following our dreams. As we should be. But our success with these is measured by the willingness of others to share our dreams. We communicate the value of others' dreams with the vote from our wallets and then our time sharing that same dream with others.) 

And by cash I mean the resources that allow us to communicate, connect,  sustain and expand our dreams with those of others. He and his guests describe the success of building personal brands in terms of quantifiable, measurable, meaningful metrics. These are metrics like clients, money left on the table, contracts, new business, new jobs, new partnerships, new opportunities, new markets...tangible metrics. He shows you the money from building personal brands, your personal brands. He shows you how to increase it. He does this by showing how to add value to your personal brand and communicate it in ways that are meaningful to others, with tools that are easy to use (and mostly free).

Dan Schawbel's blog, Personal Branding. Read it.

SWOMFest: Where we should be

SWOMFest starts today. This is where I should be. This is where you should be.

But...maybe you're like me and the planets didn't align (that's the only real reason not to attend this...). It happens. Ben and Jackie understand that...kinda. They do, really. They're kind and compassionate, as well as understanding. So you can go to SWOMFest. And you can watch the presentations live.

How cool is that? Ben and Jackie rock.

And Jackie, yes, I am one of those people who are thinking "Damn, I should went...." But the planets...I'm there next year.

What about Plurk?

What about Plurk?

First off, what is Plurk? In its own words it's a social journal of your life. Ok. As opposed to...

A few months ago everyone seemed to try it. Well, everyone on Twitter seemed to try it, comment on it, think it was the next slice of bread in our lives.

I asked a Twitterer what she thought about Plurk and why she was trying it. Her answer came down to A. everyone was doing it; B. it's the new social media resource.

She was right, then. I'm not so sure, now.

Their, our, motivation then to try Plurk seemed more out of frustration with Twitter's, then, slow speeds and server problems. Since those problems have been solved, for the most part, I hear nothing about Plurk...anywhere.

I know avid Plurk users will disagree. I kinda hope so.  I want to understand. I am critiquing it for its failure to meet me needs or hold my attention past a few brief moments. That's a full disclosure, disclaimer.

Plurk has a horizontal time layout as opposed to the vertical layout at Twitter. And I like the color scheme. Or maybe it's refreshing after hours of Twitter-vision.

There are some interesting features for keyword searches.

The timeline presentation can show you at a glance what people are talking about as opposed to scrolling down a page like with Twitter.

There's some added features like Karma-points, Most Viewed, This Week, etc. And I know they have a huge following. But...karma gets delivered in more effective ways than points. And...if I had more time, or conversely less of a life, I'd scroll through the others.

Here's Plurk's user page:

Here's my page on Twitter:

Notice the difference?

It's here I noticed why I prefer Twitter. Twitter is simple, direct to the point. Even looking at these home-made screenshots, I can see the difference.  On Twitter I can see, read, at a glance usernames and their Tweets. And others can see the same for me. 

The key here is big text size. It's easy to read usernames. Most importantly I can read at a glance their Tweets. I'm not interested in when. I'm interested in what and who.

I'm more interested in their content, than their timeline.

If you're interested in when...then Plurk may work better for you.

And the page layout allows my eyes to they've flowed my whole life when reading: left to right, top to bottom.

It's going to take more than pretty colors for me to unlearn that habit. Sorry. I'm 53. Make it easy for me and I'm yours. Make it easy AND useful for me and I write a post about you.

As a result, Twitter's been the recipient of so-o-o freakin' many aps built for its use, there's even a wiki for Twitter aps... it's received a round of funding...and it's solved it it's been profiled in some mainstream media today. And there are blog posts sharing  101 BUSINESS uses for Twitter. That's 101 ways to use Twitter for ...business. What about art and sports and politics and school and family and...emergency uses and...

I don't see that about Plurk. I'm not an expert. I don't read every news snippet about social media.  Bu-u-u-t...The last press update posted on Plurk's site was 3 months ago. And as my friend Paul Chaney said recently the first one in...Yes. Maybe, no. Yahoo was first. Twitter was first. Plurk was cooler...briefly. Then cool plus a lot of usability with Twitter makes me ask:   

So...what about Plurk?

Del.icio.us: Social Media Resource of the Week (...sorta)

Del.icio.us was going to be my Social Media Resource of the Week for this week. And it still is...sorta.

What is del.icio.us? Well, it's a newsclipping resource. What's that? Well, let's say I read a great article online. And I want to blog on it, but not right now. I'll blog on it in...a few days or next week. I can click the little tag icon from del.icio.us and up pops up a new browser for  del.icio.us with the title of the post, the URL, the option to modify the title, add my own notes and tags. So if it's a post about social media, I can tag it on del.icio.us, tag it with social media...and then come back to my clippings on del.icio.us, search for my clippings tagged social media and scan through the titles.

Ok. Cool. So, it's a 3rd-party ap that does much the same as favorites on your browser.

Yep. And it's easier, btw.

But...here's the community-building, social networking, feature.  That article I've clipped and tagged on del.icio.us can be tagged collectively by other del.icio.us  members. I can see their del.icio.us user names as also having tagged the same article. I can introduce myself now as we have a common interest. They can see my articles/interests; I, theirs. They can introduce themselves to me.

Now we both have access to a community of like-minded people with varying interests. And we become a trusted source for reading recommendations for others at del.icio.us.

del.icio.us was one of the early new-clipping, tagging, community-building, ...online social networking tools.

Despite it's early pre-eminence, it was only in April of this year that I explored it in much detail. I was dazzled. It was simple, clean, easy-to-use...fast. I found many people with similar AND extended reading interests. I used it every day. Every day.

But now...here's comes the ...sorta part of the post. Someone thought to redesign del.icio.us. And it's simplicity and ease of use has been replaced by...a pretty face.

Before I never had to login. Now, I have to each and every time.

Before I could see all my community members. Now  they're hidden on another page.

I haven't looked farther for the other features I use as...their redesign has discouraged me.

This too shall pass...right, del.icio.us? Into everyone's life a little bad UI falls. So, please return your design to the one that inspired me to write this post, not the design that inspired me to add ...sorta.

FavThumbs: del.icio.us bookmarks as thumbnails

From FlowingData blog comes news and reviews of favthumbs.com. What it does is show your bookmarks, anyone's bookmarks really, on del.icio.us as thumbnails.

It's slick, very fast and easy to set up and...very useful.

Instead of just text links, you can see your bookmarked articles as thumbnails. You can view it carousel mode (like on an iPhone) or grid.  Very nicely, too, I might add. You can sort by tag category.

I'd say this makes del.icio.us even more useful for more as a resource to tag articles for later viewing and digestion.

favthumbs.com...you're my social media resource of the week.

BlogTalk Radio: Social Media Resource of the Week

I love BlogTalk Radio. I use it each week, on Wednesday's at 9:30 AM Central, to bring guests to share their ideas and expertise on social media and word of mouth and employee engagement.

My channel is www.blogtalkradio.com/zane-safrit.

Why do I love it?

Well, it's free. That's a good start. That's great way to induce people to take a risk with a new kind of service like...BlogTalk Radio. The majority of us on BlogTalk Radio are risk-takers, early-adoptors, citizen-journalists, people with a community of users and resources that should be shared and connected, or one that will be as we find our respective voices and the audience that wants it.

It's easy to start. I gotta admit that I hate setting up an account with a new application. Very impatient...However, BlogTalk Radio's was simple, easy, fast.

Excellent features.

Dashboard: Easy, honestly intuitively and simple.

Scheduling shows: Setting up, scheduling a show, is easy too.

Customizable landing page. You create your own unique URL. And customizing the look and feel of your page is easy. I seem to be one of the few BTR channels who haven't.But, that's my choice because BTR makes that very easy; BTW, I'm not a coder, either.

Community.  There's the usual, plentiful, ways to share and create community. Favorites, messages, comments, ratings, who's listened...they're all there.

Widget. I love this one. It's on the top right corner of this blog. It provides streaming listening for my most recent show.

Net Results?

Fun: It's fun to organize and speak with some great experts on social media and employee engagement and leadership. By fun, it means I get very excited and enthusiastic on the shows. Sometimes, I'm a bad host when I jump in with my own thoughts they've inspired. (sorry, guys.) By fun, it means I come away with a great understanding of social media and word-of-mouth and employee engagement. By fun, I mean I can share them and their knowledge with you.

Authentic and Transparent: It's me and all my skills (mostly their lack) on display. And it's the expertise and knowledge of my guests shared in real-time, if you wish. Or recorded for posterity.

BlogTalk Radio: My Social Media Resource of the Week.

Social Media Resource of the Week: bizSugar

bizSugar.

What is it? It's a social news and bookmarking site, much like Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us. It has the some of the same features for voting, tagging, reviewing, news with an online community.

But what I really liked about it was its focus on SMBs, small to medium sized businesses. I like the other sites. They have a richer feature-set, bigger community, more wow at their site. But...the content is so varied and the audience is so varied, that...it can be distracting, unfocused. bizSugar is focused solely on small to medium-sized business. I like that a lot. And while, to-date, it doesn't have the widgets to add to your browser like those others...that's ok. It's worth the extra click or two.

The other feature I like is their weekly newsletter that shares the Top 10 voted articles for the week. I like that. Make it easy for me to see what's tops on people's minds in the small and medium sized business.

Already, I see results with it. I submitted a post from SmallBiz Survival on Making LinkedIn Work for Small Town Pros. And it's been rated in this week's Top Ten by members of the bizSugar community. ( Click the article's link and you can vote for it, too. )

That's great for everyone. That's what a social community should be built-around: making it great for everyone.

I like it.

bizSugar. You're my social media resource of the week.

Social Media Resource of the Week: Jott

JOTT.

I love JOTT.

JOTT’s a little service, a free service, that transcribes your audio messages into emails sent to you or your team or your family or spouse or anyone in the world.

Ok. So what?

Ideas and solutions and epiphanies don't queue up for the sound of your noteblook rustling or your keyboard's clacking or your computer booting up. They usually come at the darndest times: driving home for lunch or at the end of a day, out for walk, out for a run, running errands, running through the airport, driving through traffic,  going to sleep...basically anywhere but while you're at your desk.

Now, with JOTT you can dictate that idea into an email that's waiting for you when you get to your desk.

So what?

What if you have an urgent message for your team. You can call your JOTT number, speak your message and JOTT will transcribe it and deliver to the emails of your team.

So what?

What if you've waited days for a solution to a vexing problem. Maybe it's a solution to that innovation breakthrough that will drive your company's revenues for the next year. JOTT yourself. Call your JOTT number and dictate that idea. You'll have an email waiting for you when you get to your office.

So what?

What if you’re driving home and you remember all the things you need to do when you get home. Well, you call your JOTT number from your cell phone (using hands-free calling, right?), speak your memory. JOTT transcribes what you say into an email. You have that email waiting for your when you get home.

For those reasons, I'd say JOTT was a small business resource. Small businesses can't afford personal assistants to remind you or be there to take dictation when inspiration hits. JOTT's always there. And it's free.

But now they've outdone themselves and it's why I list them as a Social Media Resource of the Week.

Lifehacker reports: JOTT Reads Feeds to Your Cell Phone.  Yes. That's right. You can subscribe to your favorite newsfeeds using JOTT. Then JOTT will READ those same feeds to you over your cellphone.

So what?

Say, you're sitting in traffic...or you're sitting in an airport and the wifi's not available...or you've exceeded your 2-hour daily limit on free wi-fi at Starbucks...or you're at the dentist office...you can JOTT your feeds, tell it which feed and...JOTT will read them to you.

I love JOTT.

I don't use it often these days. That's because I don't travel so much right now. But it's there when I need it and every time I use it I find another feature added. And this feature, JOTT reading feeds, makes me love JOTT even more, even if I never use the feature. It's so freakin' cool.

Whisper: You may be able to create a feed of your gmail....and JOTT could read your email to you. Cool! Empty email inboxes anyone?

Links: Lifehacker

Social Media Resource of the Week: SlideShare

SlideShare is my choice for Social Media Resource of the Week. I've  come to like it quickly in the past few weeks. That makes me a late-comer to the SlideShare Ball, perhaps. I say it's never to late to share and appreciate a good resource with your friends.

SlideShare  is aptly named. That's its first plus. Its name says what it does. You use SlideShare to share slides and PowerPoint slides, primarily.

Yes, I know I've been quoted saying I hate PowerPoint presentations. I stand by that declaration. But these aren't just any PPT's. These seem to be a veritable best-of's or among the best-ofs for PowerPoint presentations. I may be prone to changing that declaration after seeing some of the PPTs shared.

Right there, you have another value-add. Not only can you you can share your PPTs, you can also learn from many of the best by being able to view their PPT presentations.

In the 12-18 months since I first viewed SlideShare it's added some excellent sharing resources.  My favorite is the widget/API that's displayed beneath each PPT presentation that will allow any user from any major blogging platform to post and embed the presentation directly into their blog. It's like being able to embed a YouTube video directly from YouTube into your blog post instead of having to cut and paste its code. 1+ - Step to Sharing. Here's a few examples of how this instant embed works with my blog: here and here.

Then there's the usual features of Tags, search, comments, Community, favorites, Groups and Events. I haven't uploaded a presentation. (Remember: I hate PPT.) But, I may be inspired to share a pitchdeck I'm creating. I should be able to find some excellent tips and examples of powerful, simple, well-done, PPT presentations that I can apply. I'll share it with you if I do.

SlideShare: Social Media Resource of the Week.