Social Media Marketing Institute

A few months back SMMI Advisory Board member Jeff Turner spoke in San Antonio at the and decided that he wanted to mix things up by using the late night talk show format, complete with monologue and Top Ten list. Jeff reached out to me to do the latter. Just to explain why he asked me, I’ve been performing and writing comedy in one form or another for 15 years – it’s what originally brought me to Southern California and I still perform and work to this day. In fact, it’s how I met my wife Jennifer. Here’s a pic of me performing:

I was honored that Jeff asked me to write a Top Ten list for him, and after we brainstormed a bit via email, we decided on “The Top 10 ways to get yourself unfollowed on Facebook”.

We all have different standards for building our networks online in terms of what stuff we’re OK with and what makes us cut people from our list. Yes, the list I wrote is meant to be a joke, but like any good joke, there are many elements of truth to it. Without any further ado, here’s the fruit of my labor as it was performed as a part of Platinum Top 50′s “Social Media Live with Jeff Turner” event:

Top 10 ways to get yourself unfollowed on Facebook:

10. Constantly talking about how much better MySpace was
9. Typing your status updates in all caps – NOTHING IS THIS IMPORTANT!!!
8. Posting too many pics from your vacations – especially the one where you got food poisoning and didn’t leave the bathroom
7. Creating a fan page for your cat
6. Not creating a fan page for your cat
5. Hosting clothing-optional “Poke” parties
4. Referring to any currency as “Farmville Tokens”
3. Joining the “I’m secretly a murderer” Facebook group
2. Using your status updates to post chapters from your “Twilight” fan fiction

And the number 1 way to get yourself unfollowed on Facebook…

1. Inviting me to your Open House when I live two time zones away

That’s my time, Ladies and Gentlemen – good night!

Our CEO Bill (or Dad, as I call him) is one of those very special people who seems to know everyone and even more than that takes the time to speak to them and make them feel important. Anthropologist Robin Dunbar has said that we can only ever have around 150 true friends. With all due respect, he hasn’t met my father, a man whose generosity and willingness to extend trust come not from naiveté but from the belief that we are all basically good people and that it’s our job to leave the world a better place than we found it. That last statement can mean a lot of things, but for my father I believe it’s been about the people.

If you need proof of the number of lives he touches, consider the fact that you’re reading this and probably have a story of some time he helped you, did something generous for you or even just took them time during the day to talk to you and let you feel heard.

Dad, this day’s for you, and it’s well deserved. The things that you do in life are an inspiration to so many people, and I hope that my life has at least a fraction of the impact yours has so far.

And you’re just getting started. Happy Birthday!

Photo Credit - Robin Taylor Roth

Whether you know it or not, you’re being watched and evaluated constantly. We’ve become so accustomed to sharing our lives and living out in the open that we forget that we’re in public, and the rules/consequences of public conduct still apply.

Case in point: I know someone who’s recently been going through the hiring process. As part of that process, every applicant is vetted the same way. He looks at their LinkedIn profile first to see their online resume, check for recommendations, and then continues by Googling them to see what they’re talking about. Since this job is in the Social Media space, their content is both important and relevant.

He recently told me about an applicant who seemed really well qualified for the job – the right type of experience, personality, etc. However, when he checked her Twitter feed he discovered the applicant saying that they had decided to call in sick and were staying home playing video games.

Needless to say, they weren’t brought in for an interview.

Obviously the potential job applicant made a really big mistake, but in a time where everyone’s out in the open, it’s easy to let your guard down and slip up.

Don’t.

The delete key has saved my hide many a time – I feel confident that the things I share are an accurate representation of who I am, but at the same time I’m also aware that every single thing I do can and does impact my reputation in some way; you may think that nobody listening to you or that a particular person wouldn’t be able to find something you’ve posted – they can and will, because all of your online actions become a matter of public record.

We’re all prey to lapses in judgment, snap reactions and statements taken out of context. The larger point is realizing just how much of our lives are lived out loud – Facebook’s new “Friendship page” feature illustrates this perfectly. You can now see every aspect of your online friendship with someone – the pictures you’re in together, every wall post you’ve left for one another, every time you’ve commented on each other’s updates, all of the events you’ve attended together and even all of the business pages you both like. While I enjoy the feature, it definitely made me take a step back and realize just how much I share online – how much any of us share online, for that matter. For better or for worse, we’ve all been placed under the microscope; Unless you want to go off the grid, everyone needs to take the time to make sure they’re representing themselves genuinely but sensibly. Take the time to judge your actions and statements the same way you would in public. After all, people are watching…

Last week ReadWriteWeb posted an article explaining why business should have a Facebook Page instead of a Facebook Profile. When I saw the headline, I thought it might have been a post from last year, when everybody was staking their claim in the big Facebook Fan Page gold rush, name grabbing and asking everyone in the world to be a fan. I thought it was an old post because I just assumed that by now it was a given that any business getting into Facebook would think to start a fan page. I am wrong – that style of thinking is more rooted in the desire that it be true than in the actual truth. That assumption’s about as faulty as the one made at the beginning of the article:

The need to leverage social media for business is a no-brainer at this point

Photo Credit: Dru Bloomfield

Is it really? I don’t quite think we’ve hit that finish line yet. I understand the need to address that point quickly and then shove it aside to get to the meat of the article, but I don’t think we’re at the “no-brainer” point yet. There’s still plenty of resistance, plenty of people who are lost, and plenty of people who don’t engage on social sites. Don’t get me wrong; I’m definitely of the opinion that it will become a no-brainer, but to me this is the equivalent of declaring print to be dead because a lot of people buy Kindles and iPads – ain’t happening yet, and instead of declaring something dead or a no-brainer, maybe we should focus on the growth of the new thing instead.

For the purposes of the RWW article, that opening statement was completely unnecessary, but it really stuck in my craw. I think that’s because I see Social Media Marketing as still having a ways to go. It’s definitely become a more prevalent part of marketing strategies, but right now I see it the way I saw corporate websites in the mid 90’s – everyone was getting one whether they knew what to do with it or not.

Thinking about it now, maybe the need is a no-brainer, but the how seems to remain elusive, in my humble opinion.

Over the weekend my dad wrote a post about figuring out who to follow on Twitter. Something that seems to be a bit harder to grasp is how to get people to follow you.

I have a lot of friends who are actors and comedians – they’ll get on Twitter, probably because someone told them they had to, and I’ll see that they’ve posted a Facebook status update that says “Follow me on Twitter (followed by something witty)”.

My reaction is always the same – Why? Why should I follow you? I don’t blame them for wanting followers, though. It’s nice to see your audience grow, and while I’m still planted firmly in the “quality over quantity” camp, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t cool to cross certain watermarks – 250, 500, 1000 and so on. The REASON why it’s cool is because I got there legitimately – while I like having what I consider a decently-sized network, that wasn’t my goal.

So what’s the magic word that gains you followers? How do you do it?

Well, as you begin to follow people who interest you and ENGAGE them, you’ll find that many of them will follow you back, because you’re no longer someone looking to pad their numbers – you’re actually taking the first step in establishing some sort of relationship. The reason why Twitter (and other social networks) encourage you to first connect with people in your address book is to ease the burden of building your network from scratch – you probably already interact with these people, so you can get comfortable with your surroundings before venturing out further.

Beyond that, I believe there are four things that will gain you a following on Twitter. Keep in mind, I don’t include “being genuine” because the four below are options, and I think that being genuine should be a given:

1. Be interesting

2. Be entertaining/funny

3. Have conversations with people

4. Offer valuable information

Any one of these might gain you followers – however, when more than one of those things is present, your chances of building a strong following increase exponentially. Of course, if you’re using Twitter as part of a marketing strategy, you need to decide which recipe works best for you – some companies do OK without incorporating a great deal of conversation – others aren’t particularly funny or interesting but are worth following for the valuable information they provide.

What best suits your company’s communication style? What best suits the way your market communicates with you and consumes information? How do I want this to benefit my current and potential customers? Answering those questions goes a long way in determining not only the voice of your Twitter account, but who you want to follow it. Basic Law of Attraction type stuff.

If you’re already on Twitter, what are some tips YOU give people when they ask this question?