Blog Tips | One By One Media

Preaching From The Social Media Pulpit

November 18, 2009 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

I have been preaching about blogging for a long time. I have been an evangelist and telling companies that they had to blog more they had to have a place for people to "join the conversation" and making it possible for them to connect with their customers. Like some of the preachers of the past, I am my own worst sinner apparently. I was reminded by people in my company that I am the worst person in the world to tell companies that they are not blogging enough or that they are not doing it right.

I am preaching from the pulpit so to speak and I am preaching to the choir perhaps, but I need to update more often here. I am trying to get more and more content on here and those that are slinging arrows at me the most may be asked to also contribute now and then to what we are doing at One By One Media and Bloggers For Hire. I am also on Twitter quite a bit, and I am trying out Posterous, and I am about to start Social Mediasphere TV again. Of course, you can always come and hear what we are doing at our new radio show at Blog World Expo Radio.

Now that BlogWorld & New Media Expo is over for 2009 I have a few minutes I can breathe, and I will be using that time to try to be more involved here rather than out on the road or on the phone trying to convert the latest in small medium or large business to jumping into the social media pool. I guess I am like that life guard that actually never swims!

Photo via LeMonde1

Tags: One By One Media, Bloggers For Hire, Twitter, Posterous, Social Mediasphere TV, Blog World Expo Radio, Blog World Expo, Business Blogging, Evangelism

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Blog Consulting, Blog Tips, Bloggers For Hire, Business Blogging, Companies Needing Blogs, Conferences/Trade Shows, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Mediasphere Radio, Social Media, The Site

The Social Media Revolution

November 11, 2009 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

I am behind the times on this one but I wanted to get it on my site to refer to it later. This is a great video and worth the watch.

Some of the information in this video is already obsolete. Social Media is moving at a rate that none of us can keep up with, and I for one sometimes must take a step back to look at the big picture to keep up with the rate of growth.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Metrics, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Business Blogging, Marketing, Media, Services, Social Media Tagged With: Business, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Consulting, Social Media Marketing, Technology/Internet

The Twitter Blessing

August 7, 2009 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

I was just reading this morning on Techmeme the various sites that are discussing the closing down of the URL shortener service Tr.im. I then came across a post written by Robert Scoble called, "Twitter’s platform shortcomings." I have written a number of posts about Twitter here and we are seeing the company mature and grow before our eyes like a child. Sometimes a child makes poor choices and sometimes they make us proud, but when I read things like the Twitter "blessing" and I have to cringe a little. Blessing exerts some connotation of power, and with power comes great responsibility as we all know. We see companies like Facebook with this same type of power and the same feeling of the hair standing on the back of my neck continues. I must echo Robert’s sentiment here when he states:

OK, most of you probably never have used tr.im to shorten your URLs so they fit into Twitter. But I did. I liked the URL better than bit.ly, which is the service that Twitter has “blessed.” Oh, how I hate Twitter’s “blessing.”

Pete Cashmore, of Mashable has another quote in his post that gives me the feeling all over again:

“…we just can’t justify further development since Twitter has all but annointed bit.ly the market winner.”

That from the Tr.im closing statement. That is far too much power for one company, but I know that is part of doing business. Google carries the same type of power and I have heard the likes of Michael Gray talk about the wielding of their power and how they can arbitrarily damn some sites and rise others to the heights of heaven. I use that metaphor because that is nearly godlike in its functionality. Google wants to be for good but not for evil and I suppose your definition of good and evil depend quite a bit on the way the ball bounces for you or against you. In this case it seems that the ball has bounced against the folks at Tr.im.

We see applications come and go and in this particular instance it has implications that might hurt people in one camp over another. To pick and choose who wins, who loses and how the game is played is far too much power in my opinion to give to companies. The FTC is dabbling in the game with blogging and "sponsored conversations" and I would assume that some constituents will be contacting their authorities for some regulation of companies that have the power to bless.

Photo via polishamericancenter.org

Tags: Twitter, Techememe, Robert Scoble, Corporate Responsibility, Google

Filed Under: Blog Platforms, Blogging News, BTW, Business Blogging, Findability, Marketing, Social Media

Social Media Strategies Don’t Matter – It’s All About The Execution

August 4, 2009 By Jim Turner 4 Comments

I have been writing this blog post for the last 5 years. No, I haven’t been actually writing this post for that long, but I have been preparing to write this post for nearly that long. You see I have been a strategist a long time in Internet years. I have put many of those strategies together, and I am happy to say that many of them actually worked, but I must also say unfortunately, some of them and I should say more than I care to admit have probably failed. I tried most of these ideas and “campaigns” on my own company and used myself as the test subject. I have always tried them in my own marketing, advertising and public relations and as I said, some work and some don’t. This post is not about the “try” or “the idea”, but the execution.

Many colleagues out there are expert strategists. Many charge a pretty penny to come up with a strategy. In fact, I too charge for that, and some would say (you know who you are) not nearly enough, but that is for a another post. There are some great plans drawn out on the whiteboard of board rooms, and there are some bar napkins that I would like to have in a shadow box case as many of our greatest companies started there. My company in fact was sort of started as a dare I think one night after having had too many drinks. Having a good job and a stable company to work for, why would I ever jump into the entrepreneurial pool? I blame the alcohol.

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

All of us have the best mousetrap. That is our strategy. We have the best way things can be done and the way that they should be done according to our extensive research and study. For my extensive study and research, (please see the archives here for a start) I have tried and failed and taken those ideas that have been most successful. Some of it is still theory after all social media has been around less than some of my young children. Given what we know of facts and how they are applied to each circumstance, all of the strategies seem to be close to the same Plan A or Plan B depending on which consultant or agency you happen to speak with about your company and needs.

I have noticed a trend based on some of the ideas and strategies implemented. When companies are happy with a certain strategy it is only after the execution stage. Most of them are all excited and gung-ho when the strategy is discussed and laid out in front of them, but the truly satisfied are not such until after the plan has been put into place and the results come to fruition. Be it as simple as starting a company blog, setting up a comment policy, providing a podcast, or research on community outreach and providing that service and seeing your first conversion, the elation comes when the plan is executed. It can be even more rewarding when a multifaceted and long and expensive journey has been commenced.

I am known for providing a sports metaphor now and then and this is not much different so I apologize for this ahead of time if you hate those. If I draw a play in the sand and at the snap of the football all goes to hell in a hand basket, the best laid plan pf x’s and o’s is not going to get me points on the board. But when you truly make a plan, draw out a play and then deliver the ball to the end zone, all are happy and we get to celebrate with high fives all around. Seems pretty simple. The problem has always been execution. As consultants or strategist are you executing your plan? When was the last time you were in the end zone?

Tags: Social Media, Better Mouse Trap, Emerson, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Consulting, New Media

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Marketing, Media, Services, Social Media

Old Media A Job and New Media A Hobby: The Problems of Free

July 28, 2009 By Jim Turner 2 Comments

I was reading through an article on Spiegel Online International and an interview of Chris Anderson, Editor of Wired magazine. The article goes into detail as to the thoughts of Anderson and how he perceives the idea of new media. I wanted to pull out some of the quotes from that article and comment on them. The first of the comments that jumped out and smacked me across the face and it should others in the print media world was his take on the San Francisco Chronicle:

SPIEGEL: Your local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, is fighting for survival. If it was to disappear tomorrow …

Anderson: … I wouldn’t notice. I don’t even know what I’d be missing.

In a word, OUCH. Up to this point I was forming an argument in my head that the print media was another form of consumable information we all rely on for another take of a news story, but to say that a newspaper’s disappearance has not bearing on your world is a mind-numbing thought. I wondered what Anderson would think if a statement about Wired would make him have talk differently if it were to shut down tomorrow? I think he goes into the real reason why that wouldn’t happen, and a take similar to what I inferred with the remaking of BusinessWeek. His take on the cost of old media:

Anderson: The math of profit is pretty easy, revenues minus cost. You do your best on the revenue side and if you are not making money you lower your costs. The problem is not that there isn’t money to be made online, it’s just that our costs are too high.

This seems like a no brainer but for some it seems that this is the mountain they cannot climb. The problem is that there are people out there giving away the cow for free which is of course the book Anderson released. He goes into the economy issue:

Anderson: Attention and reputation are two non-monetary economies. The vast majority of people online write for free. We’ve tried paying some of our bloggers and they thought it was insulting. They’re not doing it for the money, they’re doing it for attention and reputation, or just for fun. For example, two years ago, I started this Web site called geekdad.com. It’s about being a dad and being a computer geek. We’re writing about how to do things that are fun for kids and fun for dads. It’s a community project, everyone contributes for free but we now have an audience bigger than many newspapers. And there are an infinite number of sites like this out there.

Not only are there an infinite number of sites out there that are doing just as he states, but they are doing it on budgets that most expense accounts could not cover in the traditional industry. They are providing the news and they are doing it with close to nothing, which is completely game changing in this economy.

I do like the end of the interview when Anderson is asked about charging for his book and they talk about "time is money." This is somewhat of a dichotomy since nothing seems to be actually free. This could be part of the reason we are in this situation to begin with, someone did it for free.

[photo via LA Times]

Tags: Spiegel Online International, Chris Anderson, Free, Old Media, New Media, Traditional Media, Newspapers, Blogs

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Metrics, Blog Revenue, Marketing, Media, Social Media

TechCrunch Snubbed From Twitter 101 Resource Page

July 24, 2009 By Jim Turner 1 Comment

I am not sure that anyone in the tech world has written about Twitter more than the popular news site TechCrunch. You may have a hard time picking out the single most popular Twitter post since after 38 pages of search results on the subject I lost count of the number of articles. The most popular recently was the scandal involving ill-gotten documents from the folks at Twitter which Tech Crunch promptly published. But more on that in a minute.

Twitter launched today their Twitter 101 pages and of note was their "Key Resources" page which is contained under the domain related to http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/. I quickly glanced at the people that were listed on the page, and noticed right away that TechCrunch had been snubbed. Not a single time was TechCrunch mentioned. You would think with 38 pages of info on the company and some of the best Twitter evangelists on the planet, they could have worked a link back to TechCrunch somewhere. Some of the best Twitter information contained anywhere is contained on the TechCrunch site.

Now this could just be a matter of numbers or it could be that they could not find a good snapshot overview of their service or it could be some other political reason that Twitter was quick to leave TechCrunch off the list as I mentioned above and wrote about in the TechCrunch and the Twitter Documents post.

This is not going to be too unlike the "Suggested Users" list and I am sure there will be plenty of folks that will be screaming about why they were not one of the featured resources that are listed. Congrats to Chris Brogan for getting on this page with his 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business. Okay, their might only be 10 in there but 50 was a good number.

Sorry TechCrunch I can assure you that the folks at Twitter are not going to cut you much slack from here forward, but keep up the good reporting and evangelizing!

[Hat Tip to Laughing Squid Links for beginning the inspiration for this post through the photo above.]

Tags: TechCrunch, Twitter, Twitter For Business, Twitter Business 101, Chris Brogan

Filed Under: Announcements, Blog Tools, BTW, Business Blogging, Featured Articles, Findability, Marketing, Media, Meta, Social Media

Working In A Virtual World

July 23, 2009 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

I used to have an office in Downtown Denver at a place called The Hive, a co-working community office not unlike others we see across the country like Independents Hall and Citizen Agency. It allowed me to have a place to call my office and yet it didn’t bankrupt my budget. I do reccomentd this situation to others if you have the opportunity.

I now work in a virtual office out of my home. I actually have a dedicated office and it has not one but two desks and computer equipment and printers and a dead fax machine and not unlike many offices. The only thing is the noise that surrounds me is beeps and clicks, blips and many other application noises. Yes, even the chirp of the Tweetdeck that everyone wonders about while I am on the phone.

This is my virtual Cube Farm. I used to work in corporate America for about 17 years and at a private law firm for 5 years before that, and I understand what that is like. I was not the greatest fan of cubicles and white button down shirts. Even after the adoption of "business casual" I still did not fit in completely. I guess it comes from my younger years working outside and loving fresh air an sunshine. The scene from Joe Versus the Volcano best described me as the light fixtures sucking out my soul.

I love working virtually from the comfort of my own home. I am much more productive. My commute is very green friendly and my uniform, well, let’s just described it as somewhere south of Business Casual.

I still have the whack a mole type conversations that I used to see happening the cube farm atmosphere, but they are preceded by a whistle or a beep or a bing as it were. I talk and chat virtually with my co-workers all day long. If you can hold on a second I need to quickly have a meeting with my financial advisor and counselor (yes, my three year old fills this role for me).

Mr. Waturi: "And what’s this lamp for? Isn’t there enough light in here for you?"

Joe: "The florescents affect me. They make me feel blotchy and puffy. I thought this this light would…"

Mr. Waturi: "Get rid of the light. This is not your bedroom, Joe. This is an office. Maybe if you start treating this like a job instead of some kind of a welfare hospital, you’ll shape up!"

Photo via MShades

Tags: Virtual Office, Community Office, Cubicle Farm, Corporate Working, HR

Filed Under: BTW, Marketing, Professional Blogging, Services

Want To Be Heard On Twitter? Get Added To A Twitter Roll

July 21, 2009 By Jim Turner Leave a Comment

It used to be that in order to be seen as an influencer or to be really taken seriously in your niche or genre, you had to be on someone’s blogroll. Being added to a blogroll gave you some credibility and it also helped you get read by others in your group. You got to be one of the cool kids if you were recognized on a blogroll. The goal was to get listed on a blog roll by someone with lots of readers as well. It also helped you get read by others, or it helped your voice get heard. Being on a blogroll was the gold standard.

Now with the likes of Twitter we get more of a situation of more noise less signal. It is difficult to be heard. 25 Million people all hoping their 140 characters get in front of someone to read. You may have the best ever 140 characters in the history of the world, but to broadcast it to Twitter is to cast it into the sea of information hoping to find a home. I liken it to casting an SOS note in a bottle into the ocean and hoping someone finds it. Chances are it may never get read by the person that matters. Twitter can be the same way. It seems that many online marketing types believe this a great way now to broadcast their message. They think a message in a bottle is a good way to broadcast. Cast a net big enough and sooner or later someone may hear what you have to say. This is not the best case scenario unless you get on someone’s list or in a group. Instead of blogrolls, we now can put our Twitter friends or followers into groups. I use the popular application Tweetdeck, and I have many groups of my followers distilled into readable tweets. I have my social media colleagues and I have technology people and parenting bloggers and no, even though I joke about it quite a bit I do not have a "Hottie" Twitter group. This is how I track what is being sent via Twitter by those I want to listen to and want to hear. I want to hear all 250 Million people out there but I have yet to figure that out sans some special paid for application.

This is how I read most of the important stuff on Twitter. I go through a specific group and see what they are talking about and what they have to say. It may be an hour after the fact when I re-tweet something or I comment or take notice, and the reason is, I don’t have time to scan the river of noise going by at 10,000 people a minute. In the instance I am talking about you get added to my group if you provide me good thoughts or value. I don’t want to miss your tweet. The only thing is, my groups are not public. I need to find something that allows me to show you my groups. I need a public app that shows my Twitter groups, my blogroll of twitter friends. I need to develop this as a widget for blogs or web sites. You can get on my group in in my Twoops (URL taken I checked)? Anyone?

Photo via Mykl Roventine

Tags: Twitter, Blogrolls, Web Apps, River of News, Noise vs. Signal

Filed Under: Blog Metrics, Blog Mining, Blog Tips, Blog Tools, BTW, Findability, Marketing, Media, Social Media

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