Category: Web 2.0/Social Media

By Posted on Posted in Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with ,

Harvard Business Review just released a fascinating study on Twitter. The only problem is, it’s completely unreflective of my own experience. This is the comment I left:

“Is Twitter a communications service for friends and groups, a means of expressing yourself freely, or simply a marketing tool?”

It is all of the above and much, much more. And it lends itself much more to qualitative than quantitative research–because each individual user’s experience of Twitter is entirely different depending on who they follow, what times of day they log on, and how much time they spend.

Thus, while this aggregate study offers some very interesting data, it’s hard to know what subset of Twitter users the data applies to.

To me, this very idiosyncratic experience is actually part of Twitter’s charm. I’m following over 800 people, and that means I see little snatches of conversations and threads, different each time I log on (typically, a few times a day for just a few minutes each time). While some prolific Tweeters (Guy Kawasaki among them) show up regularly, the randomness of who’s in my window leads me in all sorts of wonderful new directions. I often say I became a writer because I’m interested in practically everything, and in 140 character-bytes (and their associated links), I get to satisfy those interests in little bits and pieces.

In fact, I must have incorporated research from 20 different articles I first found on Twitter into my next book.

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By Posted on Posted in Abundance and Prosperity, Publishing, Shel's Personal Life, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , ,

For many years, I’ve been writing about the Abundance Principle: a corollary to the Law of Attraction that I’ve been espousing long before I ever heard of Law of Attraction. Basically it’s the idea that the universe is abundant; there’s enough good stuff for all, despite kinks in distribution. And that if you focus on this abundance, the world shows itself as an abundant place. This is one of the key principles in my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First

Well, today, I’ve just been swimming in the lovely waters of the Abundance Principle. If any one of these things happened in one day, I’d post a Tweet. With all of them happening on the same day, I’d be monopolizing people’s Twitter streams, which would be rude. So I’ll post here instead.

  • After about two months of silence, my negotiating partner in Africa came back with dates and cities for a three-country speaking tour this summer
  • Today, my co-author, Jay Conrad Levinson, gave me the first feedback on the just-completed manuscript of my eighth book (and something like his 70th), Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green, which will be out in about a year from Wiley–and he’s delighted with it. Yesterday, I finished the edit, and today, I got through all the permissions letters I had to send.
  • A major new sustainability site hired me for an ongoing paying weekly blog. The pay is low, but after over four years of blogging, I can now call myself a professional blogger. And it’s really good visibility, especially with the new book coming out next year.
  • After a week of rain, we finally got a nice day–and Dina and I managed not only our daily dog-hike but also a short bike ride.
  • When I went to the doctor, he said I don’t have an eye infection after all–just allergies
  • Got offered comp tickets for a local theater production in one of my favorite venues
  • Getting some extra exposure on a speaking gig next week
  • Also got comped (ok, so that was last night) on a hotshot marketing conference where I’m going to get to meet some people who’ve been very important to me
  • Potential intern coming tomorrow who’s actually read most of my books; I will have lots to keep her busy!
  • My daughter, still in Spain, seems completely recovered from her illness

    • I have a feeling I’m leaving some things out, but anyway, it’s been a very good day. It’s great when principles I stand for get to play out so positively in real life.

    I wish you similar abundance in your life!

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    By Posted on Posted in Customer Service as Marketing, Frugality/Frugal Fun, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , , ,

    When a lot of people think of crowd-sourcing–harnessing the network of common wisdom–they probably think first of Wikipedia, which is written by its users. But Wikipedia, and Wikis in general, are only the most visible piece of an amazing phenomenon that dates back to the earliest days of the Net. Maybe eight or ten years ago, I was interviewed in some publication about how to get support and problems-solving for free or very low cost. And I described, among other things, how I got technical support from my then-most-current social media strategy: e-mail discussion groups.

    It’s usually easy to find an informed and intelligent group of people who are delighted to answer your question. Online communities have been solving people’s problems for several decades. The form keeps evolving–from BBSs to -L listservs to yahoogroups, and now, to communities like Twitter, groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc. But just as TV did not replace radio and radio did not replace print, this is an additive process; the old ways still work.

    Just today, I ran into a problem with my home phone somehow forwarding to my business line. I didn’t set this up and couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. So I posted on Twitter, and a few minutes later, I had the answer. But I also have an issue with Amazon.com’s Advantage program, and I won’t look for the answer on Twitter or Facebook. I’m going to be asking on the two yahoogroups publishing discussion lists I follow. I expect I’ll find the answer. Knowing which audience makes sense for which kinds of questions makes a difference. And it also makes a difference if you consistently provide value to others within the community; people will be much more helpful if you’re seen as one of the “good guys.”

    So…with all this free consulting (not to mention free information on the Web, already posted)…why do people still need consultants? Simple: Responses on social networks are typically off-the-cuff, general advice that may or may not be relevant to a specific situation. Even if someone spends 20 or 30 minutes answering a question, that person doesn’t know your specific situation, and won’t be expected to go into depth. In fact, social networks are an excellent way to demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about, so that when people do need to go deeper, they turn to you.

    Yes, this really works; I’ve actually built my business on it. And just as an example of the free-to-fee model, I’ve given you the skeleton here. If you want to know the nuts and bolt, I have various infoproducts that can help, including my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First.

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    By Posted on Posted in media-general, Politics, Web 2.0/Social Media

    I read a very interesting article called “How to Weather a Twitterstorm“–and one of the most interesting parts was the comments, which included a whole lot of people who basically said that Twitter, Facebook and other social media are a marginal part of the overall audience, and kowtowing to them is a mistake.

    I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Twitter, et al. They have influence beyond their numbers, and there’s certainly precedent for stories leaping out of niche social media into the mainstream, with major consequences. Just ask Dan Rather about the fake memo about Bush’s military service that cost several key staffers their jobs and forced Rather into premature retirement. I have been a deep critic of Bush (and a fan of Rather), but when I saw the memo reproduced online, I knew there was no way it could be authentic. It was done on a modern word processor.

    In my view, the article’s author, Abbey Klaassen, is more on target. she offers strategies to evaluate, contain, and appropriately respond to online criticism.

    The point is critical that you want to acknowledge and contain the problem, and do so rapidly. And Twitter can be a great tool for this. Smart companies are finding ways to build their brand on Twitter, and one of the best is to be open to criticism while finding effective ways to defuse it. The Twitter page for Comcastcares is a great example of this. It’s all about customer service for cable TV customers with technical problems.

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    By Posted on Posted in Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , , , , ,

    Mari Smith is a brilliant young marketer who has absolutely seized the reins of Facebook and Twitter and become a social media rock star. We had a conversation a couple of years ago when I was keynoting a conference she was attending, and she was the one who finally pushed me over the edge to get set up on Facebook. I’d already been on several other social networks without any visible results, but under Mari’s guidance, I found Facebook indeed quite useful.

    Yesterday, Mari put up a great new blog post that I really like, jumping on the news that Oprah has begun Twittering and featured Twitter (and actor Ashton Kutcher, who is the first Twitterer to have a million people following his tweets–and in just a couple of days, has jumped to 1,201,192–that’s another 200,000 people! Most people have fewer than 500 total) on a recent episode.

    Mari issued a call to become a “conscious twitterer.” That’s been my approach all along, and I’m delighted that Mari has given it a name.

    Speaking of conscious social media: this blog is likely to be pretty quiet the next ten days. I’m leaving the country and made a “conscious” decision to leave my laptop behind. I do have one post queued up for later in the week, just to keep the search engines from thinking I’ve abandoned it.

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    By Posted on Posted in Abundance and Prosperity, Energy & Sustainability, Frugality/Frugal Fun, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

    Unbelievably stupid quote from the agrochemical trade group Mid America Croplife Association, whose members include the likes of Monsanto, Dow, and other manufacturers of farm chemicals (oh, and can you spot the two grammar errors in those three sentences?):

    Did you hear the news? The White House is planning to have an “organic” garden on the grounds to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the Obama’s and their guests. While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder.

    This quote was in an e-mail to the group’s supporters, enclosing a classic-PR letter to Michelle Obama (or “Mrs. Barack Obama,” as the letter calls her–and for which one blogger took the authors to task), apparently authored by Bonnie McCarvel, Executive Director. You can see both MACA’s letter to Michelle Obama and the cover note here.

    As a long-time believer in organic agriculture/sustainability and as someone who eats out of my family’s organic garden and a local organic CSA farm all summer and fall, I was all set to do a rant on the idiocy of this statement. But before jumping in, I Googled around, and decided to focus on some other lessons; that one’s been done about 24,000 times on the blogosphere already.

    Lesson 1: Never say or write anything that will come back to haunt you. As MACA found out, you can’t assume an internal memo will stay internal. so say what you mean, mean what you say, and be prepared to back up your assertions.

    Lesson 2: Backlash is quick and can be humiliating. Numerous petition campaigns have sprung up supporting Michelle’s desire to grow organic, and the already-shaky credibility of the pesticide industry might take a big hit.

    Lesson 3: Old-school PR is no longer enough in a world where journalists no longer stand as intermediaries and gatekeepers between press releases and the public. From a technical PR standpoint, the letter MACA sent to Michelle Obama is quite good: full of reassuring language, on-the-surface well-reasoned arguments about the importance of agriculture, etc. But in a busy, harried world, it doesn’t get to the point; without the controversy, the recipient might not have even figured out (on the quick 30-second scan) that the letter was advocating chemical agriculture. Which hasn’t stopped the blogosphere from picking apart every nuance.

    Lesson 4: Controversy and stupidity are just as sexy to the blogosphere as to traditional media. For all the carefully worded letter to Michelle Obama, what stands out (and is getting most of the attention) is the dumb quote in the supporter cover letter about organic gardening making them shudder.

    Lesson 5: If the mainstream media wants to stay relevant, it needs to be visible. On three different Google searches on this story, including one for the exact quote from the cover letter, I did not see a single mainstream media result in the top three pages. The closest was a non-journalist’s blog quoted (apparently by a content-scraping robot) on the Wall Street Journal site, which was #28. Blogs and newsletters about gardening, sustainability, and progressive politics were all over this story, but the voice of traditional journalism was not being heard. I was actually beginning to wonder if the whole thing was an urban legend, until I finally tracked down the actual letter, on a local-foods blog. As newspapers are folding every week, as electronic news organizations are laying off staff, people will be asking why we need these trained and theoretically unbiased filters, if they’re AWOL on important stories (or if not AWOL, hidden deep under a rock). This will be a critical question. I’m of the strong opinion that we still need journalists to keep politicians and corporations honest, but journalism’s lack of presence on this and other stories makes that a much tougher argument.

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    By Posted on Posted in Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Reviews, Uncategorized, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , , , , ,

    Reviewed by Shel Horowitz

    A very good basic introduction to the most important social network platforms–and some truly extraordinary content about how and why to use video to achieve massive conversion rates. A nice Q&A section answers several common beginner questions, very sensibly.

    Clearly written, and delightfully formatted for easy on-screen reading.

    Shama also walks her talk. In the six or eight months since I first saw her name, I’m running into her everywhere: on Facebook, Twitter, as a teleseminar guest with various other expert marketers…all using the no-cost social media techniques she describes in this e-book.

    I’d recommend this highly for those just starting out in social media, as a way to jump-start your education. And if you’re experienced but haven’t done video marketing yet, or have not found it effective, that short section will be more than worth the price.

    Shel Horowitz, author of Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World and six other books

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    By Posted on Posted in Ethics: General, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Marketing Trends/News, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , ,

    I had the good fortune to follow Dr. Ron Capps, a/k/a “The Niche Prof,” speaking at Willie Crawford’s 50th birthday celebration in Orlando.

    Ron started his speech by saying, don’t worry about taking notes; I’ll send you my slides. But please feel free to Tweet. I was one of several people who took him up on it; these are my Tweets about his talk (in reverse chronological order, as they appear on my Twitter page, shorthand, typos and all–these were all sent while he was speaking. The #bbash tag enables anyone to search for all the Tweets about this conference and find these):

    Don’t cheat the process. Having a baby in 3 mos is NO blessing. @NicheProf, #bbash from web

    …or where they will find you. So you’ve got to be everywhere (and everywhen), via Ping.fm. @NicheProf, #bbash from web

    Social media is farming: nurturing yr reputation & the relationships. & You never know what people respond to…. @NicheProf, #bbash from web

    (I still prefer to brand my name) Why not to brand 2 yr name: 1. Too common 2. No exit strategy. @NicheProf, #bbash from web

    You can meet people online you could never meet f2f. Post great content & people’ll start talking abt you:@NicheProf, #bbash from web

    RTs are Inernet gold: @NicheProf, #bbash from web

    30K new jobs posted 7 dys at TwitterJobSearch: @NicheProf, #bbash from web

    Soc net profiles that give an edge: support yr claims, good spelling/grammr–soldify hiring decision @NicheProf, #bbash from web

    20% firms (& univs) are screening profiles and SEing you-Neg impression could be VY expensive. @NicheProf, #bbash from web

    Not who you know, who knows you. And you get known via social media: @NicheProf, #bbash from web

    Think about what happens when five or ten attenders are actively Tweeting the highlights of your talk in real time. Think about how many people might see it, learn about you, click on your screenname, start following you, see over the next several months several more streams of Tweets about how great you are–and then that person happens to be planning a meeting. Who are they going to call–you–or some stranger they’ve never heard of?

    I’d already panned to offer attenders a copy of the slides, and was certainly hoping to be Tweeted. And I immediately stole Ron’s idea and asked for Tweets early in my talk. These are the Tweets (if I missed any, I apologize). Do you think they might help my career?

    Caught_Thriving: @CaseStevens some really good stuff from @nicheprof and @shelhorowitz earlier #bbash

    MichealSavoie: Finding that @shelhorowitz is an outstanding speaker who offers a LOT of very actionable information! Follow him! #BBASH

    marismith: @mrebay LOL. Hi Kevin! Way cool you’re hanging with many of my fave peeps at #BBASH @FeliciaSlattery @lynnterry @LauraFenamore @shelhorowitz

    mrebay: @ShelHorowitz is an awesome marketer!!!! Testimonials in your book can get your referrals and business #BBASH

    changenetwork: RT @DrMollieMarti “RT @FeliciaSlattery: Honesty, integrity, quality = the magic triangle of business ethics. @ShelHorowitz #BBASH”

    marismith: RT @DrMollieMarti: RT @FeliciaSlattery: Honesty, integrity, quality = the magic triangle of business ethics. @ShelHorowitz #BBASH [Yes!!]

    raleighgirl: Retweeting @FeliciaSlattery: competence is the other half of trust @ShelHorowitz #BBASH (it’s also one of my 3cs of credibility!)

    FeliciaSlattery: competence is the other half of trust @ShelHorowitz #BBASH (it’s also one of my 3cs of credibility!)

    FeliciaSlattery: When you do business w/ ethics & integrity you get more of everything: JVs, customers, referrals. @ShelHorowitz #BBASH

    FeliciaSlattery: Customer evangelization is abt as good as it gets. Those who tell the world abt you. Comes from doing biz w/ integrity. @ShelHorowitz #BBASH

    DrMollieMarti: RT @FeliciaSlattery: Honesty, integrity, quality = the magic triangle of business ethics. @ShelHorowitz #BBASH

    FeliciaSlattery: Holy moly: @ShelHorowitz just used ME & what I spoke about yesterday on one of his slides. I [heart] him now. LOL #BBASH

    jimdonovan: I’ve known @ShelHorowitz for a dozen years and he’s one of the true good guys. ##BBASH

    life_enthusiast: @FeliciaSlattery I second what @MariSmith said. RT @MariSmith We need more peeps with HIGH standards, ethics, eh! #BBASH

    marismith: @FeliciaSlattery Brilliant!! That’s what I love about @ShelHorowitz. We need more peeps with HIGH standards, ethics, eh! #BBASH

    FeliciaSlattery: @marismith yep @ShelHorowitz is on stage now giving awesome content abt ethics. He turns down $$ when it’s not a good fit for him. #BBASH

    marismith: @FeliciaSlattery Oh, is @ShelHorowitz on stage right now at #BBASH? Give him a hug for me, Shel is the BEST!!

    mrjaredjames: @FeliciaSlattery RT: “Honesty, integrity, quality = the magic triangle of business ethics.” Super col. From #BBASH ?

    Raven73: RT @FeliciaSlattery: You want to be attracting rather than chasing business. @ShelHorowitz #BBASH

    FeliciaSlattery: Honesty, integrity, quality = the magic triangle of business ethics. @ShelHorowitz #BBASH his work is grounded in value & ethics

    MichealSavoie: Why are you REALLY in business? @shelhorowitz #BBASH

    FeliciaSlattery: RT @lynnterry: @shelhorowitz is speaking at #bbash – last speaker of the day. talking ethics, relationships, expertise

    neestaples: RT @FeliciaSlattery: You want to be attracting rather than chasing business. @ShelHorowitz #BBASH

    lynnterry: @shelhorowitz is speaking at #bbash – last speaker of the day. talking ethics, relationships, expertise

    FeliciaSlattery: You want to be attracting rather than chasing business. @ShelHorowitz #BBASH

    FeliciaSlattery: @ShelHorowitz getting started @ #BBASH. His attention-getter had everyone standing up & hugging ourselves. Yay!

    One thing to point out here: Several people who retweeted or commented in this conversation weren’t even at the conference! And one of those was social media rockstar Mari Smith, who Fast Company dubbed “The Pied Piper of Facebook,” and who is personally responsible for getting me (and probably hundreds of others) onto Facebook. Mari has 24,205 followers! However many of them happened to be online during my speech saw her multiple endorsements of me within a few minutes’ time.

    Oh yes, and meeting planers can use this too. Allison Nazarian included me in an expert teleseminar series this winter. Even though she was interviewing, she managed to Tweet coverage of every speaker, which you can follow here. (The ones about me, specifically, are here: https://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23DIY09+%40shelhorowitz

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    By Posted on Posted in Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Marketing Trends/News, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , ,

    People are always telling me they don’t “get” Twitter. I took to it immediately, maybe because I’ve been doing social media marketing since 1995, and writing about it since 1991. In honor of being named one of the Top 11 blogs covering social media, here’s a 5-point Twitter success strategy.

    1. Post some really worthwhile links, good commentary, etc.
    2. Follow a few influential people and then send an appropriate @ message to them once in a while
    3. Keep the signal: noise ratio high, but engage in human dialog–don’t make it all about you–pick a few people to engage in meaningful sustained conversation
    4. Retweet when you find posts useful
    5. Post often enough to keep active, not so often that you annoy people

    Bonus tip: Your profile page should have a real photo, real name, web links, and perhaps something else of interest (I have my book covers). Here’s a link to mine.

    And it takes care of itself. I joined in August and have nearly 1200 followers, haven’t chased them, just used the above method.

    BTW, my new e-book, “Web 2.0 Marketing for the 21st Century” (which I include as a bonus with either of my Grassroots Marketing books, or sell separately for $12.95), goes into Twitter and Facebook strategies in much more detail.

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    By Posted on Posted in Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , ,

    A Neilsen Online study, quoted by Adam Ostrow on Mashable, claims “66.8% of Internet users across the globe accessed “member communities” last year, compared to 65.1% for email.”

    In other words, social media has become more popular than e-mail.

    I’d find this hard to believe if I didn’t have kids in their teens and 20s. In that demographic, e-mail is all-but-irrelevant, except when they need to talk to parents or teachers. They talk to each other on Facebook and Skype and mobile text messaging–all day long. This is one very wired generation; my wife reports that her university students constantly try to text their friends during class, even at the risk of lowering their grades. To my generation, that’s really rude. To theirs, it’s accepted, almost demanded.

    As for those who text while driving, or worse, that idiot who killed himself and others by driving a train while texting, that’s a serious safety hazard for those around you, and should be treated like driving drunk. No way can you drive safely while your eyes are looking down making sure your thumbs are in the right place.

    I love social media. I’m always haunting Twitter, though from my own computer and not from a phone. I spend a lot of time on Facebook and some other sites. But call me old-fashioned; I still prefer e-mail for many situations.

    And even though I don’t text, I certainly see the power of texting. Especially in situations where talking isn’t practical. But I wonder, will this be the generation that forgets how to talk on the phone, just as we were the generation that forgot how to write letters? I never understood why my daughter and some of her friends prefer to text, despite the awkward interface and much higher cost (our cell plan charges extra for all texts, because we got it for the voice features) than a computer-based solution–or than picking up the phone.

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