17 social media influencers and thought shapers

Posted on June 17, 2008 by marc meyer

Butch Cassidy: “I couldn’t do that. Could you do that? Why can they do it? Who are those guys?”

I promised that I would follow up the top 30 social media experts post I did with a few more people who’s work I admire, who’s thinking is forward, and who’s ideas of what culture and technology should be, are wide open. You have no idea how many bookmarks and sites I have saved that I try to read and digest and actually think about. No wonder my eyes are always bleeding on the way home from work? Easy..I’m kidding..

It’s these types of people that will provide the basis of how we will view our interactions in a technological environment as we go forward. If you are unfamiliar with some of these people, that’s ok. Pretty soon you won’t be. Of these 17, feel free to offer up your peers for review. We currently have a listing of 51 social media experts, luminaries and standouts! I’d love to add more and I know they’re out there. Beware though, if you email or tweet that you’re an expert, then you’re not.

I would suggest setting aside some time to really go through the list, as there is quite a bit to digest here, but it’s all good and so so very relevant today!

13 Random Links for Tuesday

Posted on June 17, 2008 by marc meyer

Sometimes when I’m stuck, I go back to see what I’ve bookmarked over the past few days and weeks. it’s an interesting compilation.

BuiltWith is a website analysis tool, providing technical analysis and SEO optimization information to further your website’s marketing, sales and navigation effectiveness. It seems pretty cool, though, if you want a really neat web tool check this one out website grader

Clay Shirky is a pretty interesting person who has a new book out that I have on my “got to get” list it’s called, Here comes everybody, I read an excerpt and it was really really good.

I have Mike Stopforth’s web site bookmarked, he’s is an entrepreneur, writer and speaker who heads up Cerebra, South Africa’s leading social media company, I thought it best to see what others across the world are doing with social media.

Check out Utterz when you get a chance. With Utterz, you can instantly share your news by creating a multi-media posting in voice, video, picture and text, right from your mobile phone, or online. It works with every phone, on every carrier, which is interesting.

I struck up a conversation with Paul Chaney a few weeks ago and this is his company Bizzuka, I added Paul to my 4 more social media experts post

Here is a great post on…alas.. Taking a class in social media.

I’m always on the lookout for a good solid analytics package other than Urchin, and this one was referred to me the other day, check out Mint.

And lastly, I’m talking with these people tomorrow Ecairn, I’m looking forward to giving it a test drive.

Listening and social media: 5 videos that drive the point home

Posted on June 16, 2008 by marc meyer

Humility is the defining characteristic of an unpretentious and modest person, someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others.

We talk so much about the art of the conversation and how this new age has spurred countless conversations where we are able to share with each other and grow and nourish ideas that could one day create endless possibilities for everyone. But what happens if the conversations are one sided? How many of the conversations out there are taking place between one willing participant and someone who is in it, to win it, so to speak, no pun intended? Are you listening? Or is conversation a dying art?

Here’s an example: Forrester Research Vice President Josh Bernoff highlights one of the five primary objectives companies successfully pursue in the Groundswell: Listening. In this example, a group of twenty-one dedicated cancer centers formed the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) to better listen to patient needs. October 11, 2007 in Chicago.

WHY DO WE TWEET

How many conversations take place today or are originated for the purpose of self-aggrandizement? I think more than we will ever know? Do you think some of our finest web 2.0 thinkers are twittering for the sake of engaging in worthwhile conversations? Are they tweeting for branding purposes? How many of you comment on people’s blog or tweet, but yet bring nothing of intrinsic value to the actual conversation? How many of you don’t care if someone responds or not? Don’t all stand up at once either. Here is twitter explained for all you common folk out there, thanks Common Craft

I think we have an inate desire to be heard as well as to be seen and this truly does speak to this generation that I’m calling Generation U for “Generation User” as in generated content. But see, we want to be seen and heard, but rarely do we want to listen, when in actuality, that’s truly where the conversation begins and possibilities are created. Do you spend most of your time listening and reading, or do you create lots of content and vomit the information of whoever and whomever? Do you listen with the intent to understand?

So if that truly is the case, do we, or some of our more active purveyours of user generated content, even care about what others might think? Do they even ask what we think? If they did, I would expect the conversations to consist of them choosing to hear what they wanted to hear. God forbid it’s constructive criticism.

Ironically, Chris Brogan has written a post called 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media in which the first thing he leads off with is… Listening That’s right listening. And not a year prior he wrote solely on the subject of…Listening

I’m sure if you were to ask some of the top social media experts, and I know of about 30 or so, I would imagine that they would collectively say it is more important to listen than it is to talk. How many would understand the importance of listening with humility though? To listen, to truly listen? The disconnect happens when two parties get together and both have these agendas, which they seem to be paying more attention to then the actual conversation itself.

I want the age of conversation to be about what we can do collectively instead of what’s in it for me. The hyper link that preceded that statement, those guys get it. And most do, but I want you, all of you, to start listening, instead of hearing, what someone has to say.

THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE MORE YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW

So if you think about, look around and look at what everyone is talking about, it’s the conversation, it’s the word of mouth marketing buzz. We talk about it from the one side but not the other, the listening aspect. The art of listening.

We have more tools than we have ever had that help us with the conversation but we need to really start listening with humility, with a deep understanding of what the person or person’s across from us, is saying. All of these social media tools allow us more access than we have ever had in our lives, to conversations. A way for us to listen and to understand. Lastly, Look what Todd Defren has to say, it’s a quick blurb, so make sure you listen!. By the way, I told Todd I would add him to my new updated list of social media experts coming out soon.

So what sayeth you? I’m listening. Do people hear what you are talking about? Are you talking over their heads? Or vice versa? How can you improve the dialogue?

What did we do before the conversations started?

Posted on June 13, 2008 by marc meyer

You know, I have never had some many great meaningful discussions on so many relevant topics in all the years I have been in tech. I attribute alot of this to the buzzword of the latter part of this decade and that is the conversation. The emergence of the conversation between people wanting to work together, the collaboration of people working towards a collective goal. The customer finding his voice and the company finally listening with humility.

Mental Note: Be sure to write a piece about listening with humility. Who does that?

Which led me to think. What the hell did we do before? What did people do with all of this great input, insight, knowledge and wisdom before, but with no real vehicles to share it. Did they write books about conversations? Not really, Although, I know of one book where the conversations are rich and plentiful and thats the age of conversation edited by Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan.

Tell me this isn’t a great time to be talking and sharing? I know these are hard times in some respects, but from a technology, innovation, and entrepreneuial standpoint, there has never been a more optimal time make a difference and actually do a lot with what we have right now! Here’s someone that all of you should follow. Ironically his blog is called How to change the world, once you get there if you have not heard of him, it won’t take you long to appreciate what he does with his time.

Another person that really enagages in some great discussions about, well conversations is Chris Brogan, your day should consist of stopping by Chris’s blog to see what he is thinking. In fact he has a post that I’m sure we all could relate to called, Be Sexier in Person. Not that Chris is blogging about sexy he is in person, just read the post.

You know who else I like, who else engages in light but interesting and thought provoking conversations? Mack Collier. he lays it out there in a way thats easy to digest. In actuality there are A LOT of conversations going on out there that I would like to take part in, but my god, would I ever get anything done?

I think whats important to keep in mind is that we all love to talk, or we wouldn’t be blogging but you tell me what do you want to get out of your next conversation? Are you into what you can contribute or what you can take away from it? What is your favorite blog and why?

Suffice it to say, I’m glad we’re in the age of the conversation and excited about where we are headed, wherever that may be.

Last thing. While I was writing this I had Pandora on in the backround and heard the most riveting acoustic version of “One”. The song originally sung by U2 was being sang by Warren Haynes at Bonnaroo, Check it out and tell me what you think.

Best ROI in the next 6 months and other random thoughts

Posted on June 12, 2008 by marc meyer

Did you know, and I have this scrawled on a napkin, so that means I read it somewhere… but that the best ROI in the next 6-12 months will be broken down this way:

-Search 30%

-Email 18%

-Mobile 8%

-Digital Advertising 18%

-Social Networking 21%

-Other 5%

A couple of thoughts. The first being that you will see wholesale changes in those numbers. I have been telling anyone willing to listen and in interviews that the 3 things that people, marketers, advertisers and businesses should be aware of over the next 12-18 months are: Mobile, Social, and Search. Why, well lets think about this… The one indispensable thing that you have and need every day. What is it? What one thing is no more than a foot from you at all times? What bill always gets paid? That’s right, your mobile device, your phone, your extension of YOU.

Quick thought; Do we now as a society, judge people on the type of phone they have? The same way we do when it comes to cars? Maybe not, since 10 year olds are now armed with them.

Ok So here’s the phone( I’m using the g-phone prototype as my example) and with it, the browsers are getting and will be getting quicker, the rates are dropping, the interfaces more user friendly, and lastly, lo and behold- a news bastion of advertising landscape has opened up. Marketers now have another way to reach a captive audience. How? Through ads driven by search, contextual and paid. Search is going to be huge for mobile. Bottom line-Google knows whats up.

Ok, so now we have the mobile part, we have the search part, but we’re lacking the other piece. I have written previously how social nets are still somewhat bourgeoisie, in that in some cases they are not accessible to everyone because of certain economic situations. But… even in extreme cases, people manage to have a cell phone. So, the next big extension of Social is and is moving towards a “Mobile Social” environment! Want an example of a mobile social environment? How about Brightkite? BTW, Does anyone know if they are still doing it by invite only? I’ve played around with Brightkite, and I must say it’s pretty cool. I can invite you if you need me to, just let me know.

On a side note, if you’re still curious, and have a spare $695 laying around on the dresser, emarketer has a mobile social report available, and I quote:

eMarketer forecasts that over 800 million people worldwide will be participating in a social network via their mobile phones by 2012, up from 82 million in 2007.

As my man in the Bud light commercials so aptly says it….”Dude”.. That is a major number. 800 million! That’s a tad south of a billion! One last thing, did you see the last ROI figure from the above list? “Other” was going to have 5% market share! Which means someone is utilizing or going to utilize “other” to their benefit over the next 6-12 months, but they have chosen not to share with us, what “other” is? Anyone care to venture a guess?

Last thing, I have another piece of info I want to share with you, and this is for all the folks out there, that have marketing on the mind but do not know where to put forth their efforts. This is a list of online marketing tactics, how many of these do you use?

Affiliate marketing
Corporate web site
RSS advertising
PPC
Behavioral targeting
User generated content
SEO
Mobile Advertsing
Widgets
Contextual advertising
Video Marketing
Virtual Tradeshows
Webinars
Virtual worlds
Rich media avatars
Rich media apps
Podcasts
Advergames
Social networks
Forums/BBS
Online display ads
Branded microsites
Email marketing
Cross branding
Microblogging
Social bookmarking
e-commerce feeds
Viral marketing/WOMM
Online PR
Online contests
Free content
Paid reviews
Blog advertising
Blogger relations

Here are a ton of questions for you:

How many of the above do you recognize or know?

How many of those are you reading about for the first time?

How many have you actually used?

How many have you used with some success?

How many of those make more sense now than they ever have?

How many of those will you absolutely never use again?

How many of those are indispensable to your success?

I think what you’ll find is you can still use certain elements of them and have various degrees of success assuming that you know what you are doing. But at the least, now you have an idea of what you should be aware of when you get pitched or maybe I’ve given you some ideas on what might work with a particular challenging client. Either way, Good luck!

Social Media Dumbed Down

Posted on June 11, 2008 by marc meyer

Common Craft is a two person, husband and wife company that makes videos that are short, simple and focused on making complex ideas easy to understand. One of those ideas/videos that I absolutely love is about social media. It’s “dumbed down” to levels that even the most stubborn, stodgy, old school, CEO can understand. They use a whiteboard-and-paper format that is designed to cut out the noise and stick to what matters. See what you think and share with others!

Social networking is hard work!

Posted on June 9, 2008 by marc meyer

Or is it? Does it make my life more fun? Is it eventful? I’m not as bad as Tom Foremski who had 37, 240 unread emails in his account when he wrote an article about it. all I can say is wtf? Tom… Slacker! But actually Tom’s dilemna probablly mirrors others.

Maybe this is me? Courtesy of Geek and Poke titled “I have no time, I have to be social.”

Sometimes I feel like it. Actually I feel guilt if I haven’t posted anything on the blog. But seriously, don’t you sometimes feel like you have to hit all of these social sites to a) check in and b) see whats up and c) to be dissapointed when nothing is happening? I’ve often blogged about social media saturation and in fact, asked it of my Linkedin brethren, but I had phrased the question a bit differently. It went something like this:

What do you think the formula should be for social media saturation? Have we reached it yet?

The question is really more about saturation levels in regards to how much more we can take, but the answers were more of a, has social media reached critical mass bent. In fact Jon Udell had a post titled, “Critical mass and social network fatigue” in which he wrote,

Increasingly I’ve begun to feel the same way about the various social networks. How many networks can one person join? How many different identities can one person sanely manage? How many different tagging or photo-uploading or friending protocols can one person deal with?

He wrote that over a year ago, I wonder what he feels now. The social networking stratosphere has grown exponentially since then and the problem is…

There are wayyyy too many cool apps and new social networks out there to ignore and NOT join in the conversation! Right?

Andrew Chen writes about his view on social networking and going from zero to critical mass in which he says that there are quite a few variable involved in getting to the top, the most important being, users. So another question I would offer up is, What do new developers and entrepreneurs feel about joining such a crowded space where critical mass is imperative, cash is usually dependant on advertisers and their users are already inundated with other social nets that they are a part of????

I’m going to botrrow one more time from Andrew Chen in which he writes the following:

Does everyone remember Metcalfe’s Law? It was formulated by Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet and co-founder of 3Com, who stated: The value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system (n²).

I’m cool with that. My only problem is, I want to spread myself thin. Yes sometimes I exhale as I run through logins and pw’s, and I’m always on the lookout for something new and cool but… I’m actually not sure what I’m looking for, I’m constantly looking for IT, but it has not been developed yet. Most Social Net’s are for the most part a lot alike. And maybe thats why we are members of more than one, because the one is not the ONE. Maybe we’ll know when we get there, but for now it seems like most of us are willing to maintain out memberships in multiple social nets, even if it means working a bit to keep them updated and current.

Viral Message. When marketers hope we get it. Did you?

Posted on June 7, 2008 by marc meyer

Here is a) a great message b) a video that has the potential to be viral and c) Is well done. .When you get to the end of the video, is it what you thought the message would be?

10 reasons why you have no business launching a widget, yet.

Posted on June 6, 2008 by marc meyer

“Whip up some numbers that make it look like we have, like, I don’t know, a thousand HD channels.” – Cable Corp, Inc. VP

You know those DirectTV spots that have been running as of late? A bunch of suits sitting around trying to guess what the customer might want. That’s happening a lot lately. What’s funny is that in a lot of situations, these groups have some really talented people sitting at these tables and yet they blamestorm or better yet, come up with really shitty ideas that are fast-tracked. I don’t get that. How can good smart people come up with such bad stuff? That’s probablyy a whole ‘nuther blog post in and of itself but for today we’re going to talk about something that I guarantee you is on the lips of some of these aformentioned people. Widgets.

I got a great idea, lets make a widget, that should drive some major traffic!

You don’t have a clue do you?

Reason #1 You probablly have heard of a widget but in actuality you don’t have a clue as to what they are. Widgets are essentially cute little applications that you can run on your desktop that will entertain you, provide informtaion, keep you in the loop etc. All in little snippets. Here’s an example.

This widget helps you find cheap gas in your area. Good luck with that.

So anyways, you’re a marketer or an executive and you’ve now heard of these and sorta seen them in action and you think, we need widgets. Which leads to:

Facebook, what’s Facebook?

Reason #2 You probably don’t even know where to put your “company created” widget. Do you even know where to put it? “ok it’s built, now what”? If you’re group created it, does your company have a Facebook presence to support it since that’s generally where they thrive? How about a blog?

My audience is…

Reason #3 To build and distribute your widget, that would mean that you know exactly who are your target audience is and know that they would benefit from a widget. How well do you know your customer?

Let’s sell something and cut to the chase!

Reason #4 You will probabally bust out the sales speak on your widget and the pitch will be oozing all over your widget because you think it’s a way to sell more product. Wrong. Widgets are about branding, are about fun and are about entertainment. Though utility driven widgets are useful, they do not have the same impact as one that needs to be shared with others.

Yea we have a website, my son built it at school..

Reason #5 If your internet presence is not where it needs to be then you really don’t need to be jumping into the mix with a widget. To begin with, how do you rank organically in the search engines. What about any type of online presence? Does it exist? It’s one thing to brand a new product, but how about establishing some branding objectives for an existing product or company? What if your outfit has some negative stuff out there in cyberspace? What’s a widget going to do?

Customer service 101 and our monthly email blast

Reason #6 If you’re not talking to your customers, then you have no idea what your customers would want from a widget. If your marketing efforts are intrusion based, then chances are your widget would be the same. If you’re talking at them, then chances are, your widget is going to miss the mark. If your marketing efforts consist of a monthly email blast with hundreds of bounce backs, then you got it going on.

If we build it, they’ll come

Reason #7 If you think your widget is going to drive traffic and sales, then you’re missing the point. Widgets are about building brand loyalty. Successful widgets encourage, promote, gather, share, and provide ways to communicate with…ta da… your customer. And ultimately a successful widget is viral.

I heard it works, isn’t that enough?

Reason #8 You don’t know what you want, and you don’t even use them, nor do you have any familiarity about them. Ahh that makes sense, let’s do it! Doesn’t it make sense to test drive something before you adopt it? Before you launch something, shouldn’t you see if its something that you are comfortable with? Do some research, knucklehead, don’t just listen to me! Here’s a nice snippet on What is a good widget from Phil Butler.

Just do it, we’ll worry about the little stuff later

Reason #9 You can’t build it on the notion or the premise that you hope it will work. You need to have a clear idea of why you’re doing it and what your expectations are. Is your message clear or will it be? Do you know what you want the deliverables to be? How you are going to measure the results? If building a widget is something that came up in a meeting, move onto something more tangible.

The competition is doing it and thats good enough for me

Reason #10 Widgets can be and are a logical extension of your brand, but only if you’re knee deep in the online world. You can’t just have a brochure ware type of site and expect that to be enough to push your brand over the top with a widget supporting it. The customer, the user, that you are trying to reach, is doing more now with the tools provided, than ever before. Widgets, blogs, pod-casts, online video, pr, and microsites/landing pages are all ways to extend the reach of your brand online. But first things first. Make sure your offline house is in order and then do the requisite online things necessary before you even think about having the conversation about launching a widget.

Have you had success building and launching a widget? have a horror story? Know of a clueless boss? What Sayeth you?