Entries Tagged 'Social Media, an Essential Tool for World Domination' ↓

This week, 999 or so search marketers, social media experts, fellow tech geeks and I showed up in Las Vegas for the Pubcon conference, by Webmaster World.

So far, I have seen a man put a garden rake into a blender (somewhat disappointing, as he only blended the handle, not the spokes) heard a middle-aged woman sigh in complete contentment on the monorail and say, “Oh Doreen, this is the life,” and watched Brian Carter give away a pony stuffed into a handbag.

I’ve also learned how search and social media go together like PB&J, how online marketing and B2C interaction is changing, and where to scope out your nemeses (or competitors, for the conventional) and learn all their secrets.

I’ve discovered that personalization and engagement are the future of online advertising and confirmed that people are looking for relevant, useful content rather than sales pitches with scads of corporate blather. Also, apparently people, we’re getting smarter.

That last one was a real shocker, because we are the reality TV generation that, at one point, embraced the macarena. But they say we’re actually technologically smarter these days.

Consumers now have websites and blogs. We’re familiar with Facebook or LinkedIn or Digg or Twitter. We read newspapers online, and watch and create shared videos regularly. We have proved our intelligence by uploading episodes of My Little Ponies onto YouTube, so that the Baby Sea Ponies and the Flutter Ponies will never be forgotten.

In addition to the useful content provided by Pubcon speakers, the conference was a hit because I got toys. I got a couple of hats, some silly putty, a very sad chicken salad (but hey, free food), and a first aid kit with many band-aids. I plan to use these band-aids at a later date to create a Great Work of North American Art, which I’m allowed to do, because my degree says so.

Best of all were the little OCD pocket notebooks. How did you know that the color-coded mini post-its would fill the obsessively organized with light and joy? Oh, you clever Pubcon, you.

Overall, nice job Brett Tabke & Company. Great show, and many new things learned.

Salmon Can Type!

I got an IM from a coho tonight. In case you’ve never seen one, that’s a coho there, on the right.

How did this happen?! I mean, no thumbs. No fingers, even. You can’t fool me, I said, cohos can’t type.

I wasn’t all that surprised to get a random IM, although the fish thing did kind of throw me for a second. I post one of my AIM screen names online, so every now and then I get a message from a name I don’t recognize.

Salmon are Rude

So I wasn’t worried when I couldn’t place my good friend BunnyCoho when he or she IMed me. Being A) relatively polite to strangers and B) insatiably curious, I IMed back. Mistake. If I want to listen to a random person insult me, I’ll turn left from a right turn lane in downtown Salem. Then at least I’ll deserve it.

Oh, Disappointment, Salmon are Actually Just People

It turns out, this is not intended to be SPAM or general harassment. This is a social experiment. TheGreatHatsby is a bot that scoops LiveJournal account screen names, and randomly matches the users up. The insidious thing is that it’s done in such a way that each participant believes the other one contacted them first.

This is kind of a neat idea. I like to talk with new people, and I’m all for new methods of online communication. But if you’re going to initiate unsolicited communication between people without any advance notice of the experiment, you’re going to piss a lot of people off. So, unless the goal of the project is to create irritated misanthropes, you might have missed the mark a bit.

According to the Wikipedia article, this bot died out in 2007. TheGreatHatsby was replaced by the Salmon bots, which are essentially the same, but less private (your screen name may or may not be filtered) and more confusing (text is randomly edited). Screen names may appear as (adjective)Trout, (adjective)Salmon or (adjective)Coho.

Oh Good, I’m Not Crazy, Being Hacked or Being Spammed

My thanks to Morouxshi.com, for the instructions on how to opt out (type $optout as a response) and livejournal’s themissinghat for explaining what the heck was going on.

Good luck to Project Upstream as well. I was glad to have a reason to learn about something new, and you can surely add one more misanthrope to your tally.

Image credit: red coho

Leanne’s Perspective on Networking in Real Life

I used to think networking was like serial-dating.

You walk into a room full of ready-to-connect (or at least, mildly hopeful) people, and walk out with as many business cards as you can carry comfortably in one of those huge business-style purses, which is to say about fifty or sixty thousand.

After attempting this a few times, I realized that this is not the way to go. I’d leave with the cards, but I’d have only vague ideas of who these people were, and probably made even less of an impression myself. Also, my purse was heavy.

A 2 minute chat is unlikely to lead to a meaningful connection. Especially if you’re just covering the basics, and aren’t really listening to each other.

Ask more specific questions. For example, instead of asking what someone does for a living, ask them what they’re currently working on, what they’re reading, or their thoughts on the infamous Shetland Pony Massacre of ‘73, then wipe a tear from your eye and blow your nose loudly. This last one tends to scare people, but at least you’ll be memorable.

The point is, delve into your conversation a bit more, and see if you have any common ground. You won’t always, but extend to people the courtesy of spending more than 30 seconds to find out. Unless they’re dead boring. Then, covertly set your suit sleeve on fire, pretend to panic, and make your escape.

Leanne’s Perspective on Networking Online

This applies to social networking, too. Ask yourself these questions - Who are my connections? Why are I connected with them? If I was trapped in a room with all of them for 72 hours, which of them would move me to attempt self-immolation?

There are good and bad reasons to add people to your network. Some people like to add everyone who reaches out them. Some people go hunting for connections, and add dozens of random people, just to be connected. With so many directories out there (“The Top 50 most connected people out of 26 million+ LinkedIn members!”, Twitter’s Top Followed, Plurkmania), it’s easy to decide that EVERYONE is your friend, or should be.

But how much time do you take to devote to these friendships?

Alternatively, some people only add people they know in real life. This turns me off more than soggy beets soaked in bleu cheese dressing. Making new connections is part of the beauty of social networking - not only can you find or form communities with others with common interests, but you can connect with people completely out of your everyday arena as well.

My goal is to strive for a happy medium. This is tough for me, because I tend to do things to excess. To keep myself in check, I go by this system: I add real life personal and professional contacts if they use the same networks as I do, and after that I only add people who seem particular witty, kind, or informative. And yes, I have my share of gurus whom I add because I want to learn from them.

Questions for You (Yes, You, You Sexy Beast.)

Those are my guidelines, what are yours?

How meaningful are your connections? How would you define a meaningful connection?

Are you a good connection (do you offer others time, your services, your advice or connections)?

And most importantly, what are your thoughts on the infamous Shetland Pony Massacre of ‘73?

Image credit: Purse & pony.