by Scott Howard | Aug 8, 2012 | ScLoHo's Web World
There is an issue that these two social media platforms are having difficulty with.
Money.
Facebook is being looked at as their stock prices fall, as a potential bust.
Now, more than ever before, the Social Media Giant that Zuck created to get a date, is under pressure to grow in value on the stock market.
Personally, I think it was wrong to go public and stay public right now.
There is a problem regarding the shift from the desktop/laptop environment to the mobile/smartphone/tablet environment that is going on and is out of the control of Facebook.
Facebook makes money by selling ads.
The smaller screens of mobile devices are not ad friendly.
So until Facebook comes up with a way to address this issue, there will be problems. And unhappy stock holders.
Twitter on the other hand, has been trying to figure out a way to actually earn some bucks instead of relying on venture capital for survival.
Twitter tried to control the Tweet market by buying Tweetdeck and other social media applications that we use in conjunction with Twitter, but it’s not really working. The theory was if we control the stream of tweets, we can also sell ad-tweets and push them to the Tweeps.
It’s not working.
So will Twitter and Facebook disappear due to money problems?
I doubt it. They have too many fans and followers, (users) who rely on them.
But still they have to make money.
Seth Godin wrote a few ideas recently regarding how Twitter can start bringing in the big bucks.
Basically, Seth suggests Twitter offer a premium Twitter experience for a small fee of $10 a month.
Read Seth’s idea here.
If Twitter takes his advice, Twitter will stay the same for most of us, and they will start operating in the black. This will give them a healthier future than Facebook.
What do you think?
by Scott Howard | Aug 1, 2012 | ScLoHo's Web World
Simple advice today.
Buy your domain.
Buy your kids domain.
Even if you don’t know what you are going to do with it yet.
This is a lesson I wish I knew back before August 1998, but that was never on my mind back then.
That’s when the dot com version of ScottHoward was bought and so when I bought my namesake I had to pick something that was still available.
by Scott Howard | Jul 25, 2012 | ScLoHo's Web World
There is a huge problem with the way most businesses use social media to drum up customers.
The typical business or brand creates a Facebook page and pushes people to Like them.
Then they wonder why they aren’t being bombarded by new customers spending lots of money and paving the way to riches.
Step back from your misguided efforts and think about why people use social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ to name a few.
Social Media is usually a way to communicate and share with others.
These others are usually people you know, or friends of people you know and the conversations we have with each other are not sales pitches.
And most Business/Brand activity falls into the sales pitch classification.
Sure, people are talking about you or the work/services/products you can provide and it seems to make sense that they would want to talk with you, but…
Social Media is about relationships, and if your social media activity is not relationship based, you are going to be ignored or even worse, you are going to irritate.
Now I’d like to hear about businesses that are doing it right.
Feel free to add some in the comments.
by Scott Howard | Jun 26, 2012 | ScLoHo's Web World
As I type, our moderator Kevin Mullett is wrapping up today’s Social Media Breakfast Fort Wayne.
We have these events on a monthly basis, #SMBFW is the hashtag. The next one is July 31st.
The format for today was break-out with groups of 4 to 8 at a table answering questions and then sharing those answers with the entire gathering.
We only got two questions in and here they are along with the summary answers:
How is online networking like off line networking
- Take care of customer concerns
- Communication paths to build relationships
- Building relationships with like minded people
- Limitations of time vs limitations of 140 characters
- Mutual contacts/connections
- Need to maintain regular presence & attendance
- Create Top of Mind Awareness
- Introductions to new people
- Listening is better than talking
- More about the interaction than the numbers in attendance/followers
- Both can be used to learn, grow and stay connected
- Content (message) is the similar
- Both start out small, but can grow
How is online marketing like direct mail
- Wide audience, targeted
- Can be overdone, creating clutter and annoyance
- Graphic elements. Facebook lets you post pics, Twitter lets you post links to pics
- Provide top of mind awareness
- Updates from businesses that you want to receive because of being targeted.
- Relevance. Audience Matched.
- Have to be short and sweet.
- Starts with one way communication
- Results not always measurable.
- Both can be spammy
- They can work together, complimentary
There you go, hope to see you next month
by Scott Howard | Jun 14, 2012 | ScLoHo's Web World
I started my public online life as a blogger.
Once I got the hang of it and developed the discipline to post every day, things really took off.
I was asked to speak, to advice, to host, even offered a few paying positions along the way.
Some folks think that a way to measure success is by the number of comments you get on your blog.
If that was the only measurement tool, I would be considered a failure.
Sunday I wrote about the Decline of the Wrist Watch and scheduled the article to appear at 9am Tuesday morning. The next day there was 1 comment posted.
Some would say, “You did all that writing for 1 lousy comment?!?!”
I say, “Thanks for posting the comment for others to read and comment on too”
Most of the reaction and comments I get from what I place on my website are not in the form of a comment on this website!
Sometimes they are spoken face to face. But often times they are on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
How do they end up on those other platforms?
Promotion.
I have 2 things set up to happen automatically when a new article is published on this website:
A Tweet is sent out to the 3,000 or so Twitter followers of ScLoHo with the title and first few words and a hyperlink to the full article.
The full article is also posted on my Tumblr blog at http://scloho.tumblr.com/ .
Then I sometime within 24 hours I often Tweet a link to the article again with different wording.
I may also use Buffer to schedule another tweet linking to that same article. Buffer is a tool that you can use to schedule Tweets with links at times that you have predetermined.
The Decline of the Wristwatch article received at least 3 more comments and 3 more ReTweets because of the promotion via twitter.
I also selectively use Facebook and LinkedIn to promote articles. This one I put on Facebook and there were multiple comments and shares.
Another way these articles are being shared is via news letters that people subscribe to and receive in their email daily. Occasionally an article will appear on someones Paper.li account too.
With all of these ways to spread a post on your blog, it is nearly impossible to accurately track who is and how many people are reading what you wrote. Comments are always welcome no matter where you place them is my philosophy.
And tomorrow, I’ll have a real quick follow up story on something I touched on today.
by Scott Howard | Jun 8, 2012 | ScLoHo's Web World
Yesterday I rambled a bit about my history and the topic of Creating a Niche for your Blog.
Today a quick list of suggestions based on what I have learned.
- Invest in yourself by buying your domain.
- To really invest in yourself, also set up your site with a hosting provider that you pay instead of relying on free services that you have no control over.
- Post updates consistently. I recommend daily. I know that sounds like a lot, but the reasons are multiple. Readers like daily updates. We tend to forget you if you skip days or weeks. Search Engines like updates. Google is always looking for the best fresh content. This is one of the easiest ways to establish yourself, by being found on Google. But this also presents a problem with time management. But I have an answer.
- Write updates ahead of time. There was no way I could have posted 3 to 5 times a day on my blogs and worked 50+ hours a week at my paying job if I had to work in real time. Even now with one update at 9am every day, I am not always available to do this 7 days a week. And so I don’t. Unlike Facebook which only allows you to write and post in real time, you can write and schedule updates with most website/blog platforms. I am usually 5 to 8 days ahead when I write which also removes the pressure to write. * Guess what…Facebook is now allowing post scheduling in certain circumstances.
- Promote your website with other social media. Every day my updates are promoted on Twitter automatically. Every week I update my LinkedIn profile with a link to something on my website. Same thing with Facebook.
- Promote again. We live in a fast paced world. I don’t catch all of the updates and posts that others do on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter and I know they don’t catch all of mine either. I will promote with links, updates on Twitter more than once. Sometimes later in the week, or later in the month. Sometimes later in the day. People are busy but they want to have the opportunity to read what you write, so give it to them.
- Create a community by Promoting others. If you only promote yourself, you become a self-serving me-monster that comes off as being spammy. Add comments to other peoples blogs. Retweet. Press the Share Button on Facebook. Thank others publicly. Write recommendations for others on LinkedIn.
- Use tools you are already using, differently. My email signature includes a link to my website. Does yours? Do your business cards include your online contact info? I had cards made up specifically for that purpose so when I give someone one of my radio station cards, I also give them a personal card.
- Get Involved in face to face activities. Hiding in a room with your laptop, or being so involved with work that no one gets to see you and form face to face relationships rarely works. I touched on this subject recently.
- Be genuine. You are your niche. Be honest. Be opinionated about your passions. Be Real.
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