Social media, social web, marketing and Twitter hints, tips & advice – Liz Hover's Diary of a Web Gal

I’m a huge fan of Adam Singer who runs a wonderful blog called The Future Buzz.

He recently put together a useful post about the future marketer’s skill set. I really love what he includes and wanted to share this with you.

Below I have only abbreviated Adam’s post. Please read the full post here: Tomorrow’s marketing skill set

1.  Writing skills are critical

2.  Meaningful insight into analytics/interpretation of data

3.  Nexus of marketing specializations

4.  Digital strategy development

5.  Leadership

6.  Not afraid to fail

7.  Always experimenting

8.  Understanding of tools/technologies/applications/programming languages

9.  Fresh thinking with content

10.  An understanding of how to orchestrate buzz

11.  They’ll be members of the media

12.  Content marketing will be second nature

13.  They will champion niche media over mass

14.  Understanding of the rules that govern groups

15.  Ability to tap power users and influencers

In the past two weeks I happened to mention to my husband and another friend that they can hide the activity of their Facebook friends who constantly play Farmville and Mafia Wars.

It occurred to me that others would probably want to know how to hide the game updates too.

I’m not talking about hiding the friend from the Facebook stream entirely.

Facebook was kind enough to give us the ability to hide the gaming activity.

You can try it now. Go to Facebook and look through your news stream for those irritating non-sensical updates.

Hover your mouse over the update until you see ‘Hide’ pop up on the right. Click it and you’ll be given the option of hiding Mafia Wars, Farmville or whatever the annoyance is. Or you can hide that friend entirely.

Easy. Simple and no-one gets hurt.

I promised that 2010 would be a year of speaking presentations about social media. And damn it if that isn’t the truth.

I’ve already notched up four in Winnipeg and it’s only February.

I was approached by the lovely folks at the National Film Board (NFB) to deliver workshops to filmmakers in Edmonton and Calgary. And so in March NFB’s Content Manager Matt Forsythe and me will blaze a trail (of sorts) through Alberta, Canada with the aim of teaching filmmakers how to use social media tools to build an audience and promote their projects.

This is Matt Forsythe by the way

This is really exciting stuff (I work for the National Screen Institute, a Canada-wide film and TV training school). Best of all, these are FREE workshops.

I’ve been super fired up about new models of film marketing and distribution. Largely because the internet/social media tools and independent film distribution have come together in in a beautiful synchronicity that makes so much sense to me.

I don’t remember when I started noticing this but reading Jon Reiss’ book Think Outside the Box Office was a big thing for me which led to my audio interview with him.

Then the Sundance/Slamdance festivals generated lots of innovative thinking among filmmakers. Again, it was like, hallelujah!, this is life-changing.

This blog isn’t about film distribution so I won’t harp on about it but I want to acknowledge the coming together of two important things.

Wanna attend this free event for filmmakers? Visit the links on Facebook below and RSVP. We hope to see you there.

You must be logged into Facebook to view the following links.

• March 4, Edmonton

• March 5, Calgary

PS: At my last social media presentation I began with a story about finding a $4,000 day-long social media seminar that promised to teach you the secrets of social media. I promise that the workshops delivered by NSI and NFB will also teach you the secrets of social media. But it will cost you considerably less.

First, I’ll admit that this is pretty much a duplicate of a post I made today over on the National Screen Institute’s website.

But not entirely.

I don’t think much of Google Buzz, ok?

I love Google, for the record.

The basic premise: Google wants in on the social media thang. Google Buzz is their trump card.

Or something.

This is my comment on the proposition, not the product.

According to Google’s official blog:

Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It’s built right into Gmail, so you don’t have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch.

If you think about it, there’s always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don’t have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you’re sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.

So far I’m not that impressed with it – largely because I only use my Gmail accounts to log in to Feedburner, YouTube and a bunch of other Google-operated sites.

I’m also a prolific Twitter and Facebook user and don’t see the sense in adding yet another network to the list.

Sure, I can add my Twitter account so my tweets appear on Buzz but I’d rather folks just follow me on Twitter.

I can see the benefit for regular users of Gmail. Send mail and chat with your pals all in one place. Which makes sense.

Are you using Google Buzz? Let me know what you think.

Thanks to my friend, the wonderful Erica Glasier, for the illustration at the top of this page available under a Creative Commons License.

It’s Tamar Weinberg to the rescue again (or more acurately guest blogger Glen Allsopp writing on Tamar’s site.)

If we could all somehow connect telepathically, I would save so much time!

As Glen points out in his post on Tamar’s site, there has always been a joke on the social web about folks claiming to ’social media experts.’

These folks are a dime a dozen.

Which muddies the waters for everyone.

Long ago I read that social media isn’t an add on; it isn’t something that your marketing director suddenly has ‘to do.’ It should underscore all your communications.

According to Glen a real social media expert should:

1. Highlight others
2. Grow bigger ears
3. Accept a new normal
4. Make everything else irrelevant
5. Ignore social media ‘checklists’ or top lists

If you’re looking to weed out the pretenders from the real McCoy, check out Glen’s post: 5 things true social media experts do online.

(PS: Glen rocks. And he’s only 20. I am in AWE).

This post was contributed by artist Vicki Boatright (aka BZTAT).

She specializes in contemporary artwork of dogs and cats. She is known worldwide for her unique and colorful pet portraits. I helped to create her website BZTAT Studios after meeting her in the Twitterverse.

The author of this blog is a British gal living in Canada. I live in Canton, OH in the USA. According to Google Maps, we are 1,254 miles and two countries apart.

How did we meet?

You guessed it. Social media.

The beauty of social media is that it knows no borders. It brings people together from all parts of the world and it allows us to develop relationships globally.

One year ago, I rarely communicated with people outside of my local geographical area that were not family or close friends. Now, I communicate with people from all over the United States, the United Kingdom and other European countries, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, etc. on a daily basis.

Through the use of Twitter, Facebook, my blog and other social media networks, I have been able to develop my “brand” as an animal artist, and I have a following from all over the world.

People not only know me, they enthusiastically support me and celebrate my artwork internationally.

Some of my best friends and fans are half a world away. How did that happen?

All I can say is, it just did.

It can happen for you, too, if you want it to.

My experience has been that people who do not feel successful with social media have somehow imposed limitations on themselves that restrict their networks. If you get too hung up on limiting things instead of allowing things to unfold and develop, you won’t have much success.

Twitter has changed my life, as that network more than any other has given me a global reach. It took awhile for me to understand it and to develop my niche with it, but once I gained some confidence, it opened up an infinite number of possibilities. Allowing those possibilities to develop, I believe, is what distinguishes me from others who have given up and said, “Twitter is too ADD for me!”

My suggestions for maximizing Twitter and other social media networks:

• Be yourself, be creative, and tell an interesting story. Share things about yourself that are unique and intriguing to others. For me, the story is told by my cat @BrewskieButt who lives with an artist @ in an emerging arts district in downtown Canton, OH. He shares about his life as the cat of an artist, connects with other pet oriented people, and he tweets about the Canton Arts District.




• Be social, friendly and helpful. No one likes a one sided conversation. Respond to the tweets of others and get to know people. Offer to help folks who have questions that you can answer. Ask questions when you need help. Twitter is a very Pay-It-Forward kind of community.




• Share interesting photos via Twitpic. People love pictures! I post photos of my artworks in progress, so that people can watch the piece develop. This, more than anything has “hooked” people on my artwork.




• When at a loss for words, post an interesting quote or link. We can’t always have a clever one liner in us to post, but followers love to find interesting quotes and informative links from others.




• Find people that you admire and learn from them. Watch what others do and see what works for them. You don’t have to copy them, but find ways to incorporate their ideas into your own personal style.




• Be real. Authenticity is important. The more genuine you are, the more closely people will want to follow you and your brand or ideas.




• Use an application that allows you to group your followers. I use Tweetdeck because it allows me to group followers that I want to follow more closely. With groups, I can be more liberal about who I follow back without getting overwhelmed by zillions of tweets that drown out the ones I want to follow the most.

Have fun! Enjoy the adventure that social media can bring you!

(Globe image by Horia Varlan on Flickr under a Creative Commons License)

I’m about to deliver my final social media seminar in a series that I’ve designed for the National Screen Institute.

We’ve looked at Twitter and Facebook and this Wednesday I’ll tackle some of the other stuff that makes up a social media toolkit including blogging, RSS, FriendFeed, StumbleUpon and LinkedIn.

One message I’ve carried through these seminars is that social media is hard work. Bloody hard work.

I’ve been asked by seminar participants, ‘How much time should I devote to this stuff?’

And I’ve not been able to put a number on it. All I can say is work hard at it, be patient, consistent and you will eventually see results.

I think there is still a perception that having Twitter and Facebook accounts along with a handful of others is enough to tick the social media marketing box.

It isn’t.

You can’t do the social media thing half-heartedly.

You almost have to live it which means making it an intrinsic part of your everyday life.

This reminds me of something I recently heard …

Once upon a time we all had radio and TV came along. We had tapes and vinyl and CDs came along. We had VHS and Beta cassettes and DVD came along. People derided the new way. Soon the new way was the way. I think the same is true of the social web. It takes time for these behaviours to weave themselves into your life.

But I’m quite serious when I say social media is hard freakin’ work.

Making connections on the web is hard work.

Writing regular blog posts is hard work.

Keeping up three Twitter accounts is hard work.

Maintaining two Facebook accounts is hard work.

Delivering social media seminars is hard work.

But wait.

For me, hard work doesn’t mean ‘unenjoyable.’ It means I have to put my heart and soul into all that I do (and consequently sleep a lot at weekends!)

The social web and many of its parts are my passions.

Which is why I think social media isn’t necessarily for everyone.

If you don’t care enough, you’ll do a poor job of representing your company online.

If you’re gonna dive into this social media thing, do it with both feet and prepare for deep water.

Photo courtesy of ittybittiesforyou via a Creative Commons Licence