Jun
23
What is Wrong with Ning
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, News, Ning Sites, SPAM, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Web Marketing | 17 Comments
Nearly a year has passed since my first Ning article, Ning Social Networking Sites.
Since then online social networking has taken some exciting twists and turns. MySpace has lost luster, while Facebook and Twitter have become social media darlings.
Ning Still Facing Obstacles
Ning seems to be in somewhat of a holding pattern.
There have been some changes here and there, mostly for the better in my opinion, but no exciting breakthroughs. There are new apps, a new Ning central networking site, and new flexibility, but site creators and users still have their reservations.
As mentioned in Ning Social Network Controversy, the Ning management has been criticized for its policies and its tactics and, as too many people are aware, Ning sites haven’t been immune to spamming by both Ning members and by intruders.
My Ning sites now all require membership pre-approval, since I know of no better way to deal with persistent outsider spamming.
What is Right with Ning
Despite any shortcomings, I still feel as when I wrote about the Ning controversy, that Ning truly epitomizes Web 2.0. Ning sites are communities of people, and Ning is a community of community sites.
I’ve certainly written a good deal about social media list building including both List Building Paradigm Shift and List Building Using Ning Social Networks. Nevertheless communities are the essence of social media, not lists, and social marketing must therefore favor community building over list building.
Fortunately Ning can be used to build either communities or lists. There are creative ways to build communities within Facebook and Twitter, but Ning networks were designed expressly for that purpose and afford marketers a variety of useful tools and a degree of social media ownership.
Ning Still My Favorite Networks
I still use Ning social networking sites more than all others. I like them for the reasons cited above and for the many other reasons I’ve discussed in previous Ning related articles.
I have so far created four Ning sites of my own and hope to create more in the future:
- Let’s Follow Each Other - This is a fun networking site for Twitter folk who want to gain followers, share ideas, promote themselves and network with each other.
- Beyond Business Coaching - This is a site for entrepreneurs and marketing professionals who are interested in social media, customer acquisition, customer retention and CRM.
- Online Kosher Networking - This is a niche site for orthodox affiliated members of the Jewish faith to network and share their ideas about Jewish values, Israel, religious observance, charities, politics, jobs, business, etc.
- Outside the Box - If you enjoy my blog, but you don’t use Twitter, and you aren’t necessarily business oriented, this may be the right site for us to connect and network together.
In all fairness, I must tell you that Ning has competitors such as SocialGO, GROU.PS and others but admit that I haven’t yet evaluated them. If you have tried other social network platforms, I invite you to share your experiences with them.
To learn more about using Ning, please read Introduction to Using Ning Sites.
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Apr
19
Who Invented Social Networking?
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Outside the Box | 11 Comments
Throughout history social networking has been practiced at religious institutions, business associations, conventions, membership clubs and yes, pubs.
The ancient Babylonian Talmud[1] describes the Great Synagogue of Alexandria which was destroyed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan roughly 1900 years ago. This synagogue was one of the most magnificent edifices ever built.
When a poor person entered, he would recognize masters of his trade, and he would turn to them. That is how he would support himself and his family.
The Babylonian Talmud itself appears to be an early example of social media. It was compiled with source material, interpretations and arguments from notable scholars living in different places and in different periods of time.
I wouldn’t be surprised to discover plenty of additional examples from other religions and cultures.
Coming back to the present, all of us are familiar with social networking at parties, the work place or business mixers. Aren’t we?
How about public bulletin boards? They’re a common form of social media. People tack up or tape notices on them.
Letters to the editor turn pages of newspapers and magazines into social media.
What is new is Web 2.0, social networking sites and other social media sites. The advent of online social networking and online social media has revolutionized social networking, social marketing and publishing.
Online social networking and social media are global. They’re instantaneous. The “paper” and “postage” are essentially free. The “playing field” is level.
Now that’s real freedom of speech.
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
1. Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 51b, original in Hebrew
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Apr
5
Ning Social Network Controversy
Filed Under Alerts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, News, Ning Sites, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 18 Comments
A comment last week to my October 2008 blog post, Ning Social Networking Sites Update, linked back to Ning Exposed - Tech Company Scams its Clients, an article which sharply criticizes Ning’s latest business model and platform, and it alleges foul play on Ning’s part in reacting to complaints by network creators.
As a Ning social network creator and user, I happen to appreciate Ning’s recent platform improvements and tend to disagree with the article’s assessments. While the allegations of censorship are disturbing, my careful reading of Ning’s Terms of Service leaves me hopeful that Ning has acted fully within its rights.
Aggregating Ning Social Networking Sites
I have always looked at Ning as a family of social networking sites. An individual chooses to become a member one or many Ning sites.
Ning members can connect to become friends, and the friendships that they make will extend across sites. Friendships aren’t limited to the site at which they were forged.
I have found managing my Ning memberships and friendships across sites somewhat complicated, so I was pleased when Ning tied everything together for me in one place at Ning.com.
I always viewed myself as a member of the larger Ning community, not just the semi-independent sites which I created or joined, so aggregating Ning sites and Ning members made perfect sense to me. I didn’t view it at all as some kind of sinister plot.
Member Contact Across Ning Sites
The article referenced above mentions a “hole in the system, which is convenient for Ning, which allows people to gather friends across any website using Ning’s technology and then invite them all to join their website.”
The article is referring to the ability of members to share their favorite Ning social networks and content with all their friends across Ning sites as a convenient loophole, not as an intended and beneficial system feature.
I admit that this feature can be and is often abused by members, but that’s not Ning’s fault. The real problem is that people often make friendships indiscriminately. If the friendships were truly meaningful, they would naturally anticipate and welcome contact, even across sites.
Ning Social Concept Epitomizes Web 2.0
As I indicated before, I believe that Ning is true Web 2.0. It takes social collaboration a step farther than Twitter, Facebook, MySpace , LinkedIn and other social networking sites. Individual social networking sites are created and contributed by users, not just the content within these sites.
I applaud Ning for providing us with a unique social networking venue.
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Mar
29
Top 10 Social Marketing Challenges
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 10 Comments
I explained in Top 10 Reasons for Social Marketing why marketers need to add social media to their repertoire and promised to “write about the unique challenges that social media marketing poses” to early adopters.
Here then are my top ten challenges that social marketers will likely grapple with:
- Social media often meets with skepticism and resistance inside an organization. This reaction is normal to anything radically new. I suggest that you present social marketing to your colleagues as an experiment that will complement conventional multichannel marketing if successful, not replace it.
- Results aren’t achieved nearly as quickly with social media as they are with direct marketing techniques. When planning an experiment or production, be careful about forming unrealistic timing expectations.
- The social media learning curve is very steep. Few books or courses teach social marketing, and much of the information available online is unreliable or even biased. I recommend that you seek experienced outside professional help to chart your social marketing path, set policy and facilitate implementation.
- It’s easy to spin wheels and waste lots of time going nowhere. There are way too many interesting social networking sites and lots of hype surrounding them. Be sure to read Social Media Targeting for People and Businesses.
- Marketers tend to think in terms of generating leads and building databases rather than building a following and a community — new media style. Furthermore, social media is about relating person to person, not about relating impersonally to people as a company. Be prepared to think in new ways.
- Since social media is community oriented, contributing to one’s community is essential. It’s not enough to communicate just to customers or to prospects.
- Traditional push marketing and list building techniques are usually regarded as spam and are ineffective in the social media world. Old and new media approaches tend to be incompatible. In the social marketing paradigm information is made available online for discovery and hopefully action, and this process isn’t something that can be forced.
- Most newcomers to social marketing think one dimensionally and latch onto fads such as the social media site du jour. Social marketing isn’t one site or one strategy fits all. Once again I recommend Social Media Targeting for People and Businesses.
- Social media is still evolving rapidly and tends to be a moving target. While social media is global, participation in non-English speaking countries is stilted towards English speaking demographics such as students and upper classes. Remain alert to changes in technology and new opportunities that are bound to occur.
- Social media can work against a brand, not just for it — and can be very unforgiving. However, this is true even if companies elect not to use it for marketing or for their public relations. It’s therefore better to be proactive than reactive.
I’m sure you’ll agree that these are all important issues. I hope deal with them individually and in more detail in subsequent posts.
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Mar
15
When Social Networking Sites Compete
Filed Under Facebook, News, Ning Sites, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter | 14 Comments
When Twitter, Ning and Facebook Compete
Major social networking sites are constantly competing for new users and for a greater share of each user’s networking time.
When Twitter, Facebook and Ning social networks compete, you and I win. Social networking sites are forced to keep improving in order to keep us as members.
Competing Isn’t Easy
However, competing isn’t easy. Simply adding more features will not always produce better results. Added features might make a site slower, harder to comprehend or more difficult to navigate.
There are very many factors that social networking site owners need to consider and to balance when making site improvements. For example:
- Competitive Environment - What is the competition doing and not doing? How well is it working for them? Who are they targeting? How are they positioning and marketing themselves? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How can we neutralize their strengths and exploit their weaknesses?
- Functionality - What capabilities does our target market want? What can we offer? How will product enhancements be perceived?
- Design Consistency - How can we add capabilities while preserving our site’s overall look, feel and philosophy? What synergies can we achieve between new and existing functionality?
- Cost vs. Benefit - Social network owners must consider the trade off between benefit and cost of each potential site modification?
- Timing - How long will it take to roll out site modifications? Faster is generally better than slower when facing competition. Windows of opportunity can sometimes be very small.
- Monetization Strategies - How will changes affect the income social network owners derive from the site?
- Anticipating the Future - What is needed down the road? How will changes made now interact will future ones?
- Legal Issues - Any patents, trademarks, compliance, disclosures or other legal constraints to reckon with?
- Site Responsiveness - Are site response times acceptable? Can responsiveness be improved? How will social networking site modification affect responsiveness?
- Simplicity - Social networking sites and their features must be easy for members and prospective members to understand.
- Ease of Use - Sites must be easy and intuitive to navigate. Members need simple ways to achieve their online social networking objectives.
- Visual Appeal - Social networking sites need to look and feel right to members.
- Buzz - Social networking sites grow virally when members invite their friends to join. They need compelling reasons to reach out to their friends and easy-to-use mechanisms that automate the inviting process.
- Fun Factor - Members will not hang out at a site if it isn’t enjoyable. A positive user experience is critical to online social network success.
Twitter, Ning and Facebook are continually evolving. However, recent changes to Facebook seem to have been the most far reaching.
Recent Facebook Developments
Facebook changed the look and feel of the pages used by businesses, organizations and celebrities to make them more similar to personal profiles. As a result, overall Facebook design is simpler and perhaps a bit more intimate.
Furthermore, the way businesses and individuals can now both use the Facebook News Feed seems to more closely follow the Twitter model. This is especially good news for businesses, organizations and celebrities trying to communicate with their “fans” and acquire new ones.
My main Facebook complaints are: its persistent sluggishness, the deluge of quaint applications and requests, and the steep learning curve.
Recent Ning Developments
The way I see it, Ning takes the Web 2.0 concept a step farther than any of their competitors. That’s what makes Ning unique.
Not only do users create site content, they even create the individual Ning social networks themselves.
Ning encourages people to become members of multiple social networks. What has been sorely needed is a way to manage participation across these multiple networks from a central control panel. Ning has recently filled this need by creating a new super meta network at Ning.com that’s conceptually a network of networks.
I applaud Ning’s latest effort, but noticed couple of problems with the new meta social networking site:
- There isn’t yet a capability to manage outstanding friend requests across networks.
- The recent friends list isn’t correctly sorted.
Like Facebook, Ning social networks tend to be slow and quirky.
Recent Twitter Developments
The main thing I see at Twitter is a cleaner web interface with fewer rough edges.
Twitter like Facebook and Ning is doing its share to combat spam. Spam in social media is an ongoing problem.
Twitter is much faster than Facebook or Ning. I would however like to see better performance of the Twitter API as it affects the consistency of Twitter tools running on top of it. I can run Twitter Karma many times and get as many different results!
For me and others site performance can be an overriding issue. When a site is too slow, it can be emotionally too painful to endure. For that reason I spend most of my networking time on Twitter, even though conceptually I like Ning and Facebook about as much.
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Mar
8
All Your Social Media Eggs in One Basket
Filed Under Announcements, Facebook, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter | 12 Comments
I advised in The 80/20 Rule and Social Media not to spread yourself too thin trying to juggle too many social media sites at one time.
In this article I want to caution against another pitfall, falling in love with one social media site and putting all your eggs in one basket.
I’m not exactly sure why but I sense that many MySpace, Facebook and Twitter enthusiasts are married to their social networking favorite and reluctant to branch out.
Why NOT to Marry Your Social Media Site
Here are six ways you can benefit from a strategy that incorporates multiple social media sites:
- There’s a risk that your favorite site will decline in popularity, or that for a variety of reasons, some of your favorite people at that site may lose interest in logging in. If you connect at several sites or obtain personal contact information to network offline, your important relationships will be more secure.
- All social media sites allow you to share information and files, but each has its own unique structure and set of features. If you use several sites, these sites can complement each other’s functionality.
- No two social sites attract the identical people. Using several sites allows you to reach out to a greater number of people.
- Different sites attract different types of people. Using several sites allows you to reach out to a more diverse group of people and helps you to better target your social media.
- Using more forms of social media or more sites can favorably impact your web presence and your SEO efforts.
- The social networking masses tend over time to migrate from one site to another. If you’re lucky enough to have a head start on a site where they land, you might conceivably succeed at leveraging that head start to your advantage.
At the time I decided that a Twitter presence was valuable, I was happy not to be starting from scratch. So too with Facebook, when I started my new Facebook Page, I already had more than 500 Facebook friends.
To make it easy for you and I to connect, I set up a Connect page that includes all the social networking sites where I’m either very active or very established. Connecting on my favorite social sites will help us to communicate and will also help you to build your social media presence.
Important Heads Up Regarding Facebook
Facebook was in the forefront of online social networking news last week. Major changes were announced that make Facebook business pages more similar to Facebook personal profiles, and they make Facebook feeds more similar to Twitter timelines.
These changes are bound to further accelerate Facebook’s tremendous growth. Join me on the Facebook journey:
- Read Facing up to the competition for a brief overview that references a variety of social media news blogs covering the Facebook story.
- You can also download the Facebook Pages Product Guide directly from Facebook.
- Visit my Facebook Page and add yourself as a fan. I will be able to publish information to your Facebook news feed, and you will be able to help me spread the word.
- Join me on Let’s Follow Each Other, a social networking and training community to help build your presence and your relationships on Twitter and Facebook.
Linking More Easily to Facebook
A shortcoming of Facebook is its awkward linking structure. A Facebook link might perhaps appeal to a U.S. Library of Congress file clerk or to a CIA operative, but that’s about it.
You can create a simpler and more memorable link using the Facebook web address application. If you’re a Twitter user, SocialToo might be a suitable alternative. Either choice will help enormously.
Like this article? Please subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Mar
8
Connect
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
You can reach me by phone at +1 845-356-4218 or by e-mail at larrybrauner at yahoo dot com.
Online Social Networking - Subscribe to my RSS feed (or by e-mail) and keep well informed!
Sites where we can network:
- Outside the Box - Network and share your ideas with me and other site members.
- My Facebook Page - Become a fan of my page and help spread the word. Information I share will show up in your news feed.
- My Facebook Profile - Become my friend, and we’ll be able to message each other and chat.
- Let’s Follow Each Other - Expand your network on Twitter, Facebook and Ning social networks.
- Beyond Business Coaching - Social network for business owners and marketing professionals focusing on a social media, marketing and CRM, strategy, implementation and metrics.
- inSocialMedia - Network and share strategies with me and other social media marketers and enthusiasts.
- Twitter - Follow me and I’ll follow you back.
- LinkedIn - Patch into my enormous LinkedIn network. I accept all requests to connect. My e-mail is in my profile.
Mar
1
Social Media One Bite at a Time
Filed Under Facebook, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Ning Sites, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter | 14 Comments
Short Version of My Story
Today I tell some of my own story and share some of my own social media strategy.
This article is about an idea that was planted in my head and how I nurtured that idea. The article is slightly longer than usual, so please hang in there with me.
Creative problem solving has been a forte since my teenage years as a math whiz and chess champion.
Once I started working, I was able to apply my problem solving abilities and help companies to improve their business processes and to get a better handle on many different types of business and scientific data.
Thirty years into my career I learned about the social media and Web 2.0 revolution from Time Magazine’s December 2006 cover story, Time’s Person of the Year: You. I saw that while I could no longer be one of the earliest adopters of social media, it wasn’t at all too late to position myself at the forefront of an enormous trend.
I had previously experienced and benefited to a small degree from online social networking and social networking sites such as Ryze and Direct Matches, but the Time Magazine article opened my eyes to a world of possibilities bigger than I had imagined. I made a decision in January 2007 after reading the Time article to master social media and to see where that mastery would lead me.
Online Social Networking
Rather than master all social media concurrently, I elected to focus on social networking and to develop a first version of my online social networking strategy. These early conclusions I based on my observations at MySpace, Direct Matches and Yuwie, social networking sites that I have since largely abandoned.
By September 2007 I was contemplating my next step.
Blogging and Search Engine Optimization
At MySpace and Yuwie I experimented with blogging. The next step for me was to start an independent blog, and I chose Wordpress.org as my blogging platform in connection with my web hosting at Go Daddy.
Before launching my Online Social Networking blog I spent a couple of months reading about blogging and SEO and a short time conducting keyword research. The time I had invested reading and researching paid off, because it got me started on the right foot. Keyword research had joined online social networking to become an important area of competence.
I began blogging in November 2007 and devoted a year to learning how to write, promote and optimize my online publication. By October 2008 I no longer viewed myself as a novice at blogging.
At present Online Social Networking has more than 350 Feedburner subscribers, receives more than 2,000 search visits per month, and is ranked in the top 100,000 websites by Alexa.
Ning Social Networking Sites and Twitter
First Ning social networks and then Twitter captured my attention. These two social media platforms are very powerful and are both growing rapidly in popularity.
Just as I had done with online social networking strategy, search engine optimization and blogging, I set out to master Ning and then Twitter, writing articles on each that have since been read many times and featured by top new sites.
I created two Ning social networking sites:
- Outside the Box is a companion site to my blog where members can network with each other, present their own ideas and brand themselves. Outside the Box has 265 members.
- Let’s Follow Each Other is a companion site to Twitter where members can network, make new friends and share ideas. They can also promote themselves and their other social networking sites. After only three days Lets’ Follow Each Other already has its first 146 members.
My @larrybrauner profile on Twitter has more than 20,000 followers, and thousands of Twitter members have explored my blog.
“One Bite at a Time” Works
The key to my progress is internal motivation coupled with focus.
Rather than go off in many directions and spread myself too thin, I apply the 80/20 Rule taking a bite at a time out of the social media giant. This strategy has worked well for me and can work for others.
What’s my next bite?
Stay tuned, but Facebook is at the top of my social marketing list, and along the way, I’m building my personal brand, helping a few clients, and looking for more clients.
Like this article? Please subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Feb
15
The 80/20 Rule and Social Media
Filed Under Blogging, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Ning Sites, Outside the Box, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter | 29 Comments
I revisit the 80/20 Rule about which I wrote last September because of something that I alluded to in my recent interview with Stacey Chadwell.
Web 2.0 is a virtual candy store, and our eyes, so to speak, are bigger than our stomachs.
Every day new social media sites crop up. We’d love to try them all, yet we can only hope to master and stay on top of a very small fraction of the myriad sites that are already available to us.
The 80/20 Rule to Our Rescue
The 80/20 Rule applied to social media sites would state that 80% of all results can be achieved with 20% of all sites.
However, the 80 to 20 ratio is no more than a concept or a rule of thumb. The actual ratio is quite often greater than 80 to 20. With respect to social media sites the ratio could be as high as 99 to 1.
The 80/20 Rule applied to social media sites might be called a 99/1 Rule. We can accomplish almost everything we might want to accomplish with only 1% of all the social sites in operation — and almost everything is really enough!
I regularly use only a modest number of social media sites: my Online Social Networking blog, Twitter, the Ning family of social networking sites (especially Outside the Box), Entrecard, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, del.icio.us and a few other social bookmarking sites.
You’d hardly call me an expert on social media sites, but the few sites I do use, complement each other in my social media model, and I use them effectively.
Could I use more sites?
Of course I could. However, the point is that I don’t need to use more sites, at least not right now.
Other Aspects of the 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 Rule also applies to you as a person, to the people who follow you and to how you approach learning.
Rather than re-hash what I’ve written in the past, I refer you to my previous article, The 80/20 Rule, which elaborates on these issues in some detail.
In Conclusion
My advice to you is to:
- determine what you’d like to accomplish
- devise a plan that uses a modest number of resources
- learn to use those resources reasonably well
- and apply yourself with great determination and enthusiasm
People will look to you as a leader and a source of inspiration.
I’m @larrybrauner on Twitter. I look forward to your tweets.
Like this article? Please subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Jan
25
Online Social Networking Using Twitter
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Outside the Box, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter | 15 Comments
In List Building Using Twitter, I discussed the importance of list building and the ease of building a list using Twitter.
In this article I focus on building your Twitter community — people who relate to your niche and who share some of your interests — people with whom you can network and who also extend your list in a more targeted way than previously outlined.
Is Twitter Past Its Prime?
Twitter will not last forever. However, I’m hoping that Twitter will have a strong future. Many new applications are currently being developed and launched “on top of” Twitter using the Twitter API.
If Twitter was on its way out, it’s highly unlikely that such substantial resources would be invested to build upon the Twitter platform. If my theory is right, then what we’ve seen so far is only the tip of the Twitter iceberg.
Building Your Twitter Community
Twitter has a tool for searching tweets. It can help find people in your niche or who share you interests. You can also use Twollow which bases its searches on the contents of tweets.
I prefer searches based on profile, because they’re more robust. Twitter Grader Search searches profiles. It also identifies the best people to connect with, ones who are active and successful using Twitter. I plug in search terms and back comes a list of Twitter users along with their Twitter Grader ratings and their complete profile information.
Another resource to look at is Twitter Groups. This new tool brings people together based both on common interests and geographic location and is worth exploring.
I’ve already built a following using the procedure I outlined in List Building Using Twitter, and my profile highlights interests relevant to my niche, so the people I follow tend to follow me back.
Keep your eyes open for news about other useful tools. Using the tools available to you, you can build a community of friends just as you would at social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace or any of the Ning social networks.
Networking with Your Twitter Community
Every social networking site has features that permit members to communicate with each other, and in this respect Twitter is no different. Here are your basic options on Twitter:
- Updates are best used to reach all your followers who are monitoring Twitter at that moment — consistent with a list building strategy rather than an online social networking strategy. However, you can view any Twitter member’s past posts by visiting their page, as long as they don’t have their updates protected. If they are protected, you will need to request permission in order to browse their updates.
- Replies are updates that begin with @username, public messages addressed to a particular member. Members don’t need to be following you to receive a reply, but if they’re not following you, they can safely choose to ignore you without appearing rude. If you’re having a long conversation which others might find annoying, avoid using replies — use direct messages instead. Annoy people, and they will stop following you. Use replies specifically when you want everybody or a group of people included in your discussion.
- Direct messages referred to as DMs are private, and they’re the closest you can get to e-mail communication using Twitter. Use direct messages when it’s inappropriate to reach the community-at-large. Direct messages are very rarely ignored, and they’re essential to cultivating one-on-one relationships using Twitter.
Here are a few more things to keep in mind as you begin to network on Twitter:
- You don’t need a large number of followers to network on Twitter. You only need one follower to start.
- You aren’t the only networker with an agenda. To be very successful help your networking partners advance their agendas while you advance your own. If you want people to be interested in you, be interested in them. See the site map for a listing of articles I’ve written about online social networking and other topics.
- You should never ever spam. If you’re thinking of using Twitter (or any other social networking site) to spam (or to advertise) rather than to network with other members, please check out How Do You Like Your SPAM? and Social Networking vs. Advertising.
I’d love for you to follow me. You won’t miss any posts. Subscribe to my RSS feed! You can even subscribe by e-mail.
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Jan
18
List Building Paradigm Shift
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Ning Sites, Outside the Box, Twitter | 10 Comments
My social media experiences have dramatically altered my thinking about list building.
What you are about to read may cause you too to completely rethink everything you have been taught and believe about list building.
My Articles on List Building
I have discussed building a list and its importance in several articles which I list here for your convenience:
- Building a List with Online Social Networking - List building today isn’t the exclusive domain of autoresponders.
- My Online Social Networking Strategy - A winning strategy on nearly all social networking sites is to build a large targeted list of friends or contacts, generally the larger the better. Thousands are better than hundreds.
- List Building Using Ning Social Networks - Your Ning site will help you to grow your online list virally, and you’ll be able to use the many channels that Ning social networks provide such as broadcasts, forum discussions, blog posts, private messages and profile comments to communicate with your list. (My Ning network is Critical Thinking Outside the Box.)
- List Building Using Twitter - Twitter is possibly the fastest and simplest way to build a list. (Visit my Twitter profile and connect with me.)
List Building Before Social Media
I remember the Rolodex, “a rotating file device used to store business contact information” according to Wikipedia. I still have one in a carton somewhere at home.
I long ago replaced my Rolodex with a spreadsheet, but contact information I collect online I store in an autoresponder, a widely used e-mail marketing tool.
Most online marketers today would tend to visualize list building as a well-written lead capture page linked by a web form to an autoresponder. While this type of list building is still extremely important, especially in conjunction with online or offline advertising, it is nevertheless List Building 1.0.
Concept of Follower
In order to broaden our view of list building we introduce the concept of follower, a term frequently used in the social media world.
A follower is a person (or organization) who subscribes to (or in some other way receives) messages, sometimes called updates, from the person (or organization) whom they follow.
Examples of Followers
The concept of follower applies to List Building 1.0. A subscriber to my autoresponder is certainly one of my followers.
However, a friend at a social network (to whom I can send messages whenever I wish) is just as much a follower as my autoresponder subscriber. What’s interesting in this case is that I’m also that person’s follower. We’re mutually following each other.
A subscriber to my blog’s RSS feed (who receives an update whenever I post an article) is also a follower. What’s of interest here is that my follower is totally anonymous.
I have no way to identify this follower unless that person (or organization) chooses to step forward. For all I know I might even be following my follower without realizing that he or she is following me too. We could be mutually following each other without ever knowing it.
Suppose I own a radio or television station, or I host a talk show, my listeners or viewers are followers who keep track of me and receive my messages without subscribing in any way.
List Building 2.0
When list building is viewed as the process of acquiring and nurturing followers, you can easily understand how in List Building Using Twitter I could claim that “list building possibilities are endless”.
They really are, and the many reaching out methods you devise can be mixed, matched and synergized to develop a rich and heterogeneous following. Welcome to the world of social marketing and List Building 2.0!
Would you care to follow me?
Don’t miss any future articles! Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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Jan
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List Building Using Ning Social Networks
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Ning Sites, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 10 Comments
List building is an essential part of online social networking, and Ning, if used properly, is a powerful list building tool.
Here are some strategies that I believe will help you with list building on Ning.
Creating Your Own Ning Network
You can create your own Ning social networking sites. Ning was designed with that end in mind. My new Ning site is Critical Thinking Outside the Box.
Your Ning site will help you to grow your online list virally, and you’ll be able to use the many channels that Ning social networks provide such as broadcasts, forum discussions, blog posts, private messages and profile comments to communicate with your list.
As tempting as it might be to start your own Ning social networking site as quickly as possible, I advise you to wait until you develop a substantial online following before taking that step.
I have seen many Ning sites die off from a lack of momentum. However, once you can personally enlist 100 to 200 people to become members of your site, you might very well be able to get it off the ground.
Joining Other People’s Ning Networks
You can start building a list by joining other people’s Ning sites. The best sites to join are those that attract the kinds of people you’re looking to meet online.
Don’t be afraid to join a new network that might not be right for you. You can always leave the network if you wish or you can create a profile, abandon it and move on. On the other hand you might really like what you find once you join, so if it looks interesting, give it a try.
When you join a site, you’ll be connected as friends with anybody there whom you befriended at another Ning site. This makes perfect sense, but it can work against you.
Messaging Restrictions on Ning Networks
You can only send messages to your friends, so of course you’ll want to add friends when you join a new site. You will be able to mail to them individually or as a group, but the latter is usually more effective.
Unfortunately, if you have more than a hundred friends at a site, Ning will not let you mail to them as a group. To avoid hitting the 100 limit, you should try to add about eighty friends max on each site.
Pre-existing friends will count against you. If you join a site, and you already have forty friends there, you’ll only be able to add forty new ones on that site before reaching your eighty target.
In addition, the overlap between this site and others will cause your friends to receive duplicate messages across networks each time you send an announcement.
Yet despite Ning’s messaging restrictions, you should eventually be able to directly mail to hundreds across all the networks to which you belong.
Exceeding the Messaging Limit
If you join a large Ning social networking site and end up with more than 100 friends there, you won’t be able to mail them as a group.
Don’t despair — add even more friends!
Later, when you find a site you really like or start your own Ning site, you’ll be able to invite friends from this site and others to which you belong all at one time using Ning’s “invite friends” feature.
You’ll even be able to invite them more than one time, as long as you don’t make a pest out of yourself.
Using Messaging to Build Your Brand
Don’t spam your friends. They’ll quickly tune you out.
Send useful information that positions you as a leader or as an authority. If you have a blog, you can send blog announcements to attract new readers and subscribers.
Eventually you’ll have the influence and following you need to start your own thriving Ning social networking site.
Like this article? Please subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail. Let’s get acquainted too at my About and Connect pages.
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