I have finally managed to officially move my blog from Blogger to WordPress. Please be patient as I play around with the layout over the next few days. I must say, for those of you in need of blog customization, WordPress is light years ahead of Blogger. For a small additional cost, I can play around with the CSS as well!
I was recently part of a discussion on LinkedIn concerning whether or not people should be devoting time to both of these popular social networks (Facebook and LinkedIn) or allocate their time to one. My answer was as follows:
I have been using Facebook since its infancy primarily as a personal social networking tool as opposed to business. That’s what it was initially created to be and what it did best (i.e. a way for college students and alumni to stay in touch). It has evolved tremendously and spread like wildfire. Now it is the primary means that my demographic uses to stay in touch with one another and be “in-the-loop” at all times.
The business world has quickly caught on and is trying to make use of Facebook’s power, especially now that the floodgates have opened and users can create their own Facebook applications.
I find it a bit concerning, yet at the same time exciting that my Personal life is now being blurred with my Work life as clients (who are typically in an older demographic than myself) are starting to send me Facebook “friend” requests. To date, all of my 286 “friends” have been actual friends, acquaintances and family. Business contacts are now starting to leak in, which is not always a good thing (I wrote a blog entry on this topic last week).
That being said, Facebook is a great way for businesses to form specific communities. For instance, instead of having an online forum on your website, just tell clients to join your official company Facebook group where they can post/blog/comment/rant/share/tag to their hearts desire (why not, it’s free!).
I think LinkedIn serves a completely different purpose than Facebook and thus you should dedicate resources to both. The main difference is that LinkedIn was created for BUSINESS. It makes it harder for anyone to just join your network. Users can’t actually request to be in your network unless they know your email AND you let them. It is up to the LinkiedIn community to keep it that way and not just let anyone join their networks. I think the whole “3 degree concept is genius” especially when applied to business networking and helping to advance careers.
In Facebook, when you connect to existing long time users, you will find much more of a blend of their personal lives mixed into their profiles (maybe even more than you would like to know, like those bachelor party photos of you tagged by your friends).
My recommendation: Treat LinkedIn as you would treat your offline “quality” business contacts and leads. A place where you can ask expert questions and have expert replies. The functionality of LinkedIn will improve over time, so that should not be an issue. For now, let’s keep dedicating time to the LinkedIn community and it’s official purpose, which is to provide an effective platform for all types of professionals to connect with one another.
By the looks and sounds of it, the new Google Phone is bound to be a hit. Will it replace the Blackberry in corporate/government cubicles? Perhaps. Let’s hope Google is more realistic with the price tag than the good folks at Apple have been with the iPhone in the U.S.
Personally, I would love to get my hands on one, being the tech junkie that I am. However, before widespread use of these new gizmo’s, I would highly recommend some intensive “tech gizmo” etiquette training as a mandatory requirement in major organizations. I am disgusted by the addiction to the Blackberry that I witness everyday here in Ottawa. The most engaging conversation an individual can have is still and always will be with another live human being in front of them (all the senses are working). Anything that takes away from that (such as eyes gazing at a vibrating Blackberry or thumbs firing away during a presentation), is rude and detrimental to interpersonal relationship building.
That being said, I see huge potential in this new gizmo from Google. Incorporating a Linux based OS and features such as Google Maps and Google Reader along with a wide myriad of other Google applications already out there will allow for significant economies of scope (essentially meaning lower cost of production for Google, thus lower selling price for the consumer).
So what does this mean to public sector marketers? You will have a new toy to play with that will allow you to cut-back on your e-mail and internet browsing time by streamlining multiple applications into one nicely packaged product. Let’s hope it works.
I find it interesting that Social Media Networks show Barack Obama and Ron Paul as leaders for the Presidency (when using amount of “friends” as a popularity metric), whereas every traditional poll conducted recently shows Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani having commanding leads.
What are your thoughts on this?
Is it that the amount of people using online channels is far smaller and irrelevant? Does this prove that the amount of “friends” is meaningless? Maybe its the fact that Barack Obama and Ron Paul supporters are younger and/or have a more open attitude towards social media?
Personally, I think its a combination of factors. The main one being that Barack Obama and Ron Paul supporters have a particular radical attitude. They want change, they are influencers and trend setters in society, they are more liberal, they use new media channels, they want a new leader with the same mindset.
So why do traditional polls not show these candidates at the top while social media networks do? Simple: In terms of raw numbers across the nation, their supporters are still the minority even though they comprise the majority of actively engaged online users.
Be sure to read this CNN article on the The Facebook Economy . It offers great summaries at the end of all the latest applications created by users around the world ever since Facebook opened its floodgates to developers. That being said, the whole article revolves around how to make money off of this unique opportunity while it is free. I feel that this is short-minded thinking.
I realize that one can easily argue that if you develop an application you should be able to leverage its high usage to make money via ads.However, the downside is that we are being inundated with garbage applications from people looking to make a quick buck. Some of these applications die a quick natural death, others are added even though they are garbage and clutter people’s profiles. Facebook will likely soon go Public, and we will all lose out on this unique opportunity to create and reach “long-tail” audiences.
Before this happens, there is a tremendous opportunity for non-profits and the government to come in and make some truly community benefiting applications to help deliver on their programs and services. I have already seen a few such as RFP submission tools, bilingual polling tools, and recruitment tools used by agencies such as the CIA. Hopefully, with the whole slew of start-ups specializing solely in Facebook application development, we will be seeing some truly beneficial and unique uses of this platform before its too late. The race is on…
FACT: The vast majority of people in senior positions right now are in an age demographic that will be retiring within 5 years. This group tends to hold “traditional” bricks and mortar beliefs with some exceptions (although not many) when it comes to hiring. They will mainly look at your resume, experience and education when considering you for a job.
As the new, online, social media generation demographic fills their spots I feel there will be significant changes in beliefs and hiring practices. Our generation of hiring managers will search for a job applicants authority level & reputation online. They’ll be asking such questions as:
who are their online networks?
what to their connections say about them?
do they blog?
do they have a podcast?
are they in touch with new trends in the industry?
I can think of a great deal of “old-school” professionals in the field of marketing whose reputation and authority is undisputed, however, only with their generation and like-minded peers. While I must admit, they do share privileges of established old-boys networks, their authority is nowhere to be found online. In contrast, there is a whole breed of young self-branded industry experts (Mitch Joel,. Joe Jaffe, CC Chapman) that are quickly becoming much more powerful and connected simply because they get it.
They are engaged/connected with their audiences and constantly “out-there” walking the talk of all Web 2.0 has to offer. In the eyes of many, this can be much more valuable than investing all your efforts in traditional career advancing routes (e.g. relying solely on an MBA). Just “Google” any of the names I mentioned and see for yourself. Who would you hire?
In my opinion online personal branding and identity creation will be a booming business in the coming years. Imagine getting a universal online identity score as easily as you can get an Equifax credit score online. This score could be based on a multitude of factors such as ratio of positive to negative blog entries written about you , trackbacks to your blog, subscribers, rank of your name in Google search results, amount of people tagging you, # of offensive photos of you, density of your name online…etc…All nicely packaged to provide a final score and recommendations for improvement (if anyone is interested in pursuing an application of this nature give me a call!). The biggest problem right now of course is the fact that many of these social media tools and networks are operating in silos.
What do I mean? Just ask yourself this question: How many different user names and passwords do you have? 5, 10, 20? Would it not be easier to have a single access point to everything? Perhaps we should have one private identity and one business identity, (see my last blog entry) what do you think?
“Spies and teenagers normally have little in common but that is about to change as America’s intelligence agencies prepare to launch “A-Space”, an internal communications tool modelled on the popular social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace.
The Director of National Intelligence will open the site to the entire intelligence community in December. The move is the latest part of an ongoing effort to transform the analytical business following the failure to detect the 9/11 terrorist attacks or find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
Incredible! Kudos to the CIA for realizing the powerful potential of social media networks. Now if only the Canadian government could learn from our neighbours down south and follow suite to reduce the bureaucracy and lack of communication within and amongst departments. What are we doing instead? Banning Facebook. Go figure.
I just read the recent Marketing Profs article on Facebook and its implications for marketers: What the Web Marketer Should Know About Facebook. It’s a great summary of Facebook features and some interesting new facts (i.e. the fastest growing Facebook segment is 35+). A question I’ve been pondering on lately is whether or not it is a good thing that my business contacts and clients are trying to get on there. I’ve been using Facebook since its infancy (I was one of the many originators sending all those annoying Facebook invites hoping other friends would join). Soon all my friends (actual friends) were on board and it became a great MSN Messenger compliment for staying in touch with my friends (for those unaware, MSN Messenger / ICQ were the real-time chat platforms of choice amongst the 18-25 demographic at the time).
Where am I going with this? Well, as an individual, I have my private conversations and photos on there, which are meant to be shared and seen by my close friends (from my private social life).
As a marketing professional , I am reluctant to be adding business contacts and potential clients as “friends” (unless they really are). There seems to be a serious blurring of the lines between private and work life. Personally, I have nothing to hide, however, I do still feel that there should exist a certain level of separation between the two. Perhaps I should create a second business identity on Facebook? This would likely be a pointless effort. No matter what privacy settings we have, everything that we post online will someday be easily accessible to someone looking for it.
My advice: be smart with what you do online, regardless of where it is. Start thinking of yourself as a BRAND. Be consistent, and always be aware that a future employer might be looking at your blog post/youtube video/facebook photo/ etc…
For now, as my business social media network I use LinkedIn.
This article by AdAge, basically talks about how marketers are still exploring ways to use social networks to their advantage. I really think they missed the point (although it is briefly touched upon): Marketers are no longer in control! Consumers are in control. If you want to leverage social networks, then start by creating a good, quality product or service and your brand will grow organically as people discover it. Bottom-up, not top-down.
When is the last time you clicked on one of those over-priced Facebook banners? In contrast, when is the last time you joined or started a Facebook group that represented something you believe in or have a passion for? I know it’s hard to resist starting a Facebook group for your brand on your own (or even getting your friend to do it for you), however, as I’ve said in my previous posts, more often than not, people can smell a fake from miles away. So if you absolutely have to go this route to get your brand out there, just make sure your friend really is passionate about your product. Otherwise, you will quickly feel the negative consequences.
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Mike Kujawski, blog transfer | Tagged: blog transfer, Mike Kujawski | 
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