Why Social Media is Not about the Conversation

by admin on May 26, 2010

Spend a little time reading social media blogs and you will soon hear the following.

“Social media is about the conversation.”

It’s not at all, but it’s important to say this, because if you tell people what it’s really about it confuses people.

Social media is really about persuasion.

Persuading people to:

  • Trust your brand
  • Give you feedback
  • Pass a message on
  • Link to a website
  • Believe the message
  • Talk about the brand

It’s possible to take the argument further and argue that all communication is persuasion, but I understand why banging on about the “conversation” aspect is important, even though it is wrong.

It’s because social media is counter intuitive to how most people do business and dragging a business away from PR people and the traditional way of communicating with consumers is vital

The old ways are dead.

Explaining to the old guard that “social media is about the conversation”, enables them to take a step towards the truth. If you told them it’s about persuasion they will exclaim, “Great, lets use it to boost sales!”

Increasing sales or optimising sales, (I will talking about the technique of sales optimisation later) is the goal we want to aim for. You can use social media to do that, but it’s indirect. You have to aim at a different target to hit the bullseye.

The way you communicate with consumers is more conversational when you use social media. But that doesn’t mean that that is what social media is about.

It’s about persuasion, making people do what you want them to do.

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How To Ask for a Retweet

by admin on February 10, 2010

If you are into social media I am sure you are into Twitter, and if you are into Twitter you must be aware of the retweet or RT.

Most of you know how to do this, but enough people don’t so I though I would share my thoughts.

My online network means I get asked to retweet a lot and the asks come in various forms, most of which are a bit clunky.

  • Keep the system simple
  • Do not create barriers to the RT with odd formats
  • Keep it familiar
  • Try not to use weird url shortners (my fave is bit.ly)
  • Provide the text of the RT so people can simple cut and paste
  • Don’t assume people know the name you want retweeted, tell them

    • Here is an example of what I provide if I am going to ask for an RT

    RT @lyndoman “How to ask for a Retweet” http://bit.ly/cr8moU

    So when you are in Gchat, or posting in super secret networking groups (yes they exist and they are many ;) don’t get weird, get simple.

    This should increase your Retweets.

    I am sure I will get RT’d and told, “yeah yeah we know this.” but some don’t.

    Further tips on the Art of the Retweet
    Bloggingbits
    Mashable
    Jeremiah Owyang on the infectious power of the Retweet

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    Why I Don’t Like the Idea of 10 Social Media Commandments

    by admin on January 5, 2010

    Lon Safko, author of the Social Media Bible has written the 10 Commandments of Social Media on the Fast Company website.

    As I read the article I heard myself saying no, no and thrice no.

    The conclusion I reached is that the headline should have in brackets, “For Social Media Marketing Consultants only.”

    I consult regularly with companies wanting to develop a social media strategy and one of the most common misconceptions are business people who are hearing about social media all over the place and think they should get some.

    My favourite clients are the ones who come to me and say, “I have a problem, can social media solve it?”

    Because I am known for helping websites get links I usually get asked to implement a social media based link building strategy.

    But to have a list of ten things you must do or else God will strike you down with furious anger is not helpful.

    If you are in the social media business, absolutely you should at least try all these things. But I get by without podcasting, uploading videos and quite a few other things which the social media inteligentsia say should be done.

    Look at your social media options as a pick and mix, not a list of commandments. Intelligently pick Better still, think of the specific problem you have to solve and then look at how social media can solve it.

    This is where the social media consultant can earn their crust. By helping you develop a workable strategy, someone who has real life experience in social media techniques can lead you down the correct path. For the regular, normal businessman to be able to do this is nuts.

    Social media has become extremely complex with many options available and business people need to be advised on developing an efficient road map. There are plenty of social media experts around who can help, but there are also a lot of people/companies who say they are social media experts because it says so in their Twitter bios.

    So how do you know who can do the do, well that’s for another blog post.

    Before I go,

    Hi Lon, I know your reading this as you have your alerts set up ;) And yes I do have your book and it’s a great reference.

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    What is the relationship between Linkbait and Social Media?

    November 18, 2009

    Consider the following two statements: 1. Most social media users do not have the power to independantly link. 2. All linkers are involved in social media in some way. Do you agree/disagree? Linkbait loves social media because it provides a vehicle to show the linkbait to a vast audience. Keeping this in mind linkbait should [...]

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    Getting Retweeted when Launching a Social Media Blog

    November 12, 2009

    I launched thesocialmind.com yesterday. Not a huge launch, not even a medium launch. It was a one Tweet Launch. Resulting from the one tweet came many retweets from.: http://twitter.com/mjleonard http://twitter.com/LeoFogarty http://twitter.com/thetafferboy http://twitter.com/philipnorton42 http://twitter.com/jaamit http://twitter.com/martinbowling http://twitter.com/ahmedbilal http://twitter.com/supaswag http://twitter.com/matripley http://twitter.com/adamSEO http://twitter.com/SimonHeseltine http://twitter.com/topSEOtips http://twitter.com/rorybrown http://twitter.com/swerveball http://twitter.com/jquipp http://twitter.com/yetanotherben http://twitter.com/RobWelsby http://twitter.com/steveplunkett http://twitter.com/Ramkarthik http://twitter.com/Paul_Steven http://twitter.com/Hobo_Web http://twitter.com/theGypsy http://twitter.com/steveplunkett http://twitter.com/NicholaStott http://twitter.com/NannyTweeting http://twitter.com/smmguide http://twitter.com/ChelseaBlacker [...]

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    What is The Social Mind about?

    November 11, 2009

    I’ve been commissioned by a publisher to write a book about what I do, which can be loosely described as social media marketing. I’ve been doing it for quite a while now, long before it had a name. Definitions are always tricky in the online world as words and terms are created so quickly and [...]

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