Category Archives: Social Media

What Have You Bought, Because Of Social Media?

Posted on by
59

We had a great discussion on yesterday’s post, where I shared a video and we debated whether or not it made you buy the product they were advertising.

Here’s the question I’d like to ask: what have you bought because of Social Media?

For example:

  • have you bought books because someone on a blog recommended one?
  • have you attended an event because someone tweeted about one?
  • have you bought expensive goods because someone linked to them?
  • have you bought a brand’s product or services because it engaged with you?
  • have you attended or bought local because a local business engaged with you?

I think we can mine an incredible amount of insight if we all share our experiences – which is why I’m asking you please to not just read but comment, as well as asking you to share this article profusely so we can grow our data set.

Looking forward to discussing with you – I really do think it will help us all a lot,
Scott

How To Sell, Today (With Video Example)

Posted on by
23

[vimeo 9357984]

If you can’t see this video, click here, or watch it directly on Vimeo.

My wife shared this video with me yesterday, so I assume it’s doing the rounds. But watch it to the end and there is a masterstroke of salesmanship.

So go watch it.

Done? Now, here’s what I think:

The credits are the two guys in the video quirkily thanking the individuals who did each part, and asking you to subscribe to their channels. Of course, having watched 4 minutes or so of stop-motion mastery with these guys, their facial expressions and creativity creating an emotional bond, you trust them. You like them. And you want to be a part of the community that they are a part of. Continue reading →

Model: The 7 Levels of Participation

Posted on by
45

Levels of Participation

The above model is something I’ve been thinking about for a while – and would love to now think through with you – that aims to present some guide and scale for participation, with the goal of helping us know what level of participation to pitch for our communities or projects.

My basic assumption is that as the level of participation increases, the number of people who participate decreases. A lot of the successes, and failures, that I see not only within Social Media but community engagement in general are linked to pitching at the right level of participation:

  • Failure generally happens where the amount of participation is overestimated, and only a high level is provided
  • Successes generally happen where multiple levels of participation are provided, meaning lower and higher levels happen

Whether you’re building a social network, running a blog, doing an online campaign, cultivating a community, and so on, you must consider your levels of participation. Continue reading →

My Like Minds Slides on Spreadability at WOM UK

Posted on by
Reply

[slideshare id=3565713&doc=spreadabilityvsreach-100326135459-phpapp02]

If you can’t see the slides above, click here, or view them on Slideshare.

I spoke at the Word of Mouth UK Association earlier this year on the subject of Spreadability vs Reach, but never go around to posting the slides up for you. Sorry.

So if you want to learn how we do a lot of Like Minds, how we make things out of nothing, and how we motivate and build a team of people, there’s a good number of ideas and thoughts in here.

If you want more detailed analysis of the Rage Against The Machine vs X-Factor example that I talk about, I wrote the top ranked case study on it at the end of last year.

Also, I found this exceptional series of articles by Henry Jenkins called “If it doesn’t Spread, it’s Dead“, on the subject of spreadability. He wrote it over a year ago, but I only just found it. As you can imagine, a lot of our ideas overlap, but Henry provides a far more academic and structured approach. You can read it here.

4 Things Charities Can Learn From Christian Aid Week

Posted on by
6

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdRbDXf8Hxk

If you can’t see the video above, click here, or watch it directly on YouTube.

I got an email last week from Sally Douglas from Agenda21Digital.com asking me to say something about Christian Aid Week which runs all this week to raise awareness and finances for some core social justice issues around the world.

Why am I posting it? First of all, I believe in it.

Secondly, it’s not hard to imagine they targeted UK bloggers based on keywords like “Christian” and “Pastor” – but the fact that they did that, that not only an agency did it, but a charity like Christian Aid also went with it, deserves some respect.

I also love the way Sally went about doing it. She gave me very clear points, posted three bit.ly links (so as to not cram my screen), and then kindly asked me to post a link to them. It was easy for me to write this post - all the research was done for me. The tools were complete.

The campaign is actually pretty cool. You can do things like “donate your Facebook status” (on this page here), which is a very low participatory way to help spread the message that is also new and not just the regular retweet button or host of share buttons that no one ever uses. Continue reading →

Let Attendees Be Participants

Posted on by
20

I wrote a while ago about the issue with Social Media events being that they aren’t Social. I suggested a few reasons why this is – but they really boiled down to two core problems:

  1. Ego
  2. Ego

Ego in the first instance is like speakers like to hear themselves talk, and Ego in the second instance is that we love to say we heard ‘so and so’ speak. (Thank you, Jeff Jarvis, for inspring me to tell the truth, and use the word Ego here.) Unfortunately, these aren’t conducive to effective learning. Continue reading →

If Your Blog Is REALLY Your Home, Then:

Posted on by
13

96 Maison de FéeEveryone know’s Chris Brogan‘s famous analogy of a blog being like your home, where you invite people back to, and your Social Media profiles being like outposts where you meet those people in the first place.

But if your blog is REALLY your home, then the implications are deeper than just bringing them to a place where you can show off your content in order to get your ego stroked.

Chris recently pointed out a few ideas when discussing “Rethink Your Web Presence” – which I’ve taken and extended to what I think are the deeper implications is your blog is your home. Consider that:

1. When people go to a diner party, they ask “who here is like me?” It is a safety thing. When we design our church experiences, we are always aware that when people enter a church room (or networking room, or any room where there are unknowns), they immediately ask “who here is like me?” – it is a safety thing. Faces are a great way to virtually show that people here are like you – to grant Social Authority – which is what Facebook’s social plugins are doing. Continue reading →

What is the Real Asset?

Posted on by
14

The Paper BoyIn talking to some newspapers recently, I’ve started challenging people to think about what their real asset is. As information becomes more and more commoditised, and price is no longer the differentiator that it once was, rethinking what a business’ real asset is is critical to staying alive today, let alone gaining a competitive advantage.

More often than not, the real asset is the thing that you can’t take away. Let’s consider some business types:

For Newspapers

If a newspaper thinks its asset is the delivery of news, then what happens when someone can deliver it that faster, sooner, more individualised and as it breaks? The newspaper can try and become more technologically aware or resist it like Murdoch, or it can understand that its real asset is the ability to gather to news.

Think about it – a local newspaper knows its local community like few others do. If it wanted to pull together and network local businesses, identify and rally around a cause, gather information about a happening, it could do so easily. Continue reading →

4 Issues With Comments, And Why Most Blogs Are Anti-Social

Posted on by
35

Last Friday I posted a video about the gripe I have with bloggers who tag “What do you think?” onto the end of blog posts in order to make them social. What followed was a really great discussion in the comments section that I want to highlight and then add some more ideas to mixing pot.

I have four issues that I’ve drawn from the comments you made, and bolded the main points, as this has turned out to be a longer post than usual.

Why Comments Matter

They matter because that’s when blogging becomes social. When I look at where I’ve come in the last year, I can direct much of it to the comments on this blog, and the follow discussions on Skype and face to face. I always say that connections trump community, that is, a connection with someone who is engaging two-way with you is far more valuable than someone in the community that just blindly ‘likes’ or ‘retweets’ your stuff on Facebook or Twitter (and the offline equivilents of such tokenism.) Continue reading →

“What Do You Think?” – The Social Cop Out

Posted on by
29

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L55d4BeLbow

If you can’t see the video, click here, or watch it directly on YouTube.

When people tag on “What do you think?” to the end of a blog post, I think it is a cop out for trying to be social. It’s done because, hey, we need to be social. But it really annnoys me  because I feel that my thoughts are just an afterthought to the blog post.

In my opinion, you should either: Continue reading →