You Want Followers, Say Something Radical

Dec 16, 2010 by Joshua Barnes

One wonders why more brands haven’t taken the Jesus Christ approach to building fame. You know, if you think about it, there is not better known name than Jesus Christ. Everyone knows that name and some even know what it stands for. To a lesser degree and more to the point I see many people taking the Jesus Christ approach to fame and authority, but not brands. See, Christ was radical, or would have been considered so. He came out saying that obeying the law wasn’t enough, you actually had to have the heart intention for it to be pure. Furthermore he obliterated traditions, broke stereotypes, and some would say, the law. His radical claim? Well, he said that he “is the Son of God”. That and his related acts have propelled him to be the most well known person in all of history.

And for those who steal the idea?

There are several more modest iterations of this, but they all have the same form. It’s one guy, or even a group of guys claiming to have secret or special knowledge. Their radical claims move from this to that and some may even be truthful; that is not the point. I’m not posting about the accuracy of the claims, I’m merely observing the phenomenon that radical statements, beliefs, traditions and movements capture the soul in a way that seems unbreakable and irrational at times.

So that end, let me tell you that I follow several channels of alternative media. When I mention them, don’t assume I’m a believer, I’m just saying that I follow them because some of the things they say are interesting and more to the point they demonstrate what I’m talking about.

Glenn Beck - marginalized by many as a classroom teacher, he uses simple learning techniques and messages to promote his own. He promotes education, specifically constitutional and biblical understanding. His ratings are out of sight. Why?

The Truth Movement – Either a derivative or a parent to the tea party, this is group of people who say they are dedicated to uncovering the truth that has been covered up by evil men. There are many ‘leaders’ in this movement and each seems to have as different of message as the next, but all claim to be part of the the truth movement…and this movement is huge. Sponsoring conspiracies like “911 was in inside job” “bush lied”, “Where’s-Obamas-Birth Certificate” etc etc. Why?

Aliens - no, not the movie, this one is quite radical. Much different than when I was a kid. Now, as I understand it, Aliens are one of a couple things. They are the creators, or progenitors of our species, demons or inter-actors with our race and the explanation for all things unexplainable. This one outranks all of them…to my observation…this has the biggest cult following. The history channel has done a 12 part series, on this…and it’s still going, with huge ratings. Why?

What I see out of all of these, truth not counted as a factor, is that the human species seems to have an innate fascination with the radical. And, for those who are bold enough to say something radical, then the opportunity exists for you to grow into a cult leader, or a thought leader, or someone dismissed as a conspiracy nut. Who knows, but it seems radical things will capture attention but only things that give value will sustain.

This is really just pat one of the whole idea of how and what it takes to build an influential following. What other things do people do that build a following? What have I left out?

How To Engage In Social Media Effectively, For Social Media Managers

Nov 22, 2010 by Joshua Barnes

In the emerging space of social media and what I’ll call social media dynamics, which are the sub-divisions of Social Media, there are many overlapping campaigns. In an earlier post I related the various players that are services providers in the space; a critical first step in understanding how to interact with this new behemoth of opportunity.

In 2007, no one would have believed that you could have used Myspace effectively as a tool for business development. Though, bands and budding performance artists would have disagreed. That minute difference demonstrates the existence and the need for evolving contextual adherence. That is to say, that MySpace will not help you sell more insurance policies, but it may help you deliver a targeted message to a specific demographic, without them believing they are being marketed to. The evidence that this is necessary is no more obvious than some of the recent studies performed on the online public; In 2008, Forrester Research found that only 16 percent of consumers found blogs to be believable. Why?

The statistic is flat, you can’t know why for sure since the statistic doesn’t empirically reveal that. Experientially however we all can suppose why. Consumers do not want to be marketed to, they want to be informed. They don’t want to be sold, they want to buy. Marketing and Sales perform this function in tandem and when done well, loyal customers abound. When it’s not done well, customers are disenfranchised to the brand. This may seem cursory, however it’s important to formulate the foundation upon which you will build your social media engagement strategy.

How do you want to be perceived?

I heard a funny quote from a CEO in a business meeting, referring to the image of his company; he said. “We’re not one of those fancy web 2.0, rounded corner, video game, bubbles, and fun colors companies! We’ve got something that’s hardcore, it’s forward looking, it’s scientific, it’s strident, it’s…it’s mathematical!”

People find the most interesting words to define their perception. I did a google search and reviewd the first image for all those words. Technically, that could have you believe that according to the cosmos of internet intelligence, that is the best image that defines that word…right? Wrong. This is just part of the problem of perception. In Social Media it’s not simply about how you want to be perceived, it’s also about where and how often, search words, link density, SEO…etc, etc, so on and so forth and more of the same. More on that in future posts.

What words define your brand?

Our job is to be able to translate what the CEO wants for the consumer multimedia experience and be able to translate that to effective language, effective art, and effective delivery on all the internet water coolers of interest to our particular company. But how?

Social Surface Area – \So-shull – Sir-fass – Air-ee-ah\

n. the platforms, websites, personas and identities with which a person or business can be interacted with, symmetrically; (that is, a place where a conversation with meaning and, or, impact can occur).

Where are you on planet Earth? Are you in Modesto, California? Are you in a small cow-town of Wyoming, NY? Let me ask a simple question; if you were in Modesto and you wanted someone in Wyoming to know who you were, how would you do that?

You might ask;

1. Do I know this person?

2. Why do I want them to know me?

3. What kind of person are they?

4. What are their habits, interests and engagement patterns…

Or if you’re like most people you’ll just put up a billboard and hope. That’s simply the difference between a thoughtful Social Media Manager and amateurs. I remember an interview with James Cameron, speaking of the cool CG used in Terminator 2. He was approached over and over again, he relayed, by people who thought that if they could just put that effect in their movie, it would increase sales. James makes clear, you’ve got to have a story people actually care about and characters people are interested in. CG without a story is just CG and even less effective as guys in costumes. People want to believe, you just have to help them. You have the same opportunity!

This brings about our discussion of the Surface Area. Have you considered on what venue you need to be listed? Or did you throw up a fan page because it seemed like a good idea?

Consider the following as me tearing a page out of my “Social Media Commandos’ Handbook to Being Awesome” and sharing it early…consider the following websites and their possible impact on your Social Media Surface Area:

Engagement Sites

• LinkedIn

• Twitter

• Digg

• Flickr

• Ezine Articles

• Wikipedia

• ScribD

• StumbleUpon

• Facebook

• Facebook Fan Page

• Myspace

• ReverbNation

• FourSquare

• Plaxo

Distribution Sites

• Self Hosted WordPress

• Posterous

• Tumblr

• Ping.fm

• Ning

• Blogger

I’m going to be laying out, over the coming weeks, how to engage with these sites and create the most SEO rich, and organically fertile ground. We’ll tie that into the creation of a self-publishing Influencer Marketing Framework which will be the walking part of creating a strong Social Surface Area. Once we’ve made pace, we can start injecting some SEO steroids and making those muscles super big…and noticeable.

You need to be good at Social Media Management, I’m here to help make sure you have the tools. Cheerio.

What is an Influencer, exactly?

Nov 16, 2010 by Joshua Barnes

We recently had this discussion internally. A poll of sorts without the predefined multiple choices. We wanted to see, across the organization, how the term “influencer” might be influenced.

We saw some very interesting explanations;

• Someone who “pushes” me in any direction off center
• A person or organization who I follow that can cause me to take or not take action by what they say or write
• A person who can, either through timing or experience, yield previously un-held insight;
• Ability to change the perceptions, behavior and decision making of a target.

I’m just thinking out loud here, but I find a couple of things interesting. Of the four that I shared, 3 of them required a person to be involved to be an influencer. Now I realize that all data on the net comes from a person or persons, but not all information is associated with a specific identity or person. For instance, Black Dog Coffee House could certainly influence me to come get a free bag of coffee with my Latte without a person being associated with their advert. At that, this is just one vector that needs to be reconsidered. Also noted is of the 4 responses, 3 definitions required action to denote influence. This is also interesting and doesn’t account for influence that is simply potential energy instead of kinetic. Couldn’t someone convince me of something without it requiring some outwardly measurable activity? Sure. Theology is a great example of this. What do you think? Could you consider possibilities where your mind is completely changed about something, but you don’t necessarily act differently?

Perhaps the definition needs to consider in a more abstract way what influence is, given the rapidly changing social aspects of interaction and the solidly understand facets of human nature? Perhaps the problem becomes trying to stuff too much information into the term influencer? Perhaps we must define influence, then by extension, anyone who adequately demonstrates influence is an influencer. Now to me, that seems trite to try to sub-divide the ideas, but if we’re going to solve the equation all the variables must be defined and not equal to any other. Please tell me if you think I missed something. I really think this needs to be defined well enough that even casual observers can contribute without having to have specialized knowledge.

So, influence is?

The motivation to consider any new information or known information with new insight or consideration, to the chief end that a different conclusion might be found, but not guaranteed.

I know it’s high-brow. I know. Stick with me.

So then an influencer is;

Any entity that can channel new information, first, most often, or most accurately, with authority, threats and/or promises, with logic, and/or appeal to a higher, mutually recognized authority.

The key here is “channel” “new information” relate able to the subject of influence.

So, my question is, do you see this accurately reflecting influence as it truly is through the lens of reality and social media, then, who do you see as real influencer’s?