Get Involved

As we all move into 2009, making various and sundry resolutions aimed at improving the quality of our lives, I am reminded of a great quote I read in Peter Kim’s Blog that discussed Social Media predictions for 2009 from fourteen Web 2.0 Rock Stars:

“Although it is now cheaper to launch an initiative leveraging Web 2.0 technology - it requires qualified and passionate people to make them successful.” - David Armano

What strikes me about this quote is the prerequisite not of qualified people, but of passionate people. I’ve met people who go through the motions and people who exhibit a real love and passion for what they do, and people who take on tasks with enthusiasm and initiative are unquestionably positioned to succeed.

This is the case with networking as well, whether it’s the virtual networking of Social Media or flesh and blood networking at an event: If you go to a cocktail party and go through the motion, doing the absolute minimum dictated by the situation, your results will be poor - you will have a much more difficult time making genuine connections and building a rapport than the person with the bright smile and firm handshake who listens to what people have to say and responds in a thoughtful manner. The same reasoning applies to social media - the key is to be involved. Communicate. Listen. Engage. Be consistent. Be honest. Have fun. These are the guidelines we use at BuzzBuilderz, and the result has been a number of fulfilling relationships, both in the business and personal arenas.

When you get involved with social media, you’re doing more than just lurking and hiding in the shadows - you’re sharing and contributing in a meaningful way to an extremely powerful community. So go out there and enjoy Web 2.0 - something you get to do, not something you have to do.

Tags: 2009, Business, David Armano, On the Web, Peter Kim, Social Media, Web 2.0, Weblogs

2008 has been a challenging year on many levels, but it saw the birth of BuzzBuilderz and the creation of new social media developments that will be unveiled in the new year.

I sit here watching a movie with my son, daughter-in-law, and her Mom and Dad - my extended family, having exchanged gifts , emptied our Christmas Stockings, and lit the Hanukkah candles, I feel a tremendous warmth about the holidays. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, and Festivus for-the-rest-of-us

Obviously we are a multicultural family, and are enriched by the things that make us different and those things that we value together. Family, trust, and values that seem almost to hokey to list here.But it strikes me that we are much like Web 2.0, made stronger and richer by our diversity.

So as our nontraditional family celebrates this most traditional of holiday seasons, I hope that everyone has as wonderful a holiday as we are having together, and that you have for your family all the good things we wish for ours.

Tags: Christmas, Christmas stocking, Extended family, holiday, New Year, Web 2.0

You Oughta Know Inbound Marketing

If I didn’t already like Hubspot because of Twitter Grader ( an ego check for Twitter users) I would have to love them for this little video lamenting the dilemma of marketers who are caught between the paradigm of their companies and the desire of consumers to have permission based (in Seth Godin’s terms) or Inbound (in Hubspot’s language) Marketing.

Entitled “You Oughta Know Inbound Marketing” It has a message worth hearing and is certainly worth a watch and a little chuckle - enjoy!

Tags: Id ego and super-ego, Language, Marketing, On the Web, Online Communities, Seth Godin, Social network, Twitter

Social Media is such an easy way to reach the many and varied communities on the Internet that it has become the darling of would be marketers who often are enmeshed in marketing 1.0 and take all of their preconceptions with them when they start to write.

I just read a blog written by an real estate broker, who spoke about how they were writing this initial blog because they were going to teach leading edge technology to their agents. Now maybe I’m overly critical, but it seems to me that it might be helpful to have done something before you begin to teach it. Especially something that has long term implications and never goes away once its published to the web. So like may other writers before, this person starts writing about them and their perceptions without having the experience to determine what might be effective in this milieu.

I am a firm believer that Social Media as a business vehicle is a platform that does need, at some point, to have a commercial benefit. What that commercial benefit may be, or how the writer may realize a benefit from the content they publish is so varied that it is difficult to measure in any effective manner. However, just as it is obvious that people do not want their lives to be interrupted by your advertising message, it is obvious that readers can easily discern when your message is self-serving, and when they do, they will not read you nor trust you, defeating the commercial purpose even before it comes to fruition.

In this new social media person’s world for example, posting your listings on Facebook is a great use of that platform. If I “friend” a person, and their newsfeed consists of their listings, I will be “un-friending” them pretty fast. If I wanted advertising, I would go to a web site which shows me large amounts of listings from large amounts of brokers. I wouldn’t want my day interrupted by single photo listings of random properties, and their abuse of the social portion of the network would have me feeling that they had betrayed our social contract.

I don’t mean to suggest that they should not be inserted into your social media effort, but they need to be inserted in the spirit of the community. If the intended results of your actions as an individual in the world of social media is to generate trust, then you need to think about whether your actions will be perceived as sales efforts (not engendering trust), or efforts to share knowledge and expertise with your community (which does engender trust). And when people trust you they are pre-disposed to do business with you, in either the physical or virtual worlds.

Tags: Advertising, Business, Facebook, Marketing, real estate, Real estate broker, Social Media, Twitter

Bank of America Corporate Center by Zevotron

During a recent discussion of Social Media on LinkedIn about the business use of Twitter, the conversation quickly expanded to include the ways in which businesses are embracing and using Social Media as a tool. Someone shared this list from Peter Kim featuring an alphabetical list of companies and corporate entities with some form of Social Media Presence.

While most of these companies are not ubiquitous in Web 2.0, this list does illustrate the fact that companies have begun to realize the power Social Media has to put them in direct contact with their current and potential clients. In the case of retail giant Wal-Mart, the company has its own corporate blog, allowing them to gain an audience with people who might be reading one of several blogs criticizing their company.

So what does a list like this mean? To me, it means we have moved past the early adopter phase, but we’re still in an early enough period that smaller companies can come in and stake their claim before the larger corporations fully embrace Web 2.0, enabling the more localized professional to build a loyal following that will serve them well when their competitors attempt to grab their piece of the pie.

There’s no way to know exactly how long it will be until Visa is on Twitter, or Doritos starts a blog sharing chip-based recipes and party tips, but the march to Web 2.0 will be swift, and although the tangle of red tape that corporations are subjected to makes their transition process akin to turning a battleship, much like a battleship it takes a ton of work and manpower, but when they get there, it’s full steam ahead.

Tags: Business, Social Media, Twitter, Wal-Mart, Web 2.0

Pownce by guspim

As proof of how quickly things move here in Web 2.0, I submit a humble remembrance for Pownce, the social aggregator whose developers will now be working for SixApart, no doubt creating the blogging tools of tomorrow. Now the many displaced Powncers out there will have to find a new favorite home for sharing their favorite stories, files and media.

The good news is that Web 2.0 has no shortage of solutions for their sharing needs.

Tags: Pownce, Six Apart

Big Fun by Ernst Moeksis

When advising our clients on the use of Social Media as a business tool, we have three main concepts:

1. Be Genuine

2. Be Consistent

3. Have Fun

While each of these items certainly merits their own blog entry, it’s the third item that I think is the most easily overlooked by the Web 2.0 neophyte. One of the advantages that Social Media holds over some of the more conventional forms of business networking is that it can and should be fun. Since the compartmentalization of contacts (business people are help separate from your “real” friends and family) has become more difficult and is really more of an outdated idea anyway, it’s only natural to think that we can attract new business and have fun while doing it.

Blip.fm is a good example. For the millions of you out there who enjoy listening to, creating and sharing music, what better site is there than a social networking site that allows you to be the DJ of your own radio station? The language of music establish very potent connections between people. If you’re at a party, a conversation with a stranger that starts with a common enjoyment of a song or artist could end up as a business relationship - that first area of commonality is just a springboard. Social Media provides that common ground across several arenas - you can become interested in someone because they, like you, enjoy the later work of the Beatles, or because they, like you, enjoy panoramic photographs of nature, or because they, like you, share a common love of Paulie Shore movies - stranger things have happened. Simply by pursuing the things you enjoy, you are creating relationships that can be mutually beneficial with people who, like all of us, want to do business with people we LIKE and trust.

But why should the fun be restricted to media sharing? There are opportunities to have fun all over web 2.0 - follow the Twitter updates of Darth Vader, or find & share a fun video on YouTube - while they may not be the formal interactions from which we expect results, they can create meaningful relationships that have the potential to generate business down the line.

Until you really enjoy your social media experience and have fun interacting with people, you will be missing out on the opportunity to truly connect. Now get out there and have fun, darn it!

Tags: BuzzBuilderz, Fun, Marketing, Social Media

Smart BuzzBuilderz Client Tries Video

Our Client David Fanale in Bergen County NJ is new to social media. A real estate broker with several offices, David was present at the Century 21 Leadership conference in Chicago where Hal and I presented on Social Media.

David was impressed with the reach of social media, and approached us as soon as the presentation was over. He told us that he was so overwhelmed by the possibilities in social media that he wanted BuzzBuilderz to set him up so he could learn what the potential was for him and his firm.After going through the process, David took his first few steps, writing blogs, interfacing through Facebook and trying his wings in this new world.
We just saw this video David wrote, directed, and obviously stars in. In just a few weeks David has gotten so far into this brave new world, that he has created this interesting little video, that shows the intelligence and with that will no doubt bring him a large following of potential customers. His efforts here are a terrific example of how people without a great deal of technological expertise can use their native charm to embrace social media and expose their personality to the world.

Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, myspace, real estate, Real estate broker, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0

As the Social Media movement continues to take hold and create a new standard for interaction over the internet, I’ve found that the biggest factor keeping people from joining us on Web 2.0 is simply fear. In fact, a recent survey of top executives found that while a great number of respondents had no plans to incorporate a social media strategy, 75% felt that social media would come into their businesses anyway. Their apathy and resistance to social media was little more than fear, rationalized by cries of “it’s unproven” and “I don’t know where to begin!”

As someone who was raised on technology (always had a home computer, an Atari, an early version of the modem which allowed little ol’ ME to play chess with people in Russia), I’ve always found myself looked forward to the next leap forward that technology will take, because for me it represents the opportunity to expand the capabilities we have to carry out any number of tasks. For others, however, Social Media just means that a new group of confusing websites has arrived to replace the current group of confusing websites. To fear what is new and unknown is a commonplace thing. However, upon further inspection, Social media is neither new, nor unknown.

If anything, the truth is that the principles of Social Media are no different than the principles of Social Interaction we’ve follow for the past Century. In the physical world, we have brief, fleeting conversations with one another, we leave messages, we share our favorite music, pictures and videos with friends when we have the occasion to spend time with them. What Social Media does is gives us the opportunity to to share on a continuing basis - the conversation never has to end, the party doesn’t get broken up, and distance is no longer a barrier to the meaningful type of shared experience we all enjoy. In my mind, Social Media is the realization of what the internet was always intended to be: the opportunity to freely communicate with whomever, wherever, about whatever.

Many business owners still see this as a frivolous luxury - how does having a Facebook profile increase my business? Is Twitter really an effective marketing tool? What’s the point of sharing videos or music? While these may not seem as valuable as expensive multi-media campaigns, the simple truth is that this level of social interaction creates a brand loyalty and connection with the customer that can’t be found elsewhere, and in the age of transparency, that is of the utmost importance.

So when you’re considering social media for your business, it would be unwise to regard it as a passing fad that can be ignored because it seems too daunting to tackle. If you can overcome your fear, you’ll find, as many businesses that utilize social media have, that simply participating the in the conversation on Web 2.0, you’ll find your business with a better reputation, making stronger relationships with clients and generating a higher quality of lead, reaping the rewards of business by referral and ultimately increasing sales for your company.

Scary, isn’t it?

Tags: Social Media, Technology, Web 2.0

Technology Then & Now Courtesy of Ilovebutter and Creativecommons.org

One of the benefits of being a Social Media Marketing Company is that the job is not geo-tagged to any specific location. So I get to travel and talk about stuff that I enjoy. Recently I was in Seattle speaking to a Group of Professionals in Seattle, and then traveled to Orlando where I spoke to a Management Training Seminar and attended the National Association of REALTORS meetings.

In all three venues Social Media marketing was a hot topic.  But as I spoke to individuals and companies that wanted to engage in the social media world I noticed that many of them had the same solution. Let the designated tech guy in the company handle the social media strategy. In fact in a couple of instances, as I was speaking to the marketing person or the owner of the company, they called the technology person over to engage in the conversation. Now don’t get me wrong, I love technology. If it has a plug or a battery, I probably own it or want to own it. I consider myself something of an entry level Geek- after all I own PC and Mac laptops - but I am not the kind of Uber-Geek that actually knows real deep stuff about programming in three different languages, and I would certainly never be hired by a major company to oversee their technology interests. And frankly, for the most part, these people were not the people that I would think should be in charge of a marketing program.

Though Social Media obviously uses technology to communicate, the technology should not be the focus of any new entrant to social networking. I think if you can read, and write a coherent business letter or compose a well written email, you have the skills you need to interact in the Web 2.0 world.  In fact, I have friends who believe that they are not great writers, but are accomplished Bloggers because they love to take photos, or use their flip videos, or their laptop cameras to post their thoughts and enhance their on-line identities and reputations.  The method of communication may be different today, but the focus should still be on the communication and not the technology.

In my experience Social Media is about generating content  and engaging others. When you twitter, know one knows how big your computer is, or cares how cool your phone is (though I can see what app you use to post - and I know if you have an IPhone- making me jealous) They care about what you say. When you post a photo from your phone it can have as much impact as a high quality photo taken by a professional quality camera, and your blogging platform (Blogger, Word-press, Type-pad, etc,) is not as important as what you say in your blog. Therefore the decision to implement a social media strategy or engage potential hires or clients through social networking or new media should be based upon your ability to create content and engage your potential audience, and the person to implement that is the person who you would choose to be your voice, or the voice of your company. 

So for companies who are investigating this new method of engaging with potential customers, think about communication, not technology. Consult with the person in your company who can articulate your company mission and goals the best. See how they would engage  - through the written word, photos, videos, or a combination of all three. Would they prefer to blog, twitter, or use podcasts to generate content? Don’t worry about their technological proficiency. After all, I bet you know more than a few good drivers  who can’t change (or even find) the oil filter in their car?

Go out an engage. Be genuine, Be consistent, and have fun. The results you want will follow.

Tags: Blog, National Association of REALTORS, New media, Orlando Florida, real estate, Social Media, Social network service, Web 2.0