Because of this glut of social stimulation, I have found it easier to limit my attention to the big three…Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Yet, even narrowing the field still does not relieve the frustration or feeling that I’m falling behind on the social side of my business.

Facebook is where I spend most of my time talking with friends and colleagues and it really does promote daily communication, because its mission and delivery are in sync. In other words, the idea of this social network is to be social and the tools are in place to facilitate this. Mission accomplished. Although I don’t know how much talking about my 30 song countdown, or talking about my favorite ballparks is really affecting my bottom line at the office.As for Facebook Pages, they are business focused and are starting to become more business friendly, but Mark Zuckerberg’s vision was not about building up businesses, it was about personal “hook-ups.” And it shows in the way Pages are designed. And if the spam isn’t controlled better in the future, I may have to lock up my profile which takes away all the advantages of getting feedback from clients.

The other popular social platforms also create difficulties for the small to medium business.  Twitter is very stripped down and so it takes some knowledge to get the most out of it. If you work it, you can really build value in relationships and business contacts on this network. But most of the people who are good at this are in the social media field, not the small business owner running a mom and pop outfit. Its a time management issue and they usually turn it over to a third-party, which is entirely the wrong way to handle a social experience for a client.

So that leaves LinkedIn.  The problem is, of all the major social platforms, this one seems to want to be all things to everyone and it really goes beyond its original mission.

It tries to mimic Facebook and Twitter as a social network with the ability to update your followers.  But who is hanging out on LinkedIn chatting with their colleagues? And do you really want to hire someone who is hanging out on LinkedIn at their job all day?

It tries to be Facebook Pages with company profiles, but no one sits around all day reading stale marketed company profiles…they just use it like the Yellow Pages…when they need it, they look it up.

And some things it could do, it doesn’t do well. It doesn’t have a good lead capturing system, because it requires you to have worked or have gone to school with the contact, otherwise you have to go through hoops.  It would also be nice if you could directly refer people without having to write a recommendation (which I have found most people ignore anyway). And as a referral source, its really no better than email (sending messages) or Twitter (having to work relationships consistently).

LinkedIn, to me, started as a replacement for my roll-a-decks. It was a great way to connect with people I did business with or went to school with and keep up with them wherever I go or they go.  It was a dynamic address book.  And this was good. And it still does this, but that original purpose is now muddied with tools, status updates, news and clutter that is starting to remind me of MySpace.

With this general overkill of information, I find that I don’t use LinkedIn for any more than what I did originally…a replacement for my roll-a-deck…a way to keep up with contacts.

Then, two days ago, I received an invitation to join someone’s ReferralKey network.  Apparently ReferralKey has been lurking around behind the shadows for about 3 or 4 years, but in April had a relaunching of sorts.

It caught my attention.  It reminded me why I signed up for LinkedIn so many years ago.  It has a simple, business friendly interface and a simple purpose that solves a business problem.  In this case, it gets to the core of why a small business owner should be on the social networks, to build business and exposure.  And it does it easily, without having to troll the site for weeks to get exposure, or build a personality. It wins by creating rewards for referrals, which is something that I think creates a more compelling reason to use it and share referrals…more than any recommendation.

Its not subtle, you know what its about up front. They have a mission and I hope they stick to it.

LinkedIn has to bow to its investors and will most likely continue to bloat over time. Its core purpose was never really a money maker (being a fancy online address book) and still more than anything is a place to go when you are looking for a job (more HR support for small business than bottom line).  So to, Twitter is discovering a utopian project sooner or later has to make money and while they are doing a better job of holding to their vision, you still will be interrupted with ads, so they can make money.

Referral Key, on the other hand, has built a model off of delivering what small businesses really need…new business.  I was told it charges a membership fee if you want more than just a few referrals, but I haven’t seen information on this yet. If it does, it should be a little bit more up front about that, but still, at $20 per month, it might be worth the extended referrals.

It won’t fit all businesses, but is great for a country of service industry providers. It will be interesting to see how they plan on making money off of the site. Maybe they get residuals off of the companies that they promote “rewards” through?

If they stick with this mission and don’t go off on a tangent, trying to displace Facebook, Twitter, or more likely LinkedIn, I think I will be more satisfied with my ReferralKey network experience.  Because I will use it for what I need it for.  But, if they clutter it up and think I’m going to use it as a social network…they might be in for some disappointment. If LinkedIn isn’t winning me over with clutter, ReferralKey doesn’t have a prayer if they do the same.  Just help me with referrals, prove your value and I will use you when I need you…then pass the word on.  And isn’t that what makes a business friendly social network?

Holy crap, someone might recognize my face on a social network?!  Isn’t this the point?

Frankly, I laugh at the hysteria around these feature updates.  If you use common sense, none of these will ruin your life.  In other words, understand that even if you have your profile locked down, you still shouldn’t share sensitive information on a social network and everything will be okay.

The one major security issue I see though has always been there and I have never heard one person complain about it…and it could affect 90% of the people that use Facebook. What is it, you say?

Well, most females who use Facebook tend to put their maiden names on their profile.  Most females and males also tend to have mothers that also use Facebook and who are shown as friends.  Now, think about how many services ask for your mother’s maiden name as a security question (credit cards, banks, etc.)  Even with a mostly locked down profile, it probably only takes minutes to figure out this sensitive detail that could be as bad as giving away your social security number.

Ouch.  Now just having Facebook recognizing your face to make tagging easier doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

Here is the best way to combat this problem.  Don’t go beat down Mark Zuckerberg’s door…you probably won’t get too far.  Just use common sense.

When giving your mother’s maiden name to a credit card company…think of a different name than the real one (one not related to you in any way) and use it everywhere, for ease of remembering.  That way, you protect that information and Facebook can’t cause problems for you.

Also, remember that Facebook is public domain…no matter what you do.  If Sony’s compromised database of customer passwords should show us anything, its that the web is vulnerable.  Be smart…share only what you wouldn’t be embarrassed or damaged sharing.  And if Facebook gives away your phone number and address…I’m sorry, its not the end of the world, but you should expect it could happen someday.

Its the cost of playing in someone else’s space.

At our office, we have taken advantage of a lot of these services and products.  One of my favorites has been Sun Microsystems’ Open Office.  After spending $300 plus dollars on an upgrade of Microsoft Office Professional a few years back, I was frustrated to find out that Office wouldn’t install on the new laptop I bought weeks later, because it said that it would no longer upgrade to the newer versions of Microsoft Works.

This immediately sent me looking for another solution and drove me into using Open Office, which was open source and free.

I have happily used that software for the last 6 years, without an issue (or the pain of spending $600 to replace the software I had just spend $300 on).  But a couple days ago, I learned that Oracle (who had purchased Sun Microsystems) was doing away with the suite.  Luckily, there was a team that convinced them to hand over the code and now, it has been reintroduced as LibreOffice.

But the bigger question is, at what risk do we put ourselves by converting our businesses over to these “free” services?

Last night, I received an email from Google letting me know that they are trimming the allotment of email addresses for their Google Accounts.  We recently began talking our clients into using this service as an alternative to our hosted email solution.  The reason? Clients could use the GMail interface and all the advantages of Google Mail, use their own domain name in their address (@yourcompany.com), and get more space for free (up to 50 email accounts at 7 GB each).

Well, it looks like the window to that free ride is closing as well.  Here is the message received from Google:

As of May 10, any organization that signs up for a new account will be required to use the paid Google Apps for Business product in order to create more than 10 users. We honor our commitment to all existing customers and will allow you to add more than 10 users to your account for hannush.com at no additional charge, based on the limit in place when you joined us.
Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team

Just as we were getting everyone interested in it. But, to their credit though, Google is letting those of us that were originally promised up to 50 email accounts the ability to keep those (for a while at least), without charge.

But it makes sense.  Sooner or later, these companies have to show a profit, to remain in business.  Our expectations of a forever free ride are unrealistic.  The world unfortunately cannot be free.

So, it looks like we all need to keep a cautious eye not making these open source and complementary services too much of an integrated part of our business model.

To this day, I keep waiting for Twitter to “go out of business” because they still don’t have a business model for long term financial stability.  And how many companies are starting to use Twitter as a hub for their business practices?

And as much as we all love Facebook, there may be a day when the model no longer works…or some scandal leaves us sick that we’re using the service.  So, what then?

What do you think? And are there any free services you’re taking for granted right now that you could see being “taken away.”

I have attached both the PowerPoint presentation I used today and a quick mini-guide to do-it-yourself search engine optimization (SEO).  If you don’t know why Lucy and Ricky are smoking cigarettes (yes there is some scandalous content in this PowerPoint) than you need to join me for my next presentation or invite me to speak to your organization (hopefully you’ll want to know more than just why Lucy and Ricky are smoking in my slide).

Thanks to those that did attend.  I hope the information was fulfilling and that you learned something that will help you improve your customer service and marketing techniques as we move into this new world of influence-based marketing.

Hannush Internet Marketing (2011 pt 1) (pdf)
Hannush Web SEO Research (pdf)

I believe the social networks have the same statement for over-zealous business owners who want to shout to the roof tops about their products and services.

Nothing annoys me more than being advertised to on my social network.  And what’s sad is, some of the worst offenders are people who claim to be social network “experts.” (sorry for all the quotation marks…it happens when I get riled up)  Selling me social networking with direct pitches is traditional advertising…so they obviously are having trouble influencing and selling it through the very techniques they are bloviating about.

Its interruptive advertising plain and simple, when one of these people repeatedly throws out “want to learn how to see the light with social media!” And I can tell you, that is not what social marketing is about.  Its about demonstrating your expertise, not trumpeting it and expecting us to believe it.  What really gets my goat is when they jump in on my favorite LinkedIn or Facebook group.  They think, oh now I have a captive audience.  Don’t these people realize, its like that neighbor you never talk to, suddenly acting very friendly and telling you they have a great idea and they’d like to come over to your house to share it with you.

Uh, Amway!  No thank you!

You know nothing about me neighbor…if you cared about my success, you would have been over here with jumper cables when my car wasn’t turning over yesterday morning.  Same with these trumpeters of expertise…they didn’t take the time to get to know you first…so don’t let them sucker you into believing they really care. They are selling you.

But it doesn’t stop with the social networks. Next on the list is when you get that spam email message…you know the one, we’ve all received it.  ”I couldn’t find your website in the search engines.”  Well, how’d you find my freaking web form…Bozo!  And hey, here’s a clue.  I’m an Internet company that sells search engine optimization…if you really gave a flip, I’m sure you would have figured out I am not a target client.

And finally…and I’ve been dealing with a lot of these lately… Telemarketers, calling my business and telling me they can get me top ten placement in the search engines.  Or my favorite line “would you like to be making more money with your website?” Leading questions…once a good idea, but in the had of low grade marketers…annoying as hell. Leave those caveat emptor falsities on radio stations, where I can at least have the option to change the dial.  I have one sentence that I always butt in with after I feel the person on the other end of the phone has sufficiently proven their uselessness to my business…”I’m not interested, please take me off of your calling list.”  By law, they have to shut up and end the conversation…isn’t America great?

Just remember folks, if they are using traditional advertisements to pester you into buying social media and social networking…they aren’t very good at their jobs and should be avoided like the plague.  The reason they are hard selling you a soft sell product is because, in 9 out of 10 cases, they are probably trying to make money off of something they know you probably don’t understand.  Don’t be one of those “born every minute” examples. If they aren’t reaching you by the tools they are selling, shut these people down…or tell them…if you are a social media expert “act like you’ve been there before.”

And please, don’t ever act like this to your potential clients…you might win some sales along the way, but you will burn even more bridges.

That’s my angle.  What do you think?

In most cases, news about a formerly successful social network meeting such a major plunge might send a shutter through the Social Media scene and might be cause for major discussion over the future of these social platforms.

Yet I hear little mention of it, if any, from my social colleagues. Why is that?

I have a few theories…

We knew MySpace was a dead duck long ago. The single biggest reason I can think of for the lack of panic in this story is that the writing has been on the wall for years.  In 2008, I was talking with management at a hospital about Web 2.0 and I asked for impressions of the different social outlets.  Facebook received both positive and unknowing responses. LinkedIn received mostly lukewarm but positive responses. MySpace drew gasps and chuckles.  We already knew this wasn’t a business tool and it had turned into an online meat market. Unless your target market was teenage kids or your client was a musician or actor, you probably weren’t going to gain much respect being on MySpace.

MySpace focus was too muddied by traditional marketing, rather than developing conversation/sharing tools. Maybe being in the hands of News Corp., rather than social pioneers, didn’t help the network. MySpace became synonymous with lowbrow traditional marketing techniques like pop-up windows, excessive ads, and a hyper-busy login page that looks like a Flash presentation of Time Square. Facebook, on the other hand, continues to be easy to navigate, login, search and its main focus is on social connections and communication. There is traditional advertising on Facebook, but it is subtle and subdued. Facebook remains focused on the social experience and shows no signs of selling-out to the extent of MySpace.

Universal Acceptance. You cannot emphasize this point enough. Because of Facebook’s simplicity and focus on the social aspect, its interface is as comfortable for the 15 year old as it is for a business. Like it or not, MySpace gave too much control to the user in determining the look and layout of their page.  Just as the brass at MySpace took advantage of spamming up their home page, the user was just as free to do so with their personal page. The standardized profiles of Facebook make the experience of navigating and finding friends or businesses easy. The frustration factor is reduced and Facebook is a friendly interface to work with whether young or old.

Controls. Anyone who has a MySpace account knows that every time you visit it, there are unsolicited email messages from scantily clad females suggesting a good time, or strangers asking to be your friend. Spam also was becoming a problem, as well as buggy or virus infected apps. There are many complaints about the privacy issues of Facebook, but this is probably more due to the fact that they have settings and people want them improved.  You can lock people out of Facebook. With MySpace, it seemed like a minefield that was just waiting for a foot.

Does this mean we can expect Facebook to go on forever? Of course not, but I don’t think we are panicking over the whole thing because, even though things can change quickly…there are usually some pretty good signs when something is about to fall apart. And social is not going away, even if Facebook disappeared tomorrow.  We are social creatures and technology is constantly developing to enhance it.

I think my colleagues in the field understand that these are sometimes temporary and fickle tools, but that conversations and human contact will always be around. So Facebook and Tweet to your hearts content, but keep your eye on the industry and trends…and don’t stubbornly put all of your eggs in one basket.

What do you think? Do you have other theories for the fall of MySpace and why there is no panic in the industry?  Feel free to discuss below in the comments or through Twitter and Facebook.

When I opened my inbox, I discovered I had a new Twitter follower…@JRRichards.

To the average bloke on the street, that probably means nothing. But to me, I knew (through following my favorite band Dishwalla on Facebook) that J.R. Richards was the lead singer of the band.  

It got me wondering.  First of all, I found it very cool that the lead singer for a band I loved would take the time to follow me.  But it also baffled me how he discovered I had a Twitter account.

Then it hit me.  I set up a Tumblr account a few weeks earlier to show off my love for music and to highlight some of the best songs I’ve heard.  One of those songs was “Until I Wake Up” by Dishwalla.  Whenever I post one of these songs, it always sends a tweet to my Twitter page and my Facebook wall.  All J.R. Richards had to do was search on Twitter for people talking about Dishwalla and then he’d find me.

Its a simple plan, but a genius use of Twitter and Facebook.  First of all, my following on Facebook earned J.R. Richards a CD sale, because I was alerted to the fact he had solo material coming out.  Then, by following me on Twitter, he made me feel connected and important.  Now, as he releases his Christmas CD, again, I am primed for getting a copy of something I wouldn’t have know about in the non-social world.

For both J.R. Richards and for me, this was a win. Inexpensively, he was able to promote his new music…and I learned quickly about the new music and now become an even more devoted fan to the singer and the band.

The record industry has changed dramatically in the last ten years, and with the hundreds of albums that get released every month, it is hard to keep up with what your favorite artists are doing.  Meanwhile, the record companies are doing less and less to promote these artists meaning many deserving bands get left out in the cold.

By connecting with the fans through real tweets (as far as I can tell, J.R. is authoring his own tweets) and seeking out and following fans through searches, a talented singer/songwriter can get past the machine marketing programs that chew bands up and spit them out…and instead build a strong, loyal fan base with minimal effort.  All through taking part in the communities where these fans live.

It definitely inspires me to keep up my music blog, but it also is a great case study for anyone wanting to promote their brand.  If you feel less “untouchable” and you participate in social marketing, it can have a profound effect on your long term success and create passionate fans of your brand, product or service.

I have run into this a couple of times.  Mainly it is with features that you don’t use very often…and sometimes with things you turn on during setup and then forget all about. Unfortunately, not all of these are under “Settings.”

Today I was looking for a way to stop my Hannush Web Facebook page from auto updating my Twitter account.  This is something that I was prompted to do when I set up my Facebook page and now that I see the value of real updates to Twitter over automated ones, I wanted to shut it off.  But where?

Here are two secret links that can help you turn on or off some great features Facebook provides.Are you wanting to turn automatic updates on or off from Facebook Pages to your Twitter account? http://www.facebook.com/twitter

Would you like to claim your own unique Facebook address for your Facebook Pages? http://www.facebook.com/username

Hopefully this saves you some time and painful searching.  You’ll find the username to be a very handy feature, but remember, you need at least 25 followers to use this.

For Twitter, I suggest using doing the extra legwork to promote your Facebook Page posts.  You should use your own Bit.ly type URL shortener to track these links all in one place…and you don’t want to start putting # and @ symbols in your Facebook posts…this audience doesn’t like it and you’ll lose that feature if you post standard messages in Facebook and have them post directly to Twitter.

Plus, if you’re like me, you get tired of seeing automated messages from Twitter posters.  Let me know you took the time to be with your community.

Good luck and happy posting and tweeting. Agree or disagree with me…share your comments.

I say “accessing” instead of “viewing” content because an impression is measured as the amount of times your post is accessed on someone’s wall.  As with banner advertising, you can’t tell if someone actually viewed or comprehended your material, but with the feedback percentage, it’s a good bet you will know how many acknowledgements (click-throughs) you’ve had.

If you haven’t looked at your Facebook Page in a while (beyond having a bad habit you need to break), you’ll notice right below the description of the post are two new items (see yellow highlight below).

The first number is impressions, this is the number of times your content has been displayed to a computer.

The second number is feedback. This gives you a percentage of comments and likes per impression.

So, how will you use this information?  Well, you can use it as a good indicator of the activity your posts are getting. It can also show others how popular your content is (possibly creating a pile on effect). But best of all, you can easily look for patterns and decide what kind of discussion is drawing clicks and likes and which one isn’t.  Sure, you could see likes and comments before, but the power is in knowing that 500 people viewed your post and no one left a comment…a powerful statement indeed.

The hope is that this will make page owners more cognizant of their content and that it will help drive more quality posts.  Also, I hope it helps motivate businesses that have set up shop on personal profiles to move where they should be, on business pages…so I can “like” you, instead of having to be your “friend.” (a whole different discussion for a different day)

If there is anything I have learned from my 40 years on the planet, there is a point with anything where it goes from being the cool, hip new thing…to commercialized and overexposed…to burnout.

As a former radio DJ, I can tell you I saw plenty of hot new trends (punk, disco, new wave, college rock, second British Invasion, hair metal, grunge…) go from being underground cool cult favorites to becoming mainstream and over marketed to complete burnout. Oh, they might return in another form like Happy Days, That 70′s Show or Pop-Punk as nostalgic fun, but the second version is never as exciting as the first.

This past week two social networks that I’ve had little or no contact with were suggested to me. One was Naymz.com (similar to LinkedIn and Plaxo) and the other Ning (no not Bing, Ning!) which is a Facebook style self-starter social network.

So as a small business owner, I am enticed to jump in with both feet on these new networks.

Well, I don’t know about you, but for me there are only so many hours in a day.  And I know for my customers as well as myself, our job is supposed to be running a business.  For most companies that don’t have someone dedicated to social media it is very tough to keep up a blog, be faithful to tweets, and monitor their Facebook wall, let alone add in these new kids on the block.

Now we start adding in copycat networks that try to sell themselves as the “new thing” and to create a buzz.  The only problem is, its like taking a shot of beer in the morning to cure a hangover, its never the same as the initial buzz. Like Warrant and Winger in the 80′s, some social networks may have come along a little too late in the game and may be trying too hard to be like someone else and not original or innovative. They think the buzz of last year is going to carry them this year. When the Warrants and Wingers of social networks start to appear, it might be time to start watching for the inevitable social media burnout in your customers.

Right now in the business community, it might be time to be cautious about putting eggs in too many baskets.  You not only risk your own premature burnout on social networking, but you also may be leaving profiles on networks that you will soon ignore and that can work against you.  Then, when some of those fringe social networks soon morph into the next MySpace (see the Village People) your reputation will go down with them.

Remember, with any hot new thing, there are only a few that make it through to long term success (see Bon Jovi, U2, Prince). My advice, be cautious…guard against your own burnout, and choose quality networks where you can provide quality material and services to your customers and potential customers.  Create a strategy and know where your customers hang out.  Don’t get sucked in because its new and because “social networking is hot!.”  That leads to disco and disco leads to Disco Demolition Night.  And that was not a good place to be.