A Followup: Lets look at U2. They put out the single ‘Get On Your Boots’ well before the official release date of the record. The point? Obviously to hype the album. If I liked the song immediately and wanted to get the album, I couldn’t……until – OOPS the album leaks onto BitTorrent BEFORE the official release date. So now you’ve got a real problem. The customer has now shifted from wanting to make an impulse purchase – giving the artist money for their record – but instead moves to BitTorrent to get it. Not necessarilly because its free, but because its AVAILABLE.
I’m very excited to participate in ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. Each day, I’ll have teaching and theory as well as a challenge – whether that’s a specific kind of blog post or plugin, or social media component. And theoretically, after 31 days hopefully I’ll be pumping out more quality content and be more engaging than I currently am.
So today’s first challenge was to write an elevator pitch. An elevator pitch, according to Wikipedia, is – “an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride.”
So what’s my digital mission? I know that what I want you guys to take from my posts is some knowledge how to play in the social media sphere. How to contribute to conversations (I like to use #beuseful on some of my stuff on Twitter). How to engage your community, and participate in larger ones.
And I know – there’s a ton of people out there that want to tell you how to do that. Maybe they’re ‘experts’ or just have been in the game longer than I have. But that’s not the point. I’m still learning. You’ll hear what I’m doing – what works and what doesn’t – as I navigate this space.
That’s my mission anyway. So, here’s a couple of elevator pitches.
“Be Useful. Engage Others, and Earn Friends through Social Media.”
“Social Media Trial By Fire”
“My Journal as I navigate the Social Media Sphere by Being Useful and Building Community.”
What do you guys think? Care to leave a comment. I’m curious as to what your interpretations of this blog project are. Thanks for reading.
Chris Brogan has such a great post this week on how to not be ‘That Guy’ in the social media space. You know who he is. The kind of guy that incessantly updates his profile with pointless drivel, the kind of guy who sends out 50 tweets a day about how his services, or abuses e-mail and text messages with repetatitve information, or ‘how I can help your business’ posts?
Problem is, we have all been that guy at some point. Or he’s a a person we really like but wish they never discovered Twitter or Facebook.
Chris’ post breaks is down for us with a great Analogy. The Picnic. Without trying to steal his thunder and risk being that guy, I’ll give you a quick excerpt, but really think you should go read his whole post.
10 Ways to Build Relationships Before You Ask for Anything
Comment on and reply to other people’s observations, posts, and ideas. (Sometimes, just retweeting someone’s status message in Twitter is a gesture that matters to people.)
Share good information freely, such as pointing to great blog posts or articles.
Make virtual introductions when you see obvious like-minded people who could do to know each other.
Create useful media like blog posts or ebooks or videos that help people.
Find mutual interest points and talk about them. (Bonus points to you if they’re off-topic from your business needs, like talking about the Red Sox or Barbecue.)
Remember things about the other person, such as whether they have a big meeting on Thursday, and ask them about it on Friday.
Help when someone is promoting their thing. Spread information for other people liberally.
Find causes and nonprofit experiences to help out. Showing that you’re not just a capitalist pig goes a long way.
Reply to people and build conversations.
Thank people when they’re helpful.
To take Chris’ post just a bit farther – how can we as a community help ‘that guy’ from ruining our picnic? Is there a way to subtley tell them that their constant self promotion isn’t helping, but is really bothersome? Or should you de-friend and unfollow until further notice?
So, like I said, if you have a few minutes, check out his whole post. It may help you if you’re confused about how to interact and market your skills in the social media sphere. Or it may help you help someone else. You know, ‘that guy.’
Ok, I’m taking the plunge into the world of video. This is my first one so please go easy on me. I went Geocaching in Cooperstown NY this past weekend and had a blast. For those who don’t know what Geocaching is, here’s the definition, and the largest site for caches – geocaching.com.
It also got me thinking about how municipalities, companies, or travel & tourism boards should be eating this sport up to promote their brand. With more people having iPhones, I feel like its going to explode.
