Social Media is About Knowing When to Pass the Mic

Talk about lessons learned from watching the Video Music Awards. My last post was about knowing when to use social media. This one is about the opportunities to use it properly.

One thing I tell my clients when they talk about getting a new blog, twitter account, hopping onto Facebook or entering Second Life, it’s less about yourself and more about engaging these social communities you’ve entered. These mediums are great for discussing your product, service and getting your name out but know when you should pass the mic! Having your blog isn’t about promoting your all of the time, it’s best used when also highlighting related items, customer stories, or other people. Know when to pass the mic to someone, something more deserving.

If you haven’t a clue of what I’m referring to, see the video below:

Social Media Isn’t Hopping On Stage Inappropriately

The Kanye West/Taylor Swift Video Music Awards controversy serves as a great analogy when to use social media. There are plenty of examples when organizations or individuals have hopped on a fad to show they are hip and in touch. Usually, they use them incorrectly. When starting a Twitter account, Facebook page, or create a blog, know if it’s the right time to appear on that stage to speak your thoughts or promote your product. There are appropriate times and opportunities to engage your audience and perform the necessary discussion. Don’t hop on stage inappropriately or at the wrong time!

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about watch below:

How Does the Internet See You?

Leo Newball Personas

Todays social media world is very concerned about the amount of information individuals publish about themselves. From hobbies, likes, dislikes on Facebook to the information blogs posts and personal information, everyone tries to control the flow of information about themselves. Personas, a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit asks a different question, How does the Internet see you? By typing your name, Personas scours the Internet for keyworlds to characterize a person and displays them on a bar with each of those characteristics.

Some of these results are interesting, mine displayed some obvious key words “online, design, social” and some keywords such as “illegal, aggression, genealogy” are interesting. Personas is a nice look in how we’re characterized online and I would love to see a SEO related application based on this idea.

Seesmic Desktop vs. TweetDeck – The Month Long Showdown

Seesmic Desktop (formally Twhirl) has been making a lot of noise in the Twitter desktop application arena by adding features that compete directly with TweetDeck. I really liked Twhirl and it’s ability to manage multiple accounts in one area, but TweetDeck really has helped me organize, manage and keep up with the ongoing’s of Twitter. With each software package one upping the other, I decided to compare each one by making them a part of my Twitter life two weeks at a time. Since Monday, I’ll be using Seesmic for two weeks and detail my likes, dislikes at the end of my testing period, then I’ll repeat the same for TweetDeck and compare the two when it’s all said and done.

As I begin this experiment, I would like to know which application to you use and why? Which do you like best? What feature do you enjoy the most?

Social Media Halloween Fun

Twitter Halloween Icons

A sample of a few Twitter Halloween Icons. Full list can be seen on Greenspace

During the holidays, social media services join in the festivities with fun features that everyone can use.  Halloween is upon us and several services have participated in the fun.  Here’s a short list of services and what they are doing:

As I find more examples I’ll add them to my list. Hope you enjoy Halloween and have fun trick or treating!