Imagine Your Reality

When Linkedin set it up that people could connect their Twitter accounts to Linkedin, little did they know they would unleash a wave of spam on Linkedin with the result being a lot of status updates that have little if anything to do with professional or business updates. Fortunately Linkedin has also taken on some of Facebook’s better features and you can hide the updates from people who haven’t mastered the art of only posting relevant information to a given social media site.

Why would you want to clean up your Linkedin page? If you’re primarily interested in keeping up with professional activities that other people are involved in, on Linkedin, hiding the people who are posting non-relevant information can be useful because then you aren’t reading their Twitter updates. For the most part, people have linked their Twitter accounts without really considering if all the updates are relevant. They can modify the connection by choosing to use the #in, but for the most part I don’t see this used.

Below is an example of status updates, some of which are relevant to Linkedin, and some of which are not. Most of the updates are coming to Linkedin via Twitter.

To hide an update you no longer want to see, hover your mouse to the right of the status update, and you’ll see the word hide appear.

If you want to undo hiding someone’s updates, you’ve got one chance after you hide them. You’ll get an announcement that the updates of the person are now hidden. Click undo to unhide the updates or click X to remove the announcement.

This is one way you can clean up your Linkedin front page, from unwanted Twitter spam. You’ll still be able to get messages from the person, but cutting down on this kind of clutter can streamline your overall time and focus on Linkedin.

While it’s become clear that information, to some degree or another, is the currency that social networking sites run on, its also clear that how they use that information can get them into a lot of hot water. Certainly Facebook wouldn’t be getting all the negative press and user complaints if they did a better job of explaining how they use the information. Twitter, on the other hand, has taken a minimalistic approach toward getting personal information, favoring instead an approach that records interaction.

Personally I favor Twitter’s approach because it emphasizes relationships over the collection of information. Instead of having to share what high school I went to or where I work, or any number of other details, the focus is on the conversation and interactions that people have. The way that twitter collects data focuses on the trends people talk about. On the whole, it’s a much more ethical approach to collecting data.

Relationships are also much more dynamic. Your high school and even where you work are fairly static data. There’s not nearly as much information in such stasis, but conversations show changing interests, emerging personalities, and also enable an understanding of how a person has changed over a period of time. Conversations are mutable data and provide snapshots of a person’s life, and can provide some personal details, but nonetheless don’t need to be as invasive.

Interaction is what makes social media successful. Without interaction social media can’t be social at all, and there’s no reason to be on it. But what draws people to different sites is the opportunity to connect with each other, to share information, and also create and maintain relationships with each other. It’s the conversations that keep me on social media. What about you?

Jeremiah Owyang recently posted about promoted Tweets, and since Twitter has started the program you may have seen other notable people in the social media industry also tweeting about this change. So how does it effect small business, or more realistically how can small business capitalize on it?

The way it seems to work is that if you do a Google search, you’ll also see promoted tweets show up on the search and you’ll even be able to respond to them from that interface. The benefit is that if you’re offering something interesting, you can actually get a written response, and possibly get a link clicked as well.

Initially this looks like a tool that will be better for enterprise level businesses that have a lot more funding to promote their tweets. As far as I can tell, there’s not really a small business package. Additionally, at this time Twitter hasn’t fully implemented all the features that will go into promoted tweets, such as the resonance metric which judges the reach and impact individual sponsored tweets have, based on favorites, retweets, and views. Consequently this may not be such a useful tool for small or even mid-size businesses.

At this point, it’s too early to tell what effect, if any, promoted tweets will have on small business. Regardless small businesses shouldn’t stop tweeting anytime soon, because even with promoted tweets, it’s not really about the promotion, so much as its about the relationship.

Last week, I met some interesting people and decided to see if I could find them on Twitter. The only problem was, when I went to search, I saw the following message: “Twitter can’t search because it’s bit stressed out from all the tweets.” I felt stuck, because I wanted to start following the people, and get in front of them as well. My room mate suggested that if I knew there user name I could simply use twitter.com/username and then add the people.

This turned out to be a very workable solution and I was able to add the people I wanted to connect with, but it also helped me realize that it’s sometimes too easy to get stuck using the obvious tools that an interface provides. Just because I couldn’t search for people, didn’t mean I couldn’t find those people if I had their usernames. But because the obvious tool wasn’t working, I had to find a workaround.

With any social media site, not just Twitter, there will be times when some kind of functionality isn’t working because the site is being improved or because it’s being overused and the functionality has to be shut down. It’s important to develop workarounds so that you don’t have to wait until the site is repaired. For twitter, it was fairly easy to just use the usernames after twitter.com. For other sites, there will be similar workarounds. Don’t let yourself get limited because the obvious interfaces don’t work.

A week ago google unleashed google buzz. I started using it and even connected twitter to it, so my tweets can be sent to google buzz. But I also noticed that google buzz can be fairly distracting. When I login into gmail, I just want to use gmail and as a friend of mine just told me, “I don’t want have to lean yet another social network.” Not surprisingly she’s not alone. I saw several people on my google buzz request information on how to turn it off.

My impression of google buzz is that while google is trying to enter the social media arena, their effort could be more of a distraction and more annoying than helpful, at least at the beginning. This isn’t surprising, because google is also trying to pull off Google wave, and as always is also dealing with SEO and Google docs, maps, etc. And it may be that google buzz is ultimately a distraction for Google, when it should be focusing on continuing to refine google wave.

The real problem however is that Google is stating to imitate Microsoft. It’s trying to get into everything web oriented, instead of focusing at what its good at, and the backlash for doing that is that Google is already being compared to Microsoft. Google wants to be all things to everyone on the web, instead of focusing on being good at what they already do.

It’s true that any company wants to stay on the edge and be competitive, but Google has put a lot of new tech out there. Google wave is new enough, and not very well explained that many people don’t have a clue on how to use it. Add in Google buzz and what you get is just another social network, in a sea of them and one which isn’t well laid out or explained. Before Google Buzz can become big, Google needs to explain it better, just as they need to do so with Google Wave.

What are your thoughts? Is google buzz helpful or distracting?

Everyone is all astir over Linkedin finally connecting its status updates to twitter, but in my opinion, this recent update is not as wonderful as it first seems. In fact, in the few days since it’s been started, I’ve already seen the quality of status updates on Linkedin degrade because people aren’t using #in for sending tweets, but instead are sending all of their tweets over to Linkedin. I’ve learned more about cats, sports teams, and other equally irrelevant information (for Linkedin) in the past few days because people haven’t exercised the proper awareness of how to use the new Linkedin Twitter connection effectively.

 A good example of the right way to use the twitter-linkedin connection and the wrong way to use it can be seen in the screenshot below. The top post is the wrong way to use the linkedin-Twitter connection. The person has responded to someone on twitter, but that post has also been sent to Linkedin. In fact, every time this person posts a tweet, it will show up in Linkedin. The result is that we’ll see a message, which isn’t relevant on Linkedin, because even if it’s a professional message, it’s a reply to someone else on Twitter, as opposed to Linkedin. And of course we could also get more mundane and non-appropriate posts, such as the post about a sports team. It’s not remotely relevant to Linkedin, because it’s not a professional update. It’s actually rather unprofessional and is a good example of how to use a social network inappropriately.

The post from the person in the middle is appropriate to Linkedin, at least in terms of describing something professional. He’s also chosen the option where the post from Twitter will only appear if he uses #in. That hashtag indicates that the message should get posted on both Twitter and Linkedin. Without that hashtag, his post will only go to Twitter (and other services he’s connected to Twitter).

What’s happened with the Twitter and Linkedin connection is that most people have simply connected Twitter to Linkedin without using the #in tag. The result is that a lot of non-professional tweets and responses to people in twitter are showing up on Linkedin, but the material isn’t really relevant to Linkedin as a social networking site. This diminishes the usefulness of Linkedin, in terms of status updates, because many of the status updates aren’t relevant to the purpose for using Linkedin.

To set-up your Linkedin and twitter connection, click on the blue Twitter icon. A new window will appear, asking you to authorize the connection. You’ll need to enter your twitter handle and password, in order to authorize the connection.

After you’ve authorized the connection, the window will display the settings for the Twitter-Linkedin connection. Make the Twitter account visible to everyone, unless you don’t want people to see it on your profile. On your profile page, people will see a link to your twitter account, which will allow them to connect with you on Twitter if they choose.

Under share your Tweets in your LinkedIn status DO NOT select all tweets. If you do people, will see all your tweets, including ones which aren’t relevant to Linkedin. Instead select “Only tweets that contain #in.” This way the only time your Linkedin status will update to your twitter account is if you’ve actually included the hashtag in your message. Yes, this means you will need to include the hastag, but this will also help you determine if the update you’re about to post is really relevant to your audience on Linkedin.

If you need to change your twitter settings at any time, simply click the blue twitter icon again and select Twitter Settings. You’ll then be able to change any settings you’ve made to your Twitter-Linkedin connection.

Remember that as tempting as it might be to send all your tweets to Linkedin, it defeats the purpose of the status update feature in Linkedin, if any of those tweets aren’t relevant to your professional activities. Also, when it’s a response to someone on Twitter, it won’t really make sense because the context of the conversation is missing. Restrict your tweets to Linkedin by using the hashtag #in and you’ll not only be using the connection properly for professional activities, but you’ll be showing a sophisticated awareness of how to use social media properly. Remember Linkedin is not Twitter and should not be treated as such!

The interview with Susan Lannis of Organization Plus is up. In it we discuss time, space, and organization. Next week’s interview is with Patrick Galvin at 4pm PST on September 9th.

This week’s radio show on social media coach focuses on why social media needs to be explained. Next week’s episode asks when social media becomes narcissistic.

Upcoming Events

Are you networking effectively? How to turn your natural network into your referral system

The stereotype of the networker is a person who has a drink in one hand, business cards in the other, and an elevator speech at the ready, and ready to move on once s/he has gotten your card. But is that what networking really is?

Networking is creating meaningful, and helpful relationships where everyone wins. Forget all the hype about social networking or chambers of commerce or the stereotypical networker. Networking isn’t just about online social networking sites such as twitter and linkedin. And it doesn’t just involve going to a chamber meeting or other type of in-person networking event. Networking involves learning how to create relationships with all the people you know, so that you can help all of them, even as they help you!

For more information about this event, please visit the Events page.

Why Do I need Social Media Webinar

Social Media is a hot topic in businesses today. Many of us are not sure how it helps grow our business or get us clients, and where do we have the time to add one more thing to our hectic lives?

In this webinar, Taylor Ellwood will explain what social media is and why it is important for your business. He’ll also explain why setting up a marketing strategy for your social media use is essential for your online business success.

For more information about this class, please visit the Events page.

I like twitter a lot, but I don’t always like the latest and greatest follower and I sometimes choose to block a person or unfollow someone if I see that person exhibiting spam like behavior. Fortunately, it’s really easy to identify possible spam accounts. Even the user icon can tell you if a “person” is really just a spammer. Usually, for instance, if I don’t see a face on the icon, I tend to find it’s a lot of text with links at the end. They mainly want me to click on their links.

Other indicators that I might not want to follow someone are:

• The only tweets they have are ones which point to a website
• There’s no sign of interactive conversation
• They promote MLM or affiliate marketing
• They respond to me about something I’m not talk about.
• They try to sell me followers (Remember quality counts)
• They seem to mainly write about themselves or turn the conversation toward them repeatedly.
• They never retweet another person’s tweet.
• They post links about their porn site or how they want to sleep with you.
• In their bio they mention MLM, affiliate marketing, or porn
• mention of how they rank on twitter (do we really need to be that high school?)
• mentions of making money online
• mention of being an expert
• no picture expect the O_0 icon (with one exception…someone I know).

That’s my no follow or block list. I’m steadily filtering my list of any who currently do this, which also helps.

What are your cues to not follow someone?

The latest episode of Social Media Coach is up. In it I discuss the thorny issue of Return on Investment and social media and field several questions from a caller.

Next week’s show will air at 3pm PST and will focus on Facebook and what kind of profile you may need.

Imagine Your Reality Radio is returning next week with an interview with Overmortal Technology’s President Michael Szul on Thursday at 4:30 Pm. If you own a business and would like to be intervied, please contact me.

Have any questions about social media for your business or how to develop a killer business/marketing plan? Contact me for a free consultation.

Are you networking effectively? How to turn your natural network into your referral system

The stereotype of the networker is a person who has a drink in one hand, business cards in the other, and an elevator speech at the ready, and ready to move on once s/he has gotten your card. But is that what networking really is?

Networking is creating meaningful, and helpful relationships where everyone wins. Forget all the hype about social networking or chambers of commerce or the stereotypical networker. Networking isn’t just about online social networking sites such as twitter and linkedin. And it doesn’t just involve going to a chamber meeting or other type of in-person networking event. Networking involves learning how to create relationships with all the people you know, so that you can help all of them, even as they help you!

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to make networking fun, my process for organizing and matching your connections in your network, and learn to shift your thinking from what you can get for yourself to how you can give and help others and be very successful as a result!

In this class you will learn:

• What networking really is and what it means to give.
• How to recognize a networking opportunity in any conversation.
• to mesh your natural network with your business network and have everyone benefiting from it.
• How to listen and make connections between the people who need something, and the people who can help them.
• How to shift your think from me to we.
• Fun techniques you can use to liven up your networking groups

Date: Friday, September 11 2009

Time: Noon to 2pm

Price: $35, LUNCH included

Location: Bravo! Publications 630 B Avenue Lake Oswego OR 97034

To register please rsvp with Taylor Ellwood at Imagineyourreality or register at the Imagine Your Reality Website.

I’ve been using Twitter for a little while now and something I’ve observed is that a lot of people use twitter to spam other people with their products and services. I have been added by people or bots who spend all twittering about articles, products, services, etc. The amount of self-promotion quickly becomes very boring and takes away from the purpose of twitter…so what are you supposed to do?

What I’ve been doing is choosing to be selective about who I follow. I check how often they update their twitter account. I also check what the posts are about. If it’s just a lot of spam or inconsequential details, I likely won’t follow the person, because even though I only check twitter a few times a day, I want my interactions to be ones of quality, and focused on finding out what other people are doing.

I occasionally post articles, and events, but the majority of my tweets are focused on what I’m doing, who I’m interacting with, etc., which is the original purpose of twitter. I think some self-promotion is ok, but I also it needs to be done in moderation. I want people to know there’s a real person as opposed to a spam bot.

Should you use twitter? Certainly twitter can be worth using as a tool to connect with people and share what you are doing. I think it’s an important tool that you almost have to include in your marketing arsenal at this point, but I think each person needs to also remember its a social networking site and the entire purpose of networking is to share information with each other, as opposing to selling to each other.