Bluesky and Community – Keeping The Social Skies Clear

 
The Chains of The Past

People who have not been in “social media” for more than 30 years often think that anti-social behavior online is relatively new, sparked by /some event/. This is simply not true.

In 2011 I wrote about problem users on social media. I had already been a community manager for 20 years at that point. In OnlineCommunities 103: Problem Users and the Problems They Cause, I explicitly discuss how certain behaviors are common, regardless of the platform.

Social media is…people. People behave in certain ways. Look back to broadsheets in the 18^th century, you see the same kind of pundits railing against social progress and being dismissive and insulting as you do now in the opinion sections of major media outlets. Human nature does not change, only the technology does.

For Bluesky, specifically, this means that many users are coming to the platform from X. Even before it became X, Twitter had always been a bit of a problem child. In 2008 when I joined, it was a curiosity, an IRC channel grown up to be a website. It was messy. It confused people who were not used to asynchronous chat. The majority of users were people like myself – curious about new platforms and their potential for communication, community and, inevitably, marketing.

Changes in moderation and management came with increasing user numbers.  Moderation got better, then worse, then better, then much worse. By the time Twitter devolved into X, it had become the technological equivalent of a hissy fit with flailing arms. People used to the behaviors that were normal on X – sarcastic, bad faith rebuttals, mean-spirited insults, veiled threats in top posts – sometimes find it hard to let go of that.

Because I began my career in online communities when we had no tools at all for moderation, not so much as ‘mute,’ I find it easy to simply ignore people whose unregulated behavior is unhealthy or unpleasant. This is a skill I have developed. Folks joining Bluesky from X, Meta and other platforms that don’t require respectful behavior, often drag their behaviors from platform to platform, like a set of increasingly heavy chains.

Bluesky is a relatively new platform. It has yet to be sold to advertisers or private equity. For many users, this is the first time they have joined a social platform at the beginning of it’s life cycle, when there is still a chance at equity, safety and delight as the platform grows.

The problem, however, is people. So how can Bluesky avoid some of the common lifecycle issues of other platforms?

 

Community Building Tools


Starter Packs:

I have been effusive in my praise of Starter Packs. These are curated lists of up to 150 accounts that can be themed however a user likes. Other users can follow all the accounts on a list with a single click. (You can search for Starter Packs to follow on this unofficial search: https://blueskydirectory.com/starter-packs/all)

Building communities is hard. I’ve written (on this very blog (!) in 2012 Creating an Amazing Social Network on Twitter WithoutSpamming the Universe, a step-by-step guide to how to build your community on a Twitter that did not yet have (and honestly, never has had,) a functioning curation algorithm. Starter Packs on Bluesky short-cut this process. Follow a source you respect, follow the people they respect – with one click. Or one account at a time…

 

Feeds:

…or not at all, with a Feed. When someone curates a Feed on Bluesky, you can scroll through posts that fit the Feed’s criteria without needing to follow any of the users. Of course you can follow from the feed or through an account directly, but Feeds allow you to see folks’ art and writing and news and commentary without having to also see their posts about topics you aren’t interested in.

Speaking of “topics you aren’t interested in,” let’s take a look at some of Bluesky’s useful moderation tools.

You can search for Feeds to follow directly on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/feeds

 

 

Moderation Tools

Moderation on Bluesky comes in several forms, several designed to help you curate your feed pre-emptively.

 
Muted Words & Tags

Ragebait relies on you having key words, concepts and topics that instantly set your blood pressure to overdrive.

For instance, you may dislike a topic – and by “dislike” I mean that you loathe it and wish it did not exist and would burn in fire. With Muted Words & Tags, you can cut down the likelihood that you will see that term (and any synonyms or related terms you add) in your feed. This is an imperfect solution. I cannot find all posts that imply the thing, use conceptual language about the thing, or do not mention the thing when they post pictures. If this seems complicated, it is. Human communication is very complicated. ^_^

As an example, let’s say you try to block something very common – cat pictures.
You can mute common words: cat, kitty, kitten in posts and tags. But if a person you follow posts cat pictures with text like “Look at this fine fellow” those will not be caught. You will see fewer cat pictures, but they will not be eliminated.

Block Lists

Block Lists are another imperfect solution, but can be very useful. Before you subscribe to a block list check the entries, so you know you are muting or blocking people you actually want to mute and block. Yes, this requires you to actually look at some unpleasant stuff for a moment of due diligence. I caution you on block lists because, predictably, bad faith actors are copying lists and regurgitating them in ways design to confuse.  How does that work? Let’s say you created a list of your favorite writers. I despise those writers, so I copy your feed and create a block list of them, encouraging people to not follow. Or I might create a block list of you and your friends and name it something bad, “Puppy kickers who suck,” to encourage people to pre-emptively block you. Why would I do that? Because, as we remember, people are the problem.

When you click on a Block List, you will see a link to “Subscribe” in the top right. If you click that, you’ll see a choice to Mute or Block everyone on the list.

Important Note: Blocked accounts are public on Bluesky. https://docs.bsky.app/blog/block-implementation.

Muting and Blocking Individual Accounts and Posts

Muting and blocking at an account level is easy as clicking an account as on any other platform and clicking the ellipsis on the top right.

Additionally, you can Mute a Thread or Mute Tags and Words in a thread or Hide Post for You – all of these by clicking the ellipsis at the bottom right of a post.

Said something you don’t want to deal with? You can Hide Reply for or Hide Reply For Everyone by clicking the bottom right ellipsis on your reply.

 

By selectively using all of these tools, you can curate your feed on Bluesky up front and as you follow people to create an experience that works for you. 

Reporting and Community Standards

In addition to the tools on Bluesky that help community-building and functional moderation that allow you to curate your feed,  we have Community Standards, that shape best pratices.

The main Community Standard on Bluesky is: Do Not Engage With Trolls. Full stop. Don’t reply, don’t screencap and top post  nasty stuff (we’ll get to that in a bit). Just mute, block, report and ignore. Starve trolls of air and attention.

After X, many people find it almost impossible to just not, because the culture there was based around mass harassment campaigns who decided that being blocked was a “win”.

Bluesky moderation is, at the time of writing, aggressive about blocking accounts that harass, or align themselves with groups that engage in bias and harassment. When you see a post or account that is harassing, disparaging, performing harassment regalia or symbols or any other passive form of aggressive bias, prejudice or hatred – click that ellipsis and Report Post or Report Account.

Earlier I said, "don’t screencap and top post nasty stuff." On X ragebait economics makes it profitable to find something anger-inducing, screencap it, then same something snarky or passively threatening and let hordes of followers mob some person. The behavior is sometime used by famously unpleasant folks to drive harassment campaigns of often completely innocent people. On Bluesky that behavior is not appropriate, obvious and should be reported immediately. But there is also another Community Standard: Do Not Subject Your Followers To Crap from X. We left there, please don't bring it with you.Don't dig up terrible people for us to be angry about. Bluesky is about building communities and keeping them safe - that includes your own followers!

Another important Community Standard on Bluesky is that the platform is Active Accessibility. This issue deserves a whole post of its own, you can start with Veroniiiica’s Post about BlueSky Accessibility Features For Low Vision. In account settings, there is an Accessibility tab on which you can Require Alt Text Before Posting to remind you to do so or Display Larger Alt Text Badges.  

The Community Standard on Blue Sky is to include Alt Text with images. Images that are added without alt text are often not shared by community members and may not be seen by some users. This was not decided as a policy, nor was there a decision by any one human or group. It is simply a generally agreed-upon community standard.  The Bluesky community has generally agreed that active accessibility accommodation is the right way to post on Bluesky.
 

Because Social Media is people, the problem with social media is also people. Lucky for us, the joy of social media is also people! Bluesky understands that and, at this moment in its lifecycle gives us tools and standards to help us build the communities we want and need. It's up to us to leave the chins of the past where they belong and take flight.


Find Erica on Bluesky at okazu.bsky.social

Rules of Blogging You Should Ignore (At Least At First)

 A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

When contemplating a project of any kind, it's smart to do research. Research now will contain at least a portion of "asking around on social media platforms." These networks exist, after all, to be places where we can get and share advice with our friends and peers.

Wherever you ask around, some of the advice you're bound to get will be well-intentioned, but will start to make you feel claustrophobic. Will picking the wrong name for your blog kill it before it even gets out of the starting block? Will choosing the wrong platform make you the laughingstock of your industry?

To some extent even ignorable advice is good advice. You may not choose to follow it for reasons of your own, but understand *why* people suggest it and know what sacrifices you're making, so you know what next steps to take as you move forward with your blog.

Pick a Name that's Easy to Type and Remember

This rule is clearly a no-brainer. Of course you want your blog to be easy to remember and type! This way, when people are looking for it on a Search Engine, they can find it simply.

When You Can Ignore This: Think about your audience - how are they going to be finding out about your blog? Will they be standing in your store, and you'll be telling them about it? Or will they be on your website, looking for your keywords on a Search Engine or checking out another social profile of yours?

When your *primary* means of getting word out to your audience is online, a more complex, obscure name is not the barrier it might be if your primary means of communicating with the potential market is print or by word of mouth. Online audiences will be clicking links to your blog from the spaces where you mention it.  Keeping the name short will make it easier for people to type in the name, but having a strange acronym or odd name will not make or break you.


Pick Your Platform for SEO

Is WordPress better than Blogger or TypePad for SEO? This question comes up very often on professional social networks. There are some people that insist that only one platform is appropriate for professional blogs and to some extent advance capabilities are going to be important to you down the road, when you've built up a following.

When You Can Ignore This: Right now, before you even have a solid blogging strategy, *where* you blog is, is much less important than *what* you are blogging and *why.* SEO comes from having strong keyword- and  key phrase- rich content, it comes from building up your reading audience with strong promotional strategies and writing unique, compelling content. The amount of SEO you can get from choosing one platform over another is incremental, and completely unimportant as compared with the content itself.

Here's one rule that cannot be ignored:

Formatting is Everything

Some people think in text, some people think in images. Others love video,  and for others, audio tracks pass the time during a long commute. A really good blog will be able to capture audiences from all these areas. But even if you're not jumping into the blogging world with podcasts or videos, it's important to remember that confusing format and navigation can really kill a blog.

Before you decide on a blog design, hand it off to someone who is not you. Can they find their way around it? Is there too *much* going on? Are you trying to do too many things at once? Is there consistent navigation across the blog, or are you bouncing from one format to another?

Find a designer you trust and go with your gut - if the first thing is absolutely not working for you, feel free to move to a different template. Don't get locked into something you hate. And if your readers say it's confusing, then trust them, it's confusing! Even if you love it, it might need to change.

Don't get caught up in what you shouldn't do. Start simple with your blogging. Don't try to do too much, have a clear idea of what you want to say - and to whom - then go, start blogging. You can always change the look, the name, the platform, but all of those take second place to the content.

Maximizing LinkedIn for Your Company: Three Questions Answered

Last year, it was my pleasure to be invited to write a post on Good Practices for Maximizing Linkedin as a personal Professional Development platform on Shelly Kramer's V3 blog.

This year, I have been asked to consider how a Company can use LinkedIn for development, beyond HR using it to look at candidates.  Here are the answers to the top three questions I've received.

1) Why Should My Company Be on LinkedIn? 

LinkedIn was designed with individual Professional Development in mind, but there are a number of reasons why you want your company there:

Search Engine Visibility is considerably increased when you and your employees are on LinkedIn. For instance, searching on my name brings up my LinkedIn profile first, although there are other platforms on which I have been active much longer. LinkedIn is a powerful force for visability.

Corporate Presence in Social Media - Not every business is right for a blog, or a Facebook page. You may not be able to reach out to clients on Twitter, especially if you work in an externally regulated industry. By having a coherent LinkedIn presence, you can show that your company is not opposed to Social Media or behind the curve. You understand the need for Social Media, even - especially - at the corporate level. LinkedIn keeps it Professional.

Highlight Employee Expertise - This is your best weapon in Social Media and no less on LinkedIn. The Answers forums give your employees a chance to apply their experience and skills to a variety of business-to-business situations. They can learn from competitors and peers, just as they might at an industry meeting. And they will have a chance to show off the same expertise that they apply for your company. When your employees actively, intelligently participate on LinkedIn, it shows the world that your company has it together.

Professional Credentials and Recommendations - Groups on LinkedIn can highlight professional associations, credentialed institutions or affiliations that your employees - and therefore your company - are aligned with. Recommendations are another way for your employees to bring their A-game to a publicly visible space. When your top producer has fistfuls of recommendations from clients, it says something important about them and about your company.

2) What if my employees are reluctant to embrace LinkedIn?

One of the concerns that employees often express in regards to professional use of Social Media is that they "don't have time." This often masks fear of the unknown, or fear of failure. It's very easy to see a new task as an obstacle that has to be avoided, rather than a new skill to be embraced.

Social Media as an overarching concept tends to be used to refer to the technological platforms, like LinkedIn, through which we communicate with other people. Forget the technology - it's just a platform. LinkedIn is no different, really, than talking with people in person, by phone, by email. Setting up a profile is no more difficult or time consuming than taking a moment to establish who you are to a lead over the phone.

Whatever function employees are already doing - communications, marketing, sales - does not change. Only the platform on which they are doing those things changes. Whatever the function was, it still is. So Marketing on Social Media is still Marketing. Communications/PR through Social Media is still Communications. Sales is still Sales. Your employees are just picking up a new kind of phone. Give them clear guidance as to your expectations of their participation and use, provide training and feedback and they'll integrate their LinkedIn profile into their daily routine in no time, just as they did with email.

3) How do I implement Social Media Participation in my company?

Implementation of a Social Media Policy is similar to any other technology or policy roll-out. There needs to be stages for education; expectation training; implementation training; and follow-up/reinforcement/feedback. There also need to be some checks and balances in place for surveillance and enforcement.

A rollout of any policy should go hand-in-hand with a communications campaign and reminders of responsibilities and rules for employees.

The problem that I've seen with most with new policies in corporations is that there is an initial rollout, and then no follow-up. Wherever there are new people coming in, there has to be continuous education on the policy, as well as retraining for employees who have been around a while. Provide a continuous cycle of training, feedback and policy adjustment for as seamless a transition as possible.

With an eye on these basics, maximize use of LinkedIn to promote and expand your company's presence and allow your employees to participate actively in their professional development at the same time.

Common Sense=Social Media Expertise

In my years of working in Social Media, I have watched Marketing people lemming after every single trend, Next Big Thing and meme that pops up on their radar. In Marketing, it seems, people are always drowning and everything that floats by looks like a life raft.

I'm not trying to be mean here, but from my perspective as a consumer, your company is just not as important to me as it is to you. I am not convinced that I need my sheets to be "spring breeze fresh" every day. I'm not convinced that your customer service is the best, when I ask you a question and you never bother to respond. Nor is your exciting new /fillintheblank/ probably half as exciting or new as you think.

Good marketing is about understanding the needs of your market. Your market is people who will actually *buy* your product or service. This is not the same thing as your audience. Your audience is everyone you speak to on the street or at networking events, your friends and your family, anyone who nods vigorously as you describe what your plans are. These people think it's a GREAT idea, but probably aren't rushing off to buy that better mousetrap.

Scott Adams recently wrote about the Artist's Secret - a foolproof way to be successful in cartooning. He summarized it as, "It's not a career until you learn to create products that normal people like." When the Marketing department is shaking with excitement about the newest (most hip, cool, it was on Boing Boing yesterday!) idea, you have to think to yourself - is this something normal people will like?

You can learn Social Media by reading expert's e-books or finding life lessons in 80s cult movies.
But it's going to come down to common sense at some point.

Marketing always boils down to three options; is this something normal people will like OR, if it isn't, are there enough non-normal people to make a go of it OR if there really is a small audience, is it worth it to you to pursue anyway, even though it will never be really profitable? If you can't answer "Yes" to at least one of those questions, it won't really matter what you're trying to do.

Everyone can be a Social Media Expert. Use Common Sense, Avoid Delusion, Be An Expert.

Social Media - Time Well Spent, Money Not Spent at All

The Phantom Project.

Every business, every household has one.

You probably can instantly identify your Phantom Project. You know, the one you'll do when you have some time, or a little bit of money? That project. The one you'll never actually get to, because you'll never have enough time and money to devote to it and when you do, something else more critical and immediate rears it's head to fill the vacuum.

For many businesses, Social Media is that Phantom Project.

Talking on various Social Networks takes too long, or it cost too much to build a presence. Since time and money are the two primary currencies of business, there seems to be an insurmountable wall between you and effective Social Media. And so it becomes a Phantom Project.

Here's a few tips to taking Social Media off the Phantom Project list and moving it to the Priority Project list.

1) Social Media is only expensive if you want it to be.

The most effective Social Media presences are small companies in small markets that build a following by being unique, relevant and authentic. Whether you're a local sandwich shop offering deals to your followers, or a indie band mobilizing your fans effectively, you don't have to have a slick, expensive look. Just a unique, authentic message that is relevant to the people who might care. Fancy design is rendered pointless by the number of people checking their networks on mobile devices. Expensive design is expensive - being real is priceless.


2) In Social Media, your Time is worth more than Money

For a small business owner, Time is more precious than Money. You might be able to get more money, but there really are only so many hours in the day.

So how do you fit Social Media into your already full schedule? By giving yourself an allowance.

Every day you read the paper, watch TV, answer email. Add to that list - talking with people online. Maybe you only spend five minutes every morning. Check your Facebook group and ask a question, or respond to one. Talk to one, two, three people on Twitter. Check the folks who mentioned you on Foursquare, connect with one new person on LinkedIn. Do not exceed the allowance of time you've given yourself. You have ten minutes - spend ten minutes. Prioritize the networks you're on. You find one that brings in more customers? Start there. If that takes up your ten minutes, drop the others for the day. You can't be everywhere, you can't do everything. Allow yourself to focus on one network to the detriment of the others. If Twitter sucks away an hour, then avoid it unless that hour is worth your Time.

Make hard decisions about your Social Media, the same way you do about any other form of promotion or networking. It might be worth more to advertise in a local paper than to join the Chamber of Commerce. You won't do both if it's not worth it to you.

You don't waste your time and money off-line, don't waste it online either.

Bank your hours, give yourself an allowance every week, and you'll find that the interest rate will pay well, when you've developed meaningful relationships with your consumers, your vendors and your peers.

Embrace The Negative to Understand Your Audience

Do you sell a Negative Commodity?

Negative Commodities are products and services that people have no choice but to buy, but probably would not chose to do so if they could avoid it. Negatives Commodities can include - but are not limited to - such things as medications, insurance, home security, financial services, funeral planning, feminine hygiene products.

Let's face it - if you didn't *have* to, you'd never spend your money on blood pressure medication, would you?

There's an element of pleasure in buying Positive Commodities. It's fun to get that new TV or car, dinner out every once in a while is a pleasure. A sense of relief at having your funeral planned for isn't quite the same thing as going on a vacation.

If your business is tied in with something people *have* to buy, then you have a unique set of stressors on your messaging.

Don't mistake the Negative for the Positive - your market is not an "audience." No one *wants* to have to buy medication, insurance or feminine hygeine products - we simply can't not have them. Your "audience" does not want to listen to you. They don't want to ever think about what you sell unless they absolutely can't avoid it.

When you connect with your market, you are talking to people who have no - or little - choice in the matter. They begin and end their search as quickly as possible, and want things to be as painless as they can manage. Don't pretend that these people are your pals, and that buying medication is fun, rewarding or pleasurable. Medication might extend a life, or enhance a lifestyle, but no one purchases diabetes medications because they want to.

As you reach out to your potential market with social media, avoid the glib, the hip, the pretension to being a partner or a friend. You might establish yourself as a trusted source of information, you might focus on the ways you lessen the pain of the process and speed it up, but always remember that no one reaches out to you for fun.

Embrace the Negative when communicating with your potential market.

The less delusion you have about your potential market's need (as opposed to desire) for your product or service, the more authentic you can be in your communications with them.

Two Ridiculously Simple Keys to Social Media Success

From the amount of conversation about Social Media and how to leverage it for your business, you might be forgiven for thinking that there is some obscure algorithm or complicated process that you need to master before becoming successful at it.

In reality, the reason it seems so complicated, is that there is a lot of money riding on making Social Media seem complicated. There are experts and gurus and coaches and trainers, all who want you to think that in order to understand Social Media, you must attend their seminar or read their book.

In fact, the reason Social Media is *actually* complicated, is because people are not looking to succeed in the use of Social Media - they are looking for shortcuts to succeed without doing the work.

A few moments of searching Social media online will uncover dozens of iterations of "what is the fastest way for me to grow my followers?" or "What is the most efficient way for me to gain readers on my blog?" Of these kinds of questions, my all-time favorite was "What Social Media Tactics Work?" with a specific request for responders to avoid "platitudes and generalizations" You know - like...Create Good Content and Talk With People.

Here's the reality of Social Media - there are only Two things you need to do to have a fabulous, successful Social Media strategy:

Create Good Content

and

Talk With People

These are not platitudes or generalizations - they are the rock-solid core of a successful, genius even, Social Media campaign or long-term strategy. Every other tactic, every other tool pales in the face of these two ridiculously simple keys to success.

Don't spend your time looking for cheats, workarounds, automated tools and other wastes of your money and your audience's time. Create good, relevant, authentic content and talk with people when they drop by. It's so ridiculously simple that hardly anyone does it. Buck the trend - be the first on your block to use these two ridiculously simple keys to Social Media and watch as you succeed where others fail.

4 Building Blocks for Your Infant Social Media Strategy

For the next few posts, we'll focus on Tactics associated with the lifecycle of your Social Media Strategy.

Today's Tactics are for the Infancy of your Strategy so, not Tactics as in "spend your money on this ad on this platform" but Tactics as in "these behaviors will allow you to create a strong base even before you have a specific thing to promote." Consider these the building blocks of a strong strategy - the more you work on these tactics, the more clear your next steps will be.

You can start these tactics before you've even begun to develop a central communications base - or while your business is taking the first tentative steps into Social Media.

The 4 Building Blocks of Social Media


1) Build Your Reputation

There are a seemingly infinite number of spaces on the Internet in which conversation is occurring. It's likely that the number of spaces in which your particular knowledge is useful is finite, but your very first step should be to be in those spaces.

Search Engines are your friend. Pick one, put in the topic you know a lot about and words like "discussion group," or "mailing list" or "Facebook" and look at your results. You'll find forums, lists, groups, and maybe even specialized organizations and enthusiast spaces. Pick one or a handful of these and engage them.

Specific Tactics to Build Your Reputation:

- Read and join conversations
- Respond to questions and comments
- Assist people with finding what they need
- Learn who the other people on the community are, what they are good at and who you can trust

Every time you contribute to a conversation, you are building your reputation for being knowledgeable and, depending on how you handle yourself in a disagreement, professional.


2) Build Your Knowledge Base

No matter how much you know about your area of expertise, you can always learn more. Staying on top of the organizations, people and places that relate to your business may take up some serious time, but it's business critical. Actively reading, thinking and conversing about new developments will go far to building up your own knowledge set. The more you know - the more you can share.

Specific Tactics to Build Your Knowledge Base:

- Follow leading blogs in your industry, comment on them when you can.
- Use RSS to create a customized news feed from a number of sources
- Take online classes and read whitepapers offered online
- Look for previously posted answers to questions you have on the online spaces you inhabit, before you ask them yourself.

Continuing education is continuing. Like Social Media, the more you put into your field of interest, the more you'll get out of it. Learn what you can, where you can and share it as often as you can.


3) Build Your Network

Every time you interact with a person, you have a chance to create a relationship with them. Social Networking platforms make it easy (and more visual) to connect with other people in a way that forums and mailing lists don't. Use the tools each system has to follow, friend, add or connect.

Specific Tactics to Build Your Network:

- Add at least one new person a day per platform
- Look for peers in your field of expertise, news resources, professional connections, add them.
- Think forward about your business needs. Add people who you *may* need to know to your network now and you'll know where to find them tomorrow.
- Use system search tools to uncover key opinion leaders in your areas of interest, reach out to them

Be a RON - a Reasonably Open Networker. Use your discretion and trust your gut - if someone seems off, don't connect. If you can find a point of commonality or mutual admiration, then do.


4) Build Your Audience

Let me say this plainly - you can't game the system when it comes to Building Your Audience. Any tool that claims you can add 10,000 people to your audience a day is no good for you. Avoid those tools and anyone who tries to them sell them to you.

Your audience is made up of people who care about your product or service. Do not try to spray your scent across the entire Internet and hope someone will think you smell good.

If you play with the first three Building Blocks, then this one will be handed to you. You'll be inhabiting spaces that are filled with people who might care about your business, you'll be building up an audience of those people and assuring them that you can walk your talk.

Then, when you finally have something to focus on, you'll be well on your way to having a potential market.

***

I'm going to open up the floor to you, dear readers - what do you consider to be a basic Building Block for an infant Social Media presence?

Where You Are Doesn't Matter Until You Know Why You're There

One of the questions about Social Media I have heard most is "Which Social Network should I focus on?"

Part of the inconvenience of Next Big Thing-itis is that whatever the current "Next Big Thing" is gets most of the media coverage. Whether it's Facebook hitting X number of users (a totally meaningless number, since many accounts on Facebook are dead or nearly so,) or the current flock of celebrities who Twitter (another meaningless set of numbers since nearly all celebrities post communications meant to be read, but rarely respond to comments they receive), this kind of coverage means that the noise is way louder than the signal until the Next Big Thing is something else.

The side effect of Next Big Thing-itis is that for most people, putting the cart before the horse is their main issue. They ask where they should be, before they even know what they want to do there.

Effective Social Media is not a popular dance club. Being seen is not enough

So let's back up and take a look at the difference between Strategy and Tactics.

Strategy is the theoretical plan you start with. Taking into account your own Strengths and Weaknesses and those of your closest competitor(s), you take a high-level look at your market and formulate a plan based on as many variables as you can find data for.

For instance, this blog. My Strategy in creating this blog was to provide a single place to gather my thoughts on Social Media. Rather than build a website listing all my great skills and clients other stuff you may or may not care about, I decided to cut to the chase - here's my thoughts on Social Media. Having one place to collect them allows me to disseminate them easily.

I was well aware that there are many Social Media and Social Marketing blogs already in existence. I'm not competing with them, because my Strategy was to create a single place to gather *my* thoughts. Not to sell services or books (although that is not outside the pale, eventually.)

Tactics are the specific techniques and tools you use to execute a Strategy.

I chose a blog rather than a Facebook page, because a blog allows me more free rein with my ideas. If I want to try out a thought, a tactic, a marketing campaign, a design element, a blog offers me the most freedom to do so. It provides more space for exposition than, say, Twitter, and more personalization than LinkedIn. It's not a corporate presence like a company website or a presence on Foursquare. This blog is the conversation I have with - ideally - you, my readers.

If you can't articulate your strategy beyond "to have a Social Media presence" then it doesn't much matter where you are, because you don't know why you are there anyway.

Let's say that you are working on a new project - book, website, product, whatever. If you ask me what tactics should you use to promote that project, I'm going to tell you that it doesn't matter. There is no *thing* to promote, outside of your head. I mean this sincerely and with all due respect - very few people truly care about a project that you "are working on."

This is true for any widget, event or concept that is not about to be in existence. Any gleam in your eye might be of interest to those people who are close to you; your friends, your fanbase, etc, but for the large majority of people out there you'd like to reach, the fact that you are "working on" something means nothing.

So, what tactics *can* you focus on while you're writing that book or designing that site? You can pick one or two main Social Networks and Build Your Audience. It honestly doesn't matter what Network you choose - unless you focus your energy and time on one or two, you'll just have a small, diffuse audience all over the place. Pick a space and work it. Make it a base of operations - call all the shots from there. Refer back to it on your secondary and tertiary networks, mention it in casual online conversation - put it on your business card. Pull people into that space over and over and over. Build Your Audience using that space. Then, when you finally *have* something to promote, you'll have that audience to reach out to and hopefully, be able to convert them into your market.

Next post, I'll be talking about some broad categories of Tactics, so you can better target your efforts to the spaces you inhabit and the actual phases of Social Media Marketing.

In the meantime, your homework is to finish your End-of-Year review of your Social Media efforts and pare them down into the top few spaces where you'll spend most of your time and effort in the coming year. (I.e., for me, working on this blog.) Next Time we'll talk about what you'll be doing there to start the new year off with a strong Social Media Plan for you and your business.

Social Media - It's Who You Know

It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know.

This phrase has never been more powerful than it is right at this very moment. The worth of your Social Network is based on this solid foundation of ancient wisdom.

You are the center of your universe. Your personal and professional contacts have at least one point of commonality with you - something that allows you to make that connection with them. The same is true for your business. It might be that you have nothing more than a LinkedIn group in common, but that is enough to make a connection between you and another person. Sometimes you really do find yourself in an elevator telling someone what you can do for them. :-)

Your network is the currency by which your Social Media value is determined. It's easy to ask someone you already know and trust to help you out - it takes a certain belief in yourself and your network to ask someone you don't know for help.

Take an honest look at your network - is it strong? If you needed to talk to someone about custom watches as a gift for an amazing client, would you know who to ask? What about relocating an office? How about an ASP.net developer? How about a contact at a major cable television network?

I picked these things only semi-randomly, of course. My network includes at least one of each. Your network might not have all - or any - of these but just like the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" a strong network means you're only a few people away from knowing someone who can help you. As you develop your Social Media Strategy, give some thought to expanding your network. Every day, follow someone new on all the sites you're on. Introduce yourself to someone new at work, or at a meetup, or an association meeting.

Build in time to expand your network, because it's not what you know - it's who you know, that counts

Social Media Game for the Holidays

It's the eve of the amorphously named "Holiday Season" in the U.S., which means tons of parties (many obligatory,) excessive eating and rampant consumerism.

What the holidays also mean is that you will be, through any number of circumstances, in close contact with many people - family, friends, and complete strangers. Because I find these affairs excruciating, I've developed a game to amuse myself, and the people around me. I call it, simply, "The Social Media Game."

In Social Media, the first step is to find a point of commonality with a person. If they are a priori interested in your product, that's great, but if they've never heard of your, then you can't just jump into a conversation with "Hey, buy my book!" Relevance is the way to open up a conversation with someone who cares.

In Social Media, you want to engage people. The easiest way to do this is to get them talking about themselves. Asking open-ended questions is hit or miss. "How are you doing?" often gets unhelpful replies like, "Fine."

In Social Media, your consumers want you to listen to them, they don't want to hear the same old blather about you.

And, in Social Media, customers want to feel like they've been rewarded for engaging with you.

In the Social Media Game, you'll do all these things on a small scale, just for fun.

Here's the rules:

1) When you find yourself in proximity with a person, stranger, relative, friend, open up the conversation with an observation about them. Try to avoid hair or weight comments. Pick something with a brand, or a specific characteristic that you can relate to. "Oh, you like chestnuts in your stuffing too?" or "Where'd you get that Bill Blass coat? I've been looking for one" or a random semi-literate comment about a sports team they favor. Anything you can add a "me too" to. Now you've created a point of commonality.

2) Ask them questions first relating to the common point, then branch out. See how much you can get them to talk about themselves. when you don't need the questions anymore, you've got engagement.

3) Listen well. Repeat things they've said to you, showing that you agree and care.

4) Keep the conversation on a positive track, and leave them with a smile. (Reward!)

I was playing this on line at the food store (Find) and not only did I garner an invitation to dinner (Engage,) but the woman I was talking to thanked me for making her time on line fun (Reward.)

Is this social media? You bet. Is it also being a decent person? Absolutely. Which is exactly what good social media needs. This is a silly game that allows you to practice your basic social media skills in the most basic social environment, talking with another person.

Extra points for getting dates, dinner invites, clients or any other plus. :-)

When the holidays are over, sit back down at your desk and look at your social media strategy - are you really doing these things for your business? Playing the Social Media Game with individuals will not only make you more fun to be around at parties, it will help you look at your Social Media Strategy without delusion.

To all my American readers - have a very happy and healthy holiday!

Congratulations! It's a Blog! Part 2

In Congratulations! It's a Blog! Part 1, we covered WHY you might want to blog and WHERE. Today we're going to touch on the real meat of the matter - WHAT to blog.

Remember, you need to have something to say. Here's a few ideas for keeping your blog relevant to your business and interesting to your readers.


Give your customers insight into your expertise.

Let's say you are a landscaping specialist. You have knowledge about plants, about sustainability, about climate and about terrain. These will all make great content for short, pithy posts in a blog. If you are not the wordy kind, you can show before and after pictures - maybe you can share some of your concept sketches.

Communicate the unique qualities of your business.

You've got a band and you're getting some good local press. Now it's time to ratchet up that social media profile and really sell yourselves. Provide examples of what makes your music, your sound, your look unique. You could highlight the charisma of your lead, the sultry sexiness of the bass player and the polyrhythmic skills of the drummer with video and stills. Downloads and merchandise are a great way to get your name out and build your brand.

Be the expert you are.

You know the ins and outs of your business better than anyone. And there is nothing that people like better than a glimpse behind the wizard's curtain. Open up your workshop, talk about the creative process, or the fabricating process. Let people see how you do what you do and they will respect you even more for knowing what goes into it.

You are not being graded.

One of the nice things about blogs is that you can be you. Typos can be fixed, syntactical errors become your very own down-home earthy style. Sure, it's no good to put incoherent ramblings out there - although that *can* get you a readership! - but you don't have to worry that it's not worthy of your sixth-grade English teacher.

Write what you know, the way you know it. Talk to your readers the way you talk.

In short - Be Yourself.

Talk with your readers, open up a dialogue through comments and ask questions and soon you'll have more than enough to write about. And, at that point, you'll have a really vital, unique and worthwhile blog for your business.

Congratulations! It's a Blog! Part 1

If you've been anywhere online these days, you know that blogs are one of the most popular segments of the Social Media world. And if you are running any kind of business, you've probably been told, "You should have a blog!"

As with so many pieces of good advice, this is really quite useless unless you know what that actually means to you.

Let's back up. Blogs started about 10 years ago. The original idea was that a "web log" would be like a diary, only instead of it being kept in the back of your desk drawer with an ineffective lock, it would be available online for other people to read.

And, for about 4 years, that's where they stayed.

Blogs through the early part of the 00's were mostly written by young people. They often included information like "Mood" and "What I'm listening to." From OpenDiary through Xanga to LiveJournal (which is so far off the radar of most Social Media gurus that few have ever heard of it...but it is nonetheless quite popular) and right on up through MySpace, which became popular precisely because it combined the popularity of diary-like blogs, real-time communication and multimedia.

Although blogs are often still perceived as being no more than kiddie diaries, almost as soon as they were taking off, they were being turned towards more business-oriented use. Reviewers, subject experts, small businesses, artists, musicians all turned to this new technology to reach out to a thinly and widely-spread audience. An uploaded MP3 could reach listeners who would never make a local gig; a book review might be read by anyone, anywhere in the world; and someone looking for custom-made shoes might happen upon your blog about...custom-made shoes.

So, now let's take a look at your business. You don't really want to blog about your mood (unless you are therapist) or what music you're listening to (unless you run a record store.) What you want to write about is *your business.*

Before we begin to talk about WHAT to blog, let's talk about WHY you should blog.

You should blog if you have something to say.

I get this alot, "I know I should blog but...."

Should you blog? Don't assume you should just because other people do.

Blogs are work. They take time - even short blogs take time. If you want to represent your business, starting a blog then never updating it looks worse than having no blog. It casts doubt on your ability to follow through with a project. It looks half-assed.

You should definitely blog if you have a unique perspective that you want to share with people. For instance....this blog, SocialOptimized. There are a zillion "experts" in the field of Social Media. Most of them are so caught up in trends and jargon that it's impossible to understand them without a MBA. Worse, few of them remember that you have *no idea what they are talking about.* On this blog I walk back to where you are and guide you forward into Social Media without jargon or delusion. It's a completely unique perspective that I wanted to share. So...I started a blog! :-)

Right now, think of three things about your business you might want to talk to someone about. The process of mixing a perfume, the challenges of video editing, the joy of teaching someone to read. If you can think of three things, you can probably blog. If you stared at that sentence and came up with nothing...then maybe a blog just isn't for you. There's many other ways to get information across - you can have a gallery, a video, a podcast....don't worry. Not everyone's meant to blog.

Once you'd decided that you can make the time commitment to blog regularly, the next question you might have is WHERE should you put the blog.

The real answer is - it doesn't matter. But again, that's not helpful to you.

Look up "blog" on Google and you're going to hit the two big blog hosting sites right away - Blogger and Wordpress. Blogger is a little easier to set up, I think. As a downside, it has less customization, less "widgets," available. Wordpress is a little bit more complicated, but there are more things you can do with it.

People will tell you that one or the other is better for Search Engine Optimization. Do not listen to them. That is useless information when you are deciding where to set up a blog. And, more importantly, good content will provide good search engine results. We'll talk keywords later...right now, just pick the site that you like best because, for the moment, customization isn't the point. Your point is the point.

Register for an account.

This one is easy - just follow the steps on the site.

Pick a name for your blog

This step is not easy. You can be clever, use your business' name, your own name, whatever you choose, but you must recognize that this blog is part of your brand identity now. Choose carefully.

Pick a focus for your blog - i.e., know what your blog is about.

This step is also not as easy as it sounds. It's tempting to come up with a vague idea, i.e. "The life of a printer," but then you don't really know what you are blogging about. This blog is an expression of your brand and it should, at the core, support and promote your business - especially if your business is you.

Go ahead and write about the life of a printer, but remember not to give in to temptation and badmouth clients, or talk about that wild party you went to last night unless you are the premier printer for rock bands and it'll help, not hurt.

Pick a look for your blog.

All of the major blog hosting sites have standard designs, and you can choose from some custom designs. (These usually live under the name "Templates" in the Formatting section of your blog setup.) It's as easy as clicking a few buttons to get a new look. If you want a format that is more integrated with your business's overall look, you'll need to bring in a designer to help you figure out what you want.

Whether you choose Blogger or Wordpress or LiveJournal or any blogging platform, read the step-by-step instructions on how to set up your blog. There are also many Blog Tutorials out there that you can access easily through a search engine of choice.

To sum up, first think - then rethink - WHY you want to blog. Then decide WHERE you want to blog. And to finish off today, consider WHEN you will have time to blog and HOW OFTEN you plan on maintaining it.

Once you have these before-the-basics down, congratulations, it's a blog!

We'll move on to WHAT and HOW to blog in Part II.

The Three Rs of Online Marketing

The phrase the "Three Rs" represent the foundation of skills taught to young people in school - Reading, Writing and (a)Rithmetic.

In Online Marketing there are also three basic Rs:

Relevance

Referrals

Right Place/Right Time

The first of these, Relevance, is the most important. It is no longer possible to throw your message out into the wide world and hope that it will hit the right people, unless your business has such enormous funds and is so ubiquitous that it is quite impossible to go ten feet without seeing some sign of your existence. Think McDonald's.

People want what they want, where they want, how they want it. Search Engine Optimization is an online marketing tactic that addresses this through Search Engine use. If a person searches for New York Wedding Photographer, SEO is one tactic to drive you to the top of those results.

But Search Engines aren't the only way people find things. People also ask other people for advice.

As I've said here many times, knowing *where* your audience is, is as crucial to your business as your brand identity. If you are sinking time and money into a Facebook page and your audience is really talking on a specialty forum, you're missing your target.

You want to be where your audience is, giving them something relevant to their interests, needs and desires.

Which is where the second R comes in. Referrals are the lifeblood of online marketing.

Satisfied customers tell other people. Most people want their close friends and family to like what they like (and take it as a personal affront when they don't, which is why heated arguments about sports teams can make family gatherings hugely uncomfortable.) When you have a favorite restaurant, you want to share the experience with people you care about. It's mortifying when that restaurant has an off day when you bring your best friend and spouse for a meal there.

As Pete Blackshaw says, "Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000."

Social Media is the easiest way for you to engage those satisfied customers and give them an outlet and a method to tell the world how satisfied they are. Encourage them to share deals on Twitter or Facebook with available widgets, email friends with news, fan, friend, follow or connect with them online. Make the referral as easy as possible.

Another old adage that's truer now than ever before is "It's not what you know, it's who you know." The more people you know, the more likely it is that one of them will think of you when they need something you can give them. Which brings us to the third R: Right Place/Right Time.

A smart business owner leverages their social network to make as many opportunities as possible. Many of them will not work out, but some will - all because you were in the right place at the right time and knew the right people.

Social Media networking is an important strategy for business development. You have to be where your audience is, you need to make it easy for them to refer you and you want to be in the right place at the right time.

With these three Rs in your pocket, you're already steps ahead of your competition who are still throwing out messages into a wide world that doesn't know why it should care.

The Challenge of Social Media Naiveté

Previously, we've discussed basic Social Media terminology, so we can all mean the same thing when we talk *about* Social Media. Today I'm going to try and do the same for how we *use* Social Media.

With the rising use of computer and mobile technology, it seems almost a given that anyone using Social Media is computer literate. One needs to have access to a computer or mobile device to text, to engage in email or on Social Media networking sites.

Computer literacy is variably defined within different contexts and by different groups but, for the purpose of today's discussion, we'll call it "familiarity and comfort level with the use of computer hardware and software."

There are many levels of computer literacy. A person may use a computer, but not know any of the names of the tools they are using. A person may understand "click that big blue 'E' picture on the screen," but not "fire up your browser on the desktop."

Typically, the more a person uses hardware and software, the more comfortable they are with it. I know many seniors that are as comfortable on a computer as I am. I also know people who are not seniors who, no matter how many times email (or Social media, or whatever) is explained to them, they really don't get it.

We all know people who, when you tell them what a thing is called, i.e., "This is called a profile," will respond with "Well no one ever told me that." Of course - you just told them, and so now they know, but what they really mean is, "No one ever told me that *before today* and I cannot learn something the first time I am introduced to the concept. I will need to be reminded before I internalize this and may never really do so, because I think of it as alien and too complicated for me to learn."

One of the worst assumptions we, as Social Media professionals, make is that a person online must somehow be computer literate. This may be true, but it is not a given. Also dangerous is the assumption that a person who uses one online technology is capable of understanding other technologies.

Which leads me to what I call the "Naiveté" factor.

I had a conversation this week with someone who uses online technology quite a bit. This person is in every way Computer Literate but, when faced with a new system that is not something they have previously used, does not make any connection between the way one system and another works. This person is Literate, intelligent, and also "Naive" about Social Media.

This conversation led me to a second conversation, this time about Twitter. It took me (and I dare say most Social Media-minded folks) about 30 seconds to figure Twitter out. Home, Profile, Retweeting, using the @ and # symbols - all seemed really straightforward to me. But, then, I have been on BBSs, Chats and the like for ages, and so it all was all of a muchness to me.

Two people this week commented that the initial Twitter page befuddled them - they had no idea what they were looking at.

I'm also not the only person to notice that many people do not automatically identify sponsored information versus unsponsored links - Google counts on that for income. I asked one of the people why they did not go to "Help" for help, and was told they did - they clicked a sponsored link that not only did not offer any help, it was worse than nothing.

No one likes to feel dumb and the smarter a person is the more annoyed they are about feeling dumb. Help screens that don't help make people feel worse, not better.

So, I spent a few moments creating this 1-page Introduction to the Twitter Home Page (click to get the full size):

This is a view of my Twitter Home Page, with explanation of some of the basic functions of Twitter. It may seem "obvious" to you that @ before a name means that that person will see your tweet, but to someone who is Social Media Naive, this is not at *all* obvious.

When I say "Naive" I do not mean they are a simpleton. I mean that previous use of other systems does not guarantee that they will apply similar skills to new systems. Each system, each technology, each platform is something new, and therefore, confusing.

On LinkedIn - nearly every day - someone asks "How do I change my email address here?" There is an easily visible "Account & Settings" button in the same place as most systems - upper right hand corner. If a user clicks that link, there is, among the many other Account settings, a link header that reads, "Change Email Address." It's that simple. And yet, nearly every day, someone is confused enough that they don't ever think to look on their Account to see if that is there. This is Social Media Naiveté. These people might be programmers, engineers, CEOs, artists, whatever. Intelligence and Computer Literacy have nothing to do with the issue.

Here are three questions to ask yourself or a client to help you decide if Social Media Naiveté is an issue:

1) When I get onto a new Social Media Network, Gaming Site or other Online Community, I customize my profile, then click around to see what the settings do and what applications are available? Y/N

2) When I get onto a new website, I expect the functionality to be simple, obvious and explained somewhere easy for me to find. Y/N

3) When I get confused or don't know what to do on a website I:

A) Go to the site's Help section
B) Ask someone
C) Try to figure it out and give up if I can't after a few minutes.
D) Don't bother.

If the answers look like this: No, Yes, C or D, then you or your client may be Social Media Naive. It doesn't mean that you/they don't want to be involved, or can't be involved. It means that you can't suggest Twitter, then walk away assuming they know what you mean. Social Media Naive people will need a little more training, a little tutorial in the "obvious," before you can work with them to develop a strategy.

If you are a SMN person, don't worry! Keep your eyes here and we'll walk through the various platforms from the *very* beginning. Yes, there are a hundred "How to Twitter" tutorials. I'll help you figure out "What is Twitter?" then let you move on to that next step. Feel free to save that picture above - that'll walk you through the "what the heck are you looking at?" part of the conversation. I'll do the same for the "Profile" page soon as well.

If you have questions regarding Twitter or any other Social Media - if you are confused by *anything,* ask in the comments field and I'll do my best to get you an answer in plain, simple words, without any jargon or delusion. Promise.

6 Social Media Tips that Make A Real Difference

Social Media Strategy seems very confusing and time-consuming, because most business owners and many Social Media specialists cannot separate the medium from the message. The idea of learning a new "Language" and setting up and maintaining a new account seems overwhelming to an already busy business owner. Luckily, to harness to true power of Social Media, you don't have to do anything of the sort. Here's 6 tips for you to create a powerful Social Media strategy in minutes a day. (Wow, doesn't *that* sound like a scam!)

1) Separate The Medium From The Message

Right now, Facebook and Twitter are hot. A few years ago it was MySpace and LiveJournal. Before that Open Diary, Xanga, Usenet, Mailing Lists, and way back BBSs. Social Media is not "having a Twitter Feed." Social Media is "talking with people."

2) Take A Long Look At Where You Already Hang Out

Because marketing and promotion always looks forward, few SM spcialists ask you to look at what Social Media you're *already* involved in.

Identify what spaces you inhabit. Do you have a website, a blog, a mailing list, a forum? Are you on LinkedIn? Are you a member of an association or professional network? Each one of these is a Social Medium.

3) Look At Your Social Media Spaces Honestly

You may like the fact that you have 5000 subscribers to your mailing list, but how many responses are you getting from your emails? Check the bounces...how many people are getting your emails. Most people don't bother unsubscribing from a mailing list, they just shift it into their spam filter.

Look at each space honestly. Is your time networking professionally giving you what you need from it? Is your website getting the attention it deserves from you and your staff?

Draw up a list of how much time you put into each space, versus how much you get back. Use "Low," "Medium," and "High" so you don't go crazy trying to develop comparable metrics.

4) Prioritize Your Social Media Use

It may turn out that that old mailing list you barely use is the *perfect* form of communications for you. Or there's a really active community networking group that wants exactly what you have to offer.

Don't discount the old Social Media because it's old, and don't rush to embrace the new Social Media because it's new.

It may be that the Social Media that works best for you is those adult education classes you teach which bring in new clients. Or that local business networking association, or being a vendor at the local Farmer's Market. Remember, Social Media is not just online.

5) Decide Which Social Media You Do For Fun, and Which For Business

You may decide that you really enjoy Facebook - sharing pictures, talking to friends, etc. And maybe it's a really great place for business for you. Consider before mixing the two. Depending on your industry, your business contacts really don't want to know how you spent last night.

6)Maintain Your Reputation

It's possible to mix business and pleasure - possible and doable. Just make sure that you are aware that everything you say for the one audience will be likely seen by the other, as well.

7) Hit the Boards

Now that you've decided where to focus your time, go! Start with that old dusty mailing list and ask a provocative question, or run a contest, or just tell folks where they can find you online!

Now that you've decided Friendfeed is worth it, search for people and groups that align with your business. Look for contacts on LinkedIn and follow people on Twitter. Teach classes, volunteeer your time, go to a professional association meeting. Whatever it is that will give you and your business what it needs - go after it.

Do a quick-and-dirty analysis every 6 months. Is this working? Is it fun? Am I getting back from it what I am putting into it? You may end up paring your Social Media strategy to one or two things, but when those two are high on return, then you've found your winning Social Media strategy.