At any given time, you can expect to find over 20,000 people on Chat Roulette, the new one-on-one video, audio, and text chat service. After a slow launch with only 200-300 users at any given time as recently as late December, Chat Roulette has exploded as the newest way to explore and connect. Based off the same principle as text-only Amiga, Chat Roulette pairs strangers in real time from across the world to chat via web cam. The motivations are varied—to practice English, find musicians to jam with, to meet girls, to live out a persona—but the service is still in the free-for-all early stage. Garnering massive attention through blogs of screen shots and the occasional story of running into the Jonas Brothers, Chat Roulette is still forming as a new social medium.
Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the Gravity Summit where I had the chance to learn about how business professionals were using social media. Among the many topics that were discussed at the summit, one topic in particular was brought up on a few occasions. That topic was Google Buzz. For many professionals in attendance, the question they wanted to know was whether or not Google Buzz would become relevant. As it is, Facebook and Twitter are big question marks for some businesses because of the simple fact that companies don’t want to jump too far into something if there is a chance it will disappear in a year or two.
So the question now is what do you do? If you are a business owner or a marketing professional, how will Google Buzz play into your campaigns?
(Social Media is so easy a Caveman could do it! – Photo by Don Hankins)
We like to make social media difficult to understand. We like to keep creating new shiny toys, sites and systems and the new one always seems to come out just when you got the hang of the “old thing.”
Bloggers that blog about social media and marketing experts like to complicate things that should be relatively easy. Social media is all about, ironically, being social. You know listening to and talking to other people in a social environment. The Internet has just changed the location, not the message.
When you are making new resolutions to train for a marathon, eat better or to improve your mile time, do you wake up the day after you start with all your goals met? No? Why not?
During training you experience pain, sore muscles and how some trainning is trial and error. Socail media is the same. It takes practice, repetition, dedication and the understanding that not all the same tactics will work for everyone.
Before you start tweeting or facebook fan page-ing why don’t you take a step back and ask yourself some questions:
1. Where do you want this to take you? This could mean your company, a product or service. Make sure to be specific. If you are a small business that is trying to promote a new service options, make sure that you have messaging that’s right for your audience.
2.What are your current resources?
3. How does/can social media efforts help me?
4. What BOUNDARIES do I need to set? -This is critical. When you are working out- you can’t just decide to run 13.1 miles after not running since your 5th grade mile run challenge. You have to set a pace and boundaries. It’s important to recongize a great running day. Instead of running yourself into the ground, take a step back, appreciate the victory and keep moving.If you have 50, 100 or 1,000 facebook fans can be terrific milestones. By just thinking that you need more is losing the point.
When you are making new resolutions to train for a marathon, eat better or to
improve your mile time, do you wake up the day after you start with all your
goals met? No? Why not?
During training you experience pain, sore muscles and even failure. Socail media
is the same. It takes practice, repetition, dedication and the understanding
that not all the same tactics will work for everyone.Before you start tweeting
or facebook fan page-ing why don’t you take a step back and think about some
things:
1. Why? That’s right, why? What are some solid reasons you are wanting to jump
into the social media landscape. Make a list, then do it again with other
members of the company. It helps you realize where you should start.
2. What are my goals? Meaning, where do I want to be in my training in 2 weeks, a month, six weeks. Make sure to be specific and realistic. If you are new to social media, don’t expect to have the fan page up and ‘fanning’ in 2 hours. That strategy takes time and effort. Take a peek at other companies in your field and your area. Anything you want to mirror?
3. Do you need a gym? In social media it’s important to know all of the
resources available. Do you need a Hootsuite account and Tweetdeck on your
desktop? Do your reasearch, know what’s available. Tryout some tools and see
what works with and for your needs (see what tools best align with your budget and goals-see above).
4. What BOUNDARIES do I need to set? -This is critical. When you are working
out- you can’t just decide to run 13.1 miles after not running since your 5th
grade mile run challenge. You have to set a pace and boundaries. It’s important
to recongize a great running day. Instead of running yourself into the ground,
take a step back, appreciate the victory and keep moving.Remember that 50, 100 or 1,000 facebook fans can be terrific milestones. By just thinking that you need more all the time can get you clouded on the reason why you started in the first place (see #1).
5. Don’t be afraid to fail. This is the most important. Trial and error are equivalent to growing pains, they will be worse for some and not too bad for others. Embrace your failures and learn from them. Don’t bury them as if you were ashamed for trying. Social networks like facebook, myspace and the microblogging site Twitter take some time. Accept it and move on.
I remember the saying ‘if at first you don’t suceed, try and try again.’
What are you doing to gain endurance and a steady pace in the social media world?
When you are making new resolutions to train for a marathon, eat better or to improve your mile time, do you wake up the day after you start with all your goals met? No? Why not?
During training you experience pain, sore muscles and even failure. Social media is the same. It takes practice, repetition, dedication and the understanding that not all the same tactics will work for everyone.Before you start tweeting or facebook fan page-ing why don’t you take a step back and think about some things:
Viral marketing, online word-of-mouth marketing, social media marketing…they’re all under the same umbrella. They all encourage the consumer to interact with the brand, creating tighter bonds between the two parties. With such readily accessible tools as social media, brands can create big-time buzz without a big-time budget.
Is Content King? Then Distribution Is Crown Prince
No matter how good the content is, if nobody reads it, then it has totally defeated its purpose. The Internet provides a wealth of useful tools for distributing content and reaching an audience. The main issue now is to find the right niche for the content to be propagated.
Twitter: Why does it work (so well) for small businesses
Small businesses benefit the most from using Twitter as a marketing tool. The social media platform is easily accessible, cost effective, and can reach a wide audience while still targeting a specific market. Not to mention it fulfills the business’ aim to build relationships.
What does “New Media” mean to you? Where do you see Social Media, Blogging, and the Web 2.0 world heading next? For me, “New Media” is about allowing anyone and everyone to create this media themselves, encouraging creativity, and providing low barriers of entry (so everyone – regardless of tech-know-how – can participate).
Recently I launched a project called “The Epiphany Moment” – what took several months together has resulted in something that truly defines what “New Media” means to me. Every element of this was 100% crowd-sourced – individuals submitted their own videos to be a part of this, which were then edited and set to original music – all of which was done at zero cost.
photo by redorange.si
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