Category — Social Media

Everyone is talking about Plurk, the new microblogging platform that has all kinds of special features that Twitter does not have. Yesterday, Brian, asked if I had checked out Plurk. Since my answer was “no” he went ahead and sent me an invite; he wanted to know what I thought of it. At first I was a bit overwhelmed and did not see the attraction. It was not love at first site, as it was so very different from Twitter. I really did not do much with it at first other than get registered and set up my account. As the day went on, the friend requests started coming in and I was forced to spend some time on Plurk.

I accepted a few friendships, read a few updates and noticed that some friends from Twitter looked to be having a good time “plurking” so I started to chime in. Needless to say, 3 hours later, I finally said goodnight to all of my new friends and was determined to write about Plurk today!

The jury is out, when it comes to the question of whether or not Plurk is unique or just another Twitter clone. But the buzz, speaks for itself………

“Yesterday I spent an absurd amount of time exploring a new social media site called Plurk. The buzz started a couple nights ago when Leo Laporte tweeted out that sites like Plurk show that there is a lot of opportunity for innovation in the microblogging space. The end result was that thousands of users flocked to the site. Robert Scoble then popped up in my FriendFeed and I suddenly knew that there would be a bunch of people checking it out.”

I am totally hooked. Plurk is by far, more fun, more colorful and more interactive than Twitter and since Twitter has had so many technical issues lately, I’m really starting to think that Plurk might just be my new addiction. There is a great tutorial that I found, that does a great job explaining how to get the most out of Plurk. I sincerely suggest you give Plurk a try and by all means, let me know what you think of it!

The guys over at Common Craft have done it again with their clever and informative video analogies. Recently, I had a chance to watch their newest, “Social Media in Plain English“.

Take a look:

What do you think? Does Common Craft do a good job of analyzing how social media works? Does it show, in plain English, how businesses are using social media to improve awareness and open communications? Does this video do a good job at explaining how the sharing of opinions and ideas lay the foundation for success in business today? What say you?

After serious thought, and reconsideration of her goals, Kimberly Bock, aka SpostareDuro, has changed “Learning SEO Basics - Search Engine Optimization for the Curious Newbie” to “Learning SEO Basics - Supporter of Ethical Marketing”………..

“I am on the lookout for marketers / bloggers that are actively involved with charitable organizations, environmental causes, and endeavors that are of benefit to the welfare of humanity, including marketers blogs that are focussed upon ethical marketing. Regular activity in something as simple as Facebook causes where games are played for free is a good and fun way to contribute as well as make terrific friends.”

Kimberly has been an inspiration to me. Whether it be the environment, animals or an overall world in need, she continually promotes the changes she wishes to see. Unfortunately, some don’t see it that way.

I recently wrote a post regarding SocialVibe, a social site designed to bring consumers and brands together for various causes, and some of the comments I received led me to the conclusion that some may not really believe that marketing and ethics can co-exist………..

By saying, “most international corporations are not your friend if you’re in for charity and good will”, is to assume that companies are appeasing their consciences by exploiting others with one hand as they give liberally with the other and that is pure ignorance.

The Marketing Man notes that “ethical marketing” can be a core operating value and explains it like this:

“According to a recently released white paper on that subject, ethical marketing is a model of ethical interactivity between businesses and consumers that includes seven practices – notice, choice, access, contact, security, horizon and intrusiveness.”

Essentially, it’s not that the companies are bad, what it boils down to is intent and social media does a great job in allowing the bullsh*t and truth to be revealed. Not only theirs but mine as well. Are we in it for ourselves or for others? How am I, as a consumer, using my blog, my business, or my social media tools to make the world a better place? I can tell you that Kimberly is on the right track. She is using her blogs to build a network of marketers that wish to be included in a community that is green minded, ethically secure, and positively rooted in online pursuits. Does that include you? I hope so because “the best contribution to marketing isn’t requested of someone else. It’s given”. What’s your contribution?

This guest post comes from Jim Stroud. Jim is the founder and CEO of The Recruiters Lounge and the tenth in my series featuring social media dads.

The Popularity of Expletives

I was watching the movie - “Akee lah and The Bee” the other day. It is a very charming film about a young girl in her pursuit to win a prestigious spelling contest. I highly recommend it. It is rated PG and for the most part, is family-friendly. However, I had a few moments of discomfort over some of the expletives being used by some of the characters on the film. To be sure, I am not a prude. If I were watching a film about the Mafia or some intense action film, hearing such language would have gone unnoticed. But to hear them in a “family” movie, I was a bit taken a back.

So then I began to wonder, “Just how popular are expletives in the English language and what regions of the world tend to use these words the most?” (These are the type of things that Social Media Dads ponder? Well, I do.)

In case you are unsure what I mean, here is a definition of the word expletive.

ex-ple-tive - [ek-spli-tiv] curse: profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger

So, I did a bit of research. I went over to Google and used their Google Trends tool to see how many of Google’s users are searching for expletives and how often they are cited in the News. The results were surprising! For my study, I chose four expletives that I believed were commonly used in movies. (So as not to offend anyone, I am not spelling out the full words, but blocking letters with an asterix.) Those four words are: Sh*t, F**k, As**ole and D*mn.

In terms of internet searches:

• By far the “F” word was searched for the most and by a wide margin.
• The second most popular was Sh*t.
• The third most popular was D*mn.
• The fourth most popular was As**ole.

In terms of how many times these expletives were referenced in the news, a different result is revealed.

• D*mn was the most popular.
• Sh*t was the second most popular.
• The “F” word was third most popular.
• The fourth most popular was As**ole.

Here is a chart detailing the results:

I also thought it curious as to what regions used these words the most. Here are the results from that survey.

• The “F” word was searched for the most in India
• Sh*t was most popular in Australia.
• D*mn was most popular in the United States
• As**ole was also most popular in the United States.

I am very curious to hear your thoughts on this. How often have you heard these words in common use outside of Movies and Television? (Hearing these words in rush hour traffic does not count.

Follow Jim on Twitter here.

A lot of people that I follow on Twitter have been leaving updates regarding the recent disasters in Asia. Most have been reading about the 34,000 lives that have been lost in a 7.9 earthquake and some have been tweeting about the cyclone that took the lives of over 78,000 people.

It is sad and devastating and although folks are using social media tools express feelings as well as facts, Social Vibe is taking social media one step further to assist our fellow man in his time of need……

“Disaster Relief is a Cause established by SocialVibe to rally immediate support and provide timely financial aid following a specific disaster. Money raised for Disaster Relief will be distributed promptly to the SocialVibe charities working closely with the victims of both the earthquake in China and the cyclone in Myanmar. We plan to split all funds raised equally between Direct Relief and charity: water, helping both to achieve their immediate goals.”

Sometimes when disaster strikes this far away from the US, we see it as sad but not as concerning because it’s not close to home. But the reality is, we are all affected by tragedy and disaster no matter what country or continent we live.

Social Media is truly becoming a valuable tool when it comes to mobilizing the consumer to support disaster relief and SocialVibe is setting the stage to be a leader when it comes to helping our fellow man. What are you doing to utilize social media and help your fellow man?

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and while families from all over the nation celebrated moms with brunches, flowers and a multitudes of hugs, RevolutionHealth was busy working with a team of public health officials, maternal health experts and consumer representatives to unveil momScore, a brand new interactive tool that presents moms and moms-to-be with relevant, comprehensive data about maternal health in their states. MomScore is the first of its kind, health index community, that provides nationwide state rankings for maternal health; which means, the health of women during pregnancy, during childbirth and postpartum. I believe there needs to be a renewed focus on the health of moms because a mom’s health has a very meaningful impact on the health of the whole family……

“Researchers believe that our rising maternal mortality rate is due to increasing levels of high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. In addition, growing racial and economic gaps could contribute to existing prenatal care inequalities.”

MomScore has taken into account 10 attributes to determine each state’s rankings and RevolutionHealth has coupled these rankings with expert-led groups on topics ranging from parenting and healthy eating, to losing weight and de-stressing…….

“To determine each state’s ranking, the expert team weighed the attributes and each state was assigned a momScore from 0 to 100. Some states had better access to prenatal care, which is critical to ensuring a healthy delivery and pregnancy. Other areas had better paid leave policy and childcare services, allowing mothers time to bond with their child after giving birth and peace of mind when they return to work. Air quality was another important factor, since mothers and babies are especially sensitive to pollutants.”

The results speak for themselves, a mother’s health has got to become a priority in our nation and RevolutionHealth is using social media to accomplish that goal. Blogs, forums and communities are being used to encourage moms to take action to improve their own health as well as offering discussions on how the online community can improve their individual state’s momScore rankings. It saddens me to see the very nation I live in with maternal, infant and child health goals falling short. My own state, Missouri, ranks a mere 25th out of 51 states ranked. What is one to do? We can start by participating! Debate your state’s score, share your personal story, or respond to the community or simply leave a comment below telling us your thoughts about how momScore can really utilize social media to promote women’s health.

It goes without saying, that social media has become so mainstream that consumers are now demanding it when it comes to retail. Individuals have tapped into online conversations at such a fast pace that businesses are losing money to their competitors if they are not participating in the conversation.

A perfect example of this is the fact that more and more retailers are offering live chat as a way for shoppers to converse with their knowledgeable sales reps…….

“Live chat is basically an instant message between you and the retailer you are shopping with. The agent or sales rep on the other end of the live chat can help you find what you’re looking for or answer questions about sizes, colors, shipping and handling, return policies and a lot more.”

Not only does live chat help meet the human primal need that once drove people to the town square but it gives the consumer a chance to benefit in ways that otherwise might not be possible……..

“One of the most overlooked uses of live chat is to see if there are any free shipping coupons from that retailer. I was recently shopping on the Lands End web site and I didn’t want to pay for shipping. So I asked the live chat agent if there were any Lands End free shipping codes. She said that there wasn’t, but if I signed up for their newsletter she would give me free shipping on my order.”

Not every retailer is set up for live chat but if your favorite store displays the “Live Chat” button, don’t hesitate to use it. There’s no telling what you can get if you just ask for it!

This guest post comes from Darren Rowse. Darren is the blogger behind ProBlogger and a co-author of the soon to be released ProBlogger Book - a book about how bloggers can improve their blogs and make a living from the medium. Darren is the fourth in my series featuring the Top Social Media Dads.

4 Tips for Social Media Toddlers

My son is fast approaching the age of 2 (he’ll reach that milestone at the start of July) and watching him grow and develop is one of the most wonderful experiences that I’ve ever had.

It’s a period of life where there are such remarkable changes occurring on a daily basis. In the last year he’s:

learned to take his first steps and then progress to running

discovered an ability to communicate, first through gestures and sounds and then through forming those sounds into single words and more recently discovering that it’s more effective to put two or more words together

-discovered how to get his way to make others laugh (and get angry)

-started comprehending how to follow rules

-learned how to feed himself (well partly - it’s still messy)

-to make messes (and when he’s in the mood to clean them up)

The list grows every day. It’s very exciting to watch - although there are ‘those days’ where everything he tries seems to lead to tears and frustration.

So what’s this got to do with social media?

Social media feels like it’s been around for ever - but the realization that I had this week was that many of us are still learning to use it.

For me the journey started juts five years ago with my first blog. I added to my online presence in more recent times by starting to use Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and many other ’social media’ sites - but every day that I use them I come to the realization that most of us are like toddlers and are on a journey of discovery.

I’m a Social Media Toddler

It’s an exciting journey most days - but one that also has ‘those days’ of frustration.

So what can my little Son teach us about getting through our toddler years as social media users:

Experiment - one of the main things that my wife and I are attempting to instill in our young one is to encourage him to experiment and try new things. This happens in a number of spheres of his life including ‘new food’ (surely there’s only so many bananas and jam sandwiches someone so small can consume!), new skills, new words, new people etc.

The more experiments he does the more he learns he can do, the more discoveries he makes, the more mistakes he makes, the more experiences he has. The result of all this is growth, maturity, development and understanding.

The same is true with social media. Many bloggers that I come across tell me that social media doesn’t ‘work’. When I unpack this with them I find that most simply set up profiles on social media sites and never actually try anything on them. The more you experiment with mediums like Twitter and Facebook the more you’ll discover on what does and doesn’t ‘work’ in helping you to achieve your goals.

Develop What Works - when my son makes a new discovery in life he will become obsessed with it. If you’ve hung around with young children you know what I mean. This week his ‘thing’ is to say ‘Bye’ to things. Everytime he leaves a room he turns around to it and begins to say ‘Bye’ to everything in it that he can name. ‘Bye Light’. ‘Bye Chair’. ‘Bye Mummee’. ‘Bye Poo’ (when changing nappy), ‘Bye Wiggles’. ‘Bye Ball’. He’s obsessed with saying bye to things.

What’s he doing? He’s cementing in his mind that ability to recognize that he’s leaving something. He’s developing his vocabulary, ability to name things and he’s putting words together in ways that he’s never done before. He’s also being very cute (until you want to quickly leave a room and he insists on saying ‘bye’ to every item in it). He has made a discovery and he’s honing his skills with it and taking it to the next level.

As Social Media Toddlers we can learn a thing or two from this. Experimenting is not enough - take what you learn that ‘works’ and repeat it. If you ask a particular type of question on Twitter and get 10 times as many replies as normal, you might just be onto something. Try it again. If you use an add-on on Facebook that your friends respond to well - keep using it and finding ways to take it to the next level. If you write something on your blog and get a ton of traffic from StumbleUpon develop the idea in future posts and work out what it was about the original post that connected with people so you can draw on the lesson again.

Watch Others - alongside ‘experimenting’ on his own, I’d say that my son learns mainly through watching those around him. Sometimes I’ll be doing something (washing the dishes, working on my laptop, weeding the garden….) and he’ll have gone all quiet. At first I panic a little because he rarely goes all quiet unless he’s emptying the linen cupboard or using his crayons to redecorate his bedroom walls - but more often than not he’s gone all quiet because he’s simply sitting there watching me.

Ten minutes later I’ll find him studiously doing something that is his attempt at what I was just doing (smashing dishes in the pantry, using an old keyboard that I gave him while sitting in front of the TV or pulling out plants in the backyard). OK - so he doesn’t always get it right, but he is learning so much by watching and listening to those around him.

As Social Media Toddlers I think this is key. There are literally millions of bloggers, Twitterers, Facebook users and participants in the social media space. Many of these people are making incredible discoveries about the mediums everyday. Take time out each day to observe what they are learning and experimenting with and ask yourself how it might be applied to your own situation. While not everything that works for someone else will work for you in your situation - a lot is transferable or adaptable. Watch, learn and apply what others are doing!

Have Fun and be Free - I wish I could be 2 again somedays. My Son’s life is so simple, so innocent and so much fun. He doesn’t get bogged down on what others think about him, he enters into things with such energy and passion, he floats from one thing to another without feeling the constraints of having to do things certain ways.

So many of us as Social Media Toddlers seem to get bogged down by the way things should be done or by being concerned of how others will receive us - but perhaps we need to approach it with a little more with childlike abandonment.

You can follow Darren on Twitter here.