Over the past two years, social media has quickly flown onto mainstream business marketing’s radar. This boom has created thousands of “Social Media Kindergarten Teacher” types with lower-intermediate skills… who get passed off as industry ‘experts’ on unsuspecting novices or clients. Next, there’s a class of smart, relatively advanced social media users who are still learning the professional + business consulting ropes. Above them, there are a handful of true social media experts who personally define the industry’s best practices and train the mere ‘professionals.’

“Expert” skiers can ride ANY type of terrain confidently. Can you handle all things social media? photo: Miles Holden

These folks are the 7th degree black belts who can handle almost any kind of social marketing crisis or solve any challenging professional puzzle with panache. The ones who deserve to be called “expert” are distinguished, in my book, by a few highly-uncommon traits and characteristics. If several of the following ‘needs improvement’ points describe you, then you might not be a social media expert yet:

1. You Lack Expert-level Online Productivity Skills. Do you spend all day surfing the Web, peering over your pictures in Facebook and chatting on Skype/AIM ? Do you struggle to get in an hour of ‘real work’ each day cuz you’re so distracted over Tweetdeck? Do you get feverishly excited each time a new blog comment or friend request comes in? Then you’re probably not a social media expert, yet! Experts know how to deal with the noisy online distractions like Chuck Norris knows how do deal with bad guys. They’ve got custom-built tools, shortcuts, batch processes and assistants – and they know how to use them. Time is (big) money for social media experts; they can’t afford to fuck around.
2. You Haven’t Yet Monetized Your Social Media Presence into Consistent, Substantial Income. Do spend the bulk of your time on social media tasks that don’t really make you any money ? Do you have a corporate or agency “social media day job” where you’re constantly being reigned-in or encouraged to perform below your true potential? Are you a consultant who doesn’t spend half your day fighting off big budget project + speaking proposals with a stick? Then you’re probably not a social media expert, yet!
3. You Lack Expert-level Online Communications Skills and Etiquette. Social media experts have a polished panache for communicating online – and getting messages out through blogs, video, audio and status updates. They know how to connect with people, how to persuade and convince, how to criticize, when to bite their tongue, handle disasters gracefully, and they constantly get people to promote their stuff without looking like pimp.

If your online communications aren’t ultra-polished and there isn’t much of an audience or reaction to what you have to say online… then you probably aren’t a social media expert, yet!

4. You Have Few High-level, Inside Contacts. It’s not about the number of friends. Most ‘real life’ social media experts have close, cultivated connections with the right people. People with power and influence to help get your (client’s) message out to the target audience, or who can go to bat “behind the scenes” for you. Do you know someone who can get your (clients’) product launch written up in Mashable, Wired, or TechCrunch? Do have inside contacts at Twitter / Digg / Facebook’s account team? Can you e-mail an engineer at Google with a confidential problem, or DM a power user who will help you get you 100 retweets or Facebook fans in 15 minutes? If this sounds like a fantasy, rather than what you do on a daily basis…you might not be a social media expert, yet!
5. You’re Not “Blazing” with Creativity and Intuition. In order to be effective at social marketing, “You have to be part sociologist and part salesman…. being extremely creative is arguably just as important,” says Stuart Foster. Social media experts also have an uncanny, intuitive grasp of how the social web’s collective-mind works and how it will likely react to any given campaign, headline, image or idea. How? They’ve witnessed thousands of successes and failures – both their own and others- which give them an expansive databank of experience to analyze and construct hypotheses from. If you haven’t gotten so deep into the fabric of the social web that it permeates your consciousness – allowing you to reliably tap in to the higher, “genius” brain-circuits of creativity and intuition, on demand – you might not be a social media expert, yet!

Experts ride so deep in the information wave, it becomes an extension of their intuition & consciousness. Photo: PrGibbs

What ‘Expert’ Skills Are You Working On Cultivating?

I’m not a social media expert, yet. I made this list as a self-reflection checklist: I’m guilty of almost all of them. Some people I admire who DO have many of these ‘expert’ traits of business acumen, productivity and creativity… are the ones who I list in my blogroll (under “Rockstars”).

Do you agree or disagree with these 5 signs? What ‘expert skills’ are you most interested in personally developing?

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Social Media Rockstar Runs on Thesis Theme for Wordpress

Thesis is an easy-to-customize, premium Wordpress theme that comes with full technical support. The beautiful style and pixel-perfect typography makes your writing look more polished and professional. If you’re serious about blogging and you want to focus more on your writing and do less hassling with PHP code… then check out the Thesis theme for Wordpress now! – Brett

Many people criticize the corporate world as a “rat race” – a meaningless, ruthless existence. But from what I can tell, the lifestyle of a social media professional can sometimes be even more grueling, competitive and stressful than that of a top corporate exec.

Social media never slow downs or takes breaks. It just keeps going. image: tatrattery

When it’s just for personal gratification, social media is lots of fun. But for those who want to make their ideas and campaigns explode on a mass scale (with any kind of consistency) – it demands an incredible investment of time, energy and attention. The pressure to find, consume, share and create new content is relentless. The complex web of social relationships and implicit obligations multiply quickly – many new backs and egos need scratching. Endless reading and learning is required in order to keep your position.

Publish, Ping or Perish

The academic maxim “publish or perish” applies just as much to the online world. Social media people have an incredibly short attention span and tend to forget about people and destinations that aren’t compelling and clockwork consistent. The fickleness is especially harsh on Digg.com – where people will drop you as a friend if you don’t digg their stories for just a few days. When people get sick or go on vacation – they change their username to something like “Gone to Hawaii for 5 days- PLEASE, PLEASE don’t Delete me!”

On Twitter, too, you have to hustle to keep people paying attention to your updates and links. Ping people, praise people, retweet people in order to stay “tight” with them – or many will flake and quickly forget you and get enamored with the hot new social media girl or guy.

Tips for Making the the Race More Manageable

1. Pay Attention in Small Doses – There’s no way you can read everything, answer every e-mail or @reply, or interact with everyone (and still get stuff done). So interact with more people on a limited basis. Think one or two word replies. A blog comment or a RT once every couple of weeks will keep the door open to a larger number of people – they won’t think you forgot them.

2. Focus and Specialize – Some people have focused really intensively on one particular site or scene, and they aren’t burdened with trying to learn everything. There’s people who just do green social media consulting. Or people who just focus on LinkedIn. Or on Wordpress. That one section of the social media universe is more manageable.

3. Get Help and Support – Pro power users like Chris Brogan, Brian Clark and Guy Kawasaki have evolved past being “one man shows” and have assembled small, dedicated teams of support. Their virtual assistants and partners to help with some of the more tedious aspects of maintaining their presence – like editing posts, booking flights and finding fresh links.

4. Be Okay with Being Human – Not everyone can be an omniscient industry thought leader or Top 10 power user. Some people have too much of a balanced life, care too much about their spouse or kids, or have important tasks that need their focused attention for several hours a day. Don’t feel guilty for being human and not spending 18 hours a day online if it’s not for you. Make good friends with someone who does and download their notes.

Does social media marketing ever feel like a “rat race” to you? Or not? How do you deal with the pace and learning curve?

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In the 1970s and 80s, the top New York City graffiti artists were engaged in a fierce personal branding contest. They sought maximum name recognition by “bombing,” or painting their name on as many subway trains and high-profile public places as possible. The goal was to make sure that every single person in NYC saw their name — all decked out in cutting-edge typography and colorful artwork.

Build strong relationships and widespread name recognition, just by leaving comments. image: jovivebo

I think comments are a lot like graffiti in the social media world. They’re an opportunity to freely “tag” your name and show off your writing in public places around the internet. (And they also invite spam and vandalism). Many new bloggers approach comments quite casually or unconsciously… without realizing if you get more organized and systematic about leaving comments, you can build a strong reputation and generate highly-targeted traffic for your own sites and content.

The Reciprocal Nature of Comments

When you leave a comment on someone’s blog, Flickr photo, or Digg story… they’ll (almost) definitely notice. Pleased that you paid attention to their content, many bloggers will click through to take a look at your profile or blog. If you comment on someone’s content regularly, you’ll build up karma… and some will eventually feel compelled to reciprocate and comment on your stuff as well, says @AussieSire. So give comments out generously, and you’re sure to get some back:

image: @BrettGreene

Tools for Efficient Commenting

Top graffiti writers are very organized with backpacks full of tools (headlamp, paint, wide spray nozzles, markers, stencils) they need to get their point across. You need the right stash of social media tools to be successful and efficient with your comments:

• Register a Gravatar acount

Gravatar or “Globally-recognized Avatar” is software system that allows your picture to show up consistently across blog platforms (like Wordpress & TypePad) and social sites. Upload a picture, user name and e-mail – and your picture will show up automatically in many comments.

• Register With Disqus

Disqus is a popular, spam-resistant comment management system. Disqus-enabled blogs remember your identity automatically – so you can get straight to the comment without the hassle of entering your name & e-mail address. Register at Disqus.com and upload the exact same picture you used for your Gravatar account. Don’t forget to configure your display name exactly how you want it to show up on blogs – because the default username is often difficult to read (“johnqsmith” instead of “John Q. Smith“).

• Install an RSS Reader

Trying to keep track of blogs by with bookmarks or, worse, typing the URLs into your address bar is terribly inefficient. To be a comment ninja you absolutely must have an RSS reader – and I recommend Whizz RSS. It fits right into the sidebar of Firefox, so jumping to the comments box on your friends’ latest blog posts easier than pushing the button on a switchblade.

• Get easyComment for Firefox.

A lot of people hate leaving comments because it feels like registering for a new site each time. easyComment is a free Firefox plugin that lets you enter your name, e-mail address and site information with just one click. It’s like “cruise control” for commenting. If you plan on doing heavy-duty commenting for sites using multiple names, consider a professional form-filling tool like 1passwd (OS X) or RoboForm (Windows).

Building an Effective Comment Strategy

Get your name and writing style seen in just the right places. image:SeeTwist

• Pick strategic “targets” to comment on

Leaving a comment is a direct step towards building a relationship with a blogger. It’s also a great way to promote your site – a “first” comment on a major blog like Mashable or TechCrunch can send more direct click-through traffic than the home page of Sphinn or Mixx. So pick the people & blogs you want recognition and traffic from, and add them to your RSS reader. Make subfolders to keep it all organized and allow you to dish out the right amount of comment love to the right people. I’ve got: “local blogs,” “real-life friends,” “social media blogs,” “Digg friends,” etc.

• Leave comments in batches

It’s very, very easy to get distracted while commenting. Make a block of time each week (i.e., Tuesday evenings) where you can spend a few hours in your RSS reader, leaving comments on your “long tail” blog list.

• Create a balance of quality and quantity

A brilliant comment on a popular blog can get more retweets and buzz than the article itself. So spend the bulk of your time and brain cells writing quality comments in the places you really want to been seen and respected, and be more quick or casual if the goal is just to let an old friend know you’re still reading their stuff.

• You don’t have to read the whole article

It takes a long time to carefully read each post and write an elaborate comment that covers all the points. If an article starts to bore you, you don’t have to read the whole thing. Just scan it and pick one point that speaks to you. Comment on that point.

• Use your name, not keywords

No one wants to get a comment from “Home Mortgage Refinancing,” and this pathetic link-text building effort will almost surely backfire on you. Comment with the name you use most consistently on the internet. You can usually get away with adding your URL name or Twitter handle into the “Name:” field of a blog comment. Leaving a comment as “Brett @ Socialmediarockstar.com” or “Brett Borders (@BrettBorders)” isn’t usually frowned upon – but use your discretion. This can make your comment stand out – and encourage people to click through and see your site or Twitter profile.

• Add insight or conversational value

While some bloggers really dislike “Great article!“-type comments or think they’re spammy, I appreciate them more than no comment at all. But at least, try to briefly write out why you thought it was a great post or why you agree with it. “Great post! I think you nailed all the main objections. I believe that #2 – lack of economic incentive – is the strongest argument.”

• Don’t be afraid to drop a highly-relevant link

If you have written a substantial, on-topic comment — and you have a blog post or software that is extremely relevant — don’t be afraid to drop a link in your comment. It might get edited out, but if you’re sincere… it will often stand. Don’t ever waste your time spamming blogs with irrelevant links or automated comments – it will hurt your reputation far more than it will help it!

Take the “100 Comment Challenge”

Effective commenting is a core social media skill that can make a huge impact on your personal branding and blogging success. If you comment with consistency and flair, people will soon begin to feel like they know and “trust” you – and you’ll start to build a good reputation in your chosen niche.

image:SeeTwist

If you’re a new blogger who rarely leaves comments, I challenge you to step up your social media game: try out the tools and strategies in this post and leave at least 25 comments a week over the next four weeks. Observe how the comments you leave directly affect people’s responsiveness to you, your blog traffic and comment counts, and the number of new connections and relationships that develop.

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Social Media Rockstar Runs on Thesis Theme for Wordpress

Thesis is an easy-to-customize, premium Wordpress theme that comes with full technical support. The beautiful style and pixel-perfect typography makes your writing look more polished and professional. If you’re serious about blogging and you want to focus more on your writing and do less hassling with PHP code… then check out the Thesis theme for Wordpress now! – Brett

If you’re using Twitter for professional networking, most experts recommend that your username should contain both your first and last “real” names. Why? Because the social web is so bustling that most new acquaintances can scarcely remember your first name – let alone tie a random Twitter nickname together with an icon + your “real” credentials.

However: short & descriptive “hybrid” nicknames can sometimes work better than a long, difficult real name.

But using your first and last name isn’t always possible every situation. What if your first and last name are too long? Or what if someone else has already taken your exact match Twitter name?

Don’t fret and sweat over it too much! Twitter allows underscore (“_”) characters and numbers in your username if you need them. There’s also plenty of possible good twitter names with strictly alphabetic characters that are easy to type and remember. Just browse through Twitterholic’s Top 1000 Twitter users and you can many find people who have built a hugely successful presence using some kind of variation on their real name on Twitter.

Twitter Username Ideas

1. Your First and Last Name, Separated by an Underscore

2. Your Full Name + A Middle Initial

3. Your First Initial + Your Last Name

4. Your First Name + Last Initial (or phonetic syllable)

5. Your Name + A Number

6. Your Name + A Description of Your Career or Specialty

7. A Nickname Based on a Derivative of Your Real Last Name

8. Add a Modifier Implying Authenticity

9. Add a Title

10. A Pun or Rhyme Based on Your Real Name

11. A self-identifying block ( “I” or “I am”) or Question + Your Name

12. Your Name with a Underscore Preceding or Appending It.

(Be careful with this last one – as Twitter spammers sometimes add _underscores_ to imitate the identity of popular users. Some people may see this name as less credible.)

As you can see, some of the most famous rockstars and celebrities use modifications of their real name. A good Twitter username can help your brand — but ultimately, the quality of your content + your charisma + the consistency of your social media presence matter most of all!

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Social Media Rockstar Runs on Thesis Theme for Wordpress

Thesis is an easy-to-customize, premium Wordpress theme that comes with full technical support. The beautiful style and pixel-perfect typography makes your writing look more polished and professional. If you’re serious about blogging and you want to focus more on your writing and do less hassling with PHP code… then check out the Thesis theme for Wordpress now! – Brett

Love it or hate it, reality TV is a hugely successful phenomena. Producers have refined a formula for dirt cheap, easy-to-create content that’s less predictable than sitcoms and more addictive than soap operas. “Reality” shows require extremely little writing, acting or technical production talent… yet they’ve almost completely replaced music content on MTV & taken over prime-time on some networks.

On reality shows and Twitter, people like drama. And people like to watch.

On “reality” shows, people flaunt their egos & create drama in a staged “real life” situation with an exotic twist added to it. Watching allows us to live vicariously, unconsciously comparing ourselves to others… and providing positive affirmation that “we’re okay” compared to those dramatic nutcases.

You can also find a lot of “reality TV”-style personalities and content in social media. Look through a list of video bloggers and Twitter freaks and you’ll hit a vein pretty quick.

Some “reality” bloggers are friendly and charismatic, yet so incredibly full of themselves that other people are willing go along for the ride with them. Others thrive on negative attention and enjoy getting under people’s skin. They use the phrase “transparency” as a euphemism for their mix of shameless self-promotion and bad manners.

Voyeurism: Social Media’s Delicious, Guilty Pleasure

A very small percentage of people actively create content online. A vast majority of users just like to watch. Grandiose personalities thrive in social media, just like they do on the tube or the big screen. Why? Because there’s something incredibly hypnotic about watching a psychological trainwreck of flaring egos and emotions. It’s like porn: the content and the performers are nothing special, but people get a strong voyeuristic pleasure from watching others expose their raw, private details.

On Twitter, Blogger and Viddler you can find it all: lurid self-confessions of psychiatric disorders, prostitution and drug habits; businessmen bragging about money; attractive women spilling the juicy details about their sex lives; moms who outright specialize in “screaming and sweating the small stuff”; and cool kids keeping us updated on how well-connected they are .

While my superego maintains that “I’m an intelligent professional and therefore this type of content is beneath me” – I admit that I do get hooked into the drama. I find my self checking out the blogs and lifestreams of “people I can’t stand” – just to see what they’re gonna say or do, next. I get a boost of self-esteem by confirming: “Hey, at least I’m not that rude or self-absorbed.” I get excited and intrigued when I wonder: “How can people possibly be so blunt annoying yet still have friends and followers?”

It’s a gamble. If you come off too bold and over-the-top you’ll get shunned. But some people have the right personality and “package” to get away with it.

Social Marketing by Appealing to Voyeuristic Tendencies

Love it or hate it… manufacturing and maintaining a “reality TV”-style social media presence can be a fast and very effective way to build an large online audience. TV producers have learned to consciously orchestrate the perfect blend of “reality drama” and capitalize on it – and so have some savvy social media producers and marketers.

I want to learn from the hype and the drama I encounter online. See how I can use it in my marketing toolbox — and also observe and fine-tune my own ’social media ego’ in the process.

What about you? What are your observations about drama and voyeurism in social media? I’m sure you’ve got one or two — please share!

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Social media marketing is a tricky balance. If you can come up with a viral smash hit, there’s nothing better. But if you grossly underestimate the intelligence of the community you’re targeting- it can create devastating backlash. It can also be unintentionally hilarious…

image: Tinou

1st Place: SEO Spam Extravaganza on Digg

This week an internet marketing consultant tried to game Digg with a gaudy salesletter post — pumped up by bought votes and fake comments.

Several dozen sock puppet accounts dived in, leaving comments faker than a $5 Rolex at the Bangkok Flea Market:

The pièce de résistance was the blatant instructions on how to Digg the post — in case the hired $0.50-per-Digg shills weren’t sure on how to press the button — with a promise of a ‘very special prize’:

Actually, we “dugg” everything about this whole attempt so much… that we decided to award this whole fiasco with a very special prize of its own… the 1st gold place cup in the Social Marketing Hall of Shame!

2nd Place: Chain E-mail Forwarding FAIL

This tweet by had me swiveling out of my chair with laughter:

Todd is a witty search marketing pro, who moonlights as an HR guy. He frequently leaves scorching-but-funny commentary about incompetent job applications on his Twitter stream.

Chain e-mail forwarding is technically “social media”…. a way of sharing viral content with your friends… albeit, a very old-fashioned one. We generally recommend more sophisticated, “Web 2.0″ channels for sharing links your links, like Twitter or Digg.

But if you absolutely must forward that lurid urban legend Aunt Carolyn sent ya, don’t hit “CC: Entire Address Book” while you’re applying for a job. In this case, it cost someone a job interview, but it did earn a 2nd place silver cup in the Social Marketing Hall of Shame:

3rd Place: Reddit Ringtone Sham

An enterprising spammer created a “official sounding” Reddit account (called “AdminBot”) and used it send private messages pimping a spammy ringtone subscription site:

While the spam effort itself is ho-hum, the sheer awfulness of the copywriting was epic. We “appreciate” your copywriting so much, please accept this bronze award and permanent place in the Social Marketing Hall of Shame as “proof” of “the fact” that we got a major kick out of this!

Runner Up: DUI Attorney Twitter Spam

You should never Tweet while drunk. You’re liable to attract the attention of ambulance-chasing Twitter spammers like this one:

If you come across more examples of gut wrenching social media “marketing” that you’d like to see featured in future installments of the Hall of Shame, please contact me for immediate consideration.

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This year, several million people and companies will roll out new blogs and web sites. Because of the intense competition and limited supply of reader attention, a majority of these new sites will fail. If anything about your content seems missing or “off” during the initial split-second glance… you are doomed.

Understanding the essentials of contemporary Web content style & structure will give your content a much better chance of getting noticed, read, and recommended to others:

#1 – Truthful Headline & Strong Hook

The headline is key. If it doesn’t create a sense of interest and value, no one will ever click on your post to read it. The hook is the juicy / interesting angle of the story that reaches out and snags people’s attention – pulling them in to read the copy. Every good story has a hook… but sometimes you have to brainstorm and dig deep to find it.

An excellent article headline on Copyblogger by Michael Stelzner

Make your headline as interesting as possible – but take care to avoid sensationalism… because your headline is a written promise. If the content doesn’t fully deliver on the expectations you created in the headline – you’ll get clicks but you’ll quickly “burn” your readers… leaving an angry reaction and a bad impression about your brand.

#2 – Beautiful Typography

Most default blog and content-management themes come with very basic typographic styles. This was okay a few years back when blogs were new… but now your text has to be formatted with style, readability and originality in mind – or else your ideas won’t be taken seriously. This excellent article on content optimization explains how many experts recommend using the font Veranda – but I’m a fan of Arial (the font you’re reading now).

If you want examples of immaculate web typography to emulate, check out CSS Zen Garden.

Your site’s header logo needs to be professionally designed with a graphics program. Then the text typography needs to be formatted in CSS. All of the critical text (HTML) elements of your content – bold, italics, header 1, header 2, header 3, ordered lists, unordered lists, links, already clicked-on links, blockquotes, definitions – need custom styles. Tweak out the subtleties of spacing and font decoration until you get a look you’re very proud of. (CSS is an essential skill if you want to blog with style – I learned it from these awesome online courses.)

#3 – Professionally-formatted Photos and Illustrations

Unless you’re an A-list’er or some Pulitzer-prize winning writer – too much plain text is downright intimidating. Having one or more images in the text will make your content easy on your readers eyes (and brain). Get images from Flickr Creative Commons, stock photo sites, or your own digital camera. A simple chart or illustrations can make a post look many times more professional. For relatively easy-to-use graphics software, I recommend OmniGaffle for OS X or Fireworks. Finally, try to format your images with captions, dropshadows, or CSS “frames” to make them look professional.

#4 – Subheaders and Bulleted / Numbered Lists

Many people will be reading your content at work and they may be in a tremendous hurry to get the gist of it. Also, most users prefer to quickly scan web content diagonally, rather than actually “read” it.

Having bold, nicely CSS-styled subheaders (i.e., H2, H3, H4 tags in XHTML) make your content easier to grok and less intimidating to zip through in a hurry. Lists (i.e., UL & OL tags) help people soak in important facts that would otherwise sail right under their radar.

#5 – Clear, Lean & Engaging Writing

Quality writing is important. image: StaR DusT

If your writing is murky, verbose, or filled with errors - your content won’t get shared and recommended. Review the classics like The Elements of Style – and also check out more modern primers like A Guide to Writing Well and the Copywriting 101 series.

#6 – A Unique Perspective

There’s way too much fresh, high-quality content being created for stale or recycled stuff to have much chance. If you just echo stuff that has already been written, or publish lists of links – you become really easy to ignore or safely unsubscribe to.

A fresh new twist on the same-old flavor. image: David K

As Maki @ DoshDosh explains in his article The Future of Content in the Age of Information Overload:

“Detailed, unique content immediately stands out on its own, even without extensive marketing efforts. People don’t just want to be informed, they want to better grasp a topic in all its nuances. The joy of consumption lies not only in the skimming of a news story but the processing of new perspectives to enrich a personal worldview or professional need.”

#7 – No Pagination, Forced-Registration or Intrusive Ads

Some corporate Web publishers like to take an article like “Top 10 North American Snowboarding Resorts” – and split it up into 10 pages to increase pageviews and make more ad impression money. This kind of “company-first” thinking doesn’t fly with the modern social media culture, who demands quick access to your information and minimal hassles. Also, pagination harms your SEO efforts.

This was a good article, but it would be a better experience if hadn’t been split into 13 pages.

Forced-registration will kill any social media potential, and the much-hated interstitial ads (example) will give your content some serious negative points when it comes to viral potential. Lastly, make sure your ad network doesn’t permit deceptive schlock that insults the intelligence of 99.9999% of your users:

Avoid this shit like the plague.                            

#8 – Links to Sources and Additional Information

 

High-quality web content has text with hyperlinks to sources, proof and additional resources. This takes your content to a higher level of credibility than “just some guy’s opinion.”

#9 – Information About the Author

Who wrote the story?… An anonymous troll? A highly-respected expert? Some guy in Swaziland you hired on Elance?

Linkerati like top bloggers, librarians and “real” journalists need to know. If they can hold someone accountable to a story… they’re more likely to feel secure blogging about it, linking to it, or quoting facts from it. Having the author’s full name in the byline, with a link to their biography (containing a clear photograph) will help score major credibility points.

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Ross Borden is the owner and content director at the Matador Network – an online travel magazine that has recently exploded in popularity with well-written, beautifully illustrated travel articles and lists. Matador’s content is very appealing to social media and social news site participants… earning thousands of links from all over the Web. He recently took some time to offer some of his hard-won insights on viral marketing and web publishing to Social Media Rockstar readers.

Tell us about Matador Travel?

“We are the world’s first interactive travel magazine. As a traveler, I didn’t like going through a bunch of travel sites and wading through thousands of reviews written by people who were essentially on vacation there – people who didn’t know a thing about the place. Matador is a place where you can read professionally written content by people who live there, speak the language and know everything about the place – and we have a social networking linking the whole place together. It’s a community where you can reach out to people and ask questions. It’s a really interactive way to get the best travel information on the Web.”

Ross + a friend high above the clouds in Columbia.

How did you get into social media?

“I had been traveling for a year and I came back to San Francisco and got a job in sales at Oracle. I really didn’t like being stuck in a cubicle and making cold calls all day. I had been away from the Web cause I’d been traveling in South America. When I got back, so much had changed and it all really dawned on me. What really inspired me to write the original business plan was that we were entering into an era where the unknown little guys could take on the big guys. Where if you created compelling content and cool applications – you could literally steal market share from the huge companies that had been running things for the past 50 years. That excited me.”

Seth Godin talks about building fresh new organizations that fit the social media culture and vibe. Any thoughts on this?

“Seth is a marketing genius and a visionary – I agree with him on that. The old media giants are getting a lot of things wrong. That’s because they didn’t start from scratch. They’re trying to not only trying to apply a “2009 social media” aspect to what they do, but a lot of times they fight what’s happening on the internet. It goes way back to when Steve Jobs had the infamous meeting with the music executives and they told him to “Go fuck yourself!” – and… just look at iTunes now. And look where the record industry is! I think it’s the same thing with all the big, old media gaints. It’s important to look and see what’s really working on the web – and to build your social media organization (by) harnessing what’s already popular.”

Where do you get your story ideas from?

“I try to expose myself to as much news and media as I can. It’s a crazy world we’re living in, in 2009, and there are certain things that just blow me away. Anything that really makes an impression on me right away is going to make an impression on other people. I go through hundreds of RSS feeds and headlines in social news, and I look for something that catches my eye and really makes a strong impression on me.”

What are some of the essential elements for crafting a great linkbait / social media story?

“The no brainers are stuff like lists, ya know, ‘Top 10 Superlatives.’ Deeper than that, you either want to shock someone or you want to give people value. Teach someone. Give people resources so that it’s not just a time waster or attention grabber… but so they’re getting some insight into something that they care about by reading your article.”

Ross living on the edge @ Yosemite National Park, California, USA.

What quirks do social news site users have?

“All web users have really, really short attention spans. They have they world at their fingertips, but a lot of time they are at work when they are consuming social media. I’d say that social media users have the shortest attention span of any web user. That’s because there’s 100 other popular stories they’re trying to check out. So an important insight for being successful is you really have to grab users of social news sites with something riveting – like a great photo – right in the beginning of the article. You don’t want to lose them right after they get to your site.”

Who you you admire as some of the most successful viral content creators out there?

“I would say that Green Options Media does really well – and so does Weburbanist. Those are two of my favorite sites to visit. Then there’ the classics like Cracked and Holy Taco. Those guys have a really good grip on how to succeed on Digg. That kind of content is not as compelling to me because it’s more of just the shock and entertainment factor, where something like Green Options and Web Urbanist is showing you something you’ve never seen before or providing insight into news. I get more out of those sites.”

Have there any side-effects of having content go popular on a social media site?

“Since we’ve gotten into viral marketing, I’ve been initially surprised by a lot of the super cynical comments that get left. But I guess that’s to be expected when 100,000 people read your article in the same week.

One of our community members, who teaches English in Japan, posted a photo of a hilarious essay that one of his 3rd grade student had written. It was popular, but there were a lot of people who were very critical, saying that it was wrong to post a Student’s essay. I was floored that people couldn’t find humor in that.”

Funny Engrish = Viral Ignition

What were your greatest travel adventures?

“Hitchhiking through East Africa for a number of months. I did a stint working in some African primary schools. It was great working with the kids. The ultimate, all-you-can-handle adventure was hitchhiking by myself through Kenya. I would note that I never felt any danger and I think African people are some of the nicest people I’ve ever encountered.

 

After graduating college, I went with my friend to South America, and we climbed some of the biggest mountains on the continent. That was another great adventure.”

What other amazing travel sites should we check out?

“I set out to make a travel site because I didn’t like a lot of the other travel sites out there. They’re overly monetized – I mean it’s like spam – almost all of it. You’re trying to get pushed into buying a cruise package or getting a flight deal. Elevate Destinations is a great outfitter – they give a lot of money back to the communities and they support conservation. iExplore is another leader. Wend is another great online + print magazine many people don’t know about.”

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Marty Weintraub is not your typical agency type: he’s a passionate, sometimes outspoken, social marketing maverick. Whether or not you agree with everything he says… it’s hard to deny that he’s got some brilliant insights, or that he’s more innovator than follower. Marty pushes limits and explores dimensions of social media marketing that most professionals don’t talk… or even dream… about.

Tell us about your marketing background?

“In the 90’s I was part of the team that helped create kiosks in retail stores like Target, where as customers walked by, motion detectors chirped.. and wolves and dolphins ‘yelled’ at passerbys – engaging them to buy CDs of recorded nature sounds and new age music.”

Are the rumors true that you were an actual (musical) rockstar?

“I’m a piano player. I’ve played in every kind of nightspot or stadium you could possibly imagine. Everything from VFW bands to internationally known acts.

In the 80’s I looked like a nasty version of my mother.

In the 90’s I worked for Polygram International Publishing as an A/R person to sign people to publishing careers. Also, I became semi-known for blending CDs of dolphins with acoustic music. I had a wonderful 25 year career as a musician, but social media is better. If you drive 200,000 people to a blog today because you wrote 200 words… that’s cool like a hit record. You’re moving whole populations. You’re touching people. You’re using technology and touching people with things you have in common with them, or triggering their emotions – moving them psychologically. So, I don’t miss music. Social media music is just as cool – I like it more than music. And that’s saying a LOT.”

What do you do now? What kind of projects does your company excel at?

“aimClear is a search engine marketing-focused advertising agency in Duluth and Minneapolis Minnesota. Our clients range from really small and intriguing entrepreneurs with a better mousetrap, to some of America’s larger brands. Among other endeavors, we specialize in best practices for ethical use of avatars in social media – to both holistically uplift communities and to serve our clients’ needs.”

You’re pioneering a SMM technique called ‘persona blogging’.. can you tell us what that is?

“Persona blogging is when you carefully craft an avatar to participate in social communities – based on a derivative of who your client is and who the actually blogger really is. We currently work with a number of companies where we have brand ambassadors participating on their behalf in social communities. Those avatars range from absolute transparency (‘My name is Marty Weintraub and I represent XYZ Corporation’ ) to the polar absolute opposite – where we don’t say anything at all and we report back to the company about what’s happening.

This is a hypothetical example of a “persona” profile.

“The real question is: ‘Who am I? Am I only Marty Weintraub?… Or can I also be a guy named ‘Bruce’ the community manager?’ Our perspective is that you can do whatever you want so long as your goal is holistic, authentic and real participation in the online community you traffic your avatar in.

Our persona blogging avatars participate more fully, and in a more nurturing and supportive way ,than almost any users we ever see. We’re not talking about creating 70 StumbleUpon profiles, we’re talking about sculpting a personality that is driven, in large part, by the blogger who is managing that persona.”

You think that online personas are no more deceptive than the wholesome facade a CEO presents on a company ‘About Us’ page?

“The big question in social media marketing is ‘Who are you when you represent yourself or a company?‘ Back in the 90’s, did you embellish your Yahoo! Personals? Did you say that you weighed 164 pounds instead of 165 pounds? The anonymity of the internet allows people to be slightly more than they really are – OR create imprints for who they truly want to be. This happens both on a microscopic level and on a gross level – I mean, If I go on the internet and say I’m a 9′2″ gorilla named Charlie… that’s one thing… but if I subtly embellish an emotional character or a personal proclivity, then that’s a really different thing.

So when we create someone named ‘Suzie Lipstick’ who posts a lot of great comments, articles, pictures and content – that’s NOT unethical because we don’t outright say ‘My name’s not really Suzie – it’s a team of three people who are dedicated to the longevity and success of this Suzie, or Billy, or Fernando or Malinda in the StumbleUpon and any other appropriate community.’”

So, social media is just an illusion? Like Hollywood or Milli Vanilli?

Candy-coated social media ‘astroturfing’? Or smart guerrilla marketing? image: fortune cookie

“Well, if I met you on the street and you looked hungry, and I just do a random act of kindness and give you a hamburger or 50 bucks… is that hamburger any less filling or appreciated because I didn’t tell you my full life story and history? The line is drawn for us when it comes to overt selling. We NEVER overtly sell. We just report and participate. We never breadcrumb our own content to be discoverable by the people we network with more than once in like every 25 times. So for every time we put a piece of content we hope someone will discover – 24 times, we don’t. We’re thinking about the community. We’re thinking about sharing.

The big question is: are you manipulating people? Yes, of course you are. What marketing isn’t? Last night I watched TV and I counted 64 political commercials for Minnesota-based and national candidates – and at least 40 of them were nearly TOTALLY full of shit.”

Some professional marketers freak out at even hearing about anything grey area or aggressive. Why?

“Not everyone does these sorts of tactics with the level of expertise and sensitivity that aimClear does. At the end of the day, a lot of social media marketing is pulled off by a bunch of hacks and spammers. They ‘pee in the pool.’ We learned how do do this by making mistakes.

It’s really easy to write about ‘ethical’ so long as you receive no checks that you buy food for your children with from real companies that are concerned about their social media presence. The irony of all this is that aimClear is, like, squeaky clean. 90%+ of the avatars we deploy disclose everything. But there are times you need to embellish to ‘move things along’ a little.”

What are the common mistakes you see people making in social marketing?

1. Overt selling.This is the first big no-no. Social media is not about selling. Social media is about serving your friends. At the most, you want to use profiles as a conduit to your products and services by people who are truly interested and discover it because of who your avatar is…
2. Being insensitive to the vernacular and public expression of behavior in a social community. You have to know about the communities you’re in and behave in a way that lifts them up. My friend Tamar Weinberg, who is social media blogger whose ethics I really respect, writes about this. A savvy attorney once told me an incredible piece of advice once: If you every disagree with your wife, tell her that she ‘might be right.’ If you make a non-binding statement like that, it doesn’t give anything away except respect. RESPECT community members and prove it with your behavior.
3. Not respecting users as people.Your social media effort
   will never work if you don’t approach users with the respect they deserve. These users are real people, who fall in love, who become angry. We had a client with a serious product recall. There were tens of millions of searches we and our partner agencies needed to handle, in a matter of days, with paid search and organic tactics. The first and foremost thing was how to get people the right safety information.

What mistakes have you made personally?

“Stirring up the hornet’s nest can get you stung.” image: Marcopolus

“The biggest mistake ever personally make is when I bash the hornet’s nest. My friend Lyndon has used that expression when describing me. I’ve learned you can’t feed the trolls. You can’t argue with these phreaks too hard because everyone gets hurt in the end. You don’t have to go to every fight you’re invited to. Social media marketers are people artists, by our very nature. We tend to react emotionally.”

How is social media different than other media?

“I see social media as a place where people do what they’ve always done. When there were cave people, we were trying to communicate something that mattered to other cave people who walked by. Social media is the modern way ‘cave people’ communicate.

Social media offers a slightly-distorted, digital reflection of our lives. image: iceman9294

Social media mirrors physical life.  It doesn’t matter if someone is being a dick to you in Times Square, of if someone else is planning an evil way to ruin your domain’s reputation – the bottom line is that humans are humans. They’re either creeps or not…”

How do you leverage volatile stuff emotions and politics without things backfiring on you?

“It’s really important to fight fire with water – not fire. If some social media idiot slams you or your client unfairly, it’s SO tempting to nuke em’. Because we’re search marketers and we have a good understanding of what it might take to trash someone. HOWEVER – it’s really important to take a minute to think out the degree of response required. If there’s a disaster or your client accidentally kills (God forbid) somebody – it might well require quick response, but usually you can afford 5 minutes or even two hours to think things through. It’s normal to feel hurt or really pissed off – so count till 350 or eat some mashed potatoes (with sour cream and chives) and wait till tomorrow. Just chill.”

Sometimes you can be so respectful that others see the folly of their ways. You know you’ve done something right in social media when the provocateur comes up to you in a thread and says ‘Well, you’re really making it seem like I’m being stupid about this.’ And all you’ve done is thank them for their involvement and said ‘We understand that you feel this way.’”

Sounds like social media marketing can be pretty edgy. How do you handle the ups and downs of it all?

If you can’t handle living on the edge, stay the #$@% back from social media marketing! image:Wza_HK

Edgy is an understatement. Social media is good like sex. And it’s bad like sex, too. It’s really important not to take things too seriously when it’s all going to crap. And it’s just as important not to get too worked up when things are really going great. Yeah I celebrate going hot on the home page of Digg, and I cry if someone says something really wicked mean. Don’t deny your emotions but try to keep things in perspective. Understand that in your professional life, and especially things like music or marketing, are cyclical. For every disaster there is a high point, and the universe basically evens out.

Success is ultimately defined by the panache with which you handle the highs and lows. When I was playing music in stadiums, there was a lot tempting things that happened. I didn’t handle some of it perfect as I… umm…might have liked to, in retrospect. That had more to do with my grounding as a person and as a spiritual and soulful being – than my ability to say ‘No!’ to crack or groupies.”

What are your professional goals for the future? At what point in your career will you say “yes, I’ve finally made it!”

“Because I’m a cancer survivor, I understand that this is all we get. I’ve had doctors look at me and ’say there’s a reasonable chance you’re gonna die soon.’ I tend to live in the moment and take what I can from life in this moment. It was my 2008 goal to speak at a mainstream conference and write for national trade publications. It was a total joy to speak at SES New York, Toronto, SMX Mobile, Advanced, SMX East, SEMpdx in Portland.. and also to write for Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch and meet amazing people!

“Social media music is just as cool – I like it more than music!” image: Sean Dreilinger

I look around search engine conferences and I go ‘these people are SO beautiful!’ Such amazing people like Matt McGee, Chris Winfield, or Lisa Barone, Li Evans, Rand Fishkin, Danny Sullivan, Kevin Heisler, Rebbecca Kelley,  or Lee Oden… such an amazing community I’m privileged to be part of.

At the end of the day, I feel really grateful for the ability to be a publisher and have a voice in this world.  It’s an incredible privilege.

When I go to work in the morning, I feel like I’ve reached my professional goal. There doesn’t have to be more than this. It would be great to sell AimClear to an advertising agency that needs our capabilities in house. It’s a blast to work with big brands and to make a little money and all that.. but I get my satisfaction and find my peace in this world, today.”

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