Millenium Marketer

Many people are clueless about how to use Twitter. While there are many blogposts out there on how to use Twitter, here’s my version of why anyone would join the micro-conversation.

This is the height of geekdom.
I didn’t really know what I was signing up for when I registered. All I knew is that it was on Yahoo! Upcoming and it looked like it was happening on a good day.

The details:
BarCamp from Noon to 4 p.m. at Swedish American Hall.
On Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/859363/

I just realized that this is a BarCamp. If you don’t know what BarCamp is it is a gathering of people discussing a subject, and it’s unorganization at its best. People go, and they say, “What do you want to talk about?” and then the discussion begins. I had a taste of this at Web 2.0 Expo where there were Birds of a Feather and Web2Open sessions. They were about the same flavor: a bunch of people discussing something they were interested in.

I’m not really sure what it is that I am getting myself into, but it should be an interesting discussion and a deep dive into the social media fishbowl. Plus there is a party afterwards from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. with Mashable. I’m planning to asking a few folks there, “Why did you come here, what attracted you, etc” and I want to see exactly how “niche” the social media crowd is….is it birds of a feather flock together or rather people of different strokes learning from one another?

Gas prices are at an all time high, vacation is going local, the housing market is facing bubble deflation, the war in Iraq hasn’t ended, but despite all of this, some pop music may suggest that there is still an overall optimism in the US. This is by no means a well researched conclusion, but simply a personal life observation.

This morning while at the DMV, I read a few case studies in the Li and Bernoff’s Groundswell (yes still reading it right now) about people who have successfully dissented against companies and organizations.

These seeds planted connected me to the suggestions made by a couple of popular songs on the alternative radio station, which targets a rough group of high schoolers to people in their mid 30s. It’s not the first time that pop culture dictates the zeitgeist. Take the Punk era of the 1970s and 80s, or the Beatles in the 60s.

Now, take a look at a ’08 song called “Handlebars” by the Flobots, which suggests that the average person can do anything they choose to do with just a little imagination.

Look at me/Look at me/Just called to say that it’s good to be/ALIVE In such a small world/All curled up with a book to read/I can make money open up a thrift store/I can make a living off a magazine/I can design an engine sixty four/Miles to a gallon of gasoline/I can make new antibiotics/I can make computers survive aquatic conditions/I know how to run a business

Social media is really empowering the Groundswell way beyond the needs of marketers and consumers. It may be blatantly obvious, but it is influencing culture in subtle ways. Social media is creating decentralized organizations, promoting democratization where consumers will demand more services and have the need to feel in control. Beyond this, there is the ability to start a business and age is no barrier. Box.net founder, Aaron Levie, is 23, Sumaya Kazi is 25, Zuckerberg is the same age as my sister–24! (Edit: just because all these people are on the same line doesn’t mean they are alike. They are all entrepreneurs and all very different people!)

Also, there are many others like Trisha Okubo who stand on their soapboxes, and provide a community service answering the old question, “What should I wear?” This means it’s not companies and fashion shows dictating what “real people” should wear.

And most of all, if we are dissatisfied with a company or a product, we don’t like something we can “start a riot,” says a Three Days Grace song:

If you feel so empty/So used up, so let down/If you feel so angry/So ripped off so stepped on/You’re not the only one/Refusing to back down/You’re not the only one/So get up…Let’s start a riot

Organizations that are still operating on traditional business models where there are rules and restrictions and the need to control rather than empower your customers need to take heed. If this kind of mentality is pervasive in youth through traditional means of pop culture and music, your customers are going to demand that your organizations are transparent internally, and that you have a culture that they can admire.

Any other songs that you’ve noticed show this spirit of “I can do anything”? Feel free to comment! This could be the start of a new Muxtape called Social Media Zeitgeist!

I’ve been away for the Memorial Day weekend getting engrossed into a new dimension of social media that I had not considered before. These days, I’ve been doing less writing and more listening, so if it seems like I’m a little bit silent, it’s probably because I’m silently listening.

Twenty five dollars last weekend got me Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff’s latest edition of Groundswell, and I am so excited!! This is money well spent.

To do this, you can start by searching through keywords and tags on De.li.ci.ous, Digg or StumbleUpon and find out what people like. De.li.ci.ous has so far proven to be the best search engine, and StumbleUpon is also good for sending messages and coming across random websites that you wouldn’t really know about otherwise. This takes a lot of time, so be prepared to take out about an hour, and commit to limiting this time and coming back to it later. Otherwise, you will find yourself entangled in the Information Spider’s web.

Social bookmarking sites aren’t just another form of ratings and reviews, and it really boggles the mind that there is such a fine detail in understanding your target audience. You can actually see who is digging, stumbling, delicious by checking out their profile, their gender, age, and where they are located. Of course, I knew this was true for marketers, such as those who target profiles on Facebook, but it hadn’t really occurred to me that bloggers could use this in the same way.

For example, I found Divedi on StumbleUpon. He lives in Bulgaria and he is a huge fan of social media. I now know what he is interested in which confirms my thoughts that people do want to know more about social media marketing. Thanks, Divedi!

These days, I am doing less writing and more listening. Who’s out there and what do they want to know? After all, there’s not much point in me speaking if it only contributes to the noise. This is a gap that is not often addressed on the web. Social media bloggers often say, “listening is the first step to blogging.” It’s often been a vague concept for those unfamiliar with the context that social media is a “conversation.” Plus, they don’t tell you how to listen.

Go out there, listen and let me know what you find! I’ll be sharing more on the Groundswell when another poignant moment strikes me.

Addendum: Wrapping It All Up

Three benefits to social bookmarking

(Just remember this is not the end all be all without a compelling message to broadcast)

Listening Power
You know exactly who likes what, what’s hot and what’s not. Sometimes people like videos that are outrageous and silly.

Will It Blend is hypnotic: it turns things like granulated sugar into powder sugar and beats credit cards into a fine powder.

Hunting & Gathering Power
In a traditional tribe, everybody works together to get what they need to support the tribe. This is the Information Age and now you can get others to work with you to get the information you want or need.

A friend, Travis, sent me a link from StumbleUpon that I would have never even found myself. Another blogger friend sent me a bunch of cool links, such as this smartmouth one for blog critiques, called Ask and Ye Shall Receive. After a study abroad year in the UK from 2004, and my trained British sensibilities are ruffled by the Blogspot title.

Friending Power
This is the potential to make friends out of strangers, and this can be super important! Sometimes it’s not the masses that matter, but the quality of the conversation. (There’s that word again. We now need new words in social media.)

Stumble It!

I’ve always been good with foreigners, and was very well known in my college years to be the welcome wagon, give you a tour of campus and the best places in downtown San Jose, and whatnot.

But this is kinda silly, because I see a HUGE opportunity to now welcome digital immigrants.
I owned my first Mac when I was 9 years old (Thanks Dad!) so I guess that qualifies me as a Digital Native. As for Digital Immigrants, that is all you who are wondering “what is social media and what do I with it?”

The first rule of learning about social media is to be open minded. You can’t learn anything if your thought is “Well, that’s not how they did it years ago.”

OK, I agree social media is a HUGE buzz word, and maybe you really don’t have time to get involved. I admit, it is also a very addictive medium because it’s interactive.

But we all have to learn to innovate, and that also means playing nice with the late adopters. There’s apparently this entire market of people who are now familiar with the web when it first emerged in the 90s, and are curious about social media, but are absolutely confused about where to start. Ironically, I write a blog, so I’m not exactly sure how Digital Immigrants will find this post, but if you are curious about what is a:
“blog”
“Twitter”
“Cloud Computing”
… read on. Let’s see if we can make this a good jumping off point for you.
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I’m in the Hayes Valley Café Boulange and I am in love with this place. It makes me feel like speaking French…“J’ai hâte revenir à Paris!!!”

I just looked up LinkedIn and found this in my newsfeed:

“between 1pm and 3pm PST (after lunch) or between 5pm and 7pm PST (after work) are the best times and Thursday is the best day. The worst time to post? Between 3 and 5 PM PST on the weekends – nobody cares.”

I’m trying this out to see what happens.

The funny thing is, I am not sure if announcing the best time to post will really get many eyes on the page, because information fatigue is an ongoing thing, so I’m trying to find ways to solve this problem.

In case you are interested, my new obsession is… Continue reading

I’m working with a family-style company recently and spent time with my family last weekend. These are the two main reason why I may have gone a little quiet the past couple of days.

I noticed a few interesting behaviors and reactions to web 2.0 platforms, software and collaboration. I have two stories to tell today about web 2.0 and SaaS applications. One of those stories is related to the growing trends in China.

Since Foreign Investment in China is a big issue…feel free to comment or ask questions about it.
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