I’m officially an S.O.B.

I know, some of you who know me in person are thinking “we knew that!” but I’m not talking about the context you’re probably thinking.

It is with great honor and humility that I announce www.thatdamnredhead.net has been officially anointed by THE Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog as a Successful and Outstanding Blog, which means I am among bloggers who, in Liz’s words,

“. . . take the conversation to their readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.”

Obviously, the SOB program could not exist without readers who are brave enough to come out of Lurk Ness and comment, so I wanted to thank all my readers who have participated in a conversation here, with a big shout-out to the amazing community of wildlife enthusiasts from WildEarth.tv, whose support was overwhelming when I shone some light on  what a true “social ecosystem” is all about.

If you’ve been reading this blog and haven’t commented yet, I invite you to de-lurk and say something sometime — it won’t hurt you and you may even find new friends. Also, I wanted to thank Liz publicly for letting me be among the “cool kids,” it’s a privilege to be among such great company.

More information about the SOB program and its origins can be found at Successful-Blog.

My social network wish list for the internet deities

In the beginning of my recent post where I told the Facebook Luddites to stop whining, I pointed out some minor changes that social networks have made lately, and also emphasized that technology is constantly being improved upon, hence this thing we call innovation. Unlike these misoneists (had to use that word again), I actually look forward to new features on my favorite sites, and found myself brainstorming on what I’d like to see in the future from these mythical beings of the web known as developers, who are rumored to live somewhere in the cloud among the Google Gods.

Without further ado, I present my wish list of new features I’d like to see among select social properties, and hopefully They are listening:

Facebook:

• level playing field and include a “does not like” option in addition to the new “like” feature
• a “meh” button for the apathetic (this one’s from my friend Ian)
• “Not a Fan” pages (e.g.: “Stacy is NOT A FAN of the Yankees.”)
• allow users to be in multiple geographic networks (i.e.: for those who live in one and work in another, or those who recently relocated but still want to be in their home network)
• ban MySpace-like “surveys” and other similar memes, otherwise make those people go back to MySpace
• have a “3 strikes” policy that would forbid somebody from friend-requesting multiple times (If I’ve said no once, I’m not going to change my mind!)
• a way to bookmark inside Facebook the links of your friends that you like
• charge people who whine to “bring the ‘old’ Facebook back” every time changes are made

Twitter:

• instant visibility of locked twitter accounts that choose to follow you (much like how Facebook unlocks one’s profile to be seen by the person whom they are trying to befriend)
• some kind of 3rd party application telling you who NOT to follow and/or who has you blocked (this may already exist, there are so many Twitter apps out there I can’t keep track of them. Does it? Bueller?)

LinkedIn:

• rename the “Answers” section either “Questions” or “Questions & Answers,” because that makes more sense
• ability to group contacts much like Facebook’s “Friend Lists” with multiple privacy options (this was suggested by a friend, I’m ambivalent)

MySpace:

• please do not cease to exist, but keep all the annoying people on MySpace from invading Facebook somehow (I’m going to catch hell for this one, just watch)

Real life:

• have a service like “shorten URL” that you can plug long meetings into
• an escape key for awkward situations
• CTRL+F: car keys & other things I can never find when I need them
• incorporate hashtags into real life somehow so people would know what we’re referring to instantly

So there’s my wish list for social networks. I can only hope those in The Cloud are listening and ask for no goats’ blood. What would you like to see?

Flying Spaghetti Monster image via Perrenque.

Attention: Facebook Luddites — STOP WHINING!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, there have been some major changes to a few social networks lately. There’s the “more” button at the bottom of one’s Twitter page, which allows you to see more of that person’s tweets without having to go to a completely different, “older” page like you used to. Also, there’s a more subtle, yet helpful one for those new to Twitter, which is a random little definition of a Twitter term in their homepage sidebar. LinkedIn had some minor changes, too, such as only showing your inbox on your homepage if you have unread messages, which make so much sense I wonder why it wasn’t always that way.

Then there’s Facebook, which practically went under the knife on one of those extreme makeover shows, and has a totally different look/feel. As usual, whenever Facebook makes some major changes, a barrage of idiots unhappy users bitch and whine about how they want the “old” Facebook back. They even form groups and protest like they’re participating in some kind of political movement. (Last I checked, “change” was a major theme in America. What — change the country but don’t change Facebook? Pfft!)

I’ve got news for people bitching about the newest look for Facebook:

Social networking sites are FREE. As in, CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY YOU DON’T HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. If Facebook were a pay service and they suddenly made changes you didn’t like, sure, go ahead and kick and scream all you want. But the majority of the people complaining about the “new” Facebook don’t really know what the OLD Facebook was like. Should Zuckerberg & Co. decide to revert back to the “old” Facebook, it would only be available to college students at Harvard and have very limited features. Is that what you want? Really?

What you think you want “back” is whatever Facebook was like when you first joined, whenever that was, because that’s what you knew first. If I said I wanted the “old” Facebook back, it would be really lame and only limited to college students, because that’s what it was like when I signed up. And since I’m no longer in college, I wouldn’t even have access to it.

Social sites, much like software, much like hardware, much like anything, evolve over time. Changes will be made as more people use a product. You may not like all of them, but the usability that Facebook has now is tremendous compared to when it began. When you first started listening to mp3s, did you kick and scream to bring CDs back? When you first started listening to CDs, did you cry and complain that you wanted cassette tapes back? Not bloody likely.

Innovation happens. It is in our very nature as humans to want to improve upon what already exists. People will always be misoneistic at first (that’s your new word), but without innovation, we wouldn’t be online in the first place. We’d still be drawing pictures of oxen on cave walls with berry juice and goats’ blood or something.

There will be more changes to Facebook and to other social sites you are using. It’s inevitable. Only in the next round or two will you realize how ridiculous you sound now, because that’s when all the people who are just signing up for Facebook will be making the same “We want the old Facebook back!” cries that you are now. Your “new” Facebook will be their “old” Facebook, and so on.  My suggestion to you is that you just get over it and be grateful that it’s free.

Am I being too harsh here? Are you picking up what I’m layin’ down? Please share your thoughts, especially if you think I’m in the wrong.

Photo 1 by rutty, photo 2 by tbridge.

Why I’m not playing #FollowFriday anymore

There’s been a meme going around on Twitter for a while on Fridays known as #FollowFriday, whereby people tweet a list of names of fellow Tweeters and follow the list by the hashtag “#FollowFriday.” I think it’s meant to suggest to other followers people that they feel are worth following, thereby increasing the followers of the people they’ve plugged. I think it’s kind of stupid, but I’ll admit that I’ve done it.

Well I’m not playing anymore, and here’s why:

People seem to plug me a lot for #FollowFriday, and I’m not sure why because I honestly don’t think I’m that interesting. But in the past couple weeks I’ve actually gotten direct messages from people who have plugged me that were upset that I didn’t promote them back. To that, I have to say this:

Cry me a frickin’ river.

There was no method to my madness of whomever I picked to promote for this stupid meme. I clicked the names of whatever people were visible in the various sections of my TweetDeck at the time. Why? Because I think all the people I’m following are worth following. If I didn’t feel this way, I wouldn’t be following them in the first place.

I’m not on Twitter for some kind of juvenile popularity contest, I left that school of thought in 10th grade.  I’m on Twitter because I kinda have Shiny Object Syndrome and one day in April 2007, while watching a hockey game and having an IM conversation with @mediaphyter (I knew her then as “RockEmSockEmJen” or something like that on a now-defunct social network known as Consumating), I somehow found it and said, “Ooh, this looks interesting!” and signed up. Then last year it exploded, and now I’m on Twitter to meet people, to network, to learn from people, and to have fun.

That said, I’m sick of seeing blog posts and topics in LinkedIn groups on how to get 1,000s of followers. Really, why would somebody even want that many? My sense of self-worth isn’t correlated with the number of people that follow me on Twitter, and if yours is, then you have much bigger problems.

Granted, as I type this I have over 1,600 followers, but as I said, I’m not sure why because I’m not that interesting. If I lose followers as a result of this post, guess what? I don’t care. I’d rather have a smaller group of followers that I learn from and interact with than a gazillion faceless people who are nothing more than numbers to pad my stats and self-esteem.

Think about that one.

So if you follow me and want to plug me on #FollowFriday, I can’t stop you, but I’m not plugging you back. If your feelings are that fragile that it really matters, then you should unfollow me right now — in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly politically correct or Little Miss Sunshine all the time. If I follow you, I feel that you’re interesting enough that you’re worth following, but I’m not playing favorites, I’m not treating anyone with kid gloves, and I’m not playing the #FollowFriday meme anymore.

So bite me.

Photo 1 by climbnh2003, photo 2 by evilpeacock.

The internet is one big expo — what’s your booth like?

This past weekend I helped out at the annual Fenton Community Expo, which is a pretty big deal around here. It’s organized by the Fenton Regional Chamber, and gets bigger and bigger every year. Last year we had over 5,000 attendees, and though official numbers have yet to be released, I’m sure we got a heck of a lot more, thanks in part to free admission (courtesy of The State Bank) and free cake (courtesy of VG’s) to commemorate the Expo’s 25th anniversary.

If you’ve never been to a community expo, it’s a lot like a trade show, in that different businesses set up booths in a big area (in this case, the Fenton High School gym and halls) and showcase their products and services to attendees. Except in a community expo there really isn’t an underlying theme (electronics, for example) — it’s a pot pourri of local businesses in the community. Everything from banks to optometrists to makeup people to funeral homes to people selling astroturf. There are drawings, a petting zoo, derby races, entertainment I never pay attention to, and lots of free promotional swag. Most people in the community go to enter the various drawings held and get the free stuff. Oh yeah, and to check out the local businesses and organizations there.

As I wandered around the expo after my half-day shift of selling 50/50 raffle tickets, I couldn’t help but notice that a business expo was a lot like the internet. (Hear me out on this one, k?)

Attendees of the expo were walking around, browsing the different businesses who had set up booths. Think of the attendees as internet users, and the businesses’ booths as their websites and/or social media presences.

I noticed that there were three different kinds of booth:

1. Booths that had great displays but barely any people at them.
2. Booths that had OK displays that had some people at them.
3. Booths that had so many people at them that you couldn’t even see their displays.

Booths in Category #1 had one or two people at them just standing there, or perhaps sitting, watching people walk by. Some people maybe took a brochure or a pen that was sitting on a table, but there was very little, if any, engagement between the business and the passers-by. These booths reminded me of those businesses with the “build it and they will come” mentality, those who think that if they have a great looking website, that’s all they need and business should flock to them.  Only, it doesn’t. Why? Because they’re doing nothing to engage with their visitors. Having a pretty site and a contact form that says “start a conversation” on your website is the equivalent of having a pretty display booth but just sitting there passively, expecting people to come talk to you. Guess what? Prospective customers aren’t likely to talk to you if you don’t talk to them first. (Believe it or not, the local funeral home’s booth was more lively than these ones.)

Booths in Category #2 were the most common. Their displays weren’t stellar but that didn’t matter — they were at least talking to people who walked by, handed them some information about their company, and in addition to a raffle, they usually had some kind of promotional item a little less common than a pen — maybe a chip clip, maybe a koozie, a coffee cup, a pad of sticky notes — something a little more memorable and useful. These are the businesses who might get some new customers after the expo, but no guarantees and really, they’re just happy to be there and happy to get whatever exposure they can.  Paralleling this to the web, these would be the businesses who not only had a website but were minimally active in social media, perhaps they had a Facebook page and/or a blog and/or a Twitter account, but they’re not as active as they probably could be.

Then there were a few booths in Category #3 who are the rock stars of the expo.  They’re the ones that have all the other exhibitors jealous and wishing all those people were at their booth. My buddy Raul is one of those exhibitors — you literally have to stand on your tippy-toes to see what all the fuss is about at his booth. Raul is the marketing manager for Financial Plus Credit Union, and every year hoards of kids and adults gather ’round the FPCU booth and play games for some pretty cool prizes. Everybody working at the booth is talking to everybody that walks by and nobody is bypassed. This year, he brought a Wii and kids were waiting in line to play. What does playing Wii have to do with a credit union? Nothing, really, but when it comes time for local kids to get their first checking account, which of the 20+ banks and credit unions in the area do you think the kids are going to remember? That’s right — Financial Plus. I’m not much for video games but I played a trivia game and won a pen like no other — it’s some kind of hybrid ergonomic pen/hi-lighter/laser-shooter deal that’s unlike any writing utensil I’ve ever seen. (OK, so it doesn’t shoot lasers, but it might as well.)

My favorite dentist, Dr. Patty, is another of the expo rock stars every year. Though she usually doesn’t have quite the crowd that Raul has, every year she and her hygienists are there making balloon animals, talking to people, and educating them about good dental hygeine at the same time.  This year she was giving away entire dental hygiene kits for kids that included a toothbrush, floss, stickers, mouthwash, the whole nine yards. Dr. Patty is a dentist and kids and parents alike flock to her booth. Kids are generally afraid of dentists, but Dr. Patty breaks the mold and appeals to them.

Expo rock stars like Raul and Dr. Patty know that the secrets to having a popular booth, thus a popular business, are content and engagement. And this is no different from the web. If you have great content and engage with your audience online, you are bound to have a stronger presence and thus more business. Think HubSpot. Think Cision.  Think David Meerman Scott. Heck, think Urbane Apartments. Chock-full of content and engagement. It’s no wonder they’re regarded as top dogs in their respective fields.

If your web presence were comparative to an expo or trade show, which category do you think it would fall into? Would you be an expo rock star like Raul or Dr. Patty, or would you be the business with a great display and a booth that everybody walked by? If you’ve ever participated in a similar event, which of the three categories of booths did you belong to?

Photo 1 courtesy of mknowles, photo 2 courtesy of Sergey Galyonkin.

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