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Are You a Social Media Private, Captain, or General?

February 18, 2011 By Erik Deckers

I’ve noticed that most social media books are written at one of three levels:

30,000 foot view — The General
15,000 foot view — The Captain
Ground level — The Private

Soldiers studying tactics Books at the ground level, that is, the Private’s level, are how-to books. They detail the step by step process you need to follow to execute a strategy. Follow those steps, and you will have done the right thing. Write a weekly blog post using these 12 steps. Add 1,000 people to your Facebook business page by using this tool. Feed your blog post into Twitter with this plugin. They touch on strategies, but they’re mostly just books on execution.

Books at the 15,000 foot level — the Captain’s level — are the strategy books. They show you how to create the plan to give to your Privates, with some statistics to back it up. They tell you to blog, because 77% of American Internet users read blogs. They tell you to use Twitter, because 150 million people are on Twitter. They tell you to use Facebook because Facebook has 600 million users. They may touch on the why, and they may cover a little execution, but they’re by and large books on the what and when of social media

30,000 foot level books — the General’s level — are the why books. They tell you to use social media, because social media is more popular than porn, or because more people use social media than any other form of entertainment out there, including television. They tell you why you need social media, maybe even tell you what you can accomplish with it, but they’re short on strategy, and they never, ever discuss processes.

A General’s book explains why you should “Take that hill,”

A Captain’s book shows you how to “Take that hill by outsmarting your enemy.”

A Private’s book explains every step you need to “Take that hill in 30 days.”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, because I’m trying to decide the next stage of my development. I’ve spent so much time on the ground, telling other people how to do processes, and that’s working well. Those blog posts are some of the most successful I’ve written. Those talks are some of the most well-attended at any conference. But, just like the army, there are thousands of us.

I like creating strategies better. I like being the Captain. I’ve created enough marketing strategies over the last 18 years, because I get the most enjoyment out of it. Of course, with an army of two here at Pro Blog Service, I’m also the Private, carrying out the strategy I just created.

But I hate being a General. I don’t have the patience or world view to tell people how to see the big picture. I can’t even see it that clearly myself a lot of the time. I know enough to explain to a client why we need to take that hill, but once that’s done, and they’re convinced, I can’t add any more value, unless I can put on my Captain’s bars and create the strategy.

However, it’s the Generals who are seeing a lot of the success in this industry. A lot of luminaries in the business world are Generals. A lot of rock stars are Captains, but they don’t get the glory. Or the keynote speeches. Or make the New York Times Best-sellers list.

But I also know myself enough to know that I’d much rather give up that stuff if it meant liking what I do. Still, I’m wondering if I can create a new niche for myself. Maybe I can be a Major, or even a Colonel. I can tell people why they need a strategy, and then I can create it. Sort of the 22,500 foot view. I don’t want to hang out out 30,000 feet above the earth, and I’m tired of slogging in the mud.

So who are some good Majors to pay attention to? Who are some of the business leaders I should be watching, and what books should I be reading? What have you been reading lately, and why should I read it too? Leave a comment, and let me know.

My own book, Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself (affiliate link) — a true Captain’s book, if there is one — is available on Amazon.com, as well as at Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores. I wrote it with my good friend, Kyle Lacy, another Captain, who’s been eyeing a Generalship lately.

Photo credit: Virginia Guard Public Affairs (Flickr)

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Author : Erik Deckers • Content Location : Indianapolis, IN • Headline : Are You a Social Media Private, Captain, or General? • Keywords : blogging, facebook, social media, social media strategy, strategy, twitter •

Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media, Writing Tagged With: blogging, facebook, Social Media, social media strategy, strategy, twitter

Five Secrets I Used to Trick Klout. Sort Of.

November 22, 2010 By Erik Deckers

It’s really been grinding Douglas Karr’s gears that my Klout score is higher than his, even if it’s only by a couple points or so.

He mentioned his anguish during a recent talk at a Northwest Indiana tweetup, and then again on his Marketing Tech radio show, so I know it’s getting to him. Still, Doug has set the bar plenty high, so to even come close to him on something is a pretty big deal, let alone beat him. (And since it’s the only thing I’m going to beat him in — ever — I want to hold on to this for as long as I can.)

It’s possible to game the Klout system, but it takes a long-term strategy. Sure, you can try to work it in short bursts, but the system will weed out people who don’t stay dedicated, mostly because they use cheap techniques that take too much energy and effort for an extended period of time. So I came up with my own system that will work, by tricking Klout into thinking I’m actually a model Twitter citizen. Here’s how I did it.

1) Be choosy about who I follow.

One of the things Klout pays attention to is the follower/following ratio, how influential my audience is, and whether they take action on my tweets. Having a big network doesn’t do me any good if I’m following junk accounts, abandoned accounts, or spammers.

I use Manage Flitter to unfollow people who don’t follow me and haven’t tweeted in the last three months. This way, I clean out all the deadwood on my network. Why run up my following count on people who won’t use the system more than once every 90 days? They don’t provide value, so they’re out.

I also carefully consider whether to follow someone. I’ll follow people if they provide good value, if they are real people and not brands, and if they don’t tweet crap, constant news headlines, or motivational quotes. I avoid the spam accounts, bot accounts, and the accounts that follow 2,000 people but have never written a single tweet. By following people who know how to use Twitter properly, my network is made up of people I’m happy to read and retweet.

2) Be choosy about who follows me.

I am actually a little choosy about people who follow me. I will “block & report for spam” any porn accounts, anyone who uses Twitter to promote their MLM or money-making system, or is going to do nothing but sell crap. By eliminating these people, my network is more engaged and more likely to read my tweets and react to them. I don’t need to artificially boost my follower account by letting in these spammers and fakers, and I would certainly never join one of those “find followers fast” networks that promise to boost my numbers.

3) Tweet good stuff.

If you want people to pay attention to your stuff and retweet it, make sure you say something useful. I will never tweet out motivational quotes, daily “good morning tweeps” messages, or news headlines after news headline. Instead, I send out things that will be useful, interesting or funny to my Twitter network. Since my network is made up primarily of social media folks, writers, and people with a sense of humor, I make sure at least half of my tweets will be appealing to one or more of those groups. The other half are real conversations and responses to other Twitterers.

4) Retweet good stuff.

I set up a few columns on my TweetDeck to monitor people I want to pay careful attention to. I have columns for people in my state, other social media pros, humor writers and comics, and PR and marketing pros. Whenever someone in those groups tweets something useful, interesting, or funny, I retweet it. I also respond to their conversations with thoughtful responses, and answer questions.

This introduces these new voices to my own network. And since I have earned my network’s trust by only tweeting out good stuff, they’ll read and respond to those retweets as well. This helps expand their networks by connecting these people to each other, which can enhance my own reach as well.

5) Write good blog posts.

Of course, the best way to get people to retweet my stuff is to write good blog posts in the first place. People don’t retweet my vacation photos. They don’t retweet posts where I talk about what I do, what my plans are for my company, or what kind of magazine I would be. I have to write useful information, like exploding grammar myths, how social media is not an entry level position, or an SEO strategy using microsites and specialty domain names. By writing useful posts like these, and promoting them on Twitter, people are more willing to retweet them to their own networks.

So that’s my strategy for gaming my Klout score. By spending an hour writing a single blog post, searching for valuable information to tweet and retweet, and by sending it all out to a drum-tight network that I insure is made up only of valuable and interesting people, I’m able to trick Klout’s algorithm into boosting my overall score without having to work very hard to. . . ah, dammit.

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Author : Erik Deckers • Content Location : Indianapolis, IN • Headline : Five Secrets I Used to Trick Klout. Sort Of. • Keywords : Douglass Karr, Klout, social media, strategy, twitter •

Filed Under: Blog Writing, Blogging, Communication, Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: Douglas Karr, Klout, Social Media, strategy, twitter

Who has time to do the work today?

March 1, 2010 By Paul Lorinczi

There has been a lot of news lately on how companies are really not hiring right now. A recent report talks about how a companies are hiring temp workers, but they are not hiring them to stay. In the past, a common practice was to test drive a worker then offer them a position. Hiring them as full-time employees is not happening right now.

So, who is getting the work done?

When I joined ATA Airlines back in 1997, George Michelsons brought in Bain and Company to basically prepare the company for sale. The process was to get rid of a lot of people and put more jobs onto fewer people. While this strategy worked around the country for Bain, it usually preceded an upgrade in office automation to ensure the work could still get done.

The office automation phase did not occur at ATA Airlines.

The result was a lot of stressed out people carrying around their imaginary trays trying to figure out how they were going to fit one more item onto an already heavy load. No longer were people interested in teamwork, they were more interested in self-preservation. It created a lot of ill-tempered people in the process.

As some of my clients reveal their corporate cultures, I am finding similarities to what I experienced at ATA Airlines. No one has time to commit to anything above and beyond what their core responsibilities are. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is not projected to get much better – CEO’s are reluctant to hire.

What are the solutions?

The easiest is what is being done by some today. Hire temp workers to get things done. They may cost a little more in the short-term, but allow you to avoid the headaches of hiring employees and their costs over the long-term. There are a lot of companies providing these services.

Sometimes, just hiring a grunt worker is not enough. Sometimes you need a professional person to do the work, you don’t have time to do. There are companies being set up that can act as your Marketing Department, your Accounting Department, or your HR Department. They can do it at a cost that is far cheaper than hiring full-time employees, but are focused solely on getting work done for you.

So, look around and ask yourself, are you and your colleagues a bunch of stressed out grumpy people not really accomplishing much because there is too much to do? There is help out there that can help your company meet its strategic goals for the year.

We actually put together a white paper on the ROI of outsourcing blogging and social media. You can download it here, if you want to take a look.

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Filed Under: Blog ROI, Blogging, Ghost Writing, News, Research Desk, Tools, Writing Tagged With: best practices, blog writing, business blogging, business blogging content, strategy

Mixing Charity with Social Networking: SocialVibe

February 11, 2009 By Mike Seidle

social vibe logo A couple of weeks ago, SocialVibe secured $8 million in financing. Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking? Who’s SocialVibe? It’s okay, I didn’t know either.

According to their market speak…

“SocialVibe is a social media monetization platform that mobilizes millions of social media consumers to simply promote, distribute and support brands and charities.”

Basically, social networking users can post sponsored badges (read: ads) for their favorite charities or causes on their profiles and then earn points for those charities along with a few perks for themselves.

They have over 500,000 members and have clocked over 100 million impressions for the likes of Coca Cola, Kraft, Sprint, Sony Pictures and even Colgate-Palmolive. All of these impressions add up to benefit 30 non-profit organizations (think World Wildlife Fund or PETA) and, of course, Social Vibe.

You see, SocialVibe takes a certain percentage to cover their costs and a small profit and then allocates, according to their website, “a sizable majority” of their monthly income to charitable donations. They don’t say what “a sizable majority” is, but as of December 2008, they’ve donated $200,000 to partner charities.

It’s an interesting concept that seems to combine viral interest with advertising revenue and all to benefit a good cause. But, I’d be hesitant to get behind anything so closely connected to charitable causes and donations? Why? Because they’re going to be held to a much higher level of scrutiny.

If Coca-Cola asks MySpace users to install an application that happens to advertise Coca Cola, we all know that’s advertising and accept it. But, if that advertising starts cloaking itself with charitable donations and just causes, people are going to put the whole process under a microscope.

I’m also curious to see if SocialVibe ends up getting in trouble for violating any terms of service. According to their site, they abide by the TOS’s of Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and MyYearbook, but there are hundreds of other social networking sites out there who may not take too kindly to someone else advertising on their space.

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing?

How do you feel about big brands using charities to push ads into social networks? Imagine, you are browsing & you see a chance to support your favorite charity, and are then treated to advertising by a big brand.

Is that a problem?

Well, my guess is that unless the social networks are financially cut in on this little plan, they will come down hard on the application publisher. Because, when you look past the veneer of charity, these brands are simply using their application to front run someone else’s ads onto Facebook without paying for the ad.

What do you think?

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Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: non-profits, social networks, socialvibe, strategy

The Biggest Mistake “Business Bloggers” Make

January 16, 2009 By Mike Seidle

Before you rush into business blogging there’s something you should know:

Blogging does not work in a vacuum.

Every week someone calls us and asks if we can just ghost write blog articles for super cheap for their business blog. There’s a name for these spammy business blogs, and it sounds like something that grows in that goo that accumulates in the drain pan under the fridge: splog.

Splogs are blogging’s answer for the guy at the fair who yells “Hey you, with the face! Step right up…” So, after discovering that our future client has a splog, our first question is, well, if we are just writing, how is the blog being promoted? The answer from our prospective client is nearly always:

“We don’t care about that. We just have the blog around to mop up on some keywords on Google. It needs lots of new content, but we don’t really care what it says. We just want Google to index it.”

After we take a look at the prospects blog, we usually find three things are true about the aforementioned business blog:

1. It’s written by fake people. Not real people with pen names, but fake as in department store mannequin with a bad wig and big sunglasses.

2. The content isn’t personal (it’s written in third person), usually isn’t well written and isn’t tracking in the search engines for keywords that actually get traffic. It’s usually just more spammy content that will end up on page 8,500 in Google’s search results for a fourth rate keyword.

3. The business blog is screaming fire in an empty theater at three in the morning on a Sunday after the popcorn ran out. It gets 20 clicks. Per month. Meaning a visitor is more likely to be a hacker’s spider looking for unpatched scripts than a person, anyway.

Cheaply written business blogs which are put up for an audience consisting of a search engine spider and a ranking algorithm don’t work very well if you are trying to actually market. To engage, you have to actually communicate with people. Which raises the biggest mistake that people make when they start business blogging: failing to be genuine.

Blogs which are written by real people that can be called on the telephone are the most effective if you want good marketing. That does not mean you have to write the article, but it does mean that every blog post needs to be your ideas, and said in a way that is personal and genuine.

Why? Because, people do business with people. It’s that simple.

What are you going to do when someone calls and asks if Mr. Fake Person can speak at a trade show or come on a sales call? Hire an actor? Good luck with that.

Think about it.

People do business with people. People network with people. Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn connect people to people. It’s called social media for a reason, and the blog is the foundation of it all. Spammy business blogs are anti-social.

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