Influencing Myself: How Loud is Your Social Space?

Ryan    Uncategorized     Followers, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Influence

What are the most noticeable tweets in your tweet flow? Out of everyone you follow, who makes the biggest noise? Do you even monitor your following, or just watch your TweetDeck custom searches pop up?

In today’s social media universe, and especially in the world of Twitter, the act of following or being followed is continuing to affect the way we act and socialize with each other. As a rule of thumb, we feel that the amount of people following us directly relates to how much authority or importance our profile has. This is not only true, but clearly evident in some of the most respected Twitterphiles and Twitterco’s out there. But while we are focused on upping our followers twit by twit, one thing to keep in mind is influence… and noise.

Take your own profile for example. As you watch twits come in day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute, what are the most influential posts that strike you most? OR… what are the ones that you find yourself clicking the links to, more often then others?

Depending on how you answered that question, and depending on what your own personal goals for Twitter are, what do you think are some good ways to improve your influence? Maybe… stop tweeting about the same thing once in a while!

For me, I’m professionally motivated by anything revolving around #SEM, #SEO, #PPC, #SocialMedia, etc, etc. To anyone in those fields, chances are, if you’re on Twitter, you’re looking for influences to follow. Back to me… At the same time, as I continue to follow more and more people, I’m finding that what these people actually have to say, are turning more into gray matter, then information I’m really looking into researching more deeply. If I get news once a minute every minute regarding ‘Thought A’… ‘Thought A’ begins to look a little less flashy in my stream of updates. In fact, it can almost look a little bland. Now, what if a post regarding ‘Thought Z’ pops up once a day within that gray area…. ‘Thought Z’ though maybe not associated directly with what I am doing, starts to sound a little more interesting, and the people talking about ‘Though Z’ are seemingly having a bigger impact in what I’m taking away from my Twitter experience. What does this mean for someone who is actively trying to make use of Twitter?

I think the most important thing to realize is, pick who you want to follow carefully. Sure, you can search for every expert in Social Media or SEO or PPC out there, but as you evolve that list, are they really going to make a difference in your twit stream? Pull from your hobbies, and enjoyments in life. Find your local radio station’s personal Twitter profile and check out what they’re doing in their own social space. Find local groups, charities, or associations you are passionate about, and get involved with their social space. Better yet, use your geographic location to help you find interesting people in your own communities. If it can ignite a social relationship outside of your small computer screen, then who knows the kind of impact that can be made on something as short as 140 characters. The plausibility of associating your online relationships into humanistic friendships grow stronger when you actively seek a real interaction.

Although diversification is often related to stocks, think about it in terms of your Twitter profile as well. Maybe influencing ourselves is just as important as influencing others.

Peace

In an Effort to be Social

Ryan    Uncategorized     Facebook, Myspace, RyanJin.me, Social, Twitter

To be honest, I haven’t really paid a lot of attention, time, or significance to Facebook since, oh I don’t know… when I was in college. It was a means of keeping up with friends, joining groups at your school that you were passionate about, finding people you knew when you were younger, joining more groups that have nothing to do with your school, posting pictures, writing rude comments, and so on. It was quite the time waster in college, and to this day, is pretty well known in the time wasting world.

But in an effort to be more sociable, (like yes man!) I’m beginning to think if it’s time to revamp my Facebook profile and get a little more involved. Myspace is another story, and I don’t think I’ve got enough time in the world to really worry about that one, but Facebook.. perhaps.

And while I might not agree with, find interesting, care about, or wish to look at some of the things Facebook has to offer, I suppose there are the few that I do care about.

One thing I do realize I need more help on, is that in order to be sociable on Facebook, I kinda need to be more sociable in real life. And while thats not really my cup of tea, Andrea and I both think that it’s about time we really took it upon ourselves to go out of our box and socialize. Friends, family, co-workers.. I’m due for a conscience effort, and I apologize for these past 5 or 6 years. But although none of the people of whom I’m talking about are probably reading this, whats the use in my apology. Maybe over time, my efforts will be seen. Until then…

So, look for a new and upgraded Facebook profile sometime soon. Look for it to integrate with RyanJin.me as well as Twitter.com/RyanJin

I’m not as anti-social as you may think I am!

Twitter Feed, RSS, and Legal Issues

Ryan    Uncategorized     Rss, Social Media, Twitter

So with everyone Tweeting these days, a few things should begin to make their way to the back of our heads. The more people retweeting news, stories, links to downloads, links to store products, etc, the more there could be legal issues down the road? I mean, a whole slew of copyright and trademark laws are at stake, and while everything we’re doing seems harmless, could it be illegal one day to pick up affiliate pay for linking to our favorite Amazon.com downloads?

That being said, I think the possibility of people misusing Twitter is quite high. While there aren’t too many restrictions for it’s use, I could see someday how the whip will need to be cracked on frivolous uses. It already can be seen. Have you had followers begin to follow you only to find out that their account is under investigation? What would be the point in following lots of people?

In essence, don’t add anything to the Twitter community if you don’t have anything original to add. If you find a way to leverage your position, use it correctly and don’t overdo it. The more notoriety you have down the line, the more you open yourself up to scrutiny later on.

Peace.

The Importance of Content

Ryan    Uncategorized     Content, Social Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

After a spicy lunch with EL this afternoon, we’ve both come to the agreement that content is the most important aspect at successful web marketing/social media strategies. What do I mean by this… If you’re just ‘ReTweeting’ everything from someone else, copying links from blogs not your own, or something similar, you aren’t providing a viable service/product/resource to followers. You might be for a short while, but eventually, people will catch on, and do their news surfing themselves. Not the way to go.

Instead, if you focus on the content… making videos, actually writing in your blog, supplying a real service, then you have something to market and socialize about. So what does this all boil down to? Social media is so new and is still in the wee early stages of development that anyone who tells you they know what it is to know about social, is lying to you. Give it another year or so, and you will definately know who and where social is going.

Social search, mapping, cacheing, filtering… this stuff is totally unchartered when it comes to social media. I believe that in the next few months, you’ll begin to see a more dynamic breed of programs and applications out there that really start to push social media.. and dare I say, social advertising/marketing to the next level.

Peace.

Twitter

Ryan    Uncategorized     Twitter

Thank you Elliott for showing me Twitter today.

What can I say about Twitter? Twitter is something that needs to be examined by everyone for more than 1 or 2 hours. After signing up for my first Twitter account, ryanjin, I was a little skeptical as to how I’d use the program… pretty much at all. But then I found the search feature. Anybody who is hesitant about what Twitter does… open an account, and then search the Tweets for anything that interests you. Be it work related, play related, anything. Soon, you’ll be following people, people will be following you, and we’ll all end up connected in some weird and wacky way.

Seriously though. Once you understand or at least have a basic understanding of what is going on, the possibilities are endless. Today, I’ve been fooling around with encorporating AdWords ads into my Tweets. Anybody have any experience with that? No? Well lets get a conversation going. The thing is, Twitter is so new that a lot of things are up for grabs, conversations on just about anything can be started on a dime, and you can begin to network with people you never thought you’d be able to meet.

Long story short, find me at http://www.twitter.com/ryanjin. I promise it will be enlightening.

Business Models – The Twitter/Google Theory

Ryan    Uncategorized     Startup, Twitter, Yammer

So I read a recent article today posted in online regarding Popularity vs. Income in regards to business plans/models and user popularity. Being the business minded person that I am, on any other day besides today, or maybe any day this week for that matter, I would contend that having a sound business plan, and an idea of how to fulfill growth, is key. Wrong day though.

I’ve always respected the Google way. That is, hone in on a potential market. ‘Search’ Get a client base. ‘Millions upon millions of searchers’ And then create a targeted online advertising structure that flows seamlessly with the regular organic search results.

I may be biased since I have experience working with both Organic Search Optimization as well as Pay Per Click advertising, but come on… it’s sortof a no brainer.

In the NY Times article, the two web services, Twitter and Yammer are looked at in terms of their market base, client/user subscription numbers, as well as each of thier plans for creating profit. On one hand, Twitter has become the ‘thing’ in today’s social blogosphere. Miniblogging or status updating is kinda what it is turning into. No ads, and it’s free. Yammer on the other hand, is aimed more towards the business market. It charges a fee, and does pretty much the same thing Twitter does.  Is there an obvious winner between these two companies and what they have to offer?

For me, and in my own personal endeavors, I’m tempted to believe that creating niche, or creating the thing that people NEED, is more important than creating a straight up business plan before you even go out. Once you find the audience, the people, the kids, the teens, or whatever that love your service/website, then there will always be ways to figure out how to make some money. In this day and age, value is placed more heavily on usership than profitability. Twitter is a great example of this. So is Google, Pandora, MySpace, Facebook, and millions of other ideas out there.

Still the idea that you need to be able generate enough income to be able to sustain yourself in a whole nother idea. If you aren’t doing anything, whats the point. Creating at least a plan on how you’ll be able to pay your hosting fees, and everything else, is important as well. Growth… that’ll come. Being true to an idea that takes time to build off of… go for it now.

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I think in my own entrepreneurial plans, this argument is hugely important, as I have many many ideas, but only a few will be able to turn a profit, and as with most startups, that could take some time.

Bear with me, and like I said, if it was any other day, or any other week… I might’ve said something else.