Social Media 101 Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online by Chris Brogan

Social Media 101 Tactics and Tips To Develop Your Business Online by Chris Brogan.




This book originates in tips from the blog http://www.chrisbrogan.com/  . Chris Brogran is giving 87 actionable steps for business to use social media. Each step gives specific tactics to improve outcomes for business.



On most of the pages of the book, there are footnotes with links to website or online articles. This makes it easy to find interesting social media sites. For example, Chris Brogan sites meetup http://www.meetup.com/  and upcoming http://upcoming.yahoo.com/  as places to look for events.



In each of the 87 different sections there are many bulleted lists with things you can do with social media. This creates a large volume of ideas to draw from. It is very hard not to find something useful. For example, he suggested that a thin header for a blog makes a site more visible.



The book is designed so you can easily pick and choose what you are interested in. For example, I am not that interested in photoblogging or doing youtube videos, but I am interested in tips on what to do at social media gatherings and how to build a loyal, consistent readership. Chris Brogan suggested that I get a business card on heavy paper stock with my blog name on it to hand out at meetings. He also reminded the reader to post almost every single day.



Social Media 101 is a very upbeat book. Chris Brogan is using the tech evangelist style. This means he smoothes over some of the rough spots in social media. He does not go into how to protect your privacy, or secure your site from hackers. There is no mention of that twitter spammer taking over your account, or that denial of service attack because you posted something that another blogger didn't like. He does tell bloggers to accept negative comments if they are not derogatory.



He wants you to have headshot, put down your cell phone prominently on your site, and link to a lot of different sites. Maybe, I need to be enigmatic and not post my photograph and prefer to contact people via email. It is easier for me. 



If you want a book that is focused on branding, marketing, public relations, sales, and customer services this book is for you. He is very much writing about how to reach out to people using popular networks like twitter, facebook, linkedin, flickr, youtube, and meetup. He even includes a lot of smaller networks like meebo, tumblr, and reddit.



The book was very easy to read. Chris Brogan is writing in an open style that focuses on self disclosure. His layout uses lots of bullet points, lists, bolded headings, and numbered sections. It is very action oriented. The writing is meant for people who produce content online.  I found it useful.

Trust Agents Using The Web To Build Influence , Improve Reputation, and Build Trust by Chris Brogan

Trust Agents Using The Web To Build Influence , Improve Reputation, and Build Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Chris Brogan is a master communicator using the web. He runs one of the top marketing blogs at http://www.chrisbrogan.com . His main focus is showing people how to build a following in social media using openness and trust. He is also the founder of Podcamp which is a conference on podcasting. Julien Smith is a web analyst.

The ideas in this book are actionable. Every chapter gives suggestion on how to improve your use of social media. I have already used two of the suggestions; make sure you follow less people than are following you on twitter and try to make all the sections about yourself on blogs consistent and professional.

His aim is to teach you how to use social media like blogs, twitter, facebook, and linked in to create a network. This is supposed to help you eliminate the need for resumes and cut back on using business cards.

In addition to the social media tools Chris Brogan and Julien Smith suggest philosophical and strategic outlooks for looking at business. These include looking at work as a game, jumping the gates to create new opportunities, life hacking, leverage, and digital nativism. These strategies are the strategies of the most successful producers of web content and marketing.

There is a message that marketing and communications are becoming more personal. Customer service is described as being public relations. Marketing is about being open and listening to people. Networking is about helping others achieve their goals by pulling them up.

The book is a tool to change your perspective and improve your ability to network on the web. It is the mindset of the native producer of digital content. The ideas are different and interesting. There is a lot that can be used directly from this book to succeed in building your own extensive network of contacts.

Daily Thoughts 12/3/2009

Mark Twain Photo Portrait c1907

Daily Thoughts 12/3/2009

I thought this article on a Vermont bookstore using the Espresso Book Machine as a device for self publishng was quite interesting. It opens some very novel opportunities.
http://bit.ly/YruvG

I am off today. I went to the local Barnes and Noble and looked around. There was an interesting book, Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James which is something which looks like it is worth getting. I also looked around the mall a little bit. It was not that full. Mostly people seemed to be window shopping.

I also watched a bit of Cowboy Bebop the Movie which is subtitled in english from the Japanese.

Right now, I am reading Chris Brogan, Trust Agents which is about how to build transparency and trust using social media tools. I have already found a few suggestions that are useful. I updated my social networks so the message they gave was more consistent.

Going on New York Library Meetup tour for the Center for Fiction on December 8. It should be interesting. http://www.meetup.com/NYLibrarians/

Daily Thoughts

Richard Felton Outcault (January 14, 1863-September 25, 1928), Buster Brown

Daily Thoughts

Happy Valentines Day. It is the time of the year for roses and chocolate and cards. Also, a time to spend with ones love. Hope you are having a sweet valentines.

This is an article from Library Journal again. A Compendium of Sexy Librarianness. Just in time for Valentine's day. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6633560.html?desc=topstory

I have been reading through The Best of Chris Brogan to see if there are ways to improve my blog. The tips seem interesting. However, some of them I won't follow. I have to stick to my principles of cheapness. I will not buy a domain name because it costs money, nor will I buy hosting. I promised not to spend money when I started blogging. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/best-of/

This morning, I filed some more looseleafs. I also took a few minutes to look at the donor lists from some of the local library foundations. It was kind of interesting to look at. I noticed that three libraries in our area had donation buttons on their websites from paypal. I am not sure that this would be a good idea. There is more than one donation button system. There is also the Amazon honor system.

I get some time off this week, a little vacation. I watched Philip Pullman the Golden Compass. I never read the book and don't think I ever will. The movie was light escapist entertainment. The speial effects were interesting. Some books are just never meant to be read.

I did not realize it until I checked the list of blogs covering the O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference. I think I have a byline. My blog appears a couple of times next to Publishers Weekly and other very prominent sites. http://www.toccon.com/toc2009/public/content/news-coverage

O'Reilly Tools of Change For Publishing (Part 1)

The Allegory of Painting -or- The Art of Painting, Jan Vermeer van Delft, 1666

O'Reilly Tools of Change For Publishing

Good morning. I am sitting at my computer at 5 a.m. typing away. I am ready to go to the O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference. It starts with a continental breakfast at 7:30 a.m. . This is the conference with the earliest start I have ever been to. I will be taking the train in a few moments. I am very much looking forward to going.

I read a bit more of Monster A Novel on the way to the conference. The train was not very full in the early morning hours. It was nice light entertainment.

I got to the conference at 7:00 a.m. at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on 1545 Avenue of the Americas. The continental breakfast was quite pleasant. I talked to a lady from New Zealand who was there to learn about what was happening with the web. The breakfast was pleasant and the coffee was good.

I went to the first panel by Chris Brogan who has a blog at http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ . The title of the panel was Blogging and Social Media. His blog looks very well put together.

His presentation reminded me of someone who had very deep web knowledge like http://www.searchlores.org/ (Fravia) or Shally Steckerl http://jobmachine.net/shally/ (Recruitment), or David Carpe, http://clewllc.com/ (Business Research). I realize these are research oriented people with a different focus, but the knowledge is there.

The panel started at 8:30 a.m. in the North Ball Room. Apparently, Chris Brogan likes libraries, bookstores, and comic books something I can very much relate to. He chatted with me for a few moments before the panel started.

He had a very open ended discussion that was not in a particular order. It was spoken extemporaneously with lots of questions from the audience. I am rearranging what I think I learned from his talk to the audience. It was quite enlightening. This is more an arrangement of thoughts than anything else. Everyone sees the world differently, so what I remember may not exactly mirror the words of the speaker, but they should be somewhat similar.

I took notes in long hand on a pad of paper. I like writing and taking notes in long hand because the physical act of writing helps me remember what I am writing. I also rearranged what I heard so I could make sense of it.

More than one person should work on a blog in a company. The primary purpose of blogging is communication. The first thing that a person should see on the top of a blog is how to communicate with the author. The purpose of social media is to have presence and communicate with people. Social media is two way communication.

The currency of blogging and social media is trust and attention. This means not just using things like twitter, but combining them with older methods like email marketing. If you want a successful blog you should make things easily accessible and help people. Also, you should give a reason for people to visit your blog. Part of that reason it to point to places where people can find useful information.

Most blog and web tools are free and cheap. It is more important to invest in educating yourself in how the tools work than buying very expensive technology. Most of the tools he demonstrated on the screen like http://www.twitterfall.com/ and http://www.wordpress.org/ are free.

He mentioned a software application for annotating different locations in the world called Bright Kite using an Iphone. You can say things about specific locations when you visit them. He compared this to William Gibson's science fiction novel Spook Country where the main character used virtual reality to annotate different physical locations. He called this ARG (Alternate Reality Games). It sounds like one of those classic techie things where you can do unusual things with the internet.

Another idea he expressed was that publishers were becoming information brokers. A book is a package or bundle of information. He said that if he buys a book, he should be able to read the physical copy, listen to it in the car, and read it on his iphone on the way into the office. It should be a complete experience. I rather liked this idea. I can see this happening easily in the not too distant future.

Twitter was a large part of the conversation and tools built around Twitter. He compared Twitter to the phone of the future. I rather like Twitter, I was very impressed with his over 30,000 followers on his Twitter feed. I intend to read his tips for blogging on his blog to figure out how to improve what I am currently doing.

Part of this conversation which was all over the place was about authors. One of the authors he mentioned was Neil Gaiman who has a blog at http://www.neilgaiman.com/ and a twitter feed at neilhimself. Although, he did not mention it, the author who I most think of in connection with Neil Gaiman is Jonathan Carroll http://www.jonathancarroll.com/

I asked him about social networks. He pulled out a few suggestions, Shelfari, Librarything, and http://blog.bookoven.com/ An audience member mentioned a site called Red Room. I have Shelfari on my website. I have never heard of Red Room or Book Oven. I also learned about another social networking site for books later in the day, Authonomy. There is also http://www.aalbc.com/ African American Literarature Book Club, http://www.litminds.org/ Lit Minds.

There was the classic mention that people are no longer just consumers of content, they are now producers. A Flip Mino for the price of $100-120 can produce cheap web video. You can buy a domain and very easily redirect content to it through one of the many different sites: ustream.tv, blogtv.com, blogtalkradio.com, blip tv, and viddler.com.

Another theme was something he called, "Cafe Shaped Conversations," or small focused discussiions that relate directly to the reader.

The talk was very open ended, but I can remember large amounts of it still because the speaker was quite vivid. There were other things being discussed, but these are the things which I remember the most from the talk.

I will continue describing the second session after I take the time to rearrange my notes. The second session was as deep as the first session.