The Magic Secret is...

Hard Work.

No, let's turn that around, work hard.

A couple of summers ago my wife and I ventured to Grand Lake in St. Marys, Ohio.

We were looking for an adventure and discovered the worlds largest man made lake that was dug out with hand tools, in the 1800's.

Creating a social media brand or persona, or business is much like digging that lake.

There are some automation tools available, but most of them are scams if you really check them out and I doubt they will produce worthwhile, lasting value.

Most of what you need to do is going to be done by hand, using legitimate tools, like scheduling blog updates, or scheduling updates to Twitter or Facebook.

And the most magic of all the secrets is: Be Real. There are enough scammers and spammers out there that if you start acting like one, you lose.

Seth Godin is a very successful marketing expert who grew to fame and fortune as an author and then via his online presence.

Seth has a blog that is updated at least once a day. I know that he writes ahead and schedules his blog posts. He does the work.

Seth announced last year that he was going to stop writing and publishing traditional books.

He wrote about doing the work recently on his blog:

No knight, no shining armor

"Sure, Seth can do that, because he has a popular blog."

Some people responded to my decision to forgo traditional publishers (not traditional books, btw) by pointing out that I can do that because I have a way of reaching readers electronically.

What they missed is that this asset is a choice, not an accident.

Does your project depend on a miracle, a bolt of lightning, on being chosen by some arbiter of who will succeed? I think your work is too important for you to depend on a lottery ticket. In some ways, this is the work of the Resistance, an insurance policy that gives you deniability if the project doesn't succeed. "Oh, it didn't work because we didn't get featured on that blog, didn't get distribution in the right store, didn't get the right endorsement..."

There's nothing wrong with leverage, no problem at all with an unexpected lift that changes everything. But why would you build that as the foundation of your plan?

The magic of the tribe is that you can build it incrementally, that day by day you can earn the asset that will allow you to bring your work to people who want it. Or you can skip that and wait to get picked. Picked to be on Oprah or American Idol or at the cash register at Borders.

Getting picked is great. Building a tribe is reliable, it's hard work and it's worth doing.

What's #FF All About?

Twitter Time:

What's this #FF thing I see on Fridays?

#FF is short for Follow Friday. The concept behind Follow Friday is to:

• Recognize those that you enjoy Following on Twitter by mentioning them.
• Discover who your friends are following, because you may want to follow them too

#FF can be used as a list of random people you follow, or to make it more valuable you can:

• Group similar people together. Like #FortWayne #FF @kmullett @TechSavyLender @awelfle
• Do Individual #FF with a reason. Like #FF @TheAFWBlog to stay on top of #FortWayne news and info

Try doing a few #FF this Friday!

And if you see some #FF tweets from people you follow, check out some of the recomendations and you may find some new friends to follow.

Fixing Facebook?

On Facebook?

Worried about security?

You should be. MakeUseOf.com has this tip:

If you’re an avid Facebook user then there’s one new feature you’ll probably want to enable straight away – the option to login, browse and do all your social networking worry-free, using a secure HTTPS connection to the server.

Facebook previously used HTTPS to handle logins, but from then on the site reverted to a non-secure version. Using the new setting found in the Account Security area under Account Settings (look for Secure Browsing) the whole session will be encrypted and less vulnerable to hijacking.

Users considered to be most at risk are those who regularly login from public access computers and unsecured wireless hot spots. If you do regularly use Facebook from any public places then we’d recommend changing to the HTTPS option as soon as you can.

As a consequence of the secure connection, pages may take longer to load than usual. There are also a large number of applications that are not yet compatible with the HTTPS.

In a blog post, Facebook’s Alex Rice said: “Some Facebook features, including many third-party applications, are not currently supported in HTTPS.

“We’ll be working hard to resolve these remaining issues. We are rolling this out slowly over the next few weeks, but you will be able to turn this feature on in your Account Settings soon. We hope to offer HTTPS as a default whenever you are using Facebook sometime in the future.”

Still Wondering?

I work with Villing and Company in the radio world. They handle the Public Relations for McDonalds in Northeast Indiana.

Thom Villing wrote this a couple months ago about Social Media:

Getting Your Feet Wet With Social Media

Nov. 11, 2010

Thom Villing

A colleague of mine turned up this quote not long ago:

“If your goal in getting into social media is to get your feet wet, then the outcome will be wet feet.”

Although social networking has been around for more than a few years now, it seems like the tide is really starting to rise and now everyone wants to get on the boat. This increased consciousness about social media isn’t a bad thing. But like most things in life, the one size fits all approach is seldom effective.

“Expansive use of social media is right for some, but not everyone.”

There are many potential pitfalls. The most basic is managing expectations. Too many organizations see social media as a silver bullet that will effectively replace other forms of marketing at virtually no cost. Expectations are created throughout the organization that a tsunami of new business is certain to result. When the outcome turns out to be nothing more than a drop in the bucket, the tide of management interest will ebb quickly and inevitably.

Expansive use of social media is right for some, but not everyone. Social networking is about creating conversations. If a specific product or service simply doesn’t lend itself to a high level of interest and discussion even among the most loyal users, it probably isn’t a good fit for aggressive use of social media. Picture yourself at the office water cooler. Could you imagine an active and engaged conversation about your brand? If not, then chances are, it won’t be a hot online topic either.

Then there are the hidden costs. Like the proverbial iceberg, what you see above the surface is a fraction of what lies beneath. If you are fortunate to represent a “talkable” brand, you will need to make an investment in the resources necessary to listen in on the conversations. If you don’t, you risk losing out on the most valuable benefits afforded by social media. You also risk not being in the position to respond or react quickly if negative views start to surface in the conversation.

Lest anyone come to the conclusion that I am standing against the flood of popular marketing opinion about the values of social media, that is not the case. Quite the contrary. Our agency has worked with multiple clients to successfully harness the power of this contemporary marketing tool. I am not even suggesting there isn’t merit in putting a toe in the water and see how it feels. There are fundamental steps one can take before full body submersion. The key is to be thoughtful, strategic and realistic. Is social media a viable vessel for marketing your brand? What kind of results can we realistically expect to see? How confident are we in our ability to negotiate these waters.

If you’re comfortable with your answers to these questions, you may be ready to take the plunge — or at least get your feet a little wet.

How Often? (Part 2)

Yesterday, I began answering the question How Often should you update your Facebook Status, Tweet, or post on your blog and I omitted why?

Why should you update on a regular basis? Easy answer: It shows that you are really using Social Media as a communication tool, not just experimenting with it. If you are sporadic and unreliable, then I am less likely to pay attention to you.

Facebook is still the most popular Social Media site and last year I started updating my personal Facebook page daily. The results are the more I communicate, the more conversations and feedback I receive.

Oh, and I don't mean updates on Mafia Wars, Farmville, or any of the other silly games.

Let's talk about updating your blog.

This blog was launched a month ago and has been visited over 700 times in the first 30 days. It is updated at the same time, 12 noon, weekdays.

I also have a blog that is updated once a week on Tuesdays and it gets around 300 visits per month. I'm comfortable with this number and it is the minimum I recommend to clients as they are learning and starting out.

On the other extreme, my most popular blog is updated 25 times a week and gets over 6000 visits per month.

So, the more often you update with content that people want to read, odds are in your favor that your blog will attract more readers.

Coming up Friday, a guest post for those of you who are still wondering about this whole social media thing.

How Often Should I Update my Twitter account?

The biggest investment you are going to make in social media will probably be time.

If you're like me, it is your time you are investing.

Some companies actually pay people to update, post, and tweet, but most of the activity is done as an added responsibility, not as a dedicated, full time position.

So, how often?

Depends on what you are wanting to accomplish.

Social Media is best used as a two way communication tool. On Facebook and Twitter, the length of time an update or tweet appears on your recipients Facebook or Twitter stream depends on how many friends they have or people they are following.

Let's talk about Twitter:

Follow a lot of people and those tweets will go zipping by. So it is helpful to know how many people your followers are following.

Taking a glance at the my followers, they follow as few as 17 people to as many as 138,000. Most are between 200 and 2000.

95% of the people on Twitter have less than 500 Twitter friends. And not everyone is going to see your tweet when you send it. You may have to send it more than once over a period of time.

Instead of over-tweeting, the problem I see more often is under-tweeting.

Anything less than once a day is definitely under-tweeting. My average is between 25 and 30 tweets per day which includes retweets, conversations, and links.

If you have a limited time to tweet, my suggestion would be to do it at the same time each day. Perhaps every morning between 7 and 7:30 is your Twitter time. Be consistent and your friends and followers will know what to expect from you.

With more and more of us carrying smartphones, we have more access to Twitter during the day, so if someone mentions me I can see that within a few hours as I go about my other daily duties and can respond.

Tomorrow, we'll continue the How Often subject with some thoughts on blogs and touch on Facebook a bit more too.

Your comments are always welcome.

Tuesday Twitter Tips

This week, Should I have a public or protected Twitter account?

If you really want to use Twitter as a communication tool and as a way to make connections and spread your personal brand, go public. This is the default setting.

With a public account you get the full benefits of being on Twitter including the possibility of being found on Google. Strangers can read your tweets and decide to follow you. Unless you have something to hide, or are going to be inappropriate on Twitter, I recommend the public option.

I have some friends who are using the protected option though and their motives are not evil.
They're just using Twitter differently. They are only wanting to communicate to a select few friends, almost like text messaging.

The choice is yours.

Here's more info from Twitter:

Public or protected?

When you sign up for Twitter, you have the option of keeping your account public (the default account setting) or Protecting your account. Public accounts have profile pages that are visible to everyone, while Protected accounts manually approve those who views its Tweets.

Why Would I Protect My Account?

If the idea of strangers reading your Twitter updates makes you feel a little weird, try protecting your profile at first. You can always change your mind later. When you Protect your account, the following restrictions are put in place:

• People will have to request to follow you and each follow request will need approval
• Your Profile and Tweets will only be visible to users you've approved
• Protected Profiles' Tweets will not appear in Twitter search
• @replies sent to people who aren't following you will not be seen
• You cannot share static page URL's with non-followers

How Do I Protect My Account?

You can protect your profile in your account settings page, following these steps:

1. Log in to your Twitter account
2. Visit your Accounts Settings Page by clicking Settings
3. Scroll down and check the box next to "Protect my Updates"
4. SAVE your changes

When you navigate to your home page after protecting your profile, you'll see a notice reminding you that your profile is now protected. Protected accounts can always go public by un-checking the box in account settings.