social media

Why Being “All Over The Place” Is Forgiveable

Portlandia "Mind-Fi"

Correction: can be forgivable.

The above image is an excerpt from one of my favorite sketches on the show, Portlandia, which you can watch for free here, or watch the whole series on Netflix (which you should.)

In the sketch, Fred Armisen’s character overloads from literally being all over the place with his gadgets, being unable to focus on just one thing.

A common line of wisdom is that a jack of everything is a master of none. I submit to that thinking, but as always,

There are exceptions to every rule. 

Friends and colleagues routinely approach me about starting their own blogs looking for tips on building and sustaining a large audience. One of the first things I say is that they need to zero in on a niche topic, which is popular advice. More people are willing to subscribe to your work if they know what they’re getting into.

Tech expert? Done. Poetry? Done. Movie critic? Why not.

When I give that advice, however, I am sometimes pointed out to the fact that my blog is, in fact, all over the place. I blog about almost anything and am unapologetic about it. So, why don’t I follow my own rule?

To be honest, I did at first and try to have a basic foundation for everything I write. Typically, my topics have to do with branding, social media, PR, and writing. That’s still a little all over the place, but at least they have some things in common. I then have all of my posts, such as this, that are completely random, but I manage to get away with it, leaving others asking why and how.

It’s simple. If your goal is not to build an audience, you are pretty much free to write about whatever you want. Maybe it will catch on. Maybe it won’t. My own goal has always been to help people by sharing my own thoughts and insights into things that interest me.

This is riskier, because chances are people won’t like you enough to keep coming back. It happens. You just have to make sure that your fantastic personality is shining through at all times, and just hope for the best that people like what they read. If nothing else, here is one big takeaway:

If something honestly interests you, it’s far more easier for you to make it interesting to other people.

That seems like a no-brainer, but it’s a healthy reminder.

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person.

Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me) 

Let’s Talk About Social Media for a Second

It’s the weekend (almost) so I thought it would be appropriate to talk about something a little more light in regards to business, PR and everything else you expect from this site.

Let’s talk about social media for a second. I’ve been a obsessed consumer of the medium since an old friend introduced me to Myspace and how the addicting (and rewarding) nature of social life can actually translate beautifully online.

I’ve since made a career surrounding the medium in terms of being a communications technician that solely uses social media as a public relations and advertising tool. It’s been a pretty great ride, but here is what still fascinates me:

We have all of these countless social media sites and startups. It seems like new and amazing ideas are constantly showing up on our screens, and I’ve never once felt ahead of the game. This became obvious to me for the first time about a year ago, when a few friends and I were talking about social media sites we loved.

I was amazed at how many social sites were brought up that I had never heard before. Me. The self-proclaimed social media guru. Joking aside, I was initially disappointed at myself for not being more embedded in this so-called tech culture.

Luckily, I kept at it and disregarded how others could potentially view my Klout (intentional pun). I learned to love social media for its benefits the world and consumers, not just myself. This positioning of the social media ideal now makes me hunger for more knowledge with the medium.

Oh, I have so much more to learn fundamentally, and I will probably never run out of exciting new tools to play with. The difference is that now when someone brings up a social media site I’ve never heard of, I hunger to learn more about it and discover it for myself. The best part is sharing these evolving ideas and concepts with others and starting great conversations about, well I shouldn’t have to say it again.

Speaking of the evolution of social media, I want to write an article soon about my thoughts on the latest book I’ve been reading, The Dragonfly Effect, by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith. This book addresses the big scheme of things if you will in how social media can make a real difference in the world and actually affect social change. It provides tools and insights, mainly through stories, of how we can use social media to actually make the world better. What could be considered a loftier goal in this profession?

JN

Want To Get Paid For Your Pinterest? Pinbooster Can Help

To start off, I am happy to announce that I am now a contributing author for Startup Addict, a website that covers startups, social media, marketing, technology and more. I’ve been following the site for some time, so I am definitely excited to be a part of their growth. So, since I will be handling social media and startup news, it was a no-brainer for me to talk about Pinbooster to get things started.

This brand new startup went public just a few days ago and is looking to make a big impact on the Pinterest network, notably using the Pay-Per-Tweet model to cash in on influential Pinterest users. Put simply, brands can now sponsor/promote their pins by paying influential pinners to share their content.

It’s a brilliant idea considering the virility of image-based content and could shape entire advertising campaigns in the near future. Getting set up as an advertiser or paid pinner is beautifully simple, since all you need is a Pinterest account.

If you’re there as a pinner, Pinbooster will analyze your influence based on their own algorithm and determine what you should charge advertisers per each pin (with the price starting at $1). So far, one of the most impressive payouts has been the sum of $1,000 for a re-pin, but small-time pinterest users will probably expect sums much lower.

One of the main reasons I am excited about this startup is because of the impressive results from beta testing, which are showing that this new tool is on the path to being extremely useful in getting Pinterest on the marketing map.

I’ve written in the past about how inherent obstacles among the Pinterest experience can inhibit companies from taking huge risks with the platform, as we see with Volvo’s “JoyRide Campaign”. That said, a Pay-per-pin model can help brands break through the most challenging obstacle on Pinterest, which is building a huge following quickly and driving traffic.

Now, there is still a bit of controversy surrounding whether or not Pinterest actually has high conversion rates, but what we do know is that people spend more on Pinterest according to this RichRelevance study. When you consider just how engaged users are with Pinterest content, the floodgates could be opened for advertisers looking to find a cheap way to channel their content through something besides a Facebook page.

Of course, I wouldn’t be very fair if I didn’t address some issues I foresee with the service. One main complaint we can expect is that this will downgrade the quality of pins tremendously, which is a huge draw for Pinterest. Another potential problem is that advertisers could be disproportionate to pinners, as you would reasonably expect. Plenty of people will be willing to sign up and await their angel investment, but how many advertisers can we really expect to jump on board?

At any rate, I expect this project to at least build a model of hope for marketing on Pinterest, and we have to start somewhere. Let me know what you think in the comments, and be sure to visit the site here and see if you have what it takes to be a Pinbooster success story.

Jon

A Simple Way to Boost Your Online Influence

If you’re like me, you hate seeing your Klout score drop. It happens, however, and is pretty much unavoidable that your influence online is either going to plateau or decline. The law of entropy and all that.

It seems like some people don’t have a hard time with this. They share and post content daily that is absorbed by a loyal network, and they make it look like a breeze. A lot of factors go into why some people are more influential than others, but it usually comes down to how valuable your content is.

Increasing your content’s readability and value is, in fact, the simplest way to become more influential, as long as you’re sharing it effectively. So, how do you become better at producing valuable content?

One way is to narrow your focus. You’ll hear this everywhere. People say that the more specific your message is, the more people will respond to it. That’s definitely true, but it’s only half the battle. What you really want to do is become an expert in that category (we love to skip that part).

We need to be absorbing valuable content from other people constantly in order for us to become real opinion leaders. The reason is because people will see through you if you post a bunch of articles about cooking when you know nothing about it or even if you don’t even make an effort to making your cooking unique and remarkable.

Opinion leaders become what they are because they pick a topic they love, learn everything they can about it, and share their unique perspective on it to a correct audience. This is an intricate, yet overall simple way to look at it.

Let’s say you are doing a music blog like I have in the past. You’ve picked music because you’ve loved music all of your life and you want to share your tastes with others. Maybe your mission is to help people discover new music that is hard to find. Another mission could be to show off how good you are at predicting what songs will become hits (that’s a fun exercise). You then attend concerts, watch tons of music videos online, and have frequent discussions with likeminded colleagues. You’ve then created a network of people you have interacted with online to attain your goal of learning about your topic. You then have the resources you need to launch your full-scale music blog and the followers will flock to you.

The best part is that picking a topic you are passionate about propels you to maintain and keep your blog up-to-date, mostly because by then, this has really become a part of your lifestyle.

JN

How Your Manager Views Social Media in the Workplace

Image

This morning, I had a lengthy conversation with a good friend of mine who is a higher up in the banking industry. We discussed the topic that seems to be ubiquitous these days: social media.

Specifically, we spoke on how social media has affected his workplace…negatively and positively.

On the positive side, he pointed out how channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter have allowed him to create extremely productive relationships with clients and new accounts.

“LinkedIn provides different channels for networking and ultimately allows me to connect with people I otherwise could not have.” (He chose not to disclose his name)

On the flipside, he pointed out how the potential for causing distractions at work has made him and other executives wary about social media usage. Their immediate response has been to block and filter websites, but more and more companies are beginning to realize that this causes a separation in networking opportunity.

“At the end of the day, I feel that if a company has enough trust to hire an employee, they should have enough trust in the employee to do the right thing. In other words, giving them the benefit of the doubt.”

While I agree to an extent, I also find it interesting to note that evaluating your employees based on production is really the measurement of whether or not they can handle the freedom to be able to check their Twitter, and as social media is becoming more integrated with our overall internet usage, is their any real way for us to monitor these distractions?

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. You can also subscribe to this blog by clicking the “follow” button in the top-left corner.

Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me) 

Image Courtesty of techinasia.com