Archives for February 2010

Now, here’s an interesting twist on social media.

The entire industry of social media and why the corporates got into it in the first place was that friends would follow recommendations from friends.  The report by Edelman, showed that 45% of people in 2008 trusted their friends and only 25% in 2009, in the article In Age of Friending, Consumers Trust Their Friends Less with the following graph below from their article.

Figure provided by Advertising Age – http://adage.com/article?article_id=141972

The real story still lies ahead and it turns out that the people we trust, we will follow and we will accept their recommendations.

What does that mean to us?  The real secret to social media is to develop rapport.  Do this by building communications that people will appreciate and follow consistently.  Create a community and make your communications real and make it count.  When people start to trust you, they will listen to you.  In the short run, it will take a little longer but in the long run, it’s what real business has been built upon.

The real story is what we already know.  Online friends don’t automatically warrant the same trust as real friends.   So, the follower stats or friends stats in various social media sites can be misleading as to a measure of success.  It’s an indicator of potential success but real trust is built over time.  Take your social media community seriously.  Build a good reputation within your community.

Be real.  Be honest.

Oh yes, and people want to hear about 5 recommendations before they want to trust someone.  So, if you’re using LinkedIn as one of your social sites, forget the minimum 3 recommendation requirement for a full profile.  It looks like you want to consider a 5 recommendation starting point.

The concept of Web 2.0 has been around for a while now, but it’s an abstract concept.  In this new generation of websites, it’s all about the conversation and communities we build.  So, if you’re a small business owner, building a brand following has now become key to your online marketing success.

Start with a Web 2.0 website.  Of course, we recommend WordPress and this workshop to show you all the ins and outs so you can get your site onto a Web 2.0 platform today.  Of course, good social media campaigns are now readily linked to improved search engine rankings.  All of these Web 2.0 concepts require a communications program which you need to participate in regularly, consistently and attentively.  Whether you think of it as the new way to network with people, creating a brand or just generating awareness, you will be right.

And, if you’re going to do all this communication work, you may as well benefit your website / blog at your domain name.  That’s the biggest reason I see for running your website / blog on a Web 2.0 platform.  And, of course, if you choose a viable platform, it’s generic enough that it’s easy to maintain.  And, just for having a Web 2.0 website, many of the search engines give you a boost on your ranking.  So, why wouldn’t you want to get a good platform that would work well for your website or blog?

It’s the same concept as buying a car.  The average person doesn’t think of buying a custom made car, you’d find it difficult to get serviced or parts when you needed.  So, along with one other CMS platform, I’d recommend WordPress.

It just makes sense.