Helping friends and Building Influence with Paper.li

Recently I noticed I was featured in a paper.li daily by @morgaine. I went and checked it out, thought it was a pretty interesting site. Being the web 2.0/Social Media tinkerer that I am I could not help myself so I created an account and started playing around with my own dailies. I found some extremely beneficial aspects to the service but I am going to focus on 2 of them for now:

1. Helping Friends
2. Building Influence

Helping Friends

Since your paper.li papers can be about lists, people or hashtags – there is great opportunity to help people. How is that you ask? Well if I make a Joe Hackman daily, it will feature my tweets and the tweets of my followers to generate the article content, videos, etc for the feature. Being mentioned in a daily, or anything, is almost always good for a Twitter user (unless someone is complaining about you!). The other thing it does is build back-links to your sources articles and blogs. We all want to be found, being linked to will benefit your sources SEO. When you start to think through the list feature, hashtags, etc, you start to understand how there are many ways to help your friends achieve the mentions and back-links for better SEO.

Building Influence

This point is fairly simple, people like to be featured in your paper for the reasons above and for another important reason. It is great to have your content recognized and shared. In this case you will receive recognition for following others. How? By following anyone on Twitter they have a chance to be featured on your paper, if they are feature and they actually are paying attention they are likely to appreciate it. This means that if you produce a paper.li your sources on Twitter are more likely to be recognized and recognize you. That is influence. Of course you could also record a cool video and write about it in your blog then direct people to read about it. I think that might add a bit of influence as well.

Be sure to watch the video for additional tips and subscribe to my Youtube Channel if you enjoyed this post. I’d also love to hear your tips about how to utilize paper.li.

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Tags: Joe Hackman, Paper.li, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Tips, Twitter, Youtube
Posted in SEO, Social Media Strategy, Tools, Twitter, Video | View Comments

Joe Reviews Thumbtack.com (Video)

I ran across a reference to Thumbtack on Chris Brogans blog earlier today and followed his link to Thumbtack.com. I think it is a really powerful tool for people providing freelance type services but I suppose you could utilize it for other things as well. I recently blogged about On the Fly Expertise connections and consider it a related subject. Please let me know what you think via comments.

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Tags: Chris Brogan, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, thumbtack.com
Posted in Social Media Strategy, Technology, Tools, Video | View Comments

Interview Diane Rayfield Harp Social (Podcast)

Tonight I interviewed Diane Rayfield of Harp Social on Blogtalkradio. I invited Diane because I wanted to integrate more social media related guests into my podcast. Diane is the founder and CEO of Harp Social where she leads a team of social media, SEO and online marketing professionals to strategize, manage and evolve integrated online marketing for businesses. I met Diane at Amplify.com a social networking site that I have blogged about frequently. I always enjoy talking social media with people like Diane because I learn from them and the energy is upbeat and inspiring. Diane and I really covered a lot of ground during the interview, but her area of expertise is Strategy, Metrics and Inbound Marketing – “Getting Found”. Here are some highlight areas you can expect to learn more about if you listen to the entire episode:

1. Location Based Marketing (Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla)
2. Monitoring/Metrics (Radian6, Google Alerts, Social Mention and Hootsuite)
3. Amplify.com
4. Facebook Pages
5. Video Marketing (Including Youtube)
6. Social Media Policies
7. LinkedIn (Including Answers, Groups)
8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
9. Turning Point Autism Foundation

You can follow Diane on Twitter @dianerayfield or visit harpsocial.com to learn more about her company.

Listen to Joe Hackman on Blog Talk Radio

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Tags: Amplify.com, Diane Rayfield, Facebook, Harp Social, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, LinkedIn, Turning Point Autism Foundation, Twitter
Posted in Amplify, Blogging, Facebook, Interviews, Podcasts, SEO, Social Media Strategy, Tools, Twitter, Wordpress | View Comments

Lessons on Brand Monitoring and Article Titles Ivan Misner BNI

As most of you know that follow my blog, I am fairly active on Amplify.com. Periodically throughout my day I use Amplify to clip interesting news and articles that I come across, the tools are so effective I can maintain a presence and keep conversations going without investing a lot of time doing it. Yesterday I happened across a post entitled:

 

The headline pulled me in. The quote was attributed to Dr. Ivan Misner the Founder and Chairman of Business Networking International (BNI) and New York Times best-selling author.

In the “clip” of the businessweek article it included this:

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Karen E. Klein: Most entrepreneurs know they should be using social media, but beyond establishing a Facebook page and a Twitter account, they’re kind of lost. What are they doing wrong?

Ivan Misner: There are three problems. They’re spending too much time on it, they don’t understand how to leverage their time, and they anticipate immediate results, which they’re not going to get.

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I am familiar with BNI but not intimately so. I came to the conclusion between the article title (which was intended to pull me in, of course) and Dr. Misner’s position at the head of BNI that his stance was related to the threat that Social Media represents to this type of organization:

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During my Blogtalk Program last night I noticed a message notice in my Outlook popup that Ivan Misner had posted a comment on the post at Amplify.com. I was pleased to see that he had found his way to the site and looked forward to reading his response. After my program had concluded I went to see what Dr. Misner had said:

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Ivan Misner  Re: http://amplify.com/u/6t4l @ALTALOMAN Interesting Comments.

Joe, I do not see social media as a threat. I highly recommend social media. This article was about things to keep in mind to make the most of your social media efforts. To me, social media vs. face-to-face networking is not an “either/or” situation, it is a “both/and” scenario. Both types of activities can help businesses. The face to face networking organization I founded, BNI, has grown from 500 groups to over 5,700 groups since the inception of social media. It has not taken away from our efforts. <truncated>

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I was pleased to see this posting for a couple of different reasons. First and foremost because I knew that Dr. Misner was truly monitoring his brand in Social Media. A lesson that anyone can learn from. There were also some side thoughts and benefits. I was glad that the conversation had brought him to Amplify.com a site that I consider to be extremely under-hyped. I was also reminded of the importance of article titles to draw people into a conversation. These are fundamentals in the world of Social Media and Blogging. So I responded back to Dr. Misner:

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Joe Hackman   Ivan – I agree with your position of both/and completely. You also obviously monitor your brand very carefully which you should be commended for. I feel a blog post coming on this one. Thanks for joining the conversation and providing clarification.

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I wanted to blog about this example because there are several great take aways from this experience. I have a story to share when I talk to any members of BNI and I know a bunch of them. These are also some great real world examples of both brand monitoring and using effective article titles.

Dr. Misner – I know there is a good chance you are reading this because of your incredible brand awareness, thanks for the interesting experience. I think BNI provides a valuable resource to many small businesses and entrepreneurs. I would suggest that you have if not the most recession proof businesses it is among the top five. Has your organization grown faster the last few years than it has in the past?

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Tags: BNI, Business Networking International, Ivan Misner, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, New York Times, Social Media
Posted in Amplify, Blogging, Social Media Strategy | View Comments

Monthly community chat Eric Goldstein CEO of Amplify

I’ll be moderating a monthly community chat with Amplify.com CEO Eric Goldstein. Our next session is scheduled for May 20th, 2010 at 5PM Pacific/8PM Eastern. Subsequent episodes will be scheduled for the third Thursday of every month at the same time/place. This will be a great opportunity for the Amplify.com community to actively participate in the development of the fast growing social network. Save this link and set your calendar:

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Tags: Amplify, Amplify.com, Blogtalkradio, Eric Goldstein, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial
Posted in Amplify, Podcasts, Social Media Strategy, Technology | View Comments

6 Must Have policies for Commercial Email

I have to confess, while I know many companies are depending heavily on Email marketing more often than not I feel inposed upon by it. I’ve had some long running battles with companies re-adding me to their distribution lists. My longest standing offender is Ziff Davis Publishing. Whatever is in the water over there, they are just not doing enough to properly maintain their Email marketing mechanism. I probably have enough evidence over time that if I was litigious to sue them. Luckily for them (and me!) I am not. What I am though is a bit tired of these offenses and I write a blog so I have a voice.

My long battle with Ziff Davis is not the primary motivation for this article, Schneider Electric is. You see some months ago I noticed a big uptick in Emails from APC (Now Schneider Electric) the Uninteruptable Power Supply company. I immediately opted out of those Emails, only they’re still coming. I’ve “set my preferences” (no direct one click opt out option – unacceptible) on 2 occassions already. Today I received this:

Yep, they are back and now they are sending me messages in foreign languages. So how is it that in 2010 a company involved with technology products and a publisher of technology content could be the two greatest offenders in the realm of opt out failures?

I don’t really like Email marketing to begin with and it shows. I don’t have a “list” for my blog aside from the one that Feedburner maintains for me. I also don’t have a “list” for my business, aside from a list of customers that may require service updates, etc. I am definitely not effectively leveraging Email marketing but you know what? I am ok with it, because right now my fear of situations like the ones I’ve experienced with Ziff Davis, Schneider Electric and many others have made it very difficult for me to embrace the medium.

Is there hope for me?

There is definitely hope for me, I am working on a 100% opt in based solution to communicate different kinds of issues through my business. There is definitely valuable content that I can provide and I want people to have access to it. I have not made this a big priority though due to my hesitance. I think I have a solution to that, read on.

What Commercial Email Should Be

I have some ideas about how Email marketing/communications should be handled on the commercial side of things. Here is a list of “must haves”:

1. 1 Click Opt out and add me to the “don’t ever send me Email again” list
2. Very clear opt in process with disclosure on frequency and nature of messages.
3. A working reply to address, you Emailed them they should be able to Email you.
4. Never share Email addresses with “partners” or other groups within your organizations.
5. End recipient Email addresses should be hidden in the sent Emails. (I know this seems obvious but I still see this!)
6. Sufficient internal policies and resources to manage and maintain the system.

I think if you can’t do those things and commit to the costs, effort and maintenance of them I don’t believe you ought to be able to send Emails from a business to individuals. I guess I owe these firms a bit of gratitude. Over time their failures have helped me identify what I feel is acceptible policy for commercial Email. If you ever do see an Email opt in from my blog (besides Feedburner) you can bet it will be accompanied by a clear policy on the governance of that list.

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Tags: E-mail, Email marketing, Internet Marketing, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Marketing, Schneider Electric, Ziff Davis
Posted in #Fail, Social Media Strategy | View Comments

Farewell Ning Free Another Freemium Site Bites the Dust

So it’s official the new Ceo of NING the social network tool is officially plowing the freemium model under and they will henceforth charge for their service. This is not a wise decision in my view but perhaps they see it as necessary to survive because they failed to monetize. What are some alternatives?

Wild Apricot
Rsitez
SocialGo
BoonEx
BuddyPress
Elgg
Joomla
JomSocial
Tuiyo
WackWall
Crowdvine
Spruz
SocialEngine
KickApps
SocialCast
The Online Family Center
Google Friend Connect
Huminity
I-Neighbors
MediaWiki
Grou.ps
Webbours
Groupsite
Stribe
Imentor
Igroops
SocialSam
MemberWing
Webs
Neeetz
Mixxt
CircleBuilder
Shutterfly

Much thanks to Janettee McCrary for sharing the above list.

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Tags: BuddyPress, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, KickApps, Ning, Social Media, Social network
Posted in #Fail, News, Social Media Strategy | View Comments

Amplify to allow Blogging

I received a notice from Amplify.com today that I am extremely excited about. I’ve been advocating amplify as a simple way for anyone to engage and improve their social media experience since I joined earlier this year. These latest changes make it more practical and provide for a richer experience. Here is a copy of the Email notice I receive today:

Introducing blogging, background images & privacy options

Hi Joe Hackman, 1. Blogging on Amplify: Our mission has always been to give people a place to talk about news, ideas, thoughts or anything else that’s on their mind.  Currently on the web, there are different services that offer specific ways to talk about things.  On Twitter you can say anything, as long as it’s under 140 characters.  On blogs, you can write long form posts that take greater time and consideration.  Using services like ShareThis, AddThis and many others you can share links to news or other interesting things you find on the web.  We chose to support blogging on Amplify to roll up all these capabilities into one service – so now everything you want to talk about on the web can flow through one coherent stream. 2. Background images: You can now upload your own background image or change the background color of your Amplog (visit Settings >> Design).  To make sure our header works well with background images, we also removed the dark blue header that used to stretch across the top of all pages. 3. Privacy: If you would like to control who can follow you on Amplify, you can now visit Settings >> Privacy to enable that option.  Once that’s enabled, you can approve anyone who requests to follow you.  You may also notice a “block” link in every user’s profile (shown on the right side of user pages and displayed on mouse-over of profile pictures).  This gives you the option to block a user from following you or commenting on your posts. To try blogging and to set your privacy controls, visit amplify.com.  We hope you enjoy these new features and appreciate your feedback and support.

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Tags: Amplify.com, Blog, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Online Communities, Social Media, Social network
Posted in Amplify, Blogging, News, Social Media Strategy | View Comments

Will this recipe inspire you to live a better life?

Do you have two to three words to describe your purpose? I do today but I did not for most of my life. Recently I wrote about how I’ve become more social, but something else has also been brewing. I’ve also been finding more purpose and direction in my personal and professional life.

During my foray into a more engaged and social lifestyle these were some of the steps that I took that led me to become more inspired:

1. Formed a business support group.
2. Supported more groups making a difference.
3. Encouraged connections between people.
4. Opened my mind to inspiration and learning.

Business Support Group

With a number of my clients, friends and my own business facing big challenges in 2008 and 2009 I decided to do something to try to make a difference. The precursor was writing an article for my business website “Success in 2009 from your IT Guy’s Perspective”. Shortly after that was published I decided to form a group with the intention of providing support and encouraging interaction between the members. Eventually this group met and became what I would call a business support group called 1Degree. The One Degree was the number of degrees of separation between the members. Every member has a direct connection with one or more other members. The group provides a supportive structure for people to share ideas and encouragement. I’ve received a number of compliments from members how the support and positivity meant a lot to them during their most challenging time. Many of those challenges persist today but we’re still working together to move forward. This experience gave me more confidence in myself and my ability to make a positive difference in a challenging time. Recognizing that action was especially important when the cards were down.

Support for Groups making a difference

A few years ago I joined the Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary Club out of desire to give back. It was during a time of unprecedented prosperity in my business. Through this involvement I have kindled a deep passion for helping others. I also met a number of amazing people who work very hard to make a difference in this world and I have aimed to provide them with support in those endeavors. Some of my favorite causes include Asante Africa, The Wheelchair Foundation, Hayward Youth Academy, LN-4, and Trust in Education. I have made an effort to support these groups through Blog Talk Radio interviews, articles, sharing technical expertise and working strategically through Rotary to support their causes. It is incredibly satisfying for me to look back at what has been accomplished and to realize all the great things we can still do.

Encouraging Connections between People

Helping people and solving problems goes hand in hand. I often notice patterns that represent opportunities and try to provide the spark to have that opportunity ignite. This could be as simple as suggesting a website or article to someone but more importantly involves connecting people. This is something I realize in hindsight that I have watched and read about people doing over the years. It is incredibly satisfying to get a report back from two or more people that are benefiting from an introduction that I made. Helping people feels good, this is just another way to help.

Open Mind to Inspiration and Learning

Closing ourselves off is a defense mechanism. Traditionally this is something I quickly would do in a number of situations. For instance if a sales person called me on the phone, I would be annoyed that they were “wasting my time”. It is easy to watch the news and think that people in general are bad. It is hard to have conversations with a lot of people and not think people are good. It can be a challenge to keep an open mind but it is very important because it allows us to learn. Awareness is a powerful tool, being aware of our defense mechanisms allow us to consider new possibilities. One of the best examples I have of this is when a hip hop artist reached out to me on Facebook. He had seen something that I posted and thought it was interesting. He suggested I check out videos on YouTube that he had done. Most of them were not really my thing but one of his videos really connected with me. It involved the loss of someone he really cared about that had a lot of impact in the direct of his life. I experienced something similar in my past when I lost my mother to cancer. This story has repeated frequently since, strange connections leading to enlightenment and personal growth.

Guy Kawasaki and Chris Major

I have to thank Guy Kawasaki and Chris Major for their part in the forming of my personal mantra. Chris for noticing what I was doing and coming up with the actual words and Guy for planting the seed that a 2-3 word statement is much more powerful and important than big long winded business plans, manifesto’s and the like.

A Mantra Recipe

So the simplified version of my recipe, will this work for you?

1. Start with some confidence and leadership building.
2. Add several handfuls of causes bigger than yourself.
3. Blend in some meaningful interpersonal connections.
4. Add some inspiration and learning.
5. Infuse the value of simplicity in a message.
6. Introduce 2 simple words spoken at the right moment.
7. Simmer for 2-3 days and serve.

My mantra is “Building Bridges”

My personal mantra was first spoken by Chris Major during a conversation at Leadership San Ramon Valley class of 2010 Education day in February 2010. We were having a conversation during one of the breaks from the session. Chris had recently been on my Blog Talk Radio show talking about Hayward Youth Academy. After the interview wheels were spinning for Chris. He recognized that what I do, what matters most to me is building bridges. Whether it is providing support for causes locally or around the world, connecting with unlikely new friends, teaching my son, or using technology to fill gaps in businesses – Chris was right, I am in the bridge building business. It had to simmer for a few days, but once it had it was ready for consumption.

I hope this helps you find inspiration, ideas or in some way live a better life.

I will close with the original You Tube video by Guy Kawasaki that talks about the importance of a Mantra vs a Business plan. I’ve in turn adapted this to the difference between a manifesto and a mantra in your personal life.

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Tags: Blog, Inspiration, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Motivation, Social Media
Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Networking, Social Media Strategy, Technology | View Comments

Visual Lesson in Leadership

I saw this today on Amplify.com and love the message. The real courage resides in the hands of the first follower, not the leader of a movement. Without that first follower the movement never takes off. Brilliant.

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Tags: Amplify.com, guerrilla marketing, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Social Media
Posted in Amplify, Inspiration, Leadership, Lighter Side of Things, Social Media Strategy, Video, community | View Comments