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Strategically Growing Your Business Using Facebook & Twitter

Posted on October 16, 2009 by jessestay

I had the opportunity today to sit and listen to Mari Smith’s BlogWorld Expo talk today, “Facebook & Twitter Fortunes: How To Strategically Grow Your Business Using the Top Two Online Social Networks”. I have been on a panel with her before and even spoke for one of her online webinars, but had not yet had the chance to see her in person yet. Such a meeting was a pleasure, as that actually ended up being the focus of her presentation – relationships.

The power of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites is in how you use them to build real-life relationships with others. Facebook itself does this superbly (Twitter is getting there, and can still be used for such if done right). Mari spoke about that connection, stating that “more than content, people are looking for connection”. She had a great quote stating that “if Content is King, Connection is Queen”. The “Pied Piper of Facebook” (and arguable one of the nicest and most genuine people I’ve ever met) knows her stuff, and if you can use these social networks effectively to do this for a brand or business, you will see the most success.

Mari stated that the most powerful part of Facebook was Facebook Pages. She shared that you can encourage people to fan your Facebook Page simply by sending “fan yourpageusername” to “fbook” (32665) on your mobile phone. She uses this in her presentations to encourage people following her presentation to also fan her and mentioned it’s a great strategy to build a fan base. I realized I really need to do this more often as well (my fan page is “stay” on Facebook).

While I do agree with her that Facebook Pages are a powerful aspect of Facebook I do disagree slightly that it is the most powerful aspect of the Social Networking site. I think if more marketers, product managers, entrepreneurs, and businesses spent a little more time learning what they can do with a little knowledge of HTML, JavaScript, and access to HTML files somewhere they can begin to integrate Facebook right on their own site, bringing a user and their Facebook friends into a person’s own brand. If you ask me this is the most powerful component of Facebook and more people need to learn it. Facebook Connect is Facebook’s “Building Blocks” contributed to the Building Block Web I spoke of earlier.

I love Mari’s focus on connection and relationships in her presentation. She also talked about opening up a little, sharing how she shared some of the details of her recent divorce and by opening up she was able to connect with people better. She stated that the new social media marketing methodology is moving from “controlling our image” to “being ourselves”, something radically different from the way it used to be, and these tools are enabling us to do this! She stated that the tools are making people go from “hard to reach” to “available everywhere”. How true that is.

Unfortunately I was only able to stay for half of Mari’s session, but I quickly was reminded how much Mari knows her stuff. If you want to meet someone on Twitter or Facebook who is genuine, will build a real relationship with you, and help you learn how to make money off of these tools at the same time in a rational manner that is not a “get rich quick scheme”, Mari is the person to follow. You can follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/marismith or on Facebook, http://facebook.com/marismith.

What Are You Saying? BlogTalk Radio Introduces MicroPodcast iPhone App Cinch

Posted on October 15, 2009 by jessestay

Some times text just doesn’t cut it. Some times video is too much. Today the popular Podcasting site BlogTalk Radio resolved this issue with its new micropodcasting platform, Cinch, and the release of their new Cinch iPhone app.

Cinch aims to give you a micro solution when a full podcast is just too much. The iPhone app gives you a status bar to describe what you’re saying, along with the ability to add an image to the audio recording. Hit record, you can use the phone’s private microphone or turn it into a speakerphone and catch everything around you. Enter your status update, attach an image, and it goes up to Cinch in just a click of a button. You can also set it to automatically post to Facebook and Twitter, and even send images to a custom photo album on Facebook.

Here’s the cool thing about it: All this is just a wrapper around open technologies. Every “Cinch” you post gets added to an rss feed at feed://www.cinchcast.com/yourusername/Cinch.rss so you can do cool things like syndicate those into a blog or import them into FriendFeed (that goes into Twitter), etc. If you need to send audio to Cinch, you don’t even need the iPhone app. Just add 1-646-200-0000 to your phone directory, attach the name “Cinch”, and call that number any time you want to post a new Cinch.

Cinch’s API

Cinch even has an API! If you’re a developer just go to http://www.cinchcast.com/api.aspx and you can find all the documentation on how to get set up. Remember the Building Blocks I was telling you about earlier? Cinch enables you as a developer, entrepreneur, or business to use what Cinch and BlogTalk Radio are good at, audio and podcasting, and integrate it into your own website.

So FriendFeed, for instance, could automatically integrate Cinch imports into its list of supported aggregation sites. Cinch’s API covers the whole breadth of what it currently offers – via the API developers can create new Cinches, share Cinches, modify user accounts, edit and post Cinch text (you can just post Text and not audio if you opt to), edit and create comments, etc. The list is pretty long so I encourage each of you to get familiar with what you can do.

Also, here’s the cool thing about the API – they provide search at the start. From the beginning, via the API, any app can search for new Cinches, creating unique ways to search for new audio on the network. I think this will be powerful. I’d love to see what people do with it! (Imagine a Wave bot enabling audio in Waves, for instance)

CinchCast.com

Of course, an iPhone app and service like this wouldn’t be complete without a site to complete it all. At CinchCast.com you can also register (as you can straight from the iPhone app or just calling the number above). You can login and register using just your Facebook or Twitter accounts if you like, search the global Cinch directory, view what others are saying comment on Cinches, and follow others. You can follow me at http://cinchcast.com/Jesse-Stay.

With BlogWorld Expo this week and the Real-Time Web Summit, it will be interesting to see the buzz that comes out of this. Could this be the South-by-Southwest for BlogTalk Radio and Cinch that happened to Twitter a couple years ago? Starting tonight and tomorrow I’m going to go around doing quick 1 or 2 minute interviews with people I find around the conference. I’ll post them on my Cinch feed, which also populates FriendFeed and Twitter. Listen for them for some great commentary and opinions on the state of the Blogosphere.

Here’s my first one with Louis Gray, where I ask him about his favorite sessions of the day, and ask him, “Is blogging dead?”:

[audio:http://www.cinchcast.com:80/Jesse-Stay/2118.mp3]

You can follow me on Cinch at http://cinchcast.com/Jesse-Stay – go check it out now!

Disclosure: Cinch and BlogTalk Radio are a client of mine and I am helping them with their API integration and internal API design. They are not paying me to do these interviews or to promote them.

Friday, October 16, 2009 2:40 AM

Posted on October 15, 2009 by jessestay

Talking about @louisgray’s favorite parts of #bwe09

JesseStay

Posted on October 15, 2009 by jessestay

Talking about @louisgray’s favorite parts of #bwe09

JesseStay – 16-Oct-09 02:40

Posted on October 15, 2009 by jessestay

Talking about @louisgray’s favorite parts of #bwe09

JesseStay – posted on 10/16/2009

Posted on October 15, 2009 by jessestay

Talking about @louisgray’s favorite parts of #bwe09

Wanna Launch Something at BlogWorld? Pitch Louis Gray (Here’s Why)

Posted on October 15, 2009 by jessestay

The inside joke at BlogWorld is that while the entire blogosphere is at BlogWorld Expo in Vegas partying and learning about blogging, the entire Blogosphere goes silent. This year, that silence is even more deafening as ReadWriteWeb is running their Real-time Summit in San Francisco and any of the remaining bloggers are there, “tweeting” away the events of the week. Robert Scoble even joked, “There is NOTHING more boring than a blog about blogging. Well, except one thing: a blog about a blogging conference. So, see ya on Twitter!” This is a nightmare for anyone trying to pitch a blogger this week and get any serious attention towards their product at such an ironic time. I have one tip: Pitch Louis Gray.

Yesterday Louis Gray wrote an inspiring post titled, “Hey Bloggers, Step Away from the Twitter for a Second… and Blog“. In the post he talked about this very phenomena and the fact that the blogosphere actually does go silent. He’s right!

In the meantime, Louis has cranked out a total of 3 blog posts since just last night and as I sit next to him at @drew’s cancer panel he is cranking out even more blog posts about various web topics and the panels he is attending. This is a man who wants, and likes to write! If there’s anyone you should be pitching this week it should be him, because you will actually get a real write up, instead of a 140 character Tweet.

Expect to see more blog posts from me as well this week – this whole “Tweeting” BWE09 is unproductive and unfruitful. I’ve got some really cool announcements I’m sitting on – stay tuned! Are there any other bloggers you see spending more time blogging and less-time partying and “tweeting” this week?

Web 3.0: The Building Block Web

Posted on October 15, 2009 by jessestay

Tim O’Reilly is well-known not only for his successful publishing company (which I have written for), but also for his definition of the term, “Web 2.0”, in summary defining the web as a platform, moving from the desktop to the cloud. I’d like to propose we are in the process of taking that one step further, perhaps even moving to our foundations, taking components of that platform, and enabling others to use those components in their own applications. Some talk about the “real-time web” being Web 3.0, or the 2010 Web, but when you look at it “real-time” is just using the web as a platform, making it real-time. The web still hasn’t really changed in essence to something else beyond the web becoming “the platform”. The web needs to shift to something else for that to happen. I think that shift is happening in a form I call “the building block web”.

When I think building blocks I think Lego bricks. Each one has its own unique size and shape, and when you take the basic lego bricks you can add your own, making something unique and powerful. The web, as a whole, is evolving towards this state. We see Twitter, with its open platform enabling others to share in ways they were never able to share before in their own applications. We see Facebook and Facebook Connect enabling businesses to incorporate Facebook activity, relationships, and more right in the bounds of their own brand (Jeremiah Owyang suggested we might call this “farming”). Recently, we saw Google Wave producing ways for users to collaborate in ways they were never able to before, and embed these in new ways into external environments. We see Facebook implementing Facebook credits amongst various applications and enabling some developers to charge using Facebook credits, Facebook taking a cut along the way. Each of these “components” is a building block. They’re each basic foundations, or Lego bricks that have organized the web into components developers can now build new and interesting things with. The new platform is on top of these foundations, which are built on top of the web, and viewable via a desktop or browser.

Robert Scoble, as he was interviewing me and Louis Gray last week, mentioned he thought Facebook should implement reviews similar to Yelp, and they could then profit from the deals made surrounding those reviews of retail and other physical purchase locations. It’s a great idea, but I suggested Facebook doesn’t need to do this. Facebook seems to understand the building block web. They are providing means for Yelp and others to take what Facebook is good at – building relationships and sharing activities and content with your close friends and family, and incorporate that content and social graph into and out of Yelp’s own environment. They are even providing for some developers (as mentioned earlier) the ability to integrate their built in credit system. Facebook provides their own foundations or Lego bricks, provides a means for those people to pay for things, and Facebook takes a cut of every piece of that along the way. Seems like a much better model than reinventing the wheel if you ask me. Now imagine if Yelp joined the building block web by providing their own “blocks” giving other apps the power of what Yelp is good at: organizing great reviews around physical purchase locations around the world.

Now look at Google. Google understands this well. They are providing Friend Connect, OpenSocial, Android, Wave (on 3 different levels!), and letting Developers decide what to do with them. Google is adding to this new platform giving developers new building blocks to play with and create cool things with.

This new web is surrounding us as we speak. Each of the major players is in a race to see who can create the most building blocks for developers and entrepreneurs to incorporate into their own products. No longer are entrepreneurs focused on building for the web. They’re focused on building around these building blocks. The building blocks are the platform. This is Web 3.0. Who will win?