The Power of the #Tag

As most of you know, while I consult on Social Media, I also hold down a day job as a Global Sales Operations leader at Dell, inc.  Today and tomorrow, we're hosting the Dell Annual Analyst Conference.  As you can imagine, industry analysts in high tech are power users when it comes to social media!  Interestingly enough though, I had a question poised to me today I didn't expect.  "Do you just use hashtags randomly or how should they really be used?"  

This took me by surprise, but not for the person asking or how they asked, more that I realized I took for granted the smallest and yet coolest tool we use on a day to day basis, the #!

Most of you who follow me realize that my answer to that question is no, I don't use them randomly.  I personally use them to add context and tone to my tweets.  I feel 140 characters is a very minimal amount of space and the correct utilization of a properly included hashtag can easily change the receipt of your message.

For example, let us say the message I'm about to tweet is this, "What a time at the event today!"  I know, I'm not the cheerleader tweeter so I'd never really post this, but roll with me on this one.  For starters, most people will take that simple line as it was a good event.  But, let's expand it and see how we can change it:

Example 1: "What a time at the event today! #Sarcasm"

Example 2: "What a time at the event today! #PraiseToTheStaff"

Example 3: "What a time at the event today! #TGIF"

Example 4: "What a time at the event today! #ExcellentDiscussions"

See how things change so quickly?  Example one now looks like the event was terrible and I'm being smarky.  Example two now looks like the event's facilities and logistics took precedence over the content.  Example three meanwhile implies I'm more interested in the weekend's activities than the actual event and could be construed as smarky again, or just aloof.  Then finally, example four clearly spells out the benefits of attending.

All saying the same thing, but with added context, flavor and meaning behind them!  Now, there is something to be said for utilization of hashtags when it comes to the consistency part of personal and professional branding.  If all you do is insert sarcastic hashtags to comments, the times you do use genuine tags, they more than likely will be seen as veiled sarcasm.  Conversely, if you aren't witty or good with quick jabs, adding that snidly hashtag may be seen as almost rude since your audience may be so used to your good nature and often informational tags!  As with everything social, while your content is King, your consistency is Queen!

When wrapped up in the Twitterverse, we may not take the time to think about hashtagging and how it can impact our tweets, but if you do, you can easily set yourself apart, both in your immediate tweet, but in your consistent approach.  Hashtagging opens the door to a bigger picture on your comments, and one that allows users to see a personal side of you if done right.  I challenge you to be creative with your hashtags, but not so much that no one knows was #WJLKFHPIT stands for.

Oh, and for the record, "What a time at the event today! #SuperbChats #CantWaitForTomorrow" :)

Growth Spurt?

If you have kids, you'll follow me on this.  If you don't, well, you'll have to trust the rest of us.  I myself have three children, two of which are little boys.  They are six and four to be exact.  Oh, and they eat like horses.  Hungry, near starving horses.  All. The. Time.  And every once in a while, they hit this plateau, where they gain a bit of weight, get the "chunky cheeks" look, and then they go through this massive growth spurt.

For instance, my 4 year old, who just turned so on Saint Patrick's Day, grew over 3 inches since his last birthday.  Seriously folks, they are like plants.  Just add water and some tender loving care, and they'll sprout up... all around you!  Why am I telling you this?  Because there is a connection to the next level of social media and where we go from here.  So today's question is, "Are we at a plateau in Social Media where we are about to go through a growth spurt?"

I know, it's an odd question.  Consider these statistics:

• Facebook has more than 800 million users with 200 million of them added in 2011
• 80% of Americans use a social network 
• ~23% of all online time is spent on a social network
• Every day there are more than 290 million tweets made
• over 50% of people (not users, but ACTUAL people on the earth) get their news from social media outlets rather than traditional news outlets

These numbers are staggering.  They are almost at a point where you think to yourself, "Can we really grow anymore?" or "Are there any final frontiers left to conquer?"

Where do we go?  Where can we go?  Simple.  When I look at my children, I know the answer.  The youth.  Facebook wasn't made popular because the local bridge club wanted to connect with other card players, no, it was made wildly popular on campuses and colleges nationwide by the youth.  The Twitter movement wasn't adopted by senior citizens looking to share information on discount prescriptions, no it was embraced by young celebrities and entrepreneurs as a way to grow mind-share.  Google Plus?  Well, some would argue it is still popularizing itself, but it too has been adopted by the younger, technical demographic first.

We've all felt this way if you are over 35.  You look at a younger person and know they have grown up developing a skill set through tools you never had access to.  They are competing against you in the workforce and they have been raised in a digital generation that gave them access to things we could barely dream of!  Now, take that a step, well, backwards.  Look at someone who is 10 today and think about how they see things.  How are they marketed to?  How do they develop habits?  What do they do in their daily lives, with technology and social media, that is going to differentiate them tomorrow?

The youth, under 10 in the world, will have a completely different perspective about it, their surroundings, and the all-mighty data that drives this eco-sphere.  It won't be long before they are the ones the businesses are marketing to, the social networks are adapting to, and it will be them shaping their surroundings based on their experiences.

If you want to get creative, think about how you can use social media today, to make a fan for life out of a child.  How could you engage, passively or directly, in ways that the younger generations see as unique and differentiating?  Those who can answer those questions, capture the digital imagination of the youth, and tap into the future, will be the one's that experience the rapid growth spurts and dramatic changes over the next few years!

Plus or Division?

Google Plus has gone through a bit of a makeover.  If you haven't seen it, here's a quick overview:




If you have never tried Google Plus before, this is the perfect time to try it out, but if you are one of those people, this article isn't for you.  No, rather today, I'm going to ask a simple question; Is Google Plus really a plus, or is it more of a division?
I'm not very political, but in years like this, when the mass media just latches on and takes hole of candidates like they are the bar in front of them on a roller coaster ride where no one can let go, well, quite frankly, it's hard not to have an opinion.  Don't worry, I'm going somewhere with this that isn't political.  For a while, I've had the feeling that Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have been dividing their own party.  It seemed for a while, they were neck and neck, with both man pulling the same amount of support as the other.  So a thought entered my head, "Are these two doing good for the Republican party, or are they dividing it?  In other words, wouldn't they be better together?"
Now today, I'm having a similar discussion rolling around in my noggin, which is, are Google Plus and Facebook helping each other, or hurting social media altogether?
A while back I posted an article that included a link to a piece by the Wall Street Journal about the dismal numbers on Google Plus users.  In short, it wasn't good.  Google Plus, with all it's brilliant design and engineering minds behind it, seems to be going the same direction Google Wave did, waving goodbye.  For example, when I started on Google Plus, I had over 200 people in my circles in the matter of days.  Now, I have less than 50.  The conversations soon became blog posts where the author never seemed to comment on them past their initial post, and today, the majority of users are, shockingly, engineers.  
The numbers are always iffy when people say "we have X many milloin users" as they can mean almost anything.  Users may be people who signed in once.  It may be actively using it more than once a month.  The thing is, even at it's highest publicized number, Google touts 170 Million people, whereas Facebook has 480+ million active (signing in once a month or more) and 800+ total users.  It dwarfs Google Plus.  Sure, yes, they had a head start, but when two out of every three searches on the internet are done at Google, we're not talking about a "mom and pops" shop trying to take on the "Walmart" of social.
Now there is a lot happening on Google Plus.  This new makeover is going to make MANY people happy.  I for one think it looks beautiful.  But, it still glaring reminds me that all my friends I interact with are not there.  Why is this?  Simple.  To me, I think the majority of people on Google Plus, are Google Fanboys.  They are people who love Google's philosophy, their attitude, what they stand for, and, in many cases, are like Apple Fanboys.  They love their "product", be it the new Google Plus design or the new iPad, and they love it with great passion!
This does however, cause a divide.  I have friends who consistently use Google Plus WAY more than anything else.  Since I don't, I seem to have lost touch with many of them.  The majority using Facebook though, I'm completely in touch with, and happy mind you.  But... I miss my friends on Google Plus.  So from time to time I go chat with them there.  I'm not alone either.  About 80% of the people I speak to tell me that Google Plus is nothing but a "splinter" social network for them.  They have a small concentration of friends, who they keep in touch with sporadically, but it's not their primary social destination.
Google Plus can, and will, grow.  Where though will that growth come from?  As I say many times, if you want to see the future, look into a child's eyes.  Google Plus's greatest potential lies with the youth of the world.  The youth that aren't already immensely ingrained in Facebook.  No, rather, the youth who are utilizing Google for everything else!  In school doing searches for papers and homework.  At work to look up competitor products (I've seen many Best Buy teens do this in front of customers) and in entertainment looking up their favorite celebrities or movies or songs.  These youth are exposed to every layer of Google, from gmail to their Google play store to their Google Plus network, and they are learning their interfaces as "digital muscle memory".
In the end, those of us in the social world will ultimately be in one "eco-sphere" while meanwhile, the younger generation will be within a completely different one.  Not all of them mind you, but a growing and growing portion will be.  Ultimately making Google Plus, more of long division, than anything else.  So while Google Plus may make itself out to be the best thing since sliced bread, the reality is it's dividing the social landscape.    The final question being, "is it for the better?"

Tool Tuesday - LinkedIn Boosters

LinkedIn is THE place for professional networking.  I know, everyone who is anyone with "friends" on Facebook is getting bombarded with "Branch Out" invitations, but let's face it, we use LinkedIn for a reason and we use Facebook for a reason, and for the most part, neither the tween shall meet.

LinkedIn today has more than one hundred and  fifty million (150M) professionals signed up with an average of over two new members per second!  The majority of professionals use LinkedIn weekly, over 60% of the users if you are curious!  But, if you are like most, you've pretty much only put your resume out there, maybe added a picture, and hopefully where you went to school... and then you left it alone.  Well fret not tool box lovers, for I have some suggestions for you on how you can pimp your profile to make it extraordinary!


While I normally provide insight and details on a specific tool each week, this week I have three suggested additions to your LinkedIn profile that will help, drive thought and conversation, and more importantly, help you build your brand!

InMaps: 

Caveat to us:  You must have 50 connections and a profile that is 75 percent completed and this is an "experimental" app, so use at your own risk.


InMaps is a wonderful way to SEE your network!  Not just read about it, but SEE it!  After logging into InMaps with your LinkedIn account, it will build a marvelous spider web of all your connections.  At first glance, you can easily see where and how people are connected or related to each other, but upon further inspection, this tool offers a lot of power.


You can edit labels.  You can move people around.  You can even see direct connections people have to each other and get to understand how your network lives and breathes, which will put you in a better position when networking with these folks, as well as what actions you need to take, if you see an area not as represented as you may have thought it was.

Amazon Reading List:

Reading an awesome book?  Want to share with the world without having the same 15 minute conversation with everyone you know?  The Amazon Reading List application is an excellent way to share your professional library, as well as let others see a personal side of you.  I have a friend who loves baseball, and is possibly the worlds most infamous walking encyclopedia on the subject, yet until he added the book "The Yogi Book: 'I really didn't say everything I said.'" many of his contacts had no idea of his love of the game, had that not struck up a conversation on sports with him.

This is a great tool to indirectly share your thoughts, insights, and passions, and one that is highly recommended.  

SlideShare:

SlideShare isn't a LinkedIn App as much as it is a social PowerPoint App that just happens to be massively used on, and well suited for, LinkedIn.  SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing Slide Based Power Point presentations and interconnects wonderfully in LinkedIn.

Utilizing this tool not only lets you share your slides with clients, customers, colleagues, and others, but it also lets you highlight slides on your LinkedIn page.  Have a presentation that is all about you, your accomplishments, and/or what your business can do?  Share away!  No more downloading by your connections, they can see it right there on your portfolio! 

More importantly, it works with YouTube videos!  Go a step beyond and impress people with not just a resume and words, but with moving, living, breathing shots of you, explaining everything you need to let others know why they should be connected to and with you!

Taking your profile to the next level is how you can share and build your personal brand with those in your network as well as those searching for people like you.  In today's world, most recruiters hit LinkedIn before any other social networking site, so believe you me, these searches are happening all the time.  Apps like these three, and many, many others available on LinkedIn, allow you customized features to set you apart and make you, and your brand, all that more powerful!

The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades!

Google is an amazing company.  I'm waiting for someone to do a thesis on the company, it's effect on society, and it's impact on the lifestyle of human beings.  Apart from how much we use it, Google has probably more cached information on humanity than anyone, or anything, in existence.  And now, they are shooting to give you some hands free, super cool, not-so-far in the distance glasses!

If you are familiar with the corning "A Day Made of Glass" video, this one from Google will feel somewhat familiar, with it's "what if?" theme and the bright future in store for us.  Take a gander:

The big question is, would you wear glasses like these, that augment your reality, and keep you in touch with almost every aspect of your life?  For those of us who wear glasses today, may not be much of a stretch.  But for those of us who don't wear glasses on a regular basis... would it?

My first concern is the size of the battery I'd have to have in my backpack to plug these into, but hey, this isn't something coming out next week, so I'm sure they'll solve that pesky power problem along the way.  That said though, the concept of being socially and digitally connected, AND hands free all the time, is quite enticing!

Augmented Reality is a term that has been around for quite a while.  There are several apps today that aim to provide a more "augmented" or "improved" view of the world around you via social information.  Unfortunately, for the most part, this isn't a technology or mindset that has really peaked yet in terms of adoption, for several reasons.  Most impacting to the space, is no one has put out something that can be a "standard" for use and posting of data.  With so many "small hubs" to go to, it's hard to truly augment anything.

That all said, if the right company, with the right data, gets behind the concept, then you can easily see how relevant, top of mind or immediate sentiment data can provide a more user friendly world, with more immediate capabilities to make decisions that will delight and reward us.  Now, if we only knew of a company with a massive amount of cash, research engineers, developers, and data... hmmm... 

Thinking back ten years ago, "Facebooking" wasn't anything more than a sniglet at a dinner party, and today's it's as natural, well, as wearing glasses.  A good friend of mine told me today, "Science fiction more often than not, becomes science fact."  Now, given all this information, I pose the question, what could/would/should a device as amazing as "Google Glasses" do for your social networking capabilities, and potentially, even your lifestyle?

Tool Tuesday - About.Me

In February I was at a conference where LinkedIn marketing professionals were showing everyone how to "Pimp your profile."  It was a lighthearted review of your LinkedIn page with suggestions and tips to make it better, along with a nice professional photo.  Ironically, when one of the marketing pros sat with me, the first thing she said was, "What's this about.me link you have here?"  Our discussion then went on for 15 minutes of the benefits and advantages of this lovely tool, which she had not seen before, but I'm happy to share with you today!

About.Me is quite simple, yet amazingly great!  It is essentially a hub, or central spot to point everyone to, for all your social and online profiles and, or, properties.  Mine for example, is a mixture of personal and professional flare with links to my Twitter and LinkedIn profiles along with, of course, this blog.  I have it on my business cards, and I use it as the primary link I provide folks so they can reach me.  It's a great central area, where you can use beautiful imagery the site has, or be very creative and artistic given the depth of your talents.

When logging into About.Me, you'll have the options of connecting with a new account, or linking to your Facebook or Twitter.  As always, especially with Facebook, I always suggest thinking about this, as when you log in like this, you not only grant access to the account but you also add a new layer of management to ensure postings are displayed as, and to whom, you want them to.

After logging in, you'll have the simple options of adding a bio (which you can add HTML to if you are knowledgeable on it), you can choose a background or upload your own (I designed my own in photoshop), change colors, fonts, and the most powerful, "add a service."

Adding a service means you can then link any of your social properties you would like.  Today, you can add  naturally any of the following:

In addition, you can click the "Add a URL" button and add any custom URL, like your web site, team's site, or other social platform not shown above.

Once added, anyone can then click on the icon of these items in your About.Me profile, and viola, they have your latest updates, information and can link directly to you on these platforms.

After set up, there is a great dashboard providing you insights into views, clicks, and links to you, along with historical views, time spent on page, and new visitors.  Above those details, you also get Klout integration (our tool from last Tuesday), showing your Klout score, total reach, amplification and your network!

In addition, About.Me is partnered with Moo.com to provide business cards that are like your new, beautiful About.Me profile as well!  Finally, you can even have an email address if you like, ending in "@about.me".

All together, it's hard to find a more flexible, customized front end to send all your online friends and visitors too so they can find out more about you, connect to you in all the places you want to share, and provide a great service!  About.Me should definitely be in everyone's social tool box when it comes to displaying your brand!