We Are Not Guru’s
I’ve written about this before, but I feel like it’s getting worse. What is the deal with everyone on Twitter claiming to be a “Guru” or “Expert” at something? What happened to being willing to learn? And also, with the speed that technology is moving, how on Earth can anyone claim to be a “Guru” at anything?
I read something the other day uncovering five “social networking myths” and shedding a little light on this weird thing that everyone is trying to figure out. After all, this person that wrote this is a “guru” and then the person that linked to it is a “guru” and since I’m a “guru” I must need to read it and then blog about it so that I can prove my “guru-ness” to you all. See how that works?
Anyway, this article claims that one of the myths on the internet is that you shouldn’t call yourself a Guru. Meaning, you should call yourself one? Am I reading this right?
“Your social media presence needs more assertiveness. Don’t shy away from authoritative words when crafting your Twitter bio.”, it says. For instance, the words “official,” “founder,” “speaker,” “expert,” “guru,” and “author” are a common characteristic of highly followed Twitter users. They become a reputation mechanism that can earn you more attention.
Interesting. That’s all I need to do? Tell people how awesome I am, and boom, I can get more attention?
See, I’ve started un-following some of these folks because if that’s the “creative” advise I’m getting from “guru’s” I think I’m good. I’d rather really focus on the task at hand and ignore what’s going to become a reputation mechanism to earn me more attention.
Now, before everyone thinks I’m just bucking the system to buck the system, I will say that there is legitimate advise out there from folks like Seth Godin, who I consider to be an actual marketing “guru”, though I don’t think it says it on his Twitter bio. In fact I think Seth is more about killing it at your job and becoming something worth talking about, instead of talking about yourself.
In a world where everyone is writing the book, I’d rather live the life worth writing about.
So, no, you’ll never hear me call myself a “guru”, “expert”, “founder” or anything like that…. but then again… I’m not. Someday I’d like to be a magician though.
Do What You Want
This whole internet thing has been around for a while. And the past few years I’ve seen it’s really take off. I have an eye for these things you see. Seriously though. With this whole blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Social Media boom, I’ve noticed more and more “experts” popping up. Experts that tell you how to become the best Social Networker in the world, or become the best at Twitter. Really?! Become the best at something called “Twitter”? I don’t know about you, but I’m a little sick of the advise. I’m sick of being told how I should do something to widen my digital footprint. You?
“But Brody, that’s what you do for a living right? Social Media strategy?”
No.
Some people might think I’m an “advise guy” or “Social Networking person” and as uncomfortable as that makes me, I can see where they are coming from. I know more about certain things than they do. Fair enough. What I do is passionately encourage people to be themselves online. If you’re not a “catchy title” person. Don’t force yourself to write catchy titles. If you like video blogging over typing, grab your flip and go to town. If you want to focus on Facebook, do it. If you’re the quick one liner type, rock Twitter. Who cares how you do what you do. Just do what you want and be yourself.
“But Expert A. says in order to get more followers I need to do x.”
Okay. Well, if you are doing it for more followers than what happens when those followers find out that you tricked them? What happens when being yourself sneaks out and you offend the masses?
Now, I’m sure there’s ‘advise’ on this blog. Times where I’ve tried to sound like I know what I’m talking about and again, I might know more about something than other people. There’s a thousand other people out there that know more than me about different things. That’s what makes the internet fun right? See, I look at it like this. I’d never walk into your living room and start telling you how to decorate to maximize space. I’d never say that the color you decided to paint the walls wasn’t accommodating to the general public. Or that your carpet was ugly. I’d never say that your ‘style’ wasn’t good enough for people. I look at blogging, and Social Networking the same way. Do what you like. Who cares if it’s not “right”.
This morning I read a blog post by Don Miller briefly touching on this and I couldn’t agree more with him. This internet is a huge place and no one needs to fit into a perfect box to ensure readership. Sure, learn from people. Take what they say and apply it to YOU. I’m never going to be Seth Godin, but you know what? He’s never going to be me.
Gowalla Over Foursquare
So here’s the deal. I’m not an expert, and I have openly expressed my thoughts on those that think they are experts here on the interweb, but I’ve had a ton of people has me, ‘Why Gowalla over Foursquare or Facebook Places’, so I thought I’d answer here. Quite simply. I like it better. I like that I can contact the CEO and several employees in the company and work with them to do things. I like that aesthetically they don’t look like they were made on a 2004 Windows machine. I like that they have strict “rules” as to what their product will look like. And I like that they stepped up to Foursquare and used their own API to incorporate it into their app.
Sure, they aren’t the biggest, but I love how they work and I love that they are making strides to become the best by doing things well. They don’t just want to crash into something and try to be the biggest. They want to be best before they are the biggest. And I think they are on their way.
So, while I know that Foursquare and Facebook Places might be the most widely used, I’m sticking to Gowalla and making it my goal to convince you all to go that way too. They deserve it. Not to mention they’ve got some cool things planned in the future… I’ve heard.
Which are you using?
Expert Noise
I make a living off of social networking. My entire job and the creation of my company is to ensure that people can connect online with other people. Sure, I work primarily in the music industry, but the concept has spread like wildfire. A few years ago it wasn’t happening and now it is more than ever. So what’s the problem? Isn’t this what you wanted?
Here’s my current struggle.
With Social Networking blowing up the way it has, the platform for the ‘expert’ has literally spread to even the most shaded parts of the internet. I can’t even look at my computer without being given some five-point plan on how to become as awesome as the person writing it. Five points to being a better husband, five points to being a better boss, five points to being a better social networker, five points to writing better five point lists. Everyone is an expert. And it instantly makes no one an expert. Just another noisemaker.
And here’s the thing. It’s really not that I want to be considered an ‘expert’ with the rest of them, because I’m not. I’m really bad at putting bullet point lists together and I don’t really care if anyone thinks what I am doing is the best way or not. Here’s the part that jacks me up. Because of all the noise and the details of my job, it’s become increasingly important that I pay attention to all these social networking strategies. To survive I need to be ahead of the ‘experts’. I need to dig deeper, know more, execute faster and succeed loudest. Frick. No pressure huh?
When I started this thing, very few were on the social networking train. Twitter was still in diapers and blogging was for action figure collectors. So there weren’t the ‘experts’ forcing their ways into my phone, email and web pages telling me what I needed to keep up with. And I could handle it. I could focus on things that needed to be executed and made sure they were done well. With the increase of ‘experts’ out there, I’ve noticed a huge stress in my life to “keep up” which I think only hurts the end product. Not so expert.
I recently downloaded Twittelator Pro for one very specific reason. The mute feature. I like following people and checking in on people, but I realized I simply can’t handle all the ‘expert’ noise out there. I can’t do it. I can’t keep up with everything that everyone thinks I should be doing. What I can do is keep my head down and work as hard as I can to do the very best I possibly can for the artists that we work with.
So for now, I’m working on that. I’m working on getting these ‘experts’ out of my head and off my phone, and I’m working on doing the best I can for the people I need to. And I don’t need to prove to you I’m an expert to do that.
So let’s hear it, anyone else notice an huge increase in your life’s expectation since the ‘social networking boom’?
TwitChange: The Peak Of Narcissistic Giving
And we thought The (RED) Campaign caught heat for making a play on America’s consumerism to help a charity. Now it’s beyond consumerism and going straight for the throat of America’s narcissism.
What Is TwitChange: The only global celebrity auction where Twitter users can bid to get three things: be followed by their favorite celebrity on Twitter, retweeted, or mentioned by them in a special tweet!
I started this post with the intention of ‘giving it the benefit of the doubt’, but the more I’m looking into it the more I’m having a hard time not just laughing at it. Sure, $540k was raised for Haiti on America’s desire to be noticed, but are we really looking at this thing? I mean seriously. How bad is my self image if I’m essentially paying the Blue’s Traveler Guy to mention me on Twitter? Or maybe he’ll ‘notice’ me for a month and follow me on there and see what kind of coffee cup I am using that day. Is this what it takes now to get America involved?
Now, I’m sure there was obviously a decent “idea” behind this, but I’ve been reading a lot about “ideas” lately and it seems like with the way the Internet is growing “ideas” can become a reality way before they are thought though enough to be legitimate things.
Last night I had a lengthy conversation with Brenden Mulligan (the founder of Artist Data) about being the “idea guy” and the problems that arise when the idea isn’t executed properly, or there’s no one there to put the nuts and bolts together to make a proper product. Now obviously the nuts and bolts of something like TwitChange was executed properly, but where was the person in the background saying, “Just because we can, doesn’t necessarily mean we should.”? *More on that in another post.
Has any one else seen this thing? Any other opinions out there about this? I’m completely willing to accept the idea that there are people that disagree with me on this one, but to me, this just has a weird vibe. You? And has anyone heard what Twitter feels about this? It doesn’t seem like something they’d get behind. But I could be wrong.
Social Networking Spaghetti Toss
Originally I was going to classify this post in the Dear Christian Music Industry section but the more I thought about it, I realized, I think it goes way beyond that. While I primarily work in the ‘Christian Music Industry’, I think when it comes to “Social Networking” there is so much going on that to pin-point it to one section of one industry doesn’t seem fair.
The bigger SkörInc gets and the more client promotion things we are behind, the more I get asked about different aspects of the web. I was asked the other day, when it comes to Social Networking, how do I know when something will work. How do I know that this campaign will be more effective than that campaign? How do I know where to lay my ‘chips’ that day? I thought it was a pretty interesting question considering things are so new and it seems like we are in a stage of the game where there’s a crazy amount of options for promoting things.
If I’m honest, I don’t.
No one does. And if they say they do, they are full of it.
Sure there’s self-proclaimed guru’s out there that will write their bullet-pointed blog posts about what has worked for them, and what they think will work for you. In the music industry there’s the ‘in-house’ label team that has done their homework and will recommend what they saw Coldplay do and it worked for them. There are even independent companies like SkörInc who’s sole priority is to focus on what we think is going to be the next best step. And we may have some of it figured out, but with things changing so fast, we’re all playing catchup. I think all these avenues have value, but when it comes down to it we are all saying the same thing. “Here’s what worked in this situation, but there’s really no way of knowing it will work in any other situation.”
In fact in the music industry, more than once, I’ve described any Social Networking strategy as throwing noodles against a wall and seeing what sticks, and I think there’s a couple reasons for that. Most importantly, not every artist is the same. What is successful with MercyMe may not work with Amy Grant and what brought Shane & Shane all sorts of attention isn’t going help The Afters one bit. Sure, there might be some overlap, but if fans of artists aren’t the same what makes us think that we can have a checklist of “promotion actions” that will work for different artists. It’s a different playing field than it’s ever been and it’s changing not only daily but with each “online personality”.
Another reason I think it’s a little like throwing spaghetti is simply the fact that there might be too many options. From the beginning of SkörInc I’ve believed one thing. Your online value is in your Real Estate. Myspace came and went, and is now fighting it’s way back. Facebook showed up and exploded with personal pages, then came the “Fan” page (which threw a wrench in the artists with personal pages), now we’ve switched to “Liking” things. Twitter quickly became a valuable connection piece that, almost as quickly, became a way to pimp products and now we are auctioning off Celebrity mentions or “Follows”. We’re doing “Fan Only Content” on Facebook, where you can only see certain things if you “Like” the artist. We’re doing “Tweet to Win” type of contests, widgets, now we’ve got Gowalla and Four Square involved. The list goes on. Spaghetti. Good spaghetti, but still spaghetti.
All of this is moving and changing, but one thing that isn’t going anywhere is (A.) The Internet and (B.) An Artist Brand. The biggest question that the music industry should be asking themselves is ‘where is that brand being built?’. If it’s not at the artists Real Estate (their website) something is wrong and eventually you’ll be chasing another rabbit down another hole. Sure it’s awesome to have a massive number of Twitter Followers, or Facebook Fans, or plays on Myspace, or whatever… but how is that building something that will last?
So here’s my point in all of this. We don’t know what will work. Plain and simple. It’s a crap shoot. It really is. You think Ok Go knew that filming themselves running around like idiots on treadmills would have over 52 million views and launch a legitimate, successful career? Heck no. And I’m willing to bet that wasn’t part of the ‘marketing plan’ either. It was spaghetti that happened to stick. Then you go to their website where there’s more videos like the one that went viral. Real Estate.
So I think with more and more “experts” popping up it’s best to keep one thing in mind. We’re all standing here with our pots of freshly cooked spaghetti just waiting for someone to give us the opportunity to start throwing.
Social Networking
Now, I’m no ‘Social Networking’ expert by a long shot, and everyone knows all you need to do is Google those words to find a thousand people out there that claim they are, but today I stumbled onto this article by Steven Overly for the Washington Post that absolutely everyone trying to have a business or music career online should read. In fact, I’ve already emailed this link to every artist and manager that I work with. Now sure, some of it has nothing to do with the music industry, but if you look at an artist as a ‘brand’ or a ‘small business’ and in that context some of these things are great. Here are three of the ten ‘mistakes’ pointed out in the article that jumped out to me. I added the bold.
Giving It To The Intern
Too often, social media responsibilities will be piled on the most inexperienced staff members, or worse, someone who abhors social media. Debbie Weil, a local corporate social media consultant, said proper use of social media requires someone who is not only communication savvy, but comfortable with exposure to the public. You can’t hide behind a brand, Weil said. Social media needs a personal touch.Only Using The Freebies
Free social network and media Web sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube may be easy to activate, but they don’t give an organization much control. Weil, who also authored “The Corporate Blogging Book,” warns that companies that rely solely on external networks relinquish a certain degree of autonomy. She recommends that organizations and companies using social media have a hub on their primary Web site where users can find links or feeds to blogs, Flickr photo galleries and other third-party Web sites. This also gives customers or constituents a single go-to URL.Making It About Money, Money, Money
Most nonprofits and other donation-driven organizations recognize the potential to raise funds through social media, but Fair said it is too often viewed as a funnel to the organization’s coffers. She said nonprofits stand to collect more money from a community that participates, through social media or otherwise, in an organization’s cause. You can’t initiate social media as part of a fundraising effort, she said; it has to happen beforehand.
Oh my goodness. Is this saying that it’s (once again) not about the numbers? It’s about community and quality over quantity? Is it saying that ‘Social Networking’ is an important part of today’s society and should be addressed as such?
I love the idea of bringing people together for a cause or a goal more than just selling things. It’s something we’ve have been trying to do for almost three years now with SkörInc, and I think it’s amazing to see the relationships and connections that have been achieved through these artists interacting online more. So obviously I’m on board. Anyone have any other thoughts on this article? Read the rest here.
Dear Christian Music Industry (Part 12)
Dear Christian Music Industry,
My goodness! It’s been literally almost a year since my last letter to you. You’ve done so well with this whole “social networking / connect with the fans” thing that we’ve talked about so many times. You’ve jumped on Twitter, embraced blogging, focussed on Facebook and to be honest I’ve stood here like a proud second uncle or something watching you become something great. But this week I’ve realized that you’ve started slipping. And you’re tricking me at the same time. You might not even realize it, but it’s happening. And I think it’s time we had a little talk.
Now, if there’s one thing that we’ve all seen, or at least heard the cliche’ saying, we know that history will repeat itself. ”But what do you mean Brody, we’re never going back to Myspace and lame flash based websites.” No, you might not be but let’s take a look back.
Let’s go back to a few years ago when Myspace was the ‘cat’s pajamas’. Yeah, I said it. Cat’s. Pajamas. Remember that? Remember when that was the new and exciting way for artists to connect with their fans and show them music at the same time? They could blog, they could update shows, and they could well…. interact to some level. Then what happened? The race was on to ‘out friend’ the other band. It wasn’t uncommon to hear a label person ask “How many Myspace Friends does Artist A have versus Artist B?”. The race for email addresses and phone numbers were the goal because it didn’t matter about interaction. What mattered was numbers. Right?
Then there was this massive social networking “movement”. Chris Anderson wrote a book called “The Long Tail” and everyone connected to an artist with a fan base ran out and bought their copy. We truly believed that with a firm, cultivated, dedicated fan base we could revolutionize the way people bought music. If we just would pour into those ‘True Fans’, the numbers didn’t matter. Now, here we are nearly two years later. We’ve seen amazing examples of success, we’ve seen some things that weren’t so successful and you know what? You’re heading right back into the pit you just climbed out of. And you’re pulling me with you.
Let’s take a look at Twitter. What a fascinating way to connect with your fans right? I mean you can just send a text and anyone who’s Following you gets it. Brilliant. There’s no tricking them into Following you. No secret sign up, no “exclusive” content. Or is there? What we’ve got now are companies completely based around getting you more Followers on Twitter. You can run contests where people can download something but only if they ‘Re-Tweet’ what you have to say and are Following you. We’ve got things like Twitter Grader letting you know who’s got higher numbers than you and clearly an artist with more Followers is more ‘socially connected’ right? Seems a little like a numbers game again, doesn’t it?
“How many Myspace Friends Twitter Followers does Artist A have versus Artist B?”
And what about Facebook? These same “we can get you Twitter Followers” companies are going to labels and telling them all the magical things they can do with Facebook. They can do “Fan Only” content because after all nothing is Free right? You want to see this video? Click the “Like” button because I’m willing to sacrifice this “free” video content as long as that number on the left is higher than a comparable artist.
“How many Myspace Friends Facebook Fans does Artist A have versus Artist B?”
What about email lists? This one has been around for a while. We’ve seen every trick in the book to con people into giving their email address. And I’ve seen some pretty massive lists. Hundreds of thousands of email addresses. And you, Christian Music Industry is placing such a high value on it still. Would it shock you if I told you that just a few weeks ago I saw an email blast report sent out to nearly a hundred thousand emails and came back with 82.2% of the emails never even opened? Never. Opened.
“How many Myspace Friends Email Addresses does Artist A have versus Artist B?”
Now, I know this letter is getting long but stick with me. I feel like we’ve grown a lot together and I feel like I can trust you and you can trust me. Because of that I feel like I can say this and not offend you.
Stop sucking me into your traps.
What I mean by that is this. I know there are neat, gimmicky companies out there that can help you play the numbers game. I know there’s these things out there impressing you with their glittery number making machines. And you know what? The talented boys at SkörInc can play that same game if they need to. We can get you your sneaky Twitter following page, we can get you your “Fan Only” content on Facebook, and we can get your numbers up, we can get your email list massive, but here’s the deal. There’s still no shortcut to connecting with real fans. It’s still not a numbers game and it never will be again. It still takes time, dedication and work. It’s still a job, and your fans are still not idiots. Let’s stop treating them that way.
As always, I hope the kids are doing well. I miss seeing you around more, but I know we’ve both been busy. Until next time.
Brody
Read Dear Christian Music Industry Parts 1-11
Read But It’s Still Not Happening Parts 1-4
Sinking Ship
So, according to this article Facebook has finally dethroned MySpace. But we all knew that was going to happen right? Now here’s the funny thing to me. The only two Social Networking sites that are shrinking are MySpace and AOL Community. Hmmm. MySpace and something I’ve never heard of. Now, I’m not saying that MySpace is going away forever. I mean, sure, they have millions of dollars and researching and all that, so I’m sure they will be around for a while, but it’s interesting that it’s actually shrinking. Going down. Loosing ground. I love it.
As someone who has never liked the cheap, trashy, Windows feel of MySpace I’m glad to see that there might be a time soon where people don’t ask me if having a MySpace can replace them having a ‘real’ website. In fact, according to that same article, the only thing that MySpace is “winning” at is showing more ads. Makes you really want to go there doesn’t it? I’m excited to see what MySpace pulls out to actually compete with the competition, but really I’m excited to begin to have to think less and less about it.
Now, I know what most of your answers are going to be, but is there anyone out there still using MySpace? Anyone who goes to it daily and says hi to all of your indie hip-hop artist and amateur porn star “friends”? I don’t.
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Share And Enjoy
Ok, so I have a question for all you web, bloggy people out there. You know those “Social” things that are at the bottom of all these blog posts out there? The things where you click and you can “Digg” things or send things to your Facebook or whatever? When was the last time you used one of those? There’s a million of them and I’m trying to figure out the point.
I know they are everywhere for a reason, but I’m not sure if honestly I have ever used one. I mean, I think I have Tweeted a URL from a blog post I have enjoyed but I don’t know if I have ever ‘Dugg’ anything or sent anything to “del.icio.us” or anything else from there.
So let’s call it research. How many of you have actually used those things and which one do you use the most?
