Where Personal Potential & Reality Meet » Social Media

Goodbye Facebook. Hello Google Plus. How Kirstie Alley Forced Me Off Facebook.

Steve — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:52:56 +0000

Unless you are living under a rock, you have most likely heard of Google Plus by now. Some are calling it the Facebook Killer.

I doubt that, but for me personally, it certainly is. Google + has given me a new interest in social media.

I will make this post short and sweet for my regular 8 readers who visit me here, so you can all move on the A-listers and get some real motivation.

My FB retirement & personal opinion:
A few months ago, I put myself on a self imposed Facebook retirement. The reasons surrounding my FB retirement spotlighted a major fault with Facebook.

I spouted off on FB about Kirstie Alley when she was on Dancing With The Stars. I personally think she is an obese, disgusting human being. I really can’t stand her. I made some remark about vomiting when I saw her dance.

My remark embarrassed my wife. She has a high profile position and is well known in our community. At that instant, I knew it was over.

Everyone who I was friends with on FB could see my remarks and we have a lot of FB friends in common.

Google + will allow you to create circles of friends. Therein lies the beauty. I can now create groups of friends and make posts that are only visible to that circle.

I can create a circle of fake politically correct friends where I totally behave.

I can create a family circle.

I can create a circle of like-minded friends who will join me in their disgust for Kirstie.

The circles I can create are limitless. Internet Marketing, videography, photography, shooting guns, Kirstie Alley hate group…you name it.

Google + is headed in the right direction for me.

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Social Media Douchebags

Steve — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:06:33 +0000

Social Media is great, but there lurks losers, jerks and parasites in the midst of all our fun. The Urban Dictionary defines a Douchebag as: Someone who has surpassed the levels of jerk and asshole, however not yet reached &%#ker or mother$%&#er. Not to be confused with douche. That’s a pretty good definition in my opinion.

I’ve been dealing with some Social Media Douchebags as of late with some of my Facebook Fan Pages. If you have been here before, you may know that I run a few community websites in my local community. I have Fan Pages for each of my sites. I am on the brink of dishing out some serious hate on those people who want to jump on board my sites for self promotion without regard to me or the effort I have spent in building my sites.

I keep a pretty good watch on my sites and I simply delete entries that I do not like or I have not authorized. These people who post spam are basically scum sucking lazy parasites.

99.9% of the time I have no problem at all. I have great Facebook Fans and there is a lot of interaction. In the past week, I have had to delete a local business from posting on my pages. It’s as if they had their calendar set for Monday morning to hit all of the local Facebooks to promote their own business.

They hit all of my pages and when I checked a few other local pages run by others, they had spammed them too.

I sent a nice message to them explaining my guidelines. Of course my guidelines are clearly stated on my Facebook page but these retards (no offense to retarded people, that can’t help it) were too inept to read it. My guidelines boil down to this…if you are currently an advertiser with me, I allow you to promote yourself on Facebook. If not, you can’t. Simple.

After a couple of messages back and forth (I was civil) I was met with indignation. I was told that they had their own Fan Page and website. I let it go at that but I wanted to tell them if that’s the case, STAY THE HELL OFF MINE THEN!!

I have had many people who are not advertisers call me or send an email and request a mention on my pages. They are very respectful and I have never once turned down such a request. All you have to do is ask nicely.

For those who ask, “Steve, what does it hurt?” I answer, why should I be cut out as a middle man? I got bills to pay too!

I’ve spent the last couple of years building my hyperlocal community. If a spammer jumps on and happens to sell a product or a service and makes a profit, where does that leave me? I’ll happily promote a business or service, but I do not give my stuff away.

What these idiots do not realize that I can do a lot of damage to a business or person who wants to screw with me. An article and a few postings on Facebook to avoid this business goes a long way in my community. Bad news always travels fast. Sue me bitch!

What I should do is find their competitor and promote them for free.

This is my angry post:
Ok, so the more I write and think about it the more pissed I get. If you have Facebook Fan pages and are allowing this type of behavior on your pages you are crazy. I do not recommend it.

I wrote an article a while back that still rings true in my opinion. How to manage your Facebook Fan pages.

If you are a spammer and you are guilty of this you can go straight to hell. Fortunately, no one who visits Bloggerlens would ever do such a thing.

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I’m Sick Of My Self Imposed Censorship On Facebook

Steve — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:44:34 +0000

Recently, I’ve noticed that I have become very politically correct on Facebook. Actually, I think I have always been politically correct on my own personal Facebook. I’m asking myself why? I’m really growing tired of my self imposed censorship.

For the record, I’m talking about your “personal” Facebook page. Not your social media persona that you are projecting to the public at large and calling it personal.

Why do I have friends on Facebook that I would probably never go out to eat with? I’m not talking about distance restrictions. I’m talking about viewing these folks over months and determining that if I lived in the same town, I would not be friends with them. For my own self, I’m not finding much value in becoming Facebook friends with people with whom I share no connection with whatsoever.

Many will say just unfriend them. That is an easy solution, I’m trying to figure out why I even friended in the first place. A total stranger sometimes. The easiest solution would be to take out a new Facebook account. I’m giving that some thought.

Personally, I simply don’t need hundreds of personal so-called friends on Facebook. I feel that having the ones I have now, has caused me to censor myself. I don’t have a lot either. It goes both ways. I’m sure people have looked at my postings and wondered why they became friends with me.

In my personal social circle, I’m very comfortable stating an opinion and debating with my friends. It’s fun and we don’t judge each other. That’s part of the reason we are friends. I can freely speak my mind.

On Facebook, I’m cautious about making a statement about global warming, politics or really anything controversial. The reason for this I guess, is because I have befriended people that I don’t know. I’m so careful that I can’t be myself anymore.

When I can’t be myself, it’s no longer any fun. Seriously, I’m afraid to write the word “shit” on my Facebook. Not that I would anyway. To me there is nothing social about fear of offending someone. I honestly do not intend to offend but you never know how people take something.

Because I have befriended people that I do not even know, I rarely post personal photos and videos of my family. The idiot who is always posting links about his business does not need to watch a video of me and my Grandson feeding ducks at the pond. He could care less anyway.

I do run a very public Facebook page in one of my online ventures and I’m careful about what I post and I monitor it closely to see what Fans are posting. That’s a no-brainer. If I started a Bloggerlens Facebook page, I would also be careful about what I post.

For me personally, it’s time that I put social back into my personal social network so I can continue to enjoy wonderful tools like Facebook.

What say you?

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Hyperlocal Blogging Tips: How To Manage Your Facebook Fan Page

Steve — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:52:47 +0000

If you are a hyperlocal blogger you absolutely should have a Facebook Fan page. The benefits to having one are many as you can imagine. Today, however, I want to discuss with you one aspect that I think is important in managing your Facebook Fan Page associated with your hyperlocal blog. There are a lot of things you should do, but let’s focus on one small aspect today.

I want you to consider the Fan Page as your personal internet piece of real estate and treat it such. Yes, it’s called a Fan Page but it is an extension of you. What happens on the page and what you allow is a direct reflection of you. Protecting your fan page is like protecting your reputation in your community. If it’s full of negative, you will be perceived as being negative. If your page is lively and fun, you also will be considered in the same way. Get that into your mindset and you will be well on your way to creating a successful Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook Fan Page Tip

I’m going to share what I do on my page. You may disagree and that’s ok, but this works for me. Do not allow anyone or any business to promote themselves or their business in such a way that it doesn’t benefit your community as a whole.

If you allow your page to become a community billboard for self promotion, you can kiss it goodbye. It will become a place for spammers and you will be taken advantage of.

Businesses will be on it everyday promoting their own special interests without regard to you or the other members. Who wants to see the “Buy 3 Tires, Get One Free” ad every other day? What is the benefit of the community by allowing these type posts on your Fan Page? Zero.

I have my guidelines clearly posted but every now and then someone breaks my rule. I immediately delete the post and then I send a nice direct message explaining why I did what I did and I always offer alternatives.

Here is the note I have placed in the sidebar.
Please, read this! We support community events and local business. If you would like to post an event or promote a business, we ask that you first contact us and inquire about a promotion using the Fan Page. Please read “notes” tab at top of page.

Now, when they read my guidelines, here is what I have written.
Due to the large amount of Facebook members on the Monroe Scoop Fan Page, we feel it is necessary to post some guidelines on appropriate use of the Fan pages.

We ask that if you would like to post an event that your event benefits the community as a whole, and not an individual or an individual business. If your posting does not follow this rule, it will be deleted.

To ask for an exception, please email me at steve@monroescoop.com and give me the details.

Please refrain from religious postings.

We are actually happy to promote your business and we have some great ideas. Just contact me and I’ll tell you how we can do it without appearing “spammy’ to our members. There is a cost associated but you will be excited at the possibilities and affordability.

If you are not already a Fan, please become one. This is a great Fan Page because of our members.

I rarely have anyone break the guidelines I have set. Our Facebook page is a vibrant page with a lot of interaction and no spam. As a result we are growing in numbers every week. I personally believe this policy I have put in place is one of the main reasons for the growth of our Fan Pages. I run 4 hyperlocal websites and each has it’s own individual Fan Page. When you total the Fans from each site, it is believed that my network has the largest Fan following in my county.

I wish you success on your community Fan Page. This is the absolute first thing I would do when starting a hyperlocal Facebook Fan Page.

Please visit the Monroe Scoop Facebook Fan Page.

I’ll be bringing you more practical tips in the weeks ahead. I’ll soon be focusing on how video can make a real difference. Make sure you subscribe, you do not want to miss any of these tips.

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How To Not Be A Social Media Fake In Your Local Community

Steve — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:29:09 +0000

If you play any active part in Social Media where you live, you are bound to discover what I have discovered in my area. First thing is you will begin to discover is who may be your local Social Media Experts or Social Media Rockstars. Those are the names that always seem to be appearing in your twitter stream and re-tweeting and being re-tweeted. You see their names on Facebook and Foursquare etc., etc.

If you start peeling back a few layers you may also discover that a lot of the local Gurus’s are basically self-established through their own hype. In my area, there are always the usual suspects and the world seems to revolve around a few names. Once you start to peel back the layers, you may find a different story. I will tell you right now that it may leave you scratching your head.

Do a name search on these folks and find their blogs, their Facebook accounts and you may start to see a different picture.

Oh sure, they will proudly exclaim that they are at a lunch meeting with so and so working on a project. They will also tweet and Facebook messages that they will be at Friday night’s local tweet up. You get the idea. You start to think these select individuals are connected to the entire universe and you may begin to think that you are a nobody and have a long uphill battle to make a dent in the local Social Media scene. It’s too easy to be real and honest and to become a real Social Media Player in your city.

Don’t believe this for one second on 99% of these folks. I really like to search these people. I find their blogs, their Facebook, I follow the links they put out on Twitter. What you will most likely find is fluff. I rarely find true players in the game. It’s up to you to seperate these individuals with the true players in your community. Find the players and follow those people. When you discover the real players, follow them and watch what they do and don’t try to re-invent the wheel. Do what they do.

I have discovered that some of my local peeps who have high profiles haven’t updated their blogs in months. These are the same people who tweet SEO links and marketing links. It’s totally laughable. They do not practice what they preach. You will find many who do not have a strong Facebook presence and are almost always not social on their sites. I have also discovered that many work Regular Joe jobs 8 to 5. But they make it sound like they are handling huge client marketing promotions.

It’s easy to be real

If you want to make an impact in your local area in Social Media. Be honest and back up what you say. Be patient, it takes a while. A guy like me will soon discover if you are for real or if you are full of $hit. I’ll research the hell out of until I find out. Don’t think for a minute that if you decide to participate that you will not have people watching you and checking up on you.

Don’t act like you have big clients in one field only to be discovered that you have a full time job in an unrelated field. That basically makes you a liar if you carry on that way. I know damn well you are not heading up an advertising campaign at night while you are working retail in a dress shop by day.

Echelon Media Launches, Providing Social Media Consultant Services

Steve — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:20:41 +0000

I’d like to announce a new project I am involved in with 3 of my buddies, Allyn Hane, Josh Whitford & Brian Matson. We have teamed up together and formed Echelon Media, a Social Media Consulting Business.

Most of you will immediately recognize those names. Over the last few months, we have all realized the fluff and the garbage floating around out there where Social Media is concerned. The so-called A-listers talking fluffy cloud scenarios but never actually giving real life examples and help to those who may be struggling.

The 4 of us have our own specialties in regards to our online work and participation in Social Media. We felt we could give our individual and group thought on how we use Social Media successfully from our own perspective. Thus, Echelon Media was born. Feel free to check out “About Page”, on Echelon to read individual Bio’s about our group.

One of the first things we hope to accomplish is to give you straightforward, no fluff examples of how to use Social Media to your benefit. The 4 of us are real people who actually do what we preach and teach.

The website is about 1 month old now and we have experienced a very successful month of traffic for such a new site. It is our intention to provide businesses and individuals with solid, practical advice on how to build their businesses and brands. We will offer our consulting services to individual and business online through the use of technology or we are available to speak directly to your group onsite.

Echelon Media has just kicked off a series of what we call “Social Media Shorts.” These are quick one minute video tips designed to help you in your daily efforts in Social Media. These are the things that we do everyday and we are sharing these practical tips with you.

Below you will find the first 2 quick vids of our Social Media Shorts series of tips.

If you need Social Media Consultants, or if you just want to brush up on some handy tips, please give us a visit. If you like what we are doing, help us spread the word. We would love for you to follow us on Twitter @echelonmedia. Become a Facebook Fan and ask us to answer a specific question you have about Social Media.

2010 BloggerLens.com

How To Buy Cheap Business Cards To Use As Social Media Marketing Tools

Steve — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:32:25 +0000

Who: Me. Local Social Media Expert who happens to be frugal.

What: Need cheap Social Media marketing tactics.

Why: I must constantly market myself and my network of community websites.

How: Business Cards!

Ok, you don’t have to be involved in Social Media to use business cards effectively. All of us should carry them everywhere we go.

The most effective and simple marketing tool that each of us should possess are simple business cards. I give them out everywhere I go.

I just had 250 of these cards printed for me at VistaPrint. All I paid was around $5.67 for shipping. I designed the card with their online template. It was easy and fast. The cards arrived about a week later. They are perfect and high quality.

I receive weekly emails and offers from Vistaprints now. I do not mind because the offers are mostly free and I only pay shipping. Last week I ordered 100 postcards for free and paid $6.56 in shipping.

For $12.23 I’ve ordered 250 business cards and 100 post cards. (I know it’s not free if you pay for shipping but free your mind on this one)

I wholeheartedly recommend Vistaprint.

Go to VistaPrint and order your business cards today for cheap.

This has been a “No Fluff, Common Sense, Direct Help” article from a guy who actually practices Social Media in his community.

2010 BloggerLens.com

What I Would Like To See From Social Media Marketing Experts

Steve — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:34:28 +0000

If you are sensitive, you may want to leave here now and find someone who will stroke your ego and offer empty promises instead of speaking to you honestly.

If you are curious and decide to stay, I am just asking what any Social Media Expert can offer to me or my business and how it will affect my bottom line.

Simple right?

Well, not really. I haven’t been able to find solid evidence or case studies of how the experts do what they do. I haven’t found the CEO of a company giving a testimonial about how the expert changed their company.

I haven’t found a plumber explaining the virtues of the services of these experts. I have not found any evidence that the puffy “Law of Attraction” BS crap that these experts push, actually changes the lives and business of real people.

I do find Amazon links, fluffy book reviews and which blog theme I should use. Oh Boy, that’s helpful as I’m trying to figure out how to use these tools to feed my family.

During the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed a little “stirring of the pot” in the circle of friends I hang out with online. You know, all the bloggers who are on the D-List. Seems the D-List had a go at some of the A-Listers this week. Might I say it was well deserved also.

I will not mention any names of the A-Listers in this post, I don’t know that it will serve any useful purpose. You can figure it out on your own.

My plea to the Guru’s of any category. Tell me what you have done for someone else and how you or your methods can help me. Show me what you have done for a business that helped them. Tell me why I should follow you, re-tweet you and subscribe to you.

Don’t tell me how I should follow certain etiquette about trying to make contact with you.

Do you have an actual client list that you could post on your site? I think that would be awesome.

Don’t tell me what you learned about Chinese midget thong washers and how it helped you blog.

Please teach me what I need to know. Speaking as a guest of a marketing company who puts on some sort of summit is cool. I know what that would do to my ego.

I have certainly seen what it has done to your ego. I congratulate you. The problem is that you were a guest speaker of a marketing company. You were simply a tool of a real company trying to get real business. When you leave the auditorium, you are done. It’s the marketing company who signs deals and get paid.

When I look at your About page, you tell me that you work with real companies, yet you never list these companies. I see Summits, Expos and Podcamps.

I want substance. Can I please have some real substance?

Personally, I don’t care what WordPress Theme you are using. I thought you were big time?

I know how to start a Facebook page and a Twitter account. I pretty much have a handle on all that.

If I’m a Florist and I have payroll to meet and families depend on me, can you tell me how your Amazon Affiliate link to a puffy cloud book will help get customers through my door? I know how it will help you, I’m not stupid.

Certainly you can write about how you personally helped a small business in your local community. I can’t seem to find how you personally affected the lives of people and business for the better on your blog.

As a matter of fact, I don’t see a lot of comments by your readers and yourself considering you claim to have a Gazzilion readers and followers. I have looked for your nuggets of wisdom hidden in your comment section but sadly, you must be too busy speaking at an Expo.

Guess what? I speak to local groups. It’s not big time like you, but I layout specific concrete ways for local business to market, and use Social Media for their business.

I love to make fun of Social Media and the way people use it. It’s what I do. It doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing. It would be a mistake to underestimate us D-Listers.

I promote individuals and their business everyday. I built a platform for these businesses. I actually share my platform and encourage my readers to submit their info to me. More often than not I promote for free and sometimes for money.

I put thousands of readers on people and businesses in my community using the network I have built from the ground up.

I am contacted everyday by people using Twitter, Facebook, email and the telephone. Not once have I ever admonished a single soul for double-tapping me (stupid term). I like it. Triple & Quadriple tap me, I dig it.

Maybe I’m more of a Social Media expert than you are. I guess that’s not for me to decide.

Can you teach me how to rank on the first page of Google in my town for Florist? What’s the best way to use Twitter and Facebook if I’m a florist or a plumber?

I know some D-Listers who can tell me how to effectively use Social Media for my business. I personally make money every week because of a Canadian D-List blogger who does not use Thesis. He uses an ugly free blog. You should see his comment section. He shares more knowledge in his comments than in his posts. I don’t see the A-List experts being very social in their comment section.

If I hire you, do you have the resources to help me get ranked? I think it’s cool to Think Big And Get Rich but Google usually looks for links pointing to my Florist business. Can you teach me or send me some juice from your network?

Maybe I am asking too much. Maybe I’m acting like a black sheep in a lily white conforming herd of sheep.

Maybe next time I am asked for Social Media advice I should just point them to my Thesis theme which contains an Amazon link that sells a book about Chinese midget thong washing bloggers who speak at rah-rah seminars and pass it off to my zombie followers as substance.

2010 BloggerLens.com

Building My Resume In Social Media

Steve — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:45:56 +0000

The news partnership is described a little better at this page, Networked Journalism Project. My hyperlocal sites are one of 5 local sites selected by the Charlotte Observer to participate in this year long experiment. To say I was honored, would be an understatement. There are 5 newspapers across the country participating and funded for this joint venture between newspapers and hyperlocal bloggers.

The Charlotte Observer held a Social Media conference this weekend to a sold out audience and I was on the panel speaking about building community websites. It was a lot of fun and the questions from the audience were fast and furious. There is a lot of interest and the audience was quite diversified.

Of course I carried my iPod Nano 5th Generation and shot a clip of our closing session. One of the interesting things I noticed about the event was that I saw several local media celebrities attending and they were even a part of discussions in my workshop. The interest in Social Media at all levels is extremely high. I certainly have my own issues with the way so many people use Social Media and have written about it much to the chagrin of others. Since I have now officially spoken at a Social Media Conference, can I claim that I am a Social Media Guru now? Don’t laugh out loud Allyn & Josh & Griz.

2010 Bloggerlens.com

You Are Not My Facebook Friend

Steve — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:27:47 +0000

I like to use my personal Facebook for friends and people I actually know and have some sort of relationship with. I’ve not met everyone that I’m friends with but there is some sort of connection usually. I do not friend everyone who friends me either. On my personal Facebook I may post some photos of my family and Grandson and I don’t want everyone seeing them.

Some people don’t get it. Below is a recent Facebook message sent to me from a supposed friend. Notice I received her sales pitch and an invitation to view her website. She finally asked how I’ve been.

She could care less how I’ve been that’s obvious. I wonder how many of her other friends were pounded with the same message. I will have to un-friend her now and it’s too bad. She is a shallow, uncaring person hawking her products on me. I wouldn’t buy a piece of jewelry from her if she was the last salesperson on the face of the earth.

What would you do? Do you consider this acceptable from your friends on your personal Facebook page?

“Dont forget I am selling Lia Sophia Jewelry now and your wife would love some for Valentine’s Day. Check out the website and let me know what you think. Great sales! How have you been?

2010 Bloggerlens.com

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