At my agency Strategies 360, we’ve had quite a bit of success in running contests using social media channels. In most instances we’ve seen tremendous growth in reach and engagement, and in just about all those cases, very minimal loss in those gains post contest. I’ve always wondered if I could expect the same types of results with my personal brand running something similar.

So without further adieu, I formally announce my February Facebook Page Music Package Giveaway! I am giving away an 8GB Ipod Touch, 2 GB Ipod Shuffle, and a pair of Zagg Smartbud Headphones. For the full details and to enter, checkout my Facebook page. Simply put, if you haven’t done so already, like my Facebook page, then enter your details into my email newsletter signup form to officially enter. If you already like my page, simply enter your details in the email signup form. I will choose one lucky random winner at the end of the month. That’s it!

Good luck to all and as always, thank you for your continued readership and support!

Regardless of the circumstances, algorithms, or opinions, I’m flattered and it’s just another feel good moment knowing that the time I spend on my blog means something to others.  So many great names on that list that I respect and enjoy and to be included with them is awesome.  I can’t speak to the exact methodology that was used to determine this list, but I would imagine that my blog factored in way more then anything else.  It just goes to show that creating great content can be a game changer for you personally or professionally.

The funniest thing about finding out about the list was my initial reaction.  It was a mix of shock and excitement, but was immediately followed by this thought…”Man, I need to be doing more!”  How crazy is that?  I get recognition for my efforts thus far, and my first thought is what more could I be doing?  How can I capitalize on this recognition and do more?  I have a full-time job and have to spend the majority of my time delivering on social media work for clients, so it’s very difficult to be able to spend a large amount of time on my personal blog or personal social efforts.  So I can’t imagine how much more I could actually take on, but I certainly feel compelled to do so.

So I’m humbled, but also realistic to know that it’s just a subjective list and could easily be argued (which if you take a look at the comments is already the case).  Let’s be honest, there are some fantastic folks out there not on the list that I would easily include that create amazing content, are socially active and influence significantly.  Some of my recent favs you must make a regular read include, Mark Murnhan, Dino Dogan, Daniel Newman, Francisco Rosales, Jessica Northey, and special shout out to one my personal fav blogs and list detractor Erika Napoletano (her stuff is just plain awesome, and let’s be honest, pretty damn influential).  So many more out there I read and enjoy, but these are just a few that come to mind.

So flattered, honored, but realistic to know that it’s business as usual, and while I will certainly take advantage of the accolades, I’ll continue to stay the course and try to provide useful, entertaining content and connect with others as much as my schedule permits.  Big thanks to all and anyone that takes the time to read.  More to come!

Almost 3 years ago a bomb dropped on me when Microsoft laid me off. I did not see it coming, nor should I have as they never had laid anyone in history of the company. I was ill prepared to enter the job market with thousands of other unfortunate souls. I had failed to focus substantial efforts on my own social credentials. I was fortunate however to have a decent enough severance package to buy me the time to focus on myself. And that’s exactly what I did concentrating on blogging, building my social following, and influence in social marketing.

Those efforts were the foundation to some fairly significant career happenings in my life. To more clearly reinforce why the numbers do matter, the following are a few examples to demonstrate how.

1. In the past 2 1/2 years I have scored 3 different interviews, 2 at Microsoft, and 1 for my current gig. In all 3 experiences, my social following was clearly a big reason for getting the initial interviews. It put my name at the top of the list every time.
2. Every client pitch I walk into is proceeded with my social credentials, and every time, it impresses them enough to walk into the room with a level of credibility before I even say a word.
3. Most recently, I was contacted by a casting producer for Season 2 of a reality/adventure show called Escape Routes. I was clearly identified and drew interest initially because of my social following.

I know what some of you are thinking…all those people don’t know enough about social media thus are easily influenced by big numbers. And my response to you would be….Yea, that’s exactly my point.

Of course those numbers are not the be all end all. You have to back it up with actual knowledge, experience, and an ability to effectively leverage those networks, which I have been able to do. In all my examples, if I wasn’t able to back it up with clear examples and experience, of course they wouldn’t have worked out for me. But one clear fact remains; MY SOCIAL REACH OPENED THE DOORS. And that my friends, is the whole point of this blog post. Having a large social following in and of itself will open doors for you. You better be able to back it up, but the doors will open. Fair? Maybe, maybe not.

What’s your take or experiences?

Escape Routes is officially season 2 of a Ford sponsored, web based, reality/adventure show that deeply integrates social media into the mix. The show is broadcast on Hulu, and last season was featured on the Jimmy Kimmel show and promoted heavily pre Super Bowl.

Once notified, I watched all of last season, and I have to say that I was genuinely impressed on how they leveraged social media, and how it played such an integral part of the show. Users had the ability to choose which team they wanted to side with, and interact with them throughout the show and its challenges. Followers were actually able to not only win prizes themselves, but help contestants with their specific challenges.

I can see how this investment is a wise one by Ford, especially with the growing trend towards original programming originating online rather then through traditional broadcast channels.  So needless to say, I grew more excited by the prospect of being considered for the show. I auditioned last week and had a great experience. Between my love and experience of social media, competitiveness, and ability to make a fool of myself, I’m no doubt what they are looking for, and I have a tremendous partner in crime @melissayeager1, one of my very best friends who brings a combination of competitiveness, social savvy, and a do whatever it takes attitude that make us an unbeatable team.  If you aren’t already, be sure to follow her as well!

I’m going to do something I rarely do. Ask my readers and followers to support our campaign by doing any or all of the following in order of preference:

1. Share this post on Twitter Tweet #escaperoutes

2. Share this post on Facebook while mentioning @fordescape & @jasonyormark.

3. Leave a comment on this post so that I may personally thank you for your support.

You may be asking yourself why bother?  Fair response.  Most of you may not.  But it would be tremendously appreciated if you took the moment to do any of the above to give myself a better chance.  As an added incentive and to make it more fun, leave a comment with your best embarrassing (but family friendly!) idea for me to film.  I will take the best ideas, create a poll, and the winning submission I will post here on my blog in the next few weeks.

Thanks in advance, and more updates to come!

The social media explosion has had a similar effect. A few years in, and the social web has taken it a step further by giving those some people an ability to connect with far more people more easily then ever before. Tools such as Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, etc. have made it much easier to amass an audience. And while great things have come from these new technologies, it has not come without being taken advantage of as well.

Having just returned from SES Chicago (a search and social conference), I had another overall good experience. I had the honor of getting to moderate one panel, speak on another, and participate in a Webmaster.fm interview (to be posted here shortly). The reality is, I don’t attend conferences much anymore unless I’m doing one or a variety of one these activities. More so because typically these conferences are not geared for me, but for those without my experience. Not that I don’t learn a few things or two along the way, but I tend to learn much more with other methods (on the job, books, online research, etc.).  

But what I’m most amazed by is the often significant discrepancy between a person’s online credentials vs. their offline persona. Often times I’m impressed with those I do some research on whether it’s reading their blogs, following their social profiles, etc., but then when I meet the real thing there is a glaring difference in what I perceived, and the real thing.

The web and the social web is definitely an equalizer. It enables just about anyone to position themselves however they want. But honestly, outside of outright lying, I can’t blame anyone for doing so. It’s up to people to do their due diligence to always ask the right questions, and more importantly, utilize your circle of trusted relationships to get the right answers.

And when all else fails, defer to examples of real world business results. Ask for examples of claimed knowledge and experience in action. Ask for references from those examples. And make sure that the business results that you define as success, map to those examples closely so you’re not left in disappointment. All the likes and follows in the world do not matter if they don’t lead to more sales, more engagement, or whatever your true measure of success really is.

And in case anyone was wondering…I’m Batman. No really, I am.

Now I’m totally on board with this idea. I think it’s a creative and fantastic way to build buzz and awareness of your current or soon to be blog. People are visual in nature, and taking this approach will certainly create some interest for your endeavors. However I think it should only be a part of an overall larger strategy of a blog launch. Where I somewhat disagree with Jon’s take is around the results you can expect as a lessor known blogger, and dictating your decision to move forward based on those results.

As of this writing, Jon claims to have received over 1,700 subscribers, 1,000 Twitter followers and 600 likes/comments on Facebook prior to even writing a single post and only publishing his movie style trailer promoting his upcoming blog launch. Pretty good numbers if you ask me. I was intrigued after reading his post, and most certainly had to see the trailer.

My first reaction was, “Well of course he did”. Why? The trailer leads with two ringing endorsements from the blogosphere’s heavy hitters, Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame, and Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net. That’s instant street cred and is obviously going to lead to people subscribing or following to learn more. In addition, Jon has established himself as a credible and successful blogger due to his guest posting contributions to the above networks prior to this launch which also contributes to these numbers.

Bottom line? The trailer only partially contributed to this pre-launch success. The real driving force here is that Jon had already established himself as a valued and trusted resource for his given topic through endorsements and a proven track record. Which goes to my personal opinion in that the steak is far more important then the sizzle. If you want to be successful in the blog game, you have to commit to establishing yourself through patience, persistence, and a commitment to providing useful, valuable and entertaining content on a regular basis. Sure, you can lead with a fancy trailer, but don’t let the number of people that jump on board necessarily dictate whether you should go for it.

What’s more important is whether you are passionate and knowledgeable about what it is you want to write about. Sure, maybe you’re not the greatest writer in the world, or you have little to no marketing savvy. But with a little hard work, a bit of trial and error, you’ll learn by doing, and slowly build an audience.

You’ll never really know the true potential of your blog without grilling a few steaks!

Then you go to obtain your social media usernames.  You know going into it that there’s a good chance it’s probably already taken, but worth a shot anyway.  You go to Twitter, enter your desired username, and RATS…it’s taken.  But that’s not really what’s frustrating.  What’s frustrating it although it’s taken, it’s a dead account.  Either never used, or hasn’t been used in months…years even.  You know what’s even more frustrating?  Twitter won’t do anything about it.

Well, that’s not ENTIRELY true.  Twitter will help you if you own the trademark or copyright, but let’s be honest, most of us aren’t shelling out those kinds of dollars either for a blog or small business.  At least not anytime soon.  So what are we small fish to do?  There’s nothing we can do.  Here’s Twitter’s standard response that many have gotten when inquiring about obtaining an inactive username:

If you’re looking to acquire an inactive username for personal use, please check back in a few months. We’re currently unable to accommodate individual requests for inactive usernames. We may release all inactive usernames in the future, but have not yet set a date for doing so.

This has been the response for a few years, so this is obviously not a big enough deal for Twitter to address.  What’s so frustrating is because it’s so incredibly easy for anyone to sign up for Twitter, every stinking name under the sun gets taken regardless of whether it’s ever intended on being used.  Yes, the domain industry is very much the same, but in the domain industry, you at least have the potential to purchase the domain after the fact.  Not the case with Twitter usernames as it goes against their terms of use.

It can’t be that difficult to create a solution here can it?  I understand that Twitter probably cares more about numbers reflecting # of users vs. actual engagement, but it’s not like they would be relinquishing their subscriber numbers here.  They would just be replacing dead users with potential active ones.

Here’s a few ideas in hopes that Twitter may actually listen:

• Update your terms that require users to actually USE their accounts or risk losing them.  6 months of no activity, account automatically goes back into circulation.  Case closed.
• Hell, make a few bucks if you want.  Create a marketplace where users can sell the names and take a cut.  Something, anything to give those that are actually willing to spend a few dollars for the name they want, an option to do so.  Better yet, keep all the money and just charge for official requests for these names.
• Simply allow users to officially make requests for unused names and give them up if they meet certain criteria.  What’s the harm?

Get on it already Twitter.  You’ve created a valuable social channel, and you have real users that want to use the platform in place of dead accounts.  It’s a win win.

Some active conversations on the issue:

http://www.quora.com/If-a-Twitter-user-has-been-inactive-for-over-6-months-can-I-get-their-username

https://dev.twitter.com/discussions/262

A great free tool to help track when (and if) those Twitter usernames ever get released:

http://tweetclaims.com

If you’re receiving this blog post, that means you are one of the last remaining survivors.  You are the future now.  You are the last hope for humanity.  Only you can help rebuild our fallen world.  Round up as many Facebook friends and Twitter followers that you can!  Re-tweet dammitt!  For god’s sake Re-Tweet!!!!!! (and don’t forget to @mention yourself in the Re-Tweet).

You would literally think it was a zombie outbreak the way people are responding to the latest Klout score changes.  Hordes of people emotionally breaking down claiming all sorts of negative backlash that will fall upon their professional lives now that the majority of users scores have decreased.  Actually, it’s more likely that it’s even, we’re just not hearing as much from those whose scores were unaffected or went up.

Concerns such as “I’m going to lose clients!” to “I work in social media and this directly effects my career!!” have been common responses.  Sorry, but I don’t get it.  I work in social media, and my Klout score has absolutely ZERO influence on the clients I work with, obtain, or my career path quite frankly.  In fact 90% of those I work with don’t even know what a Klout score is.

If you are going to lose clients or not get that promotion because of your Klout score, you’ve got much bigger problems then your Klout score.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I do think there is some value in a company like Klout and what they are trying to do.  However it is by no means, the be all end all.  A Klout score in and of itself is not enough to truly measure ones social influence.  In fact, no mathematical algorithm can truly measure this by itself.

Most of us are all influencers in our lives one way or another.  Everybody shares unique talents, insights, expertise, and we share them with others in ways that work for each of us.  And Klout has a long way to go before their score can stand on its own to measure that (How’s about starting with self hosted blogs??).

When I logged in yesterday and saw that my score dropped from 71 to 54, my initial reaction was “What?! Really?”, but I knew the change was coming, and after seeing that quite a few other folks were impacted too, I knew that it was all relative at that point.  Sure my score went down, but it went down for quite a few folks.

After reading through the changes, and taking a closer look, my assessment of my score drop was due to Facebook more then anything.  My “influence” on Facebook is probably not that high at all as I only use my profile for friends and family for the most part.  Most of those folks don’t have much of an interest in social media marketing or blogging, so what I share on FB doesn’t resonate all that much as it does in other places.

Now my partner in crime at S360 Molly Killien is a FB monster, but not as much on Twitter (in comparison to me), and she is the brand new recipient of a higher score then me at 55 due to the changes (and quite happy about it!  Grrrrr!!).

Now does that mean Molly is more influential then me?  In some ways probably so.  And that’s where Klout scores get tricky.  While Molly may be more influential then me on certain channels, or in certain topics, I will be in other areas.  Bottom line…does it really matter?

Influence is about sharing great content, helping others, and being a leader.  Write a great blog, share things that impact you, respond to others and engage.  Don’t worry about the numbers so much.  If you know your stuff, and have a history of delivering results, your Klout score doesn’t matter.

Now step back off the ledge!

Let’s recap some of the backlash that’s actually good reading:

1. A handful of comments on the blog article announcement.  Big props to Mark Aaron Murnahan.  If you aren’t reading his blog, you’re missing out.
2. Some blog posts written by Danny Brown, Amber Avines & Daniel Newman of which all I respect and read regularly despite the difference in opinion.  Aforementioned blog posts’ comments.

It’s hard for me to actually believe that my little nobody blog may have inspired these folks to write these articles, but the timing certainly appears that way.  I certainly wasn’t the first to mass un-follow and start over, only one of the more recent who blogged about it I guess.  To recap the above sentiment, it’s widely believed that folks that take these actions are doing it to appear more celebrity-like by having a large following and much smaller follower base.

I am no celebrity, and quite frankly, all the Twitter followers in the world isn’t going to change that.  I don’t sell anything, I don’t pimp any products or services on my blog, and I rarely promote anything other then the tools and services I genuinely adore.  I have a full time job, that quite frankly involves clients that have little to no correlation to much of what I speak of anywhere online.

My actions were purely noble in nature.  I had exactly 2 complaints from those I unfollowed, and both were done respectfully through email (and of course immediately followed back).  And since the unfollow, I’ve been slowly re-following those through pre-populated lists I created and through @mentions of worthwhile individuals.  I’ve already begun enjoying Twitter more since.

Could I have utilized a variety of 3rd party tools to accomplish some of these goals?  Perhaps.  But quite frankly, I didn’t want to have to.  The fact is, a large majority of the accounts I unfollowed were most likely bots, dead accounts, or those that pay little attention to me anyway.

The majority of my following came early on in my Twitter usage and back then, auto-following was a common practice and made sense for me back then.  Not so much now.  And honestly, if anyone was that hurt or disrespected by my actions, a simple @mention or email would have them most likely followed back anyway as I described in my blog post and tweets prior to the unfollows.

Not enough to prove doubters of my intentions?  Take a look at this October chart courtesy of one of my new fav tools Crowdbooster:

Long story short, lots of impressions, very little action.  Which tells me that while I have a large reach, it’s likely that a large portion of that reach is garbage due to a variety of bots, dead accounts, or simply those that don’t pay attention to me at all.  Some might think I might be crazy to be this transparent, but honestly, I barely have enough time to manage my career let alone my personal social media efforts.  My hope is that this will help me make things more efficient and help me connect with people more effectively.

This is a big part of the reason for my actions.  Over time my follower to following ratio will grow closer, and now that I am able to engage more efficiently, and connect with the “right” people, I predict that chart above will look very different in a few months.

I respect the opinions of those that feel it’s all in vain, and in some cases perhaps that’s true.  Just not in my case.  And quite frankly I can’t see how it would be with even the true social media celebs like Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse.  Both of these guys are hugely successful in what they do and rightfully so through successful blogs, books, speaking engagements, etc.  Why in the world would either of them need the “perceived” celebrity that a follower/following discrepancy apparently gives when they already had it?

Bottom line, I’m a small fish in an extremely large pond of social media professionals.  There are tons of opinions out there, and rightfully so considering the tools we use in social are evolving and launching at such a rapid pace.  I look forward to better attending to and managing my personal space and welcome any of you that have bothered to read this far to connect with me through commenting or reaching out via Twitter (which I can now promise I’ll respond to!)

Up to this point, I’ve subscribed to the reciprocal follow approach.  You follow me?  Well then I follow you.  Why not?  I’ve always used lists to curate my Twitter information, so the size of my following wasn’t all that much of a concern of mine.  Over the years it’s allowed me to grow a sizeable Twitter audience.  But at what expense?

Because of this approach, DM usage is out of the question.  I’m sure I probably lose legitimate messages sent to me because they are buried in spam.  It also pretty much makes Twitter a broadcast channel for me and not much of an engagement channel.  Certainly I’ve benefited in this in driving a decent amount of traffic to my blog, but honestly, I long for being able to actually use Twitter more to engage with folks which currently is much harder to do.

Of course I’m taking some steps to ensure I can follow back the folks I currently wish to stay connected with by creating lists of these users of which I will follow back after the purge.  I’m sure I will get my fair share of real folks that either unfollow me back automatically or manually.  And really, if they were only following me for the follow, that’s not much of a loss.

However I’m sure I will unknowingly unfollow quite a few folks that I would prefer to follow so if you are a casualty of my Twitter purge, please reach out before writing me off completely.

And so it begins.  More to come as I blog about the after effects and how my usage of Twitter evolves after the change.