Holy F. S. I Was Just in A P.C.

@2drinksbehind is following 41 people on Twitter; the F/F ratio doesn’t matter. He doesn’t need to search out anyone for the rest of his life after his on-the-minute tweet from inside the Denver plane when it crashed. He’s got 1,582 followers and a NBC Nightly News interview to prove it. In the spirit of his post, “Holy fresh strawberries,” what is going on with the news?

Mike Wilson describes himself in his Twitter profile as a “hobbit child,” and apparently this media exposure is an “experience of a lifetime in more ways than one.”

News has no bounds, reaching into the citizen journalist file and pulling out tragedies like the plane flying off the Denver runway, and earlier on, the Mumbai attacks. Are publications writing these social media stories in hopes of re-gaining print circulation numbers? I feel news is so desperate now that they can print stuff like this without censorship. Some people are outraged about news' nonsensical approach nowadays, as these comments to this article suggest.

I do have to say, though-- if I were in a plane crash and wanted to let the world know about it, I’d use my Twitterrific and I would probably #$%@ my pants too.

5 Tips For Standing Out Online If You Are John Smith

In followup to my last post about managing your online identity, I thought it would be helpful to give a few ideas on how to set yourself apart when others are already using your name. I have it easy with my name, so I have significantly less complicated of a task than if my name were John Smith. Both these men have the same name and both are on the first page of Google image results. It is possible to stand out even when you have a lot of competition.


Here are a few tips on how to stand out if your name is John Smith:

1.) Start early. The early bird gets the worm. Hopefully by getting a leg up on others, you will be able to purchase www.yourname.com or other important sign in names that will become more and more curcial in the future. Find the tools that could be important for your future career and secure a placeholder there under your name. If you've missed out on www.yourname.com already, consider an alternative. A few other valuable URLs include yourname.tv, yourname.name, yourname.info, or yourname.net.

2.) Create your individual brand. No matter if you share a name with someone else, there is only one you. You have to let people know who you are as an individual by showcasing your areas of expertise, interest, and specialty. There is already a famous John Smith, but he is known for being a soldier and sailor, not a marketer, veterinarian, weatherman, small business owner, or blog writer. Consider branding yourself with a logo or other visual element that would easily stick in people's minds.

3.) Tell, but also show. Your profile should give a good description of who you are, but you also need to show what you have done. When people search your name, will they find your blog comments in places that enhance your brand identity? Consider which blogs you would want to be associated with and make a conscience effort to connect yourself with the writers and conversation. Make sure all the conversations and projects you are involved in get linked back to you.

4.) Learn how to use SEO. There are many tricks and techniques for how to optimize SEO on your name (too many to cover here). One important factor to keep in mind is what words or phrases you want to be associated with your name. Are you a real estate agent? Every time you create a website, profile, or relevant post, make sure the phrase "real estate agent" and others are in the tags. One tool for improving the tags you are using is Quintura. By typing in a keyword that you might use as a tag, you will be able to find other keywords that are regularly used in conjunction with yours. By using tools like these to add more related tags to what you are already using, you can improve your chances of being found.

5.) Consistency. If you really want to create a solid picture of yourself, focus on consistency. Make your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc profile pics and descriptions all the same. As people search you out, the consistency will help them find you and create a complete picture. It can be very easy to confuse people with an disjointed picture. By connecting all the places you are active, you will create a bigger and more organized picture of yourself.

I need more suggestions from you. Ideas?

The Power of Suggestion: What’s Missing?

There are several components to a Facebook Fanpage; and like Facebook itself, the one most frequented is the wall. People talk here and the brand director reads it and hopefully listens. But when businesses try to integrate a lazy marketing tactic such as begging the question, “What do you think?” it comes off as desperate.

As a consumer, I feel too pressured to make a decision right then and there, and when the topic is too broad and there’s no incentive to respond, I don’t want to participate. I need a narrative that will strike an emotional chord, not bland marketing. I need to know your product has my best interests at hand, so if I’m green and I find out from a wall post you’re not recycling your plastic bottles, I won’t give you the time of day. Better yet—I’ll become an enemy.

If businesses really want to grab consumers— online or off – they should continually ask themselves: “What’s in it for my fans?” Crest Whitestrips got it right.

Speaking to the misdirected companies on Facebook, how about a contest for the consumer who gives the best suggestion on the seven varieties of a new product, or perhaps something a little more creative like what a sweet tea business can do with all its wasted plastic bottles. How about a stunt PR tactic—a sensationalistic “World’s Biggest Bottle Statue” brought you to by the brand that needs a better place for its bottles. I guess it all goes back to traditional PR on a 3.0 platform.

If you’re wondering why you’re not seeing threads on a discussion topic part of your Fan Page, then buy me a toaster. I really need one.

...But You Can't Hide

An Australian court ruled this week that if a defendant cannot be found, Facebook is now a viable medium for tracking them down and serving court papers.

As you put your digital fingerprints online, you are leaving a permanent bunny trail of data behind. Not only are online actions irreversible, but they are making staying hidden more and more impossible. Everyone can make one of two choices about their digital fingerprint:

Option 1: Your online actions are unguided, unplanned, and unorganized. You forget that people are watching you and are forming a picture of who you are based on your online activities.

Option 2: You make an effort to create a purposeful picture of yourself online. As Jeremiah Owyang points out, Google search results are the new business card. When people search you, they can often put together a pretty good picture of what you are about. Not only can you not stay hidden, but now you must carefully craft what you want a 6-second picture of yourself to look like, as well as a more thorough investigation.

A few ideas to consider:

• What does your MySpace/Facebook/[insert social media community] profile say about you to potential employers? Your blog readers? Your extended family?
• Do you own www.yourname.com?
• Do you make it easy for an employer or company to get a quick picture of what you are about? A more detailed picture?
• Are any of your non-actions (or poor choice of actions) making you hidden or unqualified from certain opportunities?
• What are you going to do in the New Year to position yourself for success?

You cannot hide. But you can chose how you want to be seen.

Top Albums of 2008 - One List To Rule Them All

I have seen at least 15 different "Top Albums/Songs of the Year" lists this past week. Rolling Stone has several, Spin has their version, and there are even all the charts for top sales (digital and physical). While these types of lists used to carry more weight for readers, I don't believe they matter as much anymore.

In an increasingly user-generated content world, we can all become writers or content producers. We all have opinions and we love to share them. Instead of relying on the old sources for what is "hip" or "best" in music, we make our own picks and then interact with others to further develop the lists. We will still read the old lists for ideas, but if our favorite album isn't on it, we'll either go looking for one that agrees with us or we'll just create our own. We no longer have time for set-in-stone top albums lists; we need something we can interact with, something that has life to it.

Imagine an interactive community based around the "Top Albums of the Year." The main function of this community would be for users to create a "Top Albums of The Year" that complied all into one place. Everyone's opinion would matter and be calculated into one single list. The living list could be viewed as a whole but also could be sorted based on country of user, sex of user, genre of music, etc. The community would work on a single-entry voting system that would help to avoid rabid fan-boys from sitting on their computer for hours just voting for Fall Out Boy or Miley Cyrus. An interactive community like this could easily be turned into a way to find new music, rally fans around a band that was deserving, or showcase your opinions (not to mention, make money for the music industry). Giving users an incentive to share their lists and interact would help to keep people coming back and checking how it had been developing. When the clocks flipped over to Jan 1 12:01AM the list would lock in and be announced within the next week.

What do you think? Good idea?