Community Building Secrets: they might come, but will they stay?

Have you really ever built a community? Like authentic community where people talk to each other, they identify with the community, shared philosophies, and were friends outside of the communication platform? If you're a brand, does your community align with industry organizations and the community? Does the community and industry organizations align with each other? Ideally, brands, communities, and industry organizations should overlap with each other.

Maybe you have and maybe you haven’t. Many website and fan pages may boast large numbers of users, but they still lack a community. These sites might have transient users, users who don’t interact with each other, and users don’t identify with the site or activity.

The dirty truth is that building a real community takes hard work and long hours. You must nurture it, protect it, and lead it. You can’t just build the infrastructure for a community (like a Facebook page) and expect it to grow.  I've seen many organizations assume that just because they have infrastructure, they deserve to own the community members. Sorry, it just won’t happen. Here’s a great article by Erik Martin on managing Reddit’s community. Also, users aren't owned by organizations or brands unless they are paid employees.

The disadvantages of having a communities are that you are pretty much there, 24-7.

I’ve build several sites, and they don’t always have to be a community. It is nice to set a goals and boundaries on what you want for your website, blog, business, or hobby. Otherwise, building an online community can take over your entire life.

Follows are some basic activities that you must do when building an online community. They might seem pretty obvious, though in talking to people who seek answers on why community members never arrive or fail to stay; these are the core activities that are forgotten. I cannot stress enough the importance of each of these activities.

An example of a social graph.

• Be present - Be there online. Be there offline. Be here at industry events. You can’t lead and you can’t build if you are not there. I hear people complain about the lack of attendance at events and lack of members, and my first question is “was all the leadership in attendance?” You might be surprised at how often that happens.
  • Be available - If you do in-house community management for a business, it can be rough looking at your feeds after hours. You need a break too; so spread out the monitoring duties with other team members or only check for urgent messages every few hours. My rule of thumb is that if it is an emergency, I’m available. Otherwise, it can wait.
• Make connections - While building a community often means that you know everyone, one of your jobs should be that other members get to know other members. You need to make connections. It’s a group thing.  
  • Coordinate efforts between members - active and committed members in communities like to do things, and they are often the same things. Help members coordinate efforts and activities.
• Recruit - for more mainstream communities (like food and automotives), content marketing and SEO may be great starts for a community. However, niche communities may require some serious recruiting. For some communities, I search in related groups or I call people, like with a phone. I actively ask people to help me recruit. I ask them to be ambassadors, and I ask for their feedback.
• Market - think of the social benefits of your community, and market those value propositions. If your community has a bad rap, you need to re-position and re-brand your community. Focus on the value your community brings.
• Create culture - make sure you curate in the fun and curate out the trolls and ugliness. Things people write on the Internet can be horrifying. No one wants to read that. Create a welcoming culture otherwise people will flee.
  • Stop the bickering - people will never agree on the Internet, but they can set aside the bickering and have fun instead. Life is too short to have thin skin or waste it being unhappy.
• Create or integrate structure - Your community might already have some ongoing online or offline events. Create some online activities or integrate with other events that are already happening. In one of my niche dog groups, I do a monthly birthday card for all the dogs’ as well as yearly in-person events.

If you build it, they might come. If you nurture it and protect it, they will stay.

Roadblocks to Fans and Followers: Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior

You might have guessed from my business cards and blog posts that I'm an avid QR code user.  While the technology isn't brand new and the adoption rate is still up in the air, I still urge people to use them.  The idea for this blog post began when I noticed that many businesses have the Twitter or Facebook logo in their advertising.  It looks something like this.   You might not think anything about it, but the social psychologist in me says "Why?"  

You see the name of the business and two widely and easily recognizable logo.  You might think "the business wants people to know that they are on Twitter and Facebook."  Even though smart phones and internet access 24/7 is a reality for many of us, having to look up someone's Twitter handle or to search for them on Facebook (I still think the Facebook iphone app is wonky) is cumbersome and a roadblock to adoption.

You might also think that having the Twitter and the Facebook logo on advertising assets is branding you as a tech hip business, but it is really branding for Twitter and Facebook.  You pasting their logos for free on your ads.  That's great for them, I'm sure.   If you've taken a social psychology course, you might have been exposed the Theory of Planned Behavior by Icek Ajzen.  According to Ajzen, planned behaviors such as planning to follow a brand on social media services goes through a series of complicated steps.  In a tiny nutshell, a person must endorse the behavior, the normative belief (perception of other people's beliefs) must endorse the behavior, and the person much also believe that the behavior is within his/her control.  Those are factors that feed into intention that may actually feed into executing the behavior. 

*Used with permission. Read up on the Theory of Planned Behavior here.

So, if only your brand name with a Twitter or Facebook logo appear on advertising, this process of getting people to follow you is complicated. Here's some examples I found in a magazine.  I personally find the logos in print to be frustrating.   I can't click the print advertising.  I can't double tap a newspaper to go to a URL.

First, people have to notice it and intend on following you.  Then people have to go through the entire process of pulling out their phones, deciding whether or not use the appropriate app to search for your brand or to do a Google search for the link to your profile.  And then they have to actually find it.  Having a person go through the search process can be annoying, especially of the Twitter handle is nothing like the brand name or SEO for the brand name is pretty horrific.  If the person searching doesn't include the words "Twitter" or "Facebook" in the search, it can be an even more painful process.  After the search process, the people have to decide whether or not they like you.  If the search process was painful, they probably won't like you as much.  If the person has to remember to search for your profile on a desktop computer, the process becomes even longer. 

With a QR code (or even URL), many steps of the process that would have to go through Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior are cut out completely.   Here's some examples of better ways of integrating social media with print or non-digital advertising. 



The take away message from this post is that there are already enough road blocks to desired behavior.  You can remove some of those roadblocks by giving your audience an easy way to find you on social media, even in traditional advertising.

@GoogleHotPot:The Evolution of Search, Social Media, and Community

I've been mulling over this topic on and off for the last couple of months. Google HotPot made it's debut recently, and there are many more issues to discuss in this post. Isn't everything social media these days?  If it is online and you can have "friends," it must be social media.  Simon Salt and I have debated (friendly, of course because we're both friendly) about this issue and Yelp.  We both run around in similar circles, and we both use similar tools. But we view them in different ways.  *My opinions are well, my opinions, and they do not reflect on any of the Yelp community managers or users. **I don't work for Google, Yelp, or any other like website. Side 1: Yelp is social media.  You can add friends. You can meet people who become your friends.  You can send messages to your friends.  It must be social. Side 2: Yelp is crowd sourced content. People write reviews, and they sort through reviews.  Though Yelp has a community in select cities, those are free-standing and created after content starts to come in. I used to be on side 2.  Simon was on side 1. Yelp is full of reviews that come from people who want to voice their opinions.  Those opinions are combined into a star rating.  That is the quick and dirty of it. However,a deeper look into why Yelp was leaps and bounds ahead of similar sites like Chowhounds or Urbanspoon was because they had a community.  They built communities after there was enough momentum by hiring an official community manager (to keep the peace and to put on parties) and started the Elite badging system.  Having been in two separate Yelp communities (Houston and Austin) and attending a Yelp Elite event in San Francisco, I could easily see that each community has a distinct demographic, personality, and dynamics.  You might have remembered my post about the destruction of the Austin Yelp Community by de-eliting Michelle C.   Since then, the communities have worsened in my opinion.  Long-time users began to fade away, the speed of reviews posted seemed to slow, and the talk threads because much less active.  During the 2011 eliting week, threads like this one and this one brought about heated conversations.  Anyone who crossed Yelp, created problems for Yelp, or  voiced their opinions louder than Yelp did not have their elite status renewed.  I was one of those people who did not have their 2011 elite badge, and I was surprised at first.  At SXSW 2010, I spoke at a core convesation with Addie Broyles about how review sites were changing the restaurant review landscape.  As Yelp was just slapped with lawsuits, it quickly became Yelp-centric.  I stood up for the Yelp community (the users), and I gave my unbiased opinion about Yelp's role in the restaurant reviews.  I still think that they had a genius model.  Before community became a buzzword, they were building them.  Yelp was one of the first websites that hosted in person meet ups.  I wish I had thought of that and executed as well as they did.  Anyways, after my post about how they were destroying the community and my voice in the social media world, Yelp was displeased and did not renew my elite status as well.  They didn't give my the axe after the blog post, when I was expecting it.  They waited four months later.  That portion of Yelp's Corporate email to me read: "We also understand that you are a social media consultant. Though not technically a business owner, there is an inherent conflict of interest with being Yelp elite and a social media consultant. Per the above, unfortunately we are unable to welcome you back to the Elite Squad at this time."     I'm putting that on all my future resumes.  :o)  It's kind of flattering that an individual that has my own consulting service on the side would be a conflict of interest with a giant website.  You might be asking yourself, "Who cares about the community?  I don't care about those people, I just want to see the ratings."  And you're absolutely right in asking.  I don't think Yelp is going to fold just because the communities are less loyal, less active, but I know that I'm going to shift how I categorize Yelp.  Yelp to me is turning into a search tool, a very useful one at that.  I frequently listen and read Jason Calicanus and Fred Wilson's blogs and podcast, and both of them use Yelp (mobile too).  But I've never heard or read of Jason or Fred commenting about feeling right at home with the Yelp community.  Most of the comments are about the search features.  I too really like the search feature on Yelp mobile.  I can drive into a new location, hit find close to me button, and start weeding it through.  However, one time late at night, Yelp recommended that I get dinner at the Yellow Rose, the gentlemen's club.  I declined that recommendation.  The numbers geek inside me really likes that you can get more data.  While there is more noise in Yelp data (variability in reviews), if I didn't know the source, I would rather look at the reviews of 100 people instead of 5 people.  Statistically, more reviews are more favorable. I'll update my views of Yelp.  It isn't crowd-sourced content driven by a strong community anymore.  Honestly, who is going to join a community just to find out where to eat a taco?  Now that a particular threshold of content already exists (at least in Austin and other larger cities), Yelp is a great search tool.  I use Yelp to collaborate with my friend's recommendations, and I often read reviews to see what dishes are extra tasty (or not). The Evolution of Search : GoogleHotPot Search is great, and who is the typical suspect in search?  Google.  Google recently launched their HotPot product that could throw a wrench into the current review sites.  I listened to the This Week in Startups podcast with Lior Ron (the product developer of GoogleHotPot) several times.  Lior Ron describes HotPot as the evolution of search, making search personalized and socially relevant - almost like a Netflix or Pandora for places.  I would add that there's an even more social aspect to this type of search.   A different type of community. Even though GoogleHotPot is a search, there are still community components to it.  Google users have friends.  You can share information with your friends and you can read information posted by your friends.  The community is already there, and users are sharing the information with each other which is similar to a social media tool.  Yelp on the other hand, tried to nurture a community by bringing together users to contribute content.  Sure, there is a community, but that community didn't exist without the Yelp platform.  The Yelp community was created after the platform was available.  I view GoogleHotPot as giving a community a tool, and Yelp built a community on a platform.  You can watch/listen to TWIST episode with Lior Ron here. What can GoogleHotPot do for users?    1. You wouldn't have to go to multiple review sites (Yelp, Chow, UrbanSpoon) to see reviews.  GoogleHotPot collects the ratings and shows it to you in a pretty box. 2. You can start to personalize the searches, and thusly improve recommendations.  Every time you rate a place, Google starts to learn what you like and don't like, and thusly adjusting recommendations to you.  I've asked Yelp about this several times to no avail.  I wanted a tool where Yelp would discard reviews from people who did not share the same taste preferences or styles of food as well.  From a data perspective, their ratings and reviews would be ignored by me anyways. 3. You are already in your community.  Since GoogleHotPot is on your Google profile, it is easy to add friends that are already in your email box.  No need to join a new community or to start one.  You already have your community of friends that you can add to your GoogleHotPot.  I have just shy of a quajillion contacts on Google.  I already know these people, and I already communicate with them. What can GoogleHotPot do for businesses? 1. Your business shows up on Google.  They don't adjust or change your rankings, but you get to highlight when you are on Google.  With Yelp, you have to hope that Yelp's SEO will get your Yelp page ranked high on the first page.  And well, Yelp business pages aren't getting as high as they used to.  There were some Yelp business pages that I couldn't find on Google.  However, Yelp talk threads are still highly ranked. Like really highly ranked. 2. Information that Google gives business owners for free: Update your details, phone number, address, hours, photos, or special announcements. Business intelligence and insights via a dashboard. Where are people coming from (physically)? What queries are people searching to find you? Impressions (and mobile impressions) User behavior on your Google Places 3. The ability to add tags to highlight your business when it shows up in Google.  The fee to for the tags is only $25 per month.  That is very affordable, even to small businesses. You add tags to enhance: Photos of your business Videos of your business Coupons for your listing Menu for your restaurant Reservations page for your business Posts for your business Other benefits are: Easily and inexpensively highlight your listing on Google from Google Places. Potential customers in your local area will see what you think is most important or unique about your business. Track the effectiveness of your tag with your Google Places dashboard. There is no additional work or ongoing management is needed. 3. Boost, which is like Google adwords.  I can tell you from experience that the Boost is effective on mobile devices.  I once searched for a business by name, and all the similar businesses who had Boost showed up on my Google Map.  The actual business I was searching did not.  That can be a very practical way for businesses to edge out the competition in the mobile space. What's in the future?    I can't tell you how GoogleHotPot will pan out.  To be honest, Google has had their fair share of failed products like Wave and Buzz.  However, unlike HotPot, Wave and Buzz relied entirely on people to talk to each other using Google tools.  GoogleHotPot is capitalizing on content that already exists.  That might make or break this new product.  After attending the Launch Conference, I also saw that new tools that were quoted to be like the "Netflix of _________."  Whether or not GoogleHotPot takes off, it is pretty obvious that search is evolving.     You might wonder why I've made such a big deal about GoogleHotPot, I kind of love Chinese hot pot.  That's my comfort food, one of them anyways.

Strategy Idea: Activity Based Social Rewards using Location Based Services

Note: I don't work for any of the services mentioned in this post, but Gowalla was a Cupcake Smackdown 2.0 sponsor. 

With thought about how to incorporate more social media tools into Cupcake Smackdown 2.0, I wondered if I could set up social social rewards for attending large events featuring a variety of activities.  Location based is popular these days. FourSquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, Yelp, and now Facebook are all in on it.  I was thrilled that Gowalla sponsored a special event for Cupcake Smackdown 2.0, but what's next for location based services at events? 

Earning a Ride a Caterpillar Activity Badge at Cockrell Butterfly Center.

I wanted to reward people for participating in all the activities via social media, but there was no way to differentiate who did or who didn't participate as everyone checks into one location.  With most location-based mobile applications, the basic function is that a user checks in to a location.  The locations can have a check in range of at least half a mile, so trying to add activities as locations doesn't really work.  They will just be mostly inaccurate.  For events like Cupcake Smackdown 2.0, The Smithsonian, universities, or even Disney's Theme Parks, activity based rewards in location based applications can be useful for engaging visitors in activities, tracking engagement in activities, and an easy way for the user to share the activity with others. 

The Kim Possible Interactive Game at Disney's Epcot is one of the few activities and locations  that is using a similar system (but different technology).  For the Kim Possible Interactive Game, players are equipped with a cell phone and GPS.  They are sent to different locations with a mission (activity) to accomplish.  Once the activities are completed (confirmed via unknown technology), they are sent onto another activity.  Here's some links to write ups about the interactive game:

• Live the Spy Life
• Press Release
• Kim Possible Game
• Secret Agent for a Day
• Kim Possible's World Showcase

Here's two different strategies that can use the same tools in a very different way.  Currently, a user checks into a location by selecting it off a list of nearby locations.  My basic idea for these strategies is that users would check into the locations, and then receive badge, items, or points for completing activities.  For example: I would check into Disneyland (the location), and ride the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster, and then check into the "Buzz Lightyear" activity indicating I completed it.

Activities can currently be added as events to some of the available services, but that doesn't people from checking in even if they didn't complete the activity.  This could easily be remedied by password protecting the activity, and distributing the password to users after said activity.  There are two problems with this method: (1) The password gets out, and anyone can use it as long as they are checked into the location, (2) Some locations will have a plethora of activities.  The The Smithsonian has 18 museum, and a daunting list of exhibits and activities.  Scrolling through a list of 100 activities could be views as a pain.   

If possible, one time use QR codes could be distributed to users post-activity allowing them to "complete the activity" on Gowalla or FourSquare.  They could also be posted at the end of a ride as users are leaving the area.  I'm not sure if there is currently an interface with QR code scanners and the location-based mobile applications, but it would be cool if they did.  It would also let people check in or find secret locations or activities that one cannot find unless they scan in. 

Earning the Navigate a Submarine Activity Badge

Strategy 1:

Create a reward system for users who complete certain activities at a particular location.  This is similar to trips on Gowalla.  An example might be having a Super Scientist badge for users who view 12 of the 24 exhibits (I made up that number) at the American History Museum at The Smithsonian   Another might be to award a Thrill Seeker badge to those who ride all the rides at Disneyland.  Badges and social recognition are important.  I don't need to tell you that.  There are endless posts (like this one and this one) chronicling FourSquare badges.  Don't forget about the use of badges in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

This strategy can also be kicked up by combining it with other similar locations.  For example,  The Smithsonian could partner up with another museum(s) located somewhere else to offer the same type of check in badges.  Users who collect all the badges from specified museums would be rewarded with a big badge, like having a star named for the user.  The target audience for that type of reward does exist, and we want to be Super Scientists.  :o)

Earning the Crawling with Kids Badge at the Smithsonian

Strategy 2:

Show activities to users who check in our your location.  For example, Twin Liquors could show the "Taste X Wine" activity to users who check in frequently.  Disneyland could advertise a secret ride only to users when they have completed certain other rides.  Completing these advertised activities when people check in could earn users a badge. 

This strategy has several advantages. 

• One advantage is that users' friends will see the badge and want one too.  We already touched on the social value of badges.  That's marketing for the business. 
• The second advantage is that there is exclusivity surrounding the activity.  It is only offered to people who check in (or other additional requirements), and people like getting things that are special. 
• The third advantage is the gaming aspect of it.  Like the Kim Possible Interactive Game, fun activities are hidden and must be discovered via clues.  A short game with an activity at the end could easily be embedded into a park or museum.  Augmented reality could also be incorporated to show off new technology.  This engages the users and encourages them to discover new things that might not be related to the game itself. 

Social Media has gone to the dogs!

Social Media has gone to the dogs.  After training, showing, handling, and judging dogs for eight years, social media and dogs have their similarities in concepts and behaviors.  *Note: This post is mostly intended to be humorous.  Don't be too offended.  Also, Happy 8th Birthday to @Mousethedog!

1. Classical conditioning is an old dog training principle.  Classical conditioning is simply the pairing and associating of two things.  In Pavlov's case, his dog associated a bell with dog food which lead to drooling.  Eventually, the dog would begin to drool with sound of the bell even in the absence of food.  In dog training, the trainer should always be in a cheerful mood regardless of what the dog is doing (much easier said than done).  The dog will associate the trainer with cheerfulness and other good things.  If the trainer is always angry and upset, the dog will begin to associate the trainer with angry and upset feelings.  It isn't hard to figure out why some dogs avoid their owners in this case. 

If your Twitter voice and Facebook posts are always unhappy and angry, people will stop following you.  You are a debbie downer, a stick in the mud, an angry cloud on a sunshiny day.  On the other hand, if your Twitter voice and Facebook posts are always cheerful and happy, people might start to associate you with positive emotions, engage with you more, and tend to follow you.  Classically condition people to like you, not to run away from you. 

2. Everyone wants to chew on the new toys until it is broken.  Dogs love to play with new toys until they are un-stuffed and shredded.  Just give a group of dogs a fuzzy stuffed toy and check back in a few weeks to see if you can find the parts of the stuffed toy.  This is the same thing with social media tools.  Today, Twitter is big.  It is so popular that it fail whales frequently.  Everyone wants to play with Twitter, and now we've broken it.  Tweets have gone missing. Twitter search is a joke.  While the Twitter toy has lasted a couple of years so far, how much longer under social media gets a new toy?  Other examples of broken toys include the iphone.  AT&T's network (especially in San Francisco and Austin) just can't support iphone users anymore.  Looks like the HTC Evo 4G is the new toy. 

3. In dog training, like social media, there's not only one single right way to do things (many wrongs as well).  There's countless numbers of dog training methods, and there are also countless numbers of social media strategies and tactics.  Different methods for different dogs.  My big dog doesn't respond well to repetition methods.  He gets bored.  However, my little dog loves doing the same exercise over and over again, especially when she is very confident about her performance.  Different social media strategies for different audiences.  In social media, hard selling or spamming on Twitter usually get you a kick in the pants.  You'll probably also get blocked.  However, hard selling or spamming in the adult website industry probably works considering how many wind up in my spam box. 

4. In dogs, they all want to sniff the newbie's butt.  Who's that new dog at the park?  What's his story? Should I pee on him?  In social media, we all tend to google and search for dirt on new users.  Who's that new blogger?  Has anyone ever met that newbie with only 3 followers?  Before you get started in social media, be sure that you clean up your Facebook and Myspace (may it rest in peace) accounts.  No one needs to find that photo of you doing a keg stand in your sister's bikini and high heels when sniffing your online butt.

5. Dogs breeds were developed with certain innate characteristics over hundreds of years.  Border collies love to chase moving objects.  Daschunds love to dig.  Huskies love to pull.  You can try to train them to not engage in those behaviors, but the dogs like to do what they like to do.  Your audience has innate characteristics.  They like what they like, and you can try to change it, but good luck.  If psychologists knew how to consistently and reliably invoke attitude and behavior change, we would have put an end to drug abuse, unsafe sex practices, and unhealthy eating habits.  We're still working on those. 

6. Motivation.  Dogs wake up in the morning wanting to pee on things, eat cat poop, slobber on the couch, and hump stuffed animals (maybe not in that order).  They are dogs after all, and that's what they are motivated to do.  Users wake up in the morning and look for interesting news, follow new users, and play Farmville.  Face it.  They don't wake up saying, "I would LOVE to spend my time writing a blog post about your product!"  Dogs have different motivations than their handlers.  Consumers have different motivations than businesses.  While your business might have fans who like your products, they aren't as motivated as you are to stay afloat. 

7. Be genuine.  Dogs can smell a fake from a mile away.  They can read your body language much better than humans can.  Users can also smell a fake on social media as well.  You can't put up a fake front for long.  We'll call you out!

8. Dog training and social media never ends.  I get asked frequently how long it took to train my dogs.  My reply is, "It never ends."  The notion that one can take a dog through few obedience courses and get a well-behaved dog is pretty far from the truth.  Training a dog happens is a never ending process, especially if they are trained for performance activities.  Training lasts a lifetime.  Successful social media also never ends.  I've been asked "How long do we have to use Twitter? When do we are we finished with social media?"  The answer is: Unless your business or your internet presence ceases to exists, social media should not end.  Social media tools may come and go, but hopefully the social part never ends. 

The Age of Entitlement in Social Media

Disclaimer: The Age of Entitlement attitude is not limited to age, nor do all Generation Y-ers have that attitude.

Generation Y, those babies born in the 80′s and 90′s, have been dubbed the Generation of Entitlement.  There is a plethora of articles from business journals to psychology magazines describing the typical attitude of Generation Y-ers.  Early in my teaching career, seminars on how to deal with this type of attitude and expectations were common, even at major universities.  We were warned that these generation of students were demanding.  They wanted exams grades posted within hours of the exam.  They wanted credit for effort, regardless of mastery or completion.  The phrase “But I tried….” was fairly typical.

The first lecture class of 250 freshmen I taught was likely the poster children of this attitude.  While that class was soon under control with a reality check, I decided that there had to be a serious culture setting procedure right from the beginning.  I use old school teaching methods where I set expectations high, keep my grading scale difficult, and ban all misbehaviors from my classroom.  Any student that has an unpleasant attitude is asked to leave, forever.  I also show Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture video, and I insist that all my students perform as well as his students did.  Needless to say, by the end of the semester, the generation of entitlement is turned into the generation of hard work and gratitude.

There’s no attitude switch for the Generation Y-ers when they enter social media.  The attitude of give me, credit me, and make me feel special persists everyday on social media.  It doesn’t take long to see someone on Twitter complaining about what they should have gotten.  Just show up late to a party advertising free food and free drink.  You’ll hear the Generation Y-ers complaining about how they didn’t get any free food or free drink that they deserved.  Some businesses have reported hearing the “I’m a Yelper so you should give me free food/drink.”  Sadly, that’s not unheard of from unscrupulous bloggers as well.

It isn’t any secret that I was a born in the 80′s.  I’m technically a Generation Y baby, and I’m embarrassed about the attitudes and behaviors of my generation.  Some people assumed that I was given things like my house.  Sorry, I bought my house when I was 21 by saving up all that I had earned as being a nanny.  I could afford to invest in my hobbies because I worked many hours during my early years of graduate school.  Now that I started my own business, I get emails and phone calls from people asking me how I did it.  The short answer is, “I worked hard.”  Fortunately, my doctorate is in social psychology so I had a knowledge base that translates easily into marketing and social media.  But most importantly, I worked hard to build up my skill sets and to build relationships that now support my business.

I very happy to help others get started in social media.  On the other hand, I’ve been contacted by many generation y-ers about social media and food blogging.  Most recently, someone who had only been on Twitter for two months was now wanting to start working as a social media consultant.  This person was straight out of college with no work experience to boot.  I was speechless.  Had Generation Y babies completely forgotten about hard work, learning from mentors, and earning a reputation?  Did they not realize that many successful people worked their way up?  Gary Vaynerchuck is living it up now, but he started from a basement, literally.  Rachel Ray is highly successful now, and she started making only $50 per show.

So what can you do if you’re a business that faces the Age of Entitlement regularly?  I’d advise that you set a strict policy on how to deal with the most common challenges you have.  If your business regularly gets people asking for free product because they are active in social media, implement a policy on how to handle those requests.  Hint: A complicated policy requiring those people to send you samples of their writing and/or detail the impact their strategies have on your type of business usually sends them on their merry way.

If you’ve got that Entitlement attitude, don’t be hurt.  Just be prepared to work hard.  If you fail, just try again.  If you have a passion for something, look for a mentor to help you cultivate that passion.  Show gratitude.  Thank people for their time.  Thank people for helping you.  Open your ears to criticism.  You can’t improve if you don’t know where you need it.  Look for communities in which a hardworking attitude is required and rewarded. This Week in Startups is one I highly recommend. @Jason is the complete opposite of a Generation Y-er.  If you haven’t watched Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, this is the time to do it.

Why I South by

SXSW is a monstrosity of an event, and I love it for many reasons.  For people who love the crowded parties jammed packed full of awesome people, SXSWi is where to be.  People (yes, you) are the reason why I go to SXSW events.  You might have noticed that I’m a relationship oriented person.  My personal philosophy is that social media isn’t about the user, but everyone else.  Social media isn’t social unless you have relationships.  That’s why I go: to meet you.  To give you a handshake or hug, and to turn our online pinging into an offline relationship.

I’m very sad that I will be out of pocket for Friday and Saturday of SXSW.  Instead, I’ll be wearing a lilac dress, really tall high heels, and holding a bouquet of roses.  Anyone want to trade places?  )   If you do see me running around Austin, don’t be afraid to jump in and say “Hi!”  I’m always thrilled to meet new people.
Here’s a short list of events that I would have loved to attend or am attending:

Techmunch

NomX3 with Peter Cashmore

NomX3 Buzz Out Loud

Texas Social Media Awards Party

The Yelp Effect:  When Everyone’s a Critic

Rise Austin Session: Hacking online Communities - Yelp for Business Owners

We've heard all about the website Yelp.  Some people love it, and some people hate it.  Some people feel that their policies are unfair to business owners and that business owners are powerless to reviews.  Don't fret.  Don't get angry.  Do get proactive, and do learn how to manage your business owner's account to turn sour reviewers into happy customers.  On Tuesday, March 3rd, I'll be giving a presentation on Rise Austin to show you how to navigate and understand the ins and outs of Yelp policies and how to understand the Yelp community.  I'll also show you several small Austin businesses that used Yelp to drum up business (without paying $300 per month). Click here to register. 

And the biggest question on your mind now: Since Yelp is being sued, will it go away?  My personal opinion is "No, Yelp is not going away."  The amount of traffic on Yelp is staggering compared to other similar websites.   Yelp was offered $500 million dollars by Google.  Yelp has spurred many angry articles in the past about their policies.  None of those things have made any impact on Yelp as they are continuing to grow bigger and bigger.  Yelp isn't going away, in fact business pages on Yelp are often very close to the top when searching for a business on Google.  If a business doesn't have a website and adequate SEO skills, you can guarantee that their Yelp page will be the first link up on Google. 

What can you do?  You can ignore Yelp.  Some businesses thrive regardless what reviewers write about them.  On the other hand, you can use Yelp, a website with roughly 8.5 million visitors daily, as a marketing tool.  For Free.  If you can't make it to the session, here's a sneak peak into one of the topics I'll be covering.  I'm also available at jennie@misohungrynow.com or 512-981-7627.

Rule 1: Do NOT ask for reviews.  This is in fine print on the Yelp for Business Owners page here.  It really should be in bold and in all caps.  Do not ask customers for reviews.  Do not ask friends to review.  Do not ask family to review.  Anytime a business starts to get many positive reviews from people who aren't obviously part of the community, things look suspicious.  These newbies are often referred to as 0/1 as in zero friends and only one review.  There's nothing against newbies as everyone starts somewhere, but it does look suspicious when as business gets nothing but newbie reviews.  There an entire thread on Yelp dedicated to outing suspsicous looking activity on reviews also called shill reviews.  This type of behavior only creates anger and distrust in the community, and even casual Yelp users recognize the behavior easily.  Urban, an American Grill took it to a new level by having employees write shill reviews even before the restaurant opened.  Yep, it is pretty easy to see that they have literally shot themselves in the foot.  I'll be displaying the reviews written by the employees and of the Yelp community at the Rise presentation.  They have been taken down by Yelp Admin for the time being. 

You might ask, "But I'm referring users to Yelp when I ask people to write reviews for my business."  Yelp gets about 8.5 million visits a day.  They probably don't care if you referred 100 users a day to their website; they don't really need word of mouth advertising.  However, the community does care that your reviews (even though your friends and customers have good intentions) look like shill reviews.  If your friends and family do review you, it should be disclosed within the review.  With social media being a huge part of our lives, you can't hide your friends and family anymore.  It is better to be upfront rather than the being outed on the master debater business flogging thread. 

Also, here's a few other interesting characteristics about the Yelp community.  They love dogs and support almost every single event or cause for dogs.  If you have a dog business, you are pretty much welcomed with open arms.  They love supporting local businesses.  Most are internet savvy and educated.  While there are always a few angry and unsocial-able people in every community, Yelp users are generally very friendly and outgoing.  Many business owners are also have individual accounts on Yelp, and they are also active in the community. 

To register for the full presentation on March 2nd, click here: http://www.riseaustin.org/hacking-online-cultures-offline-behaviors-how-turn-negative-feedback-cheerleaders   For more information: jennie@misohungrynow.com or 512-981-7627.

Online Cultures and Offline Behaviors - the entire thing

Here's the entire Online Culture, Offline Media article.  Again I would like to thank Chris Lamprecht for consulting on the history of online culture. A very big thank you to John Knox, Michelle Cheng, Armando Rayo, Jillian A. Lee-Wiggins, Ricardo Guerrero, and Chris Apollo Lynn for their valuable comments and insight on this article. Also, big thanks to Natanya Anderson, Oscar Davila, Tolly Moseley, and David Neff for their support.

 

Part 1 - Abstract and History of Online Culture

Abstract and Background

The integration of online lives and offline lives is a relatively new mainstream concept.  With a growing number of the population now joining social networking sites, online and offline culture have been mish-mashed haphazardly with rough guidelines on etiquette and behavior.  Because the social constructs of online lives are different than those offline, I felt that an article covering the social aspects of online behavior and offline behavior and the creation of online culture was much needed.  It seems that many people behave online as if they were anonymous even though they are not.  This article will discuss some of the psychological aspects of why people engage in socially unacceptable behavior and how the culture of that behavior is created.  I'll lead into a section on the societal impacts of social media, some quantitative data on social media, and then onto a discussion of etiquette. 

A little background about me: I'm trained as a social psychologist, and my research area is behavioral neuroendocrinology in social relationships.  In short, I study how hormones might affect behavior, and how behavior might affect hormone release.  Relationships, largely romantic ones, are the context in which I study hormones and social behavior.  You might notice relationships as an overarching theme in this article.  This article is not meant to focus on how to use social media (though the topic is lightly discussed); rather this article aims to explain the constructs of behavior when combining offline and online culture.  In other words, the purpose is to discuss human behavior online and offline.

Brief History of online cultures and early online microcultures.
The Evolution of Culture is a long and drawn out process.  Theorists have debated exactly what culture is, how it arises, how it evolves, and how it is transmitted.  Not by Genes Alone, How Culture Transformed Human Evolution by Richerson and Boyd, is a great book for some insight on these topics since there won't be debating here.  Culture can have several meanings, including (from Wikipedia) 1) High culture - sophisticated taste in fine arts or humanities. 2) an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning or 3) the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.  For purposes of this article, I'll be focusing only on the third definition of the word culture.

Before Myspace, Facebook, or other social networking sites became popular, online culture was relatively undefined and used by a rather narrow group of people.  In other words, it was not mainstream or widely used.  One of the first methods of online real-time communication was "Internet Relay Chat", or IRC, which people often accessed from university-provided UNIX accounts. UNIX accounts also provided a "finger" command, which showed you basic information about another user -- an online "profile" of sorts.  It had information such as name, email address, and a ".plan" file which the user could fill with any information they chose.  The information was neither required nor validated.  These online personas could be entirely anonymous, and easily kept that way.  While people did meet each other in person after contact via IRC, meeting people in person after only online communication was much less common than it is today.  The taboo of meeting someone online was that it was "weird" or that people only met online because they had personality issues or something of that nature (completely untrue, might I add).  The demographic of people using IRC was a very narrow group of people who were interested in using computers as a communication device and had the skills to use the IRC program.  It is difficult to say how many people were communicating via the Internet in that fashion, and many have abandoned that mode in favor of more popular modes such as ICQ, AIM, or Googletalk.  Chat programs are now extremely popular for everything from providing online customer support to chatting between friends on social networking sites.

Another popular form of online communication is Internet forums.  Before the World Wide Web, the earliest forums on the Internet were Usenet newsgroups.  As the World Wide Web became more mainstream, Web-based message forums became a popular medium for online communities.  Internet message forums are typically focused on a certain hobby or recreational activity.  Through my own hobbies, I joined many of these online communities.  Most of the organizations I joined over the years were nationwide with members scattered across the country.  The mode of communication and conduct of business was mostly online via Yahoo groups (which can be public or private depending on the group's needs) or listservs (email mailing lists) and moderated forums.  These groups were comprised of people who were highly invested into the particular hobby or activity, but who were not necessarily computer savvy.  While one could choose to be anonymous within these groups, it was mostly impossible to do so, as people would eventually meet you at shows, trials, clinics, or other events surrounding the hobby.  Joining these national clubs which existed mostly on the Internet was my first encounter with an online culture where members were expected to meet in person.

Whereas, the central focus of Internet forums is the content of the messages themselves; more modern social networking Web sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter have shifted much of the emphasis to the user's profile and identity.  Most of these social networking sites discourage anonymous profiles.  Indeed, most people create profiles on these sites using their true identities.  Similarly, fraudulent Wikipedia personas are also frowned upon.  It is now common practice for employers to check up on a potential employee's Facebook or Myspace profile.  Also, bachelors and bachelorettes should consider cleaning up their social media personas as it is now routine to check up on potential dates prior to agreeing to a date.  One social psychology study even shows that people are assessing personality from just a single photo.

In summary, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and message forums were one of the early modes of online communications with anonymous users.  There was no expectation that the users would ever meet in person.  Later, some groups and organizations used the Internet as their primary mode of communication, and meeting users in person was a by-product of attending club events.  Nowadays, the norm of modern social media tools and websites is that profiles disclose a person's true identity, and meeting up with other users in person is no longer considered taboo or "weird".   Websites like Meetup.com or Twtvite.com are examples of websites created to facilitate offline meetings of online communities.
Part 2 - Establishing Culture

Establishing Cultures and Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
How culture is established is a multifaceted and deeply involved process.  Some factors in establishing culture include the speed at which cultural norms are set, whether there is a clear leader or dissenter, and how outside visitors view the culture.  There have not been empirical studies on establishing microcultures to my knowledge, but in many social psychology studies, microcultures are indeed established for the duration of the experiment.  One well-known study that investigated the creation of micro-culture is the Stanford Prison Study by Phillip Zimbardo.  While this study uncovered many unknown aspects and phenomena about the human psyche, it was also an extreme example of culture creation.  Twenty-four male students were recruited to participate in a study in which half the participants were to be guards and the other half were to be prisoners in a makeshift prison.  Using a variety of methods including the factors previously listed, the indoctrination into this simulated culture was so harsh and so disturbingly easy that the study was ended after only six days.  If you haven't been exposed to the Stanford Prison Experiment, please do check out the website and think of the implications the study has in many real world situations.  It is incredibly easy for anyone to fall into the role of a prisoner or guard in their personal relationships, work places, or government.

For this next section, I do not have references or empirical studies to cite.  Many of the following situations are anecdotal, and I'm open to other interpretations.  Here are some examples of how I've set rules in a microculture, and a link to how to nurture an online community.

Example A. As a biological specimen collector for the Texas Attorney General's Office (think CSI), I've had to work with many children, most of whom are pitching a fit and crying.  When the children get to me, I tell them directly in an assertive yet calm tone, "There's no crying allowed here."  I do this with lots of children between the ages of six months old to five years old, and the method has a 95% success rate.  Many parents stare in awe and ask, "How did you do that?"  Simple.  I established the rules for my laboratory, and the children followed.

Example B. One of my hobbies is dog training, handling, showing, and judging.  Along the way, I'm often approached for advice by dog owners who do not set specific rules and boundaries for their furry loved ones.  Dogs have very different social structures than humans.  Giving dogs free reign and no rules usually leads to dogs who misbehave in a variety of ways including: jumping on people, gnawing on people, ignoring people, running away, refusing to obey commands, growling at people, challenging or fighting with other dogs, getting food whenever the dog wants, or food aggression.  When people ask me for help with these issues, I immediately point them to the Nothing in Life is Free program and the Umbilical Training Method.  These programs and other variations are quick and easy methods to teach dogs rules and reinforce desirable or undesirable behaviors.  Simply, the dog must offer desirable behaviors prior to receiving food or attention.  It is the owners who should demand and get the attention, and not the other way around.  Many dog owners assume that dogs should behave in the fashion that we desire, but they are dogs and do things that dogs enjoy.

Example C. Every semester that I teach a new class, I establish a microculture in my classroom.  I learned the hard way that if rules are not explicitly set at the very beginning of class, the entire semester could be a disaster.  My first solo teaching experience: I was given two weeks notice that I was teaching an Introductory Psychology course to 250 students.  Needless to say, I was not prepared nor did I expect college freshmen to behave so immaturely.  Since I am of small stature, female, and appeared young, it contributed to the problem.  It is commonly known that these are the three factors that are most correlated to classroom management issues.  Students would stroll in late, they would talk on their cell phones during class, and they would protest assignments and exams.  I did recognize the problem early on, consulted with my teaching mentors, Dr. Ludy Benjamin and Dr. Stephen Balfour, and got my class whipped into shape by mid-semester.  Other graduate students who came to my class described my students as polite, quiet, well-behaved, and almost like a military troop.  A colleague also taught the same course, but she did not instill any rules.  The misbehaviors in her class grew over the semester.  Asking the department head to sit in on her class only exacerbated the problem.  One student yelled obscenities at her during lecture, and neither the department head nor the lecturer addressed the issue.  In the mind of the students, if the department head thought it was okay to be obnoxious and rude, then it certainly was acceptable classroom behavior.  In conclusion, I now spend the entire class period the first day of class in every single class establishing the cultural norms of my microculture, and then we spend a day watching The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.  If you haven't watched the lecture (available on googlevideos or youtube), stop reading this article and watch it now. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture is one of the most motivating and useful lectures that is a must watch for both educators and students alike.  Randy Pausch's lecture is a guide to how to live your life, how to nurture your relationships, and how to achieve your dreams.  The purpose of watching the video is to establish expectations and classroom culture.  Randy Pausch is not only a great lecturer, he's also models classroom behavior the way I would like.

Part 3 - Social Psychology and Online Communities

There are several social psychology concepts that can shed light on human behavior online as well as raise additional questions.  Michelle Greer wrote this insightful article that is related to the first concept I'll discuss.  On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog.  You are deindividualized until you choose to disclose your identity, which is fairly common practice.  However, even when identities are disclosed, people still behave in ways that they wouldn't in person because they feel like nobody knows their identity.  When people are deindividualized with masks or within a mob, they do things that they normally wouldn't.  The example I use in teaching is the Ku Klux Klan.  Do you think that KKK members would engage in the behaviors (many illegal and horrific) that they do without wearing those masks?  I think not.  With the rapid growth of social media, remaining anonymous on the internet is incredibly difficult.  Once information is on the Internet, it's always on the Internet.  Users can be found, for better or worse.  So, unless you intend to live in hiding for the rest of your life, be mindful with what you post online.  You are an identifiable individual.

Many social networks employ some method of dialogue.  Facebook has walls and comments.  Twitter has @replies so you can follow conversations.  Many blogs allow comments on postings.  Fred Wilson's Blog has so many regular readers that they have their own microculture.  Even Yelp has talk threads.  With these methods of communication, we can see a series of social psychology concepts in play.  Humans are subject to confirmation bias, which is the tendency to only seek information that conforms to our beliefs.  We tend to disregard information that isn't consistent with our own attitudes, and we have a very difficult time being objective.  This is a concept we should keep in mind when engaging in social media and doing research or polling people on the Internet.  It leads us to search for articles we want to find, and leads us to discount information we just don't want to see.

Following that same vein, there is no hard data on what is exactly going on in social media.  There is a plethora of quantitative data on how many views a page or post receives and from where the traffic originated, but there is no data on how content is perceived.  Little to no accurate or complete qualitative data exists.  Comments on wall posts or blog posts are qualitative, but it represents a very small portion of the readers.  There is no data on how the other users who chose not to comment actually feel about the post.  So while there is data on the number of viewers and when they viewed, there is little indication of their reaction to online content.  This is where cultures can sour a bit.  Austin Yelp Talk threads used to be filled with light-hearted banter and fun topics.  Over time, a few users became snarky, rude, condescending.  Some believed that if you ignored those users (often called trolls), they would go away.  That is a very common technique in dog training using operant conditioning , i.e. not rewarding unwanted behaviors.  However, the other issue is that if those users repeatedly violated the "be cool" guidelines in the terms of service without any one calling them out, then saying nothing is in some sense establishing that behavior as the norm.  While users can flag rude and snarky posts for removal, most Austin Yelp users simply quit using the talk threads because the culture had changed.

One might think that people would be unlikely to conform to behavior just because they observed it on the Internet or in person.  The popular opinion is that humans are free from influence when it comes to making their own decisions or controlling their own behaviors.  Nothing could be further than the truth.  Many social psychology studies show that when the situation is ambiguous, people look to others and model other people's behaviors.  Even in situations where a norm is already established, others behaving in another fashion can entice people to change their own behaviors (watch the video, it's hilarious).  This may explain how a faux pas might become the norm for behavior.

One issue that doesn't have a name yet and has not been empirically studied is users' feelings after posting something on the Internet.  It appears that there is a certain sense of self-worth or accomplishment  because one's own opinion is posted on the Internet.  The user feels that because he or she has a right to post things online, his or her opinion is valued, trusted, or even validated.  While I highly value my Freedom of Speech, I do not think that just because certain information can be posted that it should be posted or that it is correct.  My personal rule of thumb is: If I won't say it to someone's face, I shouldn't post it online.

Part 4 - The Importance of Social Media and Social Media as Advertising

The Importance of Social Media in our society
The importance of social media is quickly growing; some cities have developed online community newspapers. Social media and online cultures do matter.  Online communication is just one medium in which to transmit information, exchange ideas, and meet people.  Here are some stories of how social media has affected something offline, both positively and negatively.

Case 1. Rock Art Brewery was sent a cease and desist by Monster (the billion-dollar energy drink company), over a Rock Art beer called Vermonster.  To make an incredibly long story short, fans of Rock Art Brewery united on blogs and Twitter urging people to boycott Monster products.  Hashtags ranging from #boycottmonster to #savethevermonster flooded my Twitter feed.  Even non-beer drinkers saw the inequity of the situation and pledged their support for Rock Art Brewery.  Just check out all the blog posts listed here. Those blog posts went up in just a matter of days after the word had gotten out.  Eventually, Monster backed off, and Rock Art Brewery was able to continue selling their Vermonster free of harassment.

Case 2. As I was watching CNN at the gym, Josh Levs was doing a segment about using social media to find missing children.  He showed this Facebook fan page called Missing Children, Let's find Them.  Imagine an entire city being alerted to a missing child via radio, television, news articles, Facebook, and Twitter.  Finding missing kids would be so much faster and more efficient.  If you know anything about missing children, the length of time they've been missing is highly correlated to the likelihood that the child is no longer alive.  Time is critical in these cases.  This is only one way that social media can be beneficial to society.

Case 3. Postsecret.com is a very popular blog filled with secrets submitted on a post card.  While the submitters of the post cards are anonymous, the idea that someone can disclose deep and disturbing secrets has spawn into what amounts to an emotional support group.  Click on any of the comments and you'll see evidence of an online community within Postsecret.com. One reader's email on how she decided to not commit suicide was posted for a very long time on PostSecret.com.  Sometimes, we all just need someone to listen to us. 
Case 4. This story isn't about triumph or useful ways that social media can be used; this story is one of how social media can have powerful effects.  You might remember in late 2007, a young girl committed suicide after receiving messages from a fictitious myspace friend.  The lesson that we should all learn from this story is that social media, though online, is powerful.  It can create strong friendships, and it can also hurt others to the point of committing suicide.  Please use social media carefully.  Stop Cyberbullying.

Social Media as a means of advertising

Now that we have established that social media is a mainstream mode of communication, let's look at what it means to advertise via social media.  Research (non-academic to my knowledge) has shown that people are more likely to believe word of mouth marketing (the recommendation of their friends on products) rather than traditional advertising.  The issue with this type of advertising is that - contrary to popular belief - some of the mouths doing the advertising are being paid by the companies for said advertising.  I personally feel that this behavior is misleading because the information is no longer coming from an unbiased source.  If you haven't already seen it, the Federal Trade Commission has just released guidelines on blogging.  It is common for bloggers to receive complimentary items, but there are some bloggers that are also paid for posts, tweets, or other forms of advertising.  In the food blogging world, there are marketing blogs that are set up to appear as if they were food blogs.  I feel that everything should be disclosed, allowing the consumer to decide who they want to believe.  Here are some links for reading. 

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/publishing/an_open_letter_to_the_ftc_139297.asp


http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/08/taking_liberties/entry5372890.shtml

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1331-Quick-Query-Attorney-Explains-New-FTC-Blogging-Guidelines

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/05/ftc-values-sponsored-conversations-at-11000-apiece/

http://www.blogwithintegrity.com/

http://www.blogher.com/new-ftc-guidelines-and-what-they-mean-you

Part 5 - Social Media's Growing Numbers

And because I love numbers, here are some links to interesting articles with numbers.  The theme for these articles is that social media is a big deal, and the numbers of users is growing. 

http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/ - This site contains a plethora of data on bloggers and the state of the blogosphere.

http://econsultancy.com/blog/5324-20+-mind-blowing-social-media-statistics-revisited - Mind-blowing social media stats

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/10/is-blog-reading-mainstream.html - Fred Wilson writes that blogs are becoming main stream.  Out with the old media, in with the new. 

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/10/the-blog-where-everybody-knows-your-name.html - Fred Wilson has a microculture on his blog. Nice.

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/10/the-cohort-analysis.html - I love numbers. I love graphs.  Here's some data on co-hort analysis.   

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/05/twitter-data-analysis-an-investors-perspective/ - More Twitter data

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/17/is-twitter-the-cnn-of-the-new-media-generation/ - Information travels fast via Twitter.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/11/can-the-statusphere-save-journalism/ - Old media evolving to stay alive.

http://thepowerofinfluence.typepad.com/the_power_of_influence/2009/02/11-of-adult-americans-twitter.html - Who's on twitter?

http://www.oldmedianewtricks.com/ - In old media?  Here's how to evolve.

http://ow.ly/B13I - Three new social media articles worth a read
Part 6 - How to Nurture Relationships Online and Offline

From the Whuffie Bank to RoadTwip, there's no shortage of advice on how to build social networks.  Here's a link to Gary Vaynerchuk’s five commandments of social networking with many more following below.  However, articles about how to translate those social networks into in personal relationships aren't common.  Additionally, what you see online is not necessarily what you'll see in person.  There a many people who have high Whuffie balances, but they don't have many positive connections offline.  And there are many people who are great influencers person, but rarely use social media or have low Whuffie balances.  Here's one link to a guide on how to attend a tweet-up, how to say thank you on the internet, and here are a few of my tips.

1. If you are the organizer of a big event, show up, and deliver.  There's nothing worse than going to a meet up, and not having a meet up. It wastes the time of many people.

2. Give more than you can take, online and in person.  Reach out in some other way besides the Internet.  Perhaps someone on Twitter recommends you to a client which brings you very profitable business.  It would not be out of the ordinary to send that person a thank you plant or a dozen cookies, provided you know that person's work address.  You might even invite that person to lunch.  When I was the Ways and Means chair for one of my national clubs, I learned that a person who recently placed an order had a death in the family.  I did not know that person outside of filling the order, but I sent the family a sympathy card in the regular postal mail.  Few things in life are worse than losing a loved one, and I'm a big proponent of oxytocin and social support.  From that, we began to communicate more and more often.  Less than a year later, the family, who lived on the other side of the country (Austin, TX to Washington, DC) met me in person for the first time while I was in DC, and presented me with a very valuable and large gift that both my dog and I love.  This example shows that a stamp and a card could turn into a wonderful long distance relationship.

3. Follow up with people online and in person.  Social networking isn't about making many "single serving friends."  I try to always "reply" to every single person who "replies" to me on Twitter in a positive fashion, no matter what they say.  It fosters conversation because my followers learn that I consistently respond positively.  If you want to show people that you're likable, what better way than to have them associate you with positive feedback?

4. One of my favorite business Twitter accounts is @FSAustin - for the Four Seasons and Trio in Austin, TX.  The hotel and restaurant's phenomenal service shines through on their Twitter account as well.  @FSAustin's tweets are useful, full of local tips, upbeat and happy, and very timely.  They don't tweet too often, yet they are always there when you "at reply" or "mention" @FSAustin or direct message them.  Not only do they reply to people frequently online, they are the very same way offline.  Their Twitter managers always make it a point to greet me if they see me in the hotel or even out and about town.  All staff members, including the general manager, wait staff, masseuses, and even the valet drivers, are always smiling, and very receptive of any concerns, online and in person.  They are a great example of a business that builds strong relationships with their customers online and in person.

Twitter and Blogging Etiquette

There is no shortage of posts and articles outlining Facebook, Twitter and blogging etiquette.  However, I haven't found any articles that are dedicated to outlining behaviors online and offline.  Here are some useful links on twitter and blogging etiquette.  My personal opinion in the next part will not outline the issues already discussed in the following links.

http://www.scarymommy.com/twitter-etiquette/

http://www.macworld.com/article/141983/2009/08/twitteretiquette.html

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/the_thoughtful_user_guide/writing_my_twitter_etiquette_article_14_ways_to_use_twitter_politely.php

http://www.dontdrinkthekoolaidblog.com/twitterquette-twitter-ettiquette/
http://foodmaven.blogspot.com/2007/03/food-blog-etiquette.html


http://foodblogalliance.com/etiquette/


http://www.bongcookbook.com/2009/06/blog-etiquette-and-eaitng-in-nyc.html


http://www.dontdrinkthekoolaidblog.com/twitterquette-twitter-ettiquette/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iROYzrm5SBM


http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/11/06/gary-vs-social-media-rules/


http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/the-world/article/twitter-cluelessness-guy-kawasaki
Part 7 - Online Manners

Here are some of my personal tips concerning online and offline behavior.
1. Accepting complimentary food and drinks from a restaurant is fairly common for a variety of reasons including birthdays, replacing another dish, extra long wait times, etc.  However, I personally feel that one should never ask for complimentary food simply because he or she blogs or tweets.  Stating "I am a blogger, writer, reviewer, and therefore I want free food and drink" is in poor form.  Tweeting that you should receive free food, drinks, and other goods is just wrong in my opinion.  This is how some restaurant owners might feel about asking for free food and drinks.  Anyone can write a blog on the Internet.  Having a blog doesn't make a person special or deserving of complimentary treatment.  If you are respected and known for your writing and your opinions, the staff will recognize you and compensate you as they please.  Keep in mind that individuals who are well-known for their influence in media all started out somewhere.  Most of them pay for their meals despite what the public might think. 


2. When posting reviews or information online, be thoughtful and careful, whether the information is positive or negative.  Remember, telling your friends that you had a bad experience is not the same as posting it online.  Everyone can read it online, which can hurt feelings or make business owners very angry.  My personal rule of thumb is that I will let the restaurant know that I am having a poor experience while I'm there.  If the restaurant tries to fix the problem, I'm happy with that.  If the restaurant doesn't try to fix the situation, I feel that it is fair for me to post my experience if I decide to post at all.  Before I post a negative review, I have several people proof read it to make sure that the post is fair and the restaurant had adequate opportunities to fix the issues.  If the experience was positive, I will focus on the positive points and mention the minor issues if there were any.  If I thought the food was mediocre, I don't post that it was fabulous.  Accurately conveying my experiences is important to me.  Writing that every single restaurant was just a fantastic five star experience might cause others to start questioning my integrity, sense of smell, and taste buds.


3. Promoting events should be given careful thought.  If the event clearly requires an RSVP or tickets, it is to everyone's advantage to make that blatantly clear.  No one wants to show up to an event to discover that tickets cost a small fortune or that it is not open to non-members.  If you would like to attend an event out of your price range, you might volunteer at the event, which frequently comes with perks.  Check out my navigating food festivals post.


On the other hand, businesses often host free events to celebrate with their customers and to bring in new customers.  I'm not in the market to buy a new or expensive vehicle.  If a local Porsche dealership is throwing a party to celebrate a new model, I'm probably not going to attend.  The effort and funds that the Porsche dealership is investing into the party isn't targeted for non-customers.  Be mindful of businesses before advertising all events as free and open to the public.  The party may be free for attendees, but  the business is the one footing the bill.  I ask business owners first if it is okay to promote their event on my blog or twitter.  Also, keep in mind that free food and drinks brings out everyone in town.  Free food and drink events will be crowded and busy.  Enjoying a free party is a privilege, not a right.  Don't get angry if you happen to miss the free food and drink.  If you are vending at an event, it is to everyone's benefit to ask how the event will be advertised, how many people the organizers are expecting, and how tickets for the event will be distributed. Dos Equis learned this the hard way.


4. Burning bridges when you might need them the most.  Online communities are just as real as offline communities.  If you own an Italian restaurant, it would be wise to be friends with other Italian restaurant owners.  I'm not saying that you should be best buds and spend every waking moment together.  But you ought not write unflattering things about them online.  I once tweeted a positive comment about a yogurt shop I frequented.  30 seconds later, a gelato shop tweeted how yogurt in general was a terrible product.  I was put off by the gelato shop's behavior, and I don't intend on patronizing a business with such an attitude. 


5. If you have socially unacceptable attitudes, you shouldn't broadcast them.  It's 2009, but there are still racists, sexists, and mean people in this world.  Those attitudes are socially unacceptable, and if you choose to post them publicly, you might not have many friends.  Two local DJs made that mistake, and there has been quite the buzz about it.  I'm not going to debate whether what was said was actually intended to be a racial comment.  Regardless, some listeners were offended.  I feel that I can pull a Delfina's pizza stunt in which the employees wore their negative reviews on a shirt, and I'm going to link to a racially insensitive post written about myself.  Since it is about me, I won't be hurting anyone else's feelings by using it.  I'd also like to mention that I am Asian, and the writer's husband also proceeded to make sexual arm gestures and hip gyrating moves during the interaction.  The two local DJs and the author of the blog post have committed a serious social blunder. 


6. Somethings are better kept private.  Posting personal information online might violate someone's trust in you, exploit someone's privacy, make others feel uncomfortable, tip off authorities and lead to your arrest (it's funny, just read it), or create problems in the work place.  In browsing through the previous blog when adding it to this article as an example, I found the content to be quite inappropriate in social media.  There are support groups for depression and other mental illnesses.  Posting information about personal marriage problems, drug dependency, depression, and post traumatic stress disorder along with identifying photos and information is not a good idea.  This would make online and offline interactions with either person in this couple awkward to say the least.  I feel awkward reading it.  Social media outlets should not be used as a support group.  It is better to find a support group that also uses social media for healing.  There are also websites like FmyLife and PostSecret to vent those private feelings.

7. It is perfectly normal and accepted to disagree with others online.  However, disagreements can be handled with tact.  Unless you do want some major attention, fighting online probably isn't a good idea.  Fighting in offline doesn't accomplish much either. 


Also, please read this post written by another Austinite (not related to my incident either).  Tweeps, don't be mean.  Twitter users are real people with real feelings.  Now that online interactions intersect with real lives, think twice before hitting send.  



Part 8 - References and Acknowledgments


I would like to thank Chris Lamprecht for consulting on the history of online culture. A very big thank you to John Knox, Michelle Cheng, Armando Rayo, Jillian A. Lee-Wiggins, Ricardo Guerrero, and Chris Apollo Lynn for their valuable comments and insight on this article. Also, big thanks to Natanya Anderson, Oscar Davila, Tolly Moseley, and David Neff for their support.

How to live your life, Lessons from Randy Pausch - http://www.thelastlecture.com/


How to build and online community - http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/17758.imc

Newsgroups - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_newsgroup

Twitter and Human Evolution - http://www.stuckincustoms.com/2009/04/30/twitter-and-human-evolution/

How to say Thank You on the internet: http://blog.steffanantonas.com/how-to-say-thank-you-on-the-social-web.htm

Less online, more offline - http://www.bulldogsolutions.com/marketing-resources/blog/power-down-and-meet-using-online-social-communities-create-real-life-intera
What not to blog - http://thesimplypeachy.com/

Keeping your bodily functions off the Internet - http://twitter.com/BeerWhore/status/4407342941

The Whuffie Bank - http://www.thewhuffiebank.org/

First impressions on the Internet - http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/11/10/making-a-digital-first-impression-why-you-can-t-fake-your-facebook-profile.aspx

Tweeters, mean people suck -http://www.phenixpublicity.com/blog/2009/10/26/oh-goodness-tweeps-i-have-a-bone-to-pick.html

Wearing criticisms with pride 1 - http://www.7x7.com/blogs/bits-bites/yelp-tee-almost-more-brilliant-pizzeria-delfinas-pizza

Wearing criticisms with pride 2 -http://consumerist.com/5164533/pizzeria-employees-wear-t+shirts-with-quotes-from-nasty-yelp-reviews

Destroying business relationships - http://ibleedpnk.blogspot.com/2009/10/wtf.html


What's a single serving friend? - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=single-serving+friend

RoadTwip - http://roadtwip.us/


Twitter manners 1 to 11 -http://www.scarymommy.com/twitter-etiquette/

http://www.macworld.com/article/141983/2009/08/twitteretiquette.html

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/the_thoughtful_user_guide/writing_my_twitter_etiquette_article_14_ways_to_use_twitter_politely.php

http://www.dontdrinkthekoolaidblog.com/twitterquette-twitter-ettiquette/

http://foodmaven.blogspot.com/2007/03/food-blog-etiquette.html


http://foodblogalliance.com/etiquette/


http://www.bongcookbook.com/2009/06/blog-etiquette-and-eaitng-in-nyc.html


http://www.dontdrinkthekoolaidblog.com/twitterquette-twitter-ettiquette/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iROYzrm5SBM


http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/11/06/gary-vs-social-media-rules/


http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/the-world/article/twitter-cluelessness-guy-kawasaki

Don't post negative things about work on Facebook - http://mashable.com/2009/08/10/social-media-misuse/

The real you on Facebook - http://www.utexas.edu/news/2009/12/01/facebook_psychology/?AddInterest=2221

ThatKevinSmith Vs. SouthwestAir - http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith/status/9166100231

Don't demand free stuff - http://twitter.com/wnorris3/status/442298971

Background checking your dates - http://sconyers.com/2009/03/first-dates/

Delete your drunken photos before your interview - http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/if-youre-applying-job-censor-your-facebook-page

Gary V's social media rules, wine not included - http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/11/06/gary-vs-social-media-rules/

Post Secret - http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

My dog is totally awesome - http://romanreign.com/index.27.jpg

Stop Cyberbullying - http://kut.org/items/show/19021

Angry business owners get violent - http://gawker.com/5396122/yelp-fights-make-leap-to-real+world-violence-says-reviewer

Stanford Prison Study - http://www.prisonexp.org/

Social Psychology - Deindividuation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Identity_model_of_Deindividuation_Effects_%28SIDE%29

The Ku Klux Klan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

Deindividuation and the KKK - http://www.psychexchange.co.uk/videos/view/20511/

On the Internet, no one knows that you're a dog - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog

Social Psychology - Confirmation Bias - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Ignoring problem behaviors - http://teachnet.edb.utexas.edu/~lynda_abbott/Behavioral2.html

Operant Conditioning - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning

Classical Condtioning - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning

Social Norms - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_%28sociology%29

Social Psychology - Conformity - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformity

Conformity Video (funny) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1euWT3NZjY

Bazaarvoice white papers - http://www.bazaarvoice.com/resources/research

This site contains a plethora of data on bloggers and the state of the blogosphere- http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/

Blogs are becoming main stream - http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/10/is-blog-reading-mainstream.html

Fred Wilson has a microculture on his blog  - http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/10/the-blog-where-everybody-knows-your-name.html

I love numbers. I love graphs.  Here's some data on co-hort analysis - http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/10/the-cohort-analysis.html

More Twitter data - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/05/twitter-data-analysis-an-investors-perspective/

Information travels fast via Twitter - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/17/is-twitter-the-cnn-of-the-new-media-generation/

Old media evolving to stay alive -  http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/11/can-the-statusphere-save-journalism/

Who's on twitter? - http://thepowerofinfluence.typepad.com/the_power_of_influence/2009/02/11-of-adult-americans-twitter.html

Quantitative and Qualitative Data - http://regentsprep.org/REgents/math/ALGEBRA/AD1/qualquant.htm

Three new social media articles worth a read - http://ow.ly/B13I

Freedom of Speech on the internet - http://w2.eff.org/br/

In old media?  Here's how to evolve - http://www.oldmedianewtricks.com/

Word of Mouth Marketing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_mouth

Internet Trolls - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29

10 simple rules for Tweeting up - http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/digitalsavant/entries/2009/10/07/10_simple_rules.html?cxntfid=blogs_digital_savant

Classroom Teaching Tips - http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm

Social media, playing economics games, and accountability - http://www.michellesblog.net/social-media-and-society/game-theory-and-the-use-of-social-media

FTC and Blogging Ethics Articles 1-6 :

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/publishing/an_open_letter_to_the_ftc_139297.asp


http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/08/taking_liberties/entry5372890.shtml

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1331-Quick-Query-Attorney-Explains-New-FTC-Blogging-Guidelines

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/05/ftc-values-sponsored-conversations-at-11000-apiece/

http://www.blogwithintegrity.com/

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/my-thoughts-on-the-ftc-disclosure-rules-and-bloggers/

http://www.blogher.com/new-ftc-guidelines-and-what-they-mean-you

On building successful long-term relationships - http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/06/building-successful-long-term-relationships.html

Follow this business twitter account - http://twitter.com/fsaustin

Oxytocin, it's good for you (the hormone, not the drug) - http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/bps/article/PIIS0006322303004657/abstract

Watch what you say on the radio - http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/entertainment/101409_jason_and_deb_from_101x_suspended
You're a tenured professor on wiki? - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/001162.html

Dos Equis blunder of a party - http://do512.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/an-apology-from-dos-xx-the-most-interesting-academy/


This story is so Farkable - http://thenextweb.com/2009/10/14/fugitive-caught-bragging-facebook-updates/


Find missing kids - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Missing-Children-Lets-Find-Them/99812501383


Craft Brew wins this round - http://monsterboycott.wordpress.com/http://www.rockartbrewery.com/VERMONSTER.html

.plan - http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/3128/first-blog-plan-file
Mind-blowing social media stats - http://econsultancy.com/blog/5324-20+-mind-blowing-social-media-statistics-revisited

Austin's online community newspaper - http://www.austinpost.org/

Listservs - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LISTSERV

FmyLife - http://www.fmylife.com/

PostSecret - http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Twtvite.com - http://twtvite.com/

Meetup.com - http://www.meetup.com/

Interesting additional reading articles:

Explaining cognitive surplus or why are we on the Internet - http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/010218.html

Do you Foursquare? - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/technology/internet/19foursquare.html?_r=2

Retweet me - http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_twitter

I can't disclose everything everywhere: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/11/disclose-this-i-cant-disclose.html

Social Identities and forums: A Frame model: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/11/more-that-sociologist-erving-g.html

Canidate 101: Do's and Don'ts: http://meanrachel.blogspot.com/2009/12/candidate-101-dos-and-do-nots-of.html

Social Recruiting - http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/11/social-recruiting.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AVc+%28A+VC%29

Don't fight on Twitter and murder afterwards - http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/12/man-shot-dead-twitter-murder/

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/study_finds_social_media_is_actually_social.php

http://mashable.com/2009/03/08/social-media-blunders/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/22/AR2009102204528.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-smallbiz27-2009oct27,0,7371262.story

http://paulgraham.com/nthings.html

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/one-hundred-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do-part-one/

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/13297824/Technorati-SOTB-2009

http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/12/theres-no-such-thing-as-social-network.html

http://www.newfangled.com/a_web_designers_response_to_facebook

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114187478

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/twitter-has-a-business-job-agency/

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/11/02/pr-people-getting-pushier-with-bloggers-since-the-recession/?awesm=b5m.cc_deO&utm_campaign=b5media&utm_medium=b5m.cc-twitter&utm_source=hootsuite.com&utm_content=backtype-tweetcount