There’s something we teach clients and our employers about social media marketing, it’s a basic rule that’s important. Just as in traditional marketing, the same rule applies.

Know who (and where) your target market is.

This makes complete sense when developing a marketing strategy. We determine who we want to reach, then we plan to reach them where they are. Makes sense, right?

This doesn’t totally apply to the early adopters though. The social butterflies who are early to test the waters on the latest social networking sites end up with their wires crossed eventually.

The Facebook Wires

You see, I have 1,582 friends on Facebook today. I started adding anyone who friended me very early on, before there were pages or options to subscribe rather than friend.

In retrospect, your personal profile on Facebook should be reserved for just your friends and family.

The Twitter Wires

Early days on Twitter meant you always followed back who followed you, it was considered rude not to. I’m following 4,509 people, some of which have nothing to contribute to the conversations and content that we all share. Nothing against those people mind you, but now I regret that my main stream contains content that’s not relevant to me.

Twitter is a great place to share what interests you, promote your work (in a non-spammy way) and follow events and breaking news live. Maybe it’s how you got to this post in the first place (thanks for coming by).

Looking back, I wish I had just followed those I had actually engaged with. I’m not prepared to pull a Brogan and do a great Twitter unfollow experiment just yet though.

The Google Plus Wires

Now we have Google Plus. A place where the early adopters are hanging out. There are plenty of great conversations on an array of different topics that are mainly technology focused on G+, which is great.

I have many people in great circles, but I still haven’t found the perfect (most time efficient) way to bring G+ into my daily social networking. The best content on G+ is the conversation which stems from the content that is already in my Google Reader. It’s like G+ has replaced blog comments in some ways. Do you find this too?

As an early adopter to social networking sites, my communication wires seem  crossed lately. I’m working on fixing this.

How do you do it?

How are you managing your personal profile on Facebook, personal Twitter account and Google Plus? Have you found a balancing act yet?

Chris Brogan had a post yesterday about why he would offer 10 cent wings on a wing night, if he owned a restaurant. I’m seriously craving chicken wings now, thanks Chris!

These are both great examples of acquiring new business.

If your parents never used Amazon to purchase music (or anything else for that matter), they will now have accounts to do so. Perhaps they even opted in for Amazon special offer emails as they checked out from their Gaga purchase.

If you had never been to the restaurant to try the wings before, and you enjoyed them at such a discounted price, you’ll likely return for more (discounted or not). Heck, that’s how I still return to the Wheat Sheaf every time I’m back in Toronto – not to mention their wings are AWESOME!

While you may lose money in a big promotion, you need to factor in the value of the new customers you have acquired. Was it worth it?

Photo from Flickr by: framboise

Chris Brogan wrote a blog post recently about doing the work. In his post he mentioned Walt Disney’s mind map, which helped Disney create his empire. Chris’ mention of this reminded me to write this post, so thanks Chris.

Dan Roam

Dan Roam is the author of the best-selling book, The Back of the Napkin. In his book he describes how we can communicate simply, most effectively, by drawing our thoughts. He has completely sold me on this thinking.

Be clear that he is not suggesting becoming an artist (although that’s always a cool idea). He is talking about drawing sketches of ideas to help you formulate plans and articulate information.

Mindmapping is a great way to visualize your work, as is sketching on a blank piece of paper. Heck, an entire airline was born on a cocktail napkin!

SXSW

During his presentation, Blah Blah Blah: What to do When Words Don’t Work, at SXSW, Roam shared the entire history of humans in just five minutes, all 32,000 years!

SXSW 2010: Dan Roam on Visual Thinking from Teehan+Lax on Vimeo.

I recommend reading Olivia Mitchell’s post, How Dan Roam nailed his SXSW presentation, because she sums it up so well.

Watch This!

If this has you intrigued (and I hope that it does), you should check out Roam’s full presentation at Google’s headquarters.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuA_yz7aTo0

Then pick up his book (affiliate link), it’s fantastic.

I have always found services like Yahoo! Answers handy, because the answers are voted upon by the users. So naturally, the best answers rise to the top. Same applies to LinkedIn Answers, more so because the knowledge of the people providing the answers tends to be much higher. So, you get better answers.

Quora is proving to be a very popular site, with over 200,000 unique visits in November alone. It has already become a great resource for information on a wide array of topics.

It will be interesting to see where this goes, because Facebook clearly want to own questions and answers since they launched Facebook Questions. Google purchased Ardvark (a similar site), it is fitting that they want to own this too. However, it’s not working in Google’s favor at the moment.

Have you tried Quora? What do you think?

Photo from Flickr by: Laughing Squid

My “ask” was for 10 minutes of their time to talk about the industry. I would always include a promise to bring them a coffee (don’t forget the cream and sugar).

Most people are kind enough to give you ten minutes, especially if you are a student or new to a town. People like to talk about themselves, so the 10 minutes usually becomes 30 or more.

Research

Do your research. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twtter are valuable resources on the web, as is a simple Google search. Do your homework! Don’t go in to the meeting knowing nothing about the person and their company. You will leave a much better impression if you instantly have something to talk about and questions to ask them.

You may not walk out of the office with a job offer, but if you do it right, you’ll walk out with a new contact in the industry. If they like you they may even pick up the phone or send an email to someone they think you should meet. Hat tip to Hannah Paramore of Paramore|Redd.

One final question

Your last question before you depart should always be, Do you know anyone else in the industry who you think I should meet?

If you left a good impression they will likely give the names of a few great people to reach out to. Another hat tip goes to Karen Stone of Prince Market Research.

Don’t forget to follow up with a Thank You email or card. The people who agree to meet with you are kind enough to dedicate their valuable time, the least you can do is to say thank you.

Check out Chris Brogan’s great eBook on using the social web to find work.

Photo from Flickr by: nomsaleena

When I wrote How to celebrate 25,000 tweets, the plan was to try to raise $2,500 for needy classrooms using DonorsChoose.org. I wanted to do this by the time I reached 25,000 tweets. The goal wasn’t met, but together we did raise $256 UPDATE: $356!

10% goes a long way

While we only raised 10% of the goal, we did manage to help approximately 510 students receive the items needed for their art classes. Specifically, we contributed to a bass drum, picture frames, water color paints, paint brushes and a bean bag chair. This was a success!

I want to sincerely thank Kelly Noack, Matt Hollowell, Nancy VanReece, Ann Miller, Mrs. Meg Appleby, Anne Kistler, Kate O’Neill and Mary Ann Bernald. THANK YOU!

I should also thank Beth Kanter and Chris Brogan. It was back in the early days of Twitter when they introduced me to the concept of using Twitter for good.

Read Chris’ blog post about Beth’s cause, which he tweeted back in October 2007. Together we all retweeted Chris and Beth’s tweets and were able to raise $2,040 (double the amount needed) to help put Leng Sopharath, a Cambodian orphan, through college.

Have you seen any good examples of using Twitter for good?

The only stipulation is that you need to be living in one of the cities where a script is available. If you’re a developer in Nashville PLEASE create this for us too!

Here’s an example of the script developed by Stv. for the Vancouver Public Library. I recorded this screencast so you can see it in action. So cool!

Be sure to watch this in full screen screen mode.

To run this yourself:

• Install the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox (use Firefox)
• Install the Amazon Library script of your choice.
• Visit amazon.com and wait for the magic.

Chris Brogan also has an awesome post about the library of today, he raises some interesting questions about the future of the library as we know it.

Photo by: slimninja on Flickr.

Keith makes a great point about corporate accounts with multiple people tweeting, it’s just not possible to include all of their faces, so a logo makes sense.

Chris Brogan begins his list on getting started in social media (well worth the read BTW) with the point:

Take a reasonably decent photo of yourself for an avatar pic. Size it to 100×100 pixels if you can. (most services want this as a default). If you’re shy off the bat, put something more fun than your corporate logo.

I tend to agree with this, but in my case tweeting as @griffintech at work, it makes more sense to use our logo. I do this because people following Griffin on Twitter are following because they want news about new products, contests and promotions. I do my best to create lasting relationships as @griffintech too, please don’t misunderstand my point. It’s just that followers recognize the Griffin logo over my mug.

I also tend to do a fair amount of personal tweeting as @davedelaney (perhaps a tweet brought you here today, welcome!). If I were to use my face as @griffintech it could confuse friends who are following me both as @davedelaney and as @griffintech.

***

A bigger issue for me has always been about changing avatars. It drives me crazy when people frequently change their appearance on Twitter. My timeline is cluttered enough as it is for me to not even recognize my friends.

Are you building your personal brand on Twitter? Next time you’re tempted to change your avatar consider how often you see Coke and McDonalds change their logos. Your personal avatar “is” your logo.

What do you think?

I was watching New York Times best-selling author, Julien Smith‘s presentation on Ustream live from PodCamp Montreal today. As he was presenting I was enjoying the back channel discussions in the chat room with some new and old friends.

I was talking with musecrossing quite a bit, I didn’t get her name (what’s your name?). She wasn’t familiar with Julien, so we were talking a bit about him. I was telling her about his old podcast In Over Your Head and about his excellent book Trust Agents.

Something struck me when musecrossing asked how Julien and his co-author Chris Brogan met. How did two bloggers meet to produce a New York Time’s bestseller?

I replied that they both met at the first PodCamp in Boston a few years ago. Just as I wrote this my friend Merlene Paynter replied: “I think Chris & Julien met at the first Podcamp Boston several years ago.” We both replied the same thing. A light bulb went off in my head about the value in these gatherings. I should mention that I’ve never questioned the value in attending, but it was interesting to think a little more about the topic.

Attending conferences and unconferences is key to building relationships. I’ve often talked about handshakes, high-fives and hugs that take your online relationships so much further when you actually meet in person.

Relationships often begin at events too. I first met Julien at Podcasters Across Borders in 2006, I don’t think we had ever met online before that. I first met the guys at Griffin when they sponsored the first BarCamp Nashville in 2007. Who knew then that I’d end up working for them?

The third BarCamp Nashville is coming to town October 17th, I encourage you to come join in on the incredible sessions and hallway conversations. Don’t be a wallflower either. Start your own and join in on discussions. Be a part of BarCamp, it’s free to attend. You’ve got nothing to lose!

By attending a conference or unconference you’ll be building new relationships, some of which will become friendships. Who knows, you may even end up with a New York Times best seller too. What’s stopping you?

<waving hi to my friends in Montreal>

The trick with participating on panels is that you need to pitch your idea to SXSW nearly one year before. If your pitched panel is selected it then gets added to a public voting page where YOU give a thumbs up or thumbs down.

I’m happy to announce that the two panels I suggested were both approved! Here’s the part where I ask you to kindly give them a thumbs up please. Just click the links below and hit the thumbs up please. It’ll just take you a minute, I promise. Thanks!

1) RoadTwip

2) You’re Nowhere Without Passion

I’ve also been invited to participate on Dave Peck’s panel on building community offline. I’ll be joining Michelle Greer and Chris Pirillo on that one, it should be tons of fun. If you’re so inclined a thumbs up there would be lovely too.

Thanks for your thumbs. :-)

Image By: vernhart