This is cross-posted from our sister site: Web Training Wheels

Perhaps the biggest news this week in the online world is that Seth Godin announced he is giving up on traditional book publishing and is going all-digital. Seth has the following and the leverage to make this an exciting development for digital publishing. This could be a big step in mainstreaming electronic publishing and changing the consumption of “books.” He has published 12 bestsellers in the traditional manner, so it’s possible he will be the reason some consumers start buying digital products.

Google announced their Google Voice service, which allows you to place calls to other Gmail users, right from your inbox, for next to nothing – free domestic calls and 2cents per minute for many international locations. Sounds like a cool feature, although PC World suggests it’s more about convenience rather than a game-changer, and definitely not a Skype killer.

In other Google news, their Realtime search feature now has its own homepage at google.com/realtime
Realtime results are pulled from sources like Twitter and Facebook status updates. These results were previously only accessible by clicking on the “Updates” link on the left of the Google search results page, or for ‘trending’ topics they are integrated into the main search results. So it’s not a major breakthrough, but will perhaps raise the profile of realtime search a little more. They’ve also added a couple more features such as integration with Google Alerts, and access to the full conversation that an update may be part of.  ReadWriteWeb has a nice summary of the good and the bad of this announcement.

Has Google dropped Yelp reviews from their Places listings (those are the local map results you get typically when you search for a local business)? Techcrunch believes so. Catch up on the drama.

Digg launched their new re-design this week which, according to VentureBeat gives a more personalized experience and “makes it easier to find new sources to follow and connect to friends via Facebook, Google and Twitter accounts.” I barely use Digg at the moment, but if you regularly use it, I’m interested to know how you like the new design and if it means you will be using it differently in any way now.

Finally, a couple of awesome and stream-enhancing Tweeters to follow this week:

@Alizasherman

@Suzannevara

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This is cross-posted from our sister site: Web Training Wheels

This week I’ve seen several examples of ‘rule-breaking’ in marketing and social media. Minimalist business writer Everett Bogue has decided to turn off commenting on his popular Far Beyond The Stars blog. John Boitnott writes about how the New York Times breaks every ‘rule’ of Facebook Page management practice but has 700k+ ‘fans’. To top it off,  Seth Godin announced that he’ll no longer be publishing traditional books.

I’m sure there will be, perhaps already has been, backlash and copycats in equal parts.

But what these folks are demonstrating to me is the luxury that success provides. And success can really be defined as having developed an audience that transcends the platform – audience meaning real, product-buying, idea-sharing people – not just numbers of passive ’followers’.

In trying to develop that elusive audience we tend to follow certain best practices in use of our blogs, social media etc, because these things help expand our platform and reach. What Bogue, Godin and the NY Times are finding is that when you have established your audience, you are free to connect and communicate with them in whichever ways you choose – the “rules” don’t really apply any more.

Does that mean that you (or I) should turn off your comments? Not unless you are truly using your blog only to publish thoughts and not looking for feedback. Should you use your Facebook Page as nothing more than an RSS feed? Probably not unless you want the Page to languish. Of course, you don’t have to use these specific tools – but you DO have to be doing something that is creating a viable audience for you.

It doesn’t mean that traditional book publishing is now bad– it just doesn’t serve Seth’s purpose any more. He’s maxed out that platform for what he was using it for – spreading his ideas. Blog commenting is not a thing of the past – it’s just not serving Everett’s purpose of running a minimalist business. These guys are just demonstrating how you use the tools you use to serve your purpose, you don’t use them at the expense of your purpose.

The ability to bend rules grows in proportion to your audience size, or perhaps more accurately, in proportion to the commitment of your audience to you or your business. So for you and I, keep on developing your audience in any and all ways that serve your purpose and that allow your ideas, products and contributions to shine.

What do you think? Are there “rules” you can break and still be successful in developing your businesses? What, if anything will you change, or what rules would you break when you have the luxury of whatever success means to you?

*header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/b-love/2848259567/

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This is cross-posted from our sister site: Web Training Wheels

Facebook dominated the social media/online marketing news this week with their launch of Facebook Places – a location-based service along the lines of FourSquare which allows you to “check in” via Facebook to various places you go. While there was much fanfare, the rollout seems to be quite slow as far as people actually being able to access and use it. As with everything Facebook does, it comes with privacy implications. The default setting is that other people can check you into Places. Visit your settings to change that. Here are the instructions.

This hilarious tweet via @anildash sums up Facebook’s cavalier attitude toward all of our privacy:

If your business has a physical location, here’s how to use Facebook Places for your business

In more Facebook news, AllFacebook reports that Facebook is now the third most popular U.S. video site , behind YouTube and Yahoo. Although this shouldn’t be surprising given their gargantuan audience, I was slightly surprised only because I personally don’t see that many people heavily using the feature. Most of the video I encounter on Facebook comes from YouTube.

The other big news for the week is that Groupon’s star continues to rise with its biggest coup yet  – a nationwide deal with GAP which at the end of the day brought in over $11 million!!!

And just for fun…..Looking for some new Twitter people to follow?  For great entertainment follow these hilarious and smart women: @daniellelaporte and @communicatrix

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This is cross-posted from our sister site: Web Training Wheels

Here’s a very simple model for thinking about three main social media channels: your blog, Facebook and Twitter.  I should say that this model applies in particular to solopreneurs and small businesses who are still developing their following and trying to use social media to do so. In this model the starting point is simply looking at who the audience is, since that helps determine tone, content and strategy.

The simplest version:

Your blog is for attracting a new audience, and providing value to your existing audience.

Facebook is for communicating with people you know, or at least have ‘weak ties’ with, i.e people that are already in your network.

Twitter is for actively finding and connecting with people outside of your current network.

The longer version:

Blog

1)   Your blog is your platform to pull in brand new eyeballs as well as provide help and value to your regular readers.

2)   Your blog is your opportunity to show your expertise and knowledge of your business and industry, create resources for your customers/readers and create a homebase for your online visibility.

3)   If people like what they find they are likely to use Twitter or Facebook to connect with you further.

4) There can be some 2-way interaction via commenting, but even if not, the 1-way output of information is the norm for a blog, more than any other social media outlet.

Facebook

1)   Most likely, people who join your Facebook Page have come from your personal Facebook network (it benefits you to build up your personal profile before launching a Facebook Page) or have found you via your blog. So the key is to foster the feeling of familiarity and get to know people a little better.

2)   A more casual tone than your blog works well; question-asking and discussion-starting are also great on a Facebook Page. 2-way communication is key – community, trust and credibility-building rather than soapboxing.

3)   Some self-promotion is appropriate, particularly if you can offer discounts and incentives, or news that lends to your credibility. But focus on providing engaging content and don’t just duplicate what’s on your blog.

4)   Since someone has to be a friend of your personal profile before you can actively send them an invite to your page, it’s a laborious process to reach brand new people (without purchasing Ads). So I recommend Facebook for fostering the connections you already have – increased engagement on your Page can lead to organic growth through exposure in your Fans’ newsfeeds.

Twitter

1)   Twitter is the place to initiate and develop brand new relationships. Strangers are just friends you haven’t Tweeted with yet!

2)   Unlike Facebook, you can easily find and interact with people you have no connection to, through use of the @ function. You don’t have to wait for people to passively find you, you can see what people are talking about and join in when you have something of value to add. It’s also great for staying in touch with new acquaintances you have made elsewhere.

3)   A good content strategy would be a mix of content curation (sharing links, valuable resources etc), conversation, opinions, insights and personality.

4)   Talk more about others than you do about yourself. Share your blog posts and news but keep blatant self-promotion to a minimum. Twitter should be the least self-focused of all social media.

5)   Twitter is great for paying it forward and sharing the love – sharing links to others’ blog content, Re-Tweeting people and contributing to the social proof of others.

Is this model useful? How do you make sense of these social media channels?

Header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelgraphix/2504474533/

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This is cross-posted from our sister site: Web Training Wheels

Just to keep you in the loop, here are some of the top stories in the social media and online marketing world from the past week:

Facebook announces changes to Pages

Come August 23rd, Facebook’s long-talked about about changes to Pages will take effect. Any custom boxes on your Facebook Page (business pages, not personal profile) will disappear unless you move the content into a custom tab, which are becoming narrower.

It’s still a little unclear to me exactly what will be left in the left sidebar of your Page when boxes are gone, and how, if at all, you’ll be able to add custom info to the main page. I’m sure Facebook’s ‘wisdom’ will be revealed in time.

Hootsuite goes freemium
Hootsuite pulled the rug from under many of its users this week when it announced its set of paid plans. Yes, they still have a free plan but it’s very limited. Paid plans run from $5/month all the way up to the rather comical $1499/month (stop laughing, they’re actually being serious!) for their Enterprise edition.

Rapportive for Gmail
If you use Gmail, Rapportive is a very cool new add-on which displays information about all your contacts, culled from their social networks, right inside your inbox. Stalker-ish? Possibly, but still very cool and useful to further connect with people on various social networks.

“Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox.You can immediately see what people look like, where they’re based, and what they do. You can establish rapport by mentioning shared interests. You can grow your network by connecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more. And you can record thoughts for later by leaving notes.Imagine relationship management built into your email. For free.”

Twitter creates their own official tweet button
This isn’t all too revolutionary considering that there are currently a plethora of ways to add a “tweet this” style button to your website, but Twitter has decided to come out with their own.  There are already lots of WordPress plugins that support it.

Header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/myklroventine/2537309848/

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