DISQUS

If I think of my twitter stream and profile as my home, then all of the above would inappropriate. I talk about products I like. I don't pitch things to my friends.

If I think of my twitter stream and profile as a business site, I reflect on my dad's saloon, he had what was appropriate to his customers ... beer signs for the beers behind his bar. He still never pitched them when he was talking over the bar. He answered their questions about the products he had on offer.

<abbr>Liz Strauss’s last blog post..Just Sayin - With Grace</abbr>

i'm just wondering how you found out ... my brother Angelo or my brother Pasquale told you ... Damn them!!

Wow! Thank you!

I'm so excited. My goal was to get social media mavens, business bloggers, big brands, interactive agencies, and ecommerce specialists all working together in one room. I'm thrilled to see that coming together!!

I'm even more thrilled that you'll be there this year. Thank you again. It's going to be out of this world!

Thanks for this Mike, Hope you know that you won't regret it. Folks who've been there have made worth coming back every time.

We're putting it together with all the power behind again this year -- and we've got more experience than ever. :)

@John,
I wrote this because we all get there. Looking at the folks around, who wouldn't see this mass and flurry of growth as overwelming once in a while? I use search tools and photo searches to get ideas too.

@Hey Barbara
It's easy to forget that we bring our "own thing" that no one else can add to the mix of what's being offered. New data points for sure.

@Grant
Yeah, me too. Let them do what they're doing. We've got our own stuff to do.

I think more importantly the digital divide between offline and online will start closing -- because of the economy. Mainstream folks will start exploring and understanding what's happening. Social media people will have to stop talking and apply what they know to earn a living. Just sayin'

Holy Cow! It's your birthday! How cool is that! I'm just about to go a fancy lunch with husband. I'm going to tellhim about this. You bet I am. Congratulations!! Put your feet when you get home and think reading these, but just skim. :)

<abbr>Liz Strauss’s last blog post..If You Remove the Social from Social Media Tools …</abbr>

Looks like I'm going to have to work harder this year. :)

Thanks, Chris,
These are indeed the voices I, too, love reading. They energize, inspire, and get me thinking. I know, they're dangerous in the best way. All of us make each other a little better as we listen, think, have ideas, put 'em out there, and see what comes home. Without a group like these we'd not grow nearly so ...

Smiling at you!

Wow! It's courage and fortitude that does that. It character that sees it through. I'm so impressed. Keep going. You're doing it for you. Congratulations!

Stowe,
Apologies for the earlier comment, my computer wasn't cooperating. It is now.

I believe in the "social" of social media, but sometimes it leads us astray.

I think we agree that connecting people to people in an ehtical, authentic, and transparent relationship is how business should occur. In my mind that requires choices about how conversations are handled -- protocols and practices -- and respect.

I agree with every suggestion you offered for how this could have been better orchestrated. I also support your opinions and your ethical stand.

I also agree with you that integrity is cornerstone and payola is poison.

Here's my problem:

Do we not know how our own social media tools work?

What's the purpose when someone opens a huge question on Twitter -- a question far too large to be discussed in 140 characters? Are we not aware that corporations and businesses considering the viability of social media and value of bloggers are listening? What's the ethics there?

When we discuss the integrity of one blogger when 8 particiated, how in the world is that analyzing a campaign and not singling one out? If the March of Dimes had put Sister Helen Prejean blogging on this campaign would the response have been kinder than it was for Izea? I think so. What's the purpose served by calling people "sluts" and "whores"? Does that elevate social media writers in the eyes of the lurkers who are learning who we are?

What I meant to say is that we're better than this. At least I hope we are.

Sure, the whole thing could have been done far better. The campaign could have used bloggers to reach out to people who are really in trouble in this economy and told some fabulous, moving stories but it didn't.

That doesn't mean it was a total travesty or that anyone sold out their integrity. Words are flying -- for public view. This isn't the playground.

Just about everyone in this scenario is human as far as I can tell and the social media as an industry is getting a little too comfortable with what it thinks it knows.

I can't imagine what corporation looking on think of this. "C'mon try social media, it will be different for you than it was for [insert the big name pounced upon next]."

Am I surprised by the response to the KMart post? Not for a second.
Would I have been as brave as to be the first to try it in this current social media fishbowl? Only wish I could believe I would have been.

You're a hero to experiment so boldly. I'm fiercely proud that you did.

What a challenge you took on, Chris! I know because I did the same thing last Thursday. The problem of having to spend money and then blog it is possibly the hugest social media challenge I've had so far. It's essence of the social media risk from the company side. I couldn't control the situation. I couldn't be sure that the experience would be positive.

Though my own post doesn't go live until Monday, I already know how it feel to be facing the social media fishbowl.

Last Monday I posted about a client no one has heard of who's doing some amazing things with community building. No one thought a thing about it, though that client pays me quite well. I wonder if the response will be the same this Monday when I post about a national brand who once time gave me a $500 gift card to launch a contest and buy some stuff.

>>>>>>>>>>>
Is the problem here really that folks don't like big companies like KMart, sponsored posts, and IZEA in particular? What happened to community, connectivity, and givers get? Is that we don't want our social media friends to get too much bigger than we are? Other bloggers participated.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

More and more I see that we say we want companies to connect with customers, but more and more I see that when they try a certain sector of the establishment of the social media purists look to capitalize on a fault in the attempt. It wasn't big enough, wasn't small enough, was too friendly, wasn't friendly enough, was arrogant. Since when does any conversation go perfectly right on the first attempt?

Social media is about connecting people to people in conversation around our businesses. It's a damn bit harder to be creative doing that than to be creative showing people a new product and saying "It's cool! Buy now!". Finding the ideal ways to connect people in usual conversation around product is a huge experiment in creativity, innovation, and trust. Maybe folks should quit trying to find the ways it's wrong and start working how to help companies do it right.

I'm still waiting to hear how other folks would have run the outreach better and gotten better results.

I say Bravo! Chris, little steps is how we help companies get closer to the model that works. It was fabulous that you were willing to show us "behind the curtain" how you'd go about shopping at KMart with your kids. Your post was everything I admire about you.

Authenticity, trust, compentence, and integrity aren't things we manufacture and sell. People who even suggest that they can be bought don't understand what they're made of.

Nothing anyone says will ever change that.

I've seen Chris do it. You'll be so glad you said "Hi!" Just do it! You won't be sorry you did. And If you see me say "hi!" to me too!

What fun! That's the spirit! I'm giggling for all of you!

I sit and stare. You are a wonder. How well you put it. It's the joy in the spaces between the grateful words. You've captured it, Batman. Thank you for the people that we share and that light that you shine on all of us constantly. I'm proud to know you, delighted to stand beside you, and looking forward to conspiring against crime all through the future.

Automate? I have trouble making sense of relationships on automatic.
Products yes. Systems yes. Communications with real people, ah, not so much.
It's damn hard to stay intimate with customers ideas, needs, and thoughts when what we throw them is something unintriguing and flat, or worse, we ask but don't give back.

People have so many choices and so many reasons to choose other than us. It takes so much to get someone who'll listen, why not talk to them or at least talk humanly when they're listening in on other conversations? (like on Twitter) .

Social media is high touch form of reaching out. -- if you don't have time to use it that way -- please don't PRETEND to be personal. It demeans me. It wastes my time. It lowers me to the value of the lowest person you sent that message to. And if I am taken in by your folksy message, it makes me feel like a fool when I realize you were just "being personal."

When you thank me with junk mail -- please don't think I feel your appreciation.

I understand as well as most how scaling takes time and brings expectations. But to deliver the real thing keeps it valuable.

People understand limited time and that you can't be every where. No one wants to be written off as a mass mailed number. Broadcasts belong to that special list of people who have asked to received what we've said we're sending.


Personal is relational -- not automational.

Wow! Boom! Yeah, it happens like that, doesn't it? Suddenly we realize we own ourselves and our situations. It's like we knew it, but we couldn't see it before.

Good on you, friend. Good on where you're going to be going. I know you're a leader. I believe you've just started on your own path. :)

You have a point -- it seems to be . . . don't invest too much without considering the future impact of current missed opportunities. Did I get that right?

Hi Chris,
Thanks for this one. It's so important not to lose sight of what makes the world of work outside our little socialsphere. Our culture has new vocabulary and new values. We can get so used to people who understand what we're saying that when we talk to folks who don't -- the much bigger world -- we can find ourselves unprepared to communicate in the words and ways that will connect with them. Social media is about connecting to people. It would be sad if the only people we knew how to connect with were other folks who knew social media.

Hi Alex,
I agree. That's http://www.successful-blog.com/1/a-rubric-for-s... the first in a series. More coming. I have the same concerns as you do. Visible benchmarks make difference. I'm with you on that.

Hey Mark,
I'm shy too. Used to be painfully so. My family called me Bashful. Funny, isn't it, in that moment, we think the only one who's shy is us . . . when it could be that half the room is feeling exactly the same way. :)

I find that if I lift my chin, smile, and start worrying about how other folks are feeling I don't think so much about who's looking at me. It helps a lot.

Glad to meet you!
Liz

Hey, Tojosan, This is a brilliant statement. Thanks for putting yourself here for us..

Todd,
If this is only part 1, I can't wait to read part 2. wow!
I know we're all hungry for some way to keep the flame burning until Chicago next May. I'm working on some ideas for getting our thoughts, our voices, and ourselves in the same place in a variety of ways. I'll be calling you to help me make it work.

From the picture to the spaces between your perfectly chosen words, you brought me back to the SOBCon feeling. Thank you!!
Liz

Oh man, Aaron. Do I have to give away my secret formula . . . again?! :)