Category: social media

Social Media Classes For Writers & Authors

I’ve been working on something for awhile now – building a course on how YOU can leverage social media, online media and online marketing. Today I want to share a few details about it, and talk about how we learn, and how what we know affects what we accomplish.

Most of us learn how to leverage the web by doing. We read one article and blog post at a time, take tentative steps onto services like Twitter, and try to replicate what we see works for others. Pretty soon, we each have our own secret sauce – a mixture of our personal comfort level, and customized online strategy.

But does it lead you to your goals? Is it working as well as you would like? For many people, I find that they are doing interesting things in social media, but are failing to find a workable system that is manageable, enjoyable and leads to the personal and career growth they were hoping.

This is the reason I am creating a class for teaching social media to writers and authors. Here is why I think a structured curriculum is important:

You Need Goals
The one thing missing from most people’s online strategy is goals. They know they want to grow in some way, they have a vague feeling of what success will entail, but they rarely define it with hard numbers and accomplishments. This is the first critical step. If you don’t know where you are going, then it is all the more likely that you will get there.

You Need a Plan
A curriculum is a plan, a committment. It takes you step by step through a process, and always leaves you with two things: accomplishments and a next step. It is a process for growing.

You Need to Get Your Hands Dirty
Its not enough to debate the value of certain aspects of social media, you need to get your hands dirty. For instance, I see far too many people  debate the value of paid content or paywalls online, without ever trying themselves. They are debating theory – what-ifs in a universe that needs practical insight and experience.

You Need to Measure
Too often, we pursue a certain tactic or strategy, and validate it by blindly following it forever. That, instead of being honest about if it really works, we are too afraid to feel stupid by discovering that (while it was a good idea), it didn’t have the intended result. Measuring what works and what doesn’t is critical for true success, not just perceived expertise.

You Need to Iterate
You hear phrases such as “fail often,” and what they are referring to is iteration – the need to change, to evolve ideas and move towards finding the results you are looking for. Iteration is a process, something that doesn’t often come naturally. It is essential for learning, for growing, for building, for achieving your goals.

You Need Help
This does not refer just to a teacher-student relationship, but to the comradery and resources that other classmates give you. You can learn so much from others who are a part of the same program, pursuing similar goals, and following the same strategy as you . Likewise, alumni are incredible resources for years to come – those who can continue to help each other as they grow and become successful. Why is a Harvard education so valuable? Part of the reason is the ability to tap into it’s network of successful people.

I learn so much just by reading Tweets everyday. But this learning is disaggregated – found in stolen moments and dozens of Bit.ly links each day. And my concern is that this leads to a great deal of input, without much output. EG: Am I building my future with all of the things I learn?

So that is the background as to why I am building this course. And… here are some details on the course itself:

  • This is a 6 week long ONLINE class. You don’t have to leave your house!
  • It starts off with a 1-on-1 chat where I can assess your personal challenges and goals.
  • It includes weekly live webinars taking you through a structured curriculum. Here I share advice as to how to build, manage, and grow your online presence.
  • There are hands-on assignments which means you walk away from the course already well on your way to achieving your goals.
  • Each week, I help you tackle specific issues and questions via email office hours.
  • You will be able to learn from other writers going through this course with you.

Are you interested? Do you think you may want to apply to be a part of this program? Yay!

I’ll be sharing more information very soon.

Thank you!

-Dan

How Social Media Disrupts (But Unlocks Revenue)

I watched a short video this morning where a Hollywood producer/manager describes how social media has destroyed the proprietary business of growing a celebrity brand, and in doing so, unlocked more revenue streams.

This is a common theme – how online media is disruptive, but unlocks so much value. That even though established systems and power structures are being rattled, it doesn’t mean that everything is trading dimes for dollars.

Most people like to look back on a time of transition and think “If only I had been born then, I would have seized opportunity.” What if you could have helped establish Hollywood, what if you could have bought prime property in New York City decades ago, what if you could have bought Apple stock when it traded at $7.

But this is the opportunity we have today – to not look at online media as a disruption to established business models, but as an opportunity. What we are continuing to see again and again are ways that online media is maturing, and revenue models being created.

When businesses approach it as a “yes or no” question, they miss the point. The web is no longer an option. The question is merely how many resources will you put towards experimenting, towards unlocking value.

Thanks!

-Dan

From Mix Tapes to Social Media – Lessons for Publishers

A couple weeks back, I explored the idea that media is turning from physical media, into lifestyle media – that media is becoming more about the experience, and less about the actual product of a book, record or magazine. One comment on that blog post was interesting:

“I still have books and CDs in my house. There’s some comfort in re-discovering a line or a tune on a Sunday afternoon. But, I’ve fully embraced the digital world — and have little to no need for physical things outside of my Sunday New York Times and my magazine subscriptions.”

Why do we love reading the Sunday Times in print, and relish dropping the needle on a record? What about this is psychologically comforting? Here are some ideas:

  • Focused Attention
    Many of us are overwhelmed with email, Facebook updates, and the millions of shoes we could be browsing on Zappos, or books to buy on Amazon. On the web, every piece of content leads to two more pieces of content, and so on. But a book is a single story. A record a single piece of music. It focuses our attention, allowing us to experience a single thing.

  • Sentimentality
    When you grow up with something, you often have a sentimental attachment to it. Even if you have no desire to own a rotary dial phone, you will still enjoy the memory of dialing a friend’s number on it when you were 13. Likewise, even a generation that didn’t grow up with something, can appreciate its retro appeal. There are tons of teenagers who are embracing vinyl records, even though they grew up in the age of MP3’s.

  • Form
    Yes, sometimes I look at my iPhone or my iPad and think: “I am Captain Kirk, this is the future!” A newspaper is less challenging. It is not a magic black box, it is just paper. There is something about it that says it should be appreciated leisurely over a cup of coffee.

  • Personal Connection
    In an age where social media makes every experience a shared experience, I can understand why some reject this in order to have a personal connection – a personal experience – with something, be it a book, a piece of music, or a magazine. The pressure to share, to influence or be influenced, can be too much sometimes.

These are powerful psychological reasons, and I am considering how they do or don’t evolve with digital media. EG: will our kids have this same attachment to a book – that personal connection? Will they too become sentimental about discovering a CD in the corner of some music shop in a distant city, and the anticipation of bringing it home – always keeping it as a treasured personal experience? Will they get sentimental about the first generation iPod, about viewing a web page that looks like it was created in 1998, and will MySpace become a retro trend in 5 years time?

I can’t bring myself to throw out mix tapes from high school. In reality, these are cheap, low quality cassette tapes that have already degraded over time. They are filled with 2nd generation copies of music off of other tapes. In fact – I haven’t owned a cassette player for years, so the likelihood of me every listening to them again is unlikely.

Objectively, there is little personal experience here. Some tapes I made myself, others were made for me by friends.

But like the web today – curation IS a form of self expression. Ownership of the original media was not the goal, the experience of lower-quality versions of songs from a friend was wildly more important.

A record company executive in the 1980’s would have hated this. They would have preached about the value of owning the official release of a piece of music – the higher sound quality, the collectability, the connection a fan needs with the artist. Mix tapes were the opposite, they were unofficial, low quality and about the connection between fans.

That same record company executive would have feared for the future of their industry because fans were copying and trading music freely. They would have lobbied Sony to keep a ‘record’ button off the Walkman, they would have pressured Maxell to keep the prices of blank cassettes at higher levels.

You see this happening today with digital rights management systems on eBooks, on music companies suing fans for file sharing. I’m not going to pretend that both of these issues aren’t very important – they are.

But when you see them as a risk, you miss the opportunity. The opportunity of fans sat up in their bedrooms in the 80’s, making mix tapes. How they extended what the music was, and made it personal.

That is why social media is critically important for the future of all media. Because fans have become empowered not just to consume, but to extend and create.

Thanks!

-Dan

The Pervasiveness of Sharing

In an age where everything is shared online via social media, there is an opportunity in NOT sharing. Or rather, in sharing selectively, with a small group.

“Going viral” is what everyone seems to dream of, which means there is an opportunity in embracing intimacy. That showing one person, or a selected group, that you care, is a way to stand out, while everyone else is focusing only on the masses.

I was listening to an interview with Damon Albarn about his headline gig at the 2009 Glastonbury Festival. He actually contacted the BBC to see if they WOULDN’T broadcast and record it. Even though he was playing to well more than 100,000 people, he wanted to have a moment that would be experienced ONLY by the people there, living in the moment. That, we are somehow robbed of private moments, or group experience, of living in the moment.

His colleague Jamie Hewitt added that when you watch a performance at a show like that, the instant the band comes on, thousands of little blue screens pop up – cell phone cameras held aloft my fans.

Even in the moment they waited for, as they are experiencing what will one day be scared memories, people are overwhelmed with the concern of CAPTURING the moment. Of storing it, filing it and sharing it for later experience. That people are so concerned with saving the memory, that they don’t actually experience the moment.

How is this not merely an observation, but an opportunity?

Many of us work in niche markets – and your businesses can be profitable and growing without needing everyone on the planet to buy from you. Sure, it’s nice to dream about having the kind of success that J.K. Rowling did, or that Jeff Bezos did, or that Steve Jobs did, but is it worth betting your entire future on the .0000000001% chance that it could happen to you?

What’s wrong with merely being profitable? With merely being adored by your niche market? With a growth rate of 20% each year, instead of 700%?

When you limit who you share things to, you create exclusivity. You enable shared experience. Why is it we feel a closer connection to those who went to the same elementary school we did – or the same fraternity – or who worked at a certain company or in the military? Shared experience.

When you focus on only a select group, it increases the chance of individualized attention, and shows that you care about THEM, not just ANYONE who is giving you money or attention.

This is the power of connection – of companionship and relationships. When you create a line between insiders, and outsiders, it polarizes things. And sure, that can be used in a negative way, but it can also be used in positive ways.

I love how the web has opened up the world. But consider opportunities around closed groups, about the value of boundaries, and how we can connect in meaningful ways when things aren’t “going viral.”

Thanks!

-Dan

Social Media Turns Every Connection Into a ‘Warm Call’

Is social media working for you? Don’t be so quick to judge. How we measure success in social media is not about numbers, it’s about the quality of connections.

Again and again, I find examples that it’s not quantity that counts, but quality. Maybe you have been developing a Facebook Page, Tweeting several times a day, commenting in a forum, and trying to keep up with your blog. It’s hard work, no doubt, and sometimes a stagnant follower count can seem like you aren’t making any progress.

But who are your followers? They aren’t just a number – some of those people actually exist, and love hearing from you. I’m not going to lie, sometimes I see someone who has 40,000 follower and think “Wow – what did they do to attract such an audience?”

But that is balanced by the many experiences I have where I am amazed at who is finding me online, be it my blog, Twitter feed, or newsletter. There have been several times where I approached someone I really respected and wanted to meet, only to find out that they already knew who I was because of my presence in social media.

It goes beyond being a conversation starter… it’s a relationship starter. Why? Because it just takes one person to reshape your life. If you engage in social media for personal reasons, it takes just one person to become an inspiring friend. If you engage in social media for more professional reasons, it takes just one person to catapult your career.

You know how sales people have ‘cold calls’ and ‘warm calls?’ Well, social media increases the number of warm calls in your life. It means that people are already familiar with who you are, and have established a foundation of trust before you ever say a word to each other.

So the question shouldn’t be “how many followers do I have?” but, “who am I connected to?” And then of course, “How can I help them?”

This is especially true when you consider how well suited social media is for niche markets. Likely, your potential audience isn’t hundreds of thousands of people to begin with. Likely, you are focused on one segment of one market. And even within that total population, there are some individuals in particular that you especially hope to connect with. Are those people already following you on Twitter? Have they read a blog post you wrote online? That follower count and page view number doesn’t indicate the quality of your connections.

It reminds me of the legendary story of the first ever Sex Pistols show. About 40 people showed up, and they mostly sat and stared at the stage. But within that tiny crowd were people who went on to form some of the biggest British bands of the 1980’s: Joy Division, The Smiths, The Fall, and The Buzzcocks. It’s heralded as one of the most influential gigs ever.

Is that your Twitter feed? Your blog? Tiny, but influential?

Thanks!

-Dan