Gradon Tripp

If there’s any single benefit of what Chris Brogan offers to the social media world at large (and let me say, there are many), it’s that he makes you think.

Recently, after prodding from Robert Scoble, Chris created a second Twitter account. The guise of @broganmedia (that’s the first tweet, above) was to share a “more pure stream” of Chris’s content. The account, so far, follows no one, doesn’t converse and only shares links to articles, either Chris’s or those that he likes.

The idea of Chris separate from his content — or vice versa — is a strange one. In my mind, producing vast amounts of social media content is a big part of the brand that is Chris Brogan. Where’s the value of the content, if it’s separate from the man who makes it?

This, of course, is something that Chris is going to have to figure out. But what this scenario did for me was, it made me start to question the approach I’ve taken to Twitter for my various pursuits.

On Twitter, I have separate personalities. Of course, I’m @gradontripp, freelance content and social media strategist, online do-gooder, and indie rock junky. And then I’m @designboston, a stream utterly obsessed with all things architecture, furniture, and other design elements.

What value am I creating by having them separate? Would there be more value in combining them? After all, they’re two sides of one person. Me.

(I’m also one-third of @sm4sc, the Twitter stream of the organization that Matt Knell, Meg Fowler and I started in 2008 to help nonprofits use social media tools. Since SM4SC is all of us, it makes sense that the Twitter account remains separate from either one of us.)

On one hand, @gradontripp is ME. I ramble, talk nonsense, espouse my thoughts on the state of marketing in the online world, share news, music and video links, and  tweet sweet nothings to Meg, much to the chagrin of some of our following (tough for them, I say!).

Having @designboston separate, it seems, makes that stream “more pure”, as Scoble puts it, but it intrinsically becomes less conversational. It becomes more about links to content, retweeting other relevant information, and be generally more distanced from my community.

But this isn’t true to who I really am. In “real life”, I’m a father, boyfriend, design fanatic, and marketer, in that order. I’m the person people go to when they want to know about a building in Boston (something Leslie Poston stumped me on last week). I’m the guy that can tell you who made what chair, and when. I continuously think of ways to improve my apartment, from storage to furniture to cookware (well, Meg helped with that one) and more.

Why am I not letting that side shine through on @gradontripp?

Would the people that connect with @designboston be willing to put up with all the non-design stuff I talk about on @gradontripp?

Would those that follow @gradontripp care to hear about my furniture obsession?

To all of these, I don’t know. What are your thought?

Earlier this week, Jeff Cutler and I met with people from the Greater Boston Food Bank and brainstormed ideas to help them better use social media. It was a great conversation, and one that I have with many nonprofits that I work with. In an effort to help more organizations, I’ve listed below five quick strategies to get moving with social media today:

Listen

Probably the quickest, most painless — and often most helpful — way to use social media, “listening” means monitoring the social web for mentions of your organization or area of expertise. There are a variety of technologies available, both free and paid, but here are two free methods you can start using today:

• Google Alerts - Enter the term you want to search (ex: your organization name), then select “Comprehensive” for the type and feed for the delivery method (you need to be logged into your Google account to access the feed option). This will automatically add your alerts to your (free) Google Reader account. You’re now tracking every time Google finds a mention of your term.
• Twitter Search – Enter the term you want to search, then hit “search”. On the right hand of the results screen, click “Feed for this query.” A page of code will appear. Copy the URL and add it to your Google Reader account. You’re tracking every time there’s a mention of your term on Twitter.

What will you listen for? Surely you’ll want to find any mentions of your organization name, but also the area that you operate in. Listen for what people are saying about you. Listen Listen for opportunities for your organization to help, as well as chances where you can be helped.

Education

Who knows what you do better than you? Whether it’s the environment, early childhood education, or historic preservation, you’re the ones that are in the trenches every day. Share what you know, using simple tools like blogging, Twitter, Facebook, or online video. Handheld cameras — like those from Flip or Kodak — are super-easy to use and cost less than $200.

Brand Awareness

The more you share, connect with supporters, those who you can help, and others in the nonprofit world, you’ll be building awareness for your organization’s brand. And not just within your local area either, but nationally (or internationally).

Affinity

Sure, people know about you, but what do they think about you? By addressing things you uncover — both good and bad — from listening, by sharing your knowledge, and being generally helpful to those you connect with, you will increase people’s opinions of your organization. After all, it’s all about winning hearts and minds, right?

Promotion

This is the part that takes the longest to cultivate. After you’ve won the hearts and minds, you can then begin to promote yourself. Whether it’s for donation or volunteers, people will always be more willing once they’re fully aware of the good that your doing.

Of course, this is just a quick list. There are a variety of tools and strategies you can use to going in social media. Have a suggestion? What did I miss?

Earlier this week, Vanity Fair put out an article featuring 6 women they deemed “America’s Tweethearts”. Each of these women has garnered a significant audience through Twitter and other social media tools… but the main point the article seemed to stress was that these women were physically attractive (in addition to painting them as more than a little “cheerleaderesque.”)

The thing is, I don’t follow any of them on Twitter, and have actually only heard of a few of them. Maybe that’s a sign that I’m not as up on the social media game as I should be. More likely, it’s that their content isn’t what I’m looking for, personally — not because it’s not good, but because it doesn’t fit my interests and needs.

(That said, I saw a video of one of these “Tweethearts” interviewing an executive from an auto company this week that was simply awkward — perhaps “pretty reporter” syndrome has followed women into New Media, too?)

It wasn’t long after checking out the article that I began making a mental list of women — women that I have interacted with through social media, and many in person, too — that understand the unique attributes of social media, and how to use these tools to help businesses and non-profits, and further their own careers.

(They might well own trenchcoats and high heels, too… but how good they look in them doesn’t have much to do with their other skills.)

And so, I present my list of 10 Social Media Women That Deserve a Vanity Fair Article:

Alicia Staley (@stales) is a three-time cancer survivor using Twitter to build her charitable enterprise, The Staley Foundation. She is also a social media activist at WEGO Health, and many other places across the web where people are having important conversations about health care.

Amber Naslund (@ambercadabera) is a smart, crazily organized “social media and marketing crackerjack” who concentrates on effective community management with Radian6. Amber leads by example, and is one of the most thoughtful bloggers in the social media space.

Jennifer Leggio (@mediaphyter) is a high-level thinker (with a strong dose of practicality and down-to-earth perspective) and blogger at ZDNet, an online security pro, and co-host of the quick n dirty podcast. When Jennifer weighs in on a topic, people take note.

Meg Fowler (@megfowler), through her eponymous personal blog and a Twitter stream that, like her, is rarely “on topic” — though when she is “on”, she displays an amazing grasp of marketing and branding strategy — has built a career as a freelance writer from the ground up. (Oh, and she has fantastic taste in men, too.

Rachel Happe (@rhappe) is a connector of ideas and people, and speaks from a place of both vision and practicality. Her extensive enterprise business experience gives her an action-oriented view on community, which she is putting to work with her (and partner Jim Storer’s) Community Roundtable. If you mix Chris Brogan-eque perspective with her metrics-minded advice, you get a powerful 1-2 punch.

Rebecca Corliss (@repcor) has used her passionate love of music and social media to create innovative marketing campaigns for Hubspot. A PR pro by training, she shines in helping teach small businesses use inbound marketing, as displayed in her work spearheading Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing University.

Stefania Butler (@citymama) came to prominence as one of the original parentbloggers at her CityMama site (note: I didn’t say mommyblogger!) and continues to provide wise, sensitive community leadership across that space. You can find her working as a communications pro with her own Clever Girls Collective enterprise.

Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear) is an “intellectual magpie, finding what shines in branding, arts, higher education, and life.” (That’s an awesome Twitter bio! Who could say it better?) She worked for many years helping social organizations build brands, and now she’s helping brands become more social with Sametz Blackstone Associates.

Whitney Hess (@whitneyhess) is an independent UX designer, writer and consultant. She is sought after by a wide range of clients for her expertise in, amongst other areas, integrating social functionality into corporate web design. And if that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, she is also a much in-demand speaker in her field.

Zena Weist (@zenaweist) is a blogger, and digital and media pro with experience providing executive leadership in digital start-ups, account management with interactive agencies, and client-side roles in online brand engagement, project management, social media initiatives and web implementation. In other words, she walks the walk, and Zena is also an autism awareness advocate (how’s that for alliteration?)
UPDATE: Great timing, and proof of her business prowess, Zena has just accepted the position of Director of Social and Interactive Media for H&R Block. Congratulations, Zena!

Social media has changed many aspects of the world of marketing, from word-of-mouth to hyper-local and micro-niches (and other hyphenated terms). Marketing’s become much more a game of precision, rather than blasting out information – Seth Godin calls this the bullhorn.

This, for the most part is true. Except in the world of promotion.

In a recent post, Chris Brogan wrote about the benefit he derives from having a large following (a “bullhorn) on Twitter. As an example, he writes the following:

I get tons of value from Twitter every day. Heck, just today, I mentioned on Twitter that I’ve made the Roger Smith Hotel my exclusive hotel in NYC, and that spurred a new conversation with a hotel in Boston.

I replied with the following:

A Boston hotel reaching out to you versus Jeff Cutler, Bob Collins, Doug Haslam, or any number of other Boston-based social media pros — who are actually in Boston far more often than you (surely because of your work schedule) and regularly throw events in the city — shows that celebrity (the bullhorn) counts more than focused relevance.

The bullhorn still wins.

Of course, this is how it is, but not how it should be.

This hotel in Boston, looking to introduce itself as the place to stay in the city if you’re a social media person — much like the Roger Smith Hotel is in New York — figures attracting Chris’s attention is the way to go. Chris Brogan, by the nature of his business and the demands on his time, can be little more than a bullhorn for this Boston hotel. If Chris writes a tweet, as many as 115,000 people around the world will see it. Not a bad blast.

But 115,000 people aren’t all watching Chris’s twitter feed all at once. And I doubt Chris is going to send multiple tweets, staggered at different times, promoting your hotel (or anything really). He’s just not the kind of guy to do that. So the bullhorn is less effective for the hotel than it would seem.

On the other hand, if they reach out to a handful of local social media personalities (especially those that host regular events) and use the power of more people — with less followers than the bullhorn, but with a more dedicated community — spreading the same message, they would stand a chance for much more consistent promotion of their hotel and what they offer.

This is what the Roger Smith Hotel has done so effectively. When Brian Simpson and company started their campaign to make the Roger Smith the New York hotel social media people run to, they didn’t do it by focusing on a single, big name personality. They did it by reaching out to everyone.

Coming to town for a conference? Check out the Roger Smith!

Having a ladies weekend in the city? Check us out!

Need space to host BarCamp? The Roger Smith’s got it.

Want to grab a drink after work, or some brunch on the weekend? Check out Lily’s at the Roger Smith!

The way I see it, this doesn’t just apply to the hotel in Boston. Or to hotels in particular. Any hospitality-based business can garner larger support by connecting with groups of locally-concentrated social media personalities.

Less bullhorn, more handshake.

For more than three years now, I’ve been writing about Boston-area designers, products and events on DesignBoston. Promoting great people and their work is a great passion of mine, but I feel I can do more for them (and you) by talking about the best social media tools designers – whether architects, interior, or product – can use to help promote their own businesses.

Photo-Sharing Sites

Design engages several senses, but none more than the visual. Whether your work is buildings, rooms, chairs or devices, sharing photos of your work is a great – and easy – way to begin engaging with an active, interested audience. With over 40 million users, Flickr is by far the most popular photo-sharing service, but there are a variety of sites available.

On each of these sites, you can add titles, descriptions, and tags which will help your photos be found by people searching for similar content. For instance, the top result on Google image search for “Paul McCobb” isn’t from Wikipedia, Ebay or some online retailer, but from Norfolk, VA-based graphic designer Amber Karnes, who is very active on Flickr (and a big fan of Mid-Century Modern furniture in her home).

Video-Sharing Sites

Like photo-sharing sites, video let’s you showcase the visual attributes of your work, but adds motion and sound to the mix for an even richer experience. The largest video community, by far, is YouTube, but Vimeo, Viddler, and Blip.tv each have beautiful players, intuitive controls, and growing communities.

Or, you can use a service like Tubemogul and add your video to all of the sites. This way, your video is everywhere eyeballs are, giving you greater chances of connecting with someone looking for what you’re offering.

Blogs

Blogs have been around for years now, but I am still regularly asked about why someone needs to have one. Well, first, it gives you a place to tell your story – share your expertise about your field, show why you’re different than other designers. It also gives you a place to share the photos and videos you’re uploading. And the Search Engine Optimization benefits of blogs are outrageous; the more regularly updated, on-topic content your produce, but better your site will appear in search engine results.

For both this site and DesignBoston, I use WordPress. I like the customization options available with WordPress, and the fact the software is a free download – many web hosts have a one-button install for it, which makes it an easy choice. There are thousands of themes to choose from, or you (or a web designer) can create your own.

If Wordpress isn’t your thing, you can also use Typepad, Tumblr, Posterous, or even Blogger. The main point is to get content up for others to find.

Boston-area designer D Scale uses a blog to promote products that they either make or sell, and both photos and videos are used to great success. I would suggest that D Scale does less “look at this piece” and perhaps describe different situations — small space? blending styles? — and suggest how a piece or two might solve that situation.

Twitter

Twitter is where, more than any other place, you reveal your human side. Twitter takes all that makes up typical social networks — the profiles, the information, the photos and videos — and strips it away to just an avatar, a brief bio, and an input field. People follow you now for your fame or notoriety (although that may happen) but for what you offer them.

There are countless books and websites that you can read to learn how to best use Twitter. My advice: be yourself. If you’re excited about a new design, let everyone know. If you’ve hit a wall, it’s good to share that, too. And be sure to connect with those that you find interesting, so you don’t feel like you’re just shouting into the ether.

Local Interior Designer Charise Glasson uses to Twitter to gain and share design related news and information, and to connect with people both in and out of the design field.

Facebook Fan Pages

Having just passed 350 Million users, Facebook is the social networking community to be on, and if you’re a designer, a Fan Page is what you want. With a Facebook Fan Page, you can create the space on Facebook where both you and your fans can share information, links, photos and more.

Boston-based colorTHEORY have a great Fan Page. Every day, they post an “Inspiration Room of the Day”, as well as photos of projects as they’re completed. colorTHEORY’s fans vote on and leave comments, noting what they do and don’t like about a photo, piece or project.

Of course, I would suggest an integrated strategy using all of these social media tools, as opposed to focusing on just one. If you would like to discuss ways to integrate social media into your overall marketing strategy, please don’t hesitate to give me a shout.