Social Media | A Sales Guy

Social Mentors

Fred Wilson wrote a great post the other day called, Role Models. In it he talked about the importance of role models for young entrepreneurs who are just starting out. I agree with him. No one makes it alone. Having a mentor can make all the difference.

Mentors are hard to come by. It’s not like they have a Walmart for mentors.

The mentor/mentee relation can take time to develop. Other times it’s a simple introduction. Despite how they are developed they are normally off-line, face to face, personal, relationships. One of the most difficult parts of finding a mentor is access. Successful, accomplished experts are hard to come by.

Fred’s post got me thinking. Social media is providing a new type of mentor, a “social mentor.”

Social media provides the two critical pieces of mentorship; access and information.

Mentorship is about providing guidance, experience, knowledge and support. Social media, through it’s blogs, comments, Tweets, Fan Pages and more allows an informal mentorship to take place. Blogs share experiences and information. The comments allow readers to ask questions. Overtime, the author and regular commentators build a relationship. The author becomes responsive to his or her regular readers and provides provocative, informative, answers to their questions. The same applies to other social media sites. The experts engage with the novices and share their experience and knowledge. Bang! A “social mentor” relationship is created.

I’ve seen examples of this all over the web. The best example I’ve seen is Fred’s blog. Fred writes great informative posts everyday. He receives 100’s of comments on those posts. He has a good following of regular commentators who comment often; asking questions, and engaging with Fred. I can’t prove it, but I’d be willing to bet a number of these people see Fred as an informal mentor.

Social media is changing a lot of things. How we define mentors is one of them.

Nothing will replace the power and benefits of an offline mentor/mentee relationship. But where it used to be all or nothing, social media is creating a very happy and beneficial medium.

I’m beginning to find a number of social mentors. What about you? Who are yours?

Looking for a Mentor? Entrepreneurs Roundtable Can Help (centernetworks.com)
Mentoring (darcknyt.wordpress.com)
Shopping for a Mentor (myventurepad.com)

January 27, 2010 | Filed under: Entrepreneur, Leadership, Personal Development, Web 2.0/Social Networking | Comments |

A Day Without Social Media

Yesterday I was off the grid. I didn’t post to this blog. I didn’t have my Tweet stream up. I didn’t read any blogs. I didn’t visit Facebook, or LinkedIn. I didn’t check in anywhere using Foursquare; that’s probably because I sat at my desk all day. I was off the grid for pretty much the entire day. (OK, I did tweet twice)

Being off the grid was strange. I definitely noticed a difference. My day was less interrupted, more focused, and in many ways more productive.

I usually start my morning reading my RSS reader. I then check my Twitter stream and then do a blog post. Throughout the day I follow my Twitter stream, retweet good sales posts and tweets I like as well as keep up on events of the day. I get much of my news from Twitter. At the end of the day, I check Facebook, add a quote or good story to my Tumblr page and read some more blog links I liked.

Being on the grid, helps me stay connected and keeps me informed. I like the flow of information, the relationships and discoveries being online creates.

Despite how much I enjoy being connected and all the benefits it provides, something strange happened in my one day sabbatical. I was more focused. There were fewer distractions. I didn’t feel the stress to deliver good content. I didn’t feel the pressure to share or to “give”. Being online is as much about sharing and giving as it is about getting. It’s what’s best about being online. However, yesterday, for me, I learned it can create a lot of pressure and distractions.

One day off the grid was a relief. It was focused on one thing. I got more done. It was nice.

Despite the relief from my one day sabbatical, I missed being online. I enjoy it.

In the future, I think I will take more days of “the grid”. They are good recharge moments. However, the next one won’t be because of a big project deadline. I’ll do it just because. It sounds nice.

Social Media Strategy for 2010: How To Avoid Social Media Distractions (windmillnetworking.com)
Can social media distract you from your real friends? (cnn.com)
Making Social Media a Tool, Not a Distraction (mashable.com)

January 23, 2010 | Filed under: Random, Web 2.0/Social Networking | Comments |

Talkin’ Smack; What Do You Have to Say?

I love the discussion on this blog and the conversations that happen on other blogs I visit. I think that is one of the best things about the web and social media. To those of you who visit often, you know this about me.

I’ve always loved a good conversation and debate. I love dinner parties for this reason too. There is nothing better than having a table full of really smart people sitting around talking about a good, profound topic. Discussion is energizing. It brings people together. It expands ideas. It challenges perspectives. It expands perspectives. It creates camaraderie. It’s fun.

Knowing this, I’ve been looking for a way to create more dialog. I wanted something where people could be heard. I wanted it to be real time and open to everyone, not just a few “select” people and I found it in TalkShoe.

TalkShoe in TalkShoe’s words:

“TalkShoe is a service that enables anyone to easily create, join,
or listen to Live Interactive Discussions, Conversations, Podcasts
and Audioblogs.”

In other words, TalkShoe let’s a bunch of people get together and talk via the phone. Think about it like a public web conference or conference call.

I dig this idea and have started a series of events called, Sales Smack. Sales Smack will tackle sales, business, marketing and entrepreneurial topics. They will be controversial, challenging and unique topics; topics that traditionally have multiple opinions and camps.

Why Sales Smack?

I think it will be a great way to learn, grow relationships, and get new information. Because it’ll be frickin’ cool to rap with all of you! It’s our very own sales dinner party.

There will be a Sales Smack event every two weeks. The first event will be Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. EST. You can check out the event here.

The first topic; “Is Sales Responsible for a Companies Growth?” This has been a wildly debated topic on this blog, so I thought let’s keep the discussion going.

What do you think? Do you have something to say?

January 6, 2010 | Filed under: TalkShoe Events | Comments |

Don’t Follow Me on Twitter

I have 884 Twitter followers as I write this. It’s not a lot, but it’s not a few. I have a very active and engaged Twitter following. They are good peeps. Thanks all!

I follow 324 people. That’s not a lot either. But, it’s a 324 people who have impressed me with their tweets and their online engagement.

I use Twitter for information and to build relationships. Relationships and information are how I determine who to follow, who to RT and who to engage. I don’t fish for followers. I don’t follow people in hopes they follow back.

When someone follows me, I check out their profile, read their recent tweets, check out their bio and their blog and then determine if I want to follow them back. It’s pretty simple.

Lately, somethings been happening that is bugging me. I’ve been getting followed a lot and when I go check out their profile they are no longer following me. There have been times where I liked someone, and followed them back, only to have them have to refollow me, because they stopped following me after they started following me. I don’t like when people manipulate the system like this. It is in authentic.

In social media, authenticity is everything. Trust is paramount. I don’t trust anyone who appears inauthentic. Baiting me to follow you is inauthentic.

Don’t follow me unless you like my tweets, you like this blog, or you find me engaging. I don’t need my email cluttered with follower bait.

I’ll follow you if you tweet good stuff, and are engaging; whether you follow me or not. To me it’s not about the follow, it’s about the engagement and that’s authentic.

December 28, 2009 | Filed under: Asset of The Future, Web 2.0/Social Networking, What I Think! | Comments |

25 Reasons Your Social Graph Will Matter

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know what I think of an online presence. I believe it will be the most critical asset a person owns. It will be the asset of the future. It will be worth more than any other asset you have. If I haven’t convinced you yet, maybe this will get you there.

Your online presence will matter because;

Social media creates social capital. Social capital is a predictor of income and wealth
Gen Y will out number baby boomers by 2010, 96% of Gen Y has joined a social network,
Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web
There are over 200,000,000 million blogs, at least 100,000,000 million of those bloggers tweet or blog daily
33% of all internet users read blogs,
33 Million Americans have rated a product, service or person using an online rating system
78% of consumers trust peer recommendations – only 14% trust advertisements
80% of employers use social media to find candidates
45% of Employers use social media to screen or vet potential candidates
35% of employers decided NOT to offer a job to a candidate based on information uncovered on social media sites
18% of employers HIRED a candidate BECAUSE of their social presence
25% of college admissions use social networks as part of the admissions process
43% of people in the US Google (doogle) a first date
12.5% of all couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
42% of all adults have said they or someone they know has been helped by following medical advice and health information found online
At lease one person, using social media, avoided highly invasive spinal surgery
Those with lower social capital, have a higher mortality rate -they die earlier
There are over 1 Billion Internet devices
There are 6 billion internet searches on Google a month
1.6 Billion people access the web via their mobile phone – that’s 1.6 billion people a click away from info about you anytime anywhere
The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the total population of the planet
355 Million users on Facebook
Avg. time spent on Facebook: 20 minutes a day
19 Million people on Twitter
83 Million people generated some form of social media in the US

BONUS reason- Since 1985 our “core networks”, our offline networks of friends and family have shrunk by 1 person.

Personal networks are moving online. Social capital will be created and leveraged using social media. Social capital correlates heavy to someones overall success. Without social capital, there is little success. Developing and managing their social graph will be the most important thing someone can do

An online presence will be the most valuable asset a person will have, worth even more than their home.

Are you convinced?

UPDATE: Made a mistake on the statistic “50% of employers HIRED a candidate BECAUSE of their social presence” I’ve changed it to 18%. Thanks to Marty for getting me to double check stats.

December 7, 2009 | Filed under: Asset of The Future, Web 2.0/Social Networking | Comments |

How Long Before Someone Dies on Twitter

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace, Blogging, and more have us all sharing more and more information. We’re sharing what we had for dinner, what we think about our job, who we’re dating and more.

Soon someone diagnosed with a terminal illness will share their experience dying on Twitter, using it to share the emotional journey? I can see the #hashtag being something like #withdignity, or #noregrets. I imagine the person Tweeting their treatment experiences, their thoughts and emotions around family and friends and to some extent their inner thoughts about what it’s like to know you are going to die.

Dr. Randy Pausch author of the Last Lecture shared his experience of being faced with a terminal illness. His Last Lecture gained instant internet popularity and his appearance on Oprah launched him into a world wide celebrity. His experience reminded us all how valuable life is and helped us all focus on what we have, not what we don’t. It’s not inconceivable to think people would be drawn to a Twitter version of this.

A recent study said Twitter and other social media users could “become ‘indifferent to human suffering’ because they never get time to reflect and fully experience emotions about other people’s feelings.” I’m not so sure. Under the right circumstances,I think it just may have the opposite effect.

Dying has traditionally been a private thing. The death journey is usually experienced for the first time in adulthood when a parent begins to suffer from old age. Death as a journey has traditionally been something we have avoided and therefore something we rarely have the opportunity to learn from.

Death is inevitable. Experiencing death in a positive way could re-shape our perspectives on life. It could have tremendous impact on the decisions we make and how we treat each other.

Millions of people’s lives were affected by Dr. Paush tragedy. Someone is going to die on Twitter someday and it may actually be a special thing.

Someone will also get Married, Divorced, Have a Baby, and more all on Twitter and we will all be the better for it.

UPDATE: via Twitter “@geechee_girl several people have already died on twitter, visibly and painfully, after suffering cancer, etc” She also let me know that @pistachio built her following by sharing every bit of her divorce. It’s going to be interesting to see more of this with even greater traction.

November 22, 2009 | Filed under: Web 2.0/Social Networking, What I Think! | Comments |

How Has Social Media Affected You?

Many of you know I’m writing a book with co-author Leslie Poston based on a post I wrote a while back; Online Presence – Asset of the Future: Why Your Social Graph Will be Worth as Much as Your Home

The web and social media are fundamentally changing the way we interact and connect as a community. Most notably it is changing how we network. Peoples network has been a valuable component of our lives for years. It has helped us get jobs, get movie recommendations and even set us up on blind dates. As social media grows and our presence online increases, our off-line network is quickly being replaced by an online network. This new online network is going to be far more influencial and life effecting than anything we’ve seen to date. Our online presence is quickly becoming the center of our world and will impact the most important and sensitive aspects of our lives.

Leslie and I have come across some amazing stories of how social media has impacted peoples lives. We have found compelling medical stories where peoples lives were saved and unnecessary surgery was avoided because of social media. There are those we’ve found who have met their soul mate. We’ve found stories where people have gotten their dream job. Then there are the stories of those who used social media to help others in need. We are coming across amazing stories, stories of average, everyday people whose lives have changed because of the power of social media. Some changed in monumental ways, others in small but impacting ways.

We are excited to share with you the powerful story unfolding in social media and the Internet. There are millions of people who are asking why? They are asking why do I care about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging and the rest. They are skeptical, they are hesitant, they don’t see what many already have and that is social media is changing the way we connect, and the way we network. Social media is quickly moving from being a nice to have to a must have and our book; Online Presence-Asset of the Future: Why Your Social Graph Will be Worth as Much Your Home is going to share how and why social media matters in our lives.

Tell us your story. We want to know how social media is changing how you think, work, share and engage. If you have some research you’d like to share or a great story send us an email to onlinepresence@assetofthefutre.com

Don’t be shy, we know there are more good stories out there. We’ve just begun to scratch the surface.

October 25, 2009 | Filed under: Asset of The Future | Comments |

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