How to Be Naked (and then, how not)

• Be who you are, not an icon. People want the real public face of you (at least, the “best of” you).
• Speak like a human. Try removing jargon and business-speak. No one says “next generation” in person.
• Go where the people are. If you’re not at the face-to-face events, you’re not really committed to the larger opportunity. (This is really subjective).
• Be ready to apologize. If you do something wrong, say so. (Mind you, be clear on what the legal implications of saying such might be.)
• Ask about other people. If you’re using social tools to try and drive business, be a human about it and ask people about themselves, too. If you’re not participating in both ways, you’re acting like you’re using the community.
• Be helpful. It’s not always about pushing your brand. Sometimes, the best way to get results is to help others be successful. Can you equip others to do their job better? Do that.
• Be there before the sale. The best way to drive stronger marketing experiences and convert people into customers is to be there long before you need something from people. Sure, it takes longer, but I’ve seen lots of situations where this is what brought in the big sale over another person. If your prospect feels like she knows you, it works really well.

You don’t have to do any of this. You can just keep doing what you’re doing. But if you’re wondering why social media stuff isn’t working well for you, look at the list above and decide whether you’re giving this work the effort and intent that it requires.

What do you think?

When I get in the cab at the Park Plaza hotel in Boston, I engage my driver by apologizing for interrupting her lunch break, and asking her how much of the day is left. She says, “Too much,” and sighs a bit. I ask her how she’s doing.

The stories in the car are between this woman and myself, but we have quite a back and forth about her life, about family, about cultures and how difficult it is to make relationships work when some very basic cultural similarities are missing. It was a great conversation, where we both told each other small stories of our lives. I leave her cab happy, and she seems a bit more peppy after the conversation, too.

About 10 minutes later, I realize that I’ve left my suitcase in her trunk. Worse, that suitcase has my very expensive Nikon D60 camera in it. Even worse, I’ve picked up this cab without calling, and paid cash, so she is completely unknown to me.

I call the dispatcher, who had no idea how to determine which Afghan woman had picked me up, and who essentially told me to call the Boston Police Hackney Unit’s lost and found. I did this. Calling lost and found meant just calling an answering machine. No humans. By the way, that was days ago, and still no response.

At this point, I’m fairly sure my bag is gone. I’m reasonably sure this woman will discover the bag, and if she chooses to turn it in, will no doubt keep the camera. There’s no reason for her not to do so. And having just watched a TV news undercover report on how honest people aren’t (17 out of 17 people failed a simple test), I wasn’t feeling especially positive about my chances.

Flash forward about an hour and a half from when I realized the bag is gone. I’ve been to three appointments and lunch. I’m now standing exactly where the woman dropped me off. I am on a phone call when I look over and I see her pull up. Yes, the cab driver who has my bag has just pulled back up.

“I figured you were in a meeting, so I waited about an hour and then came back.”

I can’t believe this. There’s my bag. Completely intact. I give her a big hug, give her money equivalent to 2x the original cab ride (which probably still isn’t enough, given how much she saved me), and we part.

Was the storytelling and conversation itself what brought my bag back? I feel it was. Was the connection we shared in the cab better than the connection with the dispatcher who did nothing to help me? Definitely. Do I see that this kind of interaction (being human, caring about others, telling stories) offers a measurable ROI in business transactions? I say so.

My total expenditure: $40 (or so) plus a heartfelt conversation. What it saved me: $1000 (or so).

Yep, that’s ROI to me.

What do you think?

What follows is a video from the flash panel. I hope you’ll watch it and share your thoughts.

SXSW Flash Panel: Corporations & Social Media from Kipp Bodnar on Vimeo.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

It’s what Sylvie Barak at the Inquirer reports that makes it more interesting: Intel says “There are many ways to measure battery life. We believe the best way to determine how to measure battery life is by making proposals and debating it in industry consortiums and not via blog post.”

The article by Barak is a bit heavy on smackdown against Intel. You might get a more measured piece from Engadget (but not by much). And as a quick bit of disclosure for all sides, let me say the following: I am friends with some folks at Intel like Ken Kaplan and Bryan Rhodes, to name a few, and I am also friends with many folks at AMD, and might take on some project work for AMD over the next few months about social media and Internet marketing strategy. What’s most interesting to me is the notion of whether or not corporate blogs that face the customer (be that B2B or B2C) are the appropriate place for conversations about business matters.

Announcing a Flash Summit at SXSW To Discuss the Issue: Monday, March 16th, at 4PM Central Time

I asked AMD if they could come to a flash summit at the Pepsico Podcast Playground area on the first floor of South By Southwest (SXSW) and be part of a conversation with many other corporate bloggers, as well as other social media types. (Another quick disclosure: Pepsico is paying me to make some media there in general, but they sure didn’t sign up for this. Thanks to Bonin Bough for letting me steal the space for an hour.)

I will be seeking out and inviting bloggers from Intel, FedEx, Dell, Nokia, Best Buy, GM, and any other corporate social media types, as well as anyone else who wants to be part of a discussion about this point. Bloggers and media makers of all kinds are invited to participate in the experience, and to hear what matters in the realm of corporate blogging.

Not Intending to Disrupt SXSW

There are other events going on at SXSW at 4PM, and the people who put those panels together are very passionate and eager to connect with you. It’s not my intention that you shift plans away from the many great presentations that have been prepared for and scheduled by passionate speakers and thinkers. If you are a SXSW speaker and are on at 4PM, I’m sorry for any unintentional disruption. It wasn’t meant with disrespect.

If You’re Available, Please Participate

The goal of this experience is to talk about how corporations use social media, but then it’s also a chance to think about what you (in this case, “you” equals me and you and everyone when we’re on the “customer” side of the wall) want from interactions like blog posts and the like.

Will you join me?

Photo credit Stuart Frisby

A Crash Course in Comments

First, the Basics

1. Give to get - If you’re not leaving thoughtful comments on related blogs without spamming them about how awesome your blog is (or how awesome you are), then you’re missing the first big secret of comments. Comment elsewhere. Find the good stuff, add your two cents (and not just “great post!”), and watch the authors and other readers visit your site.
   
2. Double Vision - Double check that your blog design puts a “comments” link at both the top and the bottom of every post.
3. Please Spammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em - Make the sign-in process super easy. (Annoyingly difficult CAPTCHA is a quick vote for no comments.)
4. Spread the Comments - Comment platforms like Disqus are now much easier to integrate with your site, and have lots of added features. (See an example at my Dad’s Poker Blog.)
5. Patrol your spam filter to make sure good comments aren’t being eaten. (Happens often to me.)

Getting Comments By Tailoring Your Content

The truth is, once the mechanics are out of the way, here are the most likely ways to improve your blog to get more comments.

6. Brevity rules - The shorter the posts, the more likely people will stop and comment.
7. Answer “WIIFM” - If you write posts that answer any reader’s primary question, “What’s In It For Me?,” you’re far more likely to get comments.
8. Ask questions - I always encourage your feedback. Why? Because the value you give me in my comments section is way better than anything I could ever write myself. Ask questions.
9. Reply as often as you can - I am the #1 commenter on my blog. I’m not always as responsive, and I don’t always answer every single comment, but I learned early that if I respond back, I get more follow up thoughts and ideas in the comments.
10. Give your ideas “handles”- If others can take your ideas and run with them, they’re apt to comment on their gratitude, and/or their new variation on what you did. Encouraging that is a great way to build more conversations.

The Bonus Round

11. Promote others- Finding ways to promote the people who visit your blog, to praise your community, to engage them on their own blogs and sites, are all ways to build a relationship that gives back.
12. Offer some tech help - On my blog, I use a WordPress plugin called Subscribe to Comments. You might offer that, and/or an RSS subscription to the comments feed. In fact, if I were clever, I’d add that RSS to my comments section. It’s often better than the post.
13. Experiment - I’m not sure why we don’t, but if you’re writing the same thing over and over and no one’s commenting, STOP WRITING THAT THING. If something doesn’t work in the mainstream media world, editors make changes. They fix it. Do the same.
14. Be Your Own Editor - That’s one position most media makers don’t seem to give themselves. Edit your posts to be better, tighter, more punchy, more useful. The better your work, the more comments you’ll get.
15. Use an outpost strategy to get more attention.

In Lieu of Comments

One quick note: when folks don’t have time to comment on a post, but they like it, what I hope they at least do is share it via the various social systems. Meaning, if you don’t have time to comment, but you’re reading a good post in Google Reader, share it. It’s as rapid as hitting Shift-S. That one gesture does something for the work. Ditto using StumbleUpon or Delicious. Using social sharing gives a post more chances to be found and enjoyed by others. Doing this gives more back to a blogger, so when you can’t comment, consider sharing something forward for others.

What’s Worked for You?

I don’t have all the answers, for sure, but I’m grateful for the comments I do receive. What’s worked for you? Did I miss anything you’re doing that’s worked for you? What else haven’t we covered here? Oh, and did you notice how blog design and graphics make a difference?

Photo credits polandeze, KevinDooley, Rita Banerji, and iandeth, in that order.

Interactions Are The Same

At CES2009, I met many people, including Kirsten Wright. Kirsten is a creative copywriter from the Orange County area of California, and very engaging. Her best trait, in my opinion, is how she learned to become bold. I enjoyed breakfast with her at the Bellagio Cafe, and imagine we’ll be working with each other in some way in 2009, given her talent and energy.

I also had opportunity to talk with Robert Scoble about the innovation and immediacy of manufacturing in China while at Jeff Pulver‘s Social Media Jungle. Robert had a few moments to talk with me in between talking with other folks at the event, as we both enjoy meeting new (to us) faces and learning about people. The interactions between Robert and Kirsten were the same. We both talked. We both had something to say. We both were excited for a moment together.

I spent time with people like Ria Sharon and Ted Murphy and even waved hi to MC Hammer. (Yes, THAT MC Hammer). I spent time with everyone from superblogger from ReadWrite Web, Sarah Perez to handsome Ben Grossman to Tim, my cab driver who had a future in stand-up, if ever his wife lets him.

The Point Is: People Are People

I had the opportunity to speak for an hour at Las Vegas WordCamp, and I think the number one thing I heard back from people was, “Wow, I didn’t realize you were funny.” This poses two problems: one, my wife tries to disabuse me of the notion that I’m actually funny (to keep my ego level) and second, I really am funny and personable and comments like that make me worry that you think I’m fancy or something. (You know who you are, “fancy” caller.)

Is it Numbers?

I think people get confused by numbers. I am followed by 33,000 folks on Twitter. I had 245,000 unique visitors last month. I’m #6 in Advertising Age’s Power 150, #68 in the Technorati Top 100. Numbers, numbers, numbers. I think that’s part of the problem.

Because, even though I use those numbers as a gauge of what I’m doing here, what I spend my time and attention on is making connections. Many hours out of every day go into making relationships with you. Look at any given page of my twitter traffic. Realize that I’m my own #1 commenter on this blog. I spend hours every day answering email and phone calls from folks who often times want nothing more than to connect.

Scale is One Issue

One way that people might mistake someone for being worthy of a pedestal is when that person gets so busy that simple contact isn’t as simple. It’s hard to keep up with everyone in Twitter ( I’ve written about how I do it here). I can’t answer every email, etc, etc. But that doesn’t make us any difference in importance, or either of us any more or less worthy of respect or human treatment. It just means that sometimes someone is very busy and can’t manage all the different requests made.

I look at people like Peter Shankman (who I finally met in Las Vegas) and Guy Kawasaki and Jeff Jarvis and oh so many others, and I know that they struggle with managing scale, too, and yet, they all try. Everyone tries.

The Confidence Game

Perhaps the only difference that seems palpable is that, because I’ve had a lot of positive social proof, you might perceive a certain confidence in me that would make you worry that I’m not just like you. There’s some truth to the fact that the way the world responds to my work makes me feel better, but know also that I’ve worked long and hard on making my internal opinion, my self-opinion, the most important voice in my confidence. It’s probably in this area that the potential for accidental pedestals comes up.

But ask anyone who’s spent any amount of time with me how they were treated. Ask them whether I bragged about myself or if I snubbed them the moment someone more ‘famous’ showed up. It’s just not in my game (or in anyone worthwhile that I’ve met who qualifies as famous, Internet or otherwise) to treat someone badly based on some kind of perceived status.

With that said, know that you are valuable. You are important. And never intimate or believe that you are somehow lesser or not worthy, or whatever words spring to mind. Not to me, not to anyone worthwhile.

Want more thoughts on this? I wrote about this in a post entitled Be Sexier in Person.

I value your opinion.

Photo credit, Klearchos Kapoutsis

My Vision of Paris

I only know Paris through the words of others, but here’s what I see: little coffee shops with no more than ten tables. I see little bags of groceries, you know those types in movies, with the baguette sticking out? (Always with the baguette). Everything there is neighborhood-sized. People walk or at the worst ride a bicycle. The mod use scooters. But they don’t span the whole city. They stick to their bank, their tribe, their cafe and their cheese shops of reference.

In this world, no one cares what large companies are doing. They buy what they like. They talk about what they like. They consume what their friends and neighbors consume. It’s nothing if it’s not something they need.

My Vision of Springfield

In every city USA (and this isn’t a bash on USA, but I’m talking about consumers), we are in a weird crux. We care about what car to buy next. We roam the grocery store aisles wondering what’s an interesting new snack to put in our kids’ meals. We are thinking about the holidays, the movies, the whatever else needs buying. Even in a credit crisis, we’re thinking about how we can spend more, and our government wants us to spend more, too.

Big Business Needs Mass Communication

Why should Best Buy try to reach the one when they do much more business trying to reach the one million? Who at The Home Depot is thinking that talking back and forth with folks on Twitter is important? One person at a time isn’t who buys things on a radar-shaking level.

Last summer, I met the CTO of Thomson/Reuters at a private event where I spoke. He was a smart man with a lot of responsibility. He didn’t even look at projects under $5 Million, meaning his employees handled those “little” projects. I asked him what he was worried about on any given day. His answer: nanoseconds. He was thinking about the speed of the world’s financial data.

This is not a man who needs to care if there’s a friending feature that would appeal to his typical customers.

So why?

Cafe-Shaped Conversations

I think we’re moving towards something and I don’t think it’s going to be an easy shift. I don’t think social media just plugs into the marketing mix, though sometimes others prove me wrong. Alan Scott, CMO for the Dow Jones shared his 2008 marketing spend and there wasn’t a dollar allocated to social media. Instead, he used social media as just another card in the marketing deck. He doesn’t treat it poorly. He just doesn’t call it out as anything really different.

For the rest of the world, I believe that there will be some issues with how social media delivers. I think some companies will want big conversations, mass messaging, when what we’re offering are cafe conversations. We’re offering the intimate, the personal, the chance to talk in numbers of dozens and hundreds, and to make the appropriate kind of impact.

So Why Am I At The Cafe?

Because I think that’s what’s selling. I think we’re buying that way. I think that telling you about my experience with Jameson and Bank of America will be the new influence. I think that full page ad in your local newspaper is nowhere near as impactful as what I hear about on Frugalous.

I think the cafe is where the action is. I think that your $15,000 an hour film crew can’t beat my Flip Mino and a personal touch.

Should Big Businesses Play?

Yes, if they are ready, I say that big businesses should play. But, take a look at Mitch Joel‘s thoughts on whether or not your company might be ready. If you can’t answer that list, then maybe you’re not ready for the cafe.

Dell has brilliantly executed Digital Nomads as a content marketing platform around a specific product niche. It works because we’re here and they’re talking to us in our language. Will other companies have it so easy? Scott Monty at Ford is trying hard to help them move the Ford Flex into our hearts via his social media efforts. Will it work?

The cafe-shaped conversations that we are finding through social media are more meaningful, more impactful, and have a chance to spread and overtake other mass methods. And yet, they need tending. It’s like watching a small cafe pour an espresso versus getting a cup of joe at the local McDonalds. Completely different value propositions from the start.

Are there places for both? Sure. Should we throw out everything mass and switch to everything cafe? No.

So in the end, the question is more this: where should we employ cafe-shaped conversations (social media) and what should the desired results be? I have some thoughts. What are yours?

Photo credit, Shahram Sharif

I’ve recently started using BrightKite again, specifically because of the iPhone application. The application is reasonably simple: map your GPS coordinates to a specific location and then allow you to annotate that area with text or a photo. So, I can be visiting a place like St. Petersburg, Florida, and I can check in. I might take a snap of the hotel where I’m staying, and I might add a note like “the coffee here is horrible, but there’s a Dunkin Donuts a few blocks west.”

Someone else in the area who is using the same application might now see this update and realize two things (depending on my privacy settings): 1.) I’m nearby. 2.) That the coffee at the hotel stinks. In both cases, this information is only available through the use of this software.

But it’s like glyphs. There’s a whole sense of meta information that is passing between people that you might not know is there. (William Gibson covers this beautifully in the not-science-fiction book, Spook Country.)

How Does This Impact You?

Services like Twitter and FriendFeed and Flickr and Facebook and LinkedIn and more are hosting conversations around you that might be of value to you. You can’t always tune in, but if you don’t even opt to build a PORTAL into these areas so that you can learn what’s being said, you’re missing out on information that might add to your business needs.

If you’re not using services like Yelp and BrightKite, (and you could name several others), you’re missing some of the glyphs and warnings we’re leaving on the landscape to tell you about the way things are versus the way things are marketed. You’re missing chance encounters. You’re missing stray opportunities.

Again, you don’t have to get involved. It’s just that we are, and we’re passing many more notes than you can imagine.

Participating in the Annotated World

There are many projects here. There are many ways to add to this body of work. If you think about it, we are helping a web of human information exist and think. We are directing warm information to where it’s needed when it’s needed without a core leader. It’s quite a project, if you think about it.

Here are some ways to feed the network:

• When you’re somewhere new, snap photos and post them to Flickr.
• Take photos of people at events and post the good ones. Add their names and companies to them.
• When you post photos in Flickr, when you can, add contextual information about where.
• Write reviews for places and services in Yelp.
• Use Twitter at conferences.
• Add hash tags to events. (We used #nms08 at the New Marketing Summit. It just means type #SOMETHING at some point in your twitter post for tracking purposes.)
• Add hash tags to specific presentations if you think Twitter will enhance it.
• Provide information about places. I tweet traffic jams.
• Build human networks to feed information through. Find people who share like interests. (There are 40 groups listed on Facebook for “cartographers.”)
• Participate in wikis and shared information building projects. The rewards of such projects are better community. (Look at what Colin Browning has started at Constructing Social as a tool for mapping social media resources, for instance.)
• Share the good stuff. When you see great blog posts, tweet about them, reblog them, pop them up into Delicious and StumbleUpon so that people might see them and benefit from them later. For instance, I’m collecting social media case studies. I’d love more of those. When you find them, and if you use Delicious. just add a tag that says: for:chrisbrogan , with the colon in there. Pow. It lands in my box and I can add it to the file.

There are conversations – rich dialogues and information sharing experiences – happening with or without you. Several of them have business value. Many can impact your life. Get in the habit of using Twitter Search to find out about places and events and people before you visit. You’d be amazed what you turn up.

Is this making sense? Do you get where I’m coming from? Are you already participating? Or does this scare the poo out of you to consider?

This is related but not. It’s a fascinating book worth checking out of your library:

Thanks for your thoughts. Trust agents are attuned to these glyphs. I just want to share the premise out further.

Photo credit, CosmoPolitician