Chuck talks Business

I have been reading lately about some pet peeves of mine in this whole brave new Social Media world.  During the summer I wrote a post called Know, Like and Trust a Twitter Trilogy.  Since then some things have gone from strange to just plain silly.

Here are some observations from other people and some comments of my own:

Joel Comm, you may know him from his book, Twitter Power.  (I’m honestly not sure if that is an affiliate link or not.  Just in case the disclosure folks are looking.)

He wrote a post the other day on his blog called.  “I purged my twitter account.”  Read it, there are some great observations about the status of twitter and social media in general.

Seth Simonds recently did an article called “Why I canceled my Facebook account.”

Here’s my little experiment.  With somewhere around 2,000 followers I just kind of dropped off the twitter map in August.  No tweets, no manual anything.  I did have an autofollow set up, so that I automatically followed anyone who followed me.  My thought was that it wouldn’t be an issue because I wasn’t actively tweeting, so who would follow me?  Wrong!

From August to Thanksgiving my twitter followers increased by about 800.  That freaks me out!  In that time I received 364 twitter Direct Messages.  That’s pretty close to half and a good number of them were essentially, “Hey, buy my stuff.”

It got to the point that I didn’t even look at a DM before I deleted it!  So, I ask you if half of the new followers auto DM with no value add, how long to do you expect that model to last?

Your turn, am I off base, or do some of these tools risk going from just plain useful to just plain crappy?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Chuck Smith Social Networking, Twitter, Uncategorized Twitter

In Detroit we’re Kickin’ it 1-2-3

1 - Community

This is our house, “The D”, Hockeytown.  We are Southeast Michigan, we are Detroit and we are not rolling over and playing dead contrary to popular opinion in many media outlets.  You are gonna have to come bigger and harder if you expect a little recession to stop us in “The D.”  With Detroit, I am of course talking about Detroit city limits, the Suburbs, Ann Arbor and all of Southeast Michigan.

We have 5 major research Universities.  Some of the best Health Care Facilities in the World and too many artists and attractions to list in one blog post.

2 - Great Organizations

The first one is Social Media Club - Detroit and Ann Arbor

Thanks to @jesssoul and @davemurr for getting the group going!

The account is @SMCDA2 and the hashtag is #SMCDA2

The wiki is here.

We are changing the Facebook Group to a Facebook Page and I will update this post with links when it happens.

I did a little video essay from the first meeting.  We are asking the big questions and coming up with BIGGER Answers!

We talked about a number of issues in Social Media and Topics for our Program Committee to take on:

Detroit Awesome
Trends
Detroit Social Media Evangelism
Responsible Usage - particularly for younger users
The Business Case for Social Media
Common Challenges
Putting it all together
Presence Management
Showcasing Detroit Artists
Just a little video of folks Sharing It

The second great organization is Motor City Connect.

I grabbed @CharlieCurve to talk about it a little.

@MotorCity

The LinkedIn group is here.

As Charlie said, @TerryBean is the Chief “Ask” Officer.  If you have no idea what that means, get connected and ask him!

3 - Great Charities

Red, Green and Sledgehammer

Red - American Red Cross - Southeast Michigan

Green - Operation Kid Equip

Sledgehammer - Detroit Blightbusters

Again, I grabbed @CharlieCurve to talk a little about it:

I’m curious about what’s going on with building communities and strengthening relationships in other parts of the country world.  I know there are some folks out there talkin’ smack about the Motor City and us folks in the Midwest.

Just remember, we are giving blood and carrying Sledgehammers!

The first word in Social Media is Social, don’t keep it a Secret.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Chuck Smith Leadership, LinkedIn, Networking, Social Networking, Twitter Community, Detroit, Marketing, MCC, Motor City Connect, SMCDA2, Social Media, Social Media Club, Twitter

Converation with a LION.

What exactly is a LION?

LION stands for LinkedIn Open Networker.

Steven Burda is one of the ultimate LIONs.  With 39,000 connections and nearly 1800 recommendations on LinkedIn, Steven is one of the most connected people on the network.  These number and his non-profit approach to networking have earned Steven the nickname, “The Mother Teresa of Networking.”   On May 5, 2009, I interviewed Steven and discussed a number of issues.

How he got started in networking and LinkedIn.

How he “pays it forward.”

What does it mean when you press that “I don’t know this person” button.

The number of invitations that you can send. - 3,000

Newer limitations to the number of connections you can have. - 30,000

New restrictions on group managers.

Open networkers have several groups on LinkedIn.  There is also a service that allows others to send you invitation requests every Tuesday.

Chuck Smith LION, LinkedIn, Networking, Social Networking