Your Social Media Basic Training. Where to Start.

On September 29, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson
BootCamp

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Someone asked me yesterday to share with them where I get my news from. What feeds did I subscribe to and who did I follow on Twitter. Well I subscribe to 401 blog feeds and follow 3500+ people on Twitter and each source was manually added by me over the last 3+ years. I’ve worked my way up to where I am and I don’t recommend anyone try and get to where I’m at from a stand still.

So here is a list of my recommendations as to where everyone should start. For many of you this may to basic, if so pass it onto your friends who are just getting started.

  • First off if you’re not using Google Reader you need to. There is no better feed reader out there right now.
  • I believe social bookmarking is a basic tool everyone in this space should be a  using. Go sign up for Diigo right now. I prefer it over Delicious (but that will work too).
  • Next, sign up for Posterous if you aren’t blogging yet and start using it.

Now for the feeds. Visit each link and add each site to your feed reader.

The People

These are the people that are pioneering this space. Read each and every blog they post. I’m happy to report that I’ve met all of these guys in real life, except Peter Kim (but we’ve talked on the phone so that’s almost the same), and they’re all genuine, smart and all around good guys.

  1. Marshallk Marshall Kirkpatrick is the VP at ReadWrite Web and one of the best new journalists out there, IHMO.
  2. ChasNote Chas Edwards was co-founder or Federated Media but has moved on to Digg and covers the digital advertising space.
  3. Web-Strategist Jeremiah Owyang is probably best known for his work at Forrester and is now a partner at the Altimeter Group.
  4. Louis Gray is a prolific geek blogger and probably one of the more consistent bloggers on this list.
  5. BattelleMedia John Battelle the founder of Federated Media, author of the Search and a really smart guy.
  6. Steve Rubel recently gave up blogging for life streaming and besides being a smart digital PR guy he has tons of tips and tricks that will make your life better.
  7. BeingPeterKim Peter Kim, also from Forrester and now with the Dachis Group is one of the leader taking social into the next phase of business.
  8. Mike Manuel is one of the hardest working PR people in this space and sadly doesn’t blog nearly enough but it’s worth subscribing to his feed for when he does.
  9. Scobleizer Robert Scoble, love him or hate him, he is a force unto himself.
  10. Global Neighborhoods Shel Israel, is co-author of Naked Conversations (along with Robert) and recent author of Twitterville.

Bonus Homework. Each of these blogger is on Twitter and instead of making it easy for you as you subscribe to each of their blogs also find the link to their Twitter account and follow them.

The Tech Blogs

This is the source of news for our industry. These blogs all post at considerable volumes. You don’t have to read every post. Try to at least skim their headlines but if you fall behind just mark them all as read and move on,

  1. ReadWrite Web My personal favorite tech blog. Unlike many bloggers they consider themselves journalists and the post with that level of quality.
  2. TechCrunch The grand daddy tech blog but is a business not journalists.
  3. Mashable the current leader in site traffic but is a more geared towards social media marketers as much as the tech crowd.
  4. GigaOm doesn’t often get the credit that these first three do but is right up there in traffic and quality.
  5. Venture Beat has always been a  little more focused on the money side of the equation but is really steering more into main stream waters lately.
  6. Gizmodo is high volume, pure geek, tech and WTF. Don’t even try and read every post.
  7. Engadget more tech than you could ever handle.
  8. PaidContent The content side of the business and one of my favorites.
  9. The Next Web social tech geek from across the pond.
  10. TechDirt all this overlap in tech content and social ends up with a lot of stepped on toes. TechDirt is the best source for the legal/business side of all this. I promise it’s better than I made it sound.

That’s probably enough for now. Are there any must read blogs I didn’t cover? Leave a link in the comments.

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You Do Not Have to be Social Media Famous.

On August 10, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson
Almost Famous album cover
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I see a lot of marketers get into social media with the goal of being the next Steve Rubel, Louis Gray, Robert Scoble, Chris Brogan or Jeremiah Owyang. Really? That’s what you want? Why?

Don’t get me wrong, I know all of them and they are all great. They deserve their “fame” (assuming that’s what they want). They’re brilliant and nice guys despite it all.

But why would you want that headache?

I guess it’s some basic human desire to be famous. Even if it’s just “famous” in certain circles .

Personally I like being a lurker, being on the fringe, an outlier of sorts. I like being able to speak my mind and not have hundreds of people argue with me. I like not having to worry about everything I say being scrutinized. I don’t have to worry about the barnacles of social media latching on for a ride. I don’t have to worry about people I’ve never met hating me.

I think some people believe in order to work in social media they have to be Social Media Famous. I’ll tell you a secret; you don’t. You don’t have to be from Silicon Valley (or in Steve’s case NYC) you don’t have to have tens of thousands of subscribers to your blog or hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter.

You are not them and you don’t have to be. You may be brilliant. You may be a nice guy/gal. I have worked as a social media professional for the last 5 years and never had anywhere the “fame” others do. (And I don’t want it.) Yet I’ve still managed to turn social media into my career.

Here’s my secret:

Whatever you are doing now, turn that into a social media job.

Seriously try it. I don’t care if you’re a fry cook or an accountant. Unless you’re in the Marines you can make social media a significant portion of your current job. Learn the tools and figure out how to use them in your job. Social media is not just about marketing.

I’ll tell you the down side: It will take a while. It probably won’t take you years to do it like it did for these early adopters but it may take a while. It also takes personal investment. You may have to start learning these tools on your own time. Consider it night school. Eventually it’s all you’ll be doing. Just ask Heidi Miller.

The next 5 years are going to see social media become a part of every job out there. Some more than others.

But stop worrying about how many followers you have. Stop worrying about how many subscribers you have.

I’m also not saying you should do social media in a vacuum. That kind of defeats the purpose. It’s nice to be connected enough to get feedback and participation.

So, to paraphrase Tyler Durden:

You are not the contents of your Twitter stream.

You are not your blog post.

Nothing is static. Everything is evolving.

I say never let me be an A Lister.

I say may I never be Social Media Famous.

I say evolve and let the tweets fall where they may.

This is your life and it’s ending one status update at a time.

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Why haven’t we seen Fake Re-Tweets on Twitter

On February 18, 2009, In New, By Tac Anderson
Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

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We’ve seen tons of fake Twitter accounts but something I’m surprised we don’t see on Twitter is the Fake Re-Tweet #FakeRT (You could also start with FRT, but the 10 yr old in me giggles every time I see that) Things like:

RT @louisgray I secretly like the Zune sooo much better than the iPod #FakeRT
RT @chrisbrogan I’m really identical tripplets, it’s how I get so much done #FakeRT
RT @DoctorJones I really wish I’d gone into advertising #FakeRT
RT @Jowyang I’m bored with social media #FakeRT
RT @peterkim I am declaring myself THE social media expert #FakeRT
RT @tacanderson I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m just making it up #FakeRT (wait, that one’s a little too close to home)

Maybe it’s because we’re all “friends”? That can’t be it because the people I make fun of the most are my friends. Maybe it’s the fear or retribution? Maybe it’s because no one has thought of it yet and I’m sick for even bringing it up?

I don’t know why but I’ve been wondering for a while now why we haven’t seen it yet.

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