chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

youtube downloader — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 05:08:45 -0000

# LinkedIn – Business social networking, and the top of the heap. It’s getting a little more interesting, because of their status stream, and the redesign.
# Twitter – Not everyone’s on there, but we’re more on there than Pownce and Jaiku. Why? It’s not because it’s better. It’s just because we’re all still there, because it’s simple, because it solves a lot of needs.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

keriannjohnson — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:21:03 -0000

Chris thank you for the great content and guidance, sometimes it can be overwhelming in determining where to begin when it comes to using social platforms.

I think when entrepreneurs are considering the use of various platforms for business; I think they should also consider the content which they share on these platforms. Sharing content that provides helpful advice and guidance could be beneficial for both the entrepreneur and consumer where the entrepreneur has a platform to highlight their expertise in their area, therefore building trust and rapport with members of the public, while consumers gain form useful advice.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Jim Lupkin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:44:38 -0000

Professional networks?

How bout one for Home based business professionals?

We built Ojeez.com for that purpose.

We are building version 2 in the cloud.

I hope to network with others that are reading my post. You can find me on Facebook : jimlupkin

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Doug Firebaugh — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:06:12 -0000

We have had a ning site for about 6 months, and have looked at several others, and ning I beleive rocks. It has provided a great service--and 'Hey all my friends are here' seems being replaced with "WHY am I really here?" Many early adopters seem to be looking more now for purpose and beyond just connection. Strange but true. Many folks seem to be tiring of the somewhat "kumbayah" syndrome and now are looking for a more concrete productive path in social media. At least from what I am finding.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Deborah Johnson — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:34:14 -0000

I'd like to see all these site current and future improve their search technology including how you can search, where you can search, what you can search and most important have word meaning disambiguation (i.e. understanding the proper meaning of a word within the context of how it is being used, such as "bat in cave" is a furry flying creature, not a baseball bat).

Search in it's current state, drives me crazy!

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Chris — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:57:55 -0000

Great article. It's great to get a nice little rundown like this of all the different sites out there. Sometimes I forget that I actually signed up for an account on some of them (stupid Pownce!). But no matter how many twitter clones are made, people will still find a use for them.

Back when I was working a 9-5, we realized that hi5 was the fastest growing network in south america, so we tapped that for a hispanic jewelry product we were working on. We saw that twitter was dominated by Obama fans (and then I later wrote about it on my social media marketing blog) so we used that in a greater capacity for our political blog community.

No matter how many of these little sites come along, there is always a marketing use for an entrepreneur that is in the right market at the right time.

-
Chris

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Keith Parnell — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:49:10 -0000

We have produced the JASEzone that stemmed from message boards that have been around for the softball community since 2001. The community is not specifically for sports-related relationships but 65% of its use is sports-related.

I agree that niche-related communities are the hip criteria and where people will migrate. Probably more so because niche communities can / will provided niche-specific tools for its users.

Great post, Chris. Even months later.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Pedro Mengas — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:50:04 -0000

Yes, niches will arise and are needed. But, first, a specialized search engine for social networks' (SN) object or reason to be is essential. Some tool where people can seek for a list of SN's based on, say for a very specific example, "the behavior of ants". And that search would only show a list of existing SN's related to our search. Does it exists already? If so, show me the light, please.

Otherwise, the search gets difficult as the web grows exponentially richer with SN's.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Steve — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:50:46 -0000

"Friendfeeder" - a reverse FriendFeed/personal hub. It needs contact and content management that delivers everything I write - addressed and/or tagged - to the people who want it based. Reverse RSS could be an analogy. Each of us would have one of these as our "home base" (like Facebook, MySpace today) and it would interact with others - receiving AND sending.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Wellness Hungary — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:24:34 -0000

Ria Kennedy:
In marketing, communication is the greatest factor. If you do not communicate with your clients or would-be clients, you are lost. And the more ways you communicate with them, the more of them are going to pay for your product or service.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Kevin McGarray — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:35:19 -0000

Nice post

thanks chris

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Steve Mills — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:03:09 -0000

Nice Overview Chris,

I have been using twitter a lot over the last month and have found it really interesting.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Mark Dyck — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:30:18 -0000

Great post Chris.

I'm interested in two aspects of 'what's next' for social networks:

- How to best mobilize the networks that we set up and/or join. Do Good, Get Things Done, etc.

- How to do this on a local level. How does the technology help groups that are also physically close?

I recently set up a network on Ning for a group of local parents to organize around an upcoming student exchange. Not a lot of early adopters in the group so it will be a real test -- for the technology (can these tools help us work together more effectively) and for me as community organizer (can I help people over the learning curve so they get value from this)

Helping the next wave of people over the hump -- from 'this is cool' to 'this is useful' is a big growth opportunity, IMO.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Chris — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:45:36 -0000

Some great insights...Chris you are right...the post is good, but the comments are great. I love the collaboration on this blog. Great job!

We are working on a project that we think is niche, but maybe not niche enough. Feedback on what we could do to enhance our offer would be fantastic. http://www.yourteamonline.ca

Thanks in advance.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Ria Kennedy — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:33:34 -0000

OK, so you go out and connect with people. THEN what? Do you just talk some more? And then talk some more? And then talk some more?

So the question is, aside from finding someone to chat with, what do social networks actually do for me? Or for anyone? They take a lot of time, if you join too many they scatter your focus, and they don't seem to get you anywhere.

I would look long and hard at the value it offered before making a longterm committment to social networking. Dare I say social networking is more a fad than a feature for quite a few businesses?

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

david — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:14:23 -0000

Margherita, I'm an entrepreneur and starting a social application portal for a particular industry. I hope to go live in May.

I'd love to hear your ideas please.

Thanks

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Shelley Champine — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:42:17 -0000

Leif - thanks for your input, I will check it out more.

Your statement before
"My concern is that early adopters are going to start burning out right as the ‘masses’ start joining in."

Caught my attention when first read it. Insightful.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Leif Hansen — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:20:22 -0000

Shelley, I've looked through your list and the only things that Ning don't provide, directly, are:
-Group Calendar/Events
(Which is strange, because there earliest version did. But you could always embed Google Cal...not too hard)
-Doc Hosting (though you can add doc attachments to every forum post, so that contextualizes it)

Otherwise, its all there. And you can add tons more with simple copy and paste, no need to be an IT guy/gal.

-Leif
www.SparkSocialMedia.com

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Josh Anstey — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:53:07 -0000

Nice post.

I have tagged you in the '8 little known things about me' meme.

http://blog.joshanstey.com/...

Check it out and keep it going.

Have a great day.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Margherita — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:47:47 -0000

I am on every social network still i find something is missing. A niche where you share your specific shopping tastes and connect and socialize through them.
Es. I am not a person, I am what I wear, I am what I listen etc. There are blogs about it but not social network. And if an entrepreneur is out there, i have some ideas!

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Shelley Champine — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:50:31 -0000

Yes Dimitris, you are right that Ning is a great thing but I need more than that. I need a packaged solution (not just a plug in) to take the "brochure" website of my Non-Profit Medical Society and create that "Anti-social Network" where my members meet, mingle and help develop content on the site as it suits their needs.

It has to be all of these things:
- Single sign-on and draw data from my existing CRM - only allowing authorized members
- Wrapped in a new, updated content management system website with efficient, simple navigation that can be easily administered WITHOUT an IT department
- Have mechanisms for "self policing"
- Be cheap enough for a non-profit
- Do all these things(list taken from a question on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/ans...
Group Blogging
Editorial blog powers
Categories
RSS feed aggregator
Event Calendar
Member profiles
Member Groups
Friend/follow functionality for users
Video /photo hosting
Interface to dynamically update homepage w/featured video, photo, blog posts, etc
Podcast embedding
metatagging
Event pages
Forums
Email / rss subscriptions
Doc hosting
PowerPoint/pdf sharing
Job Board

I've demo-ed Ning and looked at drupal and everything in the CMS Matrix tool http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ but I really think I need full service.

Some that I am actively looking at are myAmphi, HigherLogic & KickApps. Which ones am I missing?

[By the way, that question from LinkedIn is still receiving comments and I used it as a jumping off point to start a discussion group on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/gro... "How Non-Profits are using Social Media and Web 2.0" If anyone would like to take this discussion further, please meet me there. The group is just getting started.]
_

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Dimitris — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:29:04 -0000

Niche social networks are very hard to make en masse - even ning can't provide eg for every professional's needs - and its even harder to get those in the niche to make the network themselves. All I can think as a half-solution is a combination of plugins adaptable to particular niches and data portability (to make a plugin written in one niche usable in another)

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Leif Hansen — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:14:46 -0000

Oh, by the way, perfect case study for those that don't buy my above prediction:
Improv Everywhere posts their "New York Grand Central Station Freeze Stunt...in the first week, about ~2 million views...now at TEN MILLION views. Their "ImprovEverywhere" Ning site (pointed to on the youtube channel) now has almost 14,000 "agents" in hundreds of cities around the world. Boom daddy.

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

Leif Hansen — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:08:28 -0000

Chris & Jason...

Re: "I think the social network as many know it today is dying…People want more than just a place to connect. They want a place where they can get relevant content, news, advice and information."

I'd take it even one step further. People (again, at least us early adopters) are not only tired of 'friending'...I think many of us are also tiring of info (overwhelmed!) and entertainment (bite my zombie ass!)

My hunch is that this year we'll see the rise of 'action-based' and/or 'real life enhancing' new social media. I don't know what name to give it yet, what to tag it, but I know its coming. The 4th wall is coming down.

I'm actually surprised at how slow developers are to catch on to the power of substantive social-networking. Besides minor attempts by sites like 43 folders, Zeenami, and Limeade, where's the social-networking site designed to help me achieve my goals by making my goals public, hooking me up with other people with similar goals, helping us be accountable and support each other, and connecting us to relevant resources?

Peter Brown's 'RealityAllStarz' is a fun example, but personally I think his vision is too small.

Social Networking
+
"Life as Adventure Game" paradigm
+
Real life goals and dreams

=Social Playformation (accelerated transformation)

Enough rambling.
-Leif
http://www.SparkSocialMedia...
http://www.SparkNorthwest.com

Re: Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

chrisbrogan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:35:22 -0000

I think Jason's right. The novelty of "hey, all my friends are here," or "hey, I can make friends!" is wearing off. We get it. It *can* be done. But then what? What does a growing social network do ultimately to your blog? Anything? To your business? Unless you can USE that network in meaningful ways, mobilize it, etc, what does it do for you?

So, lots of interesting thoughts.

And yes, I like Ning a lot. Still haven't met and spoken with Marc and Gina, but I've talked with them, and met some of the rest of the team, so I'm happy there. : )