8
Other Social Networking Tools
After reading this far in the book, we hope that you fully understand the value of top sites like Twitter and Facebook. But how do you sort through the rest of the story? How do you figure out which of the new sites are best for your personal branding quest?
Fear not! We are here to lead you through the new social networking mire as new networking tools pop up on a regular basis. This chapter defines the top five social networking sites that may be new to you but are building the social networking and personal branding scene by the minute.
Google+
When we wrote about this in 2012, Google was calling their Google+ network a Facebook rival, and we even said, “it might actually succeed.”
It didn’t.
A few features and social products make this social network unique and some are similar to that of Facebook or Twitter. Although Google+ may look like it’s dying to the outside world, there are actually plenty of enthusiastic Google+ users.
The great thing about Google+ is that it’s a small community of rabid fans, people who truly love the network and have created or found a small group of people who also love what they love. Google+ will never replace Facebook, but it sure does attract people who love a wide variety of topics. These features are among its users’ favorites:
• Stream: This is what you see first when using Google+. It’s the area of your page that shows what your friends have posted since your last visit. It’s like your Facebook feed, but more, well, Google-y.
Want to know how to update your Google+ status? Look at the top of the stream in Figure 8.1. Erik’s stream starts there. If Erik wants to share something new with his network, he types into the box that says, “What’s new with you?” Type your content into the share box, and include any links or photos you want to add. You can share text, photos, videos, and links—all the juicy content you want to produce to build your personal brand story.
• Collections: This is sort of like your blog home in the Google+ world. There are collections on just about any topic, from productivity to underwater photography to history’s greatest last stands. You follow a collection just like you would follow a Twitter account, and you’ll receive notifications whenever a new post is added to it.
Figure 8.1 Type in your updates just like you would in Facebook, LinkedIn, or even Twitter.
• Communities: This is the group or forum function of Google+, similar to LinkedIn’s. And just like Collections, there are Communities for just about every topic you can think of. When we were working on this edition, we found Communities for travel photography (531,000 members), Marvel fans (630,525 members), and radio control airplanes (95,514 members).
If you want to find a place where you could develop your expertise in a subject, Google+ may be a nice place to start. You can find a small group of experts to learn from, and you can jump in and join the discussion right away. As you write new articles or read other articles and blog posts, you can share all of that in a Google+ community, which can also help boost your personal SEO efforts.
Quora
We talk a lot about using social networks to display your expertise and tell your story. There is no better site on the net to display your intellect than Quora, a social forum that enables users to ask and answer questions on varying topics that relate to their professional or personal lives. It is truly a knowledge engine. Frankly, it’s one of the easier places to write new content and share it with others.
You have three ways to join Quora: through Facebook or Google or by email. Fill out your profile, add some credentials like education and experience, upload a good photo of yourself, and select a few topics you know a lot about. Then, choose some areas of interest and start looking for questions to answer, or just ask a question or two yourself. Use it to build your personal brand in a variety of ways:
• Build thought leadership: Any question-and-answer site (like LinkedIn) lets you ask insightful questions that pertain to industry trends or new topics entering your network. When you ask or answer a thoughtful question, you show that you are building your knowledge and staying on top of industry trends. You can also share your answers on Facebook and Twitter, or you can copy the URL of your answer and add it to a LinkedIn status update.
• Build your network’s knowledge: By answering others’ questions, you are adding to the knowledge of your personal network, which creates a foundation of trust. When you answer questions thoroughly, you can become the go-to person for that industry, which increases your visibility and presence in the market.
• Stay in touch: Quora enables you to follow certain individuals and topics related to your industry and your passions. By keeping in touch with people in your network, you may be the first to hear and respond to trends relating to your industry.
• Link everything: Like many social networking sites, Quora lets you link to your blog, other social networks, and your company website. Share your knowledge with those networks, but don’t overshare your thoughts.
• Vote up often: The site also lets you vote on answers and questions relating to your niche. If you agree with someone’s answer to a question, you can vote it up so that it appears higher on the list of answers. This will increase your visibility as well as that of the person you voted up; your name appears next to the “Vote Up” button, and his name appears higher in the list of answers. This builds your credibility with key players in the Quora world.
Quora has settled into a nice groove as a question-and-answer social network. And that’s all you can do with it—people ask intelligent questions and give intelligent answers. There’s no sharing of cat videos or annoying gifs. It’s a place to learn and teach. Quora is the best place to gain credibility and focus within a given trend or industry.
Meetup.com
While Meetup.com doesn’t fall within the strictest definition of a social network, it does something other social networks don’t: encourage people to step away from their computers and meet each other in person, focusing on their shared passions for computer coding, filmmaking, business networking, creative writing, speaking conversational French, LGBTQ issues, dragon boating, kite flying, tiny houses, or beekeeping. Figure 8.2 is the opening screen of the Meetup website, where you can explore different groups in your area to find the ones that interest you.
Figure 8.2 Meetup.com is a great place to find people who share your passions and interests and meet them in the safety of a public place.
Because we’re big fans of real-world networking and meeting people face-to-face, you know we’re big fans of Meetup.com.
When Erik moved to Orlando, he immediately started looking for different writing groups, social media groups, and business networking groups in the community. He used different keywords like “writing,” “creative writing,” “social media,” and so on.
He tried out several different ones, stayed with the ones he really liked, and now has one group he regularly attends, the Writers of Central Florida or Thereabouts. He even became the emcee of a humor-based open mic night. Figure 8.3 is the home screen for his writers group.
To get started on Meetup, create an account, and then fill out your profile. Select as many personal interests as you can to find the groups that might appeal to you. It’s better to start off with too many and pare it down, because you’re more likely to find the groups that appeal to you this way. Many of the groups use several similar tags—writing, creative writing, short stories, aspiring authors, fiction writers, and so on—but you’ll start to notice patterns and find more popular tags, while weeding out the low-value tags that might not yield very many interested (or interesting) people.
After you find your groups, visit their Meetup pages. Look for groups that meet regularly, have met recently, and have another meeting coming up soon. If you find a group that hasn’t met in a couple years, drop it because there’s a good chance they won’t be meeting again any time soon.
Figure 8.3 Erik was able to find a writers group that suited his particular needs: the chance to stand up in front of a lot of people and be the center of attention.
Keep an eye out for the number of members too; that’s a good indication of a group’s health. A group with only 20 members doesn’t have a good chance of surviving very long, but a group with a few hundred members will, even if 95 percent of them don’t attend the meeting. (Of course, if you start a group, you’ll pull your hair out trying to figure out why 95 percent of the people who joined never show up anymore.)
Don’t forget to connect your Facebook profile to your Meetup page, because it’s a great way to see which of your Facebook friends are also using the network. You can see which groups they’ve joined and which ones they spend a lot of time visiting. They can even give you some recommendations about which groups to join or avoid, and when you attend your first meeting, you’ll already know someone, which can make taking that intimidating first step a little easier.
Email Newsletters
We’re a little torn on the use of an email newsletter for a personal brand. It’s a great idea for companies to use. The marketing team can reach customers, potential customers, and even partners and vendors.
But it may seem a little odd and puffed up to have your own personal newsletter. We understand the feelings—we’re both from the Midwest, and so something like having your very own newsletter seems a little like bragging. However, this is not so much about “look at all the cool stuff I’m doing” as it is “look at all the important industry knowledge I want to share with you.” Still, we can see why having an email just about Kyle Lacy or Erik Deckers would be more than a bit arrogant.
Instead, your newsletter should be on some aspect of your personal brand—the skill you want to be known for, the industry you’re trying to break into, or even one of your personal ventures, like your professional speaking career or consulting. We know several solo musicians who have their own email newsletter, as do several speakers, actors, and even writers. Erik has had an email newsletter through Yahoo Groups since July 2001 where he shares his weekly newspaper humor column, while Kyle has a newsletter associated with his website, KyleLacy.com.
@kyleplacy: Yeah, and I noticed you just signed up for it last
night!
@edeckers: I didn't know you still had it. I thought I signed up
for it years ago, and I figured you weren't publishing
it anymore.
@kyleplacy: Do you even read my blog?!
Of the few dozen email providers out there, we specifically like MailChimp because it has a free option for small subscriptions (as many as 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month). Otherwise, just Google “free email newsletter” or “free email newsletter services” to find several different options.
The best way to start your newsletter is to sign up for the service, put the subscription box on your website, and then publish an issue once a month or even once a quarter.
But be careful that your subscription popup box doesn’t get too obnoxious on the mobile version of your website. Google will penalize your site, mobile, and desktop, if your interstitials—email popup boxes—cover more than 25 percent of the mobile screen.
You can always write new articles to share with people, but a great source of newsletter content can be your regular blog. Paste 100-word snippets of the month’s best posts into your newsletter template, with a “Read More” link, so people can click it to read the rest of the article. Not only does this boost your blog traffic, but you can measure those clicks inside your newsletter provider’s site to see which kinds of articles generate the most interest among your readers.
Podcasts
Podcasts are the radio shows of the 21st century. Although podcasting’s roots go way back to the 1980s, it really started to catch hold in 2004. Back then, you could produce these little radio shows and share them online for other people to download and listen to on their own time.
While the concept hasn’t changed much—they’re still pre-recorded shows that you can listen to at your own convenience—podcasting has matured and grown as an industry. Now, 112 million Americans have listened to a podcast at least once and 67 million listen to them monthly.1 (No one seems to track the global listening numbers.)
Podcasting as a form of personal branding is taking hold as more people are finding their passion, and then taking to the online airwaves to talk to people about the thing they love or want to be known for professionally.
Listen to Podcasts
Before we discuss whether you should podcast, and lose the interest of those of you who don’t want to, we want to make a strong push for you to listen to podcasts on a regular basis.
You can find podcasts on nearly every subject, especially ones related to the thing you want to promote as part of your personal brand. If you’re an accountant, there are accounting podcasts (probably). If you’re in marketing, there are plenty of marketing podcasts. There are writing podcasts for writers, book review podcasts for book lovers, beer podcasts for home brewers, cooking podcasts for home chefs, and parenting podcasts for parents. (Dave Delaney in Chapter 12, “How to Network: Hello, My Name Is…” had a parenting podcast with his wife Heather for several years. Or check out One Bad Mother or Mom and Dad Are Fighting, from two editors of Slate magazine.)
Why Podcast?
Park Howell, the personal branding storyteller we mentioned in Chapter 2, has his own podcast, “The Business of Story” (BusinessOfStory.com), in which he talks about the importance of storytelling to film makers, TV writers, actors, and even marketers. He does it to support his own work as a professional business storyteller.
Mignon Fogarty from Chapter 1 started the “Grammar Girl” podcast to tell people how to use grammar and punctuation, then turned it into a small empire of advice-based podcasts at QuickAndDirtyTips.com. She’s managed to also turn that into a series of New York Times-bestselling books. Australians Kate Toon and Belinda Weaver run “The Hot Copy Podcast” (HotCopyPodcast.com), which is for and about copywriters and their craft. They don’t talk about creative writing, long-form journalism, or even any type of nonfiction. They only talk about copywriting, because it is a great way to promote their own copywriting webinars and learning materials.
Not that financial gain is the only reason to have a podcast, but it certainly helps. If nothing else, some podcasters make only enough money to cover their hosting costs, while others make a decent living as a result of their podcast—landing new clients and paid speaking gigs—but not as a professional podcaster.
What Do You Need?
One of the benefits of podcasting is that the barrier to entry is fairly low: All you need is a microphone and some audio editing software, like Garage Band for Mac or Audacity for Mac or Windows. It doesn’t have to be complicated—you just want to be able to take out any flubs, mistakes, and long pauses.
You can also drop in some theme music. Search for “Creative Commons music” and check out sites like CreativeCommons.org or FreeMusicArchive.org for a good opening theme. Don’t just pick your favorite song off the radio, because it’s protected by copyright laws and you’ll have a team of lawyers who want to have a quick and expensive word with you.
Of course, there’s a higher bar of success. You don’t want just any old microphone; you should invest in a high-quality one, like a Blue Yeti or Audio-Technica ATR2500-USB Cardioid Condenser. A quick bit of research will show you any number of choices, many of them $150 to $200.
You also want to find studio space where you can soundproof, or at least sound deaden, the room so you can get that full studio effect without any ambient noise spoiling your recordings.
What Should Your Podcast be About?
As far as your subject matter goes, go back and reread the section in Chapter 3 on finding your niche. Everything we said there will be true for your podcasting niche as well. You want to find the area you want to be known for. But be careful you don’t pick a well-populated niche, like business or marketing.
There are already hundreds and hundreds of podcasts in those two fields, and although it won’t take a lot of effort to get good at podcasting, you’ll find you spend much more time promoting your podcast to get people to listen to it than you spend producing it.
So focus on a particular niche within marketing—brand storytelling, copywriting, cable TV advertising, the history of print advertising, and so on—and spend your time doing that. You may not get as large an audience as you had hoped, but you’ll have a group of devoted fans.
If you can’t find a topic that works for your business interests, but you still want to produce a podcast, then start one about your favorite hobby. If nothing else, this introduces you to a whole new audience of people who might never know you otherwise.
For example, Scott Monty (former social media director at Ford) and Burt Wolder (professional copywriter) have hosted the “I Hear Of Sherlock Everywhere” podcast (IHearOfSherlock.com), and they now host the much shorter “Trifles” podcast, which focuses on details in the 60 original Sherlock Holmes stories.
Producing the Podcast
Try working with a co-host, or at least do a regular interview show. People often get bored hearing the same voice over and over for several minutes without a break and tend to tune out. But having a couple of voices can help hold a listener’s interest.
Marty Wilholt and Larry Niece produce “The Eephus Podcast” about weird happenings and unusual events in professional baseball. The two work from a pre-written story, but intersperse each episode with off-the-cuff comments and jokes, which makes it much more enjoyable to listen to than a single reader droning on and on without a break.
Additionally, commit to a schedule of podcasting. Produce a few episodes in advance—called “having a few in the can.” Try to have a month’s worth of podcasts waiting for upload. This way, you always have a built-in buffer in case something goes wrong for a week.
Once you get into the rhythm and flow of things and know you’ll never pre-empt your podcast production schedule, then you might be able to flirt with disaster and produce your latest episode the week it airs. Otherwise, be diligent and work ahead.
You’ll also need to decide whether you want a video or audio-only podcast. Generally, we recommend audio podcasts (despite telling you in the last chapter that video is ideal content). If your video podcast is just you and a co-host sitting and talking on camera, that’s not as interesting as you might think.
Sure, you and your co-host are both good-looking, but viewers can only look at attractive people for so long before they get bored. Besides, producing video can be more difficult and time consuming, plus it uses up more high-speed bandwidth. If you’ve got the capabilities for high production values and can do things like split-screens and switching camera angles, like on an interview television show, then use video. Otherwise, stick with audio only.
PERSONAL BRANDING CASE STUDY: JOHN J. WALL, MARKETING OVER COFFEE PODCAST
John J. Wall has been a regular podcaster since 2005 when he started a short podcast called “The M Show.” Two years later, he started producing the “Marketing Over Coffee” podcast with co-host Christopher S. Penn. It’s a high-level marketing podcast geared toward professional digital marketers, and Erik has even been an interview guest. (He’s hoping this case study will snag him another invite….) John is also the VP of Marketing at EventHero, a trade show and event management registration tracking system.
Marketing Over Coffee” is a once-a-week show that explores the latest developments in marketing technology, especially web analytics, digital marketing trends, and, lately, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. They even have sponsors who support the show, which is a goal many podcasters have but not many realize. Still, that’s no surprise: the show is downloaded more than 10,000 times every week, which is more reach than the average speaking tour.
John enjoys doing the show because it has allowed him to connect with people all over the world.
If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be able to talk with people like Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, and David Meerman Scott [leaders in the social media and marketing worlds—Erik & Kyle] on a regular basis I would not have believed you,” said John.
Both John and Chris have been able to meet their favorite authors, talk to people from all over the world, report live from Dreamforce (Salesforce’s major annual event), and even get recognized for their work by Inc. and Forbes magazines.
But best is knowing that he’s not only built up a reputation for himself thanks to the podcast, they’ve also been able to help other people do their jobs better.
When people look to you for tips, tricks, and insight to help them be better at their job, they consider you a friend,” said John. “I always love how when I meet a listener, they tell me great stories. They know that we already have a lot in common and I’m going to understand what they do for a living. Every marketer has great stories and jokes that nobody around their family dinner table understands.”
(It’s true. When someone laughs at “yo mama is so mean she’s got no standard deviation,” you know you’ve found a fellow marketing analytics junkie.)
Of course, like true statistics, podcasting does have its ups and downs. John says one of the things he likes least about podcasting is something he says he stole from Seth Godin: “Knowing that half the shows will be below average.”
John says that sometimes producing an episode is like capturing lightning in a bottle, and other times, he and Chris are fighting the episode every step of the way. But as long as listeners find something useful, or are at least entertained, he’s pleased with his work.
If you decide you want to get into podcasting, John suggests getting three essential things: a subscription to Zencastr, a cloud-based podcast recording service; a set of professional headphones (John actually makes his own brand that he modifies for podcasting and sells online); and, an audio editing program that also offers a corresponding Udemy online learning course (like Audacity, Blender, or Handbrake).
In the end, John is so invested in podcasting, even his personal branding advice is influenced by it: “Be able to introduce yourself (and your brand) clearly and concisely.”
We couldn’t say it much clearer ourselves. (Or is that “much more clearly?” Well, we messed that one up!)
How Does This Apply to Our Four Heroes?
Now that we’ve given you a few new tools to use, let’s look at how our four heroes would use this new information:
• Allen (influencer) spent 14 years as an account manager in a marketing agency, so he has a lot of expertise in account management, marketing campaigns, and ad creation. He’s also looking for a job. Allen needs to do some additional networking at his regular American Marketing Association meetings—he can look on Meetup.com for any local meetings of marketing professionals, creative types, or even just straightforward business networking groups. He can also use Quora to help answer questions for other marketers, which will boost his credibility for potential networking targets. Finally, podcasting might be a good outlet for him to share advanced marketing ideas, which he can then share with potential clients and employers. He could even consider interviewing those same people as a way to introduce himself to them.
• Beth (climber) wants to become the chief marketing officer at her current employer. Insurance marketing is a specialized niche, which makes Quora an ideal tool. She can answer questions and build her reputation with fellow professionals, which can give her more opportunity to showcase her knowledge. She can also use an email newsletter for other insurance marketing professionals, if she wants a way to specifically reach people in that field. This can help her become a thought leader to the entire industry, not just her company.
• Carla (neophyte) has left a career in pharmaceutical sales and wants to become a program director or development director at a nonprofit. Although the for-profit and nonprofit worlds are different, some of the ideas are the same, like getting people to give you money in exchange for something.
• Darrin (free agent) is an IT professional who spends his days troubleshooting computers, and he moves from employer to employer every two or three years. He’s almost a commodity in the IT field, so he needs to distinguish himself from every other IT professional. Google+ is currently used more by the technical elite, making it the perfect site for Darrin to start networking with individuals within his space and sharing cutting-edge information. Quora is another good choice because he can share knowledge with people with questions he can answer.
1. http://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcast-research/the-11-critical-podcast-statistics-of-2017/