The Social Media guru Liz Strauss has granted this blob with the official SOB approval. Therefore this blog "takes the conversation to its readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger." You may read Liz on her blog Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers).
What would make you successful in social media?
According to Twitter superstars, success in social media doesn't come easily. But most of all, it requires a talent. "How do you teach that?", "It is very hard. You must speak from the mind and the heart. In clear, you have it or not." Not satisfied with this incomplete answer, I found the need to dig a little bit more. Here is what I come up with:
Where does Twitter success come from?
If you look at all the hours you need to spend posting, replying to people, trying to interest and engage, strategies; you need to work tirelessly. And you need to do so constantly for months before seeing real results. In my opinion, it's not only a matter of talent. There is a lot of good communicators. But you need also perseverance - A lot of perseverance in fact! And perseverance comes from motivation.
Where do they find their motivation? How can they keep doing it day after day, non stop? Hanging out with social media gurus and Twitter Lords, I came with the following observation: The indefatigable need to connect with a large audience is based on a "cry for love". Here are the stories of the ones who have opened up (names are removed). They are not a selection. It's the 3 stories I heard from the 3 major Twitter gurus that I have met:
Some Real Stories
Person 1:
"I'm the second child of my family. The first died a baby and my parents named me with the same name. I always felt that I was stealing someone's life and not truly belonging to my family... Since then, I have this need to be irresistible in everything that I'm doing."
Person 2:
"My father was traveling all the time. I was raised alone. After he died, I learned that he had a another family in another city."
Person 3:
"I was a single mom, I was struggling. I had nothing for me. Then my child was hospitalized and I was accused of molesting. I felt horribly alone and rejected from society at all level... People on Twitter took care of me. They wrote me. They helped me out and eventually I was proclaimed innocent. Twitter drives on Love."
These people are famous Twitter Gurus. Where I'm from, In Quebec, the most influential social media expert changed his name from "Michel Leblanc" to "Michelle Blanc". Yes she is openly a transsexual and works openly as one. Her blog is full of interesting studies and advices on social media as well as full of posts on the transsexuals' reality.
These people can't be reduced to these stories. They are visionaries, professional experts and they care and give a lot to others. They have created communities around them as well as rich inner worlds that they like to share. They build on their weaknesses - weaknesses that they surprisingly btransform into straights. In a way they are little geniuses driving people with dreams and aspirations. Each of them is very different.
The first point here is that each of them has a strong cry for love that keeps them going, and going, and going. That point is surprising and, probably, significant.
But there's more than that. The second point is that our affective injuries define our Voice. Our flavor comes more from our bad experiences than the good ones. It's in the way we present things when we write and we Tweet.
Our affective injuries or deprivations are our motivation. They define what we are missing, what we need to fulfill, what attracts us, what we want to talk about, how we want to talk about it, where we want to bring it. These 4 extraordinary stories have created 4 extraordinary Voices, very different from one another.
Your Cry for Love
So you want to be successful? What is your cry for love?
With your story, you may answer that question. That question has many forms: Why do you want to talk about things? Where does your heart-broken-motivation come from? Which affective deprivation is present in every word that you type? What is your weakness that makes people vibrate to your Tweets and call them closer to you? What defines your Voice and therefore, your personal branding?
The question becomes even more interesting when it applies to a brand. Many companies would like to be successful in social media. What is the Cry For Love (CFL) of your brand? What are the past emotional injuries and deprivations of your company? Where competition has really caused damage and left marks? Where did your customers leave you? Is the brand really young and new or does it have an history? Where do you separate the personal CFL of the VP marketing and the one from the Brand?
We are used to hearing you say the nice things about your brand. But to touch us, you'll have eventually to expose your vulnerabilities. There and reach a point where your words will find resonance within your audience. Generally, that point is reached when you are true to yourself. That point is your "affective effectiveness".
You want to be successful? Find your CFL.
Note from the Author
Stories are not Cry for Love. Stories are the beginning of introspection. 3 people revealed their stories but I don't know their Cry for Love. Only they know. I wouldn't be fair to them to reveal their stories without opening mine and illustrate concretely what I've defined above as a Cry for Love.
STORY: I was two and a half years old playing in my room. My parents were talking loud in the lounge, then the lobby. The house door slammed. I recall the noise. I heard my mom crying for about a minute then she opened my door. Daddy-has-left. When-is-he-coming-back? He-will-not. Do-I-have-to-go-too? No-you-will-stay-with-me. I-want-you-to-know-that-we-both-love-you-and-you-will-see him-anytime-you-like.
Two and a half years old. Still fresh. Still hurts sometimes. I do love my parents and I know they love me with all their heart. I've never had any doubts. My story isn't that special. My point here isn't to complain. Divorced parents are common - my motivation for becoming a social media superstar won't be that strong. The point here is that an introspection effort has to start here to understand where does our Voice come from and therefore, understand how to use it. That is a key facet in building our personal branding.
My parents break up defined my Cry for Love. It tainted my interactions with others for the rest of my life. It put in me the affective foundations that, even though they loved each other, Mom and Daddy broke apart because they didn't get along anymore. Therefore, in my little boy's head, should I want to stay with my mom and dad, I had to behave and make sure that they were happy with me at every second. It took me 25 years to reach the point where: Communication is not only about saying what other people want to hear.
CFL: I guess, my Cry for Love today is that I need to be able to say what I think. I need to give my opinion without having to please others. You can feel it in every post I write even though I'm being nice. I need at some point "tough love" talks to believe in a relationship or a topic. Telling a client what I really think, or writing it on my blog, helps me to a certain level to secure myself in front of rejection. That is my affective motivation. That is my Voice.
Telling my opinion to cure the pain of my parents break up is my CFL. It will be until my parent breakup will have no impact on me. It's not my choice, but it will define my brand in social media.
Read other Bastien's posts, click here
Have you ever dreamed of launching your own DotCom and be rich? Consider this. It's it's too long, skip to the end.
The Farmer
Let's say you are the farmer. You work hard for the money you earn.
Let's say you have a small piece of land and you grow wheat. One day you realize machinery would increase productivity. Without it, you'll always stay at the same point. With it, however, you'll prosper. You could deliver quality, on time. The largest distributors would pay you well. You’d still honor your word and be an even greater provider.
The Man
Let's say one day someone, ‘the man’, proposes a deal. "I'll give you the 400K worth of machinery you need. I believe your farm is worth $1 million." A million dollars? You thought your farm was only worth 300K and was making 50K a year in profit. Interesting!
Then ‘the man’ says, "I will only do the deal if you can prove you'll make $5M a year in 5 years." Looking at it this way, it becomes more difficult. But after considering, you realize you can be creative and rent your equipment to other farmers or, better, use your equipment on other farms for a part of their production.
You can sell part of your production to other distribution channels, with higher margins. You can sell overstocks for construction material. The more you look at it, the more you realize the $5M a year is possible…if only you had the machinery.
Finally, ‘the man’ concludes: "Since I put in 400K, and your company is worth 1M, I'll take 30% of your company."
The formula: 400K + 1M = 1.4M…and 400K is 29% of the total.
Makes sense! Fair deal.
The Typical Venture Deal
Shall you ever consider launching your own startup company, that is the deal you'll receive. It is standard and it might slightly change but not that much. That is the way DotCom companies get started in the US. You can look for something else, but it will always come down to that deal.
In 2008, deals were 500K on a 1M-3M valuation for 33% equity with a 10 time return over 5 years.
During New York Internet Week (two weeks ago) and at Startup2Startup on the West Coast (4 weeks ago), Angels/VCs were looking to inject 300K on a 1M-2M valuation with a 30 time return over 10 years. This deal is standard with all Angels and VCs. As they say, they show themselves more flexible under difficult times and look more over the long term.
The reality is that they won't make a deal unless you have a working prototype and that you break the ice with the first sales. Which means that you work unpaid for one or two years, that you make people work unpaid for equity so they don't leave, that you use all your credit margins and all your resources. Angels and VCs will wait until the last second. When they come with the proposal of agreement, you don't refuse.
They will own 30% of everything that you have done. They will own 30% of everything that you will do for the rest of your working time within that company. At least until something happens.
In the case of the farmer, it means that the man would own 30% of the farm, 30% of the machinery, 30% of the stocks and 30% of every year profit of the $5M income. All this with a 400K check.
Where it Doesn't Work!
The deal could still be fair shall the man help you grow the business after signature. Let's say on day 1, both have injected money/work according the their shares. It's normal than shall the entrepreneur brings work for his 70% share, the angel/VC brings money/work for 30% for the years to come. The company is still growing - And money doesn't grow by itself.
Money doesn't grow by itself. Back to the farmer's example, it would be nice if the man could introduce the business to better distributors, amazing workers, negotiate with the mayor and the local deputy, bring TV station to cover the amazing products; basically bring to the table important working assets to help to grow the business. At least, provide 30% of the value for the years to come after the transaction. That would be a fair deal.
Unfortunately, most VCs and Angels will jump immediately to the next transaction. Feeling that they are better off to diversify their portfolio and that anyway, their company will give them better commissions on transaction rather than on growth. Their effort will be put in monitoring the financial activity of the company. They'll work the phone not to keep you too discontent.
And It's Not Over
The 2000 DotCom crisis was a financial crisis. It was not an Internet crisis. Internet usage never slowed down during that period. It kept its steady growth.
The crisis we are in right now is, again, a financial crisis. The DotCom startups suffer actually not because of the behavior of previous startups. But from behavior of financial companies.
It would be nice to hope that Angels/VCs will change behavior/expectations by themselves. But as long as entrepreneurs will accept their deals, the deals will remain the same.
Advices to Entrepreneurs
Be aware:
Also look into people:
Shall your Angel/VC is not successful with all his companies, ask him questions he would ask you. You are partners after all, you should be able to say everything to each other:
Dear Angels and VCs, your comments are welcome. Maybe there is some truth I haven't found yet in the standard agreement.
This one is for Christopher R. Weingarten (@1000TimesYes) after his speech at the #140conf.
He brought up something fundamental for the publishing industry and social media: "Crowds have bad taste" when it comes to giving all power to users on the Internet.
Christopher was criticizing the fact that music critics are having a hard time making a living now with the Internet. But it apply to any industry: User generated content can't replace the work of specialists.
Ideally, we'd like to reach the point where artist and crowd play on each other. Watch this "Kid" from Montreal on the video. The crowd knows about scratching and reacts positively to the dozens of techniques Kid Koala's masters. One of the tough things here is that notes come from speed... he could easily be out of tune but he's not!? Amazing.
In fact, any publisher should apply these simple rules: Don't do anything that people can't follow. Educate so they can follow and appreciate. The best leader isn't the one who gives the best orders. It's the one who gives the best order that people will follow.
Christopher, what would you say to this: Maybe the music critics of tomorrow will be the ones who play with customers and not just pronounce a judgment?
When people learn, they come back. Kid Koala has been considered best DJ of the World.
By the way, Christopher worked at Rolling Stones Magazine and is a true music lover. He decided to recommend 1000 albums over the current year. You can check his selection here on his personal blog.
The #140conf ended yesterday. In many ways, it was an historical moment.
Most of the Twitter Lords (as Andrew Keen @ajkeen named people with over 500,000 followers on Twitter) and the Social Media gurus would meet for the first time. Time was about connecting and building relationships as they say.
As mentioned in previous posts, that community is surprisingly human and warm. People talk and laugh with speakers as they speak. People share a strong need for being part of a group/community. People want to hear stories and see you opening up your vulnerable zones. The traditional hand shake is replaced here by a warm and deep felt hug. Now you think you can imagine, but really this is a conference of people who have never met in real life before. Only on Twitter.
Nothing happens with no reasons. How come a technology conference is more about making friends and not about doing business?
Fred Wilson, probably the hottest tech VC of the moment and first investor in Twitter, gave a very interesting speech. He nailed down what seems to me fundamental: Twitter doesn't have a business model yet!
That changes all the rules and the way to connect on Twitter. That defines who, how and why people attend the Twitter conference and use the platform. Now it's about making friends. Tomorrow making money.
Fred Wilson has been honest and direct with the crowd:
Then he put down the fundamentals of what we will see for the next 5 years:
"It's all about links.
"Google took 2 years to figure out AdSense and start to make money. But Google now can bring to websites humongous traffic. And companies pay for it.
"These days we see Facebook and Twitter bringing traffic to websites through people referred links. The sites that we monitor at the moment have 5 times more traffic coming from Google than Facebook and Twitter all together.
"But Google seem to increase it's traffic links every month by about 1%. Facebook and Twitter are increasing their referred links at a fast pace. Based on what we see we can predict that in one year, Facebook and Twitter combined will bring more traffic to websites that Google."
Fred Wilson is kind and professional by preparing us: Soon Facebook and Twitter will try to make money out of these referred links.
Money will then invade social media and will attract new kind of people within the community. Making real friends might not remain the priority. Being goofy and shooting funny things might happen less and less during conferences.
When there is no challenge, people play nicely. Put a carrot in the middle of the crowd and the play starts to get rough. That is human nature and a new technology won't change that.
At this moment, the Twitter community is beautiful. The day Fred Wilson and the Board will set new rules, the game will change. So hopefully, they'll think of preserving the quality of people and the nice friendships that are being developed within Twitter.
Next time you meet Fred, please hug him. He'll feel it. He'll remember it. He'll have it fresh in mind at the moment of decision of putting new rules.
The first Twitter conference (www.140conf.com) is happening right now in New York. For the first time in my 14 years of experience in interactive technology, this is the first event I attend when there's as many women than men.
The whole conference talks about the revolution of "Now". It is said that Twitter is the first "Now" media; as opposed to "Old" media and "New" media. A simple look at the audience makes me believe that, yes, something new is happening with Twitter.
Not only there is a gender balance. Not only the audience is warm. Not only people talk to the speakers as they speak and people laugh and participate together. Not only people hug each other and value building friendships. Not only people aren't into making business. Not only this community seems to have its own culture. But the true innovation seems to come from women.
Here is what you hear from men:
"We apply the 4 E's
- Excite
- Engage
- Educate
- Evangelise"
B.O.R.I.N.G. and totally disconnected. Just good for a board of directors.
Here is what you hear from women:
LizStrauss (@lizstrauss)
"Using Twitter is having a 3D conversation. You are in a room and you talk to someone. But you know an audience is listening. Use these private conversations as much as you can, they are public. They are warm and still engage a large audience. You'll save time like this and be more productive too.
"Don't just throw sentences like that in the mass. Don't talk to no one.
On Twitter, always talk to someone. Add @name to every message.
"140 characters is nice to be brief in your messages.
But the whole conversation is more important. Get involved and follow.
"I use my blog to go deep.
I use Twitter to go wide and to listen to what people say about my blog
(I don't try to build traffic with Twitter).
"Test your tweets on yourself before to send them.
Make sure that they are fun, short, and that users will be proud to pass them on."
Justine (@iJustine)
"The point of Twitter is to have a "Voice" (a flavor in how you say things).
"Looking at my logs, I noticed that my Tweets are active for 20 min.
After that, people just don't see them or don't re-tweet or click them.
And they just fall in (a black hole of forgiveness).
"I get about 5,000 to 10,000 clicks per Tweet".
iJustine has many Twitter accounts and over 500,000 followers.
That makes a click-through rate of 1%-2%
Laura Fitton (@Pistachio)
Laura has a unique story in many regards. Once she's been accused of abuse on a child. She couldn't Tweet because, as she said, people would judge her and amplify the words. It would just make things worst. But her Twitter friends started to write her. Take care of her. They invited her to go out. She was declared innocent eventually.
"On Twitter, you connect in the moment. You are never alone. You escape from isolation".
"Twitter drives and tribes on love".
Listening to these women, their advises seem to be more concrete and based on passion.
Having a gender balance isn't a little fact. I might be judged as old school and told that socio-demographics are irrelevant. But for me, there is something there. And frankly I have no clue what it means yet.
Comments are welcome on this one.
Read other Bastien's posts, click here
Jack Dorsey, Creator, Chairman and co-founder of Twitter was speaking at New York Internet Week 2 weeks ago.
Despite all the attention from the speakers, all the mentions in the media, the fact that the organizers had to set a second room with TV screens to follow his speech, Jack Dorsey remains humble and accessible.
"We didn't see the success of Twitter coming. We knew it would work since we'll seen previous example at working places. But we've never had anticipated that the public would adopt the product that much.
"We also didn't develop all the product ourself. A lot of the features, such as the search feature, came only by observation of user behaviors. We see ourselves as user and developer driven. We adapt with the market.
"We are not in competition with Google. They have a search engine. We have a discovery engine.
"For sure the buzz will fall. But the day people will stop to talk about it, we hope will be the day they are using it. We'd like to become a utility."
It was big, it was huge, it was better than last year. New York Internet Week was basically a tribute to Twitter. You could hear the name at least 2009 times a day. The thing is that tomorrow, the Twitter conference starts in New York, so we'll hear the name even more.
Beside that, the rest was all about social media. Advertising on the Web is so uncool that speakers started to say that marketers - to invest in social media - start to take some of their ad dollars, not only from TV, but also from digital advertising budget (banners/sponsorship/micro-sites).
Through the whole New York Internet Week 2009, here are 4 companies that grabbed attention to shape the social media world:
comScore: A multi-platform and multi-method measurement company. They measure the media use and the campaign on Web/mobile. They also measure videos and social media. The methodology is based on a large panel (such as Nielsen), on server based information (IP address, cookies) and on query tags (content category). By comparing results from different methods over the same individuals they have been able to shape better numbers. For instance, they have come to realize that 30% of users delete cookies at least once a month. And that each person uses everyday an average of 5,7 IP address.
Mahalo: A community based search engine where human behavior on the web and their specific answers shape the content you'll get on your queries. A rewarding point system is also implemented to help users involvement. Users can eventually convert their points into real US money. The benefit: Relevant search results free of spam and advertising.
Insight Community: FLoor 64 originally developed a content platform to help dealing with their own problem with the blog Techdirt. They are now opening their conversation technology to marketers. Sponsor a topic. Monitor it. Bring insights to user conversation. Engage users. Simple, effective.
Mashery: An API that allows you to monitor web traffic, build communities and do ecommerce on all websites. The great thing is that all data and tools are available into one single interface. So intercept a conversation in a group on Facebook, reply with Twitter, and so on.
These 4 companies reveal the technical and business challenges of social media in the short term. Feel free to comment and complete that list.
One thing that grabbed my attention is that no one during the whole Internet Week mentioned digital billboard as the perfect complement to Web and Mobile in social media. Digital billboard offer a large interface that can engage by movement, by touch and by mobile device. It offers a collective viewing and interaction. I guess the penetration of digital billboard still need to improve for few years before to get noticed.
After more than a decade of waiting, finally broadcasters dropped the analog signal. Since 1996, manufacturers have been forced to sell digital equipment, producers forced to develop digital content and channels, now the distribution just completed the task. That was the last step in the conversion to digital. Now TV will be multi-channel with tones of interactive content and will look more and more like the Web. It will never be again that mass media of mass diffusion that influenced generations and unified countries. The TV as we knew it is dead.
I can't believe that I seem to be the only one to realize that it happened last Friday. TV has loved me as much as I loved her when I was a kid. I use to sit more than 24 hours a week in front of her (the average time was 22,4 hours/week). I knew most of the jingles by heart. Now that she's dead, I feel she deserves at least a little tribute. Specially a place where people can, if they feel to, come and visit her. So I buried her here. You are kindly invited to visit in silence the TV grave. Feel free to leave your prayers and wishes.
Now back to digital, the transition generated over 317,450 calls to the US Federal Communications Commission on Friday. 33% of callers wanted to hear more about federal coupons. 33% couldn't set the digital converter. 20% got bad signal. Despite the amount of complaints, and the need to hire 4000 agents, the FCC says that the conversion to digital runs smoothly. TV is now 100% digital.
Here are some of the struggles:
